Pre-service teachers' use of epistemic criteria in the assessment of scientific procedures for identifying microplastics in beach sand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Crujeiras-Pérez ◽  
Pablo Brocos
Keyword(s):  
Small Groups ◽  
Environmental Chemistry ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Primary Teachers ◽  
Beach Sand ◽  
Scientific Quality ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Epistemic Criteria

This study addresses the use of epistemic criteria related to the scientific practice of inquiry in the context of environmental chemistry. In particular, it analyses the type of criteria that are used by pre-service teachers when assessing the adequacy of several scientific procedures for identifying microplastics in beach sand, as well as determining the ways in which these participants make use of said criteria. The participants were 22 pre-service primary teachers who were divided into small groups of 3–4 participants who were given the task of assessing the scientific quality of three different procedures before selecting which they considered to be the best option. The data collected includes audio recordings of the participants' small group conversations and their written comments. The data analysis is framed in qualitative content analysis, in which the participants' conversations were transcribed and coded using the ATLAS.ti software. The coding frameworks that were used to address each research question were developed by taking into consideration both the literature and the collected data. The main results indicate different patterns in terms of the types of criteria that were used in the participants' assessments, as well as the different uses of criteria within each of the small groups. These results could have been influenced by the participant's limited knowledge of both scientific inquiry and chemistry.

Challenges of being new to Canada: considerations for physical activity

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberley D. Curtin ◽  
Christina C. Loitz ◽  
Nancy Spencer-Cavaliere ◽  
Ernest Nene Khalema
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Physically Active ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Multicultural Health

Immigrants to Canada are less likely to be physically active compared with non-immigrants, and the interrelations between personal and environmental factors that influence physical activity for immigrants are largely unexplored. The goal of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand how the experience of being new to Canada impacts opportunities and participation in physical activity. Two focus group interviews with immigrants to Canada were conducted. The first group ( n=7) included multicultural health brokers. The second group ( n=14) included English as a second language students. Qualitative content analysis was used to determine three themes consistent with the research question: transition to Canadian life, commitments and priorities, and accessibility. Discussion was framed using a social ecological model. Implications for practice and policy are suggested including enhanced community engagement, and organizational modifications. Overall, the development and implementation of physical activity policies and practices for newcomers to Canada should be centered on newcomers’ perspectives and experiences.

scholarly journals Teachers Knowledge Of Inclusive Lower Primary Education In Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area Of Lagos State, Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-126
Author(s):  
Temitope Funminiyi Egbedeyi
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Primary Teachers ◽  
Average Percentage ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Level Of Significance ◽  
Descriptive Survey

Teachers play significant role in the process of implementing inclusive lower primary education, but it is important to note that inclusive education is yet to be fully implemented in Nigeria despite the numerous benefits associated to it. As one of the major implementers of inclusive lower primary, it is imperative to study teachers’ knowledge of inclusive lower primary education in Ifako-Ijaiye, as to provide empirical evidence. Descriptive survey research design was adopted with thirty five (35) teachers who were sampled using simple random. A self-designed research instrument titled Teachers Knowledge of Inclusive Education Questionnaire (α = 0.92) was used to collect data. One research question was answered and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Teachers have average knowledge of inclusive lower primary education (Average Percentage = 53.6). Regular and special teachers have no significant difference on knowledge of inclusive education (t = 0.50; df = 33; p0.05). Based on the findings, it was recommended that Nigerian Government, concerned Non-Governmental Organizations and Scholars should ensure that regular trainings are organized for lower primary teachers in order to update their knowledge about inclusive education

Painting and Podcasting as Play: Assemblages (With)in Classroom-Situated Multimodal Design

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Julie Rust
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
After School ◽  
Multimodal Composition ◽  
Digital Products ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
8Th Grade ◽  
Vantage Points ◽  
Community Spaces

Background Researchers interested in more playful literacy practices often abandon school-related contexts to instead follow young people to after-school settings, community spaces, social spaces, home environments, and online hangouts. However, play also makes itself visible, even (and sometimes especially) in more formalized learning spaces. Sometimes it emerges subversively in much the same way that flowers grow through cracks in concrete. Other times, teachers deliberately carve out experiences for students to make space for humor, creativity, laughter, and social imagining. Purpose/Objective/Research Question This inquiry examines two questions: What assemblages of play emerge when youth engage in multimodal composition in classroom spaces? What did these assemblages of play produce? Participants Participants included youth and teachers from two very different classrooms engaging in a diverse set of multimodal composition projects: one 6th-grade class in an independent school engaging in the creation of podcasts, and one 8th-grade class in a rural public school painting a scene from a recently read novel. Research Design This inquiry was designed as a qualitative case study. Data Collection Data sources gathered for this project included descriptive fieldnotes taken during approximately 3 hours of classroom observation during multimodal design, audio recordings during class sessions, photographs taken at the school sites, digital products produced by youth, reflective interviews with teachers, follow-up focus groups with 6th-graders, and reflective surveys filled out by all 8th-grade participants. Findings Two focal assemblages emerged from various participant/researcher vantage points. Youth conceptualized play as craft, and the researcher observed work-play flows. Conclusions Recommendations include (a) better recognizing play across age groups and places/spaces, (b) conceptualizing play as a complicated assemblage of materials, humans, emotions, technologies, and space-times, and (c) embracing work-play flows.

Challenging Malawian primary teachers' views on mathematics teaching and learning through lesson study

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janne Fauskanger ◽  
Nina Helgevold ◽  
Mercy Kazima ◽  
Arne Jakobsen
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Primary Teachers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mathematics Teaching And Learning ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Ongoing Project

PurposeThe aim of the study is to better understand how lesson study (LS) contributes to challenging teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning.Design/methodology/approachThis study is part of a wider ongoing project aiming at improving primary mathematics teaching in Malawi through professional development (PD) of teachers using a LS model. The units being analyzed are teachers' written reflections and lesson plans. The analytical approach is qualitative content analysis.FindingsInitially, the participating Malawian primary teachers report traditional views of mathematics teaching and learning. After having participated in a LS cycle, they reported on the need to work on how to involve and create space for learners' participation in mathematic lessons and highlight the importance for learners to discover mathematics on their own.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a small-scale study due to LS being quite new in the Malawian context and the need to test before possible upscaling.Practical implicationsThe paper includes a description on how LS might contribute to challenging Malawian teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning; this can be valuable information for others who are attempting to use LS in a similar context.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to learn more about how LS might contribute to challenging teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning worldwide.

Strange Frame Fellows: The Evolution of Discursive Framing in the Opt-Out Testing Movement

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Paquin Morel
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Open Coding ◽  
Over Time

Background/context In recent years, opposition to accountability policies and associated testing has manifested in widespread boycotts of annual tests—mobilized as the “opt-out movement.” A central challenge facing any movement is the need to recruit and mobilize participants. Key to this process is framing—a discursive tactic in which activists present social issues as problems that require collective action to solve. Such framing often relies on compatible political and ideological commitments among activists and potential recruits. Yet the opt-out movement has successfully mobilized widespread boycotts in diverse communities. How have participants in the movement framed issues relating to testing and accountability? Purpose/objective/research question/focus of study I explore the discursive tactics of participants in the opt-out movement by analyzing how they frame issues related to testing and accountability over time. I ask two research questions: (1) What frames did participants in opt-out-aligned social media groups use to convince others that standardized accountability tests are a problem and build support for the movement? (2) To what extent and how did the deployment of frames change over time? Research design I conducted a mixed-methods study combining qualitative content analysis to identify frames and computational analysis to describe their co-deployment over time. Data collection and analysis I compiled a text corpus of posts to opt-out-aligned social media pages from 2010–2014. I analyzed posts using open coding to identify frames used by participants in online communities. Frames were categorized by their orientation—the general way in which they framed the problem of testing and accountability. I then analyzed the co-deployment of frames using network analysis and hierarchical clustering. Conclusions/recommendations The longitudinal analysis of frames reveals key differences in the frames used by participants. While more politically oriented frames—those characterizing testing as a social issue affecting the public schools at large—were common in early stages of the movement, less overtly political frames—those characterizing testing as an individual issue affecting children and local schools or a technical issue—became more prominent over time. Over time, socially oriented frames became decoupled from other frames, showing independent patterns of deployment. This suggests that the movement may have benefited from de-emphasizing politically oriented frames, but that it lacked an overarching shared narrative, which has the potential to limit how it might affect accountability policies and testing.

scholarly journals In my remembered country: what poetry tells us about the changing perceptions of volcanoes between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-87
Author(s):  
Arianna Soldati ◽  
Sam Illingworth
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Negative Events ◽  
Culturally Appropriate ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract. In this study we investigate what poetry written about volcanoes from the 1800s to the present day reveals about the relationship between volcanoes and the societies and times represented by poets who wrote about them, including how it evolved over that time frame. In order to address this research question, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of a selection of 34 English-language poems written about human–volcano interactions. Firstly, we identified the overall connotation of each poem. Then, we recognised specific emerging themes and grouped them in categories. Additionally, we performed a quantitative analysis of the frequency with which each category occurs throughout the decades of the dataset. This analysis reveals that a spiritual element is often present in poetry about volcanoes, transcending both the creative and destructive power that they exert. Furthermore, the human–volcano relationship is especially centred around the sense of identity that volcanoes provide to humans, which may follow from both positive and negative events. These results highlight the suitability of poetry as a means to explore the human perception of geologic phenomena. Additionally, our findings may be relevant to the definition of culturally appropriate communication strategies with communities living near active volcanoes.

scholarly journals „Tu dokonało się zwycięstwo nad potężnym, zwartym łańcuchem Alp”. Semmering w przewodnikach między 1852 a 1873 rokiem

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 110-120
Author(s):  
Roland Tusch
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Construction Work ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Different Levels

With the Railway Age, the perception of the landscape has changed. In Austria, the world’s first high mountain railway was built in the middle of the 19th century. It crosses the Alps at one of their eastern foothills, the Semmering. The central subject of this study is the landscape that was completely transformed by the construction of the Semmering Railway between 1852 and 1873. How was the Semmering perceived before it was discovered by the Viennese society as a region of summer resort? How were the massive changes in the Alpine landscape caused by the construction of the railway portrayed in the medium of contemporary travel guides?The sources investigated cover the period from the construction of the Semmering Railway to the discovery of the region as a summer resort. Starting with the first travel guides to the construction site and ending with the travel guides to the completed railway, seven main sources were analysed. As a starting point for the qualitative content analysis, a system of categories was developed as a search grid to filter the relevant aspects for answering the research question. The analysis follows the process of coding, paraphrasing and generalizing, and clearly reveals different levels of perception. The landscape in which the railway was built was described in extremely positive, poetic formulations. The negatively judging descriptions are particularly remarkable in the context of the travel guides, as they can be read as a critical reflection of the changed situation. Instead of regretting the destruction of nature, the victory of man or technology over nature was celebrated. From the comparison of the travel guides to the construction site and those to the completed railway, the progress of the construction work is clearly readable. The magnificence of the construction project was beyond question from the very beginning. The travel guides allow one to comprehend this, at the time rather young, transformation of the landscape; they open up a differentiated view of the landscape. 

scholarly journals Health vs. hedonism: public communication of nutrition science

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (03) ◽  
pp. C03
Author(s):  
Catherine Lockley
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Scientific Language ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Personal Impact ◽  
Nutrition Science ◽  
Dining Room ◽  
Nutrition Communication

Do differences in narrative approach; hedonic language vs. scientific language, influence public perception and opinion of Nutrition and food consumption? Our study investigated this question using qualitative research via Focus Group (FG). The stimulus films and subsequent meals exemplified hedonic language and biomedical language respectively. The FG was chosen to elucidate alternative narrative tools for further research and public health communication. Five sessions were held over 4 weeks with 8–10 non-repeating participants at each session. Film clips were viewed in a dining room environment and food served in buffet style after viewing. 47 people participated in the focus groups (15 males, and 32 females [ages 18–78]). Recruitment was by social media, local news outlets, word of mouth, and printed material and followed up via email. Study eligibility included self-identifying as primary food provider/cook, being over eighteen years old, and providing informed consent. Qualitative content analysis and grounded theory was used for coding and analysis. Interpretive reading of the transcript identified manifest and latent content before a coding frame was arrived at based on the frequency of relevant categories. Cross-coding was undertaken and patterns identified according to our primary research question. Communication disparities suggested by previous research were confirmed in our findings with participants emphasizing that the personal impact of hedonic and psychosocial narrative on their personal food experience held greater weight than the ‘health’ narrative alone. We conclude that scientific nutrition communication paradigms are less effective than emotional narrative that engages passion, memory and deep feeling. The findings support a move towards nutrition communication strategies that incorporate wider human emotional experience through gastronomic narratives.

scholarly journals Facets of primary and secondary school students' wellbeing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis of Austrian and Italian educational policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-162
Author(s):  
Denis Francesconi ◽  
Barbara Gross ◽  
Evi Agostini
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
School Systems ◽  
School Students ◽  
Educational Structures

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the limits of current social and educational structures. In most countries, COVID-19 has compromised the wellbeing of students, but also of their families and teachers. During the first wave of the pandemic, school systems all over the world had to respond quickly and appropriately to the systemic shock it represented, and countries put a variety of different policy measures in place to tackle its extensive impact. The theoretical framework adopted in this paper is a critical perspective and the policy framework is the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); it provides a qualitative analysis of selected educational policies deployed by Italy and Austria to support the wellbeing of school pupils. The two countries deployed different education governance and emergency management strategies, in particular during the first wave of the pandemic. We applied our theoretical and policy frameworks to qualitative content analysis of educational policy documents from February to the end of August 2020, aiming to evaluate the responses to crisis of different education systems and potentially to support their improvement. The overall research question was: How did educational policies in Italy and Austria support students' wellbeing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic? The results confirm that the Italian and Austrian systems had different strategies to support wellbeing and put different initiatives in place. However, educational policies in both countries, and especially Italy, had a stronger focus on the physical wellbeing of individual students during the period under study, and tended to neglect social wellbeing. The paper concludes by reflecting on the opportunities presented by this emergency for school systems to position wellbeing (in the broader sense of eudaimonic wellbeing) at the centre of educational policy

scholarly journals CONCEPTUAL DIFFICULTIES PRE-SERVICE PRIMARY TEACHERS HAVE WITH STATIC ELECTRICITY

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-313
Author(s):  
Constantina G. Stefanidou ◽  
Konstantina D. Tsalapati ◽  
Anastasia M. Ferentinou ◽  
Constantine D. Skordoulis
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Primary Teachers ◽  
Static Electricity ◽  
Considerable Difficulty ◽  
Content Analysis Method ◽  
Microscopic Models ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Conceptual Difficulties

Static electricity is the introductory chapter to electricity in all high school and university Physics textbooks. The interpretations of static electricity phenomena are not obvious, even in higher education. This research was conducted to identify the major difficulties which pre-service primary teachers encounter in explaining static electricity. They conducted electrostatic experiments focused on different types of electricity, in the context of an Introductory Physics Laboratory Course. The data were collected through the reports they wrote at the end of the course. The qualitative content analysis method was used in order to analyze the data. The sample, which was a convenient one, consisted of 200 pre-service primary teachers, 170 females and 30 males. The analysis showed that pre-service primary teachers have considerable difficulty conceptualizing the microscopic processes – more specifically, charging by induction – that explain these phenomena. The different roles electrons play in conductors and insulators seemed to pose difficulties for pre-service primary teachers. The findings implied an emphasis on microscopic models during macroscopic experimental processes. This could help pre-service primary teachers to understand the role of electrons in conductors and insulators and the different mechanisms involved in different types of charging. Keywords: conceptual difficulties, content analysis, static electricity.

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