Showing papers in "Educational Researcher in 1998"

On Two Metaphors for Learning and the Dangers of Choosing Just One

Abstract: This article is a sequel to the conversation on learning initiated by the editors of Educational Researcher in volume 25, number 4. The author’s first aim is to elicit the metaphors for learning that guide our work as learners, teachers, and researchers. Two such metaphors are identified: the acquisition metaphor and the participation metaphor. Subsequently, their entailments are discussed and evaluated. Although some of the implications are deemed desirable and others are regarded as harmful, the article neither speaks against a particular metaphor nor tries to make a case for the other. Rather, these interpretations and applications of the metaphors undergo critical evaluation. In the end, the question of theoretical unification of the research on learning is addressed, wherein the purpose is to show how too great a devotion to one particular metaphor can lead to theoretical distortions and to undesirable practices.

The Lives and Values of Researchers: Implications for Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society

Abstract: Iwas an elementary school student in the Arkansas delta in the 1950s. One of my most powerful memories is the images of the happy and loyal slaves in my social studies textbooks. I also remember that there were three other Blacks'in my textbooks: Booker T. Washington, the educatofTcJeoTge Washington Carver, the scientist; and Marian Anderson,\"the contralto. I had several persistent questions throughout my school-days: Why were the slaves pictured as happy? Were there other Blacks in history beside the two Washingtons and Anderson? Who created this image of slaves? Why? The image of the happy slaves was inconsistent with everything I knew about the African American descendants of enslaved people in my segregated community. We had to drink water from fountains labeled \"colored,\" and we could not use the city's public library. But we were not happy about either of these legal requirements. In fact, we resisted these laws in powerful but subtle ways each day. As children, we savored the taste of \"White water\" when the authorities were preoccupied with more serious infractions against the racial caste system.

Science for All, Including Students From Non-English-Language Backgrounds

Abstract: Standards-based reform across subject areas has an overarching goal of achieving high academic standards for all students. Although much is known about what constitutes high academic standards, little attention has been given to the attainment of educational equity for all students. In this article, we propose the notion of instructional congruence as a way of making academic content accessible, meaningful, and relevant for diverse learners. Although our discussion considers students from non-English-language backgrounds (NELB) in science education, comparable approaches can be applied to other diverse student groups and other subject areas. We discuss an agenda for research, practice, and policy in promoting high standards for all students across subject areas.

Teachers and Teaching: Testing Policy Hypotheses From a National Commission Report

Abstract: —What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future W ith these words, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future summarized its challenge to the American public in September 1996. Following two years of intense study and discussion, the commission concluded that the reform of elementary and secondary education depends first and foremost on investments in teaching aimed at (1) increasing teachers' access to knowledge to meet the demands they face and (2) redesigning schools so they can better support serious teaching and learning. Since that time, the report and the commission's subsequent work have stimulated dozens of pieces of federal and state legislation, more than 1,200 news articles and editorials nationally and abroad, and at least two major federally funded research and development initiatives—one for a National Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy and the other for a National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching—that bring together researchers, professional associations, state and local education agencies, policymakers, and practitioners to work on deepening knowledge and practice in the fields of both teaching and policy. Twelve states are working collaboratively, with the support of their governors, state education departments, legislative leaders, and education leaders to develop strategies for implementing the commission's recommendations. They include Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oklahoma. Several others will join this group of partner states in the coming year.

Abilities Are Forms of Developing Expertise

Abstract: The goal of this article is to provide a link between the literatures on human abilities and on expertise. The main argument of this article is that human abilities are forms of developing expertise. In a sense, then, tests of abilities are no different from conventional tests of achievement, teacher-made tests administered in school, or assessments of job performance. Although tests of abilities are used as predictors of these other kinds of performance, the temporal priority of their administration should not be confused with some kind of psychological priority. Abilities, as they are measured by these tests, are as much forms of developing expertise as are any other forms of developing expertise measured in whatever way. There is no qualitative distinction among the various kinds of measures. The article presents a model that implies a shift away from educational practice grounded in traditional ability-achievement relationships and toward practice grounded in the development of knowledge-based experti...

The World Outside and Inside Schools: Language and Immigrant Children

Abstract: I was very honored to have been selected as the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Lecturer for the 1998 AERA Annual -Meeting. I was particularly grateful for the opportunity to talk and write at some length about a subject that greatly concerns me. As you will note from the title of my article, my topic is the education of immigrant children. It is a topic that is very much a part of our national conversations as we seek to come to terms with the challenges facing our educational institutions at the end of the 20th century and as we observe that the school population in this country has become increasingly diverse. In coming to this country and adjusting to American schools, immigrant students and their families travel very long-distances. These distances are physical, emotional, and psochological And for many of these individuals, the journey "from where they came from to becoming "American" will take a very long time indeed. What has become increasingly clear in recent years, however, is that newly arrived immigrants from non-English-speaking countries encounter serious problems within our educational system. The dilemma facing schools is a difficult one. Students who arrive in this country must learn English. They cannot be truly accommodated by the schools until they are able to profit from instruction conducted solely in this language. At the same time, there is much confusion in educational circles and in the public mind about how students can best acquire the academic English skills required to succeed in school.

A Longitudinal Study of Gender Differences in Young Children’s Mathematical Thinking

Abstract: One area in which gender differences in mathematics have been studied minimally deals with strategies used to solve mathematical problems. The limited evidence available suggests that there may be some gender differences in problem-solving strategies. Differences have been found in grades 1-3, with girls tending to use observable strategies (such as counting) and boys tending to use mental strategies (Carr & Jessup, 1997). Gallagher and DeLisi (1994) studied high-ability secondary school students and reported that while there were no overall differences in the number of selected SAT items answered

Methodology and the Research-Practice Gap

Abstract: A much neglected reason for the limited contribution of research to the understanding and improvement of educational practice is the mismatch between educational research methodologies and the generic features of practice. Increasing the match requires an account of practice that clarifies its methodological implications. I propose a problem-based methodology (PBM) in which practices are treated as solutions to practical problems and explained by inquiry into the problem-solving processes that gave rise to them. Such inquiry is guided in PBM by a constraint inclusion account of a problem and a set of criteria for debating solution adequacy. The implications of this account for the conduct and contribution of educational research are developed through a detailed discussion of recent research on school tracking.

Educational Researchers: Living With a Lesser Form of Knowledge:

Abstract: In this article, I argue that key characteristics of educational knowledge both constrain and enable the work of educational researchers, as producers of this knowledge, in distinctive ways. Educational knowledge is soft (vs. hard), applied (vs. Pure), and provides use value (vs. exchange value). As a result, knowledge production in education is organized in a manner that is structurally egalitarian and substantively divergent. Some consequences of this are negative. For example, educational researchers find themselves unable to speak authoritatively about their field and feel pressure to imitate unproductive forms of intellectual practice. Other consequences are positive: For example, they have the potential for speaking to a wide lay audience and for participating in a relatively open and unregulated mode of scholarly production.

Assessment of Complex Performances: Limitations of Key Measurement Assumptions

Abstract: Why do we assign numerical ratings when assessing complex performances? And what is the meaning and usefulness of those ratings given the nature of these performances and the multiplicity of assessment purposes? These were the key questions we grappled with in developing an assessment system to be used for national certification of accomplished teachers. Along the way, our work became entangled with philosophical, political, technical, and practical problems that led us into relatively uncharted territories. We worked with definitions of accomplished teaching, for example, as a domain of assessment in a profession influenced by competing and often radically different ideologies. Our goal was the creation of an assessment procedure to support certification decisions, to change teaching practice, and to evaluate complex performances in professionally, technically, and administratively acceptable ways. In the process, we uncovered some of the tensions that exist between the various stakeholders involved and were provided with opportunities to examine the broader context of assessment and its instrumental nature. This work also led us to examine some key assumptions that are held in the field of measurement and their implications for the multiple assessment purposes that we had to consider. The system we were developing was to be used by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) for the Early Adolescence / English Language Arts (EA/ELA) certification of exemplary teachers. The assessment included two components: (1) a portfolio, for which teachers documented three different teaching activities over several months and (2) an assessment center, for which teachers participated in a number of tasks, including semistructured interviews, analyses of teaching, and essays on instructional issues. While the particulars of the assessment are not critical here and can be found elsewhere (Delandshere & Petrosky, 1993,1994), it is important to understand its complexity. For example, just one of the portfolio tasks—the Post-Reading Interpretive Discussion Exercise (PRIDE)— required teachers to conduct and videotape a 20-minute interpretive discussion of a literature selection, to write a 3to 10-page commentary analyzing the discussion and their understanding of interpretation, and to include the instructional artifacts used or referred to in the videotape or the commentary. Overall, the candidates' performances involved a range of evidence: (1) sets of responses to tasks that required extensive written commentaries, lengthy videotape segments of their teaching, and videotaped oral interviews with candidates; (2) documents that were produced by the candidates and their students and documents acquired from other sources (e.g., books, instructional materials); and (3) a process through which candidates could integrate and reflect on these different perspectives that resulted in another written document. The assumptions we worked from were mostly related to the technical aspects of assessment and the necessity for evidence of reliability and validity. These assumptions were based on our prior experience and grounded in the measurement tradition. For most of this century, educational achievement or the status of an individual's knowledge has been judged through measurement—that is, by the assigning of numbers to test responses. The resulting scores are used to make value judgments about the quality of performances. After working for several years to develop evaluation schemes, we considered an alternative to the practice'' of assigning numerical ratings, which was to formulate judgments based directly on the characteristics of the performance. Such an alternative may be unnecessary when there is a one-to-one correspondence between the assignment of points and the number of correct responses, but the complexity and breadth of responses for this assessment appeared to defy such correspondence. To further complicate the matter, the tasks developed for this assessment were grounded in a professional ideology that values knowledge as individually and socially constructed and as reflected in particular discourses and contexts. This conception of performance is quite different from those implied in many assessment contexts and seemed to require an evaluation scheme more consistent with this representation of knowledge than with the traditional numerical scoring schemes. To this end, our procedure for judging used what we called interpretive summaries of performance, written records that document the salient characteristics of the performance and the judges' interpretations of those as evi-

The Interpretive Turn and the New Debate in Education

Abstract: Over the last several decades, positivist-behaviorist approaches to social and educational research have been on the decline, whereas interpretive approaches have been on the rise. As a result of this "interpretive turn" the old debate between positivism and interpretivism (and central to the quantitative-qualitative debate) has diminished in intensity only to be replaced by a new debate in terms of postmodernists-who would abandon the emancipatory project of modernity as fatally flawed –versus transformationists- who would modify this project and endeavor to see it through. Among the conclusions advanced is that the differences between these two general perspectives tend to be overdrawn, particularly when philosophical avowals are measured against the requirements of practice.

Obstacles to Understanding Cognition As Situated

Abstract: Greeno (1997) argued that these are misreadings of situative positions, occasioned by paradigmatic differences in presupposition and language: "In discussions of the situative and cognitive perspectives, proponents of the two sides tend to talk and write past each other because they address different questions" (pp. 5-6). Greeno is optimistic that "by identifying the presuppositions of the different questions, we can clarify substantive differences between the perspectives and thereby understand better what theoretical and educational issues are at stake in the debate" (p. 6). But despite his notable effort to contrast the cognitive and situative presuppositions, Anderson, Reder, and Simon (1997) continue to see the problems as "more linguistic than substantive" (p. 19): "For the life of us, we fail to see the difference between these questions" (p. 19); "A rhetorical language game is being played" (p. 19); "If it were not for Greeno's labeling we would not have been able to guess which was the cognitive and which was the situated question" (p. 20). In this response, we explore the current state of situated cognition theory and point to underlying issues that remain to be clarified for the substantive differences be-

Research News And Comment: The WWW and Classroom Research: What Path Should We Take?

Abstract: Educators have developed many special classroom activities and collaborative projects based on the use of the World Wide Web. Critical attention to these initiatives is merited given the limited amount of substantive classroom research on learning derived from these projects. The vast majority of published work is descriptive of technology implementation in classrooms or tends to be intuitive analyses of what works and what doesn't work with students. The literature stops short of asking critical questions such as, “Are these practices helping students, and, if so, how?” or, “How is the introduction of this technology changing pedagogical practices?” I argue for a stronger research focus on aspects of learning and teaching as influenced by the use of the WWW and begin by describing salient characteristics of the Web regarding these issues. I also discuss three topics that can support a number of meaningful research questions about Web-supported learning: using the Web for student inquiry, student communic...

New Perspectives on Gender Differences in Mathematics: An Introduction

Abstract: In a longitudinal study of gender differences in mathematics, 38 girls and 44 boys, who were in classrooms with teaching based on reform ideas, were interviewed 5 times and asked to solve number fact, addition/subtraction, and nonroutine problems each year as they progressed through grades 1-3. In grade 3 only, they were also asked to solve extension problems. No gender differences were found in the ability to solve any problems except for the superior performance of boys on the extension problems in grade 3. However, significant differences in problem-solving strategies were found in all grades. Girls tended to use concrete solution strategies like modeling and counting, and boys tended to use more abstract solution strategies that reflected conceptual understanding. These results called into question the long-accepted belief that gender differences in math appear first at adolescence. In order to understand the study results, 4 different interpretations are presented. Judith Sowder, a mathematics educator, stated that the results indicate important gender differences in learning and suggested that the findings indicate that girls' use of more concrete strategies may lead to less understanding of important ideas on which further learning of mathematics is based, which might help explain the gender differences usually found in adolescence and in math-related careers. Janet Hyde and Sara Jaffee, social psychologists, interpreted the results as showing minimal gender differences in performance. They hypothesized that because the curriculum was not prescribed, stereotypical behaviors on the part of the teachers and students were activated, which in turn, encouraged girls and boys to solve the problems differently. Nel Noddings, a feminist philosopher, interpreted the findings as showing that boys did better on items that emphasized meaning. She suggested that we should consider that girls could be less interested in mathematics than boys and that this lower interest leads to lower performance. She goes on to question why this becomes a concern when society doesn't show the same concern when boys are less interested than girls in activities like child care. She also cautions that no one's self-worth should be connected to whether or not he or she can learn mathematics, and each mathematical learner should be treated individually. The authors of the study, while offering the caveat that the study needs replication, argue that the results indicate that the girls in the study had not developed an understanding of mathematics to the same degree that the boys had. They argue that these gender-related patterns of development could lead to even stronger gender differences in later years. Wliile offering no explanation of why there were gender differences in strategies used to solve problems, they suggest that merely reforming instruction in mathematics classes without specific attention to achieving equity for girls and boys is insufficient.

The Role of Research and Teachers' Knowledge Base in Professional Development.

Abstract: Many conferences, in-service sessions, and institutes are dispatching teachers to their classrooms armed with the latest activity or manipulative. Reform-minded teachers are hungry for continuing education that provides novel ways to address content. These professional development opportunities often focus entirely on creating new activity-based contexts for students' learning rather than on how students are engaged with subjects such as mathematics within those classroom environments.

Perspectives From Social and Feminist Psychology

Abstract: dents. Rather, they learned to become sensitive to the problem solving of the individual child and to respect the individual strategies used. One explanation of the findings is, in the absence of fixed teaching methods and with a focus on the individual, teachers' gender stereotypes were activated. Social psychologists' research shows that perceivers often swiftly and unconsciously categorize an individual, frequently on the basis of gender (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990). Once the individual is categorized, the beliefs and expectations about the category are activated (Hamilton & Sherman, 1994; Hamilton & Trolier, 1986). The teacher's interactions with the individual student may therefore be influenced by stereotypes, and teachers-perhaps quite unconsciously-may encourage boys to be inventive and girls to use standard algorithms. This might follow from stereotypes that girls are compliant and therefore can be counted on to follow standard algorithms to get to the answer. Our argument, then, is that two processes are involved: (a) teachers hold gender stereotypes (e.g., girls are compliant, boys are resistant to rules), and (b) these stereotypes are activated (albeit not consciously) when teachers interact with students. Regarding the first process, a study of Israeli elementary school teachers found that boys were more likely to be regarded as the best students in mathematics and as possessing high academic potential (BenTsvi-Mayer, Hertz-Lazarowitz, & Safir, 1989). At the same time, boys were also regarded as causing an overwhelming number of discipline problems. In a U.S. study, Grieb and Easley (1984) found that teachers allowed boys (especially White middleclass boys) to exert independence by not using algorithms. Their rebellious, invented strategies were seen as a sign of a promising future in mathematics. Teachers controlled girls more than boys and for girls, imposed mathematics as a set of rules or computational methods. In brief, then, our argument is that this program, precisely because of its less rigid nature, may have allowed teachers' gender stereotypes to be activated more than traditional instructional methods do. Unintentionally, the instructional method, then, essentially created the gender differences. Before we conclude that girls think differently about math, it is crucial that such classrooms be observed with attention to gender dynamics.

Educational Performance Standards and the Economy

Abstract: One of the most prominent arguments for U.S. educational reform, generally, and for the establishment of student performance standards, specifically, has been the assertion that they will create a world-class workforce. Behind this expectation is the assumption that there is strong and demonstrable evidence that higher and better educational standards and student performance are keys to higher workplace productivity. But a review of available evidence suggests only a weak relationship between test scores and economic productivity and virtually no evidence on the predictive validity of the newer performance standards. This article suggests that the educational standards movement has relied on the economic rationale largely because of its persuasiveness in stimulating educational reform rather than any compelling evidence on the links between specific educational standards and economic performance.

Webs of Meaning: Computer and Internet Resources for Educational Research and Instruction

Abstract: of useful Web sites, will enhance your exploration of this rich resource. (A list of educational research Web sites discussed in this article are available at http://www-leland.stanford.edu/ ~davidf/edwebresearch.) The Internet refers to a worldwide network of computers talking a language known as TCP/IP. Tens of millions of people in the United States alone work or play with computers that are connected to this network, and worldwide, the number must exceed 100 million. To most users (including other researchers and scholars), the Internet appears as e-mail and the World Wide Web (WWW). The former is probably familiar to anyone reading this article; indeed, estimates are that the number of e-mail letters sent in the United States first exceeded the number of paper postal items in 1995. The WWW, virtually unheard of in 1993, now occupies a prominent place in world popular culture; the once obscure symbol http:// is now ubiquitous. The WWW is a standardized method of transferring files (text, graphics, audio) across the Internet and can result in attractive, vivid, and engaging presentations (known as Web pages) to users connecting to the Internet via Web browsers (Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer are currently the most popular). It seems likely that e-mail, web browsing, and-as the speed of telecommunications inevitably increasesvideoconferencing will constitute the core of Internet use for researchers and scholars in the near future.' One

Perspectives From Mathematics Education

Abstract: I will admit to initial astonishment at the results of the study of gender differences in mathematical thinking. Nothing in the literature prepared me for such significant differences in children so young. My thoughts were best sorted out as responses to three questions: What could be the underlying causes for the differences in strategy use (if indeed the differences are not just a fluke)? Would such differences really matter in terms of mathematical development? If such differences exist in a wider population, what are the implications?

Wild Patience and Bad Fit: Assessing the Impact of Affirmative Action on Women in School Administration

Abstract: Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-227 (1994). (Title IX-Educational Research and Improvement, 20 U.S.C. 6001) Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-62 (1993). Improving America's Schools Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-287 (1994). (20 U.S.C. 6301; reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; contains equity provision in the General Education Provision Act, ?427) Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972-Prohibition of Sex Discrimination, Pub. L. No. 92-318, 86 Stat. 373 (1972). (20 U.S.C. 1681-87; 34 C.F.R., Part 106; 30955 Fed. Reg. (1980))

Research News And Comment: The Changing Nature of Educational Research and a Critique of Postmodernism

Abstract: Although there are many innovations that affect the field of educational inquiry, it appears that postmodernism provides educational researchers with the most destabilizing and profound set of challenges. The overall purpose of this commentary is to describe and to critique the recent changes in educational inquiry by outlining the themes and the implications associated with the current interest in postmodernism. Specifically, three types of changes are examined. A discussion of methodological patterns focuses on the heightened interest in narrative inquiry. A discussion of summative content examines the manner in which those working within a postmodern framework attempt to draw conclusions from the complex style of writing that is characteristic of postmodernism. Consideration of disciplinary foundations examines the recent shift of interest toward humanities-based research. For each of these changes, I consider implications related to how educational researchers communicate with the larger educational c...

Research news and Comment: The Role of Research and Teachers’ Knowledge Base in Professional Development:

Abstract: Many conferences, in-service sessions, and institutes are dispatching teachers to their classrooms armed with the latest activity or manipulative. Reform-minded teachers are hungry for continuing education that provides novel ways to address content. These professional development opportunities often focus entirely on creating new activity-based contexts for students' learning rather than on how students are engaged with subjects such as mathematics within those classroom environments. This is problematic, as Elkind (1981) notes that

Teacher Im/Material: Challenging the New Pedagogies of Instructional Design

Abstract: The authors critique the increasingly technologized teaching and learning environment of higher education. They argue that fresh pedagogical understandings are needed to inform thinking about instructional design. While the imperative to use communication technologies to increase learner access is laudable, the question of "access to what?" should also be addressed in all of its complexity. Disparate terrains of new literature about teaching and learning, technology and corporeality can bring fresh perspectives to bear on the nature of pedagogical work. However, such literatures are rarely brought together. In this article, the authors work across aspects of learning theory, critical theory, and poststructuralism to explore the question, "access to what?" In so doing, they raise important questions about the embodied nature of teaching and learning and the potential of both "embodied" and "disembodied" teaching to produce and counter marginalization. The argument is that all decisions about the appropriat...