Responsible research and innovation in science education: insights from evaluating the impact of using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values

The European Commission policy approach of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is gaining momentum in European research planning and development as a strategy to align scientific and technological progress with socially desirable and acceptable ends. One of the RRI agendas is science education, aiming to foster future generations' acquisition of skills and values needed to engage in society responsibly. To this end, it is argued that RRI-based science education can benefit from more interdisciplinary methods such as those based on arts and digital technologies. However, the evidence existing on the impact of science education activities using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values remains underexplored. This article comparatively reviews previous evidence on the evaluation of these activities, from primary to higher education, to examine whether and how RRI-related learning outcomes are evaluated and how these activities impact on students' learning. Forty academic publications were selected and its content analysed according to five RRI values: creative and critical thinking, engagement, inclusiveness, gender equality and integration of ethical issues. When evaluating the impact of digital and arts-based methods in science education activities, creative and critical thinking, engagement and partly inclusiveness are the RRI values mainly addressed. In contrast, gender equality and ethics integration are neglected. Digital-based methods seem to be more focused on students' questioning and inquiry skills, whereas those using arts often examine imagination, curiosity and autonomy. Differences in the evaluation focus between studies on digital media and those on arts partly explain differences in their impact on RRI values, but also result in non-documented outcomes and undermine their potential. Further developments in interdisciplinary approaches to science education following the RRI policy agenda should reinforce the design of the activities as well as procedural aspects of the evaluation research

Music education reform in Taiwan: beginning music teachers' perceptions of their teacher preparation at National Taiwan Normal University

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this study was to investigate beginning music teachers' perceptions oftheir music teacher preparation at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) regarding the Arts and Humanities field of the Grade 1-9 Curriculum. Research questions focused on discovering the most and least effective components of undergraduate training at NTNU, identifying the missing components that might have helped beginning music teachers begin their profession more effectively, and having graduates involved in program improvement by presenting their recommendations. A descriptive analysis was conducted on the data received from 129 graduates from the music department ofNational Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). Of the 129 respondents, 69 took teacher education courses and were prospective music teachers. However, due to an overabundance of certified teachers in Taiwan, only 27 of the 69 graduates were able to obtain teaching positions. Beginning music teachers' experiences with student teaching, course content (Research in Music Teaching Materials and Methods), and applied music (voice), while in the teacher preparation program, helped prepare them to enter and be successful in the secondary music classroom. On the contrary, theoretical courses and advanced musicianship training were reported disconnected from the actual working experiences of beginning music teachers. The components which beginning music teachers expressed they wished had been taught in the undergraduate training program included teaching methods, classroom management, communication skills, knowledge of subject content (i.e., performing arts), music technology, and the theory of curriculum integration design and practice. In the hope of improving the shortcomings and linking the disconnections between training and work, beginning music teachers recommended the music teacher preparation program at NTNU increase the amount of coursework related to classroom realities, extend student teaching, provide more opportunities for classroom observations as well as professional development, and offer teacher education courses earlier in the program

What influences the emergence of a new subject in schools? The case of environmental education

New subjects are always emerging but only some gain a place in the formal school curriculum. In fact, most of the now accepted conventional school subjects have, at some stage, struggled to become established. This paper presents findings of a three-year study of teacher and school responses to the introduction of environmental education (EE) as a new subject within the Taiwan national curriculum. School leaders and teachers were interviewed the year prior to the introduction of the new curriculum and during the first two years of implementation. Findings substantiate the importance of six themes (such as examination status and a university pathway) raised in elaborations of the traditional Layton/Goodson model. However, the complex community-school relationships and the value accorded in EE to community-based and even global action, as opposed to academic outcomes, highlighted the need for curriculum policy makers to consider expanding the traditional model with another five themes and most importantly introducing three particular themes. When seeking to promote the emergence of a holistic and integrative subject such as environmental education there is a need to also consider local environment involvement, the transformative nature of EE within whole school involvement, and linkages with a national cooperation network. Without these factors it appears EE may struggle to gain a place in the curriculum

Teachers’ Belief and Practices in Teacher-Centered Empowerment Reform in Taiwan

Over the past 2 decades, Taiwan has introduced a series of decentralization reforms in school administration and curriculum. Teachers, who are at the center of these reforms, are expected to enrich their knowledge and cultivate strong beliefs regarding these reforms; the teachers’ beliefs and knowledge are not only affected by their personal profile but also by contextual factors of structure and culture at all levels. I conducted this study in order to explore these factors and determine how they affect teachers’ beliefs and practices. Qualitative methods guided this study in which a case-study approach was used. The findings of this study highlight a variety of factors that were identified by teachers. Contextual factors of structure and culture identified by the teachers include the context of the classroom, school administration and top-down authority, teachers’ culture, and government policy. The personal factors include personality, educational background and teacher preparation, demographic profiles, and teachers’ abilities. For the purpose of developing a comprehensive and culturally sensitive model of belief development, implications for practice and future research are provided

‘Tribes TLC’: Teacher education students’ perceptions

Tribes TLC is a process rather than a programme per se that aims to facilitate interactive learning and assist in the engendering of a positive classroom climate. Devised in the USA and imported into a number of contexts internationally, uptake in Australia has been considerable. Thirty second and third year Bachelor of Education students undertook the training hosted by Cooloongalup Primary School prior to participating in a ten week practicum. Data pertaining to the Tribes TLC resource was collected prior to the training phase, post training, and at the conclusion of the practicum. This paper reports the perceptions of students regarding the nature of Tribes TLC as a resource, their participation in the training, and the value of Tribes training for practicum purposes. Further, insights gleaned regarding the transportability of the resource into other international Teacher Education contexts are discussed

Mandarin Teachers\u27 Experiences Using Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Early Childhood Classrooms

The focus of this research study was on the experiences and perceptions of Mandarin Chinese teachers who used technologies and innovative instructional methods to teach second language skills to young learners. The conceptual framework drew on 3 theories: (a) Vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory, (b) Schӧn’s action theory, and (c) Mishra and Koehler’s technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). The research questions focused on the experiences of early childhood teachers integrating TPACK to teach Mandarin Chinese and how do early childhood teachers perceive the use of instructional methods to teach Mandarin Chinese. Purposeful sampling was used to identify 8 Mandarin Chinese language teachers who taught Mandarin Chinese to students in preschool through 3rd grade. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, a questionnaire centered on TPACK, and a reflective journal entry. The data were analyzed through thematic inductive analysis using cross-case analysis to identify codes, patterns, and emerging themes that explored the teacher’s experiences. The overall findings in this study indicated that teachers experienced positive outcomes integrating technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge in the early childhood language learning classroom. The finding has the potential for social change by increasing technological and instructional resources and materials in early childhood language learning classrooms and providing on-going professional development for Mandarin Chinese language teachers in American schools

Use of exchange-of-knowledge method for enhancing classroom environment and students’ attitudes and achievements in Mathematics

The main aim of this study was to evaluate the relative effectiveness of the exchange-of-knowledge method (a teaching approach that offers all students in a group an equal opportunity to interact with one another on the learning tasks and to communicate their ideas in various ways) and traditional teaching methods in terms of classroom learning environment, student attitudes toward mathematics and student achievement in mathematics. Another purpose of this research was to validate suitable measures of classroom environment and students’ attitudes toward mathematics. A third aim was to investigate associations between students’ outcomes (attitudes and achievement) and their perceptions of the classroom learning environment.The sample consisted of 490 grade 6–8 students attending a middle school and 22 grade 5 students attending an elementary school in Georgia. Classroom environment was assessed using a refined version of the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire to assess students’ perceptions of Cohesiveness/Cooperation, Teacher Support, Task Orientation, and Equity, whereas attitudes were assessed with a refined version of the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA), in which items were modified by changing the word ‘science’ to ‘mathematics’, assessing Attitude to Mathematical Inquiry and Enjoyment of Mathematics Lessons.Factor and reliability analyses revealed that a refined four-scale 25-item version of the WIHIC and a refined 17-item version of the attitude questionnaire exhibited sound factorial validity and internal consistency reliability. Also all four WIHIC scales differentiated significantly between the perceptions of students in different classrooms.Implementation of the exchange-of-knowledge method was found to have a positive impact. For the four classroom environment and two attitude scales, the control group experienced pretest-posttest changes that were both statistically nonsignificant and small in magnitude (ranging from 0.01 to 0.10 standard deviations). In contrast, the exchange-of-knowledge group experienced pretest-posttest changes on these six classroom environment and attitude scales that were statistically significant and large in magnitude (ranging from 0.63 to 3.12 standard deviations).Third, a series of simple correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed positive and statistically significant associations between students’ attitudes and the nature of the classroom environment. With the student as the unit of analysis, students’ attitudes were more positive on both scales (Attitude to Mathematical Inquiry and Enjoyment of Mathematics Lessons) in classrooms with greater Cohesiveness/Cooperation, Teacher Support, Task Orientation, and Equity.My research represents one of relatively few studies that have utilized learning environment dimensions in evaluating elementary school mathematics programs, as well as the first study to evaluate the exchange-of-knowledge method using a learning environment framework. The practical implication of my study for other mathematics educators is that the exchange-of-knowledge method has the potential to promote positive classroom environments and student attitudes among elementaryschool students

Facilitation of Teachers’ Professional Development through Principals’ Instructional Supervision and Teachers’ Knowledge- Management Behaviors

With the rise of global competition and the focus on teacher quality, teacher professional development is becoming increasingly crucial, and the stress and challenges for principals are more severe than ever. Teachers can improve their professional abilities through principals’ instructional supervision and their own knowledge-management (KM) behaviors to benefit students. Thus, this chapter analyzes the relationship among principals’ instructional supervision, teachers’ KM, and teachers’ professional development. The author believes that principals’ instructional supervision and effective KM can facilitate the professional development of teachers. The author also believes the readers can know the relationships among them, and teachers’ professional development can be improved through principal’s instructional supervision and teachers’ KM behaviors

Evaluation of a professional development program on integrating technology into middle schools : classroom environment and student attitudes

The Alliance+ project is a teacher professional development program that integrates technology into mathematics and science lessons. The effectiveness of this innovative program was evaluated in terms of students‟ perceptions of the classroom learning environment and their attitudes towards science/mathematics. The sample consisted of 759 students of seven mathematics/science teachers (four Alliance+ participants and three non-participants) in one middle school in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The students responded to learning environment scales based on the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) and the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaires to assess their perceptions of the classroom learning environment. Additionally, they responded to an attitude scale modeled on the Test Of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA) to assess their attitudes towards mathematics/science. It was found that Alliance+ teachers were more successful than the non-Alliance+ teachers in promoting a classroom environment with more cooperation among students during the science/mathematics lessons. Additionally, Alliance+ professional development model was differentially effective for mathematics and science teachers in terms of three learning environment scales (namely, Teacher Support, Cooperation, and Critical Voice), but not in terms of students‟ attitudes to science. In terms of Cooperation, Alliance+ teachers were more effective than non-Alliance+ teachers for mathematics, but comparable in effectiveness to non-Alliance+ teachers for science. For Critical Voice, Alliance+ teachers were slightly more effective than non-Alliance+ teachers for mathematics, but considerably less effective than non-Alliance+ teachers for science.In terms of Teacher Support, Alliance+ were less effective than non-Alliance+ teachers for science, but comparable in effectiveness to non-Alliance+ teachers for mathematics. However, teachers who did not participate in the Alliance+ project were more effective than the teachers who participated in the Alliance+ project in providing a positive learning environment in which the students perceived more teacher support and in promoting positive attitudes towards science/mathematics. Qualitative data results revealed that the Alliance+ teachers had not received sufficient support from their school administrators and Alliance+ trainers and lacked the resources that were necessary for them to implement the project successfully, which could possibly be an explanation for the quantitative results in favor of the non-Alliance+ teachers. This study also investigated outcome-environment associations. It was found that associations existed between students‟ attitudes towards science/mathematics and their perceptions of the classroom leaning environment (especially personal relevance, teacher support, and cooperation)