American Educational Research Journal  51 卷6期文章

1. Dewey’s “Science as Method” a Century Later: Reviving Science Education for Civic Ends

Author: John L. Rudolph

Source: American Educational Research Journal 51.6 (December 2014): 1056-1083.

Abstract:Over a hundred years ago, John Dewey delivered his now-well-known address “Science as Subject-Matter and as Method” to those assembled at the Boston meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in which he lamented the nearly exclusive focus on content knowledge in early-20th-century school science classrooms. This article revisits Dewey’s talk and examines the development of science education in the United States in the years since that address. Dewey’s critique of science education in 1909 provides fertile ground for a renewed critique of science education practices today. It is argued that there is, specifically, a need to recover the rapidly fading civic aims of science teaching, which requires greater attention to the methods of science—the idea Dewey highlighted so strongly back then.

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2. Missing the (Student Achievement) Forest for All the (Political) Trees:Empiricism and the Mexican American Studies Controversy in Tucson

Author: Nolan L. Cabrera, Jeffrey F. Milem, Ozan Jaquette, and Ronald W. Marx

Source: American Educational Research Journal 51.6 (December 2014): 1084-1118.

Abstract:The Arizona legislature passed HB 2281, which eliminated Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD’s) Mexican American Studies (MAS) program, arguing the curriculum was too political. This program has been at the center of contentious debates, but a central question has not been thoroughly examined: Do the classes raise student achievement? The current analyses use administrative data from TUSD (2008–2011), running logistic regression models to assess the relationship between taking MAS classes and passing AIMS (Arizona state standardized tests) and high school graduation. Results indicate that MAS participation was significantly related to an increased likelihood of both outcomes occurring. The authors discuss these results in terms of educational policy and critical pedagogy as well as the role academics can play in policy formation.

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3. The Gerrymandering of School Attendance Zones and the Segregation of Public Schools: A Geospatial Analysis

Author: Meredith P. Richards

Source: American Educational Research Journal 51.6 (December 2014): 1119-1157.

Abstract:In this study, I employ geospatial techniques to assess the impact of school attendance zone “gerrymandering” on the racial/ethnic segregation of schools, using a large national sample of 15,290 attendance zones in 663 districts. I estimate the effect of gerrymandering on school diversity and school district segregation by comparing the racial/ethnic characteristics of existing attendance zones to those of counterfactual zones expected in the absence of gerrymandering. Results indicate that the gerrymandering of attendance zones generally exacerbates segregation, although it has a weaker effect on the segregation of Whites from Blacks and Hispanics. Gerrymandering is particularly segregative in districts experiencing rapid racial/ethnic change. However, gerrymandering is associated with reductions in segregation in a substantial minority of districts, notably those under desegregation orders.

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4. Effects of Academic Vocabulary Instruction for Linguistically Diverse Adolescents: Evidence From a Randomized Field Trial

Author: Nonie K. Lesaux, Michael J. Kieffer, Joan G. Kelley, and Julie Russ Harris

Source: American Educational Research Journal 51.6 (December 2014): 1159-1194.

Abstract:The Arizona legislature passed HB 2281, which eliminated Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD’s) Mexican American Studies (MAS) program, arguing the curriculum was too political. This program has been at the center of contentious debates, but a central question has not been thoroughly examined: Do the classes raise student achievement? The current analyses use administrative data from TUSD (2008–2011), running logistic regression models to assess the relationship between taking MAS classes and passing AIMS (Arizona state standardized tests) and high school graduation. Results indicate that MAS participation was significantly related to an increased likelihood of both outcomes occurring. The authors discuss these results in terms of educational policy and critical pedagogy as well as the role academics can play in policy formation.

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5. Enhancing Students’ Engagement: Report of a 3-Year Intervention With Middle School Teachers

Author: Julianne C. Turner, Andrea Christensen, Hayal Z. Kackar-Cam, Meg Trucano, and Sara M. Fulmer

Source: American Educational Research Journal 51.6 (December 2014): 1195-1226.

Abstract:All teachers (N = 32) at one middle school participated in a university-led intervention to improve student engagement. Teachers discussed four principles of motivation and related instructional strategies. Teachers enacted instructional strategies in their classrooms. We observed six randomly selected teachers and their students over 3 years. Analyses of the dynamic patterns of teacher-student interaction (using an application of state space grids) revealed two distinct patterns. The upward group (n = 3) showed an increase of teacher motivational support and student engagement. The stable group (n = 3) demonstrated low levels of both teacher motivational support and student engagement. Qualitative analyses of instructional differences between the two groups help explain student engagement. Implications include conceptualizing student engagement as interpersonal classroom activity and measuring change as developmental and dynamic phenomena.

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6. Toward More Joyful Learning: Integrating Play Into Frameworks of Middle Grades Teaching

Author: Hilary G. Conklin

Source: American Educational Research Journal 51.6 (December 2014): 1227-1255.

Abstract:Recent efforts to define qualities of effective teaching practice have done little to capture the role of play, imagination, and creativity in classroom teaching. Drawing on theories of play and data from a two-year case study that included classroom observations, interviews, artifact collection, and surveys, the author examines the ways in which elements of play were present across the practice of eight novice middle grades teachers. Building on examples of play in these classrooms, the author proposes adding the dimension of play to frameworks of middle grades teaching—a dimension that encompasses young adolescents’ engagement in classroom work that involves choice and self-direction, imaginative creations, and a nonstressed state of interest and joy.