Journal Articles

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Browsing Journal Articles by Author "Herbert, Susan M."

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    The challenges of designing and implementing a cross-cultural unit of work
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2006) Herbert, Susan M.
    This paper reports on the challenges experienced during an action research project in Trinidad and Tobago, in which a cross-cultural unit of work entitled "Maintaining Health" was designed and enacted. The intention was to improve teacher practice and facilitate students' access to conventional science concepts by having them build bridges between their traditional knowledge about health-related matters and conventional science concepts. The first action research cycle--plan, act and observe, reflect--was conducted with a group of Form 2 students (12-15 years) at an urban single-sex (female) secondary school. Reflections from this phase were recorded in a journal and the data from the classroom enactment were audio-taped and transcribed. These data were analysed quantitatively into themes by use of grounded theory methodology. Among the challenges that emerged were "resistance and doubt," "level of teacher control," and "communicative competence: the language of bridge building." Based on these findings, a second action research cycle was enacted with another group of Form 2 students at a rural co-educational secondary school. The results revealed evidence of the three themes as well as an overall improvement in the teacher-researcher's use of the language of bridge-building. This suggested that change occurs over time and is facilitated by the process of reflection on evidence gathered systematically.
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    Collateral learning in science: Students' responses to a cross-cultural unit of work
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2008) Herbert, Susan M.
    This study sought to investigate the nature of students' responses to a cross-cultural science unit entitled "Maintaining health." The unit was designed to help students to build bridges between their traditional practices and beliefs and western science concepts. This paper reports students' responses to a pre-test and post-test, and their reflections on their learning. The responses were analysed using the collateral learning model. there was evidence of parallel, dependent, and secured collateral learning. The implications for science teaching and for assessing science learning are discussed
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    Lessons from assessment: Experiences of a cross-cultural unit of work in science
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2004) Herbert, Susan M.
    This study sought to investigate the responses of students in Trinidad and Tobago to a summative assessment of a cross-cultural unit of work. The unit was designed to help students learn Western science by building bridges between their traditional practices and beliefs in health-related matters and conventional science concepts. Students' responses to a summative test were analysed qualitatively by a process of coding and categorizing. The results indicated that: 1) students did not necessarily show that they had learned conventional science when personalized tasks were associated with contextualized stimuli, and 2) students' responses provided evidence of parallel collateral learning. These findings were deliberately explored during a second research cycle, and the initial findings were corroborated. In addition, examples of dependent and secured collateral learning emerged