Stephen Ritchie

For far too long, the study of learning in school classrooms was undertaken as if this could be achieved independently of learner emotions and contexts. A research focus on the role of learner emotions in school contexts was overdue. More importantly, the confluence of cognition and emotion, as observed in events that punctuated classroom structures dramatically, necessitated theorization of events. Applying what philosophers, sociologists and historians have learned about major historical events, my colleagues and I began a program of research to investigate classroom events as the unit for analysis. Emotional energy of the classrooms and discrete emotions of individuals were outcomes of salient learning events studied. We learned that eventful learning occurs dramatically for all to see, and un-dramatically over time and in ways less visible to other classroom participants. Eventful learning then involves both cognition and emotion and, as the cases reported in this book show, in classroom activities designed to engage learners emotionally.

Learning science can be an emotional experience. Recent research reveals that middle-years students experience negative emotions such as frustration and anxiety while learning science. Strategies to help students manage their emotions in science classes are emerging, but require further investigations to ascertain their effectiveness. In this study, an intervention, which adopted short deep breathing exercises to help students manage their emotions was trialled in a Year 10 science class. The aim of the study was to determine students’ emotional responses as well as the practicalities for implementing such an intervention. We conducted research using an ethnographic case study method where the teacher implemented short episodes of deep breathing exercises with students during each science lesson for seven weeks. Salient themes emerged from the analysis of video and audio files, field notes, students’ emotion diaries, 19 individual student interviews, and two teacher interviews. We present one main finding in this chapter; that is, students who experienced the negative emotions of frustration/anxiety reported that the breathing exercises changed their emotions. On the basis of this finding we suggest that teachers could use deep breathing exercises to help students experiencing negative emotions in class to ameliorate their emotions.

Innovations are usually attributed to ideas generated in the minds of individuals. As we reflect upon the evolving design of an online project to engage students in learning science through hybridized writing activities we propose a more distributed view of the process of innovative design. That is, our experience suggests ideas are generated in the activity of interacting with human and material resources that expand and constrain possibilities. This project is innovative in that it is a new educational response to the problem of disengagement of students in science, and has proven to be effective in changing classroom practice and improving students’ scientific literacy. In this chapter, we identify the antecedents and trace the evolution of the project. This account illuminates the innovative design process, presents a summary of the evidence for the effectiveness of the project, and identifies future directions for further development and research. Keywords: Science learning, hybridized writing, case study, innovative approach

Disengagement of students in science and the scientific literacy of young adults are interrelated international concerns. One way to address these concerns is to engage students imaginatively in activities designed to improve their scientific literacy. Our ongoing program of research has focused on the effects of a sequence of activities that require students to transform scientific information on important issues for their communities from government websites into narrative text suitable for a lay reader. These hybridized stories we call BioStories. Students upload their stories for peer review to a dedicated website. Peer reviews are intended to help students refine their stories. Reviewing BioStories also gives students access to a wider range of scientific topics and writing styles. We have conducted separate studies with students from Grade 6, Grade 9 and Grade 12, involving case study and quasi-experimental designs. The results from the 6th grade study support the argument that writing the sequence of stories helped the students become more familiar with the scientific issue, develop a deeper understanding of related biological concepts, and improve their interest in science. Unlike the Grade 6 study, it was not possible to include a control group for the study conducted across eight 9th grade classes. Nevertheless, these results suggest that hybridized writing developed more positive attitudes toward science and science learning, particularly in terms of the students’ interest and enjoyment. In the most recent case study with Grade 12 students, we found that pride, strength, determination, interest and alertness were among the positive emotions most strongly elicited by the writing project. Furthermore, the students expressed enhanced feelings of self-efficacy in successfully writing hybridized scientific narratives in science. In this chapter, we describe the pedagogy of hybridized writing in science, overview the evidence to support this approach, and identify future developments.

Curriculum developers and researchers have promoted context-based programmes to arrest waning student interest and participation in the enabling sciences at high school and university. Context-based programmes aim for connections between scientific discourse and real-world contexts to elevate curricular relevance without diminishing conceptual understanding. Literature relating to context-based approaches to learning will be reviewed in this chapter. In particular, international trends in curricular development and results from evaluations of major projects (e.g. PLON, Salters Advanced Chemistry, ChemCom) will be highlighted. Research projects that explore context-based interventions focusing on such outcomes as student interest, perceived relevance and conceptual understanding also will feature in the review. The chapter culminates with a discussion of current context-based research that interprets classroom actions from a dialectical socio-cultural framework, and identifies possible new directions for research.

Individual science teachers who have inspired colleagues to transform their classroom praxis have been labelled transformational leaders. As the notion of distributed leadership became more accepted in the educational literature, the focus on the individual teacher-leader shifted to the study of leadership praxis both by individuals (whoever they might be) and by collectives within schools and science classrooms. This review traces the trajectory of leadership research, in the context of learning and teaching science, from an individual focus to a dialectical relationship between individual and collective praxis. The implications of applying an individual-collective perspective to praxis for teachers, students and their designated leaders are discussed.

For almost four decades, attempts to enhance parental engagement in education have occupied governments, educators, and parent organizations globally (Desforges and Abouchaar 2003). Driving this trend has been the weight of research evidence that indicates a positive correlation between parental involvement in students’ learning and academic performance and school success (e.g., Henderson et al. 2007). In addition, a high level of parent and community involvement has been found to characterize very effective or “good” schools: ones that achieve high standards irrespective of students’ socio-economic class, ethnic/racial background, or their parents’ level of education (Masters 2004)..

In this chapter we review studies of the engagement of students in design projects that emphasise integration of technology practice and the enabling sciences, which include physics and mathematics. We give special attention to affective and conceptual outcomes from innovative interventions of design projects. This is important work because of growing international concern that demand for professionals with technological expertise is increasing rapidly, while the supply of students willing to undertake the rigors of study in the enabling sciences is proportionally reducing (e.g., Barringtion, 2006; Hannover & Kessels, 2004; Yurtseven, 2002). The net effect is that the shortage in qualified workers is having a detrimental effect upon economic and social potential in Westernised countries (e.g., Department of Education, Science and Training [DEST], 2003; National Numeracy Review Panel and National Numeracy Review Secretarial, 2007; Yurtseven, 2002). Interestingly, this trend is reversed in developing economies including China and India (Anderson & Gilbride, 2003).