scholarly journals PARTNERING SCIENCE AND ART: PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES FOR USE IN PRE-COLLEGIATE CLASSROOMS

2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-234
Author(s):  
Christy Belardo ◽  
Andrea C. Burrows ◽  
Lydia Dambekalns
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Interdisciplinary Learning ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Science And Art ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Research On Teaching ◽  
Teachers Experiences

Research on teaching through discipline integration is currently emphasized as a gap in educational literature, and this study bridges discipline silos between the arts and sciences by indicating how science and art compliment content learning. A study of secondary education pre-service teachers (3 years, n = 52) participating in a science/art integration unit the semester before their last college experience, explores how integrated sessions capture both scientific and artistic discipline concepts. A mixed methods research approach measured changes in confidence of science and art knowledge, skills, and experiences of the participants. Quantitative and qualitative data support increased awareness and confidence in pre-service teachers’ perceptions of how science and art can be incorporated into pre-collegiate classrooms, recognition of discipline similarities, and significant common themes when teaching both disciplines together. The researchers utilized a social constructivist framework with the qualitative data. Conclusions and implications include: 1) instructors can provide examples and modeling of interdisciplinary learning, which inspire pre-service teachers to explore new integrated disciplines in their own future classrooms, and 2) instructors can influence perspectives of pre-service teachers by offering integrated units, which produces open-mindedness of future teachers to use various teaching strategies. Keywords: science, art, pre-service teachers, pre-collegiate students, STEM education, STEM classrooms.

Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Pamela Smith and Paula Findlen. New York: Routledge, 2002. Pp. ix, 437. $27.95.

2003 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 250-251
Author(s):  
Margaret C. Jacob
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Science And Art ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Modern Capitalism ◽  
Natural Philosophers

The Marxists had it right all along, they just got tripped up by their materialism. Early modern capitalism opened vast new worlds, particularly in the arts and sciences, only the traffic went both ways. Creative agents invented new markets and pushed commerce in directions that favored enterprises immensely cosmopolitan and innovative, often solely for the sake of beauty and display. Commerce offered a context but the nobility, and not an imagined bourgeoisie, had the edge when it came to exploiting the market for objets. Paintings could be traded for property, land, and houses. Princes could sponsor natural philosophers, and the fluidity in values meant that good investors, like good practitioners of the arts and sciences, took an interest in all aspects of learning. The interrelatedness of the representational arts and natural philosophy stands as one of the central themes in this tightly integrated collection of essays. We now have a vast historiography telling us that we should no longer teach early modern science without reference to the art of the time, and vice-versa. The point is beautifully illustrated by an exhibition recently held at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles (spring 2002) on the art of Pieter Saenredam. Working in Utrecht in the 1630s, he used geometry to regularize and make precise the angles and corners found in the exquisite paintings he made of the city's churches. He knew as much about geometry as he did about chiaroscuro. At precisely the same moment, an hour or two away by barge, Descartes in Leiden put the final touches on his Discourse on Method (1637). In effect he explained to the world why precision and clarity of thought made possible the kind of beauty that Saenredam's paintings would come to embody.

Professional Development on Data-Based Individualization: A Mixed Research Study

2019 ◽  
pp. 019874291987665
Author(s):  
Allison L. Bruhn ◽  
Sara Estrapala ◽  
Duhita Mahatmya ◽  
Ashley Rila ◽  
Kari Vogelgesang
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Student Outcomes ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Teachers Experiences ◽  
Development Data ◽  
Over Time

Data-based individualization (DBI) is a process of collecting and analyzing data on students’ response to intervention and then making intervention adaptations accordingly. Although this process can lead to better student outcomes, very few teachers are trained in the components of DBI, particularly in relation to behavior. Improving practice requires not only ongoing professional development, but also understanding about how teachers’ experiences in training can lead to better outcomes. Within the context of implementing a behavior intervention, the purpose of this study was to evaluate how participating in ongoing professional development on DBI affects teachers’ perceptions of themselves in relation to the DBI framework over time. Using a convergent, parallel mixed-methods research design, we evaluated 16 general and special education teachers’ conceptual understanding, self-efficacy, and perceptions associated with DBI before, during, and after professional development. Data analysis indicated teachers reported significant improvements in all three areas over time. Qualitative data indicated active practice and collaboration with other professionals contributed to these improvements. Key findings, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals The young adult’s perception of religion and formal structures: A postmodern perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Herna Hall ◽  
C.S.L. Delport
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Group Interviewing

The postmodern era has an impact on different dimensions of the contemporary young adult’s social functioning which incorporates perceptions regarding religion and formal structures. This contemporary young adult refers to an individual between the ages of 18 and 25 years. Therefore the goal of this article was to report on research results regarding the perceptions of young adults on religion and formal structures. Within a mixed methods research approach, the exploratory mixed methods research design was utilised. Qualitative data was collected from 47 young adults by means of focus group interviewing. Quantitative data was collected from 1019 respondents utilising a questionnaire. Both groups were selected through the utilisation of purposive sampling. Qualitative data were analysed through thematic analysis, whilst a range of descriptive and inferential statistical procedures was used to analyse quantitative data. The findings indicated that the postmodern young adult displays a tendency to value conventional religious norms and practices, but the element of choice is of importance, as young adults seem to choose the aspects of religion that suit them. An increased interest in and a need for spirituality or a form of transcendence was found. Guidance by formal structures was favoured, but did not necessarily refer to ‘church’ or religious structures. The results illustrated that the contemporary young adult explores and experiments in terms of identity and lifestyle. Views and values seem to be person-specific and based on emotions and experiences with a tendency towards ‘own authority’ and an emphasis on the self. The rise of individualism which characterises the postmodern era has led to the creation of meaning by drawing on personal resources and on own personal moral beliefs and values.

scholarly journals Enhancing Continuing Professional Teachers’ Development in High Schools through Support and Monitoring Offered to Communities of Practice by Stakeholders

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Adeola Folasade Akinyemi ◽  
Vuyisile Nkonki
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Depth Information ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Regular Class

This study is located in pragmatic research paradigm and adopted mixed methods research approach to get in-depth information from participants on enhancing continuing professional teachers’ development in high schools through support and monitoring offered to communities of practice by stakeholders. Semi-structured questionnaires and semi-structured interview were used as the research instruments to solicit information from seventy-nine participants selected as samples. The participants were purposely selected because of their involvement in communities of practice activities in their schools. The data were analysed descriptively using simple percentage tables for quantitative data while qualitative data were analysed thematically based on the themes that emerged. The findings of the study show that teachers received lot of support from education district officials and facilitators of communities of practice. The type of support received include organising content gap workshop for teachers, encouraging team work, helping teachers in difficult areas of their subjects and assist in difficult areas of facilitation. The findings of the study also indicate that support and monitoring measures in communities of practice helped teachers get feedback that assist them to know areas of their subject matter they need to address and improve on. Recommendations were made that district officials should go on regular class visits to monitor teachers to check if they are implementing what they have learnt in the communities of practice and regular on-site support should be provided for teachers by subject advisors.

Fit for Purpose: Using a Distance Education Approach to Support Underperforming Schools in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Irene McKay
Keyword(s):  
Distance Education ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Educational Design ◽  
Learner Performance ◽  
Poor Learner ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
Content Support

This article explores the South African government’s national school workbook intervention aimed at addressing poor learner performance in the context of teacher under-preparedness and curriculum reform. It shows how the workbooks use a distance education approach to provide pedagogical and content support for teachers, albeit in the context of classroom teaching, to compensate for teachers’ pedagogical challenges. This article uses a mixed methods research approach to explore how teachers, learners and parents used the workbooks and shows that while the distance educational design scaffolded teaching, additional support is necessary to enable the intervention to be more impactful. 

School Leaders’ Practice of the Ethics of Educational Leadership to Make Decisions

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-34
Author(s):  
Mohammed Assiri
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Common Factors ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
School Year ◽  
Ethical Decisions

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the extent to which school leaders practice the ethics of educational leadership to make decisions. A mixed-methods research design was used in this study. The quantitative data of this study were obtained from the participation of 260 teachers, and the qualitative data of this study were collected from nine school leaders. The questionnaire and the semi-structured interview were used to collect the data. The study was conducted during the school year of 2017-2018. The study found that the overall extent to which school leaders practice the ethics of educational leadership to make decisions was classified as “always occurs". The findings showed that there were statistically significant differences between participants with different gender and school levels on the overall and all dimensions of the extent to which school leaders practice the ethics of educational leadership to make decisions, while there were not statistically significant differences between the groups of the participants with different teaching experience. The qualitative findings provided some common factors that influence school leaders’ practice to making ethical decisions. These factors were explained based on two concepts including management knowledge and leadership skills as well as the context of school's culture.

The Poetry and Music of Science

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom McLeish
Keyword(s):  
School Leaver ◽  
Creative People ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
Poetry And Music

‘I could not see any place in science for my creativity or imagination’, was the explanation, of a bright school leaver to the author, of why she had abandoned all study of science. Yet as any scientist knows, the imagination is essential to the immense task of re-creating a shared model of nature from the scale of the cosmos, through biological complexity, to the smallest subatomic structures. Encounters like that one inspired this book, which takes a journey through the creative process in the arts as well as sciences. Visiting great creative people of the past, it also draws on personal accounts of scientists, artists, mathematicians, writers, and musicians today to explore the commonalities and differences in creation. Tom McLeish finds that the ‘Two Cultures’ division between the arts and the sciences is not after all, the best classification of creative processes, for all creation calls on the power of the imagination within the constraints of form. Instead, the three modes of visual, textual, and abstract imagination have woven the stories of the arts and sciences together, but using different tools. As well as panoramic assessments of creativity, calling on ideas from the ancient world, medieval thought, and twentieth-century philosophy and theology, The Poetry and Music of Science illustrates its emerging story by specific close-up explorations of musical (Schumann), literary (James, Woolf, Goethe) mathematical (Wiles), and scientific (Humboldt, Einstein) creation. The book concludes by asking how creativity contributes to what it means to be human.

scholarly journals Motivation, self-efficacy beliefs, and speaking anxiety in language MOOCs

ReCALL ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-160
Author(s):  
Zsuzsanna Bárkányi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Course Completion ◽  
Efficacy Beliefs ◽  
Speaking Anxiety ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Anxiety Levels

AbstractThis paper examines the role of motivation, anxiety, and self-efficacy beliefs and their interplay with regard to speaking on beginners’ Spanish LMOOCs. It answers three research questions: (1) what are learners’ motivations and goals for joining these LMOOCs and how do these relate to foreign language speaking anxiety; (2) how do learners’ self-efficacy beliefs and anxiety levels change as a result of course completion; and (3) is there a correlation between motivation, foreign language speaking anxiety, and self-efficacy beliefs in this context? A mixed-methods research design used quantitative and qualitative data gathered from self-reflective questionnaires and forum discussions. The results reveal that learners with intrinsic motivation are more likely to complete the courses than those who sign up to manage a personal situation or advance in their career or studies. No direct correlation was, however, found between motivation and the other variables under scrutiny. Learners present higher self-efficacy beliefs at the end of the courses than at the beginning, while anxiety levels are affected to a much smaller degree by course completion. Although spoken interactions in this learning environment are not synchronous, apprehension and anxiety prevent many learners from fully participating in the speaking activities.

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