scholarly journals Comparing 6th Grade Science Classrooms: Inner-City versus Suburb

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nida Syed
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
School Funding ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
School Students ◽  
Science Classrooms ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Learning Development

Do teachers in the inner-city have different expectations of their students than teachers in the suburbs? Ethnographic studies of the classroom such as one by Wilcox in 1982 suggest they do. Wilcox describes education as "primarily a process of cultural transmission". In other words, schools in a particular setting or neighborhood aim to instill in their students the cultural norms and behaviors accepted and expected in that setting. This project is an ethnographic study of two sixth grade science classrooms; one in an urban inner-city Detroit, Michigan neighborhood and one in the neighboring suburb of Dearborn. The study examines the way the two classrooms are run by the teachers and their teaching styles by comparing the types of assignments that are given to students and the implications they have on the students’ learning development. Other factors such as a comparison of school funding per pupil and the effect it has on the availability of resources necessary for learning in each classroom were also examined. We found that the Dearborn school students learned how to work individually and in groups whereas the Detroit school students learned only how to work in groups. We also found that Dearborn students were encouraged to read out loud to the class individually whereas Detroit students were often read to by the teacher.

scholarly journals QR Code-based Learning Development: Accessing Math Game for Children Learning Enhancement

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Widyasari Widyasari ◽  
Hadi Sutopo ◽  
Murniati Agustian
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Field Test ◽  
Mathematics Learning ◽  
Qr Code ◽  
Qr Codes ◽  
School Students ◽  
Learning Enhancement ◽  
Learning Mathematics ◽  
Learning Development ◽  
Math Game

Mathematics in elementary school is difficult to understand, boring, formal, theoretical, and book-based learning, which makes students tired of listening and paying attention. The purpose of this study is to create a learning prototype based on QR codes, especially mathematics learning in elementary schools. Using the QR code, students can access math games related to the course. This learning model could encourage students to learn mathematics. The research included seven steps in research and development named after Borg & Gall, such as need assessment, plan, early product development, first test, revise early product, field test and revise product. The object of the research is QR code-based learning, and the respondents are elementary school students and teachers. After analyzing data in the first and field test, researchers found the result. QR code-based learning could support children for learning mathematics.

scholarly journals Exploring Middle School Students' Reflections on the Infusion of CS into Science Classrooms

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Celepkolu ◽  
David Austin Fussell ◽  
Aisha Chung Galdo ◽  
Kristy Elizabeth Boyer ◽  
Eric N. Wiebe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
School Students ◽  
Science Classrooms

After the Blackbird Whistles: Listening to Silence in Classrooms

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (11) ◽  
pp. 2833-2849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Schultz
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
School Students ◽  
Student Talk ◽  
The Individual

Background/Context Students spend a large part of their time in schools in silence. However, teachers tend to spend most of their time attending to student talk. Anthropological and linguistic research has contributed to an understanding of silence in particular communities, offering explanations for students’ silence in school. This research raised questions about the silence of marginalized groups of students in classrooms, highlighting teachers’ role in this silencing and drawing on limited meanings of silence. More recently, research on silence has conceptualized silence as a part of a continuum. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this project was to review existing literature and draw on two longitudinal research studies to understand the functions and uses of silence in everyday classroom practice. I explore the question, How might paying attention to the productivity of student silence and the possibilities it contains add to our understanding of student silence in educational settings? Silence holds multiple meanings for individuals within and across racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. However, in schools, silence is often assigned a limited number of meanings. This article seeks to add to educators’ and researchers’ tools for interpreting classroom silence. Research Design The article is based on two longitudinal qualitative studies. The first was an ethnographic study of the literacy practices of high school students in a multiracial high school on the West Coast. This study was designed with the goal of learning about adolescents’ literacy practices in and out of school during their final year of high school and in their first few years as high school graduates. The second study documents discourses of race and race relations in a postdesegregated middle school. The goal of this 3-year study was to gather the missing student perspectives on their racialized experiences in school during the desegregation time period. Conclusions/Recommendations Understanding the role of silence for the individual and the class as a whole is a complex process that may require new ways of conceptualizing listening. I conclude that an understanding of the meanings of silence through the practice of careful listening and inquiry shifts a teacher's practice and changes a teacher's understanding of students’ participation. I suggest that teachers redefine participation in classrooms to include silence.

‘Impressed’ by Feelings-How Judges Perceive Defendants’ Emotional Expressions in Danish Courtrooms

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Victoria Johansen
Keyword(s):  
Emotional State ◽  
Physical Appearance ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Social Categories

Emotions constitute an integrated part of crime trials, but the evaluation of these emotions is dependent on broader cultural norms rarely addressed by legal practitioners. Previous research on emotions in the judiciary has also tended to underemphasize this cultural dimension of judges’ assessment of defendants’ emotional expressions. This article presents an ethnographic study of Danish judges’ considerations when they encounter defendants in court and get an impression of their behaviour, emotional state and physical appearance. Combining theories about emotions with intersectionality approaches, the article highlights the processes in which social categories are dynamically shaped through emotions. Judges’ assessments of emotions are mediated through their own cultural understandings, and what counts as ‘appropriate’ emotion is dependent on how the defendant is culturally and systemically situated.

scholarly journals Differences and Similarities in Scientists’ Images Among Popular USA Middle Grades Science Textbooks

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-83
Author(s):  
Rebecca Hite
Keyword(s):  
Grade Level ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
Earth Science ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
White Male ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
School Students ◽  
Science Textbooks ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Images Of Scientists

<p style="text-align: justify;">Research on students’ perceptions of scientists is ongoing, starting with early research by Mead and Metraux in the 1950s and continuing in the present. Continued research interest in this area is likely due to scholarship suggesting adolescents’ impressions of scientists are sourced in-part from media, which influence their interests in science and identity in becoming a scientist. A significant source of images, in which adolescents (or middle school students) view science and scientists, is in their science textbooks. A qualitative content analysis explored images of scientists in three of the major U.S.-based middle grade science textbooks published in the new millennium: sixth grade biology, seventh grade earth science, and eighth grade physical science. The Draw A Scientist Test (DAST) Checklist was employed to assess scientists’ images and the stereotypes therein. From nine textbooks, 435 images of scientists were coded and analyzed by publisher and grade level / area by DAST constructs of appearance, location, careers, and scientific activities. Statistical analyses showed significant variances between grade levels and textbook publishers of scientists. Despite scientists portrayed in active endeavors, traditional tropes of the scowling, older, solitary, white male scientist persist. This study offers insight in leveraging improved images of scientists in textbooks.</p>

scholarly journals Development and Validation of Computational Thinking Assessment of Chinese Elementary School Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 183449092110102
Author(s):  
Yan Li ◽  
Shan Xu ◽  
Jia Liu
Keyword(s):  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Test Reliability ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
School Students ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Key Aspects

Recent advances in artificial intelligence have brought attention to computational thinking (CT) in school education worldwide. However, little is known about the development of the literacy of CT in children, mainly because of the lack of proper psychometric assessments. We developed the first psychometrically validated assessment on the literacy of CT of children in Chinese elementary schools, coined as the Computational Thinking Assessment for Chinese Elementary Students (CTA-CES). Items were constructed to reflect key aspects of CT such as abstraction, algorithm thinking, decomposition, evaluation, and pattern recognition. To examine the test reliability and validity, we recruited two samples of 280 third- to sixth-grade students in total. Cronbach’s alpha provided evidence for the reliability of the test scores, item response theory analyses demonstrated psychometric appropriateness, whereas construct validity was verified by convergent validity, and criterion-related validity was confirmed by correlations between the CTA-CES and measures related to CT, namely reasoning, spatial ability, and verbal ability. In addition, an fMRI study further demonstrated similar neural activation patterns when students conducted the CTA-CES and programming tasks. Taken together, the CTA-CES is the first reliable and valid instrument for measuring the literacy of CT for Chinese children, and may be applicable to children worldwide.

scholarly journals Language Learning Strategy Use and English Proficiency of Iraqi Upper Secondary School Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Qusay Mahdi Mutar
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Language Learning Strategies ◽  
School Students ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Learning Strategy Use

To learn English language, there are some language-learning strategies, which learners need to be familiar with. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the language learning strategies used among Iraqi sixth-grade preparatory students, and how could gender and proficiency level effect on using language-learning strategies. To analyze the collected data, SPSS software version 20 included Independent sample T-Test Besides, one-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD have been used. A total of 210 sixth-grade preparatory students were chosen randomly from four-different secondary schools for the academic year 2016-2017 at al-Karkh side of Baghdad city. The study sample consisted of (105 females and 105 males). The findings revealed that EFL learners have shown medium use of language learning strategies, besides, no statistically significant differences between male and female students in the frequency of using LLSs. the findings also showed Cognitive and memory strategies were the most frequent used categories comparing to the compensation strategies that scored the least frequent category. As for language proficiency, the result showed that students with high proficiency used all six categories of learning strategies more than medium and low-proficiency students.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document