The distinctiveness and effectiveness of science teaching in the Malaysian `Smart school'

Science.gov (United States)

Tek Ong, Eng; Ruthven, Kenneth

2010-04-01

A recent reform initiative in the Malaysian educational system has sought to develop 'Smart schools', intended to better prepare students for adult life in a developing economy and to increase the flow of young people prepared for scientific and technological careers. The study reported in this paper examined lower-secondary science teaching, comparing two Smart schools officially judged to be successfully implementing the reform, with two neighbouring mainstream schools. Through analysis of classroom observation, supported by teacher interview and student report, the distinctive features of science teaching in the Smart schools were found to be use of ICT-based resources and of student-centred approaches, often intertwined to provide extended support for learning; accompanied by a near absence of the note giving and copying prevalent in the mainstream schools. Through analysis of measures of student attitude to science, science process skills and general science attainment, science teaching in Smart schools was found to be relatively effective overall. However, while the positive attitude effect was general, both academic effects were much weaker amongst students who had been of lower attainment on entry to secondary school.

Key Aspects of Current Educational Reforms in Islamic Educational Schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ibrahim Hashim

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper is based on the premise that Islamic education plays a significant role in producing an integrated personality of young generation in order to fulfil the needs of present society. This study is important to address the key educational changes in pedagogy, curricular and teaching approach that relate directly to the effectiveness of the implementation of Islamic Education in Islamic schools. Questions raised in this writing is whether and how Muslim schools have transformed to meet the changes and challenges of the globalizing world and what should be done to ensure Islamic schools meet current needs. Thus, it argues that there is a need for reform in contemporary Islamic schools with particular reference to the changes in the curriculum, teaching style, role of Islamic schools and gender participation. The paper considers the possibility of integrating new perspectives across the curriculum and outlines the integrated approach to ensure the quality and excellence of their graduates.

The new reform in tunisia: the democratic challenge of the manuals analysis and teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Lucenti

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Tunisia is affected by many changes, including the reform of the education system that plays a crucial role. The Ministry of Education together with Trade Unions (UGTT and the Arab Institute of Human Rights are tracing the outlines of the reform, through an experiment of participatory democracy, synthesized through the preparation of a national report, which is analyzed here. The reform aims to change profoundly the current educational system: programs, manuals, the training of teachers, teaching, all these aspects will be included. Faced with the current economic situation and the problems affecting the country, from the religious extremism to the economic crisis, attempts have been made to examine the solutions proposed by various players involved. After a brief historical reconstruction of the reforms that have affected the Tunisian school system, a current reform is discussed, focusing especially on the school textbooks and on the image of Europe that they carry. Based on the opening to the other, discussed in the manuals, how can one explain the diffusion of religious fanaticism among certain groups of young people? How can the school consolidate the emerging democracy? These are the questions that are tried to be answered, leaving open the possibility of different interpretations.

Teaching History Then and Now: A Story of Stability and Change in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Cuban, Larry

2016-01-01

In "Teaching History Then and Now," Larry Cuban explores the teaching of history in American high schools during the past half-century. Drawing on his early career experience as a high school history educator and his more recent work as a historian of US education policy and practice, Cuban examines how determined reformers have and have…

Positive impact of integrating histology and physiology teaching at a medical school in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Sherer, Renslow; Wan, Yu; Dong, Hongmei; Cooper, Brian; Morgan, Ivy; Peng, Biwen; Liu, Jun; Wang, Lin; Xu, David

2014-12-01

To modernize its stagnant, traditional curriculum and pedagogy, the Medical School of Wuhan University in China adopted (with modifications) the University of Chicago's medical curriculum model. The reform effort in basic sciences was integrating histology and physiology into one course, increasing the two subjects' connection to clinical medicine, and applying new pedagogies and assessment methods. This study assessed the results of the reform by comparing the attitudes and academic achievements of students in the reform curriculum (n = 41) and their traditional curriculum peers (n = 182). An attitude survey was conducted to obtain students' views of their respective histology and physiology instruction. Survey items covered lectures, laboratory teaching, case analyses and small-group case discussions, assessment of students, and overall quality of the courses and instruction. A knowledge test consisting of questions from three sources was given to measure students' mastery of topics that they had learned. Results showed that reform curriculum students were rather satisfied with their course and new teaching methods in most cases. When these students' attitudes were compared with those of their traditional curriculum peers, several significant differences favoring the reform were identified regarding physiology teaching. No other significant difference was found for physiology or histology teaching. Reform curriculum students outperformed their peers on four of five subcategories of the knowledge test questions. These findings support the benefits of integration and state-of-the-art teaching methods. Our study may offer lessons to medical schools in China and other countries whose medical education is in need of change. Copyright © 2014 The American Physiological Society.

Meeting the Demands of Science Reforms: A Comprehensive Professional Development for Practicing Middle School Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Pringle, Rose M.; Mesa, Jennifer; Hayes, Lynda

2018-03-01

Preparing teachers to teach science consistent with current reforms in science education is a daunting enterprise given a lack of high-quality science professional development (PD) adaptable across various contexts (Wilson 2013). This study examines the impact of a comprehensive professional development program on middle school teachers' disciplinary content knowledge and instructional practices. In this mixed methods investigation, data sources included classroom observations, content knowledge assessments, surveys, and a range of interviews. The teachers in the program showed significant improvements in their disciplinary content knowledge and demonstrated through their enactment of a reform-based curriculum, a range of ability levels to translate their knowledge into instructional practices consistent with the principles espoused in the PD. We conclude that programs that attend to elements of effective PD identified in the literature can positively impact middle school science teachers' enactment of reform-based science teaching. Our findings extend these elements to include the strategic engagement of school and district leadership and the provision of a safe learning space for teachers to collectively engage in reciprocal learning and critical practice. This study has worldwide implications for designing PD for science teachers and for extending our understanding of the impact of each element.

Learning to teach science in urban schools

Science.gov (United States)

Tobin, Kenneth; Roth, Wolff-Michael; Zimmermann, Andrea

2001-10-01

Teaching in urban schools, with their problems of violence, lack of resources, and inadequate funding, is difficult. It is even more difficult to learn to teach in urban schools. Yet learning in those locations where one will subsequently be working has been shown to be the best preparation for teaching. In this article we propose coteaching as a viable model for teacher preparation and the professional development of urban science teachers. Coteaching - working at the elbow of someone else - allows new teachers to experience appropriate and timely action by providing them with shared experiences that become the topic of their professional conversations with other coteachers (including peers, the cooperating teacher, university supervisors, and high school students). This article also includes an ethnography describing the experiences of a new teacher who had been assigned to an urban high school as field experience, during which she enacted a curriculum that was culturally relevant to her African American students, acknowledged their minority status with respect to science, and enabled them to pursue the school district standards. Even though coteaching enables learning to teach and curricula reform, we raise doubts about whether our approaches to teacher education and enacting science curricula are hegemonic and oppressive to the students we seek to emancipate through education.

K-5 mentor teachers' journeys toward reform-oriented science within a professional development school context

Science.gov (United States)

Manno, Jacqueline L.

Reform-oriented science teaching with a specific focus on evidence and explanation provides a student-centered learning environment which encourages children to question, seek answers to those questions, experience phenomena, share ideas, and develop explanations of science concepts based on evidence. One of the ways schools have risen to meet the challenge of ever-increasing demands for success in science and all other curricular areas has been in the development of professional development schools (PDSs). Dedicated to the simultaneous renewal of schools and teacher education programs, the structure of a PDS plays a significant role in the change process. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the nature of change in mentor teachers' beliefs and pedagogical practices toward science teaching in the elementary school as conveyed through their own "stories of practice". The major research questions that guided the study were: (1) How do mentor teachers describe their science teaching practices and how have they changed as a result of participation in PDS? (a) In what ways do PDS mentor teachers' descriptions of practice reflect contemporary reform ideas and practices in science education? (b) To what extent do their stories emphasize technical aspects of teaching versus epistemological changes in their thinking and knowledge? (c) How is student learning in science reflected in teachers' stories of practice? (2) What is the relationship between the levels and types of involvement in PDS to change in thinking about and practices of teaching science? (3) What is the depth of commitment that mentors convey about changes in science teaching practices? Using case study design, the research explored the ways experienced teachers, working within the context of a PDS community, described changes in the ways they think about and teach science. The connection to the issue of change in teaching practices grew out of interest in understanding the relationship

On Study of Teaching Reform of Organic Chemistry Course in Applied Chemical Industry Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yunshen

2017-11-01

with the implementation of new curriculum reform, the education sees great changes in teaching methods. Teaching reform is profound in organic chemistry course in applied chemical industry technology. However, many problems which have never been noticed before occur when reform programs are implemented which harm students’ ability for learning and enthusiasm in side face. This paper proposes reform measures like combining theory and practice, improving professional quality, supplementing professional needs and integrating teaching into life after analyzing organic chemistry course teaching in applied chemical industry technology currently, hoping to play a role of reference for organic chemistry course teaching reform in applied chemical industry technology.

Learning to Teach Primary Geography in the Context of School Placement: Lessons from an All-Ireland Study

Science.gov (United States)

Dolan, Anne M.; Waldron, Fionnuala; Pike, Susan; Greenwood, Richard

2016-01-01

Teaching education is Ireland is currently undergoing significant structural and conceptual changes. School placement is at the centre of these reforms. This article reports the findings of an all-Ireland study which investigates student teachers' experiences of teaching geography during their school placements. Based on data collected from…

Reforming Schools: A Case Study of New Basics in a Primary School

Science.gov (United States)

Jorgensen, Robyn; Walsh, Lynne; Niesche, Richard

2009-01-01

Reforming schools is a challenging aspect of contemporary education. The role of leadership within reform agendas is critical. This article presents a case study of one school that has been highly successful in the implementation of this reform. The processes employed by the school at various levels demonstrate the ways in which effective…

School System (Re)design: Developing Educational Infrastructures to Support School Leadership and Teaching Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Hopkins, Megan; Woulfin, Sarah L.

2015-01-01

A central challenge for local education agencies (i.e., school districts in the United States) undergoing reform is to design systems that facilitate instructional improvement. At the core of these systems are educational infrastructures that bolster capacity building efforts and support teaching and leadership practices. Our goal for this special…

Improving Schools through Networks: A New Approach to Urban School Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Wohlstetter, Priscilla; Malloy, Courtney L.; Chau, Derrick; Polhemus, Jennifer L.

2003-01-01

Data from an evaluation of the Annenberg Challenge in Los Angeles, a reform effort that experimented with school networks as a vehicle for improving schools, revealed that when school networks created structures that decentralized power and distributed organizational resources throughout the network, they also enhanced school capacity for reform.…

The Hope for American School Reform: The Cold War Pursuit of Inquiry Learning in Social Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Ronald W.

2010-01-01

As the issue of school reform grows ever more intense, it is imperative that we learn what we can from previous efforts. The new social studies was a 1960's attempt to transform the teaching of history and the social sciences in schools. With origins in the Cold War, the movement sought to develop critical thinkers through "inquiry" and…

School as Community, Community as School: Examining Principal Leadership for Urban School Reform and Community Development

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Terrance L.

2018-01-01

For decades, reform has been a persistent issue in urban schools. Research suggests that urban school reforms that are connected to equitable community development efforts are more sustainable, and that principals play a pivot role in leading such efforts. Yet, limited research has explored how urban school principals connect school reform with…

Factors Influencing Elementary Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs in Reform-Based Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Sawyer, Amanda Gantt

2017-01-01

I investigated a reform based teachers' beliefs about the nature of mathematics, teaching mathematics, and learning mathematics, and the factors leading to their formation. I interviewed and observed a reform-based elementary mathematics teacher with 13 years' experience teaching first grade. She held a Platonist/problem solver view of…

School Reform Unplugged: The Bensenville New American School Project, 1991-93.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirel, Jeffrey

1994-01-01

This examination of the New American Schools Development Corporation initiative in Bensenville (Illinois) details the controversy over the reform effort and argues that factors such as school governance, local control, and school finance played major roles in determining program outcomes. The importance of political influences in reform efforts is…

Student-centered and ability training-oriented curriculum reform in teaching Microcontroller Principles and Interface Techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiaoping; Cai, Peijun; Liu, Yuling; Wang, Liqiang; Liang, Yiyong

2017-08-01

Courses are an important way of cultivating talents in college education. Advanced training schemes and the course system are implemented through course teaching. Advanced teaching notions and methods also rely on course teaching. Therefore, the quality of course teaching is the fundamental guarantor for grooming talent. The teachers of the course "Microcontroller Principles and Interface Techniques" in the Optical Science and Engineering College of Zhejiang University insist on course teaching becoming student centered and ability-training-oriented. They pay attention to students'all-round development in terms of learning ability, practical ability, innovation ability, and exploring spirit. They actively carried out course reforms in four aspects, namely teaching, learning, evaluation, and experimentation. This paper mainly introduced these reforms. First, the teaching method was reformed by introducing case analysis and the notion of a flipped classroom to shift the course focus from the teacher to the students. Second, the learning method was reformed through the use of techniques such as peer learning and project design to promote students' sense of enquiry and learning initiative. Third, the evaluation method was reformed through the use of process assessment and diversity evaluation to encourage students to develop logical thinking and a down-to-earth manner. Fourth, the experimentation method was reformed by introducing hierarchical content, process management, and diversification of examination to change students'learning attitude from "dependence, passivity, and imitation" to "independence, active involvement, and creation."In general, the teaching method reform promoted reforms in learning, evaluation, and experimentation methods and further improved the style of study. These reforms improved teachers' teaching abilities and enabled course teaching to transform from being teacher centered to student centered. Years of exploration and practice results have

Curriculum reform and evolution: Innovative content and processes at one US medical school.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischel, Janet E; Olvet, Doreen M; Iuli, Richard J; Lu, Wei-Hsin; Chandran, Latha

2018-03-11

Curriculum reform in medical schools continues to be an ever-present and challenging activity in medical education. This paper describes one school's experiences with specific curricular innovations that were developed or adapted and targeted to meet a clear set of curricular goals during the curriculum reform process. Those goals included: (a) promoting active learning and learner engagement; (b) establishing early professional identity; and (c) developing physician competencies in an integrated and contextual manner while allowing for individualized learning experiences for the millennial student. Six specific innovations championed by the school are described in detail. These included Themes in Medical Education, Translational Pillars, Stony Brook Teaching Families, Transition Courses, Educational Continuous Quality Improvement Processes, and our Career Advising Program. Development of the ideas and design of the innovations were done by faculty and student teams. We discuss successes and ongoing challenges with these innovations which are currently in the fourth year of implementation. Our curriculum reform has emphasized the iterative process of curriculum building. Based on our experience, we discuss general and practical guidelines for curriculum innovation in its three phases: setting the stage, implementation, and monitoring for the achievement of intended goals.

The SQL Server Database for Non Computer Professional Teaching Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiangwei

2012-01-01

A summary of the teaching methods of the non-computer professional SQL Server database, analyzes the current situation of the teaching course. According to non computer professional curriculum teaching characteristic, put forward some teaching reform methods, and put it into practice, improve the students' analysis ability, practice ability and…

A Classroom Observational Study of Qatar's Independent Schools: Instruction and School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, Douglas J.; Sadiq, Hissa M.; Lynch, Patricia; Parker, Dawn; Viruru, Radhika; Knight, Stephanie; Waxman, Hersh; Alford, Beverly; Brown, Danielle Bairrington; Rollins, Kayla; Stillisano, Jacqueline; Abu-Tineh, Abdullah M. Hamdan; Nasser, Ramzi; Allen, Nancy; Al-Binali, Hessa; Ellili, Maha; Al-Kateeb, Haithem; Al-Kubaisi, Huda

2016-01-01

Qatar initiated a K-12 national educational reform in 2001. However, there is limited information on the instructional practices of the teachers in the reform schools. This project was an observational study of classrooms with a stratified random sample of the first six cohorts of reform schools. Specifically, 156 classrooms were observed in 29…

Testing and school reform in Danish education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kousholt, Kristine; Hamre, Bjørn

2016-01-01

This chapter will focus on shared characteristics of the Danish national standardized testing in public school and the ideals of being a student according to the Danish School Reform of 2014. In the chapter we argue that both kinds of materials (documents regarding the newly implemented national ...... and that this intermingles with the explicated intentions of the Danish school reform as a more profound educational intervention....

Free-Market School Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrington-Lueker, Donna

1997-01-01

In Uxbridge, Massachusetts, a small working-class mill town, free-market reform rhetoric has become reality. The tiny district has adopted controversial changes, such as giving vouchers to parents of Title I students, reimbursing home-schooling parents, lengthening the school day and year, adopting flexible scheduling, allowing credit for Internet…

Reform of the Method for Evaluating the Teaching of Medical Linguistics to Medical Students

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hongkui; Wang, Bo; Zhang, Longlu

2014-01-01

Explorating reform of the teaching evaluation method for vocational competency-based education (CBE) curricula for medical students is a very important process in following international medical education standards, intensify ing education and teaching reforms, enhancing teaching management, and improving the quality of medical education. This…

[Impact of the funding reform of teaching hospitals in Brazil].

Science.gov (United States)

Lobo, M S C; Silva, A C M; Lins, M P E; Fiszman, R

2009-06-01

To assess the impact of funding reform on the productivity of teaching hospitals. Based on the Information System of Federal University Hospitals of Brazil, 2003 and 2006 efficiency and productivity were measured using frontier methods with a linear programming technique, data envelopment analysis, and input-oriented variable returns to scale model. The Malmquist index was calculated to detect changes during the study period: 'technical efficiency change,' or the relative variation of the efficiency of each unit; and 'technological change' after frontier shift. There was 51% mean budget increase and improvement of technical efficiency of teaching hospitals (previously 11, 17 hospitals reached the empirical efficiency frontier) but the same was not seen for the technology frontier. Data envelopment analysis set benchmark scores for each inefficient unit (before and after reform) and there was a positive correlation between technical efficiency and teaching intensity and dedication. The reform promoted management improvements but there is a need of further follow-up to assess the effectiveness of funding changes.

School Reform in the United States: Frames and Representations

Science.gov (United States)

Shannon, Patrick

2012-01-01

This essay reviews six competing positions on U.S. school reform: a speech from Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan; Diane Ravitch's "The Death and Life of the Great American School System"; Frederick Hess's "The Same Thing Over and Over"; Charles Payne's "So Much Reform, So Little Change"; Anthony Byrk and others' "Organizing School for…

The Need for Transformational Leadership in Singapore's School-Based Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Retna, Kala S.; Ng, Pak Tee

2009-01-01

In Singapore, "decentralization" and "school-based reforms" are key words within the current education reform agenda. This article argues that a key success factor in this agenda is transformational leadership in school. With more autonomy given to the school, transformational leadership at the school level will facilitate the…

Reforms in the Policy of English Language Teaching in Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Rashid, Radzuwan A. B.; Abdul Rahman, Shireena Basree; Yunus, Kamariah

2017-01-01

This paper reviews reforms related to English language teaching in the Malaysian education system. It begins by tracing the history of Malaysia as a former British colony which has had significant influences on the status of English in the country. Then, it reviews the key educational reforms which have mainly centred on language policy, thus…

The New Technology and Educational Reform: Guidelines for School Administrators.

Science.gov (United States)

Matthews, Mark; Karr-Kidwell, PJ

This paper presents the results of a literature review on educational methodology reforms. The first section discusses five factors in broad-based school reforms: change theory; organizational theory; state/national politics; local politics/governance; and leadership theory. Five types of reforms for school-wide success are described in the second…

Curricular constraints, high-stakes testing and the reality of reform in high school science classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Coble, Jennifer

Through a series of open-ended interviews, this study investigated the beliefs of six third year high school science teachers about how they implement science education reform ideals in their practice and the contextual challenges they face as they attempt to implement reform. The teachers argue that the lack of connection between their curricula and students' lives serves as a significant obstacle to them utilizing more inquiry-based and student-centered strategies. In their science classes that are not subject to a high stakes exam, the teachers shared instances where they engage students in inquiry by refraining the focus of their curricula away from the decontextualized factual information and onto how the information relates to human experience. In their science classes subject to a high stakes test, however, the teachers confessed to feeling no choice but to utilize more teacher-centered strategies focused on information transmission. This study provides an in depth analysis of how the presence of high stakes tests discourages teachers from utilizing reform based teaching strategies within high school science classrooms.

Cost-Effectiveness of Comprehensive School Reform in Low Achieving Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Ross, John A.; Scott, Garth; Sibbald, Tim M.

2012-01-01

We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of Struggling Schools, a user-generated approach to Comprehensive School Reform implemented in 100 low achieving schools serving disadvantaged students in a Canadian province. The results show that while Struggling Schools had a statistically significant positive effect on Grade 3 Reading achievement, d = 0.48…

Bourdieu, Department Chairs and the Reform of Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Melville, Wayne; Hardy, Ian; Bartley, Anthony

2011-11-01

Using the insights of the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, this article considers the role of the science department chair in the reform of school science education. Using Bourdieu's 'thinking tools' of 'field', 'habitus' and 'capital', we case study the work of two teachers who both actively pursue the teaching and learning of science as inquiry. One teacher, Dan, has been a department chair since 2000, and has actively encouraged his department to embrace science as inquiry. The other teacher, Leslie, worked for one year in Dan's department before being transferred to another school where science teaching continues to be more traditional. Our work suggests that there are three crucial considerations for chairs seeking to lead the reform of science teaching within their department. The first of these is the development of a reform-minded habitus, as this appears to be foundational to the capital that can be expended in the leadership of reform. The second is an understanding of how to wield power and position in the promotion of reform. The third is the capacity to operate simultaneously and strategically within, and across, two fields; the departmental field and the larger science education field. This involves downplaying administrative logics, and foregrounding more inquiry-focused logics as a vehicle to challenge traditional science-teaching dispositions-the latter being typically dominated by concerns about curriculum 'coverage'.

Elementary school teachers perspective about educative reform in Zacatecas, México

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth Cristina Bañuelos Sánchez

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The results of a research carried out in the state of Zacatecas, México, aiming at probing teachers perceptions about the Educative Reform (RE to elementary school education approved in 2013 in the country are presented. Structural reforms served as the research theoretical frame and are the starting point to analyze changes that reorganized educative institutions in general. The information gathering was conducted by an interview with open answers, focusing on the aspects which have direct effects on teachers: evaluation, entry requirements and the job continuity. The results show that most teachers do not oppose the evaluation, provided that it is used as a tool for improving their teaching practice. Yet they do mistrust the transparency of the system, since they consider that the RE is a hidden mechanism to fire teachers, instead of a mechanism to improve the quality of education.

The research on teaching reformation of photoelectric information science and engineering specialty experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Zheng; Yang, Fan; Zhang, Yang; Geng, Tao; Li, Yuxiang

2017-08-01

This paper introduced the idea of teaching reformation of photoelectric information science and engineering specialty experiments. The teaching reformation of specialty experiments was analyzed from many aspects, such as construction of specialized laboratory, experimental methods, experiment content, experiment assessing mechanism, and so on. The teaching of specialty experiments was composed of four levels experiments: basic experiments, comprehensive and designing experiments, innovative research experiments and engineering experiments which are aiming at enterprise production. Scientific research achievements and advanced technology on photoelectric technology were brought into the teaching of specialty experiments, which will develop the students' scientific research ability and make them to be the talent suitable for photoelectric industry.

Neoliberalism and Corporate School Reform: "Failure" and "Creative Destruction"

Science.gov (United States)

Saltman, Kenneth J.

2014-01-01

In the United States, corporate school reform or neoliberal educational restructuring has overtaken educational policy, practice, curriculum, and nearly all aspects of educational reform. Although this movement began on the political right, the corporate school model has been heralded across the political spectrum and is aggressively embraced now…

Teaching Reform of Civil Engineering Materials Course Based on Project-Driven Pedagogy

Science.gov (United States)

Yidong, Xu; Wei, Chen; WeiguoJian, You; Jiansheng, Shen

2018-05-01

In view of the scattered experimental projects in practical courses of civil engineering materials, the poor practical ability of students and the disconnection between practical teaching and theoretical teaching, this paper proposes a practical teaching procedure. Firstly, the single experiment should be offered which emphasizes on improving the students’ basic experimental operating ability. Secondly, the compressive experiment is offered and the overall quality of students can be examined in the form of project team. In order to investigate the effect of teaching reform, the comparative analysis of the students of three grades (2014, 2015 and 2016) majored in civil engineering was conducted. The result shows that the students’ ability of experimental operation is obviously improved by using the project driven method-based teaching reform. Besides, the students’ ability to analyse and solve problems has also been improved.

Mobile internet and technology for optical teaching reform in higher education

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Muchun; Zhao, Qi; Chen, Yanru

2017-08-01

There are some problems in optical education such as insufficient flexibility, individuality and adaptability to students who need information and education at present. The development of mobile internet and technology provides support to solve these problems. Basic characteristics, advantages and developments of these techniques used in education are presented in this paper. Mobile internet is introduced to reform the classroom teaching of optical courses. Mobile network tool selection, teaching resources construction and reform in teaching methods are discussed. Academic record and sampling surveys are used to assess intention to adopt mobile internet and learning effect of academic major of students, the results show that high quality optical education can be offered by adopting mobile internet and technologies in traditional instruction.

Two Roads to School Finance Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Berke, Joel S.; And Others

1976-01-01

Research on legislative and electoral consideration of school finance reforms identifies three important elements; the art of compromise, the fiscal context, and political leadership. Adoption of new school finance formulas is far more likely through the legislative process than through a referendum. (Author/AM)

Perspectives on High School Reform. NCREL Viewpoints, Volume 13

Science.gov (United States)

Learning Point Associates / North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), 2005

2005-01-01

Viewpoints is a multimedia package containing two audio CDs and a brief, informative booklet. This volume of Viewpoints focuses on issues related to high school reform. This booklet offers background information explaining the issues surrounding high school reform with perspectives from research, policy, and practice. It also provides a list of…

Dispositions Supporting Elementary Interns in the Teaching of Reform-Based Science Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Eick, Charles J.; Stewart, Bethany

2010-01-01

Dispositions supporting the teaching of science as structured inquiry by four elementary candidates are presented. Candidates were studied during student teaching based on their positive attitudes toward teaching science with reform-based materials in their methods course. Personal learning histories informed their attitudes, values, and beliefs…

Factors affecting science reform: Bridging the gap between reform initiatives and teaching practices

Science.gov (United States)

Pensak, Karl John

In response to the perceived deficiencies in science education today, and to the expressed need for research into the culture of schools (due primarily to the failure of many science reforms in the past), this study used a broad based approach to study the gap between science education research and science education practice. This study identified 47 factors that may encourage or inhibit science curriculum reform. A survey was conducted to determine which factors were perceived to be important by local and national K-12 classroom teachers, science supervisors/coordinators, and college/university professors. Continual staff development (scheduled as part of teachers' work day/week/month), funding (for long-term staff development, teacher training and support, science laboratory facilities and materials), teacher motivation and "ownership" of the reform, the need for collaborative opportunities for classroom teachers, teachers' college preparation, textbook reform, community support, and reform initiatives that are "in tune" with assessment, are major factors identified as having a substantial affect on the successful adoption, implementation, and institutionalization of science reforms.

Technology integrated teaching in Malaysian schools: GIS, a SWOT analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Habibah Lateh, vasugiammai muniandy

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Geographical Information System (GIS has been introduced and widely used in schools in various countries. The year 1990 onwards, the implementation of GIS in schools showed an increase. This is due to the drastic changes and reforms in the education system. Even though the name GIS suits well to the Geography subject, but it is widely integrated in various subjects such as History, Chemistry, Physics and Science. In Malaysia, GIS is common in fields such as risk management, architecture, town planning and municipal department. Anyhow, it is still unknown in the school education system. Even upper secondary students are not familiar with GIS. The Ministry of Education in Malaysia has been continuously reforming the education towards the aim of creating a society based on economic fundamentals and knowledge. The Master Plan for Educational Development with the aim of developing individual potential with well-integrated and balanced education is already on field. Recently, Malaysia invested 18 % of the annual national budget towards upgrading its education system. The computer in education program started in 1999. Three hundred and twenty two schools were chosen as ‘break a way’ from conventional teaching method towards technology integrated teaching. Projects such as New Primary School Curriculum (KBSR, Integrated Secondary School Curriculum (KBSM, Smart School Project, School Access Centre were introduced constantly. Teacher as the cogwheel of innovations in schools were given courses in aim to develop their ICT knowledge and skill. To this date, the technology integration in subjects is not equal and it disperses through subjects. Geography is one of the ‘dry’ subjects in schools with less technology which is not preferable among students. Geographical Information System (GIS is foremost the best Geographical Information Technology (GIT to be implied in geography subject. In Malaysian Education System, GIS is still exposed just in papers

School-Based Management: The Next Needed Education Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Guthrie, James W.

1986-01-01

Recommends the implementation of school-based management systems as one way to meet government demands for educational reform. Describes the functions of principals, school advisory councils, school-site budgeting and accounting, and annual planning and performance reports in successful school-based management systems. Presents examples of…

The Problem with Reform from the Bottom up: Instructional practises and teacher beliefs of graduate teaching assistants following a reform-minded university teacher certificate programme

Science.gov (United States)

Addy, Tracie M.; Blanchard, Margaret R.

2010-05-01

Reform-minded practices are widely encouraged during pre-service science teacher education in concert with national reform documents. This contrasts to the nature of instruction within university science laboratories in which pre-service teachers enrol, which are largely confirmatory in nature. Undergraduate science laboratories are taught predominantly by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) with minimal teacher preparation. The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to investigate the instructional practices and teacher beliefs of eight GTAs at a university with very high research activity who completed a reform-minded Teacher Certificate Programme, asking: What are their beliefs about teaching? How are their practices described? Do their beliefs and practices differ from one another? Do their teaching beliefs correspond with their practices? Findings indicate that GTAs held moderately reform-minded "transitional" beliefs of teaching following the programme, yet displayed fairly traditional instruction. Cross-case findings highlight similar patterns across subscales of the RTOP that draw attention to underlying constraints of the laboratory curriculum structure. We suggest that GTA professional development is best undertaken concurrent with laboratory course revision.

Reconceptualizing context from a situated perspective: Teacher beliefs and the activity of teaching within the context of science reform

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Leigh K.

An increasing interest in illuminating the relationships between context and educational reform has led researchers to examine the various interconnected factors that constitute different teaching contexts and the relationships between these elements and teachers' beliefs. The challenge is to identify those aspects of context that facilitate change in teachers' thinking and the way they approach science instruction. This study investigated the relationships between elementary teachers' science-related beliefs and the external forces within the context of their teaching. Using a situated perspective from which to view context, the activity of teaching and the related beliefs of 2 elementary teachers was examined in an effort to better understand the role of context in teachers' thinking about what science is, what it means to teach and learn science, what is involved in reform-based practices, and what science instruction might look like in their classrooms based on their interpretation of reform. Comparative case studies were developed and analyzed using a constant comparative method of analysis. Cross-ease analyses revealed a number of major themes: (a) teachers' science-related beliefs vary in level of commitment; (b) more deeply held beliefs about what it means to teach and learn science, or guiding beliefs, are profoundly resistant to change and are derived primarily from teachers' personal histories both in and outside of schools; (c) guiding beliefs are also shaped by science methods courses, teacher development, and practical classroom experience; (d) less deeply held beliefs, or perceptions of control, are teachers' beliefs about their ability to teach science according to their guiding beliefs in the presence of physical, social, or structural factors within the context of their teaching; (e) guiding beliefs are likely to override perceptions of control, enabling teachers to adapt their teaching contexts; and (f) although all aspects of context impact

Od reformy kurikula k produktivní kultuře vyučování a učení. / From curricular reform towards productive culture of teaching and learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomáš Janík

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The paper presents an analytical study that is concluded with an intended agenda setting. The “issue” of Czech curricular reform is defined on the theoretical level and analysed on the empirical level; moreover, its relationship to the culture of teaching and learning is described. At first, the current Czech curricular reform is viewed from the perspective of a broader context of educational transformation; its focus and character are discussed. The timing of the reform is addressed, using the equalizer of governance, i.e. an analysis of broader mechanisms of functioning of and operating the educational system. Central to the paper is the author’s claim that the reform can hardly improve the quality of teaching and learning as its implementation resulted in unmanageable formalism. The author asserts that the quality can only be improved through sustained support of the productive culture of teaching and learning.To realise a change is thus to work on the new – productive – culture of teaching and learning. The study ends with an overview of arguments that confirm the need for an agenda setting that would aim at developing the curricular reform into a systematicapproach to supporting schools and teachers’ professional development which would take into account the idea of productive culture of teaching and learning.

Analysis under the new curriculum in primary school Chinese Teaching%浅析新课改下的小学语文教学

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陈立锋

2012-01-01

The new curriculum reform for Chinese teaching in primary school is taking on a new look, the traditional teaching mode to modern edu- cation close. Primary school language teaching of new curriculum reform is not only the content of teaching material, teaching form change, is more im- portant to Chinese teaching idea turning, like a breeze, make Chinese education old appearance is changed new colour. In the process of teaching teach- ers continue to feel the new curriculum reform brings his ability, in students＇ quality education more handy, productive.%新课程改革给小学语文课堂教学带来了全新的面貌，传统的教学模式在向现代教育靠拢。小学语文教学论文新课改不仅是教材内容、教学形式的变化，更重要的是语文教学理念的转折，犹如一股春风，让语文教育旧貌换新颜。教师在教学中不断感受到新课改带给自己能力的提升，在学生素质教育的培养上更加得心应手，富有成效。

Analysis of curricular reform practices at Chinese medical schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Lei; Cai, Qiaoling; Cheng, Liming; Kosik, Russell; Mandell, Greg; Wang, Shuu-Jiun; Xu, Guo-Tong; Fan, Angela P

2014-01-01

A comprehensive search of the literature published between 2001 and 2010 was performed to gain a greater understanding of curricular reform practices at Chinese medical schools. There were 10,948 studies published between 2001 and 2010 that were retrieved from the database. Following preliminary screening, 76 publications from 49 different medical schools were selected. Thirty-one publications regarding clinical medicine curricular reforms were analyzed further. Of the 76 studies, 53 described curricular reforms that were instituted in theoretical courses, 22 described curricular reforms that were instituted in experimental courses, and 1 described curricular reforms that were instituted in a clinical skills training course. Of the 31 clinical medicine publications, 2 described reforms that were implemented for 3-year program medical students, 12 described reforms that were implemented for 5-year program medical students, 6 described reforms that were implemented for 7-year program medical students, and 2 described reforms that were implemented for 8-year program medical students. Currently, the majority of medical schools in China use the discipline-based curriculum model. Thirteen studies described transition to an organ-system-based curriculum model, 1 study described transition to a problem-based curriculum model, and 3 studies described transition to a clinical presentation-based curriculum model. In 7 studies educators decided to retain the discipline-based curriculum model while integrating 1 or several new courses to remedy the weaker aspects of the traditional curriculum, in 7 studies educators decided to integrate the preclinical courses with the clinical courses by using the systemic-integrating curricular system that dilutes classical disciplines and integrates material based on organ systems, and in 2 studies educators limited reforms to clinical courses only. Eight studies discussed the implementation of a formative evaluation system, 4 studies

Instructional Leadership in Indonesian School Reform: Overcoming the Problems to Move Forward

Science.gov (United States)

Sofo, Francesco; Fitzgerald, Robert; Jawas, Umiati

2012-01-01

The paper reviews the research on instructional leadership and, through identifying problems emerging in Indonesian school reform, suggests some sustainable solutions. There are some discrepancies in the processes of Indonesia's school reform, and the objectives of the national education reform do not seem to have been reflected in the actual…

Teacher Identity and Reform: Intersections within School Culture

Science.gov (United States)

Bower, Heather Ann; Parsons, Eileen R. Carlton

2016-01-01

In the era of school accountability, school reform programs aimed at shifting school culture are often implemented in an attempt to increase student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. This ethnographic case study was conducted in Hawk Elementary, a low-performing, high-poverty school. Quantitative and qualitative data collected…

Inside the Black Box of School Reform: Explaining the How and Why of Change at "Getting Results" Schools

Science.gov (United States)

McDougall, Dennis; Saunders, William M.; Goldenberg, Claude

2007-01-01

This article reports key findings from a process-focused external evaluation that compared a subset of "Getting Results" project schools and comparison schools in order to understand the dynamics of school-wide reform efforts at these primary schools. Findings shed light on the "black box" of school reform and illuminate the…

Social Justice and Resisting Neoliberal Education Reform in the USA

Science.gov (United States)

Au, Wayne

2016-01-01

Efforts to reform public education along free-market, corporate-styled models have swept across many nations. In the USA these reforms have included an intense focus on the use of high-stakes, standardized tests to quantify students, teachers, and schools for market comparisons, the deprofessionalization of teaching, and the establishment of…

Leading for Urban School Reform and Community Development

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Terrance L.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Improving urban schools of color and the communities where they are located requires leadership that spans school and community boundaries. The purpose of this study is to understand how principal and community leader actions support urban school reform along with community development at two community schools in the urban Midwest and…

Evaluating Views of Lecturers on the Consistency of Teaching Content with Teaching Approach: Traditional versus Reform Calculus

Science.gov (United States)

Sevimli, Eyup

2016-01-01

This study aims to evaluate the consistency of teaching content with teaching approaches in calculus on the basis of lecturers' views. In this sense, the structures of the examples given in two commonly used calculus textbooks, both in traditional and reform classrooms, are compared. The content analysis findings show that the examples in both…

[Considerations and ideas on teaching reform of stomatology for cultivating innovative talents of high quality].

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Jia-wei; Cao, Xia; Feng, Xi-ping; Zhang, Zhi-yuan; Zhang, Jian-zhong

2009-10-01

The past decade has shown increasing demands for reforming dental education that would produce a graduate better equipped to work in the rapidly changing world of the twenty-first century. With the rapid development of social economy and more and more fierce competitive environment, teaching reform on stomatology is imperative nowadays. The existing curriculum of courses, teaching method, teaching medium, and mode of training must be improved and innovated based on cultivation of innovative talents with all-round development of moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetic education. All the teaching should be student-centered rather than teacher-centered, with the purpose of enhancing the students' research ability, English ability, and clinical skills.

[Exploration of the oral health education experimental teaching for oral health education reform].

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Yingying; Hu, Wenting; Zhang, Juanjuan; Sun, Yan; Gao, Yuguang

2014-04-01

This study aimed to improve students' ability in practical and theoretical courses of oral health education and to promote students' learning interest and initiative. Fourth-year students of the oral medical profession from 2006 to 2008 at Weifang Medical University were chosen as research objects for oral health education to explore the experimental teaching reform. The students were divided into test and control groups, with the test group using the "speak out" way of teaching and the control group using the traditional teaching method. Results of after-class evaluation of the test group, as well as final examination and practice examination of the two groups, were analyzed and compared. After-class evaluation results of the test group showed that the "speak out" teaching method was recognized by the students and improved students' ability to understand oral health education. The final examination and practice examination results showed that the score of the test group was higher than that of the control group (P teaching methods can improve students' ability for oral health education, in accordance with the trend of teaching reform.

Teaching schools as teacher education laboratories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Gravett

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study emanated from the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa. This Framework proposes that teaching schools should be established in the country to improve the teaching practicum component of pre-service teacher education. A generic qualitative study was undertaken to explore the affordances of a teaching school to enable student teacher learning for the teaching profession. The overarching finding of the study is that a teaching school holds numerous affordances for enabling meaningful student teacher learning for the teaching profession. However, the full affordances of a teaching school will not be realised if a teaching school is viewed merely as a practicum site. Foregrounding a laboratory view of practice work in a teaching school could enable true research-oriented teacher education. A teaching school as a teacher education laboratory would imply a deliberate inclusion of cognitive apprenticeship and an inquiry orientation to learning in the schoo

Discussion on teaching reform of environmental planning and management

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qiugen; Chen, Suhua; Xie, Yu; Wei, Li'an; Ding, Yuan

2018-05-01

The curriculum of environmental planning and management is an environmental engineering major curriculum established by the teaching steering committee of environmental science and engineering of Education Ministry, which is the core curriculum of Chinese engineering education professional certification. It plays an important role in cultivating environmental planning and environmental management ability of environmental engineering major. The selection and optimization of the course teaching content of environmental planning and management were discussed which including curriculum teaching content updating and optimizing and teaching resource system construction. The comprehensive application of teaching method was discussed which including teaching method synthesis and teaching method. The final combination of the assessment method was also discussed which including the formative assessment normal grades and the final result of the course examination. Through the curriculum comprehensive teaching reform, students' knowledge had been broadened, the subject status and autonomy of learning had been enhanced, students' learning interest had been motivated, the ability of students' finding, analyzing and solving problems had been improved. Students' innovative ability and positive spirit had been well cultivated.

Rasch Validation of a Measure of Reform-Oriented Science Teaching Practices

Science.gov (United States)

You, Hye Sun

2016-06-01

Growing evidence from recent curriculum documents and previous research suggests that reform-oriented science teaching practices promote students' conceptual understanding, levels of achievement, and motivation to learn, especially when students are actively engaged in constructing their ideas through scientific inquiries. However, it is difficult to identify to what extent science teachers engage students in reform-oriented teaching practices (RTPs) in their science classrooms. In order to exactly diagnose the current status of science teachers' implementation of the RTPs, a valid and reliable instrument tool is needed. The principles of validity and reliability are fundamental cornerstones in developing a robust measurement tool. As such, this study was motivated by the desire to point out the limitations of the existing statistical and psychometric analyses and to further examine the validation of the RTP survey instrument. This paper thus aims at calibrating the items of the RTPs for science teachers using the Rasch model. The survey instrument scale was adapted from the 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education (NSSME) data. A total of 3701 science teachers from 1403 schools from across the USA participated in the NSSME survey. After calibrating the RTP items and persons on the same scale, the RTP instrument well represented the population of US science teachers. Model-data fit determined by Infit and Outfit statistics was within an appropriate range (0.5-1.5), supporting the unidimensional structure of the RTPs. The ordered category thresholds and the probability of the thresholds showed that the five-point rating scale functioned well. The results of this study support the use of the RTP measure from the 2012 NSSME in assessing usage of RTPs.

Leading Inclusive Reform for Students with Disabilities: A School- and Systemwide Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Theoharis, George; Causton, Julie

2014-01-01

It is of great importance to maximize access to general education for all students with disabilities. This article focuses on how leaders create inclusive schools for all students--inclusive school reform. Inclusive school reform can result in all students with disabilities being placed into general education settings (including students with…

Integrative curriculum reform, domain dependent knowing, and teachers` epistemological theories: Implications for middle-level teaching

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Powell, R.R. [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States). College of Education

1998-12-01

Integrative curriculum as both a theoretical construct and a practical reality, and as a theme-based, problem-centered, democratic way of schooling, is becoming more widely considered as a feasible alternative to traditional middle-level curricula. Importantly for teaching and learning, domain dependence requires teachers to view one area of knowledge as fully interdependent with other areas of knowledge during the learning process. This requires teachers to adopt personal epistemological theories that reflect integrative, domain dependent knowing. This study explored what happened when teachers from highly traditional domain independent school settings encountered an ambitious college-level curriculum project that was designed to help the teachers understand the potential that integrative, domain dependent teaching holds for precollege settings. This study asked: What influence does an integrative, domain dependent curriculum project have on teachers` domain independent, epistemological theories for teaching and learning? Finding an answer to this question is essential if we, as an educational community, are to understand how integrative curriculum theory is transformed by teachers into systemic curriculum reform. The results suggest that the integrative curriculum project that teachers participated in did not explicitly alter their classroom practices in a wholesale manner. Personal epistemological theories of teachers collectively precluded teachers from making any wholesale changes in their individual classroom teaching. However, teachers became aware of integrative curriculum as an alternative, and they expressed interest in infusing integrative practices into their classrooms as opportunities arise.

Teacher Reform in Indonesia: Can Offshore Programs Create Lasting Pedagogical Shift?

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, William; Hyde, Mervyn; Whannel, Robert; O'Neill, Maureen

2018-01-01

Regional and national interest in reforming teaching in Indonesia has seen governments, NGOs and education specialists combine to drive pedagogical changes among school teachers there. Results of these programs have been indifferent at best. This paper reports on teacher reform programs in Provinsi Papua, one of the most marginal societies in…

Parents' Participation and Chicago School Reform: Issues of Race, Class and Expectations.

Science.gov (United States)

Rollow, Sharon G.; Bennett, Michael

Most studies of the early implementation of Chicago (Illinois) school reform have focused on the creation and early functioning of the Local School Councils (LSCs). This study is concerned with understanding the resources that different school communities have to embrace the LSC reform, the time frame needed to promote educational change, and the…

Schooling, the School Effectiveness Movement, and Educational Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Angus, Lawrence

The widely accepted notion that the management of resources in schools involves merely strategic decisions about the deployment of finances, staff, and materials must be contested. The school effectiveness movement ignores the social and political context of schools and, through emphasis upon superficial managerial matters, teaches pupils to…

Survey of Attitudes towards Curriculum Reforms among Medical Teachersin Different Socio-economic and Cultural Environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dahl, Mads Ronald

2007-01-01

Curriculum reforms in medical schools require cultural and conceptual changes from the faculty. We assessed attitudes towards curriculum reforms in different academic, economic, and social environments among 776 teachers from 2 Western European medical schools (Belgium and Denmark) and 7 medical...... schools in 3 countries in post-communist transition (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The survey included a 5-point Likert-type scale on attitudes towards reforms in general and towards reforms of medical curriculum (10 items each). Teaching staff from medical schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina...... had more positive attitude towards reforms of medical curriculum (mean score 36.8 out of maximum 50 [95% CI 36.1 to 37.3]) than those from medical schools in Croatia or Slovenia (30.7 [29.8 to 31.6]) or Western Europe (27.7 [27.1 to 28.3]) (Pattitudes...

Turkish preservice science teachers' socioscientific issues-based teaching practices in middle school science classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Genel, Abdulkadir; Sami Topçu, Mustafa

2016-01-01

Background: Despite a growing body of research and curriculum reforms including socioscientific issues (SSI) across the world, how preservice science teachers (PST) or in-service science teachers can teach SSI in science classrooms needs further inquiry. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the abilities of PSTs to teach SSI in middle school science classrooms, and the research question that guided the present study is: How can we characterize Turkish PSTs' SSI-based teaching practices in middle school science classrooms (ages 11-14)? Sample: In order to address the research question of this study, we explored 10 Turkish PSTs' SSI-based teaching practices in middle school science classrooms. A purposeful sampling strategy was used, thus, PSTs were specifically chosen because they were ideal candidates to teach SSI and to integrate SSI into the science curricula since they were seniors in the science education program who had to take the field experience courses. Design and method: The participants' SSI teaching practices were characterized in light of qualitative research approach. SSI-based teaching practices were analyzed, and the transcripts of all videotape recordings were coded by two researchers. Results: The current data analysis describes Turkish PSTs' SSI-based teaching practices under five main categories: media, argumentation, SSI selection and presentation, risk analysis, and moral perspective. Most of PSTs did not use media resources in their lesson and none of them considered moral perspective in their teaching. While the risk analyses were very simple and superficial, the arguments developed in the classrooms generally remained at a simple level. PSTs did not think SSI as a central topic and discussed these issues in a very limited time and at the end of the class period. Conclusions: The findings of this study manifest the need of the reforms in science education programs. The present study provides evidence that moral, media

Development and reform research of English teaching theory and practice

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Jie Guo

2015-01-01

The course is the core of education, which is the basic way to achieve educational goals, an educational content and value orientation are mainly expressed and implemented through the curriculum. English courses are the core of English education, which is a concrete manifestation of the value of English education, and it is basic carrier to achieve the goal of English education. This paper analyzes the development of English teaching practice, development and reform of English teaching methods.

Radical Social Democracy and School Reform in Wilhelmian Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Olson, James M.

1977-01-01

The article describes how the German Social Democratic Party promoted educational reform in Germany before World War I. It demanded state support for a secularized school program, suggested curricular reforms to instill socialist values, and promoted adult education and socialist training in the home. (AV)

Emotions and elementary school science teaching: Postmodernism in practice

Science.gov (United States)

Zembylas, Michalinos

This is an ethnographic study about an elementary school teacher's emotions in her science teaching and pedagogy. This study is an interdisciplinary account of emotions in teaching and draws both methodologically and theoretically from a variety of disciplines: philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology, cultural studies and feminist studies. The account developed here is based on my understanding of the role of one teacher's (Catherine) emotions in her classroom life for three years. I describe my approach in terms of what I call emotional genealogies of teaching; referring to an account of the events, objects, persons and their relationships that are present or absent in the realization of emotions, and the ways that these emotions are experienced in relation to the self (individual reality), the others (social interactions) and the world in general (sociopolitical context). Applied to my study, an emotional genealogy of Catherine's science teaching seeks not to trace the gradual evolution of her emotions but to record the singularity of various events that make some emotions present and others absent. My study shows how certain emotions are constructed in the science classroom and how they are transformed over the years (as mediated by values, philosophies, beliefs and so on). Catherine's emotions in science teaching is a "history of the present," a history of her emotions' "presences and absences" in her daffy interactions with her students, parents and administrators in the context of the science classroom. This work raises important questions that go beyond the meaning and interpretation of teachers' emotions: How can teachers' emotions become a legitimate topic in (science) education as well as in efforts for science curricular reform? Further, how can educational institutions (universities and schools) and elementary school science teachers themselves support their personal and professional emotional growth?

Irrational Exuberance for Market-Based Reform: How Federal Turnaround Policies Thwart Democratic Schooling

Science.gov (United States)

Trujillo, Tina; Renée, Michelle

2015-01-01

Background: In 2009, the Obama Administration announced its intention to rapidly "turn around" 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. To do so, it relied on the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program to provide temporary funding for states and schools, and to mandate drastic, school-level reforms. Most of these reforms require…

The Influence of News Framing on Support for Charter School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Feuerstein, Abe

2015-01-01

This study examined the influence of media framing on attitudes toward charter school reform. Participants in an Internet-based experiment were presented, at random, with one of three manipulated news articles framing charter school reform as (a) supportive of values such as freedom, choice, and innovation; (b) conflicting with values such as…

It's Our School Too: Youth Activism as Educational Reform, 1951-1979

Science.gov (United States)

Ajunwa, Kelechi

2011-01-01

Activism has the potential for reform (Howard, 1976). Unlike previous studies on high school activism this study places a primary focus on underground newspapers and argues that underground newspapers allowed high school students to function as activists as well as educational reformers. In order to make this argument, this study examined over 150…

Creating a Comprehensive School Reform Model: The Talent Development High School with Career Academies.

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Will J.; McPartland, James M.; Legters, Nettie E.; Balfanz, Robert

2000-01-01

Discusses the need for comprehensive reforms in school organization, curriculum and instruction, and professional development to address the problems of large urban high schools. Describes the Talent Development High School with Career Academies model being developed to meet the needs of such schools. (SLD)

Arab Parents' Involvement in School Reform in Israel

Science.gov (United States)

Arar, Khalid; Abu-Asbah, Khaled; Nasra, Muhammed Abu

2014-01-01

Current research indicates that parental involvement positively influences children's academic success. This study investigates parental involvement in the Arab education system in Israel, highlighting involvement in the New Horizon reform. We interviewed school principals and parent committee chairpersons from 15 Arab schools. The study confirmed…

Reforms in VUmc School of Medical Sciences Amsterdam: Student engagement, a Minor elective semester and stakeholder collaboration in improving the quality of assessments.

Science.gov (United States)

Kusurkar, Rashmi A; Daelmans, Hester E; Horrevoets, Anton; de Haan, Marian; van der Meijde, Margreeth; Croiset, Gerda

2018-03-07

At VUmc School of Medical Sciences, major curricular reforms occurred in 2005 and 2015, related to the introduction of a Bachelor-Master structure, a new legislation from the Ministry of Education, the changing societal context, and taking note of students' and teachers' needs. Summary of work: Along with the introduction of the Bachelor-Master system, the period between 2005 and 2009 saw the movement from traditional lecture-based teaching to small group teaching in a competency-based curriculum, in which the students were responsible for their learning. Student engagement grew through students' designing learning modules and conducting some of the teaching. In the Bachelor program, an elective "Minor", was designed to broaden and deepen the knowledge of our students beyond the core learning outcomes, in a discipline of their choice. The examination board (EB), responsible for maintaining the quality of assessment, was split into the General EB, which handled overall strategy issues, and the Executive EB, which handled student requests and monitored the quality of assessments. Students develop a sense of what education is about if they are provided opportunities in designing teaching and conducting it. A Minor elective in the medical study can provide the students with an opportunity to learn outside the medical field. Collaborative working between different stakeholders in a medical school is crucial for safeguarding the quality of assessments. Curricular reforms need time to be accepted and integrated into the culture of the medical school. The educational vision needs to be refreshed regularly in alignment with the changing societal context.

Intersections between School Reform, the Arts, and Special Education: The Children Left Behind

Science.gov (United States)

Hourigan, Ryan M.

2014-01-01

Arts education and special education within public schools have faced similar challenges in the wake of school reform. Services and programming have been reduced, leaving a larger gap in resources and accessibility. Because of loopholes in policy, new reform initiatives such as vouchers and charter schools will continue to marginalize students…

Reform of experimental teaching based on quality cultivation

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wei; Yan, Xingwei; Liu, Wei; Yao, Tianfu; Shi, Jianhua; Lei, Bing; Hu, Haojun

2017-08-01

Experimental teaching plays an import part in quality education which devotes to cultivating students with innovative spirit, strong technological talents and practical ability. However, in the traditional experimental teaching mode, the experiments are treated as a vassal or supplementary mean of theoretical teaching, and students prefer focus on theory to practice. Therefore, the traditional experimental teaching mode is difficult to meet the requirements of quality education. To address this issue, the reform of experimental teaching is introduced in this paper taking the photoelectric detector experiment as the example. The new experimental teaching mode is designed from such aspects as experimental content, teaching method and experimental evaluation. With the purpose of cultivating students' practical ability, two different-level experimental content is designed. Not only the basic experiments used to verify the theory are set to consolidate the students' learned theoretical knowledge, but also comprehensive experiments are designed to encourage the students to apply their learned knowledge to solve practical problems. In the teaching process, heuristic teaching thought is adopt and the traditional `teacher-centered' teaching form is replaced by `student-centered' form, which aims to encourage students to design the experimental systems by their own with the teacher's guidance. In addition to depending on stimulating the students' interest of science research, experimental evaluation is necessary to urge students to complete the experiments efficiently. Multifaceted evaluation method is proposed to test the students' mastery of theoretical knowledge, practice ability, troubleshooting and problem solving skills, and innovation capability comprehensively. Practices demonstrated the satisfying effect of our experimental teaching mode.

Comprehensive School Reform and Standardized Test Scores in Illinois Elementary and Middle Schools

Science.gov (United States)

McEnroe, James D.

2010-01-01

The study examined the effects of the federally funded Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program on student performance on mandated standardized tests. The study focused on the mathematics and reading scores of Illinois public elementary and middle and junior high school students. The federal CSR program provided Illinois schools with an annual…

Use of a policy debate to teach residents about health care reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Vu Q C; Hirsch, Mark A

2011-09-01

Resident education involves didactics and pedagogic strategies using a variety of tools and technologies in order to improve critical thinking skills. Debating is used in educational settings to improve critical thinking skills, but there have been no reports of its use in residency education. The present paper describes the use of debate to teach resident physicians about health care reform. We aimed to describe the method of using a debate in graduate medical education. Second-year through fourth-year physical medicine and rehabilitation residents participated in a moderated policy debate in which they deliberated whether the United States has one of the "best health care system(s) in the world." Following the debate, the participants completed an unvalidated open-ended questionnaire about health care reform. Although residents expressed initial concerns about participating in a public debate on health care reform, all faculty and residents expressed that the debate was robust, animated, and enjoyed by all. Components of holding a successful debate on health care reform were noted to be: (1) getting "buy-in" from the resident physicians; (2) preparing the debate; and (3) follow-up. The debate facilitated the study of a large, complex topic like health care reform. It created an active learning process. It encouraged learners to keenly attend to an opposing perspective while enthusiastically defending their position. We conclude that the use of debates as a teaching tool in resident education is valuable and should be explored further.

Evaluation of Undergraduate Teaching at Institutions of Higher Education in China: Problems and Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Yukun, Chen

2009-01-01

This paper reviews the achievements of the first cycle of undergraduate teaching evaluation at institutions of higher education in China. Existing problems are identified, and suggestions are made for corresponding reforms for improving the standard and quality of China's undergraduate teaching evaluation.

Educational Management Organizations as High Reliability Organizations: A Study of Victory's Philadelphia High School Reform Work

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, David E.

2013-01-01

This executive position paper proposes recommendations for designing reform models between public and private sectors dedicated to improving school reform work in low performing urban high schools. It reviews scholarly research about for-profit educational management organizations, high reliability organizations, American high school reform, and…

Advances in Schoolwide Inclusive School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Sailor, Wayne

2015-01-01

This article highlights three significant advances in schoolwide inclusive school reform and suggests three next steps to improve educational outcomes for "all" students, particularly for students for whom typical instruction is not effective. Significant advances are as follows: (a) a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) with embedded…

Putting "The System" into a School Autonomy Reform: The Case of the Independent Public Schools Program

Science.gov (United States)

Gobby, Brad

2016-01-01

The Australian Federal and state governments have been introducing neoliberal reforms to the governance of their education systems for a number of decades. One of the most recent programs of reform is the Western Australian Independent Public Schools (IPS) initiative. Similar to decentralizing reforms around the world, the IPS program seeks…

A Broader and Bolder Approach to School Reform: Expanded Partnership Roles for School Counselors

Science.gov (United States)

Steen, Sam; Noguera, Pedro A.

2010-01-01

This article describes a broader, bolder approach to education reform aimed at addressing the social and economic disadvantages that hinder student achievement. Central principles of this approach to reform include the provision of supports such as early childhood and preschool programs, after-school and summer enrichment programs, parent…

Schooling Reforms in England: From Quasi-Markets to Co-Opetition?

Science.gov (United States)

Adnett, Nick; Davies, Peter

2003-01-01

Economic analysis of the impact of recent schooling reforms in England designed to promote competition or cooperation between schools. Outlines the theoretical relationships between school competition and cooperation and school effectiveness. Briefly describes the development of policy in England and analyzes the interaction between the incentives…

School Sector and Student Achievement in the Era of Standards Based Reforms

Science.gov (United States)

Carbonaro, William; Covay, Elizabeth

2010-01-01

The authors examine whether standards based accountability reforms of the past two decades have closed the achievement gap among public and private high school students. They analyzed data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) to examine sector differences in high school achievement in the era of standards based reforms. The authors found…

Reformed Teaching and Learning in Science Education: A Comparative Study of Turkish and US Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Ozfidan, Burhan; Cavlazoglu, Baki; Burlbaw, Lynn; Aydin, Hasan

2017-01-01

Achievements of educational reform advantage constructivist understandings of teaching and learning, and therefore highlight a shift in beliefs of teachers and apply these perceptions to the real world. Science teachers' beliefs have been crucial in understanding and reforming science education as beliefs of teachers regarding learning and…

Teachers’ Working Conditions Amid Swedish School Choice Reform: Avenues for Further Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karolina Åsa Parding

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Since the 1990s, governance changes, including customer choice agendas, have permeated the public sector and, consequently, welfare sector professionals’ work. One example is the education sector. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss avenues for further research when it comes to teachers’ working conditions in the light of current choice agendas. This is accomplished by presenting an overview of previous studies on implications of the reforms for teachers’ working conditions. How are these conditions described in relation to the current school choice agenda in Sweden? What directions should be applied to increase knowledge of these conditions? We conclude by identifying some avenues for further research: the issues of organization of work, temporal and spatial dimensions of working conditions, and finally comparative studies of various forms, are suggested as warranting further investigation to highlight the diversified labor market in which teachers find themselves today.Keywords: Competition, governance change, privatization, professional work, school choice, Sweden, teaching profession, working conditions

9 Hard Things to Do in Order to Sustain School Reform. Newsletter

Science.gov (United States)

Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, 2005

2005-01-01

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement invited Ann Chafin to share her thoughts and ideas about sustaining school reform. Chafin, chief of Program Improvement and Family Support Branch of the Maryland State Department of Education, was a speaker at the annual Institute for CSR State Coordinators held May 9-10 in Washington,…

Teaching medicine and allied disciplines in the 21st century--lessons from Ireland on the continuing need for reform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McMahon, Tim

2005-01-01

This article identifies the imperatives behind the need to move away from teaching based on the transmission of a lot of facts to teaching that enables students to become lifelong learners. It reminds us that the over-riding goal is an education process that maximizes the ability of teachers to teach well and of students to learn effectively. It argues that the necessary reform process can only be successful if the three components of an education programme--the curriculum, teaching strategies and assessment--are reformed simultaneously to ensure that each is designed to produce more effective teaching and learning. It points to the literature that tells us what we know about factors affecting student behaviour and, in particular, notes the crucial factor of student perception of the requirement of the assessment regime. It recommends that Biggs' model of constructive alignment is used as the organizing principle of continuing reform

Americans aim to overhaul science teaching by 2061

CERN Document Server

1990-01-01

Project 2061 is a long-term initiative by the AAAS to reform classroom science. Deputy director Walter Gillespie claims that the aim is for schools to teach less content but teach it better (1/2 page).

"Turnaround" as Shock Therapy: Race, Neoliberalism, and School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Amanda Walker

2013-01-01

"Turnaround" strategies of educational reform promise that school closure, reconstitution, privatizing, and reopening them will bring miraculous results. Questioning the implications, this article situates "turnaround" strategies locally, following the closure of a predominantly minority high school in 2008, in Austin, Texas.…

The Potential of Systems Thinking in Teacher Reform as Theorized for the Teaching Brain Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez, Vanessa

2013-01-01

The teaching brain is a dynamic system that is in constant interaction with the learning brain. If we fail to explore the teaching brain we will continue to design educational reform policies that ignore the most important lens in the classroom: the teachers'. Master teachers recognize their perspective and leverage their teaching brains to embody…

Statistical Reform in School Psychology Research: A Synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Swaminathan, Hariharan; Rogers, H. Jane

2007-01-01

Statistical reform in school psychology research is discussed in terms of research designs, measurement issues, statistical modeling and analysis procedures, interpretation and reporting of statistical results, and finally statistics education.

Nuevo enfoque de la ensenanza de las matematicas en el nivel de primaria (A New Approach to the Teaching of Mathematics at the Primary School Level).

Science.gov (United States)

Jimenez Lozano, Blanca; And Others

This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1500 words) of a new approach to the teaching of mathematics in Mexican elementary schools. Three aspects of mathematical reform are discussed: (1) syllabus content; (2) teaching methods; and (3) the question of introducing the pupil to modern mathematics at the earliest possible stage…

The single most important education reform in developing country

Science.gov (United States)

Orija, O.

2007-05-01

I deciding teaching as peer educator and working with NGOs in my country, as method to need to consider students' background knowledge, environment, and their learning goals as well as standardized curriculum as determined by their school district. Strengthening relationships among students and adults, Improving engagement, alignment and rigor of teaching and learning in every classroom, every day. My single most reform achieves is the rural school and community trust is a national non-profit organization addressing the crucial relationship between good schools and thriving communities. Our mission is to help rural schools and communities get better together. Working in some of the poorest, most challenging places, the rural trust involves young people in learning linked to their communities, improves the quality of teaching and school leadership, and advocates in a variety of ways for appropriate state educational policies, including the key issue of equitable and national agenda (serve Peer Educator) where rural people and their issues are visible and credible for rural schools.

Profile of laboratory instruction in secondary school level chemistry and indication for reform

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Mei

This study is a profile of the laboratory component of instruction in secondary school level chemistry. As one of several companion studies, the purpose of the study is to investigate present practices related to instruction as a means of producing reform that improve cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes. Five hundred-forty students, from 18 chemistry classes taught by 12 teachers in ten high schools were involved in this study. Three schools included public and private schools, urban school, suburban schools, and rural schools. Three levels or types of chemistry courses were offered in these schools: school regular chemistry for college bound students, Chemistry in the Community or "ChemCom" for non-college bound students, and a second year of chemistry or advanced placement chemistry. Laboratory sessions in each of these three levels of courses were observed, videotaped, and later analyzed using the Modified Revised Science Teachers Behaviors Inventory (MR-STBI). The 12 chemistry teachers, eight science supervisors, and selected students were interviewed to determine their professional backgrounds and other factors that might influence how they teach, how they think, and how they learn. The following conclusions developed from the research are: (1) The three levels of chemistry courses are offered across high schools of varying sizes and locations. (2) Teachers perceive that students come to chemistry classes poorly prepared to effectively carry out laboratory experiences and/or investigations. (3) While students indicated that they are able to effectively use math skills in analyzing the results of chemistry laboratory experiments, teachers, in general, are not satisfied with the level at which students are prepared to use these skills, or to use writing skills. (4) Students working in pairs, is the typical approach. Group cooperation is sometimes used in carrying out the laboratory component of chemistry instruction in the ChemCom and AP chemistry

Sacred Choices: Adolescent Relationships and Sexual Ethics--The Reform Movement's Response to the Need for Faith-Based Sexuality Education

Science.gov (United States)

Winer, Rabbi Laura Novak

2011-01-01

"Sacred Choices: Adolescent Relationships and Sexual Ethics" is a sexual ethics curriculum for middle school and high school students developed by the Union for Reform Judaism. Sacred Choices strives to teach Reform Jewish teens that their bodies are gifts from God and that Judaism provides relevant guidance on how to use and care for that gift…

Jump-Starting Educational Reform. Implementing British Columbia's Comprehensive School Act.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldman, Paul

An educational reform effort to implement a comprehensive school act in British Columbia (Canada) is analyzed with a focus on some sociotechnical and political aspects. An overview of the content, background, and implementation of the reform effort is followed by identification of seven contradictions inherent in the plan. Contradictions are as…

Exploration on teaching reform of theory curriculum for engineering specialties

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yan; Shen, Wei-min; Shen, Chang-yu; Li, Chen-xia; Jing, Xu-feng; Lou, Jun; Shi, Yan; Jin, Shang-zhong

2017-08-01

The orientation of talents cultivation for local colleges is to train engineering application-oriented talents, so the exploration and practice on teaching reform of theory curriculum was carried out. We restructured the knowledge units basing on numerical solution problems, and chose the software to build algorithm models for improving the analytical and designed ability. Relying on micro video lessons platform, the teacher-student interaction was expanded from class to outside. Also, we programmed new experimental homework, which was suited for process evaluation. The new teaching mode has achieved good effect, and the students' application ability was significantly improved.

Quality Reform: Personality Type, Preferred Learning Style and Majors in a Business School

Science.gov (United States)

Fallan, Lars

2006-01-01

The quality reform of higher education in Norway has generally recommended a substitution of classroom teaching with more active forms of learning in higher education. This study reveals that ignoring the student's personality type may be in conflict with the purpose of the reform. The student's personality type affects both the most effective…

Democratic School Leadership Reforms in Kenya: Cultural and Historical Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Jwan, Julius; Anderson, Lesley; Bennett, Nigel

2010-01-01

In this article we discuss students', teachers' and school principals' perceptions of democratic school leadership reforms in Kenya. The article is based on a study that was conducted in two phases. In phase one (conducted between September and December 2007), interviews were undertaken with 12 school principals in which understandings of…

The College Science Learning Cycle: An Instructional Model for Reformed Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Withers, Michelle

2016-01-01

Finding the time for developing or locating new class materials is one of the biggest barriers for instructors reforming their teaching approaches. Even instructors who have taken part in training workshops may feel overwhelmed by the task of transforming passive lecture content to engaging learning activities. Learning cycles have been…

Moral education and values education in curriculum reform In China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhu Xiaoman

2006-01-01

In the new curriculum reform in China,moral education and values education have been defined from the angles of the integrity and conformity of curriculum functions.Accordingly, a new education concept based on complete/integral curriculum functions is established.By discussing the essences of the curriculum,the basis of moral and values education,integrated curriculum setting in instruction structure,the presence of emotional and attitudinal goals in the subject standards,and teaching methods,this text points out that this curriculum reform looks to moral and values education in schools.The reform also emphasizes and will guarantee moral and values education in schools.Finally,the article recommends to elementary and secondary schools the studies on moral education in class conducted by the Research Institute of Moral Education of Nanjing Normal University,one of the Key Bases for Humanities and Social Sciences Research for the Ministry of Education.

New York City's Children First: Lessons in School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Kelleher, Maureen

2014-01-01

Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City's education system embarked on a massive change effort, known as Children First, that produced significant results: new and better school options for families, more college-ready graduates, and renewed public confidence in New York City's schools. New York City's reform effort has also produced…

Making Good Choices: Districts Take the Lead. Comprehensive School Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL.

Public schools across the country are aiming to improve student performance by engaging in comprehensive school reform (CSR). This guide was created to help school districts make CSR an integral part of their strategies for improving student achievement. Five components for CSR are described: (1) Strategizing, whereby the district supports CSR by…

Multicultural Music Education in Singapore Primary Schools: An Analysis of the Applications of a Specialist Professional Development in Practical Music Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Costes-Onishi, Pamela; Lum, Chee Hoo

2015-01-01

Multicultural music education is often approached simply through the exposure of students to different world musics. This "cultural supermarket" approach to teaching diversity in the classrooms is re-examined in this study by drawing attention to the need for a broader curriculum reform. Using the Singapore primary school music teachers…

Fast Capitalism, School Reform, and Second Language Literacy Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Gebhard, Meg

2004-01-01

This 2-year qualitative study explores the ironies of educational reform in the United States as experienced by three second language learners attending a school attempting to transform itself into a high-performance elementary school in California's Silicon Valley. Drawing on the concept of fast capitalism in a globalized economic work order…

Case study of science teaching in an elementary school: Characteristics of an exemplary science teacher

Science.gov (United States)

Kao, Huey-Lien

Improving the quality of science teaching is one of the greatest concerns in recent science education reform efforts. Many science educators suggest that case studies of exemplary science teachers may provide guidance for these reform efforts. For this reason, the characteristics of exemplary science teaching practices have been identified in recent years. However, the literature lacks research exploring exemplary teacher beliefs about the nature of science and science pedagogy, the relationships between their beliefs and practices, or how outstanding teachers overcome difficulties in order to facilitate their students' science learning. In this study, Sam-Yu, an identified exemplary science teacher who teaches in an elementary school in Pintung, Taiwan, was the subject. An interpretative research design (Erickson, 1986) based on principles of naturalistic inquiry (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) was used. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in this case study. The qualitative method involved conducting interviews with the teacher and students, observing classroom activities and analyzing the structure of the learning materials. The quantitative methods involved using the Learning Climate Inventory (LCI) (Lin, 1997) instrument to assess the learning environment of the exemplary science classroom. This study found that Sam-Yu had a blend of views on the nature of science and a varied knowledge about science pedagogy. Personal preferences, past experiences, and the national science curriculum all played important roles in the development and refinement of Sam-Yu's beliefs about science and pedagogy. Regarding his teaching practices, Sam-Yu provided the best learning experiences, as evidenced in both classroom observations and the survey results, for his students by using a variety of strategies. In addition, his classroom behaviors were highly associated with his beliefs about science and pedagogy. However, due to school-based and socio-cultural constraints

Improving Public Education through Comprehensive School Reform: An Issue Brief from the International Reading Association.

Science.gov (United States)

International Reading Association, Newark, DE.

The Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program is a new initiative that could affect International Reading Association members in the United States--but will benefit only those who take advantage of it. The purpose of the CSR initiative is to provide financial incentives for schools to develop comprehensive school reforms. Funding is available to…

Teaching Reform of Course Group Regarding Theory and Design of Mechanisms Based on MATLAB Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Yi; Yuan, Mingxin; Wang, Mingqiang

2013-01-01

Considering that the course group regarding theory and design of mechanisms is characterized by strong engineering application background and the students generally feel very boring and tedious during the learning process, some teaching reforms for the theory and design of mechanisms are carried out to improve the teaching effectiveness in this…

Reforming the University Sector: Effects on Teaching Efficiency--Evidence from Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Agasisti, Tommaso; Dal Bianco, Antonio

2009-01-01

In this article, we analyse the effects of teaching reforms in Italy. These were introduced in 1999, and changed the entire organization of university courses, where the Bachelor-Master (BA-MA) structure was adopted. The first step is to define the production process of higher education (HE). This process consists of several inputs (professors,…

California teachers' perceptions of standards-based reform in middle school science: A mixed-methods study

Science.gov (United States)

Leggett, Allison Gail Wilson

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 presented one of the most significant and comprehensive literacy reforms in many years (McDonnell, 2005; U.S. Department of Education, 2006). The era of school accountability and standards based reform has brought many challenges and changes to public schools. Increasingly, public officials and educational administrators are asked to use standards based assessments to make high-stakes decisions, such as whether a student will move on to the next grade level or receive a diploma (American Psychological Association, 2005). It is important to understand any shifts in teachers' perceptions and to identify the changes teachers are making as they implement standards-based reform. This mixed-methods study was designed to assess teachers' perceptions of changes related to standards-based reform as supported by Fullan's (2001) change theory and transformational leadership theory. Survey questions sought to identify teacher perceptions of changes in curriculum, instruction and daily practice as schools documented and incorporated standards-based reform and began focusing on preparing students for the California Standards Test in Science (CSTS). Using descriptive statistical analysis and in-depth interviews, results show favorable insight towards standards-based reform. The survey was distributed to 30 middle school science teachers from 10 low-performing schools in Los Angeles, California. Results were analyzed using Spearman rank-ordered correlations. Interviews were conducted on middle school teachers represented by each grade level. Teachers who receive more support from administrators have more positive attitudes toward all aspects of SBR and the CSTS as measured in this study. No school should overlook the potential of a supportive administration in its effort to improve school programs.

Conceptualizing Teaching to the Test under Standards-Based Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Welsh, Megan E.; Eastwood, Melissa; D'Agostino, Jerome V.

2014-01-01

Teacher and school accountability systems based on high-stakes tests are ubiquitous throughout the United States and appear to be growing as a catalyst for reform. As a result, educators have increased the proportion of instructional time devoted to test preparation. Although guidelines for what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate test…

Exploration on practice teaching reform of Photoelectric Image Processing course under applied transformation

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Binfang; Li, Xiaoqin; Liu, Changqing; Li, Jianqi

2017-08-01

With the further applied transformation of local colleges, teachers are urgently needed to make corresponding changes in the teaching content and methods from different courses. The article discusses practice teaching reform of the Photoelectric Image Processing course in the Optoelectronic Information Science and Engineering major. The Digital Signal Processing (DSP） platform is introduced to the experimental teaching. It will mobilize and inspire students and also enhance their learning motivation and innovation through specific examples. The course via teaching practice process has become the most popular course among students, which will further drive students' enthusiasm and confidence to participate in all kinds of electronic competitions.

Comprehensive Reform for Urban High Schools: A Talent Development Approach. Sociology of Education Series.

Science.gov (United States)

Legters, Nettie E.; Balfanz, Robert; Jordan, Will J.; McPartland, James M.

This book offers an alternative to current reform efforts, the talent development approach, detailing organizational, curricular, and instructional strategies that provide practitioners with a blueprint for whole school reform. The book presents the story of what happened in urban high schools when this approach was implemented. There are eight…

A Critical Analysis of The Holmes Group's Proposals for Reforming Teacher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawley, Willis D.

1986-01-01

The Holmes Group proposals for reforming teacher education are evaluated by looking at the effects on teacher knowledge and competence, attraction and retention of talented teachers, organization of schools and the teaching profession, and cost effectiveness. (MT)

The practice of problem-based investigative teaching reform in semiconductor physics course

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Aiping; Wu, Gaojian; Gu, Dawei; Jiang, Hongying; Wang, Lei

2017-08-01

Semiconductor physics is an important basic course for the students of the majors of applied physics, optoelectronics, and microelectronics. The authors have been carrying out investigative-teaching reform in semiconductor physics teaching. Firstly, the teaching content was re-structured based on scientific problems. Secondly, the students were placed in groups to discuss different scientific problems and to present a few short science-reports. Thirdly, micro-lesson videos were produced for the students to study and analyze before or after class. With comparative analysis, we find out that the semiconductor-physics curriculum content was greatly enriched. In addition, the students' learning motivation and scientific thinking ability increased, and their innovation ability was improved. Overall, the teaching quality of the semiconductor physics course could be significantly improved.

Examining The Beliefs Of Prospective Elementary And Science Teachers Regarding Reformed Science Teaching And Learning

OpenAIRE

KARAMAN, Ayhan; KARAMAN, Pınar

2014-01-01

Turkey following the footsteps of western education system is nowadays struggling to implement constructivist paradigm in its schools. The success of the integration of constructivist elements into the schools is heavily contingent upon the support of teachers. This necessitates that the ideas advocated in constructivist reform movements should be promoted adequately in the preparation of teacher candidates. Therefore, investigating the beliefs of prospective teachers regarding reformed scien...

Reform-Oriented Teaching of Introductory Statistics in the Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences--Historical Context and Rationale

Science.gov (United States)

Hassad, Rossi A.

2009-01-01

There is widespread emphasis on reform in the teaching of introductory statistics at the college level. Underpinning this reform is a consensus among educators and practitioners that traditional curricular materials and pedagogical strategies have not been effective in promoting statistical literacy, a competency that is becoming increasingly…

Experience in the modular teaching of the integrated course of metabolism and energy

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Jian HUANG; Qian LI; Xue-mei TONG; Rong YANG; Ping ZHANG

2015-01-01

The teaching of eight-year clinical medicine program of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine was reformed since 2009 to replace the traditional teaching model with modular teaching. As one of reformed courses,the metabolism and energy course combines biochemistry and physiology related knowledge points and endeavors to overcome shortcomings of traditional basic medical knowledge education,such as simple learning contents,isolation between basic medicine and clinical medicine,simple teaching methods of teachers,and passive learning methods of students. After 6 years of teaching practice,the new teaching model has been recognized by both teachers and students and the teaching quality improves comprehensively,but there are still some shortcomings that need to be overcome. This paper summarizes the gain and loss of the modular teaching of integrated course of metabolism and energy,so as to provide reference for extending the reform of modular teaching and further improving the teaching quality.

Cutting through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform. Revised, Expanded, and Updated Edition

Science.gov (United States)

David, Jane L.; Cuban, Larry

2010-01-01

"Cutting Through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform" is a revised, expanded, and updated version of the classic work by Jane L. David and Larry Cuban. It offers balanced analyses of 23 currently popular school reform strategies, from teacher performance pay and putting mayors in charge to turnaround schools and data-driven instruction.…

Authority, Religion, and Women Writers in the Italian Counter-Reformation: Teaching Diodata Malvasia’s Histories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shannon McHugh

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Recent decades have seen the rediscovery of a significant number of texts authored by Italian women between 1560 and 1630. And yet the commonplace that the Counter-Reformation silenced women writers has persisted. One figure useful for teaching a more nuanced vision of post-Tridentine Italy is the Bolognese nun Diodata Malvasia (c. 1532–post-1617. She authored a pair of histories recounting her convent’s efforts to maintain their way of life amidst an era of convent reform, employing strategies that capitalized on their education, familial and civic connections, and position of spiritual privilege. Malvasia’s writings demonstrate the ways in which women not only published in this period but began to speak with increasing authority. I offer some possibilities for how Malvasia’s chronicles can be used to teach students about women writers’ agency in post-Tridentine Italy, as well as the complex thinking with which one must approach a regime like the Counter-Reformation.

Standards, Accountability, and School Reform: Perils and Pitfalls.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheldon, Kennon M.; Biddle, Bruce J.

1998-01-01

Examines current debates about educational standards, accountability, and school reform from the perspective of Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory. Research reveals various perils associated with rigid standards, narrow accountability, and tangible sanctions that can debase student and teacher motivation and performance. Alternative…

New Directions in Education? A Critique of Contemporary Policy Reforms

Science.gov (United States)

Skourdoumbis, Andrew

2016-01-01

This paper draws on facets of Foucault's theoretical resources to critique current education policy reform from within the Australian State of Victoria, namely the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development's (DEECD) discussion paper "New directions for school leadership and the teaching profession." Implicit in the reform…

Reform of Medium Education and Physical education: an abyss for the future

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robson dos Santos Bastos

2017-09-01

Full Text Available It develops analyzes on the reform of secondary education proposed by Provisional Measure . 746, now Law 13.415/17, and its implications in the future of Physical Education. Part of the following scientific question: What are the perspectives for the future of Physical Education in the face of the reform of secondary education proposed by the new educational policy? As methodological strategy a documentary study was developed, having as a source of analysis the texts of the MP and the law that ratifies it, besides the notes published by different entities related to education and Physical Education. The study indicates that the reform of high school will imply significantly in Physical Education in three fields: in its teaching in basic education, in teacher training and in teaching work.

Deciding Who Decides Questions at the Intersection of School Finance Reform Litigation and Standards-Based Accountability Policies

Science.gov (United States)

Superfine, Benjamin Michael

2009-01-01

Courts hearing school finance reform cases have recently begun to consider several issues related to standards-based accountability policies. This convergence of school finance reform litigation and standards-based accountability policies represents a chance for the courts to reallocate decision-making authority for each type of reform across the…

The Need for District Support for School Reform: What the Researchers Say. Research Brief.

Science.gov (United States)

Appelbaum, Deborah

This article focuses on the school district's role in implementing Comprehensive School Reform (CSR). Research shows that effective district support for CSR varies from district to district. This is due, in part, to the fact that many prior models bypassed the district, operating under the belief that reform would be more effective if it targeted…

Education Inputs, Student Performance and School Finance Reform in Michigan

Science.gov (United States)

Chaudhary, Latika

2009-01-01

This paper estimates the impact of the Michigan school finance reform, "Proposal A," on education inputs and test scores. Using a difference-in-difference estimation strategy, I find that school districts in Michigan used the increase in educational spending generated through "Proposal A" to increase teacher salaries and reduce…

Leadership practices and inclusive education reform in primary schools in Bangladesh

OpenAIRE

Mullick, Jahirul

2017-01-01

This study was undertaken to investigate leadership practices for Inclusive Education (IE) reform in primary schools in Bangladesh. Specifically, the study investigated leadership practice structures, views of school leaders about the accountability approach in primary schools, school leaders’ opinions on challenges to implementing IE and possible strategies to address the identified challenges. The study also explored the relationships between school variables, teachers’ demographic variabl...

Converging Paths or Ships Passing in the Night? An "English" Critique of Japanese School Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Andy

2000-01-01

Examines origins and potential effects of liberalizing reforms in Japanese secondary education in light of British experiences with policies such as local school management and school choice. Argues that Japanese reform involves necessary diversification of curriculum and pedagogic practices, but administrative shifts toward deregulation and…

School Stakeholders' Experience with Navigating ICT Policy Reforms in Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes, Vicente Chua, Jr.; Kheng, Catherine Chua Siew

2015-01-01

Using qualitative research inquiry methods, this inquiry attempts to explore how school stakeholders cope with incessant and seemingly endless transformations in schools. The central phenomenon to be studied focuses on how school stakeholders "make sense" of educational reform. In order to do this, an exploratory case study of two target…

Tensions between Teaching Sexuality Education and Neoliberal Policy Reform in Quebec's Professional Competencies for Beginning Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Dan; McGray. Robert

2015-01-01

This research draws into question the effects that neoliberal policy reforms--with an emphasis on individual and measurable "competencies"--has on new teachers teaching sexuality education in Quebec. While we examine professional competencies that teachers can use to define their mandate for teaching sexuality education as a beginning…

Calls for reform of medical education by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: 1910 and 2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Irby, David M; Cooke, Molly; O'Brien, Bridget C

2010-02-01

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which in 1910 helped stimulate the transformation of North American medical education with the publication of the Flexner Report, has a venerated place in the history of American medical education. Within a decade following Flexner's report, a strong scientifically oriented and rigorous form of medical education became well established; its structures and processes have changed relatively little since. However, the forces of change are again challenging medical education, and new calls for reform are emerging. In 2010, the Carnegie Foundation will issue another report, Educating Physicians: A Call for Reform of Medical School and Residency, that calls for (1) standardizing learning outcomes and individualizing the learning process, (2) promoting multiple forms of integration, (3) incorporating habits of inquiry and improvement, and (4) focusing on the progressive formation of the physician's professional identity. The authors, who wrote the 2010 Carnegie report, trace the seeds of these themes in Flexner's work and describe their own conceptions of them, addressing the prior and current challenges to medical education as well as recommendations for achieving excellence. The authors hope that the new report will generate the same excitement about educational innovation and reform of undergraduate and graduate medical education as the Flexner Report did a century ago.

Teachers' Innovative Change within Countrywide Reform: A Case Study in Rwanda

Science.gov (United States)

Uworwabayeho, Alphonse

2009-01-01

This article presents practical perspectives on mathematics teacher change through results of collaborative research with two mathematics secondary school teachers in order to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in Rwanda. The 2006 national mathematics curriculum reform stresses pedagogies that enhance problem-solving, critical…

Equitable science education in urban middle schools: Do reform efforts make a difference?

Science.gov (United States)

Hewson, Peter W.; Butler Kahle, Jane; Scantlebury, Kathryn; Davies, Darleen

2001-12-01

A central commitment of current reforms in science education is that all students, regardless of culture, gender, race, and/ or socioeconomic status, are capable of understanding and doing science. The study Bridging the Gap: Equity in Systemic Reform assessed equity in systemic reform using a nested research design that drew on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. As part of the study, case studies were conducted in two urban middle schools in large Ohio cities. The purpose of the case studies was to identify factors affecting equity in urban science education reform. Data were analyzed using Kahle's (1998) equity metric. That model allowed us to assess progress toward equity using a range of research-based indicators grouped into three categories critical for equitable education: access to, retention in, and achievement in quality science education. In addition, a fourth category was defined for systemic indicators of equity. Analyses indicated that the culture and climate of the case study schools differentially affected their progress toward equitable reform in science education.

High School Diversification against Educational Equality: A Critical Analysis of Neoliberal Education Reform in South Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Jeongran

2011-01-01

Recent reforms of high school education in Korea have focused on transforming the uniform and standardized system into a deregulated and diversified system that has an emphasis on school choice and competition. Situating the high school diversification policy in the context of the recent controversy of the neoliberal educational reform, this study…

Implementing Marzano's Model: The Reality of Educational Leadership and School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Keaveny, Stacy M.

2013-01-01

Federal and state guidelines for school reform dominate the landscape of public education. Florida and its school districts, as a Race to the Top state, are in the process of fully implementing a value-added model of teacher evaluation. Effective school leaders are calling upon the theoretical framework of transformational, visionary and…

School Performance, Accountability and Waiver Reforms: Evidence from Louisiana. CEPA Working Paper No. 17-06

Science.gov (United States)

Dee, Thomas; Dizon-Ross, Elise

2017-01-01

States that received federal waivers to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act were required to implement reforms in designated "Focus Schools" that contribute to achievement gaps. In this study, we examine the performance effects of such "differentiated accountability" reforms in the state of Louisiana. The Focus School reforms…

The effects of professional development on science teaching practices and classroom culture

Science.gov (United States)

Supovitz, Jonathan A.; Turner, Herbert M.

2000-11-01

The current science education reform movement emphasizes the importance of professional development as a means of improving student science achievement. Reformers have developed a vision for professional development based upon intensive and sustained training around concrete tasks that is focused on subject-matter knowledge, connected to specific standards for student performance, and embedded in a systemic context. Using data from a National Science Foundation Teacher Enhancement program called the Local Systemic Change initiative, this study employs hierarchical linear modeling to examine the relationship between professional development and the reformers' vision of teaching practice. The findings indicate that the quantity of professional development in which teachers participate is strongly linked with both inquiry-based teaching practice and investigative classroom culture. At the individual level, teachers' content preparation also has a powerful influence on teaching practice and classroom culture. At the school level, school socioeconomic status was found to influence practice more substantially than either principal supportiveness or available resources.

School Finance and Courts: Does Reform Matter, and How Can We Tell?

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Bruce D.; Welner, Kevin G.

2011-01-01

Background/Context: School finance litigation has often prompted funding reforms, but what happens as a result is the subject of considerable dispute. Purpose: This article explores design problems encountered in studies examining the nature and effects of those reforms. Analysis: After describing the development and current status of school…

Negotiating Tensions: Grassroots Organizing, School Reform, and the Paradox of Neoliberal Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Nygreen, Kysa

2017-01-01

Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork at a community-based organization (CBO) engaged in parent organizing for urban school reform, this paper examines how organizers engaged with the imperatives of neoliberal reform and the broader neoliberal policy context. It highlights organizers' agency but also shows how hegemonic discourse constrained their…

Reviews Website: Online Graphing Calculator Video Clip: Learning From the News Phone App: Graphing Calculator Book: Challenge and Change: A History of the Nuffield A-Level Physics Project Book: SEP Sound Book: Reinventing Schools, Reforming Teaching Book: Physics and Technology for Future Presidents iPhone App: iSeismometer Web Watch

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

WE RECOMMEND Online Graphing Calculator Calculator plots online graphs Challenge and Change: A History of the Nuffield A-Level Physics Project Book delves deep into the history of Nuffield physics SEP Sound Booklet has ideas for teaching sound but lacks some basics Reinventing Schools, Reforming Teaching Fascinating book shows how politics impacts on the classroom Physics and Technology for Future Presidents A great book for teaching physics for the modern world iSeismometer iPhone app teaches students about seismic waves WORTH A LOOK Teachers TV Video Clip Lesson plan uses video clip to explore new galaxies Graphing Calculator App A phone app that handles formulae and graphs WEB WATCH Physics.org competition finds the best websites

Multisite Case Study of Florida's Millennium High School Reform Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carol A. Mullen

2002-10-01

Full Text Available This study should have immediate utility for the United States and beyond its borders. School-to-work approaches to comprehensive reform are increasingly expected of schools while legislative funding for this purpose gets pulled back. This multisite case study launches the first analysis of the New Millennium High School (NMHS model in Florida. This improvement program relies upon exemplary leadership for preparing students for postsecondary education

School Reform and the Emotional Demands of Principals: Lorna's Story

Science.gov (United States)

Mills, Martin; Niesche, Richard

2014-01-01

The issue of emotions in school leadership is one that has received increasing attention in recent years. In this paper we present a case study of the emotional demands upon one principal as she undertakes a programme of school reform. This case study works against the common discourse of "emotional maturity" inherent in an individual…

Toward an Understanding of How Teachers Change during School Reform: Considerations for Educational Leadership and School Improvement

Science.gov (United States)

Kaniuka, Theodore Stefan

2012-01-01

As the concept of distributed leadership and its concomitant organizational structures become more prevalent in schools, studying how teacher capacity can be enhanced and can be used as a catalyst for reform is important. This article documents the nature of how the implementation of a research-validated reform influenced what teachers thought…

Educational Partnership and the Dilemmas of School Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Seeley, David

Today's educational reform proposals are undermined by four dilemmas. First, the public may demand visible results before it will provide the funding needed to achieve them. Second, higher academic standards will increase failure rates, while more attainable standards will inadequately educate students. Third, the current focus on high schools may…

Comprehensive School Reform and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Borman, Geoffrey D.; Hewes, Gina M.; Overman, Laura T.; Brown, Shelly

2003-01-01

This meta-analysis reviews research on the achievement effects of comprehensive school reform (CSR) and summarizes the specific effects of 29 widely implemented models. There are limitations on the overall quantity and quality of the research base, but the overall effects of CSR appear promising. The combined quantity, quality, and statistical…

Developing geogebra-assisted reciprocal teaching strategy to improve junior high school students’ abstraction ability, lateral thinking and mathematical persistence

Science.gov (United States)

Priatna, N.; Martadiputra, B. A. P.; Wibisono, Y.

2018-05-01

The development of science and technology requires reform in the utilization of various resources for mathematics teaching and learning process. One of the efforts that can be made is the implementation of GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching strategy in mathematics instruction as an effective strategy in improving students’ cognitive, affective, and psychomotor abilities. This research is intended to implement GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching strategy in improving abstraction ability, lateral thinking, and mathematical persistence of junior high school students. It employed quasi-experimental method with non-random pre-test and post-test control design. More specifically, it used the 2x3 factorial design, namely the learning factors that included GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching and conventional teaching learning, and levels of early mathematical ability (high, middle, and low). The subjects in this research were the eighth grade students of junior high school, taken with purposive sampling. The results of this research show: Abstraction and lateral abilities of students who were taught with GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching strategy were significantly higher than those of students who received conventional learning. Mathematical persistence of students taught with GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching strategy was also significantly higher than of those taught with conventional learning.

Rodriquez V. San Antonio Independent School District: Gathering the Ayes of Texas--The Politics of School Finance Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Yudof, Mark G.; Morgan, Daniel C.

1974-01-01

An historical account is given of movements toward educational finance reform in Texas, culminating in the Rodriquez v. San Antonio Independent School District case and its aftermath. The role of political pressures applied by various interest groups is traced and the prospects for future reform assessed. (EH)

Research on the teaching evaluation reform of agricultural eco-environmental protection specialties under the background of deep integration of production and education

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Guosheng

2018-02-01

With the implementation of the personnel training mode of deep integration between production and education, the original evaluation method cannot adapt to the goal of personnel training, so that the traditional teaching evaluation methods need to be reformed urgently. This paper studies and analyzes the four main problems in the teaching evaluation of agricultural eco-environmental protection specialties, and puts forward three measures to reform the teaching evaluation methods: establishing diversified evaluation indexes, establishing diversified evaluation subjects, and establishing diversified evaluation feedback mechanisms.

Turnaround, Transformational, or Transactional Leadership: An Ethical Dilemma in School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Mette, Ian M.; Scribner, Jay P.

2014-01-01

This case was written for school leaders, specifically building-level principals and central office administrators attempting to implement school turnaround reform efforts. Often, leaders who embark on this type of organizational change work in intense environments that produce high levels of pressure to demonstrate improvement in student…

Place Matters: Mathematics Education Reform in Urban Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Rousseau Anderson, Celia

2014-01-01

While mathematics education research has often focused at the level of the classroom (Rousseau Anderson & Tate, 2008), there are emerging calls for attention to shift from individual classrooms to consider the process of reform at the school or district level. Investigating the role of the institution and conditions of the organization becomes…

Investigating the Role of the HLTA in Supporting Learning in English Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Graves, S.; Williams, K.

2017-01-01

The development of support staff was a key aspect of the Labour government's reform of the school workforce in England. As part of this strategy approximately 25,000 Teaching Assistants (TAs) gained Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) status and were deployed in schools in a variety of roles, often operating in a quasi-teaching role. The…

Changing by Design: A Comprehensive Approach to School Reform. [Booklet with Audiotapes].

Science.gov (United States)

North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL.

Comprehensive school reform (CSR) focuses on reorganizing and revitalizing entire schools, rather than on implementing individual programs. The idea behind CSR is that schools cannot educate all students to high levels unless all the education system's components work together toward a common goal. Choosing a CSR model can be difficult and…

Interactions of selected policy-stakeholder groups implementing middle school science standards-based systemic reform

Science.gov (United States)

Boydston, Theodore Lewis, III

1999-12-01

This research is an interpretive inquiry into the views and interactions of stakeholders in a district office of a large school system responsible for implementing science systemic reform. Three major sources of data were used in this research: surveys, stakeholder interviews, and autobiographical reflection on experiences as part of the reform initiative. This is an emergent research that is evident in the shift in the focus of research questions and their supporting assumptions during the research. The literature review describes standards-based reform, arguments about reform, and the major dimensions of reform research. The results of the survey of stakeholders revealed that the views among the stakeholder groups followed the system hierarchy and could be separated into two large groups; staff responsible for implementing the reform initiative and the other stakeholder groups. Each of these groups was composed of identifiable subgroups. The interviews with stakeholders revealed how their different attitudes, values, and beliefs frame the context of stakeholder interactions. An over reliance on an authoritarian view of decision-making leaves many stakeholders feeling disempowered and critical of others. This atmosphere promotes blaming, which inhibits collegial interaction. Work experiences in the district office revealed how stakeholders' unaddressed assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs promote fragmentation and competition rather than cooperation. Hidden assumptions about management by control and mandate, competition, and teaching and learning appear to restrain the interactions of stakeholders. Support of the National Science Education Standards was identified as a unifying view among the stakeholders, yet the professional development program focused on content and pedagogical knowledge without addressing stakeholder concerns and beliefs about the intended constructivist framework of the program. Stakeholders' attitudes about the issue of equity demonstrated

Exploration on the reform of the science and engineering experiment teaching based on the combination with teaching and scientific research

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Peng

2017-08-01

The existing problems of the experiment education in colleges and universities are analyzed. Take the science and engineering specialty as example, the idea of the combination with teaching and scientific research is discussed. The key problems are how the scientific research and scientific research achievements are used effectively in the experiment education, how to effectively use scientific research laboratories and scientific researchers. Then, a specialty experiment education system is established which is good for the teaching in accordance of all students' aptitude. The research in this paper can give the construction of the experiment teaching methods and the experiment system reform for the science and engineering specialties in colleges and universities.

A comparative study teaching chemistry using the 5E learning cycle and traditional teaching with a large English language population in a middle-school setting

Science.gov (United States)

McWright, Cynthia Nicole

For decades science educators and educational institutions have been concerned with the status of science content being taught in K-12 schools and the delivery of the content. Thus, educational reformers in the United States continue to strive to solve the problem on how to best teach science for optimal success in learning. The constructivist movement has been at the forefront of this effort. With mandatory testing nationwide and an increase in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs with little workforce to fulfill these needs, the question of what to teach and how to teach science remains a concern among educators and all stakeholders. The purpose of this research was to determine if students' chemistry knowledge and interest can be increased by using the 5E learning cycle in a middle school with a high population of English language learners. The participants were eighth-grade middle school students in a large metropolitan area. Students participated in a month-long chemistry unit. The study was a quantitative, quasi-experimental design with a control group using a traditional lecture-style teaching strategy and an experimental group using the 5E learning cycle. Students completed a pre-and post-student attitude in science surveys, a pretest/posttest for each mini-unit taught and completed daily exit tickets using the Expert Science Teaching Educational Evaluation Model (ESTEEM) instrument to measure daily student outcomes in main idea, student inquiry, and relevancy. Analysis of the data showed that there was no statistical difference between the two groups overall, and all students experienced a gain in content knowledge overall. All students demonstrated a statistically significant difference in their interest in science class, activities in science class, and outside of school. Data also showed that scores in writing the main idea and writing inquiry questions about the content increased over time.

Adequacy, accountability, autonomy and equity in a Middle Eastern school reform: The case of Qatar

Science.gov (United States)

Guarino, Cassandra M.; Tanner, Jeffery C.

2012-04-01

This study examines Qatar's recent and ambitious school reform in the early stages of its implementation against a set of four criteria for successful education systems drawn from guidelines developed by the international community: adequacy, accountability, autonomy and gender equity. We investigate both the initial structure of the reform and its sustainability in light of concerns that movements in these directions might be politically unfeasible. To some degree, these concerns are substantiated by the developments we trace. However, it is important to note that the reform has changed the landscape of primary and secondary education in Qatar and that many reform principles, though diluted, have been retained. This paper highlights lessons learned - both hopeful and cautionary - in the first few years of reform and presents a methodology for evaluating progress along key dimensions that can be applied to school systems in many nations.

Looking Past the Spin: Teach for America

Science.gov (United States)

Miner, Barbara

2010-01-01

Teach for America (TFA) is perceived as a major player in the education wars over the future of public schools, and a key ally of those who disparage teacher unions and schools of education, and who are enamored of entrepreneurial reforms that bolster the privatization of a once-sacred public responsibility. But what exactly is TFA's role in these…

Learning Science and English: How School Reform Advances Scientific Learning for Limited English Proficient Middle School Students

OpenAIRE

Minicucci, Catherine

1996-01-01

This article presents findings from the School Reform and Student Diversity Study, a 4-year project to locate and analyze schools offering exemplary science and mathematics programs to middle school students with limited proficiency in English. In contrast to the vast majority of schools, the four schools described in this article give these students access to stimulating science and mathematics curricula by instructing them either in the students' primary language or in English using shelter...

"Flying the Plane while We Build It": A Case Study of an Early College High School

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Candace; Ongaga, Kennedy

2011-01-01

Over the past two decades, the perceived failed promise of the comprehensive high school to effectively educate America's youth has generated a national interest in high school reform. One such area of reform is a movement to restructure high schools as small learning communities centered around unique curriculum and state-of-the-art teaching.…

Suggestions for English Culture Teaching in High School

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Cai Hongjuan

2016-01-01

With the implementation of the new High School English Curriculum Standards, more and more people have realized the importance of English culture teaching. To realize the goals of English teaching, teachers should cultivate students' culture awareness and develop their intercultural communicative competence. But in the actual teaching, culture teaching did not get real implementation. So the author puts forwards some suggestions for English culture teaching in high school.

The Court versus Consent Decrees? Schools, "Horne v. Flores" and Judicial Strategies of Institutional Reform Litigation

Science.gov (United States)

Chilton, Bradley; Chwialkowski, Paul

2014-01-01

Is the U.S. Supreme Court inviting litigants to take aim at unraveling injunctions in institutional reform litigation--especially consent decrees in the schools? In "Horne v. Flores" (2009), the court remanded a 17-year-old school reform case to a federal judge with orders to look beyond consent decrees on financing, reducing class…

Can We Teach Parenting in Our Schools?

Science.gov (United States)

Noddings, Nel

2014-01-01

The quality of parenting is a crucial factor in children's school success, and yet the schools teach almost nothing about parenting. This essay suggests ways in which we can teach about parenting without risking indoctrination or adding special courses.

Can Business Save the Schools?

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Jack

1990-01-01

Business' agenda for improving education is linked to gubernatorial goals for school reform: (1) improve preschool learning readiness; (2) increase high school graduation rates; (3) require subject matter mastery in grades 4, 8, and 12; (4) improve math and science achievement; (5) teach literacy, global awareness, and citizen responsibility; and…

Unpacking Resistance to Change within-School Reform Programmes with a Social Justice Orientation

Science.gov (United States)

Hynds, Anne

2010-01-01

Previous research in the area of resistance has inadequately described opposition to change within-school reform initiatives with a social justice orientation. A lack of attention to, and agreement on, the nature and causes of resistance may explain why so many equity-minded educational reforms fail to be sustained. This article highlights various…

The Analysis on Emotional Education in Vocational School English Teaching

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

兰州职业技术学院 730070

2015-01-01

In the time of advancing quality education, emotion education has been paid more and more attention. English teaching is both language teaching progress and emotional communication progress. Therefore, emotional education is extremely important and indispensable in vocational school classroom teaching. However, the current application of vocational school emotional education in English classroom teaching is still relatively weak. Based on the theory of emotional education, this paper attempts to explore the methods and strategies of applying emotional education in vocational school English classroom teaching. It has important theoretical significance on promoting the comprehensive development of the vocational school students, improving English teaching effect, promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the vocational school education, and enriching and developing the emotional teaching psychology and cognitive psychology theory.

The New Basic Education and Whole School Reform: A Chinese Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Bu, Yuhua; Li, Jiacheng

2013-01-01

Since the 1980s, China has entered an era of transformation which has extended its reach to education and school reforms. The "New Basic Education" (NBE) was born in this era and implemented by the East China Normal University together with schools around the country. NBE aims at nurturing the active, healthy development of a new…

Exploring the interaction of personal and contextual factors during the induction period of science teachers and how this interaction shapes their enactment of science reform

Science.gov (United States)

Saka, Yavuz

The first years of teaching are demanding as the novice works to gain a degree of familiarity in her/his professional work. It is during this period that many teachers decide to leave the teaching profession or move away from the reform-minded beliefs and practices acquired during their teacher preparation programs. To understand what happens during induction requires a focus on both the cognitive and contextual issues related to science teaching. The goal of this qualitative, multi-case study was to describe the induction experiences of two reform-minded first year science teachers and the strategies they used to negotiate contradictions embedded the context of schooling. Using the frame of Cultural Historical Activity Theory, in this research I focused on changes in science teachers' personal and professional identities, self-efficacy and pedagogical discontentment, the manner in which these factors shaped science teaching practices, and beliefs and practices shaped and were shaped by the context of the novices' work. Data included a year of participant observations, surveys, open-ended questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations, and mediating artifacts such as lesson plans and assignments. Identities and dispositions of these teachers played significant role their attempts to become competent members of their school communities, attempts that influenced and were influenced by their teaching self-efficacy and pedagogical discontentment. Mild contradictions in the system allowed for the refinement of reform-minded science teaching practices, while extreme contradictions in the system served to change one teacher's goals and prevented his successful enactment of science education reform. Findings indicated that the successful enactment of reform-minded practice depends not just on contextual factors related to schools, or just on individual factors associated with science teaching. Instead, personal and contextual factors interact to shape a novice's first

Bridges, Tunnels, and School Reform: It's the System, Stupid

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Thomas F.

2007-01-01

After almost three decades of school reform, student achievement nationally is about where it was when it started, and student behavior has declined dramatically. Numbers of dropouts, especially in cities and among the poor and minorities, have gotten much higher. Yet many billions of dollars have been spent; countless professionals have carried…

Sustaining inquiry-based teaching methods in the middle school science classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, Amy Fowler

This dissertation used a combination of case study and phenomenological research methods to investigate how individual teachers of middle school science in the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) program sustain their use of inquiry-based methods of teaching and learning. While the overall context for the cases was the AMSTI program, each of the four teacher participants in this study had a unique, individual context as well. The researcher collected data through a series of interviews, multiple-day observations, and curricular materials. The interview data was analyzed to develop a textural, structural, and composite description of the phenomenon. The Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) was used along with the Assesing Inquiry Potential (AIP) questionnaire to determine the level of inquiry-based instruction occuring in the participants classrooms. Analysis of the RTOP data and AIP data indicated all of the participants utilized inquiry-based methods in their classrooms during their observed lessons. The AIP data also indicated the level of inquiry in the AMSTI curricular materials utilized by the participants during the observations was structured inquiry. The findings from the interview data suggested the ability of the participants to sustain their use of structured inquiry was influenced by their experiences with, beliefs about, and understandings of inquiry. This study contributed to the literature by supporting existing studies regarding the influence of teachers' experiences, beliefs, and understandings of inquiry on their classroom practices. The inquiry approach stressed in current reforms in science education targets content knowledge, skills, and processes needed in a future scientifically literate citizenry.

Interprofessional development in inclusive schools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Britt Blaabjerg; Højholdt, Andy; Arndal, Lars Stubbe

educators, both initiatives of which support the subject-oriented education at school. These changes have challenged the way [education/school] professionals work and how they see their own and each other's roles in the school system (EVA 2013). The changes have also increased the need for collaborative...... in the classroom.4. Changing teaching methods: Students with weak school affiliation or special needs would benefit from a change in teaching methods that takes some of the competencies possessed by child and youth educators and uses them in the classroom. As a further step, it is relevant to open up students......Recent political reforms in the Danish school system have lengthened the school day and integrated child and youth educators into aspects of the teaching programme as part of a common European strategy of inclusion. The school day now contains homework cafes and lessons with child and youth...

Team Teaching School Law

Science.gov (United States)

Vanko, John G.; Rogina, Raymond P.

2005-01-01

Graduate students preparing themselves for a career in school administration are typically apprehensive about the legal issues they will face in their first administrative position. After teaching school law for the first time, the author believed that there had to be a more effective way to reach these students rather than the traditional methods…

Newly qualified teachers' visions of science learning and teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Deborah L.

2011-12-01

This study investigated newly qualified teachers' visions of science learning and teaching. The study also documented their preparation in an elementary science methods course. The research questions were: What educational and professional experiences influenced the instructor's visions of science learning and teaching? What visions of science learning and teaching were promoted in the participants' science methods course? What visions of science learning and teaching did these newly qualified teachers bring with them as they graduated from their teacher preparation program? How did these visions compare with those advocated by reform documents? Data sources included participants' assignments, weekly reflections, and multi-media portfolio finals. Semi-structured interviews provided the emic voice of participants, after graduation but before they had begun to teach. These data were interpreted via a combination of qualitative methodologies. Vignettes described class activities. Assertions supported by excerpts from participants' writings emerged from repeated review of their assignments. A case study of a typical participant characterized weekly reflections and final multi-media portfolio. Four strands of science proficiency articulated in a national reform document provided a framework for interpreting activities, assignments, and interview responses. Prior experiences that influenced design of the methods course included an inquiry-based undergraduate physics course, participation in a reform-based teacher preparation program, undergraduate and graduate inquiry-based science teaching methods courses, participation in a teacher research group, continued connection to the university as a beginning teacher, teaching in diverse Title 1 schools, service as the county and state elementary science specialist, participation in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, service on a National Research Council committee, and experience teaching a

Teaching Literature and Literacy in the Eye of Reform: A Dilemma in Three Acts.

Science.gov (United States)

Florio-Ruane, Susan; Berne, Jennifer; Raphael, Taffy E.

2001-01-01

Tells a story of crossing borders in support of dilemma management in the teaching of literature. Discusses working together to manage dilemmas in literacy and teacher education. Sketches the genealogy of a network of teachers from across the southeast region of Michigan. Focuses on the teachers working in the "eye of reform" at an…

Market Accountability in Schools: Policy Reforms in England, Germany, France and Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Mattei, Paola

2012-01-01

This article concentrates on the policy reforms of schools in England, Germany, France and Italy, from 1988 to 2009, with a focus on the introduction of market accountability. Pressing demands for organisational change in schools, shaped by the objectives of "efficiency" and competition, which were introduced in England in the 1980s,…

School Autonomy Reform and Public Education in Australia: Implications for Social Justice

Science.gov (United States)

Keddie, Amanda

2017-01-01

The renewed commitment to school autonomy reform in Australia is based on the view that it will drive up academic standards. There remains, however, little conclusive evidence to support this view. Simply instating the structural changes to bring about greater autonomy for schools within public education systems across the world has not led…

English Teaching Profile (Provisional): Venezuela.

Science.gov (United States)

British Council, London (England). English Language and Literature Div.

This profile of the English language teaching situation in Venezuela discusses the status of English in society and in the educational system. It also gives an account of Venezuelan political, economic, and social life. A description is given of the education system and reforms that have been proposed for nursery school through higher education.…

High-School Chemistry Teaching through Environmentally Oriented Curricula

Science.gov (United States)

Mandler, Daphna; Mamlok-Naaman, Rachel; Blonder, Ron; Yayon, Malka; Hofstein, Avi

2012-01-01

Discussions held in the chemical education community have generated a variety of reports and recommendations for reforming the chemistry curriculum. The recommendations refer to teaching chemistry in the context of real-world issues. This has been suggested as a way to enhance students' motivation. It is suggested that real-world problems…

Collaborative School Improvement: Eight Practices for District-School Partnerships to Transform Teaching and Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Kaufman, Trent E.; Grimm, Emily Dolci; Miller, Allison E.

2012-01-01

How can districts bring instructional improvement to scale within and across schools? The authors of "Collaborative School Improvement" argue that districts can play a powerful part in helping schools build the capacity to engage in inquiry-based reform--but that this effort requires a shift in districts' traditional role as a professional…

Teaching Bioethics in High Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Araújo, Joana; Gomes, Carlos Costa; Jácomo, António; Pereira, Sandra Martins

2017-01-01

Objective: The Bioethics Teaching in Secondary Education (Project BEST) aims to promote the teaching of bioethics in secondary schools. This paper describes the development and implementation of the programme in Portugal. Design: Programme development involved two main tasks: (1) using the learning tools previously developed by the US Northwest…

Social Foundations and School Reform Networks: The Case Against E.D. Hirsch.

Science.gov (United States)

Ognibene, Richard

1998-01-01

Critiques the views of E.D. Hirsch, highlighting limitations of his book, "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them." The paper acknowledges Hirsch's influence on public opinion about school reform, but details flaws and errors Hirsch makes, asking foundational scholars in teacher education to better prepare students to respond to…

Accountability and Control in American Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Ingersoll, Richard M.; Collins, Gregory J.

2017-01-01

One of the most controversial and significant of contemporary education reforms has been the teacher accountability movement. From this perspective, low-quality teachers and teaching are a major factor behind inadequate school performance, and a lack of accountability and control in schools is a major factor behind the problem of low-quality…

Predoctoral Teaching of Geriatric Dentistry in U.S. Dental Schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Ettinger, Ronald L; Goettsche, Zachary S; Qian, Fang

2017-08-01

The aim of this study was to assess the current teaching of geriatric dentistry in U.S. dental schools and compare the findings to previous reports. Academic deans at all 67 U.S. dental schools were contacted in November 2015 via email, asking them to complete a questionnaire about the teaching of geriatric dentistry or gerodontology at their institution. Questionnaires were received from 56 of the 67 schools (84% response rate). The results showed that geriatric dentistry was taught in all responding schools; for 92.8% of the respondents, the instruction was compulsory. Among the responding schools, 62.5% were teaching it as an independent course, 25% as an organized series of lectures, and 8.9% as occasional lectures in parts of other courses. In addition, 57.1% had some form of compulsory clinical education in geriatric dentistry. Public schools, as opposed to private schools, were marginally associated with an increased interest in expanding geriatric dentistry teaching (p=0.078). No differences were found between any teaching variables and school location. This study found that the form of education in geriatric dentistry in U.S. dental schools differed in many ways, but the teaching of geriatric dentistry had increased among all respondents and had been increasing for over 30 years. Future research is needed to determine the impact of this teaching on services to the geriatric community.

The study of nursing students’ learning initiative in the course reform of aged caring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sun Wenjing

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Analyzing the influence of nursing students’ learning initiative in the course reform of aged caring. Discuss the way of the aged care reform. Method: To reform the course of aged care in our school level 2013 88 nursing undergraduate. The specific content: learning aged care theory, learning Japanese care technology basic knowledge, adding Japanese and Taiwan’s nursing concepts to the traditional aged care teaching, performing sitcoms about old people’s disease and nursing way , reporting the plan of aged care by PowerPoint, organizing student volunteers to visit the nursing home and so on. The specific content lasted four months. Adopting the learning initiative (ALS scale developed by Zang Yuli and others after course reform. Measure the students’ learning initiative before and after the teaching. Result: Nursing student’s self-study ability was in the middle and lower level before the course reform(59.26±7.38; After the course reform, nursing student gain higher score than before learning on the three aspects contain “Learning motivation”,“Learning goals” and “Solid study”. The difference has statistically significant.(P<0.05.Conclusion: Through the aged care course reform, nursing students strengthen the study enthusiasm and initiative; enhance nursing student’s self-study ability. It is conducive to improve the learning interest of aged care course for nursing students.

[Teaching evaluation at Medical School, UNAM].

Science.gov (United States)

Salas-Gómez, Luz Elena; Ortiz-Montalvo, Armando; Alaminos-Sager, Isabel Luisa

2006-01-01

The purpose of this article is to offer a synthesis of what has been done in the Teaching Evaluation Program at the Medical School of the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM). The Program involves three questionnaires of the students' opinion that evaluate professors of the basic and sociomedical areas, microbiology and parasitology laboratory and surgery. Between 1994 and 2003, 134,811 questionnaires were answered to evaluate the teaching performance of 6262 professors of pregraduate students. Although the evaluation of teaching through a single way is insufficient, the results obtained allow us to affirm that the Medical School at UNAM has a good professor staff, as well as they are useful for the design of programs dedicated to the acknowledgment of excellence and the needs for teaching education.

The Middle School Mess: If You Love Bungee Jumping, You're the Middle School Type

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Peter

2011-01-01

Suspended "between childhood and the adult world, pre-teens have been called the toughest to teach." Indeed, one can't touch middle school without hearing about "raging hormones." By all accounts, middle schools are a weak link in the chain of public education. Is it the churn of ill-conceived attempts at reform that's causing all the problems? Is…

Success for All and Comprehensive School Reform: Evidence-Based Policies for Urban Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Slavin, Robert E.; Madden, Nancy A.

This paper discusses comprehensive school reform (CSR), which accepts the importance of standards and accountability but adds to these strategies for introducing innovations in curriculum, instruction, school organization, governance, parent interactions, and other core features of practice. The paper reviews research on the nature and quality of…

Linking Reform-Oriented Experiences to Teacher Identity: The Case of an Elementary Mathematics Teacher

Science.gov (United States)

Jong, Cindy

2016-01-01

Novice teachers often have difficulty transferring what they learn in teacher education programs to classroom practice. This is especially true for elementary school teachers who are expected to teach mathematics with reform-oriented methods. The purpose of this longitudinal case study was to examine the experience of one novice elementary school…

Journalism and Urban School Reform: Versions of Democratic Decision Making in Two American Cities

Science.gov (United States)

Shipps, Dorothy; Fowlkes, Elizabeth; Peltzman, Alissa

2006-01-01

School reform involves the public: its expectation of participation and its support for a reform agenda. In theory, the press influences both. To explore this link, we compare education coverage in four press outlets, two each in Chicago and Cleveland. Articles and editors are interrogated for (1) style of journalism and (2) assumptions about the…

Impact of the Government Funding Reforms on the Teaching and Learning of Malaysian Public Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, Abd Rahman; Farley, Alan; Naidoo, Moonsamy

2012-01-01

The Malaysian Government intention to implement the higher education reforms is observable in the implementation of National Higher Education Strategic Plan beyond 2020 in 2007. This plan emphasises on improving the research and teaching in higher education in accordance with the government objectives. Parallel to the introduction of this plan,…

EDUCATIONAL REFORMS AND TEACHERS’ WORKING CONDITIONS: EMOTIONS EXPERIENCED BY AN IN-SERVICE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neide Nunes RODRIGUES

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In this article, we analyze the relation among educational reforms and teachers’ work, and emotions. This study was conducted with a public school English teacher, in Minas Gerais. The aim was to verify the role that contextual factors play in the production of emotions, and detect the emotions that influence her practice with students, colleagues, and school managers. The theoretical framework was based on studies about educational reforms and teachers’ work (AUGUSTO, 2005; HYPOLITO; VIEIRA; PIZZI, 2009; DUARTE; AUGUSTO, [s.d.], the relationship between emotions and the process of teaching and learning languages (HARGREAVES, 2000; ZEMBYLAS, 2002, 2003; ARAGÃO, 2008; DAY; QING, 2009; SHUTZ; ZEMBYLAS, 2009; COWIE, 2011; RIBEIRO, 2012. We used a semistructured questionnaire and a narrative interview as data collection instruments. The analysis has pointed out poor work condition, crowded classrooms, poor physical and technological structures, strict school curriculum, students’ indiscipline, and the institution pessimistic atmosphere as frustrating, stressful, and de-motivating factors. These results indicate the need to create alternative ways of school workplaces organization, and to modify the way people interact in schools. They also suggest the need of educators to participate in the design and implementation of educational reforms.

Teachers' Work and Schooling in Bali

Science.gov (United States)

Nilan, Pam

2003-11-01

This study addresses educational reform in Indonesia with reference to one of the most important potential agents of change in any national system of schooling - its teachers. The empirical data on secondary teachers and trainee teachers used here are taken from a larger case study of the attitudes and opinions of stakeholders in the education system of North Bali. Secondary teachers in Bali, as elsewhere in Indonesia, are seriously underpaid, but not necessarily undervalued in the community. They take on other jobs to support themselves and their families, yet they do not lack commitment to the professional task of teaching. It is argued that financial pressure on teachers to find other sources of remuneration militates against their capacity to act as agents of change in the rapidly reforming Indonesian state. Furthermore, teaching is not often seen as a financially rewarding profession by a new generation of secondary-school graduates. The author recommends that teachers' salaries be raised and infrastructure support for schools increased.

Religious teaching in the school context

OpenAIRE

Garutti, Selson; CESUMAR

2007-01-01

On 22nd July 1997, the then president of the Brazilian Republic Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed the law no. 9.475/97, concerning religious teaching in schools. That law caused generalized confusion all round Brazil by making facultative religious teaching in schools, and disorganizing even further the already troubled subject “Religious Teaching”. We cannot lose sight of the disorganization installed in the year of 1996 by the confusion introduced by the new National Education Basis Guidelin...

An exploration of the science teaching orientations of Indian science teachers in the context of curriculum reform

Science.gov (United States)

Nargund-Joshi, Vanashri

This study explores the concepts and behaviors, otherwise referred to as orientations, of six Indian science teachers and the alignment of these orientations to the 2005 India National Curriculum Framework (NCF-2005). Differences in teachers' orientations across grade bands (elementary, middle, and secondary) and school types (public versus private) are also examined to determine how contextual factors may influence this alignment. First, a content analysis of the NCF-2005 was completed to identify the overarching principles of the NCF-2005 and goals specific to the teaching and learning of science. Interviews with school principals were also analyzed to understand how the goals of NCF-2005 were communicated to schools and teachers. Together, these data sources served to answer research question one. Next, profiles were created based on three interviews with each teacher and several observations of their teaching. These profiles provide a point of reference for answering the remaining three research questions. Findings include teacher's orientations falling along a continuum from traditionalist in nature to inquiry/constructivist in nature. Stark contrasts were found between traditionalist orientations and the goals of NCF-2005, with much of this contrast due to the limited pedagogical content knowledge these teachers have regarding students' scientific thinking, curriculum design, instructional strategies, and assessment. Inquiry/constructivist teachers' orientations, while more in line with reform, still have a few key areas of pedagogical content knowledge needing attention (e.g., knowledge of assessment and a variety of purposes for constructivist instructional strategies). In response to the final research question, several contextual factors contributed to teachers' orientations including environmental constraints, such as limited resources and large class sizes, cultural testing pressures, and limited accessibility to professional development. Suggestions

[Application of participatory teaching mode in oral health education].

Science.gov (United States)

Ci, Xiang-ke; Zhao, Yu-hong; Wan, Li; Xiong, Wei; Wang, Yu-jiang; Ou, Xiao-yan

2013-06-01

To apply participatory teaching mode in oral health education, and to assess its role in cultivating comprehensive stomatological professionals suitable for the development of modern medicine. Sixty undergraduate students from grade 2005 in Stomatological College of Nanchang University were selected. Among those students, oral health education course was carried out by traditional teaching mode, while 120 undergraduate students from grades 2006 to 2007 received participatory teaching approach, which paid attention to practice in oral health education practice course. After the course, a survey and evaluation of teaching effectiveness was conducted. Questionnaire survey showed that participatory teaching mode could significantly improve the students' capabilities and provide much more help to their study. Application of participatory teaching mode in oral health education course for undergraduates is feasible. It can improve students' comprehensive ability and cultivate their cultural literacy and scientific literacy. It also meets the training goal of stomatological professionals and the development trend of education reform. Supported by Higher School Teaching Reform Research Subject of Jiangxi Province(JXJG-10-1-42).

Talking about teaching and learning mathematics in indigenous schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucélida de Fátima Maia da Costa

2012-09-01

Full Text Available To teach and to learn mathematics are not always conjugated concomitantly, particularly in the context of formal indigenous schools. This article puts in discussion some facts about the role of schools in indigenous communities, often mistakenly called Indian schools, as well as questions about the meaning of teaching mathematics in those contexts. Based on the concepts of ethnomathematics, it shows that a dialogue is possible between the traditional mathematical knowledge of various ethnic groups of the Amazon and the knowledge disseminated by formal school teaching practice.

Expressions of agency within complex policy structures: science teachers' experiences of education policy reforms in Sweden

Science.gov (United States)

Ryder, Jim; Lidar, Malena; Lundqvist, Eva; Östman, Leif

2018-03-01

We explore the experiences of school science teachers as they enact three linked national curriculum and assessment policy reforms in Sweden. Our goal is to understand teachers' differing responses to these reforms. A sample of 13 teachers engaged in 2 interviews over a 6-9-month period. Interviews included exploration of professional background and school context, perceptions of the aims of the policy reforms and experiences of working with these reforms in the classroom. Analysis was guided by an individual-oriented sociocultural perspective on professional agency. Here teaching is conceptualised as an ongoing interplay between teachers' knowledge, skills and personal goals, and the characteristics of the social, institutional and policy settings in which they work. Our analysis shows that navigating the ensuing continuities and contradictions results in many different expressions of teacher agency, e.g. loss of autonomy and trust, pushing back, subversion, transfer of authority, and creative tensions. Typically, an individual teacher's enactment of these reforms involved several of these expressions of agency. We demonstrate that the sociocultural perspective provides insights into teachers' responses to education policy reform likely to be missed by studies that focus largely on individual teacher knowledge/beliefs about reform or skills in 'implementing' reform practices.

School Finance Reform: Do Equalized Expenditures Imply Equalized Teacher Salaries?

Science.gov (United States)

Streams, Meg; Butler, J. S.; Cowen, Joshua; Fowles, Jacob; Toma, Eugenia F.

2011-01-01

Kentucky is a poor, relatively rural state that contrasts greatly with the relatively urban and wealthy states typically the subject of education studies employing large-scale administrative data. For this reason, Kentucky's experience of major school finance and curricular reform is highly salient for understanding teacher labor market dynamics.…

Teaching Competencies of Students Practice Teaching at Elementary Schools and Kindergartens

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nur Fatimah

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study is to describe the teaching competencies of English Education students practising at elementary schools and kindergartens based on the teacher supervisors’ view. The teaching competencies include the students’ competence on writing the lesson plan and their competence on practice teaching. To reach the objectives of the study, the researcher collected the data by distributing a questionnaire to the supervisors at schools. There were 41 schools consisting of TK ABA, SD Muhammadiyah, SD Negeri located in Yogyakarta (24, Sleman (1 and Bantul (16. The questionnaire used was based on the official assessment form published by Indonesian government for teacher’s certification. It contains some indicators of teaching competence, it uses Likert scales ranging from 1 to 5. The criteria are as follows: 1 = very poor, 2 = poor, 3 = rather poor, 4 = good, and 5 = excellent. The data were taken from proportionally random sampling of the supervisors. From the total number of 103 teacher supervisors, the researcher distributed 61 questionnaires. The supervisors represented the ones from different educational backgrounds. The findings show the following results. The competence of English Education students in composing the lesson plan, according to the teacher supervisors, is classified good (actual mean = 3.858, SD = 0.685, ideal mean = 3, ideal SD = 0.750. Further, their competence on practice teaching is also good (actual mean = 3.867, SD = 0.688, ideal mean = 3, ideal SD = 0.966. The two aspects of composing the lesson plan to improve are teaching material organization and the completeness of assessment instrument. The other two aspects to improve in teaching practice are contextual teaching and learning and class management.

Teaching hospital financial status and patient outcomes following ACGME duty hour reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Navathe, Amol S; Silber, Jeffrey H; Small, Dylan S; Rosen, Amy K; Romano, Patrick S; Even-Shoshan, Orit; Wang, Yanli; Zhu, Jingsan; Halenar, Michael J; Volpp, Kevin G

2013-04-01

To examine whether hospital financial health was associated with differential changes in outcomes after implementation of 2003 ACGME duty hour regulations. Observational study of 3,614,174 Medicare patients admitted to 869 teaching hospitals from July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2005. Interrupted time series analysis using logistic regression to adjust for patient comorbidities, secular trends, and hospital site. Outcomes included 30-day mortality, AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs), failure-to-rescue (FTR) rates, and prolonged length of stay (PLOS). All eight analyses measuring the impact of duty hour reform on mortality by hospital financial health quartile, in postreform year 1 ("Post 1") or year 2 ("Post 2") versus the prereform period, were insignificant: Post 1 OR range 1.00-1.02 and Post 2 OR range 0.99-1.02. For PSIs, all six tests showed clinically insignificant effect sizes. The FTR rate analysis demonstrated nonsignificance in both postreform years (OR 1.00 for both). The PLOS outcomes varied significantly only for the combined surgical sample in Post 2, but this effect was very small, OR 1.03 (95% CI 1.02, 1.04). The impact of 2003 ACGME duty hour reform on patient outcomes did not differ by hospital financial health. This finding is somewhat reassuring, given additional financial pressure on teaching hospitals from 2011 duty hour regulations. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Circulation and Internationalisation of Pedagogical Concepts and Practices in the Discourse of Education: The Hamburg School Reform Experiment (1919-1933)

Science.gov (United States)

Mayer, Christine

2014-01-01

In the context of the international exchange of school reform ideas and concepts, the new schools in Hamburg were recognised as exemplary instances of a revolutionary and forceful reform in the public elementary school systems. Based on studies of transfer and their premise that the transnational transfer of ideas, practices and objects does not…

Teaching Organizational Skills in Middle School

Science.gov (United States)

Boller, Barbara

2008-01-01

The transition to middle school is an educational milestone, marking significant and sometimes unspoken changes in expectations. The overriding expectation is that students will become more independent. This article discusses some tips that will help teachers in teaching organizational skills to middle school students. Middle school teachers…

Participation in a Multi-Institutional Curriculum Development Project Changed Science Faculty Knowledge and Beliefs about Teaching Science

Science.gov (United States)

Donovan, Deborah A.; Borda, Emily J.; Hanley, Daniel M.; Landel, Carolyn C.

2015-01-01

Despite significant pressure to reform science teaching and learning in K12 schools, and a concurrent call to reform undergraduate courses, higher education science content courses have remained relatively static. Higher education science faculty have few opportunities to explore research on how people learn, examine state or national science…

Teachers' Perception of Team Teaching Middle School Mathematics in Urban Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Serrano, Vanessa

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' perceptions of team teaching middle school mathematics in urban schools. The research questions focused on student academic performance and the impact that team teaching may have from the perspective of teachers. The theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner formed the theoretical foundation…

Learning From Rudolf Steiner: The Relevance of Waldorf Education for Urban Public School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Oberman, Ida

2007-01-01

The author of this paper investigates the relevance of Waldorf education for public urban school reform. Based on analysis of survey data from over 500 graduates of private U.S. Waldorf schools, review of documents from the Gates Foundation, and staff-interview and student-achievement data from four public Waldorf-methods schools, she develops…

Theoretical Perspectives on Critical Thinking Teaching: Reflections from Field Experiences from a Norwegian Lower Secondary School in Comparison to Tanzanian Secondary School Teaching Practices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leatitia Gabriel Mashaza

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the theoretical perspectives relevant to critical thinking as my topic of research during my teaching practice period which was conducted from 12th -28th October 2015 at Eidsvag secondary school in Bergen, Norway. As a requirement for Masters’ degree in social science education, all master students were required to engage in teaching practice in different Norwegian primary and secondary schools. Importantly, every student teacher was given a topic of concentration as a mini-research for the whole teaching practice period. My topic of research focused at exploring and gaining the theoretical and practical perspectives on critical thinking teaching by drawing some experiences from a Norwegian lower secondary school (Eidsvag skole in reflection to secondary school teaching practice experiences in Tanzania. Therefore, in this paper, my reflections with regard to the conditions favoring the possibility for critical thinking teaching and how it was enhanced by teachers at my practice school will be discussed. Further to that, I will also present the observed challenges of which, in my view, in way or another intervened the possibility for effective critical thinking teaching to take place.

Transforming an Urban School System: Progress of New Haven School Change and New Haven Promise Education Reforms (2010-2013). Research Report

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez, Gabriella C.; Bozick, Robert; Daugherty, Lindsay; Scherer, Ethan; Singh, Reema; Suárez, Mónica Jacobo; Ryan, Sarah

2014-01-01

In 2009, the City of New Haven and New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) announced a sweeping K-12 educational reform, New Haven School Change. The district had three primary goals for School Change: (1) close the gap between the performance of NHPS students' and Connecticut students' averages on state tests, (2) cut the high school dropout rate in…

Will Mayor De Blasio Turn Back the School Reform Clock?

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Peter

2014-01-01

While heads were spinning, policy watchers seemed genuinely perplexed by New York City's Mayor de Blasio's education opinions. De Blasio opposed many of Bloomberg's reform efforts despite the achievement gains realized by the nation's largest school district during the last 12 years. Yet on close reading, de Blasio's nine-page education plan…

School Reforms In Ghana: A Challenge To Teacher Quality And ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The role of the teacher in the modern school system is increasingly important and complex. A teacher needs a high level of professional knowledge and autonomous decision making when faced with professional challenges. Educational reform in Ghana like any other parts of the world calls for the type of teacher who is ...

The "Private School Advantage" in Argentina

OpenAIRE

Gustavo E. Fischman

2001-01-01

Local actors' perceptions of curricular and management changes in two private schools and one neighboring public secondary school in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, are analyzed. An exploration was conducted of how, within an ideologically and politically pro-reform context and a widespread acceptance of the "private school advantage," principals, teachers, and students in these schools evaluated the changes (or lack of them) in management, teaching, and curriculum orientations of the se...

Adequacy, Accountability, Autonomy and Equity in a Middle Eastern School Reform: The Case of Qatar

Science.gov (United States)

Guarino, Cassandra M.; Tanner, Jeffery C.

2012-01-01

This study examines Qatar's recent and ambitious school reform in the early stages of its implementation against a set of four criteria for successful education systems drawn from guidelines developed by the international community: adequacy, accountability, autonomy and gender equity. We investigate both the initial structure of the reform and…

Implementing Reform: Teachers' Beliefs about Students and the Curriculum

Science.gov (United States)

Bartiromo, Tara; Etkina, Eugenia

2009-11-01

This paper presents findings on how consistent teachers' perceptions of their students, their own role in the classroom, and the reformed curriculum are with the actual implementation of the reformed curriculum in the classroom. This study shows that the five participating teachers were consistent with their perceptions and their actual behavior in the classroom. The teachers who were engaged in designing the curriculum demonstrated consistent reformed teaching views and behaviors. The degree to which the teachers viewed the curriculum as useful to them and their students was an indicator of how reformed their teaching was as measured by the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) [1][2]. Finally, it was determined that faithful implementation of a curriculum can mean faithfully implementing the theoretical foundation of the curriculum materials during instruction instead of implementing every component or lesson of the reformed curriculum.

Teaching Astronomy in UK Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Roche, Paul; Roberts, Sarah; Newsam, Andy; Barclay, Charles

2012-01-01

This article attempts to summarise the good, bad and (occasionally) ugly aspects of teaching astronomy in UK schools. It covers the most common problems reported by teachers when asked about covering the astronomy/space topics in school. Particular focus is given to the GCSE Astronomy qualification offered by Edexcel (which is currently the…

The College Science Learning Cycle: An Instructional Model for Reformed Teaching.

Science.gov (United States)

Withers, Michelle

2016-01-01

Finding the time for developing or locating new class materials is one of the biggest barriers for instructors reforming their teaching approaches. Even instructors who have taken part in training workshops may feel overwhelmed by the task of transforming passive lecture content to engaging learning activities. Learning cycles have been instrumental in helping K-12 science teachers design effective instruction for decades. This paper introduces the College Science Learning Cycle adapted from the popular Biological Sciences Curriculum Study 5E to help science, technology, engineering, and mathematics faculty develop course materials to support active, student-centered teaching approaches in their classrooms. The learning cycle is embedded in backward design, a learning outcomes-oriented instructional design approach, and is accompanied by resources and examples to help faculty transform their teaching in a time-efficient manner. © 2016 M. Withers. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Teaching Physical Education in International Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Erickson, David LeRoy; Kulinna, Pamela Hodges

2012-01-01

This article explores the opportunity of teaching physical education at international schools. Common challenges (e.g., communication differences, adapting to the host culture, teaching individuals from various cultural backgrounds) and positive aspects (e.g., smart and engaged students, a positive learning environment for teachers, great…

Tobephobia Experienced by Teachers in Secondary Schools: An Exploratory Study Focusing on Curriculum Reform in the Nelson Mandela Metropole

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, P.

2011-01-01

Because of its history from apartheid to democracy, the aspiration to reform schools is a recurrent theme in South African education. Efforts to reform education in schools based on the outcomes-based education (OBE) curriculum approach created major challenges for policy makers in South Africa. The purpose of this exploratory research was…

A Place Called Home: Educational Reform in a Concord, Massachusetts School, 1897-1914

Science.gov (United States)

Morice, Linda C.

2012-01-01

This paper examines the role of place in the reform efforts of two teachers who established Miss White's Home School in Concord, Massachusetts (USA). Flora and Mary White rebelled against the prevailing industrial model of instruction in tax-supported schools where they taught. As a solution, they moved to Concord--a nonconformist town with a…

Teaching Ethics to High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Pass, Susan; Willingham, Wendy

2009-01-01

Working with two teachers and thirty-four high school seniors, the authors developed procedures and assessments to teach ethics in an American high school civics class. This approach requires high school students to discover an agreement or convergence between Kantian ethics and virtue ethics. The authors also created an instrument to measure…

No Child Left Behind and the Spectacle of Failing Schools: The Mythology of Contemporary School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Granger, David A.

2008-01-01

This article discusses what David Berliner (2005) has called the perverse "spectacle of fear" (208) surrounding issues of teacher quality and accountability in contemporary school reform. Drawing principally on the critical semiotics of Roland Barthes' essay, "The World of Wrestling" (1957), it examines the way that this…

Understanding Learning and Teaching in Papua New Guinea: Elementary Teacher Trainers Engaged in Cultural Authorship in the Context of National Educational Reforms

Science.gov (United States)

Brownlee, Joanne M.; Farrell, Ann; Davis, Julie

2012-01-01

Over the last decade, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has pursued educational reform in elementary teacher education. Because elementary teachers and teacher education are central to the reform agenda, there is a need to gain empirical evidence about how PNG teacher trainers' understandings about learning and teaching impact on their practice. The study…

History Teaching in Albania Following Educational Reform in 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Vuka, Denis

2015-01-01

This article explores history teaching in Albania, with particular emphasis on educational and methodological aspects of new history textbooks published after the liberalization of the school textbook market in 2008. National history textbooks serve as a basis for the assessment of changing educational principles and methodologies in history…

Teaching Computation in Primary School without Traditional Written Algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Hartnett, Judy

2015-01-01

Concerns regarding the dominance of the traditional written algorithms in schools have been raised by many mathematics educators, yet the teaching of these procedures remains a dominant focus in in primary schools. This paper reports on a project in one school where the staff agreed to put the teaching of the traditional written algorithm aside,…

The Epistemic Role of Novel Metaphors in Teachers' Knowledge Constructions of School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Craig, Cheryl J.

2005-01-01

In this article, a parallel is drawn between Steven Hawking's use of common and novel metaphors in his evolving explanation of the theory of the universe and the similar use of common and novel metaphors by educators in four school contexts attempting to illuminate their experiences of school reform storied and restoried over time. The epistemic…

The "Private School Advantage" in Argentina

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustavo E. Fischman

2001-08-01

Full Text Available Local actors' perceptions of curricular and management changes in two private schools and one neighboring public secondary school in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, are analyzed. An exploration was conducted of how, within an ideologically and politically pro-reform context and a widespread acceptance of the "private school advantage," principals, teachers, and students in these schools evaluated the changes (or lack of them in management, teaching, and curriculum orientations of the secondary education sector.

How Leadership for an ICT Reform Is Distributed within a School

Science.gov (United States)

Seong, David Ng Foo; Ho, Jeanne Marie

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of information communication technology (ICT) reform in a government school in Singapore. The focus is on the distributed leadership actions performed by various individuals, and how the multiple leaders and their leadership practices interacted with one another.…

Teaching Elementary School Children about Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Decar, Patricia

1988-01-01

Presents ideas for teaching elementary school students about Korea by introducing them to the country's folktales, clothing, art, music, and food. Includes a folktale adapted as a play and suggestions for teaching about traditional costumes, folk dances, music, and masks, as well as Korean mealtime and table manners. (GEA)

Planning for Reform-Based Science: Case Studies of Two Urban Elementary Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Mangiante, Elaine Silva

2018-02-01

The intent of national efforts to frame science education standards is to promote students' development of scientific practices and conceptual understanding for their future role as scientifically literate citizens (NRC 2012). A guiding principle of science education reform is that all students receive equitable opportunities to engage in rigorous science learning. Yet, implementation of science education reform depends on teachers' instructional decisions. In urban schools serving students primarily from poor, diverse communities, teachers typically face obstacles in providing reform-based science due to limited resources and accountability pressures, as well as a culture of teacher-directed pedagogy, and deficit views of students. The purpose of this qualitative research was to study two white, fourth grade teachers from high-poverty urban schools, who were identified as transforming their science teaching and to investigate how their beliefs, knowledge bases, and resources shaped their planning for reform-based science. Using the Shavelson and Stern's decision model for teacher planning to analyze evidence gathered from interviews, documents, planning meetings, and lesson observations, the findings indicated their planning for scientific practices was influenced by the type and extent of professional development each received, each teacher's beliefs about their students and their background, and the mission and learning environment each teacher envisioned for the reform to serve their students. The results provided specific insights into factors that impacted their planning in high-poverty urban schools and indicated considerations for those in similar contexts to promote teachers' planning for equitable science learning opportunities by all students.

FROM THE EXPIERENCE OF SOLFEGGIO TEACHING AT THE GNESIN MOSCOW HIGH SPECIAL MUSIC SCHOOL (COLLEGE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZENKINA NADEJDA

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the article is to show the importance of solfeggio for training a professional musician and the practical use of this discipline under the conditions of some challenges of the contemporary educational reforms. Under these new conditions, solfeggio must exclude useless dull scholasticism, actively influence the development of musicality: memory, sense of rhythm, ear for harmony, ability for melodic improvisation. The interdisciplinary connections of solfeggio and other subjects (rhythmic, special class, Orff’s orchestra, taking place at the Gnessin Special Music School are especially important at present. The general problem of solfeggio teaching is the unity and balance of two poles: theory and practice, knowledge and ability.

Examining Relational Engagement across the Transition to High Schools in Three US High Schools Reformed to Improve Relationship Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Heather A.; Chang, Mei-Lin; Andrzejewski, Carey E.; Poirier, Ryan R.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in students' relational engagement across the transition to high school in three schools reformed to improve the quality of student-teacher relationships. In order to analyze this data we employed latent growth curve (LGC) modeling techniques (n = 637). We ran three LGC models on three…

Design, validation, and use of an evaluation instrument for monitoring systemic reform

Science.gov (United States)

Scantlebury, Kathryn; Boone, William; Butler Kahle, Jane; Fraser, Barry J.

2001-08-01

Over the past decade, state and national policymakers have promoted systemic reform as a way to achieve high-quality science education for all students. However, few instruments are available to measure changes in key dimensions relevant to systemic reform such as teaching practices, student attitudes, or home and peer support. Furthermore, Rasch methods of analysis are needed to permit valid comparison of different cohorts of students during different years of a reform effort. This article describes the design, development, validation, and use of an instrument that measures student attitudes and several environment dimensions (standards-based teaching, home support, and peer support) using a three-step process that incorporated expert opinion, factor analysis, and item response theory. The instrument was validated with over 8,000 science and mathematics students, taught by more than 1,000 teachers in over 200 schools as part of a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of Ohio's systemic reform initiative. When the new four-factor, 20-item questionnaire was used to explore the relative influence of the class, home, and peer environment on student achievement and attitudes, findings were remarkably consistent across 3 years and different units and methods of analysis. All three environments accounted for unique variance in student attitudes, but only the environment of the class accounted for unique variance in student achievement. However, the class environment (standards-based teaching practices) was the strongest independent predictor of both achievement and attitude, and appreciable amounts of the total variance in attitudes were common to the three environments.

New Orleans's Unique School Reform Effort and Its Potential Implications for Special Education

Science.gov (United States)

Morse, Timothy E.

2010-01-01

Four years following the decimation of the New Orleans Public Schools by Hurricane Katrina the city has been described as the center of a unique urban public school reform effort. This effort is a combination of events that transpired just before the storm and those that have occurred as a result of it. In particular some claim that the emerging…

School Effectiveness at Primary Level of Education in Relation to Classroom Teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manas Ranjan Panigrahi

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The study aims to investigate the relationship of School Effectiveness with regard to classroom teaching at primary level of education. The objectives of the study were to identify the more-effective and less-effective schools; to find out the differences between more-effective and less-effective schools in relation to physical facilities, Head Master and Teachers’ performance and Students’ performance; to find out the relationship between the school effectiveness and classroom teaching. The descriptive survey method was used to carry out this study. A Total number of 27 more-effective and 35 less-effective primary schools were included in the sample of the present study. And also all principals of selected schools and from each school 2 teachers were selected to know their classroom teaching in the classroom situation. The selection of teachers was based on their teaching the classes (III, IV and V, to investigate their participation in school activities. The findings of the present study on school effectiveness and classroom teaching find adequate support from similar or related studies. Thus, the above discussion reflects that there is no simple combination of factors, which can produce effective school. The study has, however, revealed that school effectiveness has emerged as related to classroom teaching.

Peer Observations among Faculty in a College of Education: Investigating the Summative and Formative Uses of the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP)

Science.gov (United States)

Amrein-Beardsley, Audrey; Osborn Popp, Sharon E.

2012-01-01

Teacher educators piloted the use of the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP), a peer observation instrument associated with increases in learning in science and mathematics teacher education courses. Faculty participants received a series of trainings in RTOP use and rated each other's teaching during multiple peer observations. The…

Development and Implementation of Inquiry-Based and Computerized-Based Laboratories: Reforming High School Chemistry in Israel

Science.gov (United States)

Barnea, Nitza; Dori, Yehudit Judy; Hofstein, Avi

2010-01-01

Reforms in science education in general and in chemistry education in particular have been introduced in many countries since the beginning of the 21st Century. Similarly, at this time in Israel both the content and pedagogy of the chemistry curriculum in high schools were reformed. New content and pedagogical standards emerged, fostering…

The Implementation and Impact of Evidence-Based Mathematics Reforms in High-Poverty Middle Schools: A Multi-Site, Multi-Year Study

Science.gov (United States)

Balfanz, Robert; Mac Iver, Douglas J.; Byrnes, Vaughan

2006-01-01

This article reports on the first 4 years of an effort to develop comprehensive and sustainable mathematics education reforms in high poverty middle schools. In four related analyses, we examine the levels of implementation achieved and impact of the reforms on various measures of achievement in the first 3 schools to implement the Talent…

When Teachers Speak of Teaching, What Do They Say? A Portrait of Teaching from the Voices of the StoryCorps National Teachers Initiative

Science.gov (United States)

Liefshitz, Irene Anastasia

2015-01-01

There is a significant lack of educational research in which teachers' talk about teaching is not mediated by researchers. In the public sphere, teachers' voices rarely reach us unfiltered by the media, union and school district representatives, education reformers, and policymakers. What if we could listen to teachers talk about teaching…

Abstract Algebra for Algebra Teaching: Influencing School Mathematics Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Wasserman, Nicholas H.

2016-01-01

This article explores the potential for aspects of abstract algebra to be influential for the teaching of school algebra (and early algebra). Using national standards for analysis, four primary areas common in school mathematics--and their progression across elementary, middle, and secondary mathematics--where teaching may be transformed by…

Implementing School Improvement Strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

McDonnell, Lorraine M.

In the face of fiscal crisis, today's education reform measures must be both cost-efficient and classroom effective. Experience shows that successful measures incorporate lessons gained from the growth years of the 1970's. New teaching practices, for example, can be transferred from site to site; schools can use to their advantage past efforts of…

The Keys to Effective Schools: Educational Reform as Continuous Improvement

Science.gov (United States)

Hawley, Willis D., Ed.

2006-01-01

Working in tandem with the powerful National Education Association's KEYS initiative (Keys to Excellence in Your Schools), this second edition focuses on how to change a school's organizational structure and culture to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Each chapter, revised and updated to address continuous improvement and narrowing…

Inculcating Character Education through EFL Teaching in Indonesian State Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Qoyyimah, Uswatun

2016-01-01

This paper describes how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Indonesia have implemented the recent character education policy within an era of school-based curriculum reform. The character education policy required all teachers, EFL teachers included, to instil certain values in every lesson whilst the school-based curriculum reform…

Teaching Practices, School Support and Bullying

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez, Ana Carolina Reyes; Noriega, José Angel Vera; Cuervo, Angel Alberto Valdés

2017-01-01

Research in recent years indicates that schools, and in particular teaching practices, play an essential role in preventing bullying. This study's aim is to investigate the direct and indirect relationships between permissive and direct intervention teacher practices, school support and bullying. In a non-probabilistic way, 386 (58.1%) boys and…

Taking risks with a growth mindset: long-term influence of an elementary pre-service after school science practicum

Science.gov (United States)

Cartwright, T. J.; Hallar, B.

2018-02-01

In this study, we present the long-term influence of an after school science practicum associated with an elementary science methods course. The practicum or field experience could be considered a community-based service learning programme as it is situated both within and for the community. Study participants included eight third- and fifth-grade teachers who had participated in elementary science methods courses; four of these teachers participated in the after school teaching practicum while four participants experienced a more traditional observation-based elementary science practicum. All of these teachers were in their second or third year teaching which was 3-4 years after taking the methods course. Investigation methods included questionnaires, field observations and semi-structured, individual interviews. Teachers more regularly utilised reform-based teaching strategies and cited the after school teaching practicum as preparing them to use these strategies in their own classrooms. All teachers exhibited a growth mindset to some degree, but the after school practicum participants did demonstrate a wider use of reformed-based teaching strategies and a higher growth mindset. Elementary teachers perceive risk associated with these key aspects of instruction: (1) managing instruction and classroom management, (2) teaching science through guided inquiry, and (3) overcoming adoptions in other 'mandated' curriculum like math and reading.

From pedagogy to timeagogy? Leisure-time pedagogues handling time in the reformed Danish Primary School and Leisure-time Center

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gravesen, David Thore; Ringskou, Lea Thomsen

for effectiveness contributes to increasing amounts of discipline techniques and new requirements in relation to the pedagogues’ skills in classroom management. Seemingly, the enhanced encounter between time and pedagogy both provide potentials and pitfalls, triggering different, often ambivalent, emotional......, Denmark. E-mail: dtg@viauc.dk Research topic/aim: In 2014, the Danish Primary School was reformed. A reform that meant longer school days, emphasizing varied learning environments and better results for each pupil regardless of social background. In general, the reform matches other educational reforms...... effectiveness and academic outcomes. In our presentation, launching the concept of timeagogy, we analyze and discuss the encounter between time and pedagogy. Which strategies, techniques and action evolve when time challenges pedagogy? How do pedagogues handle time demands and in which way does time constitute...

Teaching Quality and Learning Creativity in Technical and Vocational Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Kembuan, D. R. E.; Rompas, P. T. D.; Mintjelungan, M.; Pantondate, T.; Kilis, B. M. H.

2018-02-01

The purpose of this study is to obtain information about the teacher quality of teaching and learning creativity with the outcomes of student learning in a vocational high school in Indonesia. This research is a survey research. The sample used in this research is 50 teachers, selected by simple random sampling. Data were analyzed by using correlation analysis. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) There is a significant and positive correlation between teacher quality of teaching with the outcomes of student learning at the vocational high school; (2) There is a significant and positive correlation between learning creativity with the outcomes of student learning at the vocational high school, and (3) there is a significant and positive correlation between the teacher quality of teaching and learning creativity with the outcomes of student learning at the school. That is, if the use of appropriate the teacher quality of teaching and learning creativity, then the outcomes of student learning at the school. Finally it can be concluded that to improve the outcomes of student learning, it has to be followed by an improvement of teacher quality of teaching and learning creativity.

Implementation of Teaching Skills and Strategies in the Schools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Choeda, Choeda; Kinley, Kinley

2013-01-01

‘Teaching Skills’ and ‘Teaching Strategies’ are two core (professional) modules offered at the two colleges of education in Bhutan to develop pedagogical knowledge and skills of student teachers. However, a tracer study (in press) done by Samtse College of Education [SCE] revealed teacher graduates...... of teaching skills and strategies in the schools. Teacher graduates, both male and female having working experience of three years and above, teaching in Middle Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools, were selected as the participants in the study. Samples were drawn from the different parts of the country...... covering seventeen Dzongkhags. The study revealed adequate understanding of the concepts of professional modules. However, teachers were found to be grappling with the extra responsibilities affecting their planning to integrate skills and strategies into their teaching. Key words: Teaching skills...

A Curriculum and Software Design Scaffolding Goal Directed Teaching in Classrooms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Misfeldt, Morten; Bundsgaard, Jeppe; Slot, Marie Falkesgaard

, the tool itself, and selected findings from qualitative and quantitative studies in the project. 2. International trends in goal oriented and data driven teaching The Danish curriculum reform builds on recent trends in school development and curriculum research suggesting the importance of a competence...... development and curriculum research suggesting the importance of a competence framework, learning goals and aggregation of classroom data to efficient teaching (Earl & Fullan 2003). Learning goals are supposed to support the student’s pace and sense of progression, inform classroom decisions, structure...... student has knowledge of text structure”). The curriculum can be presented in a number of graphical modes, e.g. in a matrix or in a hypertext structure. The curriculum reform was implemented in order to promote a goal oriented teaching and learning practice based heavily on research around data driven...

Progress in reforming chemical engineering education.

Science.gov (United States)

Wankat, Phillip C

2013-01-01

Three successful historical reforms of chemical engineering education were the triumph of chemical engineering over industrial chemistry, the engineering science revolution, and Engineering Criteria 2000. Current attempts to change teaching methods have relied heavily on dissemination of the results of engineering-education research that show superior student learning with active learning methods. Although slow dissemination of education research results is probably a contributing cause to the slowness of reform, two other causes are likely much more significant. First, teaching is the primary interest of only approximately one-half of engineering faculty. Second, the vast majority of engineering faculty have no training in teaching, but trained professors are on average better teachers. Significant progress in reform will occur if organizations with leverage-National Science Foundation, through CAREER grants, and the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET-use that leverage to require faculty to be trained in pedagogy.

Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Renee, Michelle; McAlister, Sara

2011-01-01

Community organizing for school reform offers an urgently needed alternative to traditional approaches to school change. Many current reforms fail to thrive due to lack of trust, understanding, or cultural relevance to the community being targeted. The high turnover of reformers (superintendents, principals, or outside organizations) in high-need…

Turkish Preservice Science Teachers' Socioscientific Issues-Based Teaching Practices in Middle School Science Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Genel, Abdulkadir; Topçu, Mustafa Sami

2016-01-01

Background: Despite a growing body of research and curriculum reforms including socioscientific issues (SSI) across the world, how preservice science teachers (PST) or in-service science teachers can teach SSI in science classrooms needs further inquiry. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the abilities of PSTs to teach SSI in middle…

The University of Zambia School Teaching Experience: Is It Effective?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Chomba Manchishi

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Teaching practice exercises serve the purpose of orienting the teacher into real classroom situations where the novice puts his or her skills into practice. Education students at the University of Zambia (UNZA go through the school teaching experience after their third year of study. This comes after they have arguably completed enough content and methodology courses to teach. The purpose of this study was to establish the effectiveness of the UNZA school teaching experience. The research instruments used were interview guides, observation checklists, and focus group discussions. The respondents included 80 serving teachers, 80 student teachers, and 10 head teachers drawn from 10 high schools in the Lusaka District. In addition, 10 lecturers from UNZA were also sampled. The findings revealed that the design and delivery of the UNZA student teaching experience was not effective.

The Art of Teaching the Arts: A Workshop for High School Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Annenberg Media, 2005

2005-01-01

"The Art of Teaching the Arts: A Workshop for High School Teachers" is an eight-part professional development workshop for use by high school dance, music, theatre, and visual art teachers. The workshop examines how principles of good teaching are carried out in teaching the arts at the high school level. In the eight one-hour video programs,…

"It All depends...": Middle School Teachers Evaluate Single-Sex Classes

Science.gov (United States)

Spielhagen, Frances R.

2011-01-01

This mixed-methods study explored the effectiveness of single-sex classes according to key stakeholders in this educational reform--the teachers who choose or are hired to teach in single-sex classes and schools. Specifically, this study examined the on-the-ground experiences of middle school teachers as they attempted to implement a relatively…

The Discourse of Partnership and the Reality of Reform: Interrogating the Recent Reform Agenda at Initial Teacher Education and Induction Levels in Ireland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Judith Harford

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Over the last decade, teacher education in Ireland has experienced radical reconceptualization and restructuring at both initial teacher education [ITE] and induction levels, with reform of continuous professional development now in the planning phase. The establishment of the Teaching Council (2006 as a statutory, regulatory body, with a role in the review and accreditation of teacher education, increased the visibility of and policy focus on teacher education. Significant reform of initial teacher education was announced in 2011 that included both an extension of the duration of programmes and, most notably, the period the student teachers were to be engaged in school-based professional development. This increased period has been accompanied by a shift in the understanding of what is involved in practicum and implies a redefinition of the respective roles of the university and the school, and the development of a new form of partnership between both agencies. The period of induction and probation has also become an area of reform with an emphasis on school-based coaching and the evaluation of newly qualified teachers, which devolves decisions on teachers’ full recognition and membership of the profession, to principals and colleagues. This shift, which changes the established approach to induction for primary level teachers, has resulted in the withdrawal of cooperation with this policy by the main teacher union and to the implementation process being stymied. Both policy developments bring the concept of partnership within Irish education into sharp focus: a partnership between schools and universities in ITE, but also partnership in policy development and implementation in the case of induction.

Do American and Korean Education Systems Converge? Tracking School Reform Policies and Outcomes in Korea and the USA

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jaekyung; Park, Daekwon

2014-01-01

This study examines key school reform policies and outcomes of the USA and Korea over the past three decades from comparative perspectives. Since the two nations' unique educational problems brought divergent educational reform paths--standardization versus differentiation, high-stakes testing versus individualized assessment, and centralization…

Emotiogenic Cognitive Function of Modern School Teaching Texts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Любовь Васильевна Ерохина

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the analysis of emotional attractiveness of modern school educational texts and ecological/non-ecological influence upon pupils’ cognition in teaching communication. Reasoning is based on the thesis that - emotional attractiveness of modern school educational texts opposes their cognitive function. Emotional educational text profile and its components are under consideration. The article is concerned with ecological and cognitive and emotional asymmetry content. The material under focus is printed texts of some of modern school textbooks, teaching methodical aids, academic competitions, mass media information from the cognitive ecology point of view.

The Implementation of Entrepreneurship Education through Curriculum Reform in Finnish Comprehensive Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Seikkula-Leino, Jaana

2011-01-01

How has entrepreneurship education been implemented in Finnish comprehensive schools. A two-part survey was undertaken in 43 municipalities with different educational and socio-economic backgrounds. The first part, in 2005, dealt with the local curriculum reform with a focus on the development of entrepreneurship education. The second part, in…

Relationships between school support, school facilities, ICT culture and mathematics teachers' attitudes towards ICT in teaching and learning

Science.gov (United States)

Ayub, Ahmad Fauzi Mohd; Bakar, Kamariah Abu; Ismail, Rohayati

2012-05-01

Information communication Technology (ICT) has been a major influence in the Malaysian Education System, especially in the teaching of mathematics. Since 2003, the Malaysian Ministry of Education has provided incentives to mathematics teacher to motivate them to use ICT using English as the medium of instruction, during the teaching and learning process. However, there are barriers that prevented mathematics teachers from using ICT in the classrooms. This study is to determine factors that influenced the attitudes of Malaysian Mathematic Teachers in integrating ICT in their teaching and learning. One hundred ninety one mathematics teachers were randomly selected for the purpose of this study. The three factors investigated were school support, school facilities and school culture which had been selected to be correlated with teachers' attitudes towards integrating ICT in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Findings showed that significant positive relationships existed between teachers' attitudes toward integrating ICT in the teaching and learning and school support, school facilities and ICT culture and This finding indicated that, in order to develop teachers' attitudes in using ICT during their teaching and learning process, they needed support from the school principals and also their colleagues. Apart from that, school facilities and also ICT culture were also found to be essential.

Teaching English Language Skills for School Teachers: CTE Programme of IGNOU

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asha Khare

2011-01-01

Full Text Available India is a multilingual country. English is the second most important language in the country after the national language Hindi since it is taught as a compulsory subject in all the Indian schools. In the educational system of a multilingual country, it becomes imperative to improve the English Language teaching skills of the school teachers who come from various linguistic backgrounds. The school teacher plays a vital role in the development of linguistic skills of the students. What children learn can affect their later success or failure in school, work, and their personal lives. As such, the school teachers need to improve their own English language skills if they are teaching without any previous English language training. This paper throws light on the communicative approach of English language teaching. It introduces the Certificate in Teaching of English (CTE programme of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU and outlines the syllabus and the methods used by the university to impart English Language Teaching skills to the elementary/secondary school teachers through this programme with the objective to enhance teacher’s understanding of  the learners and their learning process.

Confronting Barriers to Teaching Elementary Science: After-School Science Teaching Experiences for Preservice Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Cartwright, Tina; Smith, Suzanne; Hallar, Brittan

2014-01-01

This qualitative study examines the transition of eight elementary preservice teachers into student teaching after participating in a science methods course that included a significant amount of teaching after-school science to elementary grade students. These eight participants had a chance to practice teaching inquiry-based science and to reform…

Teaching and Reform in Higher Vocational Schools Advertising Design%高职院校广告设计教学现状与改革

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

曾婷

2016-01-01

Advertising design in vocational college is to cultivate practical ability of technical personnel to design advertising market, but how to cultivate capable of designing, planning and brand strategy in an all-round talent is a topic discussed in this paper. As relevant educators, we are obliged to go to personnel training and education institutions have the ability to design in-novative and contribute. Of course, you want to carry out teaching reform and innovation, we must first understand the status of vocational education colleges advertising design and existing problems in order to explore a range of appropriate teaching reform measures.%高职院校的广告设计教育是为广告设计市场培养实践能力强的技术型人才的，但是如何去培养能够集设计、策划和品牌战略于一身的全方位人才则是本文探讨的主题。作为相关教育工作者，我们有义务、有责任去为了培养具有设计能力和创新精神的人才教育机构而做出贡献。当然，想要进行教学改革创新，首先要了解高职院校广告设计教育的现状及存在的问题，从而摸索一系列相应的教学改革措施。

Teaching law in medical schools: first, reflect.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Amy T

2012-01-01

Law is now routinely included in the medical school curriculum, often incorporated into bioethics and/or practice of medicine coursework. There seems to lack, however, a systematic understanding of what works in terms of getting across an effective depth and breadth of legal knowledge for medical students - or what such would even look like. Moreover, and more critically, while some literature addresses these what, when, how, and who questions, a more fundamental question is left unanswered: why teach law in medical school? This article suggests a process to reveal a more consensual understanding of this latter question. The author highlights findings and recommendations of some of the leading literature to date related to teaching law in medical schools, and also recent U.K. projects addressing legal teaching in medical schools. Reflecting on these materials and activities, the author suggests that we take a "pause" before we argue for more or different legal topics within the medical curriculum. Before we alter the curricula for more and/or different "law," first, it is critical to have a meaningful, stakeholder-driven, consensus-seeking discussion of the goals of legal education: why do we think it matters that medical students learn about "the law"? © 2012 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

Teaching - learning plan on nuclear energy for elementary school

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-03-01

This is for teaching - learning curriculum about nuclear energy for elementary school students. It consist of four titles, which are I saved this much, learning energy through quiz, I work for nuclear power plant and would mayor build a nuclear power plant in our town? It was written to teach nuclear power plant and nuclear energy to elementary school students in easy way.

[The fight against school failure in children of migrants].

Science.gov (United States)

Sarot, Adeline; Chomentowski, Martine; Moro, Marie Rose

2013-01-01

The "Mastering the language" scheme focuses on the prevention of illiteracy in children of migrants in vocation-oriented high schools. According to interviews carried out with teachers, there seems to be a transformation in their conception of teaching within the scheme, which is in line with the change encouraged by the current reform of the whole public service sector. This reform offers hope with regard to the humanisation of institutions which are currently violent.

Negotiating science and engineering: an exploratory case study of a reform-minded science teacher

Science.gov (United States)

Guzey, S. Selcen; Ring-Whalen, Elizabeth A.

2018-05-01

Engineering has been slowly integrated into K-12 science classrooms in the United States as the result of recent science education reforms. Such changes in science teaching require that a science teacher is confident with and committed to content, practices, language, and cultures related to both science and engineering. However, from the perspective of the science teacher, this would require not only the development of knowledge and pedagogies associated with engineering, but also the construction of new identities operating within the reforms and within the context of their school. In this study, a middle school science teacher was observed and interviewed over a period of nine months to explore his experiences as he adopted new values, discourses, and practices and constructed his identity as a reform-minded science teacher. Our findings revealed that, as the teacher attempted to become a reform-minded science teacher, he constantly negotiated his professional identities - a dynamic process that created conflicts in his classroom practices. Several differences were observed between the teacher's science and engineering instruction: hands-on activities, depth and detail of content, language use, and the way the teacher positioned himself and his students with respect to science and engineering. Implications for science teacher professional development are discussed.

Urban High School Teachers' Beliefs Concerning Essential Science Teaching Dispositions

Science.gov (United States)

Miranda, Rommel

2012-01-01

This qualitative study addresses the link between urban high school science teachers' beliefs about essential teaching dispositions and student learning outcomes. The findings suggest that in order to help students to do well in science in urban school settings, science teachers should possess essential teaching dispositions which include…

The Meaning(s) of Teacher Leadership in an Urban High School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Scribner, Samantha M. Paredes; Bradley-Levine, Jill

2010-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the meaning of teacher leadership from teachers' perspectives. The authors examine teachers' practice of and talk about legitimate sources of power and influence in the context of an urban high school reform. Design: This is an interpretive study of teacher leadership situated in one small high…

Classroom assessment in Chinese primary school mathematics education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhao, X.

2018-01-01

In mainland China, where there exists a deeply-rooted examination culture, an assessment reform promoting the use of assessment to support teaching and learning has been carried out since 2001. After a decade, however, only a few studies have been done that focus on primary school mathematics

Teaching practices and professional development of biology professors at small, private, liberal arts colleges in the Southeast

Science.gov (United States)

Mallory, Sarah Elizabeth Bradford

Science teaching in pre-college institutions has been undergoing reform in recent years, particularly since 1996, when the National Science Education Standards were published. This reform includes inquiry-based teaching, student-centered classrooms, authentic assessment, and collaborative learning. Professional development is also recommended in the Standards document as the means for preparing teachers for reform-based teaching in pre-college classrooms. In post-secondary institutions, there is no curriculum-governing body to institute reform, and college faculty have devised their own standards and methods for teaching science, most often in the form of lecture and traditional procedure-driven laboratory exercises. This study was conducted to find examples of reform-based biology teaching in small, private, liberal arts colleges in the Southeast, where teaching innovations may be more likely to occur due to the size and independence of the schools. Professional development opportunities were also examined, since these would be important in the development of new curricula and methods of teaching. Data were collected from 151 participants, representing 78.3% of these colleges in eight southeastern states, by survey and from three volunteers by on-site interviews. Teaching was the main responsibility reported by all respondents, with both lower and upper level biology courses taught by all participants. Significant differences were found in the use of reform-based teaching in lower level biology courses versus upper level biology courses. Overall average use of inquiry-based teaching was 70.5%, while student-centered learning was reported on average by 57% of respondents, authentic assessment was reported on average by 56.6% of respondents, and collaborative learning was reported on average by 56% of respondents. Professional development opportunities most frequently used were reported to be journal, books, and videotapes. Multivariate regression analyses revealed

Reforming the Discipline Management Process in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Zero Tolerance

Science.gov (United States)

Kajs, Lawrence T.

2006-01-01

There is a need for educational reform of zero tolerance policies in school disciplinary management procedures. Zero tolerance policies are rigid mandates of predetermined consequences for specific student misconduct. Common sense and fairness are not necessarily served by the application of inflexible disciplinary rules that do not address the…

Reasons for Choosing the Teaching Profession and Beliefs about Teaching: A Study with Elementary School Teacher Candidates

Science.gov (United States)

Dündar, Sahin

2014-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine elementary school teacher candidates' motivations for choosing the teaching profession, beliefs about teaching, and satisfaction with the choice. Data were collected from 176 freshman elementary school teacher candidates at two public universities in Turkey. Results showed that the decision to choose…

Teaching sex education: are Scottish school nurses prepared for the challenge?

Science.gov (United States)

McFadyen, J

2004-02-01

Teaching sex education to school pupils in Scotland continues to be a controversial issue. In reality there is lack of leadership, strategy and an uncoordinated approach to delivering this important topic. The school nurse is frequently identified as a suitable professional to lead the way because it is assumed that school nurses are well educated in the field of sexual and reproductive health. Nationally, little is known about the educational status of Scottish school nurses and there is no research evidence available from which generalisations can be made. This study aims to explore the educational preparation of school nurses that underpins teaching sex education to school pupils in Scotland. A cross-sectional descriptive study was completed in September 1998. The results confirmed that school nurses in Scotland are predominantly female and 70% of the respondents (n=117) were over the age of 40 years of age. No common basic nursing qualification was identified. The majority of school nurses in Scotland perceive sex education to be part of their role and 39% (n=65) testified that specific sexual health training had been undertaken. Many lack confidence in this area of practice and are aware of extensive educational needs in relation to teaching sexual health and reproductive health. Despite these findings 75% (n=126) were actively involved in teaching sex education to school pupils.

Repositioning teaching in Nigerian secondary schools using media ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Repositioning teaching in Nigerian secondary schools using media resources in a digital age. ... Lagos Journal of Library and Information Science ... that the new tools served as an added advantage on the traditional method of teaching and learning, especially in information delivery; channelled through media resources.

Trends in the Distribution of Teacher Effectiveness in the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching: Progress Report. Working Paper WR-1036-BMGF

Science.gov (United States)

Steele, Jennifer L.; Baird, Matthew; Engberg, John; Hunter, Gerald Paul

2014-01-01

As part of its effective teaching initiative, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation partnered with three urban school districts across the U.S. and a group of four charter management organizations to undertake a strategic set of human capital reforms. A key objective of the "Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching" program was to…

Material Teaching Aids: Enhancement Tool for Teaching Essay Writing in Secondary Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Fidelia, Okonkwo Adaobi

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of material teaching aids as enhancement tool for teaching essay writing in secondary schools in Ebonyi State. A 4-point Likert-scale questionnaire was used as the instrument. A trial test was conducted and tested for reliability and a value of 0.75 was obtained from the test. The instrument was…

Enacting the Carnegie Foundation call for reform of medical school and residency.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Bridget C; Irby, David M

2013-01-01

On the 100th anniversary of the Flexner Report, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published a new study of medical education. This study, titled Educating Physicians: A Call for Reform of Medical Schools and Residency Programs, contained four primary recommendations intended to stimulate innovation and improvement in medical education. In this article, the authors examined the ways others have applied the four recommendations from Educating Physicians within and beyond medical education. In their review of 246 publications citing the Carnegie work, they found that the recommendation for integration was addressed most frequently, often through descriptions of integration of curricular content in undergraduate medical education. The recommendation to focus on professional identity formation was the second most frequently addressed, followed by standardization and individualization, then inquiry, innovation, and improvement. The publications related to these latter three recommendations tended to be conceptual rather than descriptive or empirical. Publications spanned the continuum of medical education (from medical school to residency to physicians in practice) and even into other fields, but undergraduate medical education received the most attention. The authors discuss common themes among the citing publications and highlight opportunities for further discussion and innovation. Many exciting developments have occurred in medical education and beyond since the publication of Educating Physicians in 2010. Thus far, most of the publications citing the Carnegie recommendations describe incremental changes in medical education, particularly in the area of integration. Some of the conceptual work around these recommendations, coupled with a variety of external factors such as changes in health care and accreditation systems, suggests the potential for changes that are more transformative in nature.

Love, Happiness, and America's Schools: The Role of Educational Leadership in the 21st Century.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoyle, John R.; Slater, Robert O.

2001-01-01

Some want schools reformed to produce high-performing future leaders. Others desire schools that teach students how to live, share, and serve others. Competition and high performance need not substitute for happiness, love, and service-values that counter America's culture of hyper-individualism, isolationism, and declining social/political…

Teaching school children basic life support improves teaching and basic life support skills of medical students: A randomised, controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, Stefanie; Meier-Klages, Vivian; Michaelis, Maria; Sehner, Susanne; Harendza, Sigrid; Zöllner, Christian; Kubitz, Jens Christian

2016-11-01

The "kids save lives" joint-statement highlights the effectiveness of training all school children worldwide in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to improve survival after cardiac arrest. The personnel requirement to implement this statement is high. Until now, no randomised controlled trial investigated if medical students benefit from their engagement in the BLS-education of school children regarding their later roles as physicians. The objective of the present study is to evaluate if medical students improve their teaching behaviour and CPR-skills by teaching school children in basic life support. The study is a randomised, single blind, controlled trial carried out with medical students during their final year. In total, 80 participants were allocated alternately to either the intervention or the control group. The intervention group participated in a CPR-instructor-course consisting of a 4h-preparatory seminar and a teaching-session in BLS for school children. The primary endpoints were effectiveness of teaching in an objective teaching examination and pass-rates in a simulated BLS-scenario. The 28 students who completed the CPR-instructor-course had significantly higher scores for effective teaching in five of eight dimensions and passed the BLS-assessment significantly more often than the 25 students of the control group (Odds Ratio (OR): 10.0; 95%-CI: 1.9-54.0; p=0.007). Active teaching of BLS improves teaching behaviour and resuscitation skills of students. Teaching school children in BLS may prepare medical students for their future role as a clinical teacher and support the implementation of the "kids save lives" statement on training all school children worldwide in BLS at the same time. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of Teaching Performance: Considerations from the Competency-Based Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Rueda Beltrán

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The article gives an overview of the main arguments and characteristics attributed to the Competency-based Approach in education, so as to analyze the various definitions available and some of the proposals on the subject of teaching skills. Approaches and strategies are suggested for developing teacher-evaluation programs in the context of a generalized environment in the educational sector which is adopting the model of competencies for school reform, curriculum redesign, modifications in teaching strategies, and manners and functions of evaluation.

Connecting university science experiences to middle school science teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Gordon; Laughran, Laura; Tamppari, Ray; Thomas, Perry

1991-06-01

Science teachers naturally rely on their university science experiences as a foundation for teaching middle school science. This foundation consists of knowledge far too complex for the middle level students to comprehend. In order for middle school science teachers to utilize their university science training they must search for ways to adapt their college experiences into appropriate middle school learning experience. The criteria set forth above provide broad-based guidelines for translating university science laboratory experiences into middle school activities. These guidelines are used by preservice teachers in our project as they identify, test, and organize a resource file of hands-on inquiry activities for use in their first year classrooms. It is anticipated that this file will provide a basis for future curriculum development as the teacher becomes more comfortable and more experienced in teaching hands-on science. The presentation of these guidelines is not meant to preclude any other criteria or considerations which a teacher or science department deems important. This is merely one example of how teachers may proceed to utilize their advanced science training as a basis for teaching middle school science.

The higher school teaching staff professional development system creation on the adaptive management principles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Borova T.A.

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The article deals with theoretical analysis of the higher school teaching staff professional development system creation on the adaptive management principles. It is determined the background and components of the higher school teaching staff professional development adaptive management system. It is specified the mechanisms for higher school teaching staff professional development adaptive management: monitoring and coaching. It is shown their place in the higher school teaching staff professional development system on the adaptive management principles. The results of the system efficiency are singled out.

Student memories: Insights for science reform

Science.gov (United States)

Chaillie, Jane Hall

The purpose of this study was to examine the recollections pre-service teachers majoring in elementary education have of their science experiences during their elementary years and to explore the recollections in the context of science education reform efforts. At the beginning of science methods course work, pre-service elementary teachers reflected on their memories of their own elementary education experiences. Themes from 102 reflective essays collected in two settings and time periods were identified and compared. The themes remained consistent over both settings and time frames studied and fall into three general categories: curriculum and instruction, teacher traits, and student traits. The pre-service teachers expressed difficulty in recalling elementary science experiences and attributed their limited memories to what they perceived as a low priority of science content in the elementary curriculum. Teaching strategies played a prominent role in the memories reported. Hands-on and active learning strategies produced positive memories, while lectures, reading textbooks, and completing worksheets resulted in more negative memories. Furthermore, pre-service teacher essays often failed to connect the learning activities with concept development or understanding. Pre-service teachers were split nearly equally between those who liked and those who disliked elementary science. The attributes of elementary teachers received the least attention in the categories and focused primarily on passion for teaching science. Implications for science reform leaders, teacher education preparation programs, and school administrators and curriculum directors are identified.

Reforming Science and Mathematics Education

Science.gov (United States)

Lagowski, J. J.

1995-09-01

Since 1991, the National Science Foundation has signed cooperative agreements with 26 states to undertake ambitious and comprehensive initiatives to reform science, mathematics, and technology education. Collectively, those agreements are known as the State Systemic Initiatives (SSI's). Two complimentary programs, The Urban and Rural Systemic Initiatives (USI's and RSI's), address similar reforms in the nation's largest cities and poorest rural areas. The SSI Program departs significantly from past NSF practice in several ways. The funding is for a longer term and is larger in amount, and the NSF is taking a more activist role, seeking to leverage state and private funds and promote the coordination of programs within states. The Initiatives also have a stronger policy orientation than previous NSF programs have had. The NSF strategy is a reflection of the growing and widely held view that meaningful reforms in schools are most likely to be achieved through state initiatives that set clear and ambitious learning goals and standards; align all of the available policy levers in support of reform; stimulate school-level initiatives; and mobilize human and financial resources to support these changes. Two premises underlie systemic reform: (1) all children can meet significantly higher standards if they are asked to do so and given adequate opportunities to master the content, and (2) state and local policy changes can create opportunities by giving schools strong and consistent signals about the changes in practice and performance that are expected. Because this is an enormous investment of Federal resources that is intended to bring about deep, systemic improvement in the nation's ability to teach science and mathematics effectively, the NSF has contracted with a consortium of independent evaluators to conduct a review of the program. The first of the SSI's were funded in 1991, sufficiently long ago to begin to formulate some initial impressions of their impact. Take

Neoliberalism as Nihilism? A Commentary on Educational Accountability, Teacher Education, and School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Tuck, Eve

2013-01-01

In this article, the author discusses neoliberalism as an extension of settler colonialism. The article provides commentary on five recent articles on teacher education and the neoliberal agenda. The article presents an analysis of neoliberalism as despair, and as a form of nihilism. The author discusses an indigenous model of school reform and…

Emotional Component in Teaching and Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Ponnambalam, Michael

2018-02-01

The laws of physics are often seen as objective truth, pure and simple. Hence, they tend to appear cerebral and cold. However, their presentation is necessarily subjective and may vary from being boring to being exciting. A detailed analysis of physics education reform efforts over the last three decades finds that interactive instruction results in greater learning gains than the traditional lecture format. In interactive engagement, the emotional component plays a far greater role than acknowledged by many. As an experienced physics teacher [(i) Four decades of teaching and research in four continents (teaching all courses to undergraduate physics majors and algebra-based physics to high school seniors as well as college freshmen), (ii) 11 years of volunteer work in Physics Popularization in six countries to many thousands of students in elementary, middle, and high schools as well as colleges and universities, and (iii) eight years as a Master Teacher and mentor], I feel that the emotional component in teaching and learning physics has been neglected. This paper presents the role of the emotional component in transforming ordinary teaching and learning of physics into an enjoyable and exciting experience for students as well as teachers.

77 FR 27553 - National Charter Schools Week, 2012

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-10

... new teaching models and develop creative methods to meet students' needs. This unique flexibility is..., while those that consistently help students succeed can serve as models of reform for other public schools. In an economy where knowledge is our most valuable asset, a good education is no longer just a...

Coaching and engaging. Developing teaching with CAS in High School

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bang, Henrik Peter; Grønbæk, Niels; Larsen, Claus Richard

The extensive use of CAS at upper secondary school in Denmark provides a laboratory for research on the development of standards for CAS teaching. The poster focuses on action research into teachers developing lessons and student activities in an ongoing collaboration between university and high ...... schools on use of CAS in mathematics teaching. Coaches1 mediate design processes, reflection and documentation, and enable sharing. We discuss coaching as a valuable part of action research, and how to draw findings from the collaboration.......The extensive use of CAS at upper secondary school in Denmark provides a laboratory for research on the development of standards for CAS teaching. The poster focuses on action research into teachers developing lessons and student activities in an ongoing collaboration between university and high...

Exploring Quality Teaching of Information and Communication Technology in New South Wales and Yenbai High Schools: A Comparative Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Manh Thang

This study compares ICT policy and curriculum and assessment practices between Australian and Vietnamese secondary schools, and investigates differences between these two school systems. Document analyses and case studies were used to examine the key differences in ICT curriculum and policy and assessment practices between Australian and Vietnamese secondary schools. The document analyses focused on the intended ICT policy and curriculum and assessment, as presented in official documents in both countries. Using a case study approach for in-depth examination, two secondary schools were selected (one from Yenbai province, Vietnam and one from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia). Two principals and three teachers were interviewed. Classroom teaching and assessment practices were observed, and principals and teachers' views were obtained through semi-structured interviews and extensive discussions. Findings from the two case studies were compared with the findings from the document analysis. This study explored and analysed differences in ICT teaching, learning, assessment, and achievement between Vietnamese and Australian secondary students. It was found that that Australian ICT school curricula and assessment differed markedly from the Vietnamese system. Student ICT achievement in these Australian and Vietnamese schools could not only be attributed to higher standards of intended ICT curricula and assessment, or teacher knowledge or classroom practices. These differences are better explained by economic and cultural factors, ICT policies and their degrees of implementation, and extra ICT curricula. In order to bridge the gap and implement adequate ICT curricula and policies, rigorous professional training in teaching and assessment is essential for both Australian and Vietnamese teachers. In order to improve Australian students' ICT achievement, achievement motivation must be addressed. Many challenging aspects were found in ICT policies and classrooms in the

Lessons to be learned from the history of anatomical teaching in the United States: the example of the University of Michigan.

Science.gov (United States)

Hildebrandt, Sabine

2010-01-01

Although traditional departments of anatomy are vanishing from medical school rosters, anatomical education still remains an important part of the professional training of physicians. It is of some interest to examine whether history can teach us anything about how to reform modern anatomy. Are there lessons to be learned from the history of anatomical teaching in the United States that can help in the formulation of contents and purposes of a new anatomy? This question is explored by a review of US anatomical teaching with special reference to Franklin Paine Mall and the University of Michigan Medical School. An historical perspective reveals that there is a tradition of US anatomical teaching and research that is characterized by a zeal for reform and innovation, scientific endeavor, and active, student-driven learning. Further, there is a tradition of high standards in anatomical teaching through the teachers' engagement in scientific anatomy and of adaptability to new requirements. These traditional strengths can inform the innovation of modern anatomy in terms of its two duties--its duty to anatomy as a science and its duty toward anatomical education. Copyright 2010 American Association of Anatomists.

The Employment of Pop Culture in Middle School English Language Teaching

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

杨才英

2007-01-01

Nowadays,culture teaching is more emphasized in language teaching. But less attention is paid to the influence of pop culture in language teaching. The important role of pop culture in middle school English language teaching will be discussed in this thesis through its correlation with some factors in English language teaching.

Spoon-Feeding to Tongue-Biting and Beyond: Factors That Contributed to Changes in Irish Primary School Teachers' Mathematics Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Treacy, Mia

2017-01-01

Research that aimed to examine teachers' experiences whilst implementing a reform approach to mathematics teaching in an Irish primary school forms the basis of this paper. In particular, factors that contributed to changing mathematics practice in this case study school are outlined. The school engaged in professional development (PD) that…

Teaching Movement Activities as Performativity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jens-Ole

2017-01-01

subjects the teaching style should be characterized by more variation and motivate the pupils. Research has shown that there is a correlation between physical activity and intellectual capital (e.g. educational attainment and academic performance), physical capital (e.g. physical fitness and reduction...... of the risk for diseases and risk factors) and emotional capital (e.g. fun, enjoyment and self-esteem) (Bailey, Hillman, Arent, & Petitpas, 2013). The school reform prescribes that all pupils from grade 1-9 must have at least 45 minutes of movement activities in average every day.Next to the well-known PE...... without prerequisites but part of discourses and at the same time individual interpretations of specific practices. The teaching role is something that is constantly produced and reproduced in the bodily interaction. Understanding teaching as performativity means that teachers are not acting in certain...

Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public Schools. Stats in Brief. NCES 2015-065

Science.gov (United States)

Malkus, Nat; Hoyer, Kathleen Mulvaney; Sparks, Dinah

2015-01-01

This brief investigates teaching vacancies and difficult-to-staff teaching positions (i.e., positions for which the principals reported that it was very difficult to fill a vacancy or that they could not fill a vacancy in a specific subject area) in public schools in four school years (1999-2000, 2003-04, 2007-08, and 2011-12). This Statistics in…

The 1921 Agrarian Reform in Transylvania and its Reflection in the Considerations of the Members of the Bucharest School of Sociology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TELEGDY, Balázs

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The 1921 agrarian reform aimed to be a significant step towards Romania’s agricultural development. The main motive of this reform – at least on a declarative level – was a socially oriented one: to expropriate a part of the big landowners’ estates, and to distribute in among the poverty-stricken people, with a special concern towards the First World War veterans, or their widows. At the same time, the agrarian reform recognised the differences in development between the different regions of the newly-formed Greater Romania, and as such there were two different laws regulating the reform processes in the Old Kingdom and in the newly annexed territories. The members of the Bucharest School of Sociology, based on the scarce data available to them to the time, approached the economically questionable results of this reform in a critical manner. József Venczel, who had acquired the bases of his professional knowledge at the same school, also proves, with regard to the Transylvanian land reform, that this had a second, national policy oriented goal, and its implementation was also ethnically biased.

Teaching practice and reform of the cultivation of excellent engineer based on the idea of engineering education

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Hanxin; Xiong, Feibing; Huang, Zhangchao; Bai, Zijun

2017-08-01

How to realize the joint cultivation of excellent engineer for the school and the enterprise is an important task of the project of excellent engineers. In five years of teaching practice, based on the concept of engineering education certification, through target management of school and enterprise, cultural fusion, stage implementation and feedback, excellent engineer education training plan of opto-electronic specialty is being implemented. It standardizes the specialty construction and practice and explores new teaching management mode, which gets the recognition of graduates and enterprises and achieves a win-win situation for school and enterprise.

From Normal Schools to Primary Teaching Schools: historic journey of primary teachers’ training schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joaquim António Sousa Pintassilgo

2015-02-01

Full Text Available This article provides a brief outline of the teacher training schools in Portugal for what was traditionally known as primary education, starting in the second half of the nineteenth century, when such schools began functioning regularly.  Initially know as Primary Normal Schools, these institutions were renamed in 1930 to Primary Teaching Schools. In the second half of the 1980s, under full democracy, they were phased out, their place being taken by the Higher Schools of Education. In this article we seek to chronicle their evolution with a set of reflections on the ideals professed in their day, which are to be found primarily in training contexts and in textbooks. These principles deal mainly with such issues as the social roles to be played by the primary school teachers, the values inherent to the profession, pedagogical options considered to be legitimate and educational practices thought to be exemplary. We will analyse in particular the importance that the conceptions of the New School had in the construction of identity references during the republican period and their appropriation by the conservative pedagogy that circulated in the New State. We will also take into account the process of feminization, which left its own mark on the development of this teaching sector. Finally, we will outline a model of analysis for training institutions, using as our reference the case of Portugal. 

A National Survey of Teaching Artists Working in Schools: Background, Preparation, Efficacy and School Experiences

Science.gov (United States)

Snyder, Scott; Fisk, Timarie

2016-01-01

Several studies have described the characteristics and employment situations of teaching artists in the United States. This study adds to that literature by describing the characteristics of teaching artists working in K-12 school environments, the nature of the classroom roles of such teaching artists, the professional development and supervision…

Teaching of ophthalmology in undergraduate curricula: a survey of Australasian and Asian medical schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Jennifer C; Sherwin, Trevor; McGhee, Charles N J

2007-01-01

Despite established international guidelines on preferred teaching components for ophthalmology in undergraduate curricula, with increasingly less specialty-based undergraduate teaching within curricula, teaching of core ophthalmology knowledge and skills may become marginalized. This survey aims to evaluate the current state of undergraduate ophthalmology teaching in Australasia and proximate Asian medical schools. A questionnaire was developed to determine the content and extent of ophthalmology teaching in the undergraduate medical curriculum. The questionnaire was sent to 25 medical schools throughout Australasia and Asia. Nineteen of the 25 questionnaires were returned (76% response rate). Ophthalmology teaching programmes ranged from 2 to 20 days: five (26%) medical schools having one ophthalmology attachment; six schools (32%) two attachments; and the remainder three or more. Only seven of the schools taught all 13 ophthalmology topics recommended in current curriculum guidelines. Ocular examination (100%), lens and cataract (95%) and ocular manifestations of systemic disease (95%) were the most commonly taught topics, with intraocular tumours only covered by 10 schools (53%). Students in 14 schools (74%) attended ophthalmology operating theatre, but only two schools (11%) offered attendance at optometry clinics. Ten schools (53%) required a pass in ophthalmology to complete the academic year. Ophthalmology may increasingly be a small, or even absent, component of undergraduate medical curricula. Despite established international ophthalmology curriculum guidelines, this survey highlights significant lack of uniformity in their implementation.

SPECIFICS OF IMPLEMENTING TECHNOLOGY OF ASSOCIATIVE TEACHING ENGLISH AT PRIMARY SCHOOL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iryna Lobachova

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the problem of the application of the associative teaching technology at primary school and the peculiarities of its implementation in teaching English to primary schoolchildren. It is found out that the modern primary school student should be able to think creatively, to solve given tasks, find associative links between objects, and be able to intercultural communication. So, a teacher has to master the innovative teaching technologies that optimize and intensify the educational process to forming primary schoolchildren’s abilities of this kind. It is determined that the technology of associative teaching English to primary schoolchildren is one of the most effective technologies because it meets quite new goals and tasks of teaching foreign languages at primary school, age and individual characteristics, needs, and interests of primary schoolchildren. It is shown that the associative teaching technology is based on the principle of harmony with nature and it creates conditions that are close to life situations, makes learning the foreign language accessible and relaxed. Associative teaching a foreign language and its various aspects are performed in accordance with the primary schoolchildren’s individual characteristics. The psychological mechanism is very important in the organization of associative teaching; it is taken into account in teaching children of primary school because human beings think with images and words are sound images that allow you to express what a person sees, feels, and thinks. Associative teaching combines both verbal and non-verbal means of communication. Associative teaching contributes to learning a foreign language based on the child’s real actions in the form of the active actions with items in accordance with the human linguistic programme that defines phased sequence of the language development. An effective method of teaching a foreign language is a method of Mind Mapping, which

The Reforming of Vocational Teacher Training Colleges in Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Çavuşoğlu, Abdullah; Günay, Durmuş

In Turkey, for many decades college level technical education has been in the form of two main tracks: namely the "Faculty of Engineering" and the "Faculty of Technical Education". The Faculties of Engineering are very similar to engineering schools and colleges around the world; they train engineering students. The "Faculties of Technical Education" are similar to the "Schools of Applied Sciences" that many European countries have. The graduates of these schools are either employed at high schools as teachers at technical or vocational high schools, self employed or employed at other governmental organizations as technical staff. Due to the employability problems that the graduates of these schools have faced in recent years and the suggestions made by the The Council of the Higher Education of Turkey (CoHE), Turkish parliament has recently took a decision to close down these colleges and open new colleges called "Faculty of Technology" in November of 2009. According to the CoHE, these new faculties will train engineering students. The graduates of these faculties can also become teachers at the technical or vocational high schools if they get teaching certificate. This paper discusses the content, outlook, and prospects of this recent reform.

Globalization and Language and Education Reform in Colombia: A Critical Outlook

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaime Usma

2009-05-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the connection between economic, political, and cultural globalization processes and recent education and language reforms in Colombia. Throughout the article, the author attempts to demonstrate that current education and language policies in Colombia are tightly connected to transnational agendas and models of reform that do not necessarily represent a real benefit for the majority of the population, but, instead, may render privileges for a few. With this analysis, the author insists on the need for an equitable plan for the improvement of language teaching and learning in Colombia in a way that considers local priorities of economic development, respects local knowledge and culture, and accounts for a systemic and fundamental improvement of the public system based on the dissimilar conditions that affect schools, teachers, and students in both the private and the public sectors in the country.

Teaching computer science at school: some ideas

OpenAIRE

Bodei, Chiara; Grossi, Roberto; Lagan?, Maria Rita; Righi, Marco

2010-01-01

As a young discipline, Computer Science does not rely on longly tested didactic procedures. This allows the experimentation of innovative teaching methods at schools, especially in early childhood education. Our approach is based on the idea that abstracts notions should be gained as the final result of a learning path made of concrete and touchable steps. To illustrate our methodology, we present some of the teaching projects we proposed.

Education Governance for the Twenty-First Century: Overcoming the Structural Barriers to School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Manna, Paul, Ed.; McGuinn, Patrick, Ed.

2013-01-01

America's fragmented, decentralized, politicized, and bureaucratic system of education governance is a major impediment to school reform. In this important new book, a number of leading education scholars, analysts, and practitioners show that understanding the impact of specific policy changes in areas such as standards, testing, teachers, or…

Big Business as a Policy Innovator in State School Reform: A Minnesota Case Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazzoni, Tim L.; Clugston, Richard M., Jr.

1987-01-01

The Minnesota Business Partnership (MBP) was studied as a policy innovator in state school reform (for kindergarten through grade 12) in relation to agenda setting, alternative formulation, and authoritative enactment. Focus is on the MBP's policy-making involvement during the 1985 state legislative session. Overall, the MBP's influence was…

MODERN MEANS OF TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olena Iaburova

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The article reveals the problems of teaching tools and resources used in the process of teaching foreign languages in primary school. The author gives the definition of the meanings “teaching resources”, “additional materials for teaching foreign languages», and their classification. The author pays attention to the fact that in the academic and upbringing process primary school teachers use different teaching resources in addition to the text-books as the basic means of teaching. That is why there is an evident reason for deep study of these kind materials, their classification. According to the way of presenting, teaching flash-cards and hand-outs as additional materials are pointed out. That is why the necessity of optimal and effective choice of these means of teaching depends on professional preparation of a teacher and teaching tools implementing in the academic process alongside with the text-books as the basic means of teaching foreign languages. The author notes that all these learning tools are not universal. They cannot completely replace a teacher or other learning tools. The author supports the idea of the need for optimum, deeply conscious and scientific approach to using additional educational resources in academic and upbringing process along with the textbook as the primary means of learning.

TEACHING CHEMISTRY IN SCHOOLS: A CASE FOR ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

DR. ALUKO

strategy on students' performance in secondary school chemistry. Two hundred and fifty ... cooperative instructional strategy and conventional teaching method. The cooperative ..... students good problem-solvers. 2. The curricula of the ...

Distributed Leadership for ICT Reform in Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, David; Ho, Jeanne

2012-01-01

This study examines distributed leadership in Information Communication Technology reform in a government school in Singapore. The study adopts a naturalistic inquiry approach, drawing upon a case study of the aforementioned school for much of its data. The study found that leadership for Information Communication Technology reform is distributed…

Science That Matters: Exploring Science Learning and Teaching in Primary Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Fitzgerald, Angela; Smith, Kathy

2016-01-01

To help support primary school students to better understand why science matters, teachers must first be supported to teach science in ways that matter. In moving to this point, this paper identifies the dilemmas and tensions primary school teachers face in the teaching of science. The balance is then readdressed through a research-based…

Reform and practice for photoelectric specialty experimental teaching based on virtual simulation experiment platform

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Yan; Lv, Qingsong; Wu, Maocheng; Xu, Yishen; Gu, Jihua

2017-08-01

In view of some problems about the traditional photoelectric specialty experimental teaching process, such as separation of theoretical teaching and practical teaching, immobilization of experimental teaching contents, low quality of experiments and no obvious effect, we explored and practiced a new experimental teaching model of "theoretical teaching, virtual simulation and physical experiment", which combined the characteristics of photoelectric information science and engineering major and the essential requirements of engineering innovation talents cultivation. The virtual simulation experiment platform has many advantages, such as high performance-to-price ratio, easy operation and open experimental process, which makes virtual simulation combine physical experiment, complete each other with virtual for practical. After the users log into the virtual simulation experimental platform, they will first study the contents of the experiment, clarify the purpose and requirements of the experiment, master the method of using the instrument and the relevant notes, and then use the experimental instruments provided by the platform to build the corresponding experimental system. Once the experimenter's optical path is set incorrectly or the instrument parameters are set incorrectly, the error or warning message will be automatically triggered, and the reference information will be given instructing the student to complete the correct experimental operation. The results of our practice in recent years show that the teaching reform of the photoelectric specialty experiments has not only brought great convenience to the experimental teaching management, broadened the students' thinking and vision, enhanced the students' experimental skills and comprehensive qualities, but also made the students participate in the experiment with their enthusiasm. During the construction of experiment programs, the students' engineering practical ability and independent innovation awareness

Rwsearch on Effective Teaching Materials for “Food Education” in Junior High School

OpenAIRE

渡部,佳美; 久山,明生; 三浦,芳助; 瀨山,一正; 西尾,佳代子

2011-01-01

Though food education in elementary and jinior high school has been promoted centrally by Nutrition Teachers since the Basic Law of Foof Education was esrablished, effective teaching materiales are yet to be found in the classroom. In Jine and December 2010, in an attempt to develop effective teaching materials for food education in jinior high schools, schools that employ nutrition educators were asked to use developmental teaching material - the “Dietary Habit Step-up Guide” - on an experim...

The Changing Nature of Autonomy: Transformations of the Late Swedish Teaching Profession

Science.gov (United States)

Wermke, Wieland; Forsberg, Eva

2017-01-01

This article discusses teacher autonomy in the case of the Swedish teaching profession since the 1980s. It is argued that deregulation, decentralization, and marketization reforms of the 1990s have indeed increased teacher autonomy, but in some respects also led to a increase of complexity in the Swedish school system. In order to handle this…

Should We Limit "Screen Time" In School?: Debating the Wisest Use of Technology in the Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Scoggin, Daniel; Vander Ark, Tom

2018-01-01

A truism of school reform has long been the promise that technology, properly applied, will fuel dramatic improvement in teaching and learning. When tech-enabled schools or online learning programs haven't delivered the hoped-for results, some have dismissed these shortcomings as implementation problems--or evidence that we haven't yet deployed…

All Together Now: Authentic University-School Partnerships for Professional Development

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford, Patricia A.; Roberts, Sherron Killingsworth; Hickman, Rosemary

2008-01-01

Opportunities for professional development can benefit the practice of teaching, the learning of students, and the culture of schooling. Thus, considerable attention has been given to effective professional development programs and many reform agendas have made such initiatives a priority (No Child Left Behind, 2002; National Board for…

PROGRAMMING IS GOOD FOR CHILDREN? A CRITICAL VIEW ABOUT TEACHING PROGRAMMING IN SCHOOLS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wendell Bento Geraldes

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This article presents reflections on teaching programming in schools and the positive and negative impact of this new methodology today. The study also discusses the initiatives relating to teaching programming in schools, considering also the opinion of experts on the subject. The following questions are addressed: Is it good for children to learn to program computers in schools? Can all people learn to program computers? What is the importance of learning for today's society? The pros and cons regarding teaching programming in schools will be discussed in search of answers to these questions.

Burnout in Prospective Elementary School Teachers: Is It Related to Reasons for Choosing the Elementary School Teaching Major, Beliefs about the Teaching Career and Satisfaction with the Choice?

Science.gov (United States)

Dundar, Sahin

2014-01-01

The present study was carried out to examine the relationships between elementary school teacher candidates' motivations for choosing the teaching profession, beliefs about the teaching profession, satisfaction with the choice, and burnout. The study was carried out with 171 senior elementary school teacher candidates at one public university in…

Primary School Teacher Perceived Self-Efficacy to Teach Fundamental Motor Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Callea, Micarle B.; Spittle, Michael; O'Meara, James; Casey, Meghan

2008-01-01

Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) are a part of the school curricula, yet many Australian primary-age children are not mastering FMS. One reason may be a lack of perceived self-efficacy of primary teachers to teach FMS. This study investigated the level of perceived self-efficacy of primary school teachers to teach FMS in Victoria, Australia. A…

Analysing the Correlations between Primary School Teachers' Teaching Styles and Their Critical Thinking Disposition

Science.gov (United States)

Sen, Özgür

2018-01-01

This study aims to analyse the correlations between teaching styles primary school teachers prefer to use and their critical thinking disposition. The research was conducted with the participation of 380 primary school teachers teaching in schools located in Ankara. The study employs relational survey model. In this study "Teaching Styles…

How New Technologies Have (and Have Not) Changed Teaching and Learning in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Halverson, Richard; Smith, Annette

2010-01-01

Information technologies have reshaped teaching and learning in schools, but often not in ways anticipated by technology proponents. This paper proposes a contrast between technologies for learning and technologies for learners to explain how technologies influence teaching and learning in and out of schools. Schools have made significant use of…

The Local Territory as a Resource for Learning Science: A Proposal for the Design of Teaching-learning Sequences in Science Education

OpenAIRE

González-Weil, C.; Merino-Rubilar, C.; Ahumada, G.; Arenas, A.; Salinas, V.; Bravo, P.

2014-01-01

The present work arises from the need to reform Science Education, particularly through the contextualization of teaching. It is proposed to achieve this through the use of local territory as a resource for the design of teaching-learning-sequences (TLS). To do this, an interdisciplinary group of researchers and teachers from a Secondary School created a Professional Circle for Reflection on Teaching, which constructed an emerging conceptualization of Territory, analyzed the possibil...

Research on Implementation of the Teaching Process in Higher Vocational Curriculum

OpenAIRE

Songjie Gong

2013-01-01

The implementation of the teaching process is the main channel to carry out good education. The aim of the implementation of the teaching process is to place emphasis on cultivating students’ innovation ability and take innovation education as the point to deepen higher vocational teaching reformation. The reform of project curriculum has become the main trend of course reform in higher vocational education. The traditional curriculum teaching process has shown some disadvantages in the teach...

Communities of Practice and the Mediation ofTeachers' Responses to Standards-based Reform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chrysan Gallucci

2003-09-01

Full Text Available This paper evaluates the usefulness of a sociocultural approach for analyzing teachers’ responses to the professional learning demands of standards-based reform policies. A policy-oriented case study of the practice of six elementary teachers who worked in two high poverty schools in a demographically changing district in the state of Washington is summarized. Key findings of that study conclude that communities of teaching practice are sites for teacher learning and are mediators of teachers’ responses to standards-based reform. Characteristics of the communities of practice, including their relative strength and openness (to learning, influence the degree to which teachers work out negotiated and thoughtful responses to policy demands. The present paper discusses the efficacy of Wenger’s (1998 theory of learning for the study of policy to practice connections.

Changes in educational inequalities in Poland. Comments on Zbigniew Sawiński’s article “Education reform and inequality: fifteen years of new lower secondary schools in Poland”

OpenAIRE

MICHAŁ SITEK

2017-01-01

In his text published in Edukacja, 141(2), 2017 („Education reform and inequality: fifteen years of new lower secondary schools in Poland”), Zbigniew Sawiński analyses data from the 2000 to 2012 editions of the OECD PISA study and argues that lower secondary school reform has not reduced educational inequalities in Poland. The importance of students’ social origin remained at the same level as before the reform, the impact of social origin on the choice of type of secondary school remained th...

Pupils' liking for school: ability grouping, self-concept and perceptions of teaching.

Science.gov (United States)

Ireson, Judith; Hallam, Susan

2005-06-01

Research indicates that affective aspects of development provide a basis for autonomous learning. Pupils' liking for school may be a useful indicator of their relationships with teachers and the school. The aim of the research reported in this paper is to establish the properties of a measure of pupils' liking for school and to examine associations between this measure, pupils' experiences in lessons, their self-concepts and the amount of setting implemented in school. A stratified sample of 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools was selected for the research. Schools represented a variety of ability-grouping practices in the lower school (Years 7-9), from completely mixed-ability to setting in all academic subjects. All Year 9 pupils were included in the sample. Pupils completed a questionnaire containing items on their self-concept, liking for school, and their perceptions of teaching in English, mathematics, and science. Data on pupils' gender, ethnic origin, social disadvantage and attainment was also collected. The properties and correlates of scales indicating pupils' liking for school and their perceptions of teaching in English, mathematics, and science are established. Liking for school is greater among girls, pupils with higher academic self-concepts, and those with more positive perceptions of teaching. Pupils are more positive about teaching they experience in English than in mathematics or science. When other variables are statistically controlled, there is no significant effect of the extent of ability grouping in the school as a whole. Affective aspects of learning should not be neglected in the drive to raise standards.

Ethical and Civic Education. Difficulties during the Curricular Reform in Argentine Patagonia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isabelino Siede

2015-04-01

Full Text Available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17227/01234870.41folios51.68 What type of ethical and civic education is effectively provided at school? This article analyzes the curricular prescriptions of Ethical and Citizenship Education in primary schools of the Argentine Patagonia, as well as its relations and contradictions with the school practices of moral education It inquires the process of definition of the area in the context of the Educational Reform in the 90s. Also, it pursuits to remake the way it was incorporated in the provincial curriculum design. Throughout focus groups and interviews to teachers from different public and private schools of three towns from de north of Santa Cruz, we analyze the descriptions and expectative of the teachers about their teaching practice in the moral area, as well as the possible causes of the differences and the contradictions between the policies of the curricular statement and educational proposals offered at school.

Sponsors of Policy: A Network Analysis of Wealthy Elites, Their Affiliated Philanthropies, and Charter School Reform in Washington State

Science.gov (United States)

Au, Wayne; Ferrare, Joseph J.

2014-01-01

Background/Context: Charter school policy has evolved into a major component of the current education reform movement in the United States. As of 2012, all but nine U.S. states allowed charter schools, and in one of those nine, Washington State, charter school legislation was passed by popular vote in November 2012. There is a substantial, if…

Comprehensive School Reform Models: A Study Guide for Comparing CSR Models (and How Well They Meet Minnesota's Learning Standards).

Science.gov (United States)

St. John, Edward P.; Loescher, Siri; Jacob, Stacy; Cekic, Osman; Kupersmith, Leigh; Musoba, Glenda Droogsma

A growing number of schools are exploring the prospect of applying for funding to implement a Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) model. But the process of selecting a CSR model can be complicated because it frequently involves self-study and a review of models to determine which models best meet the needs of the school. This study guide is intended…

Analyses of science education reform in Florida: Emerging from the eclipse or trapped in the darkness?

Science.gov (United States)

Muire, Willis Christian, Jr.

This research is focused on the changes that have occurred across the complex web of systems and subsystems of education in Florida and to examine the relative impact these changes have exacted upon science education. The primary purpose of this research is to describe and interpret the practices of reform efforts in Florida as a way to inform educational stakeholders such that new visions of school improvement can be discussed and planned for improving the teaching and learning of science. This study begins with the questions of "what is happening in science education in an extremely large and diverse state and why is it happening?" The solutions to these questions required a blend of investigatory techniques to answer. The needs of elementary school teachers for improving science education were initially used to provide the organizational foci of this research. As trends emerged from analyzing these needs, a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative data sources were acquired and analyzed in a longitudinal, multi-level design to obtain rich insights into the factors associated with achievement and equity in the teaching and learning of science in Florida. Relevant statistical indicators obtained from state, district and school data in combination with interviews of teachers, principals, parents, state and district level leaders were used for interpreting qualitative evidence. As credible data were acquired, I also examined the evidence in terms of educational policy formulation and the "filter down process" associated with the impact of national, state, and district policies on schools. Moreover, I investigated issues of policy and governance and their interrelations with student achievement science. I am interested in identifying the most robust indicators of science education reform in authentic ways with the goal of ascertaining if and where reform is occurring, and in terms of grounded theory, why these changes are occurring. Though the focus of this study

Autonomy and Accountability in Standards-Based Reform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan Watson

2001-08-01

Full Text Available In this article we discuss the effects of one urban school district's efforts to increase the autonomy and accountability of schools and teams of teachers through a standards-based reform known as team- based schooling. Team-based schooling is designed to devolve decision-making authority down to the school level by increasing teachers' autonomy to make decisions. Increased accountability is enacted in the form of a state-level standards-based initiative. Based on our evaluation over a two-year period involving extensive fieldwork and quantitative analysis, we describe the ways that teachers, teams and school administrators responded to the implementation of team-based schooling. What are the effects of increasing school-level autonomy and accountability in the context of standards- based reform? Our analysis highlights several issues: the "lived reality" of teaming as it interacts with the existing culture within schools, the ways that teachers respond to the pressures created by increased internal and external accountability, and the effects of resource constraints on the effectiveness of implementation. We conclude by using our findings to consider more broadly the trade-off between increased autonomy and accountability on which standards-based reforms like team-based schooling are based.

Middle-Out Approaches to Reform of University Teaching and Learning: Champions striding between the top-down and bottom-up approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rick Cummings

2005-03-01

Full Text Available In recent years, Australian universities have been driven by a diversity of external forces, including funding cuts, massification of higher education, and changing student demographics, to reform their relationship with students and improve teaching and learning, particularly for those studying off-campus or part-time. Many universities have responded to these forces either through formal strategic plans developed top-down by executive staff or through organic developments arising from staff in a bottom-up approach. By contrast, much of Murdoch University’s response has been led by a small number of staff who have middle management responsibilities and who have championed the reform of key university functions, largely in spite of current policy or accepted practice. This paper argues that the ‘middle-out’ strategy has both a basis in change management theory and practice, and a number of strengths, including low risk, low cost, and high sustainability. Three linked examples of middle-out change management in teaching and learning at Murdoch University are described and the outcomes analyzed to demonstrate the benefits and pitfalls of this approach.

Teacher Salaries and the Shortage of High-Quality Teachers in China's Rural Primary and Secondary Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Xuehui, An

2018-01-01

Teacher salary level and structure are not only important factors affecting the supply of primary and secondary school teachers, but they are also crucial to attracting, training, and retaining high-quality teachers, thereby impacting the overall quality of education and teaching in schools. The reform of China's basic education management system…

Subject related teaching in udeskole (outdoor school)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barfod, Karen Seierøe

Subject related teaching in udeskole In this symposium, subject related teaching on a regular basis in the outdoors, known as udeskole will be described and discussed. Based on recent and ongoing research and development, the education taking the place of teaching into account of the learning...... will identify the necessity of doing research into the field, as 18,4% of all Danish schools is shown to have one or more classes working with udeskole (Barfod et al, 2016). Secondly, the subject related teaching in the outdoors will be exemplified by four research projects. First, the subject ‘Danish...... teaching in the outdoors will be supplemented with recent research upon barriers for using external learning environments ‘the open school’ in Skive Muncipiality. Closing the seminar will be a presentation of the national Danish Network UdeskoleNet and its application. Sources: Barfod, K., Ejbye-Ernst, N...

The current state of basic medical education in Israel: implications for a new medical school.

Science.gov (United States)

Reis, Shmuel; Borkan, Jeffrey M; Weingarten, Michael

2009-11-01

The recent government decision to establish a new medical school, the fifth in Israel, is an opportune moment to reflect on the state of Basic Medical Education (BME) in the country and globally. It provides a rare opportunity for planning an educational agenda tailored to local needs. This article moves from a description of the context of Israeli health care and the medical education system to a short overview of two existing Israeli medical schools where reforms have recently taken place. This is followed by an assessment of Israeli BME and an effort to use the insights from this assessment to inform the fifth medical school blueprint. The fifth medical school presents an opportunity for further curricular reforms and educational innovations. Reforms and innovations include: fostering self-directed professional development methods; emphasis on teaching in the community; use of appropriate educational technology; an emphasis on patient safety and simulation training; promoting the humanities in medicine; and finally the accountability to the community that the graduates will serve.

A Model for Persistent Improvement of Medical Education as Illustrated by the Surgical Reform Curriculum HeiCuMed.

Science.gov (United States)

Kadmon, Guni; Schmidt, Jan; De Cono, Nicola; Kadmon, Martina

2011-01-01

Heidelberg Medical School underwent a major curricular change with the implementation of the reform curriculum HeiCuMed (Heidelberg Curriculum Medicinale) in October 2001. It is based on rotational modules with daily cycles of interactive, case-based small-group seminars, PBL tutorials and training of sensomotor and communication skills. For surgical undergraduate training an organisational structure was developed that ensures continuity of medical teachers for student groups and enables their unimpaired engagement for defined periods of time while accounting for the daily clinical routine in a large surgery department of a university hospital. It includes obligatory didactic training, standardising teaching material on the basis of learning objectives and releasing teaching doctors from clinical duties for the duration of a module. To compare the effectiveness of the undergraduate surgical reform curriculum with that of the preceding traditional one as reflected by students' evaluations. The present work analyses student evaluations of the undergraduate surgical training between 1999 and 2008 including three cohorts (~360 students each) in the traditional curriculum and 13 cohorts (~150 students each) in the reform curriculum. The evaluation of the courses, their organisation, the teaching quality, and the subjective learning was significantly better in HeiCuMed than in the preceding traditional curriculum over the whole study period. A medical curriculum based on the implementation of interactive didactical methods is more important to successful teaching and the subjective gain of knowledge than knowledge transfer by traditional classroom teaching. The organisational strategy adopted in the surgical training of HeiCuMed has been successful in enabling the maintenance of a complex modern curriculum on a continuously high level within the framework of a busy surgical environment.

Teaching Science in the Primary School: Surveying Teacher Wellbeing and Planning for Survival

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Anne-Marie

2012-01-01

A teacher-researcher in a primary school setting surveyed the middle years' teachers of her school and those in the local science hub group, to determine their confidence and satisfaction levels in relation to teaching science. Her results confirm feelings of inadequacy and reluctance to teach Science, but also indicate ways that schools can…

Little Schools on the Prairie Still Teach a Big Lesson.

Science.gov (United States)

Kindley, Mark M.

1985-01-01

Uses Cherry County, Nebraska, to exemplify current experiences of learning and teaching in a one-room school--Nebraska has 350 of the nation's nearly 800 one-room schools. Interviews parents and teachers who cherish their one-room schools because they provide quality education, convenience (relative to consolidated schools), and support for rural…

Proactive educational reforms in South Korea: Schools for Improvement and multicultural education

OpenAIRE

Lee, Hye-Won

2014-01-01

Introduction This paper discusses the educational issues and societal changes that have led to proactive reforms in the education system of South Korea. Korean pupils achieve high academic levels, but there have been some criticisms relating to sociocultural issues. In addition, Korea is being transformed into a multicultural society. Here we consider two examples of Korea’s educational interventions, introduced in response to contextual demands and societal changes: firstly, the Schools for...

Perspectives on learning, learning to teach and teaching elementary science

Science.gov (United States)

Avraamidou, Lucy

The framework that characterizes this work is that of elementary teachers' learning and development. Specifically, the ways in which prospective and beginning teachers' develop pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science in light of current recommendations for reform emphasizing teaching and learning science as inquiry are explored. Within this theme, the focus is on three core areas: (a) the use of technology tools (i.e., web-based portfolios) in support of learning to teach science at the elementary level; (b) beginning teachers' specialized knowledge for giving priority to evidence in science teaching; and (c) the applications of perspectives associated with elementary teachers' learning to teach science in Cyprus, where I was born and raised. The first manuscript describes a study aimed at exploring the influence of web-based portfolios and a specific task in support of learning to teach science within the context of a Professional Development School program. The task required prospective teachers to articulate their personal philosophies about teaching and learning science in the form of claims, evidence and justifications in a web-based forum. The findings of this qualitative case study revealed the participants' developing understandings about learning and teaching science, which included emphasizing a student-centered approach, connecting physical engagement of children with conceptual aspects of learning, becoming attentive to what teachers can do to support children's learning, and focusing on teaching science as inquiry. The way the task was organized and the fact that the web-based forum provided the ability to keep multiple versions of their philosophies gave prospective teachers the advantage of examining how their philosophies were changing over time, which supported a continuous engagement in metacognition, self-reflection and self-evaluation. The purpose of the study reported in the second manuscript was to examine the nature of a first

The Impact of School Finance Litigation on Resource Distribution: A Comparison of Court-Mandated Equity and Adequacy Reforms

Science.gov (United States)

Springer, Matthew G.; Liu, Keke; Guthrie, James W.

2009-01-01

While there is a wealth of research on school finance equity and adequacy, and school finance theory clearly documents differences between the two concepts, no study has examined whether the reforms engendered by each approach actually differ in terms of resource distribution. The present study examines the issues using district-level data on…

Teachers' confidence in teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality in South African and Tanzanian schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Helleve, Arnfinn; Flisher, Alan J; Onya, Hans; Kaaya, Sylvia; Mukoma, Wanjiru; Swai, Caroline; Klepp, Knut-Inge

2009-06-01

This study aimed to investigate how confident and comfortable teachers at Tanzanian and South African urban and rural schools are in teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality. It also aimed at identifying factors associated with teacher confidence and investigated how reported confidence was associated with the implementation of educational programmes on HIV/AIDS and sexuality. A survey was conducted among South African grade 8 and 9 Life Orientation teachers, and among science teachers for grade 5 to 7 in public primary schools in Tanzania. Teachers' confidence levels were measured on a four-item scale (0-3). A total number of 266 teachers participated in a survey in 86 schools in South Africa and Tanzania. Overall, teachers report to be rather confident in teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality. Tanzanian teachers reported higher levels of confidence then did their South Africa colleagues (2.1 vs. 1.8; p teaching was significantly associated with the numbers of years teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality, formal training in these subjects, experience in discussing the topics with others, school policy and priority given to teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality at school. Finally, confidence in teaching remained positively associated with self-reported successful implementation of school-based programmes after adjusting for gender, age, religion and numbers of years teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality. Across urban and rural sites in South Africa and Tanzania teachers reported to be fairly confident in teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality. Further strengthening of their confidence levels could, however, be an important measure for improving the implementation of such programmes.

Dewey and Italian School Policy: Proposals for Reform by Scuola e Città (1950–1960

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea Mariuzzo

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The paper analyses the role of Ernesto Codignola’s «Florence School of Pedagogy» in the renewal of Italian democratic and secular education after World War II, particularly its commitment to the diffusion of John Dewey’s educational thinking across Italy, previously dominated by the influence of traditional neo-idealism. Through a systematic analysis of the journal Scuola e Città, the group’s mouthpiece, the paper highlights the importance of Dewey’s ideas in the elaboration of educational policy proposals and potential legislative measures for school reform. It analyses the extent to which the «Deweyan laboratory» in Florence contributed to the emergence and foundation of the positions held by one of its exponents, Ernesto Codignola’s son Tristano – the Italian Socialist Party’s Education minister, in the parliamentary debate of the Sixties. The paper focuses on three main themes: (i assessment of the government’s primary school curricula, drawn up in the mid-fifties, characterized by an overhaul of the existing educational practices, which Scuola e città authors considered to be insufficient and contradictory; (ii universal access to a junior secondary education along the lines of the comprehensive school model to guide the active stimulation of students’ abilities and interests; and (iii school administration reform in response to the persistence of pre-war centralism and the authoritarian character of traditional Italian pedagogy.

Feminisation of Teaching: Factors Affecting Low Male participation in Early Childhood Teaching at Private Schools in Pakistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meher Saigol

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This study was aimed atidentifying associated barriers to entry of male teachers into early childhood teaching and to understand the gender inequality and the shortage of male role models for early learners at private schools of Karachi. A qualitative research was conducted with phenomenology as the chosen inquiry method. A purposeful sampleof six in-service educators was selected from four private schools in Karachi two male post-secondary teachers, two female early childhood teachers and two private school female heads. The data were collected using three semi structured interviews one for each sample subtype. The study revealed that the male teachers did not teach early learners at private schools due to poor pay;low male adult and child compatibility; the influence of gender stereotypes and societal norms on occupational choice and child safety concerns. To create gender neutrality of early childhood teachers, male participants expressed an interest to teach young learners if offered equitable pay and professional development opportunities, while female participants suggested increased pay and child protection policy implementation.

Science school and culture school: improving the efficiency of high school science teaching in a system of mass science education.

Science.gov (United States)

Charlton, Bruce G

2006-01-01

Educational expansion in western countries has been achieved mainly by adding years to full-time education; however, this process has probably reduced efficiency. Sooner or later, efficiency must improve, with a greater educational attainment per year. Future societies will probably wish more people to study science throughout high school (aged c. 11-19 years) and the first college degree. 'Science' may be defined as any abstract, systematic and research-based discipline: including mathematics, statistics and the natural sciences, economics, music theory, linguistics, and the conceptual or quantitative social sciences. Since formal teaching is usually necessary to learn science, science education should be regarded as the core function of high schools. One standard way to improve efficiency is the 'division of labour', with increased specialization of function. Modern schools are already specialized: teachers are specialized according to age-group taught, subject matter expertise, and administrative responsibilities. School students are stratified by age and academic aptitude. I propose a further institutional division of school function between science education, and cultural education (including education in arts, sports, ethics, social interaction and good citizenship). Existing schools might split into 'science school' and 'culture school', reflected in distinct buildings and zones, separate administrative structures, and the recruitment of differently-specialized teaching personnel. Science school would be distinguished by its focus on education in disciplines which promote abstract systematic cognition. All students would spend some part of each day (how much would depend on their aptitude and motivation) in the 'science school'; experiencing a traditional-style, didactic, disciplined and rigorous academic education. The remainder of the students' time at school would be spent in the cultural division, which would focus on broader aspects, and aim to generate

Team Teaching at Upper Arlington School.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Annette R.

1968-01-01

Team teaching has been used for 4 years in the 10th-grade English classes at Upper Arlington High School near Columbus, Ohio. Units are prepared, presented, and evaluated by teachers working together voluntarily. A 6-day American literature unit introducing Romanticism has been particularly successful. The contrasts between Neoclassicism and…

Using Symbolic Interactionism to Analyze a Specialized STEM High School Teacher's Experience in Curriculum Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Teo, Tang Wee; Osborne, Margery

2012-01-01

In this paper, we present a microanalysis of a specialized STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) high school teacher's experience of self-initiated science inquiry curriculum reform. We examine the meanings of these two constructs: "inquiry curriculum" and "curriculum change" through the process lens of interactions, actions,…

Preparing perservice teachers to teach elementary school science

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Amy D.

The development of scientifically literate citizens begins in the elementary school. Yet elementary school teachers are ill prepared to teach science (Trygstad, Smith, Banilower, Nelson, & Horizon Research, Inc., 2013). The research base on teacher preparation finds that programs designed to prepare elementary teachers are inadequate in providing both the content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge necessary to teach science effectively (Baumgartner, 2010; Bodzin & Beerer, 2003; Bulunuz & Jarrett 2009). This mixed methods study examined what happened when a science methods course was interactively co-taught by an expert in elementary teaching methods and a physics expert. This study also aimed to discover what aspects of the curriculum pre-service teachers (PSTs) said helped them in developing their understanding of science content and scientific reasoning, and how to implement inquiry practices to teach science. A nested case study of three PSTs provided descriptive portraits of student experiences in the class. A whole class case analysis was used to examine what PSTs learned in terms of science, scientific reasoning skills, and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) from their experiences in the course. It was found that students often conflated science content with the experiences they had in learning the content. Although PSTs felt the interactive co-teaching model effectively created a balance between theory and practice, it was their experiences doing science--conducting physical experiments, developing and discussing scientific models, and the use of inquiry-based instruction--that they credited for their learning. Even with careful curriculum planning, and a course purposely designed to bridge the theory to practice gap, this study found one semester-long methods course to be insufficient in providing the vast content knowledge and PCK elementary school science teachers need.

A School in Every Village: Educational Reform in a Northeast China County, 1904-31. Contemporary Chinese Studies Series

Science.gov (United States)

VanderVen, Elizabeth R.

2012-01-01

In the early 1900s, the Qing dynasty implemented a series of institutional reforms to shore up its power. The most important were a nationwide school system and the abolition of the centuries-old civil examinations. "A School in Every Village" recounts how villagers and local state officials in Haicheng County enacted orders to establish…

Using Assessment to Drive the Reform of Schooling: Time to Stop Pursuing the Chimera?

Science.gov (United States)

Torrance, Harry

2011-01-01

Internationally, over the last 20-30 years, changing the procedures and processes of assessment has come to be seen, by many educators as well as policy-makers, as a way to frame the curriculum and drive the reform of schooling. Such developments have often been manifested in large scale, high stakes testing programmes. At the same time…

On Teaching Problem Solving in School Mathematics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erkki Pehkonen

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The article begins with a brief overview of the situation throughout the world regarding problem solving. The activities of the ProMath group are then described, as the purpose of this international research group is to improve mathematics teaching in school. One mathematics teaching method that seems to be functioning in school is the use of open problems (i.e., problem fields. Next we discuss the objectives of the Finnish curriculum that are connected with problem solving. Some examples and research results are taken from a Finnish–Chilean research project that monitors the development of problem-solving skills in third grade pupils. Finally, some ideas on “teacher change” are put forward. It is not possible to change teachers, but only to provide hints for possible change routes: the teachers themselves should work out the ideas and their implementation.

"It's a Lot of Hectic in Middle School": Student-Teaching in an Urban Classroom.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Jim

1999-01-01

Relates the experience of a college professor who spent two months as a student teacher in an eighth-grade language arts classroom in an urban public school. Discusses middle school teaching verses college teaching, coming to know the students, discipline, student testing, accountability, teaching writing, the failure of teacher-training programs,…

From policy to practice: education reform in Mozambique and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Mozambican government has introduced reforms of basic education, notably the introduction of interdisciplinarity, learner-centredness and new teaching pedagogies. This is a case study of how these curriculum reforms have been implemented at Marrere Teachers' Training College. We conducted interviews with ...

Implementation of National Science Education Standards in suburban elementary schools: Teachers' perceptions and classroom practices

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Rubina Samer

2005-07-01

This was an interpretive qualitative study that focused on how three elementary school science teachers from three different public schools perceived and implemented the National Science Education Standards based on the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol and individual interviews with the teachers. This study provided an understanding of the standards movement and teacher change in the process. Science teachers who were experienced with the National Science Education Standards were selected as the subjects of the study. Grounded in the theory of teacher change, this study's phenomenological premise was that the extent to which a new reform has an effect on students' learning and achievement on standardized tests depends on the content a teacher teaches as well as the style of teaching. It was therefore necessary to explore how teachers understand and implement the standards in the classrooms. The surveys, interviews and observations provided rich data from teachers' intentions, reflections and actions on the lessons that were observed while also providing the broader contextual framework for the understanding of the teachers' perspectives.

Realities and Challenges of Educational Reform in the Province of Quebec: Exploratory Research on Teaching Science and Technology/Realites Et Defis De La Reforme Scolaire Quebecoise: Une Etude Exploratoire De L'Enseignement De La Science...

Science.gov (United States)

Potvin, Patrice; Dionne, Eric

2007-01-01

Exploratory and descriptive research was conducted in a secondary school to reveal the realities and difficulties of the implementation process that awaits teachers under Quebec's Educational Reform. A team of teachers agreed to be observed while simulating implementation one year ahead of other schools. Results underscore the importance of…

Community Responses to School Reform in Chicago: Opportunities for Local Stakeholder Engagement. A Report by Public Agenda for the Joyce Foundation

Science.gov (United States)

Public Agenda, 2012

2012-01-01

This is a report on how community stakeholders, including parents, teachers, community leaders and advocates, think about current efforts by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to "turn around" Chicago's lowest-performing schools, and their expectations for future school reform actions. It was prepared by Public Agenda, with support from the…

Factors Affecting the Development and Evolution of the Teaching Beliefs of Future Geoscience Professors

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, LeeAnna Tiffany Young

The pedagogical beliefs of university instructors influence how they design their courses and whether they choose to use research-validated teaching methods that have been shown to improve student learning. The next generation of professors will be drawn from today's graduate students and post-doctoral fellows but we know relatively little about their preparation to use research-validated teaching practices. We followed a broad population of geoscience graduate students and post-docs over a three year period to evaluate changes in teaching beliefs. This study employed a longitudinal mixed-methods experimental design including surveys, short interviews, and longer case study interviews to: a) collect information on the teaching beliefs of geoscience graduate students and post-doctoral scholars; and b) identify experiences that contributed to the development of reformed teaching beliefs and their interest in an academic career. We collected initial surveys from more than 600 participants and re-surveyed more than 300 of these participants 12-18 months later. We conducted an initial round of interviews with 61 participants and repeat interviews with 31 of these individuals. The survey utilized was the Beliefs about Reformed Teaching and Learning (BARSTL); the interview tool was the Teacher Belief Interview (TBI). Finally, we conducted detailed case study interviews with a sample of ten participants who were either PhD students, post-doctoral scholars, or beginning professors at the time of the interviews. The data were examined to determine if there was a difference in beliefs about teaching on the basis of factors including number of years in graduate school, teaching assistant (TA) experiences, gender, and participation in professional development. Data from the large initial population were interpreted to show that participation in teaching-related professional development was the experience that was most likely to result in more reformed pedagogical beliefs among

Community-Based Learning. Adding Value to Programs Involving Service Agencies and Schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Cumming, Jim

Community-based learning (CBL) is a structured approach to learning and teaching that connects meaningful community experience with intellectual development, personal growth, and active citizenship. Enthusiasm for CBL is emerging in Australia and elsewhere because it is seen as the following: strategy for whole-school reform, especially in…

The labour organization at the school the post context to the Neo-liberal Decade

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Rosa Misuraca

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Organization of work at the school began to be heavily affected for more than two decades by the educational reforms. The reforms of the ´90 installed a technocratic imprint of control of the contents and the task of teaching through the paradigm of "accountability" and decertification of the task of teaching. Some of these measures remain in force in a qualitatively different political context, characterized by the recovery of the role of the State in the social sphere. We highlight two of these continuities: on the one hand, the assessments of quality of education at different levels (International, national or local with measurable standards. On the other hand, work in the school through projects and programmes to end, through flexible forms of work: recruitment, mentoring, and unregistered work. Both events had been accompanying the exclusion of large segments of the public school and the simultaneous development of various forms of privatization. In this paper we will refer to some aspects which, having seriously affected the Organization of school work during the ´90, still survive despite the redefinition of the role of the State in social policy.

English Teaching and Learning in Brazilian Regular Schools and Language Schools: A Study on Teachers' Beliefs

Science.gov (United States)

Fragozo, Carina Silva; Monawar, Mônica Deitos Stedile

2012-01-01

This paper aims to diagnose, through a qualitative comparative study, the main differences concerning the teaching of English in Brazilian regular schools when compared to language schools. There has been a growing tendency of students to attend language schools while still having English classes at their regular schools, and this has led to a lot…

Mediating Global Reforms Locally: A Study of the Enabling Conditions for Promoting Active Learning in a Maldivian Island School

Science.gov (United States)

Di Biase, Rhonda

2017-01-01

This paper explores active learning reform in the small state of the Maldives. Acknowledging the implementation challenges of active learning approaches globally, the study explored the policy-practice intersection by examining the experiences of one island school and its approach to promoting active learning pedagogy. The school was selected for…

Teaching Acoustic Properties of Materials in Secondary School: Testing Sound Insulators

Science.gov (United States)

Hernandez, M. I.; Couso, D.; Pinto, R.

2011-01-01

Teaching the acoustic properties of materials is a good way to teach physics concepts, extending them into the technological arena related to materials science. This article describes an innovative approach for teaching sound and acoustics in combination with sound insulating materials in secondary school (15-16-year-old students). Concerning the…

Teaching geometry in schools: An investigative rather than instructive process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rasheed Sanni

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Research has documented the prevalence of lessons  characterised by homework check,  followed by teacher lecture and demonstration, followed in turn, by learner practice sequence of classroom instructional activities in  our classrooms. This sequence of classroom activities does not allow for the development of sound mathematics practices and mathematical proficiency. Meanwhile, curriculum reforms in South Africa as well as in other parts  of the world recommend classroom activities where teachers create opportunities for, listen to  and extend learners.  This paper presents  a sequence of activities to be used in the teaching of geometry and surface areas of solid shapes in a grade 8 classroom. The sequence portrays the teaching of these concepts as an investigative rather than instructive process.

Quality improvement teaching at medical school: a student perspective

OpenAIRE

Nair, Pooja; Barai, Ishani; Prasad, Sunila; Gadhvi, Karishma

2016-01-01

Pooja Nair, Ishani Barai, Sunila Prasad, Karishma Gadhvi Department of Medicine, Imperial College School of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK Abstract: Guidelines in the UK require all doctors to actively take part in quality improvement. To ease future doctors into the process, formal quality improvement teaching can be delivered during medical school. Keywords: quality improvement, medical school, patient safety, patient satisfaction, medical student, clinical audit

Ethics teaching on 'Beginning of Life' issues in UK medical schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Oldroyd, Christopher; Fialova, Lydie

2014-12-01

Medical ethics forms an essential component of an undergraduate medical programme. In the UK the Institute of Medical Ethics has released a consensus statement detailing its recommendations for a minimum curriculum for ethics. One important issue it highlights for inclusion is 'Beginning of Life', which includes a wide range of themes. This paper presents an evaluation of the current teaching and assessment of these important issues in UK medical schools, complemented by a specific analysis of students' reaction to the teaching they received at the University of Edinburgh as part of their Obstetrics and Gynaecology rotation. Schools which responded to the survey reported a wide range of teaching and assessment methods. While there was a good overall coverage of topics, only one of them was covered by every institution and the religious/cultural elements of those topics were often neglected. The medical schools viewed better clinical integration of ethics teaching as the best route to improvement, but the students reported a desire for more ethics teaching in the form of specific tutorials, lectures or discussions. It is likely that a combination of these approaches will lead to significant improvements in the delivery of ethics teaching in this area and in others. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

An empirical study on perceptive teaching in junior middle school English in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lifen He

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Although the middle school English teaching has gotten a lot of achievements in China, some problems still exist, such as too much emphasis on words, grammars and structures. Perceptive teaching can be helpful for English teaching from a new perspective. There are three teaching procedures in the perceptive teaching: eliciting to acquire text meaning, creating situation to experience and comprehending to get the internal values in individuals. This thesis did the experimental research on English perspective teaching in middle school in China. The results show that in perceptive teaching, learners’ cognitive abilities can be improved; learners can show great interests in learning and shape positive attitudes; their learning methods can greatly be promoted. For different level learners, it shows that middle level learners can gain more benefit than the high level or low level learners in English perceptive teaching.

Improving Finance for Qatari Education Reform. Research Brief

Science.gov (United States)

Guarino, Cassandra M.; Galama, Titus; Constant, Louay; Gonzalez, Gabriella; Tanner, Jeffery C.; Goldman, Charles A.

2009-01-01

Qatar's education reform, which included implementation of a new finance system, appears to be providing schools with adequate funding but is still struggling with issues of transparency and swift policy shifts that have been difficult to accommodate. [For full report, "Developing a School Finance System for K-12 Reform in Qatar", see…

Critical Race Feminism and the Complex Challenges of Educational Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Childers-McKee, Cherese D.; Hytten, Kathy

2015-01-01

Throughout the past several decades, there has been an abundance of research about school reform, particularly in schools predominated by students of color and students experiencing poverty. Critics acknowledge that many reform efforts have failed and comprehensive solutions to school change remain elusive. In this article, we provide an overview…

On being African and Reformed? Towards an African Reformed ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2014-06-17

Jun 17, 2014 ... It is furthermore our contention that the notion of culture and African worldviews was always perceived negatively ..... dean of the South East Asia Graduate School of Theology. He later .... Another Reformed church for Indian.

Teaching the EPR Paradox at High School?

Science.gov (United States)

Pospiech, Gesche

1999-01-01

Argues the importance of students at university and in the final years of high school gaining an appreciation of the principles of quantum mechanics. Presents the EPR gedanken experiment (thought experiment) as a method of teaching the principles of quantum mechanics. (Author/CCM)

Teaching for Successful Intelligence Raises School Achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Sternberg, Robert J.; Torff, Bruce; Grigorenko, Elena

1998-01-01

A "successful intelligence" intervention improved school achievement for a group of 225 ethnically diverse third-graders, both on performance assessments measuring analytical, creative, and practical achievements and on conventional multiple-choice memory assessments. Teaching for triarchic thinking facilitates factual recall, because learning…

AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING THE SUBJECT «TECHNOLOGY» IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marina Viktorovna Sleptsova

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The article describes the author approach to the teaching of the subject «Technology» in a secondary school. Feature of the proposed approach is its focus on innovation behavior of students in the context of continuous technological education, aimed at the continuous creation of new or modification of existing technical and social systems, reducing the cost of resources, the achievement of high commercial effect. Shows an example of an innovative approach to teaching the subject «Technology of cooking» section of the «Cooking» of the Federal model programme «Technology». The role and place of the subject «Technology» in the psychological preparation of students for entrepreneurship, the formation of «habits of success», even at school age to play the «role model» entrepreneur in the field of industrial production, innovation and agriculture. Demonstrated an innovative approach to teaching the subject «Techno-logy» for productive socialization and social adaptation of graduates of secondary schools.Summary: identify ways and methods of performing teaching staff in secondary schools social order to prepare students for entrepreneurial activity.Methodology: theoretical analysis of the literature, scientific methods of comparison, ge-neralization, systematic approach.Results: the proposed innovative approach to the teaching of the subject «Technology» in a secondary school leads to increased interest in academic subject in grades 9-11 secondary schools, the development of students in sustainable entrepreneurial skills, increase the number of high school graduates, focusing on entrepreneurial activities in the fields of innovation and industrial production, craft activities and agriculture.Practical implication: pedagogy of secondary school.

The hidden curriculum in undergraduate medical education: qualitative study of medical students' perceptions of teaching.

Science.gov (United States)

Lempp, Heidi; Seale, Clive

2004-10-02

To study medical students' views about the quality of the teaching they receive during their undergraduate training, especially in terms of the hidden curriculum. Semistructured interviews with individual students. One medical school in the United Kingdom. 36 undergraduate medical students, across all stages of their training, selected by random and quota sampling, stratified by sex and ethnicity, with the whole medical school population as a sampling frame. Medical students' experiences and perceptions of the quality of teaching received during their undergraduate training. Students reported many examples of positive role models and effective, approachable teachers, with valued characteristics perceived according to traditional gendered stereotypes. They also described a hierarchical and competitive atmosphere in the medical school, in which haphazard instruction and teaching by humiliation occur, especially during the clinical training years. Following on from the recent reforms of the manifest curriculum, the hidden curriculum now needs attention to produce the necessary fundamental changes in the culture of undergraduate medical education.

Teaching Citizenship in the Faith School: Qualitative Evidence from Separate Schools in Northern Ireland

Science.gov (United States)

Donnelly, Caitlin; Burns, Stephanie

2017-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine how teachers teach and students learn about citizenship education in two faith-based schools in Northern Ireland. The data show that participants in the Catholic school were confident in their own identity; teachers encouraged active engagement with contentious, conflict-related debates and students…

Investigating Your School's Science Teaching and Learning Culture

Science.gov (United States)

Sato, Mistilina; Bartiromo, Margo; Elko, Susan

2016-01-01

The authors report on their work with the Academy for Leadership in Science Instruction, a program targeted to help science teachers promote a science teaching and learning culture in their own schools.

High School Principal Transformational Leadership Behaviors and Teacher Extra Effort during Educational Reform: The Mediating Role of Teacher Agency Beliefs

Science.gov (United States)

Boberg, John Eric

2013-01-01

Transformational leadership has been shown to affect organizational commitment, capacity development, and performance. However, these relationships have received very little attention in schools, especially high schools in the United States that are experiencing educational reform initiatives under No Child Left Behind. Using a sample of 1403 high…

The STS-constructivist reform: some discordant notes | Nworgu ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

It would appear that as many more voices join in the advocacy for STS constructivist Reform in science teaching/learning, more discordant notes are emitted. The purpose of the paper therefore, was to spotlight some of these discordant notes emitted in the course of the on-going reform advocacy. Specifically, three of such ...

Identifying perceptions of academic reform in pharmacy using a four-frame organizational change model.

Science.gov (United States)

Bajis, Dalia; Chaar, Betty; Basheti, Iman A; Moles, Rebekah

2017-11-10

In an ever-changing environment, pharmacy education is in the race to catch up and excel to produce competent pharmacists. Examining academic institutions, including schools of pharmacy, their internal systems and framework, it seems appropriate to view these institutions using multiple lenses. Bolman and Deal conceptualized a method to examine organizations using four constructs (structural, human resource, political, and symbolic). The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), with deep-rooted pharmacy education and practice was the setting for this research. To explore factors affecting academic reform in undergraduate pharmacy education in the EMR from stakeholders' and students' perspectives; and to apply Bolman and Deal's four-frame organizational change model to explore how these issues might be viewed. A multiple-method approach was employed and involved collecting, analyzing and integrating qualitative semi-structured interview data with open-ended questions in a survey. Cross-sector stakeholder sample from various EMR countries was recruited and interviewed. Final year pharmacy students from one school of pharmacy in Jordan were surveyed. Emergent themes were indicative that academic reform was addressed by all frames of the Bolman and Deal model. Structural and political frames received substantial weighing pointing to the importance of curricular reform, collaboration and leadership. A need for skillful and role-model teaching academic staff was highlighted, and in harmony with the human resource frame. Issues within the symbolic frame were readily apparent in the data and spanned the other three frames in relation to heritage, customs and cultural barriers. Issues pertinent to academic reform in pharmacy were presented. Viewing change in pharmacy schools from multiple perspectives highlighted the need for structural changes to pharmacy programs, human resource management, political will, leadership, and collaboration. The importance of understanding cultural

Quality improvement teaching at medical school: a student perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nair P

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Pooja Nair, Ishani Barai, Sunila Prasad, Karishma Gadhvi Department of Medicine, Imperial College School of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK Abstract: Guidelines in the UK require all doctors to actively take part in quality improvement. To ease future doctors into the process, formal quality improvement teaching can be delivered during medical school. Keywords: quality improvement, medical school, patient safety, patient satisfaction, medical student, clinical audit

Teaching planetary sciences to elementary school teachers: Programs that work

Science.gov (United States)

Lebofsky, Larry A.; Lebofsky, Nancy R.

1993-01-01

Planetary sciences can be used to introduce students to the natural world which is a part of their lives. Even children in an urban environment are aware of such phenomena as day and night, shadows, and the seasons. It is a science that transcends cultures, has been prominent in the news in recent years, and can generate excitement in young minds as no other science can. Planetary sciences also provides a useful tool for understanding other sciences and mathematics, and for developing problem solving skills which are important in our technological world. However, only 15 percent of elementary school teachers feel very well qualified to teach earth/space science, while better than 80 percent feel well qualified to teach reading; many teachers avoid teaching science; very little time is actually spent teaching science in the elementary school: 19 minutes per day in K-3 and 38 minutes per day in 4-6. While very little science is taught in elementary and middle school, earth/space science is taught at the elementary level in less than half of the states. It was pointed out that science is not generally given high priority by either teachers or school districts, and is certainly not considered on a par with language arts and mathematics. Therefore, in order to teach science to our youth, we must empower our teachers, making them familiar and comfortable with existing materials. In our earlier workshops, several of our teachers taught in classrooms where the majority of the students were Hispanic (over 90 percent). However, few space sciences materials existed in Spanish. Therefore, most of our materials could not be used effectively in the classroom. To address this issue, NASA materials were translated into Spanish and a series of workshops for bilingual classroom teachers from Tucson and surrounding cities was conducted. Our space sciences workshops and our bilingual classroom workshops and how they address the needs of elementary school teachers in Arizona are

The pedagogical and ethical legacy of a "successful" educational reform: The Citizen School Project

Science.gov (United States)

Fischman, Gustavo E.; Gandin, Luis Armando

2016-02-01

The Citizen School Project (Escola Cidadã) was implemented from 1993 to 2004 in Porto Alegre, capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. This article presents the conception behind the Citizen School Project, the basic mechanisms created to implement and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, and some of its contradictions. After contextualising the educational reforms in Brazil during the 1980s and 1990s, the authors demonstrate how the Citizen School Project's emphasis on participation and democratisation was a radical departure from Brazil's traditional public education system. Next, they present the three main goals and structures of the Citizen School Project - democratisation of access to schools, democratisation of schools' administration, and democratisation of access to knowledge. They conclude by discussing some pedagogic, social and political dynamics which appear to be strong legacies of this pedagogical project. The authors also argue that the Citizen School Project has both improved the quality of education in Porto Alegre and is an important contribution to our collective thinking about the politics of "successful" educational policies.

Teaching, learning and assessment of medical ethics at the UK medical schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Brooks, Lucy; Bell, Dominic

2017-09-01

To evaluate the UK undergraduate medical ethics curricula against the Institute of Medical Ethics (IME) recommendations; to identify barriers to teaching and assessment of medical ethics and to evaluate perceptions of ethics faculties on the preparation of tomorrow's doctors for clinical practice. Questionnaire survey of the UK medical schools enquiring about content, structure and location of ethics teaching and learning; teaching and learning processes; assessment; influences over institutional approach to ethics education; barriers to teaching and assessment; perception of student engagement and perception of student preparation for clinical practice. The lead for medical ethics at each medical school was invited to participate (n=33). Completed responses were received from 11/33 schools (33%). 73% (n=8) teach all IME recommended topics within their programme. 64% (n=7) do not include ethics in clinical placement learning objectives. The most frequently cited barrier to teaching was lack of time (64%, n=7), and to assessment was lack of time and suitability of assessments (27%, n=3). All faculty felt students were prepared for clinical practice. IME recommendations are not followed in all cases, and ethics teaching is not universally well integrated into clinical placement. Barriers to assessment lead to inadequacies in this area, and there are few consequences for failing ethics assessments. As such, tomorrow's patients will be treated by doctors who are inadequately prepared for ethical decision making in clinical practice; this needs to be addressed by ethics leads with support from medical school authorities. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

School Gardens: Teaching and Learning outside the Front Door

Science.gov (United States)

Passy, Rowena

2014-01-01

This article reports on two projects: one that investigated the impact of school gardens on primary children's learning and one that is currently exploring the pedagogies involved in teaching children in the garden. The evidence presented suggests that school gardens can be an interesting and effective way of engaging children with learning, but…

Science and Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Beliefs of Pre-School Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Aydogdu, Bülent; Peker, Murat

2016-01-01

The aim of this research was to examine science and mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of pre-school teachers in terms of some variables. The sample of the study was comprised of 191 pre-school teachers working in a city in Aegean Region of Turkey. Since it attempted to define self-efficacy beliefs of pre-school teachers toward science and…

The distinction between key ideas in teaching school physics and key ideas in the discipline of physics

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Zongyi

2001-05-01

The distinction between key ideas in teaching a high school science and key ideas in the corresponding discipline of science has been largely ignored in scholarly discourse about what science teachers should teach and about what they should know. This article clarifies this distinction through exploring how and why key ideas in teaching high school physics differ from key ideas in the discipline of physics. Its theoretical underpinnings include Dewey's (1902/1990) distinction between the psychological and the logical and Harré's (1986) epistemology of science. It analyzes how and why the key ideas in teaching color, the speed of light, and light interference at the high school level differ from the key ideas at the disciplinary level. The thesis is that key ideas in teaching high school physics can differ from key ideas in the discipline in some significant ways, and that the differences manifest Dewey's distinction. As a result, the article challenges the assumption of equating key ideas in teaching a high school science with key ideas in the corresponding discipline of science, and the assumption that having a college degree in science is sufficient to teach high school science. Furthermore, the article expands the concept of pedagogical content knowledge by arguing that key ideas in teaching high school physics constitute an essential component.

Effects of Gender on Teachers' Perceptions of School Environment, Teaching Efficacy, Stress and Job Satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Van Dat

2015-01-01

This study investigates how teachers' perceptions of school environment factors, teaching efficacy, teacher stress and job satisfaction, and to determine whether gender was a differentiating factor. A total of 387 Vietnamese junior high school teachers completed one questionnaire for four sections about school-level environment, teaching efficacy,…

From Attitudes to Practice: Utilising Inclusive Teaching Strategies in Kenyan Primary Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Elder, Brent C.; Damiani, Michelle L.; Oswago, Benson O.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of Kenyan primary school teachers using inclusive teaching strategies in a rural setting with many known barriers to the development of a sustainable inclusive education system. This qualitative study examines teachers' uses of inclusive teaching strategies in primary schools following a series of…

The efficacy beliefs of preservice science teachers in professional development school and traditional school settings

Science.gov (United States)

Newsome, Demetria Lynn

Teachers' efficacy beliefs have been shown to correlate positively with to the successful implementation of science reform measures (National Research Council, 1996) and are context specific (Koul & Rubba, 1999). Studies on teacher efficacy in specific contexts have been conducted including the availability of resources and parent support (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2002), classroom management (Emmer & Hickman, 1990; Raudenbush, Rowen, & Cheong, 1992); and institutional climate and behavior of the principal (Hoy & Woolfolk, 1993). The purpose of this study was to compare the science teaching efficacy beliefs of teacher interns prepared in professional development schools with those of student teachers prepared in traditional school settings. Other variables examined included academic level, academic major, and area of science concentration. Preservice science teacher efficacy beliefs were measured using the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument for Preservice Science Teachers, STEBI Form B (Enoch & Riggs, 1990) with demographic information being collected by an accompanying questionnaire. Analyses included scoring the surveys on two scales, Personal Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Scale and the Outcome Expectancy Scale, calculating descriptive statistics, as well as performing MANOVAS and correlations. Results indicate that preservice science teachers working in professional development schools exhibit higher personal science teaching efficacy beliefs. This finding corroborates previous studies on the efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers working in PDS schools (Long, 1996; Sandholtz & Dadlez, 2000). Results also show a strong correlation between the personal science teaching efficacy beliefs and the setting where student teaching takes place. In addition, significant differences were found in the personal science teaching efficacy beliefs between elementary education majors and science majors, science education majors, and secondary education majors

Still Motivated to Teach? A Study of School Context Variables, Stress and Job Satisfaction among Teachers in Senior High School

Science.gov (United States)

Skaalvik, Einar M.; Skaalvik, Sidsel

2017-01-01

This study explored how teachers' working conditions or school context variables (job demands and job resources) were related to their teaching self-concept, teacher burnout, job satisfaction, and motivation to leave the teaching profession among teachers in Norwegian senior high school. Participants were 546 teachers in three counties in central…

Domestic violence teaching in UK medical schools: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Potter, Lucy C; Feder, Gene

2017-10-06

Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a leading contributor to the physical and mental ill health of women. Recent international guidance recommends that undergraduate medical curricula should include DVA. We do not know what is currently taught about DVA to medical students in the UK. Recent international guidance recommends that undergraduate medical curricula should include DVA METHOD: Teaching leads from all UK medical schools (n = 34) were invited to participate in an 18-item online survey about what DVA education is provided, their views of this provision and any feedback provided by students. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. A total of 25 out of 34 medical schools participated in the survey (74%). All respondents felt that there should be formal teaching on DVA in the medical curriculum. Eighty-four per cent of respondents reported that there was some formal teaching in their medical school, and 90% of these reported that it was mandatory. Of those who delivered some teaching, 52% reported that the provision was 0-2 hours in total. Most commonly content was delivered in year 4. DVA teaching was delivered in different modules, by different methods and delivered by a range of different providers. Seventy-five per cent of respondents reported that they felt the provision at their medical school was inadequate or not enough. Barriers to providing DVA education identified included time constraints, failure to perceive it as a medical problem and the assumption that it will be covered elsewhere. Most medical students in the UK receive a small amount of teaching on DVA towards the end of the curriculum. This is perceived as inadequate. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Reforming the 4th-Year Curriculum as a Springboard to Graduate Medical Training: One School's Experiences and Lessons Learned.

Science.gov (United States)

Wackett, Andrew; Daroowalla, Feroza; Lu, Wei-Hsin; Chandran, Latha

2016-01-01

Concerns regarding the quality of training in the 4th year of medical school and preparation of graduates to enter residency education persist and are borne out in the literature. We reviewed the published literature regarding Year 4 concerns as well as institutional efforts to improve the 4th-year curriculum from several schools. Based on input from key stakeholders, we established 4 goals for our Year 4 curriculum reform: (a) standardize the curricular structure, (b) allow flexibility and individualization, (c) improve the preparation for residency, and (d) improve student satisfaction. After the reform, we evaluated the outcomes using results from the Association of American Medical Colleges Questionnaire, student focus groups, and program director surveys. This article describes the context, process, and outcomes of the reform of the Year 4 curriculum at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. We were able to achieve all four stated goals for the reform. The significant components of the change included a flexible adaptable curriculum based on individual needs and preferences, standardized learning objectives across the year, standardized competency-based evaluations regardless of discipline, reinforcement of clinical skills, and training for the transition to the workplace as an intern. The reform resulted in increased student satisfaction, increased elective time, and increased preparedness for residency training as perceived by the graduates. The Program Director survey showed significant changes in ability to perform a medical history and exam, management of common medical conditions and emergencies, clinical reasoning and problem-solving skills, working and communication with the healthcare team, and overall professionalism in meeting obligations inherent in the practice of medicine. Lessons learned from our 4th-year reform process are discussed. Listening to the needs of the stakeholders was an important step in ensuring buy-in, having an institutional

School education and democratic management of teaching: perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Máximo Augusto Campos Masson

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The article discusses the management of education from the debate on the democratic management of social institutions, in particular, the school. It reflects on the changes that have occurred in the school due to the presence of new students belonging to the subaltern classes and the possibility of the democratic management of teaching being an important instrument for overcoming school failure. It discusses aspects of Brazilian legislation on the theme and the possibilities arising from the growth of political conservatism oppose initiatives to democratic management of education.

Prospective High School Physics Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching Practices: From Traditionalist to Constructivist

Science.gov (United States)

Demirci, Neset

2015-01-01

The main aim of this study was to determine the teaching practices of prospective high school physics teachers with respect to their preference for teaching as a traditionalist or as a constructivist. To study the beliefs of prospective high school physics teachers on this subject, firstly, the Teacher Belief Survey was administered to 135…

Who teaches science in Alagoas? A quantitative analysis of non-specialist teaching at primary and secondary schools in Brazil

OpenAIRE

Fischer, Robert; Fireman, Elton; Gomes, Jose Renan

2013-01-01

While non-specialist teaching increasingly becomes an object of public interest, there is little data available on the actual educational background of teachers giving classes outside their specialisation. This work analyses the data collected by the Brazilian Ministry of Education from public and private schools in Alagoas (Brazil), with a special focus on science education at primary and secondary schools. We find that the phenomena of non-specialist teaching is highly subject specific. For...

Education Reform in Hong Kong

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chris Dowson

2000-05-01

Full Text Available Since the early 1990s, the pace of educational reform in Hong Kong has accelerated and broadened to incorporate almost all areas of schooling. The reforms introduced during this period can be subsumed under what has generally been labelled the quality movement. In this paper, we review and comment on a number of policy reform initiatives in the four areas of "Quality Education," English Language Benchmarking, Initial Teacher Training and the Integration of Pupils with Special Needs into Ordinary Classrooms. Following a brief description of each policy initiative, the reforms are discussed in terms of their consistency, coherence and cultural fit.

"Read All about It," and Teach Kids Using School Newspapers

Science.gov (United States)

Padgett, Raven

2006-01-01

This article presents an adaptation from Communicator, 29 (January 2006), 5-6, in which the author discusses the value of a newspaper as well as the benefits of having a student-run newspaper at a school and highlights the use of school newspapers as a teaching tool. A school newspaper is an excellent way for students to practice their writing and…

How They Teach the Holocaust in Jewish Day Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Ellison, Jeffrey Alan

2017-01-01

Though Holocaust education is of critical importance in the world of Jewish Day Schools, little research has been conducted about it. The purpose of this paper is to answer some critical questions about how they teach the Holocaust in Jewish Day Schools--the who, what, when, where, how, and why questions. Additionally, comparisons are made between…

Increased provision of udeskole in Danish schools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barfod, Karen Seierøe; Ejbye-Ernst, Niels; Mygind, Lærke

2016-01-01

Education outside the classroom (EOtC) has the potential to increase children's learning, physical activity, social relations, school motivation, and well-being. In Denmark, EOtC has undergone a rapid development from a grassroots movement to part of a top-down reform in public schools. It is the...... with this practice may lack the necessary competence to practice it. We argue that the widespread use of green space and nearby environment in teaching should be reflected in initial teacher training, connecting educational planning and green space management....

Changes in educational inequalities in Poland. Comments on Zbigniew Sawiński’s article “Education reform and inequality: fifteen years of new lower secondary schools in Poland”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MICHAŁ SITEK

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In his text published in Edukacja, 141(2, 2017 („Education reform and inequality: fifteen years of new lower secondary schools in Poland”, Zbigniew Sawiński analyses data from the 2000 to 2012 editions of the OECD PISA study and argues that lower secondary school reform has not reduced educational inequalities in Poland. The importance of students’ social origin remained at the same level as before the reform, the impact of social origin on the choice of type of secondary school remained the same, and an increasing differentiation of lower secondary schools did not lead to an increase in educational inequalities. I present methodological arguments and the results of a re-analysis of PISA data, indicating changes in wider educational inequalities. Between 2000 and 2012: (a the strength of association in the performance of 15-year-olds with the socio-economic status of students’ families did not change, but (b the variation of results decreased, which was mainly due to the improved performance of the lowest performing students, (c the differences between students of high and low socio-economic status decreased, (d the influence of social origin on the choice of the type of upper secondary school decreased. The effects of socio-economic status on upper secondary school choice is largely direct: it is not mediated by the educational achievements of students. The commentary also highlights the complexity of lower secondary school reform, which was not limited to the introduction of such schools. I indicate the role of factors that make it difficult to interpret the results of the reform in causal terms – particularly the role of unobserved variables related to the changes in the learning environments of subsequent cohorts of students.

Turning Lightning into Electricity: Organizing Parents for Education Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Andrew P.

2014-01-01

Families are the primary clients of public schools, but they are one of many constituencies who have a say in how schools actually operate. In all the technocratic fervor around "education reform"--the broad effort to implement standards and accountability, reform teacher tenure and evaluation, and increase parental choice--it is easy to…

Perceptions of High School Biology Teachers in Christian Schools on Relationships between Religious Beliefs and Teaching Evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Mangahas, Ana Marie E.

2017-01-01

This mixed method study explored Christian teachers' beliefs in religious schools on evolution, their attitudes toward evolution, and their perceptions on the effect of those beliefs on the teaching of evolutionary content. Teachers (N = 52) from Association for Christian Schools International (ACSI) accredited schools in California and Hawaii…

Professional Development of School Principals in the Pilot Program of ‘Pedagogical Flexibility’: The Israeli Case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nets Mali

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The past decade constitutes a significant turning point in the orientation of policy makers in the Israeli educational system. This period is characterized by comprehensive structural and pedagogical reforms intended for the promotion of the system’s achievements. ‘Pedagogical Flexibility’, a reform in the professional development of teaching staff implemented in 2015, constitutes a significant breakthrough in the perception of development and learning in Israel. The school principals play a main role in leading the reform and in the development of a new organizational culture in the staff as well. This led to the creation of focused learning frameworks for school principals who sought to improve their knowledge and skill in the leadership of the reform. The article presents the main points of the first pilot program implemented in the North District for the training of 20 school principals in the reform and the main findings from the evaluation of the program, data from a questionnaire, and a focus group. In addition, the article proposes a critical look at the program effectiveness and indicates further focuses for future learning. The article presents a view of the role of the school principal in the leadership of the professional development in Israel and reviews theoretical aspects that arise from the research regarding this issue.

Real World Connections in High School Mathematics Curriculum and Teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gökhan Karakoç

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Making real world connections in mathematics curricula and in teaching mathematics is generally viewed favorably within the educational community, however, little empirical research has examined how and why to use real world connections in mathematics education based on the views of experts. This study describes the feasibility of the use of real world connections according to high school mathematics teachers and academicians of mathematics education. Opinions of high school mathematics teachers (n=16 and academicians (n=8 about advantages, disadvantages, and examples of real world connections are elicited and reported. Teachers and academicians report several advantages of the use of real world connections in teaching mathematics as well as its disadvantages and limitations. Suggestions about dealing with limiting factors for using real world connections are also reported. Keywords: Mathematics curriculum, real world connections, mathematics teaching

Didactital design of mathematics teaching in primary school

Science.gov (United States)

Nur’aeni, E.; Muharram, M. R. W.

2018-05-01

The fact that the low ability of geometrical understanding of primary school students is what triggers this study to be conducted. Thus, this research aimed to find out how to create a didactical design of students' mathematical understanding, particularly on one of geometry materials that is unit of length. A qualitative approach promoting Didactical Design Research (DDR) was administered in this study. Participants of the study were primary school students in Tasikmalaya, an city in West Java Province, Indonesia. The results show that there was a learning design based on learning obstacles found in the mathematics teaching and learning processes. The learning obstacles comprised students' difficulties in memorizing, relating, and operating the standards of unit of lengths. It has been proven that the most influential factor in the success of mathematics teaching and learning processes is the use of creative media.

Teaching experience of final clinical practice by Chinese pharmacy major students based on the method combined by the learning-guiding teaching method and CAI teaching method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Shougang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available On the gradual implementation of the new medical education reform and thoroughly applying the Educational Development Plan and the Health Care System Reform, the teaching mode of medical discipline will be changed gradually by following the law of medical education and meeting the need to boost the medical education reform. Meanwhile, the changing life-style prompts the traditional dispensing mode for Chinese traditional medicine to various modes. This changing put forward higher requirement for medicine- related professionals During the process of Chinese medicine teaching, the only method which can fulfill the new need for graduates of Chinese medicine and qualified medicine personals is to change the traditional teaching mode to the new ones which can arose the enthusiasm of working and learning by the traditional medicine students.

Finding Meaningful Roles for Scientists in science Education Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Brenda

Successful efforts to achieve reform in science education require the active and purposeful engagement of professional scientists. Working as partners with teachers, school administrators, science educators, parents, and other stakeholders, scientists can make important contributions to the improvement of science teaching and learning in pre-college classrooms. The world of a practicing university, corporate, or government scientist may seem far removed from that of students in an elementary classroom. However, the science knowledge and understanding of all future scientists and scientifically literate citizens begin with their introduction to scientific concepts and phenomena in childhood and the early grades. Science education is the responsibility of the entire scientific community and is not solely the responsibility of teachers and other professional educators. Scientists can serve many roles in science education reform including the following: (1) Science Content Resource, (2) Career Role Model, (3) Interpreter of Science (4) Validator for the Importance of Learning Science and Mathematics, (5) Champion of Real World Connections and Value of Science, (6) Experience and Access to Funding Sources, (7) Link for Community and Business Support, (8) Political Supporter. Special programs have been developed to assist scientists and engineers to be effective partners and advocates of science education reform. We will discuss the rationale, organization, and results of some of these partnership development programs.

Developing Standards for EFL in Indonesia as Part of the EFL Teaching Reform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suwarsih Madya

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract: The teaching of English in Indonesia has so far been unable to reach its declared goal, which is the students' mastery of the English macro skills listening, speaking, reading, writing. Various factors have certainly contributed to this failure, but the highly centralized curriculum has been one of the many to be blamed for it. The new system of regional autonomy gives ample opportunity to schools/ regions to develop their own curricula. This will lead to the need for the establishment of standard of English to ensure the achievement of the ultimate goal of teaching English throughout the country. This paper suggests that the development of standards for English should involve as many parties concerned as possible, including EFL teachers, EFL teacher educators, and users of school graduates. Another suggestion made related to the aspects to be covered in the standards, namely (1 the qualification of EFL policy makers, EFL teacher educators, and EFL teachers; (2 class size, (3 facilities and equipment, and (4 assessment and evaluation.

A Decade of Education Reform in Thailand: Broken Promise or Impossible Dream?