Primary teachers conducting inquiry projects: effects on attitudes towards teaching science and conducting inquiry     

Sandra I. van Aalderen-Smeets  Juliette H. Walma van der Molen  Erna G. W. C. M. van Hest  Cindy Poortman 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(2):238-256

ABSTRACT

This study used an experimental, pretest-posttest control group design to investigate whether participation in a large-scale inquiry project would improve primary teachers’ attitudes towards teaching science and towards conducting inquiry. The inquiry project positively affected several elements of teachers’ attitudes. Teachers felt less anxious about teaching science and felt less dependent on contextual factors compared to the control group. With regard to attitude towards conducting inquiry, teachers felt less anxious and more able to conduct an inquiry project. There were no effects on other attitude components, such as self-efficacy beliefs or relevance beliefs, or on self-reported science teaching behaviour. These results indicate that practitioner research may have a partially positive effect on teachers’ attitudes, but that it may not be sufficient to fully change primary teachers’ attitudes and their actual science teaching behaviour. In comparison, a previous study showed that attitude-focused professional development in science education has a more profound impact on primary teachers’ attitudes and science teaching behaviour. In our view, future interventions aiming to stimulate science teaching should combine both approaches, an explicit focus on attitude change together with familiarisation with inquiry, in order to improve primary teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices.  相似文献   

A Knowledge Base for Teaching Biology Situated in the Context of Genetic Testing     

Paul van der Zande  Arend Jan Waarlo  Mieke Brekelmans  Sanne F. Akkerman  Jan D. Vermunt 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(15):2037-2067

Recent developments in the field of genomics will impact the daily practice of biology teachers who teach genetics in secondary education. This study reports on the first results of a research project aimed at enhancing biology teacher knowledge for teaching genetics in the context of genetic testing. The increasing body of scientific knowledge concerning genetic testing and the related consequences for decision-making indicate the societal relevance of such a situated learning approach. What content knowledge do biology teachers need for teaching genetics in the personal health context of genetic testing? This study describes the required content knowledge by exploring the educational practice and clinical genetic practices. Nine experienced teachers and 12 respondents representing the clinical genetic practices (clients, medical professionals, and medical ethicists) were interviewed about the biological concepts and ethical, legal, and social aspects (ELSA) of testing they considered relevant to empowering students as future health care clients. The ELSA suggested by the respondents were complemented by suggestions found in the literature on genetic counselling. The findings revealed that the required teacher knowledge consists of multiple layers that are embedded in specific genetic test situations: on the one hand, the knowledge of concepts represented by the curricular framework and some additional concepts (e.g. multifactorial and polygenic disorder) and, on the other hand, more knowledge of ELSA and generic characteristics of genetic test practice (uncertainty, complexity, probability, and morality). Suggestions regarding how to translate these characteristics, concepts, and ELSA into context-based genetics education are discussed.  相似文献   

A study of the quality of practitioner research in secondary education: impact on teacher and school development     

Helma W. Oolbekkink-Marchand  Janneke van der Steen  Mirjam Nijveldt 《Educational Action Research》2013,21(1):122-139

This study provides insight into the quality of practitioner research and the impact of this on the professional development of the individual teacher and the school as a whole. We examined the quality of practitioner research in relation to the goals of the research. We operationalized the quality of the research in terms of the validities outlined by Anderson and Herr. In our study we apply this way of thinking to 11 cases of teacher research in secondary education. We found at least some evidence of outcome validity and catalytic validity for the teachers’ practitioner research. However, evidence of process validity and democratic validity was only found in some of the projects. We conclude that the approach adopted in this study can be more generally used to increase the quality and thereby the impact of practitioner research.  相似文献   

Some Conceptual Issues in Observed‐Score Equating     

Wim J. van der Linden 《Journal of Educational Measurement》2013,50(3):249-285

In spite of all of the technical progress in observed‐score equating, several of the more conceptual aspects of the process still are not well understood. As a result, the equating literature struggles with rather complex criteria of equating, lack of a test‐theoretic foundation, confusing terminology, and ad hoc analyses. A return to Lord's foundational criterion of equity of equating, a derivation of the true equating transformation from it, and mainstream statistical treatment of the problem of estimating the transformation for various data‐collection designs exist as a solution to the problem.  相似文献   

Statistical Models and Inference for the True Equating Transformation in the Context of Local Equating     

Jorge González B.  Matthias von Davier 《Journal of Educational Measurement》2013,50(3):315-320

Based on Lord's criterion of equity of equating, van der Linden (this issue) revisits the so‐called local equating method and offers alternative as well as new thoughts on several topics including the types of transformations, symmetry, reliability, and population invariance appropriate for equating. A remarkable aspect is to define equating as a standard statistical inference problem in which the true equating transformation is the parameter of interest that has to be estimated and assessed as any standard evaluation of an estimator of an unknown parameter in statistics. We believe that putting equating methods in a general statistical model framework would be an interesting and useful next step in the area. van der Linden's conceptual article on equating is certainly an important contribution to this task.  相似文献   

The Use of Textbooks as a Tool During Collaborative Physics Learning     

Carla van Boxtel  Jos van der Linden  Gellof Kanselaar 《Journal of Experimental Education》2013,81(1):57-76

The study examined how features of student interaction, and the way an individual student contributes to that interaction (his or her participation), relates to the improvement of conceptual understanding within the domain of physics. The study also investigated how textbooks are used during collaborative work and how that use affects the quality of student interaction and outcomes. The participants were 56 students aged 15 or 16. The students worked in dyads on a concept-mapping task that functioned as an introduction for a new course about electricity. A condition in which the students were provided with 2 textbooks was compared with a condition without the availability of textbooks. The use of textbooks had a negative influence on the amount of elaboration and coconstruction in the student interaction. Individual learning outcomes were positively related to the amount of collaborative elaboration in the student interaction.  相似文献   

Teachers' Questions and Responses during Teacher-Student Feedback Dialogues     

Agaath Dekker-Groen  Marieke Van der Schaaf  Karel Stokking 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2013,57(2):231-254

In vocational education, students have to develop competences for reflection to self-regulate their development during their career. Students' reflection can be supported by teachers interacting with students and giving them prompts. In this study, 46 videotaped feedback dialogues of 23 teachers and their individual students were analysed. A total of 16 teachers participated in a training programme and 7 teachers formed a control group. The study aimed to investigate teachers' questions and responses and students' reactions, and the effects of the training programme. Analysis showed that, in the post-test, the trained group used a broader repertoire than the control group. The trained group, on average, used more hybrid prompts, deep reasoning questions, and prompt responses, which potentially stimulate students to elaborate and reflect.  相似文献   

The constitutive force of the Catecismo del Pueblo in Puerto Rico's popular democratic party campaign of 1938–1940     

Nathaniel I. Cordova 《Quarterly Journal of Speech》2013,99(2):212-233

This paper explores the formation of a political order, a constituency, during the 1938–1940 senatorial campaign of the Partido Popular Democratico in Puerto Rico. In particular it examines the constitutive force of the Catecismo del Pueblo, a small booklet in the form of questions and answers regarding the party's basic assumptions and orientations. This booklet developed a political constituency by mediating a covenantal relationship through discourse in the form of a catechism. Burke's notion of constitutional dialectics is used to explore the Catecismo's nature as constitutive, as a catechism, and as the mediator of a political covenant between the Party and the jíbaros.  相似文献   

The Curriculum Problem as a Director Sees It     

Nathaniel F. Forsyth 《Religious education (Chicago, Ill.)》2013,108(4):285-286

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When love hurts: Assessing the intersectionality of ethnicity,socio-economic status,parental connectedness,child abuse,and gender attitudes in juvenile violent delinquency     

Esmah Lahlah  Kim M.E. Lens  Stefan Bogaerts  Leontien M. van der Knaap 《Child abuse & neglect》2013

Researchers have not yet reached agreement about the validity of several competing explanations that seek to explain ethnic differences in juvenile violent offending. Ethnicity cannot solely explain why boys with an ethnic minority background commit more (violent) crimes. By assessing the intersectionality of structural, cultural and individual considerations, both the independent effects as well as the interplay between different factors can be examined. This study shows that aforementioned factors cumulatively play a role in severe violent offending, with parental connectedness and child abuse having the strongest associations. However, since most variables interact and ethnicity is associated with those specific factors, a conclusion to be drawn is that ethnicity may be relevant as an additional variable predicting severe violent offending although indirectly.  相似文献