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Teaching Environments (teaching + environment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Education	50%

Selected Abstracts

Building teacher identity with urban youth: Voices of beginning middle school science teachers in an alternative certification program

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 10 2004
Amira Proweller
Teacher identity development and change is shaped by the interrelationship between personal biography and experience and professional knowledge linked to the teaching environment, students, subject matter, and culture of the school. Working from this framework, this study examines how beginning teacher interns who are part of an alternative route to teacher certification construct a professional identity as science educators in response to the needs and interests of urban youth. From the teacher interns, we learn that crafting a professional identity as a middle-level science teacher involves creating a culture around science instruction driven by imagining "what can be," essentially a vision for a quality and inclusive science curriculum implicating science content, teaching methods, and relationships with their students. The study has important implications for the preparation of a stronger and more diverse teaching force able to provide effective and inclusive science education for all youth. It also suggests the need for greater attention to personal and professional experience and perceptions as critical to the development of a meaningful teacher practice in science. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 1044,1062, 2004 [source]

A cost-effective simulation curriculum for preclinical endodontics

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DENTAL EDUCATION, Issue 1 2004
Roberta Pileggi
A challenge in contemporary dental education is to achieve a smooth transition from preclinical teaching environments to patient-care clinics in a cost-effective manner. The preclinical endodontic courses at The University of Texas, Dental Branch at Houston provide a unique learning environment that enables the student to perform endodontic treatment on extracted teeth in a typodont, and be involved in diagnosis and treatment-planning discussions. The specially designed stone typodont used has built-in radiographic capability, and is mounted at each chair in the clinic. During each preclinical session, students are assigned clinical cubicles and proper aseptic protocol is followed. Students are required to wear gloves, masks and eyewear, and place a rubber dam during treatment. Written self-assessment evaluations based upon prescribed criteria are utilised; feedback is given by faculty composed of both full-time endodontists and graduate students who periodically rotate and are calibrated on a regular basis. In the lecture phase, clinical case scenarios are presented to reinforce concepts of diagnosis and emergency care and to help integrate endodontics with other disciplines; a Socratic-like teaching style is established by the faculty facilitator to create an environment for developing critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. The overall feedback from graduating students has been very positive. Advantages of this format are an easier transition to patient management, a more keen interest in specialsation and a perceived increase in levels of confidence. [source]

Global perspective on Wikipedia research

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2008
Pnina Shachaf
This panel will provide a global perspective on Wikipedia research. The literature on Wikipedia is mostly anecdotal, and most of the research has focused attention primarily on the English Wikipedia examining the accuracy of entries compared to established online encyclopedias (Emigh & Herring, 2005; Giles, 2005; Rosenzweig, 2006) and analyzing the evolution of articles over time (Viégas, Wattenberg, & Dave, 2004; Viégas, Wattenberg, Kriss, & van Ham, 2007). Others have examined the quality of contribution (Stvilia et al., 2005). However, only a few studies have conducted comparative analyses across languages or analyzed Wikipedia in languages other than English (e.g., Pfeil, Zaphiris, & Ang, 2006). There is a need for international, cross-cultural understanding of Wikipedia. In an effort to address this gap, this panel will present a range of international and cross-cultural research of Wikipedia. The presenters will contribute different perspectives of Wikipedia as an international sociocultural institution and will describe similarities and differences across various national/language versions of Wikipedia. Shachaf and Hara will present variation of norms and behaviors on talk pages in various languages of Wikipedia. Herring and Callahan will share results from a cross-language comparison of biographical entries that exhibit variations in content of entries in the English and Polish versions of Wikipedia and will explain how they are influenced by the culture and history of the US and Poland. Stvilia will discuss some of the commonalities and variability of quality models used by different Wikipedias, and the problems of cross-language quality measurement aggregation and reasoning. Matei will describe the social structuration and distribution of roles and efforts in wiki teaching environments. Solomon's comments, as a discussant, will focus on how these comparative insights provide evidence of the ways in which an evolving institution, such as Wikipedia, may be a force for supporting cultural identity (or not). [source]

A series of molecular dynamics and homology modeling computer labs for an undergraduate molecular modeling course

BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION, Issue 4 2010
Donald E. Elmore
Abstract As computational modeling plays an increasingly central role in biochemical research, it is important to provide students with exposure to common modeling methods in their undergraduate curriculum. This article describes a series of computer labs designed to introduce undergraduate students to energy minimization, molecular dynamics simulations, and homology modeling. These labs were created as part of a one-semester course on the molecular modeling of biochemical systems. Students who completed these activities felt that they were an effective component of the course, reporting improved comfort with the conceptual background and practical implementation of the computational methods. Although created as a component of a larger course, these activities could be readily adapted for a variety of other educational contexts. As well, all of these labs utilize software that is freely available in an academic environment and can be run on fairly common computer hardware, making them accessible to teaching environments without extensive computational resources. [source]