Showing papers in "Educational Researcher in 1999"

Linking Theory and Practice: Changing the Pedagogy of Teacher Education

Abstract: The pressure towards more school-based teacher education programs, visible in many countries, creates a need to rethink the relationship between theory and practice. The traditional application-of-theory model appears to be rather ineffective and is currently being replaced by other, more reflective approaches. However, until now the variety of different notions and assumptions underlying these new approaches have not provided a sound basis for further development. Two related theoretical bases are presented for a new paradigm in teacher education. The first uses the concepts of episteme and phronesis to introduce a new way of framing relevant knowledge. The second is a more holistic way of describing the relationship between teacher cognition and teacher behavior, leading to a model of three levels in learning about teaching, the Gestalt level, the schema level and the theory level, which are illustrated by interview data. Building on these two theoretical, frameworks, a so-called “realistic approach” to...

The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later

Abstract: In this article, we discuss the latest renewal of interest in the U.S. in teacher research and other forms of practitioner inquiry, a movement that is now a little more than a decade old. We argue that part of what makes the current wave of interest a movement and not just the latest educational fad is that teacher research stems from several different, but in some ways compatible, intellectual traditions and educational projects. We identify five major trends that characterize the current U.S. movement: (a) the prominence of teacher research in teacher education, professional development, and school reform; (b) the development of conceptual frameworks and theories of teacher research; (c) the dissemination of teacher research beyond the local level; (d) the emergence of critique of teacher research and the teacher research movement; and (e) the transformative potential of teacher research on some aspects of university culture. Based on our own teacher research experiences and understandings of teacher re...

A Developmental Model of Critical Thinking

Abstract: The critical thinking movement, it is suggested, has much to gain from conceptualizing its subject matter in a developmental framework. Most instructional programs designed to teach critical thinking do not draw on contemporary empirical research in cognitive development as a potential resource. The developmental model of critical thinking outlined here derives from contemporary empirical research on directions and processes of intellectual development in children and adolescents. It identifies three forms of second-order cognition (meta-knowing)—metacognitive, metastrategic, and epistemological—that constitute an essential part of what develops cognitively to make critical thinking possible.

Cognitive and Situated Learning Perspectives in Theory and Practice

Abstract: In their recent exchange, Anderson, Reder, and Simon (1996 Anderson, Reder, and Simon (1997) and Greeno (1997) frame the conflicts between cognitive theory and situated learning theory in terms of issues that are primarily of interest to educational psychologists. We attempt to broaden the debate by approaching this discussion of perspectives against the background of our concerns as educators who engage in classroom-based research and instructional design in collaboration with teachers. We first delineate the underlying differences between the two perspectives by distinguishing their central organizing metaphors. We then argue that the contrast between the two perspectives cannot be reduced to that of choosing between the individual and the social collective as the primary unit of analysis. Against this background, we compare the situated viewpoint we find useful in our work with the cognitive approach advocated by Anderson et al. by focusing on their treatments of meaning and instructional goals. Finall...

The Problem of Underqualified Teachers in American Secondary Schools

Abstract: This article presents the results of a research project on the phenomenon of out-of-field teaching in American high schools–teachers teaching subjects for which they have little education or training. Over the past couple of years, the problem of out-of-field teaching has become a prominent topic in the realm of educational policy and reform, and the results of this research have been widely reported and commented on both by education policymakers and the national media. But unfortunately, out-of-field teaching is a problem that remains largely misunderstood. My research utilizes nationally representative data from the Schools and Staffing Survey, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The purpose of this article is to summarize what my research has revealed about out-of-field teaching: how much of it goes on; to what extent it varies across different subjects, across different kinds of schools, and across different kinds of classrooms; and finally, the reasons for its prevalence in Am...

The New Paradigm Wars: Is There Room for Rigorous Practitioner Knowledge in Schools and Universities?

Abstract: ccording to Schon (1995) "the new scholarship" implies "a kind of action research with norms of its own, which will conflict with the norms of technical rationality-the prevailing epistemology built into the research universities" (p. 27). The "battle" of snails that Schon refers to echoes the "paradigm wars" among "positivists," interpretivists, and critical theorists, satirically described by Gage (1989) in the pages of Educational Researcher. While we believe that practitioner research cannot be subsumed under any of Gage's three paradigms without doing it damage, our purpose in this article is not to argue for separate paradigm status. Nevertheless, we believe that the insider status of the researcher, the centrality of action, the requirement of spiraling self-reflection on action, and the intimate, dialectical relationship of research to practice, all make practitioner research alien (and often suspect) to researchers who work out of Gage's three academic paradigms. If anything, academic traditions of feminist and poststructural research might be more compatible with these characteristics. It is interesting to speculate on why metaphors of war and battles are evoked to discuss these epistemological debates. While it could be attributed to the academic version

The New Scholarship in Teacher Education

Abstract: This article, based on Ken Zeichner's 1998 Division K Vice-Presidential address, traces the development of teacher education research in the U.S. over the last 21 years. Five different segments of the new scholarship in teacher education are discussed together with their contributions to policy and practice in teacher education: survey research, case studies of teacher education programs, conceptual and historical research, studies of learning to teach, and examinations of the nature and impact of teacher education activities including self-study research. The development of Division K in AERA and the role and status of teacher education in research universities are discussed in relation to the development of this field of educational research.

Reconceptualizing Praxis: Dare We Embrace McLaren's Critical Pedagogy?@@@Revolutionary Multiculturalism: Pedagogies of Dissent for the New Millennium

Abstract: * Foreword Sharon Welch. * Introduction: Fashioning Los Olvidados in the Age of Cynical Reason * Writing from the Margins: Geographies of Identity, Pedagogy, and Power with Henry A. Giroux. * Liberatory Politics and Higher Education: A Freirean Perspective * The Ethnographer as Postmodern Flneur: Critical Reflexivity and Posthybridity as Narrative Engagement * Jean Baudrillards Chamber of Horrors: From Marxism to Terrorist Pedagogy with Zeus Leonardo. * Gangsta Pedagogy and Gettoethnicity: The Hip-Hop Nation as Counterpublic Sphere * Global Politics and Local Antagonisms: Research and Practice as Dissent and Possibility with Kris Gutierrez. * Provisional Utopias in a Postcolonial World: An Interview with Peter McLaren Gert Biesta and Siebren Miedema. * Unthinking Whiteness, Rethinking Democracy: Critical Citizenship in Gringolandia * EpilogueBeyond the Threshold of Liberal Pluralism: Toward a Revolutionary Democracy * AfterwordMulticulturalism: The Fracturing of Cultural Souls Donaldo Macedo and Lilia I. Bartolom.

Looking Toward the 21st Century: Challenges of Educational Theory and Practice

Abstract: While it may be a truism it is nonetheless true that much of what we do, individually and collectively, is shaped by qu^personal j i is tor ies . For that reason I begin this paper by describing some aspects of n ^ b a c k g r o u n d . Doing so provides a context for what follows, and for understanding my hopes and aspirations for our profession and our society. I was born about mid-century in Brooklyn, New York. My parents didnt~have much money. What they did have, along with many others at that time, was the absolutely firm commitment to insuring that their children would have better lives than they did—and the equally firm belief that education was the passport to those better lives. When I was growing up, education was assumed to be a gateway to opportunity. More importantly, there was a widespread belief that society had a moral obligation to provide a high quality education to allj:hildren. I am a beneficiary of that belief. From kindergarten through 10th grade I attended public elementary, junior, and senior high schools in New York City. When my family moved just outside the city limits, I attended a local public high school. I attended Queens College of the City^University of New York as an undergraduate, paying the \"nonresident\" fees of $232 per semester; had I lived within city limits, the fee per semester would have been^32.1 was provided an astoundingly high quality^ education at no cost from kindergarten througK high school, and at negligible cost in college. To this day I am^rateful^And to this day I believe that our society has a moral^cMj^ation to provide every, single child the kinds of opportunities that I was lucky enough to have. Another relevant part of my background is that I began my professional career as a mathematician. Let me describe two aspects of mathematical culture that also shape what you are about to read. The first is a tradition of identifying important problems. In 19007TJavid Hilbert delivered a keynote lecture entitled \"Malhematical Problems\" at the International Congress of Mathematicians. Hilbert identified a number of problems of deep theoretical Jnterest whose solutions he believed would advance the mathematical enterprise. Over the century that followed, mathematicians took u p the challenge. Many of those problems have since been solved, and their solutionsTiave truly advanced the field. ~ All mathematicians—even those who now work in education—are mindful of that tradition, which becomes increasingly salient as we near the threshold of the next century. There is a great temptation to ask, \"How might one characterize the major problems that our field needs to confront, and on which we can make progress, over the century to come?\" Of course, problems in education are very different from problems in mathematics. It might be better to pose the is^jue as follows: \"How might one characterize fundamentally important educational arenas for investigation, in which theoretical and practical progress can be made over the century to come?\" This paper attempts to address that issue. The second mathematical tradition I need to discuss puts it at a great distance from education. Educationists care about the real world and its problems, and those problems tend to be messy. Problems in education resist the clean formulation of mathematical problems, and educators resist the abstraction of problems away from their contexts of meaning. It's different in mathematics. Let me offer a mathematical quotation to highlight the contrast. The quotation comes from a famous book by G. LL Hardy entitled A Mathematician's Apology. Hardy uses apology in the sense of its Greek root, apologia, meaning defense. His defense of pure mathematics is neither defensive nor apologetic:

Beyond the Promise: A Perspective on Research in Moral Education

Abstract: Changing concerns and ideological shifts in American society produce different emphases in moral education. We argue that different approaches address different dimensions of development. If viewed as complementary rather than contradictory, we may be able to move beyond ideological and philosophical disputes to solid theory-building based on empirical findings. In proposing an action program for moral education that incorporates research, we draw upon lessons learned from the Head Start movement of the 1960s. In defining researchable variables, we recommend the Four Component Model (sensitivity, judgment, motivation, character) instead of the usual tripartite model (thinking, feeling, acting).

Preparing Students for Competent Scientific Practice: Implications of Recent Research in Science and Technology Studies

Abstract: Current empirical research in science and technology studies provides new and different views of science and scientists that contrast markedly with the mythical views that underlie many curricular efforts geared toward increasing scientific literacy. If descriptions of science and scientists that emerge from science and technology studies are legitimate, considerable implications arise for educational aims guiding science instruction, learning experiences directed toward those educational aims, and resources that support those learning experiences and educational aims. In this paper, we (a) briefly review some of the diverse scholarship within science and technology studies, and (b) discuss associated curricular implications in terms of educational aims, learning experiences, and resources. These implications are directed toward a vision of scientific literacy as preparation for competent participation in scientific laboratories, activist movements, the judicial system, or other locations/communities wher...

Poor School Funding, Child Poverty, and Mathematics Achievement:

Abstract: This article concerns the effects of poor school funding and child poverty on mathematics achievement in American schools. A good deal of research and a lot of confusion have surrounded these topics. We begin by first reviewing these traditions of effort. Next, we present information about a new study of these effects, including the rationale for our research, our methods, and our findings. We close by discussing the implications of our results.

School Choice: An Examination of the Empirical Evidence on Achievement, Parental Decision Making, and Equity

Abstract: Support for all forms of school choice—public school choice, charter schools, and public-private choice—has been growing in recent years. Arguments in favor of greater choice rest on two propositions: that choice would serve to give more control over educational decisions to parents who in turn would choose good schools for their children, and that competition between schools for students will help reduce inefficiencies in the delivery of education, and, in doing so, improve educational outcomes. This review focuses on quantitative assessments of the impact of choice on educational outcomes. Several questions are examined in detail. First, is there any evidence that the various alternatives to traditional public schools—magnet schools, charter schools, and private schools—are delivering education in a fundamentally different and more efficient fashion? In other words, after accounting for differences in the backgrounds of the students attending these schools, are they better at educating students? Second,...

Teachers' Roles in Promoting Science Inquiry with Students from Diverse Language Backgrounds.

Abstract: At the beginning of the year, I had all the students work in small groups to do activities because in my science methods class, I had been taught to set up groups like that to promote inquiry. When students worked in little groups, neither they nor I really knew what they were doing. As the year progressed, I could see the students learned better when we did things together as a whole group. I know how to help them focus and learn when we are all together. I realize that some people would frown on how I've moved from small to whole group instruction, but I can see a big difference in the way students pay attention and learn. These experiences have helped me rethink the inquiry process. I'm not convinced that the way it's presented in the methods courses is really the best way for students to learn science, at least not my kids (fourth grade Haitian classroom teacher in an inner-city school).

Trajectories from today's WWW to a powerful educational infrastructure

Abstract: Two previous Research News and Comment articles in Educational Researcher have examined the potential impact of the World Wide Web (web) in education. Owston (1997) offers a optimistic view of potential benefits of the today’s web, utilizing a framework that emphasizes: (a) making learning more accessible; (b) promoting improved learning; and (c) containing costs. Fetterman (1998) reviews the tools currently available on the web (such as search, video conferencing, and file sharing) and suggests potential uses among educational researchers. Although these articles offer valuable advice about today’s web capabilities, both authors acknowledge that the web is changing rapidly. They do not provide a sense of where the web is going, and how its trajectory of development may more fully meet educational needs. Such prospective information about emerging web technologies is important for the educational research community, and it is our intention to briefly highlight key trajectories of web development for learning communities. We recently hosted a workshop on “Tools for Learning Communities” under the auspices of the NSF-funded Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT, which is pronounced like “silt”), bringing together 125 leading researchers and developers from a balanced mix of 50 institutions, including universities, nonprofit organizations, corporations and schools. For example, corporate participants included IBM Global Education, Apple Computer, Netscape, Coopers-Lybrand, NetSchools, and Electric Schoolhouse, LLC as well as many smaller firms. Academic and non-profit participants included researchers from the four CILT partner institutions, SRI International, UC Berkeley, Vanderbilt University, and Concord Consortium, as well as organizations, universities and high schools from all over North America. The innovative format of this workshop encouraged rapid information exchange, followed by brainstorming about educational issues and opportunities, and concluded with the formation of cross-institutional teams to seek joint innovation. Over the course of two days, the participants generated a wealth of ideas about the limitations of today’s web, its near-term trajectories, and

Critical Personal Narrative and Autoethnography in Education: Reflections on a Genre

Abstract: As critical educators, we are frequently searching for provocative texts to inform our scholarship and teaching, as well as to strengthen the connections we make between theory and praxis. Our research has used narrative inquiry, collaborative ethnography, and applied semiotics. Between us, we share an identity and scholarship in critical and feminist curriculum theory. Our work interrogates risk/ deficit images of children, youth, and families, and we seek to decolonize researcher relationships with participants. We both struggle to create substantial intersections between

The Politics of Literacy Teaching: How “Research” Shaped Educational Policy

Abstract: In this paper we trace the use of a “consensus” white paper as part of a successful educational advocacy campaign that reframed early literacy educational policies in two states. In addition we contrast the specific instructional recommendations offered in this white paper with the findings of the program of research that was purportedly “synthesized” in developing the recommendations. The successful use of this white paper as a policy lever is considered from both the “agenda-setting” and “political use of expertise” frameworks.

"Extracting Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers": The Retreat From Practice in Reconceptualized Curriculum Studies

Abstract: Reconceptualized curriculum theorizing is characterized by efforts to distance curriculum theory far from school practice. The characterization of the "reconceptualization" of the curriculum field as a shift from focus on developing curriculum to a preeminent concern for understanding curriculum and the proclivity to consider virtually all phenomena of life experience as acceptable subjects of curriculum inquiry are examples of a willingness to divorce curriculum theorizing from school practice. Rationales for explicitly distancing theory far from practice have been advanced, as well. This essay documents and explains these three manifestations of the theory-practice split in reconceptualized curriculum studies; evaluates this split against Dewey's educational theory, the obligations of professional schools to practicing professionals, and the ideal of the land-grant university; assesses selected recent proposals for reconceptualized curriculum practice; and suggests implications of the bifurcation of the...

The Epic and the Novel: Dialogism and Teacher Research

Abstract: Teacher research has been concerned with the generation of knowledge and voice for more than 70 years; teachers are invited to join the academic dialogue by becoming researchers themselves. Yet the promised fusion of communities seems as distant as ever. I want to suggest that for these two solitudes to be brought together, the emphasis needs to change from the generation of knowledge to dialogue about what counts as knowledge. Using the work of the Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975), I argue for dialogic research. In making my case, I present a research problem that was investigated by a group of school administrators and teachers, sketch the previous response of the research community to that issue, take a brief detour through Bakhtin's literary theory, and then show how each of the conceptual resources that he supplies–polyphony, chronoscope and carnival–affected the research project and the ensuing dialogue about knowledge and its relationship to practice.

Research news and Comment: Alternative Paradigms in Bilingual Education Research: Does Theory Have a Place?

Abstract: I nterpretation of the voluminous research on bilingual education has been highly controversial among both academics and policymakers for more than 25 years. Clearly the political sensitivity of the issue has contributed to confusion about what the research is actually saying. A more fundamental cause of this confusion, however, is the extremely limited way in which educational researchers have examined the research, and in particular the quantitative research, on this issue. The dominant assumption among academic opponents and advocates of bilingual education has been that we can draw policy-relevant conclusions regarding the effectiveness of bilingual education only from \"methodologically acceptable studies.\" Typically, these studies are program evaluations that involve treatment and control groups compared in such a way that outcome differences can be attributed to the treatment rather than to extraneous factors. I argue that this approach represents an appropriate, but extremely limited, orientation to research in bilingual education. It is limited on two counts:

Research news and Comment: Teachers’ Roles in Promoting Science Inquiry With Students From Diverse Language Backgrounds

Abstract: At the beginning of the year, I had all the students work in small groups to do activities because in my science methods class, I had been taught to set up groups like that to promote inquiry. When students worked in little groups, neither they nor I really knew what they were doing. As the year progressed, I could see the students learned better when we did things together as a whole group. I know how to help them focus and learn when we are all together. I realize that some people would frown on how I've moved from small to whole group instruction, but I can see a big difference in the way students pay attention and learn. These experiences have helped me rethink the inquiry process. I'm not convinced that the way it's presented in the methods courses is really the best way for students to learn science, at least not my kids (fourth grade Haitian classroom teacher in an inner-city school).

(Homo)sexualities, Organizations, and Administration: Possibilities for In(queer)y

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to consider the possibilities for research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender school administrators and for the broader study of queerness in schools as organizations. Scholars need to consider both modernist and postmodernist practicalities related to (a) significance, (b) research focus, (c) methods, and (d) theoretical perspectives. I also explore how sexualities shape and are shaped by organizational life. Researchers should explore the (hetero)sexual culture and structure of schools, and the (homo)sexual ruptures and resistances to heterosexuality.

Research news and Comment: A Pedagogy of Possibility: Reflecting Upon Paulo Freire’s Politics of Education In Memory of Paulo Freire

Abstract: [W]hat I have been proposing from my political convictions, my philosophical convictions, is a profound respect for the total autonomy of the educator. What I have been proposing is a profound respect for the cultural identity of students—a cultural identity that implies respect for the language of the other, the color of the other, the gender of the other, the class of the other, the sexual orientation of the other, the intellectual capacity of the other; that implies the ability to stimulate the creativity of the other. But these things take place in a social and historical context and not in pure air. These things take place in history and I, Paulo Freire, am not the owner of history.

Adult Literacy: The Next Generation

Abstract: ~ n 1993,_the first report from the federa!ly funded .National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), the most comprehensive study of its kind, was released. The good news was that nearly 95% of adult Americans could read at a fourth-grade level or better, showing that illiteracy in its most basic form was relatively low, but the bad news was that nearly half of all adult Americans scored in the lowest two levels of literacy, levels that the National Educational Goals Panel (1994) has stated are well below what American workers need to be competitive in an increasingly global economy. 1 Although these findings shocked public opinion, research showed that it was possible, even likely, that America would continue to fail to achieve a fully literate society. For example, the NALS indicated that nearly 25% of America's adults with an average of 10 years of formal schooling had only fourth-grade literacy skills or lower (Kirsch, Jungeblut, Jenkins, & Kolstad, 1993). In many ethnic minority groups, fewer than 50% of the children complete 10 of the compulsory 12 grades of schooling (National Center on Educational Statistics, 1993a). Low achievement in schools, early dropout from schools, along with the continued flow of poorly educated immigrants, increase the population of adults in need of further skills at least as fast as adult education programs attempt to reduce the size of this group through remediation and retraining. In other words, low-literate 2 Americans may now be seen as a chronic feature of the American educational landscape, with all the well-known statistical relationships with increased children's school failure, lower worker productivity, crime, and welfare. 3 Fortunately, we know considerably more now than we did a decade or even a half decade ago about how to improve literacy in America. 4 This article focuses principally on the 1990s, which have seen a number of new and important studies that can provide guidance for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in the field of adult literacy. Seven areas, corresponding to key topics in the improvement of adult literacy services, are delineated; in each, we provide a brief analysis of major research findings, followed by a series of recommendations. The article concludes with a synthesis of the recent past and a prognosis for what we believe will be the next generation of adult literacy work in America.

The Problem of Japan: Qualitative Studies and International Educational Comparisons

Abstract: I find my new interpreter fully charged with the new ideas. He thinks enthusiastically the same as I do on my pet projects, viz—to make a National text-book on chemistry, to advocate the education of women, to abolish the drinking of sake, the wearing of swords, the promiscuous bathing of the sexes. . . . I feel grateful that I have already accomplished so much, and that my right-hand-men, my tongues in this land, are such congenial and aspiring men. It only makes me more earnest, more intent on forgetting the magnitude of the work, the difficulties, as well as overlooking the dirt, the foulness and the vile side of the Japanese question.

Book Reviews: Critical Personal Narrative and Autoethnography in Education: Reflections on a Genre

Abstract: As critical educators, we are frequently searching for provocative texts to inform our scholarship and teaching, as well as to strengthen the connections we make between theory and praxis. Our research has used narrative inquiry, collaborative ethnography, and applied semiotics. Between us, we share an identity and scholarship in critical and feminist curriculum theory. Our work interrogates risk/deficit images of children, youth, and families, and we seek to decolonize researcher relationships with participants. We both struggle to create substantial intersections between theory and the day-to-day pragmatic needs of teacher education—specifically, in early childhood and secondary education.

Research news and Comment: Trajectories From Today’s WWW to a Powerful Educational Infrastructure

Abstract: Two previous Research News and Comment articles in Educational Researcher have examined the potential impact of the World Wide Web (web) in education. Owston (1997) offers an optimistic view of the potential benefits of today's web, utilizing a framework that emphasizes (a) making learning more accessible; (b) promoting improved learning; and (c) containing costs. Fetterman (1998) reviews the tools currently available on the web (such as search, video conferencing, and file sharing) and suggests potential uses among educational researchers. Although these articles offer valuable advice about today's web capabilities, both authors acknowledge that the web is changing rapidly They do not provide a sense of where the web is going, and how its trajectory of development may more fully meet educational needs. Such prospective information about emerging web technologies is important for the educational research community, and it is our intention to highlight briefly key trajectories of web development for learning communities. Last year we hosted a workshop on \"Tools for Learning Communities\" under the auspices of the NSF-funded Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT, which is pronounced \"silt\"). Our workshop brought together 125 learning researchers and developers from a balanced mix of 50 institutions, including universities, non profit organizations, corporations, and schools. For example, corporate participants included IBM Global Education, Apple Computer, Netscape, Coopers-Lybrand, NetSchools, and Electric Schoolhouse, LLC as well as many smaller firms. Academic and non-profit participants included researchers from the four CILT partner institutions (SRI International, UC Berkeley, Vanderbilt University, and Concord Consortium), as well as organizations, universities, and high schools from all over North America. The innovative format of this workshop encouraged rapid information exchange, followed by brainstorming about educational issues and opportunities, and concluding with the formation of crossinstitutional teams to seek joint innovation. Over the course of two days, the participants generated a wealth of ideas about the limitations of today's web, its near-term trajectories, and its potential educational advances. We share a summary of those ideas here.