The Importance and Significance of Teaching Scientific Practices in School - Research Paper Example

?Education Support for teaching of science practices in school Changing attitudes of educators and community leaders is a critical challenge. Educators and others can easily rationalize low student educational and career aspirations as the accepted norm in a rural culture that seldom rewards high academic achievement of graduates in the local and regional economy. Need for an educated workforce; however, is evolving as community leaders connect future educational demands of citizens with economic prosperity of the Ozark region. Once predominate agricultural and manufacturing economies are in decline, as communities strive to survive in a global economy. Decreasing populations and tax bases in rural areas reduce the fiscal resources available to the schools. One school district also faced enormous fiscal challenges when a tornado destroyed almost all buildings in the downtown area in 2003. In addition, high prices for gasoline and diesel fuel can devastate school district budgets where transporting students for long distances is the norm (DeYoung, 1991). Government- based support Currently, state finance of learning has attained erosion because of challenging economy. In response to the worsening world economy, state and learning policymakers have reacted to strict fiscal constraints by transforming a bigger share of the financial load from taxpayers to learner rather than by deep evaluation and decrease of costs and/or enhancing efficiency. As learning continues to develop and expand, several major elements of federal policies, regulations, and rules may need to be revisited in order to enable many to continue enrolling for distance education courses. Financing education is a broad and intricate issue. It is intricate in part of because of different basis of revenue, output, or products that are associated to these distinct sources of revenue. In addition, these expenditures and revenue pattern differ significantly by the kind of institution (four year college, university or two year college), means of governance (private or public), and the state (Pearl & Singh, 1999). In the private sector, the pattern of pricing, price discounting and expenditure levels vary significantly according to the wealth of the institution, demographics, and the affluence of the family of the applicant pool. In the public domain, these patterns also differ according to tuition laws, enrolment limits, and state funding levels that are determined by the government or public education governing body or board. The issue of financing education is large because capital underlies the themes of quality and efficiency. In terms of efficiency, there is need for cost effective association between revenues from taxpayers, parents and learner and products or outputs when measured in rates of graduation, student learning and enrolments (Hampel, 2010). Within the wide themes of higher finance underlies institutional and public policy questions that are creative or informed, if not tackled, by financial and economic perspectives. For instance, the familiar question regarding education finance concerns how much it can cost taxpayers and the relevant ratios of learners to administrative and professional staff at different types of institutions (Honderich, 1995). Learning is identified as the major driver of economic growth and as the main determinant of a person’s status and remuneration. Distance learning is essential in maintaining the growth of the economy in the rapidly increasing world economy. This is because it most high and well paying jobs and remuneration will depend on the level of education and in this case, a person with an advanced or higher degree is set to benefit more than a person with a college degree (Holmberg, 1995). Financing education in the twenty first century has a unique salience because of the 2008 financial crisis, which has caused serious economies to economies of countries in the world. However, in most countries, revenues remain strained. Since the current public universities and colleges budgets rely on the federal budget of 60% of instructional costs and the continued swing of costs from the state to students and parents, public institution are facing financial strains. As the financial fortunes of private universities and colleges differ significantly, relying on factors such as resilience of endowment, current giving, and the depth of applicant pools, would imply that many endowments would lose up to 40% value in the market (Johnstone, 1995). The existence of financial strains in both private and public institutions are forcing the government to employ deep cuts in budgets incorporating deferral of planned fund projects and their maintenance leading to compulsory furloughs, cuts of the entire program and reduction of salaries. It is hard to predict the longer range impact of this austerity particularly the extent to which it is an interim downturn from which most educational institutions will recover in few years or whether most educational institutions will have to change their instructional generation functions to implement or effect main and permanent raise or increases in productivity. It is rational to argue that the future of distance learning is entirely dependent on the issue of finance (Hall & Marsh, 2000). Financing education elicit the question of how the costs should be shared among students, parents, philanthropists, and taxpayers. Parents should pay for the distance education from savings, future income through increased indebtedness (home equity loans), and current income. However, increased finance of higher or distant education would replace a much extended program of need based scholarship or grants, which would decline or vanish as student or parental incomes increased. The scholarships would eliminate those learners whose income was seen as sufficient to fund or pay the entire tuition cost in addition to many other educational expenses. It is significant to note that the issue of high or distant education relies on the concept of quality and efficiency. The issue of efficiency starts with the principle of public capital theory, which contends that any public subsidy of service or good that customers would buy in the absence of diminution of the subsidy, is not effective to utilize the taxpayer money. The tax money released by the government, if tuitions or education of distant learners was permitted to increase would imply that it goes towards the needs of the public, which is of greater priority. Therefore, if the government financed distance education would imply that the government is willing and ready to support education of its citizens, which is key to the growth of the economy. There are certain policies of higher education that affects the state funding of distance education. For instance, the issue of 50% rule hinders finance to telecommunication and correspondence learners in certain situations. This rule involves learners who take or attend institutions that offer half or full of their course via telecommunication or correspondence. When institutions that offer distance education goes beyond fifty percent mark, their learner become unqualified to get finances from the government aid programs. As distance education continues to expand and grow, more learning institutions may lose their value or credibility. The bad news is that the learners who take their courses in these institutions may become unqualified and ineligible to receive funding from the government. Private = based support Students on their part are challenged to finance their higher education from summer earnings, tern time earnings, future earnings through loans and savings. Taxpayers at the state, local and federal level would finance higher education via taxes on property, goods, businesses, income, sales or via indirect tax of inflation caused by public shortage or deficit spending. Philanthropists would finance education via current giving and endowments. A number of law questions concerning financial assistance and tuitions are propagated by the cost sharing perspective of distance education finance. For instance, what is the maximum amount that should be expected to fund the costs of higher education? In addition, how long will it take a parent to continue financing higher education? Educational private support that might improve the success of performance of students and increase access to education is based on government funding. Federal funding of education concerns student or learner aid laws that perceive living expenditures distinctly for some distance education learners. For instance, learners staying off campus enrolled in physical classes they can at least get a yearly living allowance for board and room costs. Distance students enrolled in learning institutions in correspondence classes are not permitted similar allowance. This policy discriminates against distance learners (Gould & Lahiff, 2000). The rules concerning seat time has greatly affected the institutions that offer education. For instance, due to the fact that these institutions are not tied to lengths of the courses they offer such as quarters or semesters, they have shown hardship in analyzing and applying the seat time rules which are policies controlling how much time much be offered in order for participants to be eligible for federal finance. In order for educational institutions to get aid or funds from the government, they have to be accredited by the government. Such accreditation will ensure that these institutions are reliable authority concerning the efficiency and quality of education they offer. Accreditation analyses areas such as the length of the course, achievement of the students and the school curriculum (Gould & Lahiff, 2000). Collaboration between RET program and schools Collaboration between RET programs and schools is applicable when the curriculum is inclusive. In this sense, the criteria of assessment can be shown to students by letting them know in advance, the content of the assessment. This can give them time to prepare and thus help them in understanding and improving their scores. This can also be achieved by choosing effective assessment tools that are precise and that measure the actual content learned. The tools can be comprehensive and give students details of what is required from the assessment. Through such tools, teachers can practice multiple measures, which can help them have a better understanding of the students. For instance, when teaching functional skills mathematics within different pathways, GSE, and stage 3 students could earn marks equivalent to an additional half of a GSE each (Haas & Nachtigal, 1995). Synchronizing of RET programs with classroom curriculum Commitments of school district leadership and regional partners will be the key to continued success and long-term sustainability of the evolving learning community and new teaching practices (Holmberg, 1995). For example, NSF funds could not be used to purchase curriculum materials. Consequently, some districts found ways to leverage existing resources or involve local businesses and parent teacher organizations (PTOs) to buy necessary instructional materials. Others shared materials among districts (for example science kits). School and district leaders also gave teachers time to examine curricula, learn new teaching practices, and network with colleagues. Some districts raised graduation requirements in math and science or assigned math/science specialists at the elementary level. Support of lead teachers also helped districts build capacity for changing teacher practices in classrooms. Time issues and cultures in some districts and schools, however, such as one teacher being labeled an “expert,” created resentment that limited effectiveness of lead teachers. Trained lead teachers have been most successful in motivating other teachers to change practices through leadership by example. Persistent district and school leadership, along with external technical assistance support, appear essential for sustaining the new teaching practices (Hampel, 2010). Expansion in number of specialized science and math school School district leaders are revising improvement plans and budgets to support implementation of the new teaching practices. Serving as trainers and mentors, rangers help teachers and students had better connect classroom learning in science to real-life applications. A Discovery Center is under construction at the national park. It will provide exhibits and teaching aids to reinforce research based hands-on science curricula, thus providing valuable instructional resources for area teachers and others. Small rural schools like those in the Ozarks may not have access to big companies that can support teacher change, but many usually have access to national and state parks. References DeYoung, A. J., (Ed.). (1991). Rural Education: Issues and Practices. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. Gould, M & Lahiff, A. ( 2000). Equality, Participation & Inclusive Learning, London: Greenwich University Press. Hall, L & Marsh, K. (2000). Professionalism, Policies and Values. London: Greenwich University Press. Honderich, T, (1995). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Haas, T., & Nachtigal, P. (1998). Place value: An educator’s guide to good literature on rural life ways, environments, and purposes of education. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. Hampel, R. L (2010). "The Business of Education: Home Study at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin in the 1920s and 1930s," Teachers College Record, 112(9) pp 2496–2571. Johnstone, B. (1995). The productivity of learning. Journal for higher education management. 1 (1), pp.11-17. Holmberg, B (1995). Theory and practice of distance Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Walsh, T. (2011). Unlocking the Gates: How and Why Leading Universities Are Opening Up Access to their Courses. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pearl, M & Singh, P, (1999). Equal opportunities in the Classroom. Oxford: Oxford Brookes University. Read More