Examining the Beliefs and Practices of Four Effective Australian Primary Science Teachers     

Angela Fitzgerald  Vaille Dawson  Mark Hackling 《Research in Science Education》2013,43(3):981-1003

With trends across many countries still indicating the decline of student interest in school science and diminishing numbers of students studying science beyond the compulsory years, it seems that the field remains in crisis. To address these unfortunate trends, there needs to be a greater emphasis on science education research that highlights the good news stories. For example, what are science teachers actually doing in their classrooms to increase student interest and understanding in science? This article focuses on the science teaching beliefs and practices of four Western Australian primary school teachers. The teachers were nominated by a professional colleague as effective practitioners. The study involved gathering information from classroom observations and teacher interviews to provide background information to assist in developing understandings of these teachers and their science teaching. This article reports on the initial findings drawn from Deanne A, Kate B, Lisa C and Rebecca D. Their practices were organised into the following six categories: classroom environment; conceptual knowledge and procedural skills; teaching strategies and approaches; student-specific considerations; teacher-specific considerations; and context-specific considerations. In examining the components contributing to these categories, it was evident that the teachers’ beliefs, as well as the contextual factors inherent in each classroom environment, influenced how and why they teach science in the ways they do.  相似文献   

Students’ Perceptions of High School Science: What has Changed Over the Last Decade?     

Lena Danaia  Michael Fitzgerald  David McKinnon 《Research in Science Education》2013,43(4):1501-1515

This paper presents comparative questionnaire data from three different samples of Australian high school students in an attempt to see if anything has changed in relation to how they perceive the science they experience in the compulsory years of secondary school (grades 7–10). Questionnaire data were obtained from 1,585 high school students in 2011 and 2,016 students in 2005 and findings are compared with those reported in a national report (Goodrum et al. 2001). Results show significant increases in the frequency with which students report that their science teacher takes notice of their ideas and in the use of computers and the Internet. There have also been changes regarding the rapid provision of feedback, the use of understandable language by teachers and the contextualisation of the new work in terms of work already covered. Little appears to have changed, however, in relation to the teacher-directed pedagogies employed to teach science where there appears to be a higher incidence of copying notes and fewer opportunities for students to investigate topics in which they are interested. The findings suggest that while there have been some positive changes, there are still many students who indicate that the science they experience in secondary school is irrelevant to their everyday life and to their future. It seems that the curiosity and wonder one would hope is associated with studying science is missing for a large proportion of students. It is clear that further actions need to be undertaken to transform this continuing situation.  相似文献   

‘Becoming and being writers’: the experiences of doctoral students in writing groups   总被引：3，自引：3，他引：0  

Damian Maher  Leonie Seaton  Cathi McMullen  Terry Fitzgerald  Emi Otsuji  Alison Lee 《Studies in Continuing Education》2013,35(3):263-275

The use of writing groups to support students undertaking post-graduate research within universities has begun to receive attention from academic supervisors and doctoral researchers. Very little has been written by doctoral students themselves on the benefits of working within such writing groups. In this article, the experiences of working within a doctoral writing group at an Australian University are presented, primarily from the perspective of students. The authors identify two main benefits they have experienced through participating in a writing group using a ‘multi-voiced’ approach. First, they discuss the kind of learning that they achieved through working in a writing group. They do this with reference to key principles of peer learning and of peer review. Second, they focus on the ways the group worked as a community of discursive social practice. An overarching message for them in participating in the group and now writing this article is the shift in their thinking and experience of writing from seeing writing as an essentially private and implicit process to writing becoming a matter of public and shared work. These two notions are bound by the concept of identity building, drawing from the literature on communities of practice.  相似文献   

The role and impact of the Regional Curriculum Support Service in Irish primary education     

Keith Johnston  Damian Murchan  Andrew Loxley  Helen Fitzgerald  Micheline Quinn 《Irish Educational Studies》2013,32(3):219-238

The Regional Curriculum Support Service (RCSS) was established to provide locally based advice and support to principals and teachers in relation to the implementation of the Primary School Curriculum (1999). Drawing on data from a large-scale national evaluation, this article traces the purpose, structure and operation of the RCSS and provides commentary on the achievements and challenges associated with this initiative.  相似文献   

A direct current bushing transformer     

Alan S. Fitzgerald 《Journal of The Franklin Institute》1932,214(6):709-733

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The conversion of amorphous carbon to graphite     

Francis J. Fitzgerald 《Journal of The Franklin Institute》1902,154(5):321-348

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The manufacture and development of carborundum at Niagara Falls     

Francis A. Fitzgerald 《Journal of The Franklin Institute》1897

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Learning by doing: Responding to an assessment mandate     

Sallyanne H. Fitzgerald 《Assessment Update》1992,4(5):11-12

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Serving a Fragmented Field: Information Seeking in Higher Education     

Sarah Rose Fitzgerald 《The Journal of Academic Librarianship》2018,44(3):337-342

This study examines the information seeking habits and needs of scholars of higher education. Because higher education is a field which draws on many disciplinary traditions rather than a pure discipline in itself, the information needs of these scholars require diverse information seeking strategies. Phenomenological interviews with productive scholars of higher education were conducted and analyzed for this study. Ellis' (1989) common information seeking behaviors of social scientists are used as a framework to examine the behaviors of these applied social scientists in the modern information seeking environment.  相似文献   

Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms After Childbirth: Does Ethnicity Have an Impact?     

Tanya A. Paul 《The Journal of perinatal education》2008,17(3):17-26

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