Teaching for Scientific Literacy? An Examination of Instructional Practices in Secondary Schools in Barbados     

Ramona E. Archer-Bradshaw 《Research in Science Education》2017,47(1):67-93

This study examined the extent to which the instructional practices of science teachers in Barbados are congruent with best practices for teaching for scientific literacy. Additionally, through observation of practice, it sought to determine the teachers’ demonstrated role in the classroom, their demonstration of learning through discourse, learning goals and the nature of classroom activities. Five hundred nineteen students from 12 of the 23 secondary schools on the island and 15 teachers across 8 schools participated in the study. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire, an observational schedule and field notes. It was found that while problem-solving and questioning were mainly used in the classroom, the use of experiments was among the least popular teaching strategies. Additionally, results showed that teachers’ display of the knowledge of the characteristics of scientific literacy was unsatisfactory. Generally, the findings indicate a gap between teaching for scientific literacy as expressed in the literature and current instructional practices in secondary science classrooms in Barbados.  相似文献   

Changing Preservice Science Teachers’ Views of Nature of Science: Why Some Conceptions May be More Easily Altered than Others     

Gunkut Mesci  Renee’ S. Schwartz 《Research in Science Education》2017,47(2):329-351

The purpose of this study was to assess preservice teachers’ views of Nature of Science (NOS), identify aspects that were challenging for conceptual change, and explore reasons why. This study particularly focused on why and how some concepts of NOS may be more easily altered than others. Fourteen preservice science teachers enrolled in a NOS and Science Inquiry course participated in this study. Data were collected by using a pre/post format with the Views of Nature of Science questionnaire (VNOS-270), the Views of Scientific Inquiry questionnaire (VOSI-270), follow-up interviews, and classroom artifacts. The results indicated that most students initially held naïve views about certain aspects of NOS like tentativeness and subjectivity. By the end of the semester, almost all students dramatically improved their understanding about almost all aspects of NOS. However, several students still struggled with certain aspects like the differences between scientific theory and law, tentativeness, and socio-cultural embeddedness. Results suggested that instructional, motivational, and socio-cultural factors may influence if and how students changed their views about targeted NOS aspects. Students thought that classroom activities, discussions, and readings were most helpful to improve their views about NOS. The findings from the research have the potential to translate as practical advice for teachers, science educators, and future researchers.  相似文献   

Examining the Value of a Scaffolded Critique Framework to Promote Argumentative and Explanatory Writings Within an Argument-Based Inquiry Approach     

Jeong-yoon Jang  Brian Hand 《Research in Science Education》2017,47(6):1213-1231

This study investigated the value of using a scaffolded critique framework to promote two different types of writing—argumentative writing and explanatory writing—with different purposes within an argument-based inquiry approach known as the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach. A quasi-experimental design with sixth and seventh grade students taught by two teachers was used. A total of 170 students participated in the study, with 87 in the control group (four classes) and 83 in the treatment group (four classes). All students used the SWH templates as an argumentative writing to guide their written work and completed these templates during the SWH investigations of each unit. After completing the SWH investigations, both groups of students were asked to complete the summary writing task as an explanatory writing at the end of each unit. All students’ writing samples were scored using analytical frameworks developed for the study. The results indicated that the treatment group performed significantly better on the explanatory writing task than the control group. In addition, the results of the partial correlation suggested that there is a very strong significantly positive relationship between the argumentative writing and the explanatory writing.  相似文献   

‘Only true friends could be cruelly honest’: cognitive scaffolding and social-affective support in teacher feedback literacy     

Yueting Xu  David Carless 《Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education》2017,42(7):1082-1094

Feedback is an important but challenging aspect of higher education pedagogy. In addition to providing quality feedback, teachers are expected to develop students’ skills and awareness for effective feedback processes. This case study addresses both processes and products of a Chinese university English teacher’s feedback enabling practice by involving students in peer feedback on oral presentations. Data from classroom observations and interviews reveal various strategies of cognitive scaffolding and social-affective support in the teacher’s feedback enabling processes, as well as skill development of generating peer feedback and awareness enhancement in accepting critical feedback with a positive attitude. Our analysis revolves around generic and contextually grounded strategies in cognitive scaffolding and social-affective support, as well as how verbal peer feedback can be utilised as a productive solution to mitigate resource constraints. The paper concludes by highlighting the centrality of the ‘enabling construct’ of teacher feedback literacy and drawing implications for research, policy and practice.  相似文献   

The invisible impact of educational research     

Tim Cain  David Allan 《牛津教育评论》2017,43(6):718-732

Although there are policy calls for educational research to discover ‘what works’ and thereby inform decision making directly, the research literature argues instead for research to have a ‘conceptual’ impact on practice. Empirical studies also suggest that, when teachers use research, their use is conceptual; research influences the content and the process of their thinking, changing attitudes and perceptions and making educational decision making more intelligent. This study investigates the ways in which educational research has achieved impact on practice from the perspective of the researchers. A sample of highly-rated impact case studies in the UK’s research assessment exercise (REF2014) were subject to content analysis, using qualitative coding techniques. Analysis shows that most research is ‘invisible’ to education practitioners because it is embedded in educational policies, technologies, and services. This ‘invisible use’ is unlikely to realise the conceptual benefits claimed for research utilisation. If educational research is to make educational decision making more intelligent at its point of use, it will be necessary to re-think current notions of quality in research impact.  相似文献   

Examining Competition in Ontario’s Higher Education Market     

Bayan Yousef Farhan 《Interchange》2017,48(1):71-95

Financial challenges have forced many publicly funded academic institutions in Ontario to adopt a corporate model and to use market tools to compete in the higher education market and maintain their enrolment and revenue levels. This study has analyzed how competition affects publicly funded universities in Ontario. Competition was examined by relating universities’ expenditures on price and non-price competitive variables (awards, marketing, graduates, and professors), as well as population to the total number of applicants, total number of enrollees, and capacity filling ratio over the period of 2006–2013. The study used quantitative research design and panel data regression method to draw conclusions. This study provides empirical evidence on how the effect of the adopted competitive variables varies for each university.  相似文献   

The effect of a specialized dyslexia font,OpenDyslexic, on reading rate and accuracy     

Jessica J. Wery  Jennifer A. Diliberto 《Annals of dyslexia》2017,67(2):114-127

A single-subject alternating treatment design was used to investigate the extent to which a specialized dyslexia font, OpenDyslexic, impacted reading rate or accuracy compared to two commonly used fonts when used with elementary students identified as having dyslexia. OpenDyslexic was compared to Arial and Times New Roman in three reading tasks: (a) letter naming, (b) word reading, and (c) nonsense word reading. Data were analyzed through visual analysis and improvement rate difference, a nonparametric measure of nonoverlap for comparing treatments. Results from this alternating treatment experiment show no improvement in reading rate or accuracy for individual students with dyslexia, as well as the group as a whole. While some students commented that the font was “new” or “different”, none of the participants reported preferring to read material presented in that font. These results indicate there may be no benefit for translating print materials to this font.  相似文献   

Partnerships in Learning: A Collaborative Project between Higher Education Students and Elementary School Students     

Peggi E. Hunter  Nisha D. Botchwey 《Innovative Higher Education》2017,42(1):77-90

Higher education and K-12 school partnerships are typically designed with an end-goal that serves the instructional needs of one group over the other. For this project, a university professor and elementary school instructor used problem-based and project-based learning strategies to design a curriculum that served the academic needs of both groups of students. Undergraduate students in an urban planning course partnered with elementary students from a local school to work on an interdependent civic engagement project. The partnership provided innovative, twenty-first teaching for both groups of students while also reinforcing public service.  相似文献   

Writing week-journals to improve the writing quality of fourth-graders’ compositions     

Pedro Rosário  Julia Högemann  José Carlos Núñez  Guillermo Vallejo  Jennifer Cunha  Vera Oliveira  Sonia Fuentes  Celestino Rodrigues 《Reading and writing》2017,30(5):1009-1032

Students’ writing problems are a global educational concern and is in need of particular attention. This study aims to examine the impact of providing extra writing opportunities (i.e., writing journals) on the quality of writing compositions. A longitudinal cluster-randomized controlled design using a multilevel modeling analysis with 182 fourth grade students was conducted. We examined whether students’ writing quality differed when writing journals on a weekly basis for 12 weeks, compared with a control group. Three covariates were analyzed, namely: (i) the students’ attitudes towards writing; (ii) their self-efficacy in writing; (iii) and their use of self-regulation (SRL) strategies while writing. Findings have shown that students who wrote week-journals significantly improved the writing quality of their compositions and reported a higher use of SRL strategies in writing. Nevertheless, self-efficacy and attitude towards writing were found to not be related to the quality of the compositions. Moreover, data indicated that the writing quality of compositions improved along with the writing quality of the week-journals. Findings suggest the use of week-journals in class to promote writing.  相似文献   

Relationships between reading comprehension and its components in young Chinese-as-a-second-language learners     

Yu Ka Wong 《Reading and writing》2017,30(5):969-988

Based on the Simple View of Reading model, this study examines the relationships among Chinese reading comprehension and its two componential processes, Chinese character reading and listening comprehension, in young learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) using a longitudinal design. Using relevant measures, a sample of 142 senior primary ethnic minority students in Hong Kong was assessed twice a year. The results of regression analyses showed that character reading and listening comprehension could together account for a significant portion of the variance in reading comprehension at grades 4 and 5 both concurrently and predictively. Subsequently, a trivariate, cross-lagged path model was specified to evaluate the relationships among these variables after controlling for their autoregressive effects. The study identifies statistically significant and unique contributions of character reading and listening comprehension to reading comprehension; further, it finds reciprocal relationships between reading comprehension and its componential processes. Moreover, the two componential processes themselves are significantly related across grades 4 and 5. Apart from supporting the predictive influence of character reading and listening comprehension on reading comprehension, the findings of this study reveal how Chinese language comprehension and literacy development are interrelated in young CSL learners.  相似文献