Happiness online : supporting the emotions of emergent teachers in a virtual community

Extending Lash and Urry's (1994) notion of new "imagined communities" through information and communication structures, I ask the question: Are emergent teachers happy when they interact in online learning environments? This question is timely in the context of the ubiquity of online media and its pervasiveness in teachers' everyday work and lives. The research is important nationally and internationally, because the current research is contradictory. On the one hand, feelings of isolation and frustration have been cited as common emotions experienced in many online environments (Su, Bonk, Magjuka, Liu, & Lee, 2005). Yet others report that online communities encourage a sense of belonging and support (Mills, 2011). Emotions are inherently social, are central to learning and online interaction (Shen, Wang, & Shen, 2009). The presentations reports the use of e-motion blogs to explore emotional states of emergent primary teachers in an online learning context as they transition into their first field experience in schools. The original research was conducted with a graduate class of 64 secondary science pre-service teachers in Science Education Curriculum Studies in a large Australian university, including males and females from a variety of cultural backgrounds, aged 17-55 years. Online activities involved the participants watching a series of streamed live lectures within a course of 8 weeks duration, providing a varied set of learning experiences, such as viewing live teaching demonstrations. Each week, participants provided feedback on learning by writing and posting an e-motion diary or web log about their emotional response. The blogs answered the question: What emotions you experience during this learning experience? The descriptive data set included 284 online posts, with students contributing multiple entries. The Language of Appraisal framework, following Martin and White (2005), was used to cluster the discrete emotions within six affect groups. The findings demonstrated that the pre-service teachers' emotional responses tended towards happiness and satisfaction within the typology of affect groups - un/happiness, in/security, and dis/satisfaction. Fewer participants reported that online learning mode triggered negative feelings of frustration, and when this occurred, it often pertained expectations of themselves in the forthcoming field experience in schools or as future teachers. The findings primarily contribute new understanding about emotional states in online communities, and recommendations are provided for supporting the happiness and satisfaction of emergent teachers as they interact in online communities. It demonstrates that online environments can play an important role in fulfilling teachers' need for social interaction and inclusion.

Two-way strong: A study of vertebrates using Queensland Indigenous knowledges and Montessori Linnaean materials to engage Indigenous secondary school students

The marginalisation that Indigenous secondary students experience in zoology science lessons can be attributed to a chasm they experience between their life in community and the classroom. The study found that the integration of Indigenous and Western science knowledge can provide transformative learning experiences for students which work to strengthen their sense of belonging to community and school. Using action research, the study investigated the integration of both-ways science education into students' zoology lessons. It privileged the community's cultural expertise, practices and connections with students and their families, which worked to enhance student engagement in their learning.

Programming: Reading, writing and reversing

In this paper, we look at the concept of reversibility, that is, negating opposites, counterbalances, and actions that can be reversed. Piaget identified reversibility as an indicator of the ability to reason at a concrete operational level. We investigate to what degree novice programmers manifest the ability to work with this concept of reversibility by providing them with a small piece of code and then asking them to write code that undoes the effect of that code. On testing entire cohorts of students in their first year of learning to program, we found an overwhelming majority of them could not cope with such a concept. We then conducted think aloud studies of novices where we observed them working on this task and analyzed their contrasting abilities to deal with it. The results of this study demonstrate the need for better understanding our students' reasoning abilities, and a teaching model aimed at that level of reality.

Scheffleriläinen rationaalisuus ja kasvatustodellisuuden monikerroksisuus : Jännitteitä ja ratkaisuja Israel Schefflerin kasvatusfilosofiassa

The study is a philosophical analysis of Israel Scheffler’s philosophy of education, focusing on three crucial conceptions in his philosophy: the conception of rationality, the conception of human nature, and the conception of reality. The interrelations of these three concepts as well as their relations to educational theorizing are analysed and elaborated. A conceptual problem concerning Scheffler’s ideal of rationality derives from Scheffler’s supposition of the strong analogy between science education and moral education in terms of the ideal of rationality. This analogy is argued to be conceptually problematic, since the interconnections of rationality, objectivity, and truth, appear to differ from each other in the realms of ethics and science, given the presuppositions of ontological realism and ethical naturalism, to which Scheffler explicitly subscribes. This study considers two philosophical alternatives for solving this problem. The first alternative relates the analogy to the normative concept of personhood deriving from the teleological understanding of human nature. Nevertheless, this position turns out to be problematic for Scheffler, since he rejects all teleological thinking in his philosophy. The problem can be solved, as it is argued, by limiting Scheffler’s rejection of teleology – in light of his philosophical outlook on the whole – in a manner that allows a modest version of a teleological conception of human nature. The second alternative, based especially on Scheffler’s later contributions, is to suggest that reality is actually more complex and manifold than it appears to be in light of a contemporary naturalist worldview. This idea of plurealism – Scheffler’s synthesis of pluralism and realism – is represented especially in Scheffler’s contributions related to his debate with Nelson Goodman dealing with both constructivism and realism. The idea of plurealism is not only related to the ethics-science-distinction, but is more widely related to the relationship between ontological realism and the incommensurable systems of description in diverse realms of human understanding. The Scheffler-Goodman debate is also analysed in relation to the contemporary constructivism-realism debate in educational philosophy. In terms of educational questions, Scheffler’s plurealism is argued as offering a fruitful perspective. Scheffler’s philosophy of education can be interpreted as searching for solutions to the problems deriving from the tension between the tradition of analytical philosophy and the complexity and multiplicity of educational reality. The complexity of reality combined with the supposition of the limitedness of human knowledge does not lead Scheffler to relativism or particularism, but, in contrast, Schefflerian formulations of rationality and objectivity preserve the possibility for critical inquiry in all realms of educational reality. In light of this study, Scheffler’s philosophy of education provides an exceptional example of combining ontological realism, epistemological fallibilism, and the defence of the ideal of rationality, combined with a wide-ranging understanding of educational reality.

Kemian ylioppilaskokeen tehtävät summatiivisen arvioinnin välineenä

The main purpose of the research was to illustrate chemistry matriculation examination questions as a summative assessment tool, and represent how the questions have evolved over the years. Summative assessment and its various test item classifications, Finnish goal-oriented curriculum model, and Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives formed the theoretical framework for the research. The research data consisted of 257 chemistry questions from 28 matriculation examinations between 1996 and 2009. The analysed test questions were formulated according to the national upper secondary school chemistry curricula 1994, and 2003. Qualitative approach and theory-driven content analysis method were employed in the research. Peer review was used to guarantee the reliability of the results. The research was guided by the following questions: (a) What kinds of test item formats are used in chemistry matriculation examinations? (b) How the fundamentals of chemistry are included in the chemistry matriculation examination questions? (c) What kinds of cognitive knowledge and skills do the chemistry matriculation examination questions require? The research indicates that summative assessment was used diversely in chemistry matriculation examinations. The tests included various test item formats, and their combinations. The majority of the test questions were constructed-response items that were either verbal, quantitative, or experimental questions, symbol questions, or combinations of the aforementioned. The studied chemistry matriculation examinations seldom included selected-response items that can be either multiple-choice, alternate choice, or matching items. The relative emphasis of the test item formats differed slightly depending on whether the test was a part of an extensive general studies battery of tests in sciences and humanities, or a subject-specific test. The classification framework developed in the research can be applied in chemistry and science education, and also in educational research. Chemistry matriculation examinations are based on the goal-oriented curriculum model, and cover relatively well the fundamentals of chemistry included in the national curriculum. Most of the test questions related to the symbolism of chemical equation, inorganic and organic reaction types and applications, the bonding and spatial structure in organic compounds, and stoichiometry problems. Only a few questions related to electrolysis, polymers, or buffer solutions. None of the test questions related to composites. There were not any significant differences in the emphasis between the tests formulated according to the national curriculum 1994 or 2003. Chemistry matriculation examinations are cognitively demanding. The research shows that the majority of the test questions require higher-order cognitive skills. Most of the questions required analysis of procedural knowledge. The questions that only required remembering or processing metacognitive knowledge, were not included in the research data. The required knowledge and skill level varied slightly between the test questions in the extensive general studies battery of tests in sciences and humanities, and subject-specific tests administered since 2006. The proportion of the Finnish chemistry matriculation examination questions requiring higher-order cognitive knowledge and skills is very large compared to what is discussed in the research literature.

The puzzle of falling enrolments in physics and chemistry courses: Putting some pieces together

This paper reports and discusses the principal findings of an Australian study exploring the decisions of high achieving Year 10 students about taking physics and chemistry courses (Lyons, 2003). The study used a ‘multiple worlds’ framework to explore the diverse background characteristics that previous quantitative research had shown were implicated in these decisions. Based on analyses of questionnaire and interview data, the study found that the students’ decisions involved the complex negotiation of a number of cultural characteristics within their school science and family worlds. Many of the students regarded junior high school science as irrelevant, uninteresting and difficult, leaving them with few intrinsic reasons for enrolling in senior science courses. The study found that decisions about taking physical science courses were associated with the resources of cultural and social capital within their families, and the degree to which these resources were congruent with the advantages of choosing these courses. The paper concludes that the low intrinsic value of school science and the erosion of its strategic value contribute to the reluctance of students to choose physical science courses in the senior school.

Should I stay or should I go?: Rural and remote students in first year university stem courses

Research on the achievement of rural and remote students in science and mathematics is located within a context of falling levels of participation in physical science and mathematics courses in Australian schools, and underrepresentation of rural students in higher education. International studies such as the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), have reported lower levels of mathematical and scientific literacy in Australian students from rural and remote schools (Thomson et al, 2011). The SiMERR national survey of science, mathematics and ICT education in rural and regional Australia (Lyons et al, 2006) identified factors affecting student achievement in rural and remote schools. Many of the issues faced by rural and remote students in their schools are likely to have implications on their university enrolments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses. For example, rural and remote students are less likely to attend university in general than their city counterparts and higher university attrition rates have been reported for remote students nationally. This paper examines the responses of a sample of rural/remote Australian first year STEM students at Australian universities to two questions. These related to their intentions to complete the course; and whether -and if so, why- they had ever considered withdrawing from their course. Results indicated that rural students who were still in their course by the end of first year were no more or less likely to consider withdrawing than were their peers from more populous centres. However, almost 20% of the rural cohort had considered withdrawing at some stage in their course, and their explanations provide insights into the reasoning of those who may not persist with their courses at university. These results, in the context of the greater attrition rate of remote students from university, point to the need to identify factors that positively impact on rural and remote students’ interest and achievement in science and mathematics. It also highlights a need for future research into the particular issues remote students may face in deciding whether or not to do science at the two key transition points of senior school and university/TAFE studies, and whether or not to persist in their tertiary studies. This paper is positioned at the intersection of two problems in Australian education. The first is a context of falling levels of participation in physical science and mathematics courses in Australian universities. The second is persistent inequitable access to, and retention in, tertiary education for students from rural and remote areas. Despite considerable research attention to both of these areas over recent years these problems have thus far proved to be intractable. This paper therefore aims to briefly review the relevant Australian literature pertaining to these issues; that is, declining STEM enrolments, and the underrepresentation and retention of rural/remote students in higher education. Given the related problems in these two overlapping domains, we then explore the views of first year rural students enrolled in courses, in relation to their intentions of withdrawing (or not) and the associated reasons for their views.

Context-based assessment: Creating opportunities for resonance between classroom fields and societal fields

There is on-going international interest in the relationships between assessment instruments, students’ understanding of science concepts and context-based curriculum approaches. This study extends earlier research showing that students can develop connections between contexts and concepts – called fluid transitions – when studying context-based courses. We provide an in-depth investigation of one student’s experiences with multiple contextual assessment instruments that were associated with a context-based course. We analyzed the student’s responses to context-based assessment instruments to determine the extent to which contextual tests, reports of field investigations, and extended experimental investigations afforded her opportunities to make connections between contexts and concepts. A system of categorizing student responses was developed that can inform other educators when analyzing student responses to contextual assessment. We also refine the theoretical construct of fluid transitions that informed the study initially. Implications for curriculum and assessment design are provided in light of the findings.

Challenges in Earth sciences: the 21st century

The 21st century poses many challenges for global sustainability. Among them, most importantly, the human race will encounter scarcity of raw materials and conventional energy resources. And, India may have to take the brunt of these problems as it is going to be the most populated region of the world with concomitant increase in energy demand and requirement of other resources. India will be the testing ground for introducing newer ways of green technology and innovative principles of resource management and utilization. With the vagaries of potential climate change gathering clouds in the background, Earth sciences will have a special and predominant role in guiding the society in prioritizing our resource discovery, utilization and their consumption and the upkeep of environment. On the fundamental level, Earth sciences are going through a most exciting phase of development as a born-again science. Technological breakthroughs including the satellite-based observations augur well for gaining new insights into Earth processes. A set of exciting fundamental problems that are globally identified will set the stage for an exhilarating period of new discoveries. Improvements in numerical and computer-based techniques will assist in modelling of Earth processes to unprecedented levels. India will have to take special effort in improving the existing experimentation facilities in the Earth science departments of the country, and also the general level of Earth science education to meet the global standards. This article presents an Earth science vision for the 21st century in an Indian context.

Interdisciplinary experience in the Teacher Training College of Vitoria-Gasteiz: teaching profession module

[EN] The higher education regulation process in Europe, known as the Bologna Process, has involved many changes, mainly in relation to methodology and assessment. The paper given below relates to implementing the new EU study plans into the Teacher Training College of Vitoria-Gasteiz; it is the first interdisciplinary paper written involving teaching staff and related to the Teaching Profession module, the first contained in the structure of the new plans. The coordination of teaching staff is one of the main lines of work in the Bologna Process, which is also essential to develop the right skills and maximise the role of students as an active learning component. The use of active, interdisciplinary methodologies has opened up a new dimension in universities, requiring the elimination of the once componential, individual structure, making us look for new areas of exchange that make it possible for students' training to be developed jointly.

A formação científica brasileira e o PISA 2006

Este trabalho investigou a formação científica brasileira a partir dos dados do PISA 2006. O PISA - Programa Internacional de Avaliação dos Estudantes - é um programa internacional de avaliação comparada, aplicado a uma amostra de estudantes de 15 anos de idade. O ensino adequado de ciências estimula o raciocínio lógico e a curiosidade, ajuda a formar cidadãos mais aptos a enfrentar os desafios da sociedade contemporânea e fortalece a democracia, dando à população, em geral, melhores condições para participar dos debates cada vez mais comuns sobre temas científicos que afetam nosso cotidiano. Partindo da importância e pertinência de se discutir a formação científica brasileira e fazendo uso dos dados do PISA 2006, buscou-se responder a três questões: (a) qual a percepção dos alunos brasileiros que participaram do PISA 2006 sobre Ciências? (b) como o Brasil se situa no contexto internacional no que se refere às competências científicas priorizadas por esta avaliação? (c) que características dos estudantes estão associadas aos seus resultados no teste de Ciências aplicado pelo PISA 2006? Para a realização do estudo, conduzimos nossas análises baseando-nos em duas lógicas principais: descrição (estatística univariada e bivariada) e explicação (teste de modelos de regressão linear). Os resultados indicam que os alunos brasileiros tem relativo interesse pela Ciência, no entanto apresentam uma visão bastante estereotipada e demonstram não associá-la a si. Aparentemente, a ciência tem relação com fenômenos que estão muito além da compreensão e configura-se em algo abstrato que não está diretamente ligado aos alunos brasileiros. Estes apontam a escola como principal fonte de aprendizagem de tópicos relacionados a Ciência, porém, a escola parece não converter o potencial interesse dos alunos por Ciências em letramento científico. O Brasil ocupa a 52 posição entre os 57 países participantes e está alocado no nível mais baixo de desempenho do PISA 2006. Entre os principais aspectos que impactam significativamente os resultados dos alunos brasileiros no programa estão a Rede de Ensino, o Atraso Escolar, o Nível Socioeconômico e o Nível de Escolaridade dos Pais.

Perfil das crianças e famílias do Clube dos Descobridores da Casa da Ciência

Esta pesquisa objetivou investigar o perfil das crianças e dos adolescentes que participam do Clube dos Descobridores, um projeto de educação não formal promovido pela Casa da Ciência da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), no campus da Praia Vermelha. O principal objetivo do Clube é o de atender o público infantil e jovem que frequenta a Casa da Ciência, ajudando-os a estabelecer relações entre suas vidas cotidianas e as Ciências, a Arte e as Culturas, por meio de projetos pedagógicos interdisciplinares. A pesquisa fez uso de um questionário e de entrevistas para investigar as características sociodemográficas das crianças/adolescentes, suas motivações para frequentarem o Clube, o papel de suas famílias no estímulo à participação e como eles compreendem a relação entre as aprendizagens adquiridas no Clube e na escola onde estudam. Os resultados alcançados evidenciam que, apesar das condições adversas de suas vidas em relação a aspectos econômicos, sociais e culturais, o capital social (interno e externo) baseado na família e na escola possibilita que as crianças tenham algumas vantagens que permitem seu acesso às práticas culturais no modo cultivado, promovendo aspectos do desenvolvimento global e escolar.

Urban functional structure characteristics and transformation in China

The paper analyzes urban functional structure characteristics of Chinese cities in 1996 using the Nelson method. The manufacturing employment percentage is much higher in metropolitan areas but is decreasing from 1989 to 1996. On the other hand, the weight of science, education, culture, hygiene, finance, insurance and real estate increases. The employment structure changes dramatically. Although the urbanization level of China is lower than that of the USA in 1955, the frequency distribution curve of urban functions is similar. The construction, transportation, commerce, finance, insurance, real estate, science, education, culture, hygiene and administration curves are normal. The mining employment converges on minor cities and the distribution is not normal. The urban function has changed with urban scale. The bigger the cities are, the smaller the manufacture, mining and construction employment weights, and the larger are the science, education, finance, insurance, real estate and administration weights. Commerce and transportation are distributed evenly and the difference is less. From the comparison in three zones of China, the employment percentage of manufacture, finance, insurance and real estate is higher in eastern coastal areas, while the employment percentage of science, education, administration is higher in western areas. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.