Reading Presentations: BrandonTeaching Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Science Classrooms: Survey ResultsKatherine Norman, Dana Caseau, Greg StefanichScience Education 1998 82: 127-146Disabilities as a cultural issue in the public school science classroom:11% of sts have some sort of disabilityTeachers’ self-responses32.6% of el ed teachers report being trained in mainstreaming students with physical disabilities4.7 % report being trained in inclusion methods for students with learning disabilities34.9 % (elem) adequately prepared to design, select and modify activities for students with disabilities33.3% severe disabilities should not be in classrooms with regular students54% disability categories are too often used as an excuse for failure32% too much $ spent on addressing needs of sts with disabilitiesRe-visioning
Cogenerative Dialogues as Feminist Pedagogy , Kathryn Scantlebury and
Sarah-Kate LaVan, Forum: Qualitative Research vol 7 no 2 art 41 march
2006co generative dialog , moderator and instruct sts down with
students and they talk about their feelings and how they are made to
feel in class, references activity theory and agency. Who has the
power in a classroom? When using co-generative dialog no voice has
supremacy. When everyone has a voice it has the potential to be
transformative and oart of feminist pedagogy conscience raising ,
participants educating each other. Each takes responsibility of making
everyone else aware of their own perspective and people need to agree
not to exploit the power relationship , can not reflect feminist
pedagogy if not transformative or if no change occurs. May be
particularly useful in science because males are inherently privileged
over females in science class (I wonder about this statement and
question it’s validity). Expanding our Understanding of Urban
Science Education by Expanding the Roles of students as Researchers ,
Rowhea Elmesky, Kenneth Tobin, JRST vol 42 no 7 pp. 807-828Ken
Tobin hired student to research and interview peers on how science
teachers can be a good science teacher for urban students listen to
kids make sense of their world and bring the education to them as well
as find out what is important to them what is important to them is not
always what we as educators value or think they would value. Giving a voice to urban students roles of students as researchersHandbookGender Issues and Science Education: Emily Was
the deficit model of female science education – Girls lacked cognitive
ability and personal traits to lead to achievement in science rather
than questioning the system. The research was questioning the girls
not the teaching , girls = stupid, guys = smart” � of the worlds
workers are in sextyped occupations” what counts as a gender
stereotyped occupation? Women encouraged to enroll in humanities, men
encouraged in math and science. Girls perspectives in science ,
teachers can create an environment where girls have permission to
explore scientifically or to simply be observers/notetakers. Gender
roles are not explicit in teacher education programs the classroom but
they can profoundly affect students in your classes none the less. Special needs and talents in science (McGinnis & Stefanich, 2007): DonnaEvery
learner is unique. If learner exceeds typical performances of peer
group they are called “special talents” if learner shows deficit in
typical performance they are labeled “special needs” Guide for policy
makers and teachers rather than teacher-educators. Theoretical
Perspectives: Behavioral (observable behavior), Developmental (changes
in development over time, children think differently than adults),
Cognitive (mental functioning, need for multi disciplinary approach
special talents and need students , reach both ends of the spectrum),
Social context (students participate more in science when it is taught
using a socially oriented program) Many of the tools used for
gender inclusion would also work for special need and talent students.
“Disruptive brain function” may lead to underachievement in science.
What do they mean by disruptive brain functions? Typical testing
identifies what students do wrong but not what they can do right. Get
to know students! Using a deficit model. Legislation , Americans with
Disabilities Act and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Science teachers tend to be weary to use some science equipment with
disabled students. Structuring science labs for physical
accommodations. Call for science teacher involvement in assessment of
special needs students. How have teachers who are accommodating well
doing it? Special talents , focus on female learner and talented kids
wit different cultural backgrounds, need for longitudinal research in
this area. Tension between scied researchers and sped researchers. Class talkCaucasian women overwhelmingly make up the teaching profession Do
we want to invite library people or others working on research
innovation via technology to come into class and share with us what
they are working on? Think about framing recommendations in
your own research around policy and practices in research. What would
you say to policy makers to influence policy? While also thinking
about how your argument will be viewed/simplified by readers. How
would you frame your recommendations so they would not/could not
set-off an unwanted chain of action in the field. Ex. NCLBWhat can we do as teacher educators to counter the problem of gender stereotypes in the classroom? – be aware of who you are calling on in class and analyze your own practice via video (StudioCode coding your own practice) –
make explicit your decision making as a teacher to your pre-service
sts. Especially around gender, disabilities and other “underserved”
groups (ESL learners)- specific issues for inclusion in science classroom vs other formats- classroom culture in science A
lot of disagreement over what needs to be done for students with
special needs science classes. Resistance to change. Lack of
responsiveness to the problem. What is it about teachers who
are doing well that helped them to get their? How do they do it? We
know goes wrong, now let’s find out what goes right. Talk your citations! Who are “they”? Stop skipping the parenthesis. Network with salient authors at conferences. Next TimeWhen
you do your reading think about what the take home message is?
Identify 3 bullets (big ideas) in each piece. Post Big 3 in blog. Post
Research Interest Statement for review with mark-ups. Bring paper
copies of research interest to class blog. Refer to tagging guidelines
from Carla. Curriculum and assessment in science , focusing on assessment Asli , discussion guide, id 2-3 empirical studies to augment discussionChpt 27 – Inquiry as an organizing theme in science (Emily)Chpt 28 – Nature of Science (Lis) Chpt 30 , Systemic reform (Brandon)Chpt 31 , Review of Scied Program evaluations (Donna) Chpt 33 – Large Scale Assessments (Asli)
2008
Learning to Teach Science Beyond Talk of Reform
Learning to Teach Science: Tom Russell and Andrea K Martin, Queen’s University, CanadaIn
general, the science education community is steeped with talk of reform
but there tends to be much pessimism as to our ability/willingness to
put those words into action. Russell and Martin point out three big
things we should consider in order to move beyond the “Rhetoric of
Reform.”1) Science teacher educators tend to be reluctant to
practice what they preach; their own teaching isn’t likely to reflect
what the research suggests new and experienced educators should do.
Teacher educators who speak of reform but do not act in reform oriented
ways, are ignoring the reality that we learn to teach more by what is
modeled than by what is told.2) Teachers are called to engage in
“reflective practice” yet there is little evidence that they are
actually being taught how to reflect and/or what to reflect on. There
is also little evidence that teacher educators are themselves employing
focused reflection to reform their own practices.3) Science
education research calls for students’ prior knowledge to be explored
in order to build a foundation upon which conceptual change can occur
but the parallel complexity of conceptual change on prior views of
teaching and learning, held by pre-service teachers, is overlooked.
Pre-service teachers’ prior knowledge must be evoked in order to
inspire new teachers to develop best practices supported by research
evidence.
Reflection in Science Teaching and Learning
Citation:
Danielowich, R. (2007) Negotiating the Conflicts: Reexamining the
Structure and Function of Reflection in Science Teacher Learning. Science Education (91) 4: 629-663.Key Constructs:
Reflection is often seen a tool used to fix problems in practice toward
a predefined goal. This study proposes reflection should be a complex,
socially-situated, intellectual act that can help teachers learn how to
shape their own goals and/or practices. Teacher reflection falls along a continuum: technical, interpretive and critical. When teachers reflect technically they try to align their goals and/or practice with predetermined learning ends.
When teachers reflect interpretively, they seek to establish an ongoing
conversation about how their students’ learning interfaces with their
teaching goals and practices. When
teachers reflect critically, they recognize their own moral and ethical
positions regarding the entire enterprise of teaching and learning and
act to change the conditions of schooling which produce inequities. When
teacher educators acknowledge that teachers are learning something
valuable when they begin to reflect interpretively and critically
rather than just technically, teachers themselves may be more receptive
to taking risks associated with actually changing their practices in
reform oriented-ways.Research Questions: 1) How did
these teachers reflect differently about their teaching while working
toward interpretive and critical goals they had not realized in their
earlier practice? 2) What do the patterns across these teachers’
reflections say about how reflection helps teachers learn to negotiate
the conflicts between their own goals and actual practices?Theoretical Framework: Critical Methodology: Ethnographic approach toward Descriptive Case StudyFindings: 1)
In general, teachers whose reflection shifted from technical toward
critical forms, did not indicate more clarity about how they could
modify their actual teaching practices toward those forms. Though they
all began to accept intellectual responsibility for shaping their own
goals and teaching decisions. 2) Teachers who recognized
moments of uncertainty in their actual practice were more likely to use
them as resources for further reflection than those who had already
begun to frame their actual practices with clearer teaching goals.
This suggests that when teachers choose to reflect on moments of
in-class decision making (reflection-in-action) that they might also be
searching for more coherent teaching goals, rather than
reflection-in-action being an automatic by-product of practice. 3)
Teachers whose reflection were more strongly interpretive at first,
played more prominent roles in socially-situated reflection analysis
than teachers whose starting reflections were more technical. Such
peer-to-peer reflection analysis, not only improves reflection but also
is seen as an integral component of a teachers’ identity formation
within a school community.Implications: The shifts seen
in all the teachers’ goals, indicate this approach to reflection may be
an effective way to introduce reform initiatives to teachers while
still honoring their intellectual autonomy. Teacher
educators should begin encouraging pre-service teachers to use moments
of reflection-in-action as resources for the more intellectually
complex endeavor of reflection-on-action where they can flesh out the
conflicts they face in their practice with their teaching goals.
Deliberate reflection, on these moments, is best facilitated by video
or journaling as soon after the lesson as possible and sharing their
reflections with their peers. When teachers invite their
peers to review video records of their actual practice, the group can
engage in social discourse that creates a new content for their
reflections and can help shape the social environment of the school,
allowing teachers to move forward in their individual practice while
also moving the community-practice of the school forward. Going Further:
Research is needed to explore the unique challenges science teachers
have in reflecting about the conflicts between their goals and
practice, in order to determine if the goals outlined by standards
documents and peer reviewed, reform oriented research are truly
viable.
Teacher Identity Development
Citation: Luehmann, A. (2007) Identity Development As a Lens to Science Teacher Preparation. Science Education, 91 (5) 822-839.Key Constructs:
An approach, to teacher education, which focuses only on developing the
skills and knowledge needed to engage in inquiry-based practices is too
limited, as it ignores some of the core needs of one who is developing
a new identity as a reform-oriented science teacher. Incorporating
identity theory into pre-service programs brings the importance of the
following, to the forefront 1) the unique challenges and personal risk
involved in taking on a new professional identity 2) the value of
engaging in out-of-school reform-based teaching experiences as a way to
scaffold participation in reform-oriented practices and 3) the
importance for beginning science teachers to engage in supported
opportunities for “recognition work”.Problem-Statement:
Teacher education programs typically succeed at teaching the technical
skills and understandings prospective teachers need but fall short
preparing them for many of the unique challenges they will face. Such
as: Reconciling a reform-based image of instruction with personal prior beliefs about teaching, learning and the NOS. Positioning themselves within a larger political and cultural community of practice. Managing the emotional elements of identity development. Connecting, integrating and reconciling various sources of theory and experiences of practice. Developing confidence in themselves as effective teachers.Theoretical Framework: Identity theory as a lens for teacher development.Methodology: Conceptual AnalysisFindings: 1) Practice teaching in traditional school settings is too limited. 2) Prospective teachers lack personal experiences with reform as learners and teachers. 3) A disconnect exists between theory and practiceImplications: Practice
teaching in non-school settings should be included in teacher
preparation programs, to act as a scaffold, preceding and complimenting
practice teaching in school settings. Pre-service teachers should be
exposed to science learning in reform-oriented ways. “Recognition
work” via blogging, journaling, debriefing, programmatic portfolios,
professional presentations and other “cogenerative dialogs” should be
common throughout and beyond a pre-service program. Going Further:
Research, should be performed to determine the effectiveness of these
strategies in developing reform-oriented science teachers.
Draft Research Questions
What do novice teachers identify as meaningful patterns of practice and how does that change over time?In
what ways do collaborative critical analysis of video influence what
meaningful patterns of practice novice teachers attend to?What
is the relationship between the recognition and implementation of
meaningful patterns of practice in the early elementary school
classroom?
Vote 4 Kevin!!!
Kevin wants to be a rock star! He would plays
24/7 if his parents let him and has been playing for 2 � yrs. He entered this contest,
and he needs your vote. Please forward to your friends so they can vote too!
Kevin Somerville is a former student of mine (when he was in 6th grade) and is in a shredder contest on the Dean
Guitars website. The more people that visit the site and vote for him, the
better his chances are at winning! The grand prize is a new Dean guitar, a trip to Florida to a Dean
Owners Convention and, best of all, a private lesson with a professional guitar
player! It doesn’t cost you anything to do it, just click on the link,
visit his video and, most of all, VOTE FOR KEVIN!! Here is the link to his video on the site:
http://www.deanguitars.com/shredder/viewProfile.php?id=307Click on the number line below the video to submit a score. You can only click once. (I learned the hard way.) Thank you so much for your support!GO KEVIN!!! YOU’RE THE BEST!!!
My Celebrity Look-alikes Yikes
CI597C The Movie
Here I am…who should play me? You decide…
Casting Call for Disruptive Technology Movie
<a href=”http://www.myheritage.com/collage” title=”MyHeritage – free family trees, genealogy and face recognition” alt=”MyHeritage – free family trees, genealogy and face recognition” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.myheritagefiles.com/K/storage/site1/files/75/10/52/751052_6945855dd6f38449ujcx45.JPG” width=”500″ height=”574″ border=”0″ ></a>
One ringy-dingy
I was in a meeting last week and the small group of us realized that we had a question that someone else outside of our group could answer. The team leader suggested that he would email that individual after the meeting and let us know how he responded. As our meeting was in the same building–in fact the same floor– as the individual in question was housed, one of us suggested that perhaps the leader could just go knock on his door and ask while we were all there. A stunned silence filled the room. “I could,” he replied. And off he went. We chuckled after he left about what the reaction of that individual might be when the knock came at his door. If I were him, I probably would have been thinking “What the hell are you doing here? Answer a question? On the spot? To your face? Are you kidding me?” As bizarre as that sounds, it is becoming more and more commonplace in meetings that I’m in to do exactly what happened in the scenario described above. I believe we are becoming (if we’re not already there) averse to face-to-face interaction, and developing the same attitude to voice-to-voice interaction as well, because of our reliance on email to communicate. As a sample size of one, a quick comparison shows that in the last week, I received over 300 emails during the workweek, and about 60 phone calls during the same time period. I imagine the ratio is similar to the number of emails I wrote vs. calls I placed. It seems bad. It seems like we are becoming too isolated at work. But is it just that communication channels are morphing and this is just the result? 75 years ago, would someone have tracked similar stats for the increased number of telephone calls and decreased number of face-to-face visits in the workplace and proclaimed the death of communication in society? The rest of the story is that our fearless leader returned, having successfully cornered the individual, and secured a very non-answer to the question. So, we ultimately were no farther along than we were before, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Oh, and that individual is apparently going to email us when he has more information.