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This paper presents situated learning as a theoretical framework for conceptualising new ways to approach science education. Key constructs associated with this framework, including communities of practice, Discourse and identity, are introduced. I advance an argument to develop classroom communities of practice based on engaged citizenship relative to the negotiation of socio-scientific issues (SSI). The aim of this approach would be student development of practices and dispositions that better prepare them for active participation in society, particularly in the context of science-related social issues. Extant literature regarding the effects of SSI interventions is reviewed and synthesised to explore the extent to which the articulated vision has been enacted and to better understand affordances and constraints associated with this enactment. Twenty-four studies are examined that meet criteria including recency, a focus on empirical investigations of SSI interventions and research rigor. The results of these research reports are categorised in an emergent taxonomy of findings with the following major categories: interest and motivation, content knowledge, nature of science, higher-order thinking and community of practice. Finally, the paper explicitly considers the value of framing SSI based research and practice in terms of a situated learning perspective. (Contains 1 note, 1 table, and 1 figure.)

This paper presents the findings of a recent preliminary study into the effects of a wilderness therapy program on the resilience of male youth at-risk. The study focused on participants who completed a wilderness therapy program at Typo Station. The residential program involved a five-week stay at the Typo Station property in north east Victoria, during which young men participated in hands-on group and one-on-one activities, community involvement, wilderness experiences including a 10-day hike, and simple pioneer-style living. The program is designed to build the life skills and resilience of male adolescents who are considered at-risk of future negative life outcomes. The study used two questionnaires to evaluate 19 participants before, during, and after the program. The questionnaires measured resilience and protective factors of resilience. Results showed that the participants' resilience and protective factors both significantly increased following the program. Results also showed that from pre-test to post-test. The results of the resilience and protective factors suggest that Typo Station's program can help at-risk participants build upon skills and factors that may help them develop resilience to overcome risks and avoid negative outcomes in the future. The paper concludes that this study gives strong preliminary support for the use of wilderness therapy as an intervention to help strengthen protective factors and increase resilience in male adolescents considered at-risk.

This paper first reports on the methodology of a study of teacher knowledge for statistics, conducted in a classroom at the primary school level. The methodology included videotaping of a sequence of lessons that involved students in investigating multivariate data sets, followed up by audiotaped interviews with each teacher. These stimulated recall interviews were based on the viewing of edited episodes from the classroom videos. The video and audio data were analysed against a teacher knowledge framework that had been formulated in relation to categories of teacher knowledge and components of statistical thinking. The second part of this paper validates the framework as a useful way of examining the teacher knowledge that is needed for and is used in teaching statistics through investigations. Teacher beliefs about the role of visualisation in context-specific tasks: towards a multi-layered and explicit didactical contract.

This paper challenges notions that pedagogy is predominantly rational, conscious and deliberate. Drawing on two research projects about experiences of learning in primary and secondary schools, the paper explores pedagogic relationships and the ways these structure and enable different kinds of learning and knowledge creation. The data are read with (Felman, 1987) the psychoanalytic writings of Wilfred Bion to investigate the ways in which knowing and learning are bound up in the unconscious emotional flows of classroom relationships. A learner-centred understanding of pedagogy is tentatively and critically developed. The desirability and some simultaneous difficulties of working with such notions of pedagogy are discussed. (Contains 3 notes.)

This paper reports on a study exploring ways in which five experienced teachers interpreted and responded to a curricular initiative in Alberta calling for teachers to help students see social studies through multiple perspective lenses representing Aboriginal (and Francophone) communities. Over the course of the study, which focused primarily on how the research participants integrated Aboriginal perspectives in their teaching, the teachers generally interpreted and practiced the teaching of multiple perspectives as providing students with alternative viewpoints on contemporary issues. Of note were teachers' resistances to affording room for Aboriginal perspectives, and a general absence of engagements with these perspectives in the classroom. I argue that these resistances may stem from the legacy of a collective memory project that has worked to foster a historical consciousness that makes it hard to perceive, as well as acknowledge the relevance of engaging 'Other' perspectives. In response, I draw attention to perspectives unique to Aboriginal traditions and communities and then offer possibilities for how teachers could alternatively conceptualize and take up this curricular mandate.

There are many factors for teachers to use computer technology in their classrooms. The goal of this study is to identify some of the important factors contributing the teachers' use of computer technology. The first goal of this paper is to discuss computer self-efficacy. The second goal is to explain teaching experience. The third goal is to elaborate inadequate computer technology support. The fourth goal is to investigate teachers' pedagogical practices. The last goal is to examine professional development in computer technology integration.

Music education is often advocated as having "extra-musical effects" contributing to the development of the whole child. The pedagogy teachers employ to deliver music programs could affect the significance of such benefits. This paper will review literature documenting how children benefit from receiving music education delivered using Kodály methodology. These benefits include literacy and numeracy skills, spatial-temporal reasoning, intelligence and social emotional development. Identifying gaps in research may pave the way for future studies and investigations.

The "Early Years Generalizing Project" ("EYGP") involves Australian years 1 to 4 (age 5 to 9) students and investigates how they grasp and express generalizations. This paper focuses on data collected from 6 Year 1 students in an exploratory study within a clinical interview setting that required students to identify function rules. Preliminary findings suggest that the use of gestures (both by students and interviewers), self-talk (by students), and concrete acting out, assisted students to reach generalizations and to begin to express these generalities. It also appears that as students became aware of the structure, their use of gestures and self-talk tended to decrease. [This document was originally published as Warren, E., Miller, J., & Cooper, T. J. (2012). Exploring young students' functional thinking. In B. Ubuz (Ed.), "Proceedings of the 35th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education" (Vol. 4, p. 329-336). Ankara, Turkey: PME.]

Expert power is that which "comes from having knowledge and expertise in a particular area" (Nazarko, 2004). In the history of the development of higher education, the relationship between the lecturer and the students has changed because of many different factors. Before the Internet and web revolution, the lecturer was the main source of information for his or her students. The web as a modern source of knowledge is now used universally, and this spreading trend may affect the relationship between the lecturer and his students. Understanding the impact of this change appears to be important for improving teaching techniques. Thus, many studies have focused on the effect on students and lecturers of using Internet and web applications. These studies have widely investigated this impact on students' achievements and attitude, and have also shown how the role and performance of faculty have changed. This paper aims to investigate this issue from the students' perspective: what is the impact of using web resources as a source of knowledge on the student-lecturer relationship? How has the fact that students now gain knowledge from websites affected the relationship with the lecturer as a knowledgeable person, that is, the one with the expert power? The participants were 1661 students from 30 universities/educational institutions. The Teacher Power Use Scale (TPUS) was used to collected data along with an open-ended questionnaire. Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) was used to analyze the data, and a thematic analysis was used to analyze data from the open-ended questionnaire.

This paper presents an investigation into Indian elementary and middle school students' images of designers. A "Draw a designer at work" test was used with 511 students from Classes 5 to 9 from a school located in Mumbai. Findings from the study indicate that Indian elementary and middle school students, who had no experience in design and technology education (D&T), perceived designers mostly as fashion/dress designers or artists and designing was associated less with engineering and technology. These results are consistent with an earlier study on Indian middle school students' ideas about design and designers using written responses, where students demonstrated an incomplete understanding of design and what designers do and associated design with art (Authors, 2011). In the present study students, mostly older ones depicted gender and professional stereotypes. Design as engineering, making or building were mostly associated with male designers and depicted more often by boys. Insights from the study have implications for curriculum development at the school level in India.

In response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the USA PATRIOT Act greatly expanded the ability of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use National Security Letters (NSLs) in investigations and the contexts in which they could be used by relaxing the standards under which NSLs could be employed. NSLs allow investigators to acquire a significant amount of information about the subject of an investigation, and the range and frequency of uses of NSLs has risen dramatically since the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act. An outstanding question with NSLs is whether they are being used in a manner that violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution. This article explores the relationships between NSLs, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the Constitution. The paper reviews the legislative history of NSLs, synthesizes the First and Fourth Amendment issues and key judicial decisions related to NSLs, and analyzes the extent to which the USA PATRIOT Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 adequately addresses challenges to the constitutionality of NSLs. The paper concludes with an examination of NSLs within the greater information policy context in the United States, as the expanded usage of NSLs--even if entirely constitutional--raises the possibility of chilling the freedom of expression.

This phenomenological investigation examined the lived experience of technically-oriented students over the course of a single semester, attempting to answer the question, "What was it like for a student to experience the spatial ability phenomenon?" The study included 12 interviewees and 8 focus group freshman participants at a Midwestern university. Data sources included interview transcripts, think aloud transcripts, task solutions, focus group transcripts, researcher journal entries, course performance data, course observation data, and spatial ability test data. This paper provides the holistic, structural description of the spatial phenomenon that emerged from the descriptions of the participants' experience, as well as an expository on four of the five invariant themes that were elicited from the data. the collaborative session. Recommendations were made for future course improvements when a real world project is used in the curriculum. This paper also discusses changes in design process and the role of designers based on the collaborative session feedback. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Purpose: The purpose of this conceptual paper is to argue that leadership, including distributed leadership, is a concept of folk psychology and is more productively viewed as an emergent self-organising property of complex systems. It aims to argue the case on the basis that claims to (distributed) leadership outrun the theoretical and empirical resources distributed and other leadership theorists can offer to support them. Design/methodological approach: The paper employs contemporary scientific as well as traditional philosophical criteria in determining the knowledge claims made by distributed leadership theories. Of particular importance are the coherence theory of evidence that employs the super-empirical virtues, especially coherence to establish the scientific virtue of theory, and the conception of leadership as part and parcel of folk psychology. Findings: When considering the basis of claims to distributed leadership from a neuroscientific and empirical perspective, there is little basis in fact about the existence of (distributed) leadership as an ontological category. Talk of leadership is a conventional, commonsense label for vastly more complex and fine-grained causal physiological and neuronal activities within certain social contexts. In this sense distributed leadership is a conception available for reduction. Originality/value: The significance and originality of this paper lies in the fact that it proposes causal investigations of social phenomena such as leadership; demonstrates the importance and necessity of interdisciplinary research; and outlines exciting new research agendas that both question traditional taken-for-granted conceptions of social explanations and suggests directions of where solutions may be found in the future that are defensible by the best of current science.

Investigating the emotional impact of music listening has a long history. Indeed, reactions to subtle as well as obvious changes in music, whether inadvertent or deliberate, occupy a good deal of interest for the music researcher as well as the music educator. Regardless of the extremely subtle acoustic changes that are perceptible within almost all studies from an electronic digital perspective, it is the total overall effect that most occupies the attention of the individual listener/student. While newer listening devices offer a plethora of music selections that can be presented and studied, often the educator does not have access to the advanced equipment used by researchers and has very limited resources other than their own performance and/or using various recording/playback units. The study investigated a "paper and pencil" drawing compared with the much more advanced Continuous Response Digital Interface (CDRI) using high-school students. Results indicated that subjects approximate the same emotional responses with a drawing when compared to the sophisticated graphic analysis of the CRDI. These findings indicate that a teacher using only a simple paper and pencil representation might be able to elicit and document an "overall emotional effect" that provides as much musical information as using more sophisticated measuring devices.

Purpose: The paper seeks to examine the health risks faced when using computer-based systems by library staff in Nigerian libraries. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a survey research approach to carry out this investigation. Findings: The investigation reveals that the perceived health risk does not predict perceived ease of use of computer-based libraries. Even though a wide range of health hazards were identified in the libraries, the level of availability of ergonomic programmes to tackle them was low. Practical implications: In general, librarians, university authorities, IT policy formulators and systems administrators should find this paper useful, as it educates them about the fact that perceived health risk does not significantly deter people from using information systems. This is due to the enormous benefits arising from the use of IT when compared with the manual systems. Originality/value: The study offers new insights in the area of IT use by librarians in Nigerian universities. That the study found that prevailing health risks do not significantly deter people from using information systems means that it differs from other studies.

This paper draws on findings from a four-year longitudinal research project, commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), which investigated Variations in Teachers' Work, Lives and Effectiveness (VITAE). Drawing on data gathered from 300 teachers working in 100 primary and secondary schools in England, the research identified associations between commitment and effectiveness (perceived and in terms of pupil attainment) and found that there were more, and less, effective teachers in each of six professional life phases. It found that teachers in each of these phases experienced a number of different scenarios that challenged their abilities to sustain their commitment (i.e. remain resilient). This paper discusses how these impact, positively and negatively, on teachers' capacities for sustaining their initial commitment and associations between identity, well-being and effectiveness. It finds that teacher identities are neither intrinsically stable nor intrinsically fragmented, but that they can be more, or less, stable and more or less fragmented at different times and in different ways according to the influence of the interaction of a number of personal, professional and situated factors. The extent to which teachers are able to and are supported in managing the scenarios they experience will determine their sense of effectiveness. (Contains 7 notes, 5 tables, and 5 figures.)

The success of Indian enterprises and professionals in the computer and information technology (CIT) domain during the twenty year has been spectacular. Entrepreneurs, bureaucrats and technocrats are now advancing views about how India can ride CIT bandwagon and leapfrog into a knowledge-based economy in the area of entrepreneurship distance education on-line. Isolated instances of remotely located villagers sending and receiving email messages, effective application of mobile communications and surfing the Internet are being promoted as examples of how the nation can achieve this transformation, while vanquishing socio-economic challenges such as illiteracy, high growth of population, poverty, and the digital divide along the way. Likewise, even while a small fraction of the urban population in India has access to computers and the Internet, e-governance is being projected as the way of the future. There is no dearth of fascinating stories about CIT enabled changes, yet there is little discussion about whether such changes are effective and sustainable in the absence of the basic infrastructure that is accessible to the citizens of more advanced economies. When used appropriately, different CITs are said to help expand access to entrepreneurship distance education, strengthen the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise technical and managerial educational quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to real life. This research paper investigates on the impact of computer based online entrepreneurship distance education in India. (Contains 2 tables.)

The paper aims at investigating students' learning attitudes after they are exposed to three vocabulary learning methods, namely Contextual Clues, Dictionary Strategy and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The study involves 123 undergraduates, who were surveyed to identify the factors that affect their attitudes in learning vocabulary using these methods. Findings from the study using ANOVA revealed that students who were exposed to CALL showed more positive attitudes in learning vocabulary compared to other methods. This is due to the tools matching their aptitude for learning. In fact, the tools are regarded as "part and parcel" of the students' lives. The results of the study also showed that the usefulness and limitation of the respective methods depend on students' approaches in using them to learn vocabulary. The implications for language teaching and learning of vocabulary demand practitioners to incorporate the use of computers in their lessons. Nonetheless, they may also integrate the use of Contextual Clues, Dictionary Strategy and CALL in their teaching to accelerate the expansion of students' vocabulary.

The aim of this paper is to investigate, from a student perspective, how English communication skills are taught in Oman's schools and higher education institutions. Previous research has documented the lack of communicative ability in English among school and higher education graduates in Oman (Al-Issa, 2007; Moody, 2009). However, the reasons for this weakness have never been investigated from the point of view of students themselves. Using written protocols from 58 respondents, this study embarks on such an investigation and explores student definitions of communication skills, opinions about their importance, and how they were taught in school and higher education institutions. The results reveal that these crucial skills were actually either not taught at all or taught indirectly, which helps to explain the deficit under investigation.

Motivation is one of the most important factors affecting students' performance of English learning, which is widely concerned by foreign language teachers and researchers for a long time. However, how to promote students' motivation in learning English by knowing their English learning motivation types at the initial stages and the factors that influence their sustaining motivation in the long process of English learning is still in need of exploration in the Chinese context. The paper aims to investigate Chinese non-English majors' motivation in English learning to facilitate teachers' understanding of ways to increase it.

This paper reports on the results of a meta-analysis of first year pre-service teachers' investigations of two transcripts of teacher/student talk. The first is set in the home environment and the second in the classroom. Working with specific tools of analysis and knowledge of the role of talk in literate, cultural and social practices they identified evidence of effective literacy pedagogy. They presented their findings in the genre of a written comparative analysis. The results showed the discourse analysis task helped them understand the vital role of the adult's talk in scaffolding children's learning in each context and raised awareness of how the adults' cognitive "moves" impacted on the scaffolding of literacy learning. Outcomes highlighted the need for teacher preparation courses to focus on the way classroom discourse relates to pedagogy and children's literacy learning by providing exemplary teaching episodes, and studying the pedagogical language competencies involved. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.)

The purpose of this paper is to share the findings of a highly generalizable investigative feasibility project, whose goal is to enhance the teaching ability of current higher education faculty members. The mission of the project was to introduce a new doctoral degree on Global Education and Leadership (GEL) geared toward a ubiquitous, broad approach to assist faculty members in their pursuit of improved teaching and learning. The methods used were to perform an online search identifying 18 different institutions, whose mission focused on both student-centered learning, as well as pursued an active scholarship of teaching and learning agenda; contact 52 key personnel for a visit to share our program; travel to each of eight countries to share the vision of the program in five weeks; and finally to collate results and examine trends and identify host institutions, accreditation steps and start dates. The major result of this experience was the unanimous agreement on the universal unsystematic process of providing tertiary faculty members with the essential andragogical methods to efficiently and effectively become exemplar teachers. Due to the overwhelming uniformity in affirmative response to the program, the key conclusion is to move forward with the doctoral program aggressively.

This paper follows an empirical study of how teachers were represented in British newspapers during the 1990s. Its purpose is to describe some of the findings arising from a comparison of the data and representations of teachers in educational research literature. The topic of teacher representation was a matter of personal interest to the researcher but an extensive review of educational literature revealed it also to have potential theoretical value. In the study representations of teachers in the literature were described conceptually according to the position of their characteristics within two continua: one relating to commonality and contradiction, the other to continuity and change. These continua were applied to data collected from a newspaper sample from the 1990s. Using illustrations from the sample this paper considers some of the insights this application afforded. This is followed by a discussion of the main similarities and differences between representations of teachers in the press and literature. The comparative analysis revealed ways for research to develop a more comprehensive and sophisticated understanding of how the teacher is represented in different cultural contexts, mediums and timeframes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main implications for research on the representation of teachers and it makes recommendations for further research.

This paper focuses on the Australian federal Parliamentary Inquiry into Boys' Education, "Boys: Getting it Right", which is shown to be an exemplary instance of recuperative masculinity politics. The paper demonstrates how, through a variety of rhetorical strategies, its anti-feminist politics are masked and how the report works with essentialised differences between boys and girls. The argument is demonstrated through a focus on a number of the report's recommendations, including the call for a recasting of current gender policy, the need for creating so-called "boy-friendly" curricula, assessment and pedagogical practices, and for employment of more male teachers. The report draws on populist literature and submissions from the boys' lobby, as well as practice-oriented submissions to the neglect of theoretically oriented and (pro-)feminist work. As such, the significance of the construction of masculinities to boys' attachment to and performances in school is totally neglected, limiting the value of the report's recommendations for improving schooling for both boys and girls.

Purpose--Development activities at work require the use of abilities that include a range of methodological knowledge. This research seeks to develop and promote these abilities into the curriculum. Design/methodology/approach--The paper analyses information from a variety of subject areas about the teaching and learning of practitioner-led research and development projects. An action research approach was used in which staff across one university were asked to draw on best practice and expertise. Findings--Differing approaches to practitioner-led research were identified. A web-based resource to facilitate the understanding of methodology in the practitioner-led projects of students on work-based and work-related university programmes was developed. Research limitations/implications--It is difficult to learn how to become a successful practitioner researcher outside of the "real-time" contexts of the work environment. Practical implications --To manage successful developments at work, students need to become "practitioner-researchers". The web-based resource provides searchable examples of projects undertaken at work in placements and by part time students in their full time work. Practice-based project information on a generic template cuts across the disciplines and uses a range of different methodologies. The practitioner-led projects result in change or recommendations for change in professional practice. Originality/value--This paper focuses especially on the methodological approaches used by undergraduate students. This kind of understanding is normally expected in the postgraduate curriculum where students are more likely to have work-based experience. Data represented various and differing standpoints regarding research paradigms, different disciplinary practices and different practices between the Professions. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Purpose: This paper sets out to examine whether the process of accrediting prior experiential learning (APEL) as used in UK universities is the most appropriate approach for providing academic recognition for work-based projects and learning. Design/methodology/approach: Work-based projects that had already been assessed in the context of a professional qualification were re-examined to identify how they might be used towards a master's degree and what if any additional work the candidates would need to complete. Findings: The study finds that in most cases it appeared that the candidates would be able in principle to gain a full master's degree based on their existing work and associated reflection and writing-up, without the need to carry out additional investigation or projects. Research limitations/implications: The findings are based on a small sample of individuals from a specific field (the conservation of cultural heritage), and while the findings are clear and appear to have wider applicability they can only be regarded as pointers for practical trialling and further investigation. Practical implications: The findings suggest that the current approach to APEL used in UK universities needs to be expanded so that awards can be made substantially on the basis of already-completed workplace projects. A trial of this approach is proposed using candidates from the cultural heritage sector. Originality/value: The paper proposes a basis for changes to credit practice that will provide better scope for individuals to use and build on workplace activities in gaining academic awards. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

Purpose: The paper aims to describe research undertaken in two post-1992 universities into staff perceptions of and reactions to the rhetoric of the national quality agenda in the UK as expressed by bodies such as the Quality Assurance Agency and the discourse about quality implicit in that agenda. The research examined how academic staff engaged with the discourse and the extent to which the rhetoric of quality is reflected in the day-to-day realities of post-1992 universities. Design/methodology/approach: The research involved a qualitative investigation of the personal experiences of six academics employed in two post-1992 universities and comprised in-depth interviews around three themes which were undertaken during 2005 and 2006. The data from the interviews are summarised and paraphrased in a way which faithfully and accurately captures the sense and spirit of each of the interviews as validated by the interviewees. Findings: The paper concludes that from the point of view of the academic staff who formed part of this research there is a considerable mismatch between the rhetoric of the official paragons of quality represented by the Quality Assurance Agency and the experience of quality by academic staff embroiled in the quality systems that the two universities involved in this research had developed as a consequence of the requirements of government and government agencies. Originality/value: This paper will be of interest to academics and academic managers with responsibilities for quality assurance not only in universities with mature quality assurance systems but also in those in which such systems are being introduced or developed. (Contains 5 notes.)

North Dakota State University (USA) have been using video conferencing as a delivery mode for farmer education for about twenty years and report that their farmers find this delivery method both practical and worthwhile. With the number of New Zealand farmers attending learning events decreasing, due mainly to time and cost, maybe it is time to use different approaches to engage farmers in learning. A study called "FeedSmart", which looked into the ways farmers preferred to learn, identified that e-learning is worth further investigation as a learning delivery approach. In this paper we report on three small-scale trials that investigated the viability and effectiveness of generating and delivering information to farmers via a video-conferencing-based learning approach. This study showed that e-learning of this type has potential as a learning approach for farmers and is worthy of further investigation.

With an increase in life expectancy in modern complex communities, there will be a prolonged period, post-retirement, in which older adults will seek meaningful projects. Juxtaposed with the longer period after retirement is the realisation that life is nearing the end. This paper draws on research undertaken from 2003-2010. The purpose of the research was to investigate the lived experiences of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) learners. The participants identified as being in the post-work phase of their lives and their ages ranged from the mid-70s to the early 90s as at 2010. The study used a qualitative methodology and interpretations were elicited from a phenomenological perspective. A significant finding from the study was that the existential concept of time was at the core of the learning experiences and their need to develop and grow.

This article presents a quantitative study on attitudes toward the usage of Information Technology related tools and applications. The study was conducted at a private university, Turkey, with 97 female and 113 male students involved as participants. They were each presented with a questionnaire to relate their attitudes toward IT and after undergoing a discrete IT course for the duration of one semester (15 weeks). The attitudes of the respondents were measured in terms of three dimensions, namely, usefulness, confidence and learning. Both genders exhibited the same levels of attitudes after undergoing the comprehensive IT course. The largest improvement for females and males was in the learning dimension which showed that their initial dislike toward IT was greatly reduced at the end of the course. In terms of confidence, female and male participants exhibited an enhanced confidence level after the course. One area of information technology quickly becoming ultimate is the field of Informatics. Information technology is the area of managing technology and spans wide variety of areas that include but are not limited to things such as processes, computer software, information systems, computer hardware, programming languages, and data constructs. To meet this growing need universities are beginning to develop degree programs with the integration of Informatics. In response to the widespread use of and ever-changing nature of Informatics, various investigations were carried out regarding attitudes toward informatics. Employing people who understand Informatics is a top priority for industries, business, government, education and the military sectors. Informatics can be defined as the multidimensional use of technology to support knowledge discovery assisting the decision maker to achieve the organizational goals. Informatics incorporates the way data is collected, organized, analyzed, represented, filtered and managed. Totally this paper attempted to investigate university student attitudes toward the integration of Informatics Technology in their departments and factors contributing to their attitudes so as to provide some constructive information and suggestions for the adoption of technology in informatics education.

Inherent in classroom research are the inevitable, and often unanticipated, challenges experienced by researchers. This article moves beyond the main issues highlighted in the literature and identifies some of the problems the authors encountered when conducting two common methodological procedures, classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews (SRIs), as part of our dissertation research investigations. The paper first surveys what the literature describes as the main areas of concern with these two procedures. It then pulls away from these resources to explore actual difficulties we experienced that we believe are inadequately addressed in the literature. Using illustrations from our dissertation projects, we examined several recurring challenges we faced, including participant discomfort with specific types of SRI questions and different forms of participant-researcher interaction during non-participatory classroom observations. For each of these problems, we provide a series of recommendations for researchers who plan to use similar methodological protocols in classroom research.

During the last decades students' science-related interests, attitudes, and images of science and scientists, and their differentiations according to gender, culture, and socio-economic status have been investigated by a multitude of research studies. These aspects of students' voices seem to be interrelated and to also affect students' achievement in science and their relevant study and career aspirations. Moreover, school science and teachers, as well as popular science are considered as factors determining students' voices. This paper attempts a mapping of relevant literature in order to highlight crucial outcomes and draw educational and research implications. It is suggested that a comprehensive and integrated investigation of the voices of students, of school science and teachers', and of popular science is required in order to make informed, research-based decisions on designing school science curricula and teaching.

In response to recent social, economic, and pedagogical challenges to tertiary-level teaching and learning, universities are increasingly investigating and adopting eLearning as a way to engage and motivate students. This paper reports on the first of a two-year (2009-2010) qualitative case study research project in New Zealand. A snapshot of each of the four 2009 cases and some focused findings are provided, followed by a discussion of implications for researchers investigating technology implementation in tertiary settings.

Informatics is currently being taught in high schools all over the world. In the Dutch curriculum, computer literacy is taught in the lower grades as a compulsory subject, Informatics is taught as an elective in the higher grades of some schools. As a follow-up to the outline of Grgurina and Tolboom (2008), the discussion about the future of Informatics education in the Netherlands is investigated and elaborated in this paper. Our research brings forward four positions of the stakeholders in the field: the negative-critical view, the positive-realistic view, the no-nonsense view and the innovative view. Extreme positions are either "to terminate the school subject, because teachers are not qualified and there is little relation with Informatics as a scientific discipline", or "to strengthen the school subject because of its social relevance". The latter position will be substantiated by a discussion of the novice-expert approach for teaching and the importance of enculturation and situated learning. As a way to strengthen secondary Informatics teaching, especially in the Netherlands, Schoenfeld's framework is advised (Schoenfeld, 2010).

This paper investigates the impact of a two-year professional development program on teacher self-efficacy for inquiry-based instruction. The program utilizes scientist-teacher partnerships to develop content knowledge, inquiry-based instruction, and leadership skills for in-service STEM teachers. Participating teachers are administered a survey to assess their self-efficacy at the start and completion of the program. The findings suggest increases in self-efficacy for inquiry-based instruction and greater focus by the teachers on the depth of content after completing the program. The results substantiate prior research conducted on the benefits of teacher participation in professional development utilizing a scientist-teacher partnership model. Other trends in the data, future research, and implications for the design or refinement of professional development programs are discussed.

Multidisciplinary research institutes provide universities with an important vehicle to conduct research across traditional disciplines, and this can be an attractive capability for external funding bodies. However, there can be particular challenges, including managing different reporting lines, the need for effective research coordination, and the development of collaborations across institutes. These issues are especially relevant in the early development stages of institutes. Consequently, this paper will describe a case study investigation of the Institute of Shock Physics, a university research institute at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. The case study will provide a discussion of the key strands of management activity that have been pursued in the first two years of operations for the Institute, together with details on how any difficulties were overcome. Management areas discussed in the case study include collaboration development, financial program management, research project management, program reporting and governance, and risk and safety management. This analysis will be carried out in the context of supporting research from the literature and through building on the findings from the case study a set of recommendations have been formulated on developing and implementing management systems for new research institutes. (Contains 3 figures.)

This paper describes an attempt at evaluating a potentially critical "detail" of teaching practice; that is, using a particular diagram to illustrate the imaging role of a converging lens. This "basic" diagram has been designed to contribute to help students overcome the well-known "travelling image" syndrome. We conducted a comparative study with 125 students in all, at three academic levels: end of secondary school, degree students, and teacher training. The groups compared had previously been taught elementary optical imaging in a classical, uncontrolled manner, and were presented with two classical questions, commonly used to demonstrate students' difficulties. In each group, one-half of the students had a classic introductory diagram and the other half had the "basic" one. A positive reaction of students to the evaluated diagram was observed at a relatively high academic level (trainee physics teachers and degree students), in contrast with an apparent lack of effect at the end of secondary school. The paper ends with a discussion of the evaluation of a detail of practice in isolation, with respect to the distance between students' actual and targeted levels of comprehension. (Contains 7 tables, 4 figures and 1 note.)

This paper presents the preliminary work for developing guidelines to ensure that industry-sponsored projects in first-year courses aid, not hamper, retention of students. Specifically, the overall research plan includes the following steps: (1) investigating the appropriateness of industry projects in a required introduction to engineering design course (approximately 1000 students per year), (2) assessing the impact of industry-sponsored projects on first-year students' learning and retention, and (3) promoting an awareness of issues involved in successfully introducing industry projects in the first year. It is expected that the outcomes of this work will result in guidelines widely applicable by other institutions looking into or currently using industry projects in the first year, thereby addressing the recognized national need of increasing retention rates, especially amongst women and minorities. This paper covers a review of potential factors affecting industry-sponsored projects' appropriateness at the first year, and related preliminary data. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

This paper investigates a Deweyan interpretation of constructivism as a means of developing a rationale for teaching science. The paper provides a review of constructivism from recent science education literature, along with some relevant criticisms. The paper then presents an interpretation of Dewey's formulation of the role of knowing and scientific concepts as tools for integrating and transforming experience, based primarily on "Experience and Nature" and "The Quest for Certainty", arguing that a Deweyan version of constructivism improves upon recent cognitivist versions of constructivism, while providing a general justification for why ideas in science are worth teaching and learning.

The Advanced Technical School from Novi Sad set up a completely new study group for web design in 2004. The main goals of the paper are to explain the steps that were taken in starting this group, and to present the educational program based on our own research through the organization of the group and course descriptions. Since there is a growing need for all kinds of IT specialists, particularly in web design due to the development of the Internet, we concluded it was necessary to found such a study group. At the time when it was established, there were not many similar groups in the world exclusively dealing with web design, which means there were few suitable programs that could serve as examples. Consequently, research on student prior knowledge was carried out to select and create appropriate courses. It was essential to check in advance what could be expected from our freshmen in order to avoid possible mistakes in designing the program. We tested 55 students of graphic design to see the status of their prior knowledge in web design. The reason why we chose this study group for testing was their interest in the WWW and designing for the Web. The test contained 28 questions regarding different web issues. They covered areas like usability, user-oriented web design, accessibility, privacy and security, which are briefly discussed in the paper. Although most of the students regularly used the Internet, they knew very little about these items. The obtained results enabled us to write the curriculum and syllabus for the group that included courses covering all these things. Two documents were made so as to provide learners with a combination of technical and artistic aspects of the web designing process in all its phases. Websites that have aesthetic values are more attractive and definitely contribute to the development of taste. Therefore, a good balance between courses offering technical knowledge and skills and those educating web artists is highly important. When creating educational programs in fields dealing with new technologies, especially if there is a lack of existing models, it is significant to examine students' prior experience and knowledge. The results of such investigations must be taken into account in order to determine standards that should be achieved, and to produce high quality programs. We believe that our curriculum and syllabus presented in this paper can be used as useful illustrative examples by those intending to start a similar study group. (Contains 2 tables and 5 figures.)

In Dubai, traffic accidents kill one person every 37 hours and injure one person every 3 hours. Novice traffic accident investigators in the Dubai police force are expected to "learn by doing" in this intense environment. Currently, they use no alternative to the real world in order to practice. This paper argues for the use of an alternative learning environment, where the novice investigator can feel safe in exploring different investigative routes without fear for the consequences. The paper describes a game-based learning environment that has been built using a game engine. The effectiveness of this environment in improving the performance of traffic accident investigators is also presented. Fifty-six policemen took part in an experiment involving a virtual traffic accident scenario. They were divided into two groups: novices (0 to 2 years experience) and experienced personnel (with more than 2 years experience). The experiment revealed significant performance improvements in both groups, with the improvement reported in novices significantly higher than the one reported in experienced personnel. Both groups showed significant differences in navigational patterns (e.g. distances travelled and time utilization) between the two training sessions.

Early life experiences can powerfully impact attitudes toward learning and later achievements in education. The chances for optimal development of children with special needs, including the gifted and talented, can be enhanced with identification and intervention at an early age. This paper reports on investigations into the lives of five gifted kindergarten students utilizing a case-study methodology, which yielded themes relating to intellectual, achievement, social, affective, physical, aesthetic, and creative domains (discussed in Part I, published in Roeper Review, volume 26, pp. 192-207). This paper, Part II, will discuss parental and teacher influences. [For part I, see EJ698583.]

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to methodological discourse about research approaches to environmental education. More specifically, the paper explores the current status of the "empirical-analytical methodology" and its "positivist" (traditional- and post-positivist) ideologies, in environmental education research through the critical analysis of three criticisms outlined in Robottom & Hart (1995). Their negative discussion of this methodology relates to its ideology and assumptions it makes about the purpose and role of the environmental education curriculum and goals, teachers, students, learning, teaching content and environmental action(s). It is suggested that their critiques misrepresent empirical-analytical methodology in their dismissal of it as behaviorist and/or traditional positivist in nature and, consequent undesirability in research in environmental education. Such discussions of the perversity of "positivist" empirical-analytical methodology are not constructive. This paper seeks to reorient the debate by providing a critical analysis of the arguments proffered by Robottom & Hart as a way of opening opportunities for diverse pathways of research in environmental education. (Contains 1 table.)