Rachel Sheffield

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Re-Searching the Conditions for Curriculum Integration in the Middle Years of Schooling

In Australia, and internationally, integration is a widely promoted middle school curriculum reform strategy. Integration is claimed to engage students by providing opportunities to work on a few cross-disciplinary objectives, to apply knowledge across the subject boundaries and to work on tasks with meaning and relevance. While these curriculum goals enjoy a certain popularity among middle school reformers and curriculum integration adherents, in practice, the prevalence of integration is patchy and provisional. In this article, we (re) examine two of our studies of middle school integration over the past decade to explore the reasons for this apparent disparity between the rhetoric and the reality. In our re-search for integration, we look back at our data to identify enabling and inhibiting conditions for curriculum reform and develop a list of key program characteristics. Finally, we look forward, drawing on the notion of institutional resilience to speculate on the reasons why some middle school programs seem to flourish while others wither.

Teacher education students using TPACK in science: a case study

Teacher education is in the grip of change. Due to the new Australian Curriculum, no longer is it possible to plan and implement lessons without considering the inclusion of Information and Communication Technologies. Simply knowing about the latest technology gadgets is not enough. Information literacy is essential in today’s information-rich learning and working environment. Students and teachers must be able to engage with diverse learning technologies efficiently and effectively in the search for the “right information” at the “right time” for the “right purpose”. Key information literacy and inquiry skills have been recognised as vital learning goals by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority and the International Society for Technology in Education and are thus critical in science teacher education. This paper examines the overlap of technology, pedagogy and science content in the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework and its affordances for science educators, at the intersection between technology knowledge, science pedagogy (information literacy and inquiry) and science content knowledge. Following an introduction of the TPACK framework for science education, the paper reports the research findings, which illustrate that 90% of pre-service teachers thought the experimental unit improved their understanding of the inquiry process, 88% reported more confidence in their understanding of science concepts and 94% of students reported an increase in their knowledge and confidence of Web 2.0 tools in supporting scientific inquiry in science. The implications of this study are that the online inquiry improved students’ knowledge and confidence in the skills and processes associated with inquiry and in science concepts.

Makerspace in STEM for Girls: A Physical Space to Develop Twenty-First-Century Skills.

Abstract Makerspace has been lauded as a new way forward to create communities, empower students and bring together enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels “to tinker” and create. Makerspace education has been touted as having the potential to empower young people to become agents of change in their communities. This paper examines how a Makerspace approach can capture the imagination and creativity of female primary school students, and engage them in integrated STEM-based projects. The study scaffolded female tertiary undergraduate students to mentor small groups of girls to complete a project in a STEM Makerspace situated in classrooms. The data generated and analysed from this study were used to determine how Makerspace STEM-based projects were enacted, how they engaged and supported the girls’ learning, and considers the future of a Makerspace approach as a way to progress integrated STEM education.