Research Highlights

Examining the Status of the Contemporary Field of Curriculum Studies

Professor Erik Malewski of Curriculum Studies recently published the Curriculum Studies Handbook: The Next Moment (2009) with Routledge, a collection of 48 essays on the state of the contemporary curriculum field. The idea for the collection originated with a February 2006 state-of-the-field conference held at Purdue University entitled, “Articulating the (Present) Next Moment in Curriculum Studies: The Post-Reconceptualization Generation(s)” (www.education.purdue.edu/thenextmoment). Just as the conference did, the collection focuses on inter/intragenerational conversations: curriculum scholars newer to the field (who authored chapters) are in dialogue senior scholars (who authored response essays). In this sense, the reader is offered a sense of both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the field, where the field has come from and where it is going, and therefore a sense of movement and direction. In his analysis of the collection, found in Chapter 1, Dr. Malewski found that Kuhnian theories of paradigm shifts on the way toward advancement did not apply to the field of curriculum studies. Instead he found that the contemporary field is marked more by proliferation and multiplicity than periods of crisis and normalcy. In the second part of Chapter 1, after exploring different conceptions of how to mark the boundaries of the field, Dr. Malewski offered seven through-lines or themes that characterize this “chaotic” collection: Flux and change, hybrid spaces, reading differently, divergent perspectives, different contexts, status questions, and unstudied histories. In closing Chapter 1, as well as in his part of a three part epilogue, Dr. Malewski draws on the work of Patti Lather and Gayatri Spivak to argue that curriculum studies will need new theoretic vocabularies and to attend to “not knowing as a way of knowing” in “next moments” in the field.

Citations: Malewski, E (Ed.). (2009). Curriculum studies handbook: The next moment. New York: Routledge.

Scaffolding STEM Learning with Technology

Professor Minchi Kim, assistant professor of educational technology, is leading a team of researchers that is exploring students’ problem solving supported by technology-enhanced scaffolds in science classrooms. The project, “Inquiry Supported Problem Solving with Technology-Enhanced Scaffolds: A Multiple Case Study Examining Student Use of Chemistry Simulations in Science Classes”, is supported by a Purdue Research Foundation Research Grant for 2008-09. Collaborating with CREATE lab (the Consortium for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technologies in Education) at New York University and City University of New York, Graduate Center, Professor Kim is working with science teachers in rural settings in Indiana to support middle and high students’ technology-enhanced learning in science classes.

Citation: Kim, M. C., Hannafin, M. J., & Bryan, L. A. (2007). Technology-enhanced inquiry tools in science education: An emerging pedagogical framework for classroom practice. Science Education, 91(6), 1010-1030.

Professor Phil Van Fossen and graduate student Robert Waterson recently replicated a 1999 survey study (VanFossen, 2001; VanFossen 2000) of classroom Internet use by social studies teachers (6-12) in Indiana. Results from the previous study indicated that few teachers were using this medium in meaningful ways, although most (80%) wished to be using it more often. Connectivity was not a factor in Internet use, but lack of particular types of training for Internet use was. To the majority of respondents, Internet use was little more than "glorified information gathering" (VanFossen 2000).

The current study used the same instrument to survey a representative random sample of secondary social studies teachers in Indiana in order to determine what, if any, changes had occurred in the intervening 5 years. The use of an online instrument may explain a slight increase in the response rate (n=236; 59% response rate) over the previous study (54.5% response rate). One difference in the current study was the creation of an Internet Use Scale (IUS) to determine both quantity and quality of classroom Internet use. Data indicated improvement across most barriers identified in the previous study. Classroom access to the Internet increased from 57.6% to 97.1%; 85% with "fast" Internet connections. Respondents also reported feeling much more comfortable with Internet browser software. They also reported significant increases in time spent on school and home computers and had fewer concerns about student use of the Internet. Respondents also reported access to other types of computer equipment (e.g., LCD projectors) not available during the previous study. In addition, respondents reported a significant increase in Internet training.

Despite all of these positive results, however, 70% of respondents reported they still wished to be using the Internet more often, implying a ?plateauing? of Internet use. The most common use of the Internet was "gather background information for the lessons I teach," followed by "gather media (e.g., music, maps, etc.) for lessons I teach." The IUS score was used to divide respondents into quartiles. The first quartile (labeled higher-order users) were compared to the last quartile (lower-order users). Significant differences were found for: hours of training, experience, number of fast-connection computers in their instructional lab, and access to LCD projectors. Several explanations are offered for these less than positive results, including research that suggests overcoming the previously perceived barriers (e.g., classroom access to the Internet) may only be a necessary, but not sufficient condition. For example, Ertmer's (2005) work implied that the pedagogical beliefs of the teacher were the single most important barrier to implementing technology in the classroom.

Citations: VanFossen, P.J. and Waterson, R. (in press). It is just easier to do what you did before?: An update on internet use in secondary social studies classrooms in Indiana. Theory and Research in Social Education.

VanFossen, P. J. (2001). Degree of Internet/WWW use--and barriers to use--among secondary social studies teachers. International Journal of Instructional Media, 28(1), 57-74.

VanFossen, P. J.(2000). An analysis of the use of the internet and world wide web by secondary social studies teachers in Indiana. International Journal of Social Education, 14(2), 87-109.

A team, led by Professor Maribeth Schmitt, Director of the Purdue Literacy Network Project, surveyed children in Indiana schools that had Reading Recovery programs in place for at least two years. The purpose of the study was to assess the long-term impact of the program, which helps low-achieving first-graders improve their reading skills to an average level of achievement or beyond. This study explored the literacy achievement of Indiana Reading Recovery participants whose lessons had been successfully discontinued during their first-grade year at points 1, 2, and 3 years beyond receiving the intervention, providing a picture in time for where the children are now. The participants included randomly selected children who had either successfully completed Reading Recovery or who had not participated in the intervention (i.e., cohort sample) from the three grade levels in 253 schools in Indiana.

The team found that on measures of oral text reading and standardized reading, the vast majority of students who had completed a Reading Recovery program did as well or better than their peers one, two, and three years after finishing the program. Reading Recovery children were performing roughly as well as or better than their cohort sample peers on the task of oral text reading. Reading Recovery children also performed within the calculated average bands of the cohort sample groups at each grade level on a standardized test of reading. In addition, the former Reading Recovery fourth graders achieved a normal curve distribution with a mean of the 45th percentile on the Indiana State Test of Education Progress (ISTEP), markedly higher than their first-grade 15-20% achievement range. 

Citation: Schmitt, M. C. & Gregory, A. E.  (2005).  The impact of an early literacy intervention: Where are the children now?  Literacy Teaching and Learning: An International Journal of Early Reading and Writing, 2005, 10(1), 1-20.

Professor Nadine Dolby in Curriculum Studies recently completed a multi-year research project of how undergraduate students reflect on studying abroad. The research has particularly focused on the changes students experience in their ideas of national identity. In the first phase of the study, conducted before the events of September 11, Dr. Dolby interviewed American students who studied abroad in Australia. She found that American students "encountered" their national identity for the first time while studying abroad. In a second part of this first phase of the study, she compared the study abroad experiences of American and Australian students, concluding that while American students are focused on issues of national identity, Australian students have a more global and "networked" outlook. In the second phase of the research, Dr. Dolby interviewed American undergraduates who studied abroad after September 11. In contrast to the earlier group, these American undergraduates were aware of their American identity before studying abroad, and did not "encounter" it in the same manner as those who studied abroad earlier. Instead, Drawing on Craig Calhoun's scholarship on national identity, Dr. Dolby argues that students negotiate a middle path between a "thin" (cosmopolitan) and a thick (ethnocentric) sense of national identity.

Citations: Dolby, N. (2008, accepted). Global citizenship and study abroad: A comparative study of American and Australian undergraduates abroad. Frontiers: The Journal of Study Abroad.

Dolby, N. (2007). Reflections on nation: American undergraduates and education abroad. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(2), 141-156.

Dolby, N. (2005). Globalization, identity, and nation: Australian and American undergraduates abroad. Australian Educational Researcher, 32(1), 101-118.  

Dolby, N. (2004). Encountering an American self: Study abroad and national identity. Comparative Education Review, 48(2), 150-173.