Examining the instructional contexts of students with learning disabilities

This is the publisher's version, also found here: http://cec.metapress.com/content/122146This literature review focuses on methodologies, instruments, and findings from research on the instructional contexts of elementary and secondary students with learning disabilities. The review covers the time that students were engaged in different activities in different settings, interactions between teachers and students, and students' classroom behavior. (Author/JDD

Preservice Elementary Science Teachers' Argumentation Competence: Impact of a Training Programme

The recent literature has shown the importance of Preservice Elementary Science Teachers (PESTs) having a deep understanding of argumentation, as this factor may affect the nature of the class activities that are taught and what students learn. A lack of understanding of this factor may represent an obstacle in the development of science education programmes in line with the development of scientific competences. This paper presents the results of the design and implementation of a training programme of 6 sessions (12 hours of class participation plus 8 hours of personal homework) on argumentation. The programme was carried out by 57 Spanish PESTs from Malaga, Spain. The training programme incorporates the innovative use of certain strategies to improve competence in argumentation, such as teaching PESTs to identify the elements of arguments in order to design assessment rubrics or by including peer assessment during evaluation with and without rubrics. The results obtained on implementing the training programme were evaluated based on the development of PESTs’ argumentation competence using Toulmin’s argumentative model. Data collection methods involved two tasks carried out at the beginning and the end of the programme, i.e., pre-test and post-test, respectively. The conclusion of the study is that students made significant progress in their argumentation competence on completing the course. In addition, PESTs who followed the training programme achieved statistically better results at the end than those in the control group (n = 41), who followed a traditional teaching programme. A 6-month transfer task showed a slight improvement for the PESTs of the experimental group in relation to the control group in their ability to transfer argumentation to practice, especially to the extent to which they mentioned argumentation in their practice portfolios.This work is part of the “I+D Excelencia” project “Development and evaluation of scientific competences through context based and modelling teaching approaches” case studies (EDU2013-41952-P), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance through its 2013 research call

Don't water down: Enhance content learning through the unit organizer routine

This is the publisher's version, also found here: http://impactofspecialneeds.weebly.com/uploads/3/4/1/9/3419723/dont_water_down.pdfThe writer considers a content enhancement routine called the unit organizer routine. This routine focuses on how a teacher introduces, builds, and gains closure on a content area unit's critical ideas and information. In terms of content, teachers can use the unit organizer to help students understand where they have been, where they are, and where they are going. Teachers use a visual device called the unit organizer to introduce and teach the information in a unit. They follow a set of instructional steps, called linking steps, that are embedded within an instructional sequence called the cue-do-review sequence during the interactive presentation of the unit organizer. A discussion of each of these critical components is provided