Many people in "literate" societies, when asked to define literacy, almost always do so in terms of reading
and writing abilities This narrow interpretation of literacy, an
offspring of reductionist psychology, has reigned supreme in many academic and educational contexts for decades, greatly shaping literacy theories and classroom practices Within the past ten years, however, a large body of multidisciplinary
research has begun to undermine the authority of this
perspective by situating literacy in larger social practices

Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses.

Few fields of educational research have such a rich diversity of valid, economical and widely-applicable assessment instruments as does the field of learning environments. This article describes nine major questionnaires for assessing student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment (the Learning Environment Inventory, Classroom Environment Scale, Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire, My Class Inventory, College and University Classroom Environment Inventory, Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, Science Laboratory Environment Inventory, Constructivist Learning Environment Survey and What Is Happening In This Class) and reviews the application of these instruments in 12 lines of past research (focusing on associations between outcomes and environment, evaluating educational innovation, differences between student and teacher perceptions, whether students achieve better in their preferred environment, teachers' use of learning environment perceptions in guiding improvements in classrooms, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, links between different educational environments, cross-national studies, the transition from primary to high school, and incorporating educational environment ideas into school psychology, teacher education and teacher assessment).

Classroom environment instruments: development, validity and applications

This study compared inquiry and non-inquiry laboratory teaching in terms of students’ perceptions of the classroom learning environment, attitudes toward science, and achievement among middle-school physical science students. Learning environment and attitude scales were found to be valid and related to each other for a sample of 1,434 students in 71 classes. For a subsample of 165 students in 8 classes, inquiry instruction promoted more student cohesiveness than non-inquiry instruction (effect size of one-third of a standard deviation), and inquiry-based laboratory activities were found to be differentially effective for male and female students.

Learning Environment, Attitudes and Achievement among Middle-school Science Students Using Inquiry-based Laboratory Activities

Historically there have been many claims made about the value of laboratory work in schools, yet research shows that it often achieves little meaningful learning by students. One reason, among many, for this failing is that students often do not know the ''purposes'' for these tasks. By purposes we mean the intentions the teacher has for the activity when she/he decides to use it with a particular class at a particular time. This we contrast with the ''aims'' of a laboratory activity, the often quite formalised statements about the intended endpoint of the activity that are too often the ''opening lines'' of a student laboratory report and are simply the ''expected'' specific science content knowledge outcomes—not necessarily learnt nor understood. This paper describes a unit of laboratory work which was unusual in that the teacher's purpose was to develop students' understanding about the way scientific facts are established with little expectation that they would understand the science content involved in the experiments. The unit was very successful from both a cognitive and affective perspective. An important feature was the way in which students gradually came to understand the teacher's purpose as they proceeded through the unit. fl 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 655 - 675, 2000 The research we report here focuses on the work of a highly informed and experienced science teacher (the first author) who sought to address her concerns about laboratory work. As we explain below, the study was a collaborative one in which the teacher and the researchers worked closely together as a research team, and the voices of both teacher and researchers are presented.

https://www.mah.se/pages/28044/artikel.pdf

What is the purpose of this experiment? Or can students learn something from doing experiments?

This research is distinctive in that it not only provides an example of one of the few cross-cultural studies in science education, but also it used multiple research methods from different paradigms in exploring classroom learning environments in Taiwan and Australia. This article describes the validation and use of an English and Mandarin version of the What is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire in junior high school science classes in Australia and Taiwan. When the WIHIC was administered to 1,081 students in 50 classes in Australia and to 1,879 students in 50 classes in Taiwan, data analysis supported the reliability and factorial validity of the questionnaire, and revealed differences between Taiwanese and Australian classrooms. Although the study commenced from a more positivistic framework, favouring a more objectivist view, as the study progressed, it employed an interpretative framework and drew on elements of constructivist and critical theory paradigms. This article outlines the researchers' use of multiple research methods including classroom observations, in-depth interviews and narratives. The themes which emerged from the data gathered using these methods helped to make sense of classroom environments that were created in each country.

A Cross-cultural Study of Classroom Learning Environments in Australia and Taiwan

In this chapter, I describe how high quality research can be done in science education. I include four main sections in which I explain the purposes of qualitative research, data collection, data analysis, and preparation of reports. I emphasize the salience to qualitative research of specifying researchable questions that inevitably change as the research is conducted. I address issues of credibility, ethical conduct, uses of quantitative information, and the necessity to fully understand contradictions.

Frederick Erickson

Papers

Qualitative Research Methods for Science Education