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Editorial Introduction, Gordon Wells
Editorial Introduction, Gordon Wells
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
This issue of Networks is the last in a year that has seen a tightening of constraints, both political and educational, in response to the increasing violence that has characterized relationships between nations, cultures, religions and economic classes. In education, in almost all the richer countries, there has been a tighter focus on "basic skills" and the memorization of an increasingly large body of "core knowledge", assessed through standardized tests, and a concomitant narrowing of the opportunities for student initiative, choice, and sustained investigation of questions and issues that they find personally significant. Teachers feel harried and hurried, with little …
Learning From Others: Literacy Perspectives Of Middle-School English Teachers, Cynthia A. Lassonde
Learning From Others: Literacy Perspectives Of Middle-School English Teachers, Cynthia A. Lassonde
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
At the center of this interview-based study, middle-school English teachers talk and write about their literacy development, their teaching philosophies, and their curriculum, as they reflect upon their teaching. Portraits of their perspectives of literacy emerge. Using these portraits to reflect upon teaching practices, the author suggests we can effectively examine our own educational philosophies, contributing to our efforts to become increasingly competent educators.
Preservice Elementary Teachers' Perceptions After Visiting An Interactive Science Center, David H. Palmer
Preservice Elementary Teachers' Perceptions After Visiting An Interactive Science Center, David H. Palmer
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
This paper reports an action research study involving preservice elementary teachers enrolled in a college science methods course (ie. the course focussed on how to teach science at elementary school). There was an interactive science center nearby which many local elementary classes regularly visited, so I decided to set my students the task of visiting the center and reporting on it. However, I was unsure as to what outcomes the students would gain from the experience. I therefore asked the students to each write a short passage explaining what they had learnt from the experience. According to their responses, the …
My Introspective Time Capsule, Michele Stafford-Levy
My Introspective Time Capsule, Michele Stafford-Levy
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
This study takes place in the southwestern part of the United States on the Mexican-American border and is a narrative about a teacher's journey of self-discovery about her own teaching practices through reflection. Dr. Myriam Torres (New Mexico State University) and Michele Stafford-Levy ventured into the typical professor-student relationship. The professor guided her graduate student through a journey of self-discovery and how to document the process of self-reflection and action in her own classroom. By sharing these events from her professional life through autobiography, the student strives to serve as a model for both pre-service and in-service teachers to reflect, …
"You Don't Need To Time It, You Just Need To See It": Racing In Children's Science, Richard Frazier
"You Don't Need To Time It, You Just Need To See It": Racing In Children's Science, Richard Frazier
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
The work I present here arose from a number of biases, several of which are described [in the introduction]. Prominent among the biases is extensive experience of teaching science with an averred emphasis on activity and inquiry. Along with the perspective of practitioner is the belief that children's ideas in science are worthy of scrutiny. Fascination with the research into children's conceptions and practices was tempered, however, by puzzlement over the actions teachers ought to take. Reflections on the gap between children's science and standard science came while straddling the gap between my perspective as a teacher of children and …
Turkish Student Teachers' Early Experiences In Schools: Critical Incidents, Reflection, And A New Teacher Education Program, Dannelle D. Stevens, Serap Sarigul, Hulya Deger
Turkish Student Teachers' Early Experiences In Schools: Critical Incidents, Reflection, And A New Teacher Education Program, Dannelle D. Stevens, Serap Sarigul, Hulya Deger
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
The primary purpose of this article is to report how Turkish student teachers identify and reflect on the "critical incidents" of schooling that they bring as they enter a new teacher education program. "Critical incidents" are descriptions of incidents in one's past that are viewed as significant in one's learning and development (see Brookfield, 1998; Obara, 1993). The secondary purpose of this article is to analyze these incidents to inform the first author's teaching and field supervision.
Action Research In International Educational Settings: Bridging The Gap At The American University Of Bulgaria, Mari Firkatian, Sandy Feinstein
Action Research In International Educational Settings: Bridging The Gap At The American University Of Bulgaria, Mari Firkatian, Sandy Feinstein
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
As articulated by Yolanda Wadsworth, our use of the word "research" would be a misnomer (Wadsworth, 1998). After all, this article does not even involve what might pass for qualitative research, nor is it intended to serve as an example of research. Rather, it describes an incipient phase of research: observation and description. We are sharing our hypothesis, though our fieldwork is not systematic; we are offering a retrospective, partly impressionistic glance at an experience in an attempt to prepare for future comparative research as well as the developing of pedagogies based on experience. While not adhering to a scientific …
Editorial Introduction, Gordon Wells
Editorial Introduction, Gordon Wells
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
This issue of Networks is particularly interesting for the wide variety of articles it includes. They range from a high school science teacher's report of the strategy she used to improve her students' reading comprehension and the statistically significant result of her intervention, through contributions co-authored by collaborating partners in different institutions, to a practitioner's "ruminations" that intermingle poetry and prose on the relationship between teaching and research . Together, they demonstrate the many ways in which practitioner inquiry can be approached as well as the variety of genres in which it can effectively be shared.
Using Concept Maps To Aid Reading Comprehension In A High School Biology Classroom, Cynthia H. Joseph
Using Concept Maps To Aid Reading Comprehension In A High School Biology Classroom, Cynthia H. Joseph
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
Teachers are always looking for innovative ways to help students improve their reading comprehension in subject matter materials. One popular method is the use of graphic organizers such as concept maps. This study examined the use of concept maps to aid reading comprehension of science articles by 10th grade students (n=49) in a Florida high school biology classroom. By comparing scores on reading comprehension tests for two articles, one read without concept mapping and one read while doing a concept map organizing key themes and ideas in the article, significant evidence for the effectiveness of concept mapping was found for …
A Teacher Educator's Action Research: Facilitating Preservice Teachers Becoming Writers And Writing Teachers, Merry Boggs
A Teacher Educator's Action Research: Facilitating Preservice Teachers Becoming Writers And Writing Teachers, Merry Boggs
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
Raising test score requirements will not improve writing skills of college students--it will only serve as a gatekeeper, excluding students who cannot write on demand from becoming teachers. My goal as a teacher educator is to find ways to facilitate preservice teachers becoming writers and teachers of writers---not to exclude them from the program. Dr. Glenn Blalock, a writing professor well versed in process writing, agreed that raising the bar on a writing test would not ensure our students improved writing skills, but asserted that providing meaningful writing activities might. I decided that I could create writers' groups with my …
Returning Education Research To Teachers: Education Research As Advocacy, Mark Girod, Michael Pardales, Gina Cervetti
Returning Education Research To Teachers: Education Research As Advocacy, Mark Girod, Michael Pardales, Gina Cervetti
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
This article represents the collaborative efforts of three teachers. Each of us is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at a Research I university, struggling with the pressures and stresses of balancing newfound researcher voices with our teacher voices. Although this is collaborative, it is written in the first person as our voices mingle a reflection of our experience. We hope other teachers will find our ideas compelling, resonant with their own, and feel moved to action in the style we suggest. Education research should be the domain of teachers and this is a call for teachers to take …
Increasing Sixth Grade Students' Engagement In Literacy Learning, Laura Jordan, Cher Hendricks
Increasing Sixth Grade Students' Engagement In Literacy Learning, Laura Jordan, Cher Hendricks
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
This study is the result of collaboration between a classroom teacher (Laura Jordan) and a university professor (Cher Hendricks). Laura, who completed the initial literature review and collected and analyzed data collected in the field, writes the study in first person. Cher provided assistance in developing the action plan, developing the literature review, and preparing the written study.
Pacing The Curriculum In The Context Of School Realities, Larry Giacomino, Michael Gose
Pacing The Curriculum In The Context Of School Realities, Larry Giacomino, Michael Gose
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
Our topic became: pacing the curriculum in the context of school realities. Our 'study' stemmed from our long conversations about teaching and our observations about the changes we had each made over the years to adjust to the ebb and flow of the school year. (We believe that this is "action research" because it has been all about "making changes and observing their effects"-- but it may be one of the longest running action-research studies in that it has taken us over thirty years to articulate our conclusions.) From those conversations we developed a prototype of factors, conditions, variables, that …