Students tend to have a poor understanding of the concept of gas pressure. Usually, gas pressure is taught in terms of the various formulaic gas laws. The development of the concept of gas pressure according to the early Greeks did not include the concept of a vacuum. It was not for another 2000 years that Torricelli proposed that a vacuum can…

In 1923, R.A. Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect. Recently, historical research had a focus on Millikan's publication practice, as well as on the role of his assistant, Harvey Fletcher. Several studies have raised doubts on whether Millikan can…

This paper reports on an action research project undertaken with the primary aim of investigating the extent to which situations that evoke a sense of wonder can promote scientific inquiry. Given the intense interest, curiosity, and wonder that some students had begun to develop after seeing the film "The Prestige", a science teacher used this…

High school physics curricula are designed to meet a number of goals, all of which compete for classroom and homework time. The process-oriented goals include the development of skills in problem solving, measurement, analyzing data, and research, particularly in this world of internet based, unfiltered information. Content goals, on the other…

We present a data-based perspective concerning recent (e.g., 2008) "Maclean's" magazine rankings of Canadian universities, including cluster analysis of the 2008 data. Canadian universities empirically resemble and relate to each other in a manner different from their formal classification and final rank ordering in the "Maclean's" system. Several…

Current teacher accountability initiatives such as those included in the "No Child Left Behind" legislation in the United States create particular difficulties that impact deleteriously on the performance of professional educators. The quality of public education is undermined when teachers are held accountable to an external authority rather than…

Regardless of the source of funding, university quality is based on knowledge, teaching, and research, and hence cannot be run like private enterprises as they are expert organisations that provide solely a public service. The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through the analysis of case studies, whether or not management theory,…

This study provides a critical and close reading of "The Dreamkeepers" (1994), by Gloria Ladson-Billings. The paper focuses primarily on the gendered nature of "being a teacher" and "being a student" as revealed in the dreamkeeper text, while maintaining its engagement with race and culture as it is manifested in the United States context. It…

The new Social Studies curriculum recently introduced in Alberta proposes to encourage students to affirm their place as citizens in a democratic society. Grounded in Biesta's (2007) argument that regardless of a Program of Studies' best stated goals and intentions, if a school is not structured democratically the chances of the program being…

This paper is grounded in a deep appreciation of Nel Noddings' "ethics of care" as an important contribution to moral philosophy and moral education. We seek to offer some philosophical reflections that have the potential to strengthen this important alternative to mainstream ethics and to how moral education might be conceived and practiced…

In this essay I propose that education be conceived as seance: a place where ghosts are summoned in order that we may come to (speaking) terms with them. Against the backdrop of my own summoning of the ghosts haunting my childhood visits to a nearby castle, I draw on the work of Jacques Derrida to provide a theoretical rationale for the importance…

In current-day criticisms of consumer culture as well as of the performativity culture of the work place, the originally religious concept of the vice of acedia or sloth is reinterpreted as a virtue. Art, especially poetry, is put to the fore in that connection. The image of the reader is addressed when the question of the relationship between…

The purpose of this paper is to consider the continued saliency of the ideas of Harold O. Rugg, particularly for social studies education. Given the conservative political times in which we work, and the current educational emphases on academic standards, high-stakes standardized testing, and mastery of specified knowledge, and the impact of these…

This portraiture study of four exceptional scholars in education--John Goodlad, John Hoyle, Joseph Murphy, and Thomas Sergiovanni--provides insight into their scholarly work and life habits, direction and aspirations, assessment and analysis of major trends in the profession, and advice for aspiring leaders and academics. Telephone interviews with…

The physical and social image of the scientist among school children, student teachers, and teachers over the last 50 years was investigated. Interest has also been shown in the perception of the personality behind the physical stereotype. Nevertheless, the value judgments of science and scientists and the positive and negative mind-sets attaching…