Alternate Reality Games as an Informal Learning Tool for Generating STEM Engagement among Underrepresented Youth: a Qualitative Evaluation of the Source

This project developed and studied The Source, an alternate reality game (ARG) designed to foster interest and knowledge related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) among youth from populations underrepresented in STEM fields. ARGs are multiplayer games that engage participants across several media such as shared websites, social media, personal communications, and real-world settings to complete activities and collaborate with team members. The Source was a five-week summer program with 144 participants from Chicago aged 13 to 18 years. The Source incorporated six socio-contextual factors derived from three frameworks: Chang’s (ERIC Digest, 2002) recommendations for engaging underrepresented populations in STEM careers, Lave and Wenger’s (Cambridge University Press, 1991) situated learning model, and Barron’s (Human Development, 49(4); 193-224, 2006) learning ecology perspective. These factors aligned with the program’s aims of promoting (1) social community and peer support, (2) collaboration and teamwork, (3) real-world relevance and investigative learning, (4) mentoring and exposure to STEM professionals, (5) hands-on activities to foster transferable skill building, and (6) interface with technology. This paper presents results from 10 focus groups and 10 individual interviews conducted with a subset of the 144 youth participants who completed the game. It describes how these six factors were realized through The Source and uses them as a lens for considering how The Source functioned pedagogically. Qualitative findings describe youth’s perception of The Source’s potential influence on STEM interest, engagement, and identity formation. Despite limitations, study results indicate that underrepresented youth can engage in an immersive, narrative, and game-based experience as a potential mechanism for piquing and developing STEM interest and skills, particularly among underrepresented youth.     

Making Space for Consuming Practices

This empirically driven paper is about workplace learning with specific focus on the ‘work’ of consuming practices. By consuming we refer to the eating, and the drinking, and (at times) to the smoking that workers, in most organisations, do on a daily basis. Indeed, it is the quotidian nature of consuming, coupled with its absence from workplace learning research that make them noteworthy practices to explore. In using the term practice we draw on the recent tranche of practice based theorisations: notably Schatzki (1996, Organization Studies, 26(3), 465-484, 2005, Organization Studies, 27(12), 1863-1873, 2006) and Gherardi (Human Relations, 54(1), 131-139, 2001, 2006, Learning Organization, 16(5), 352-359, 2009). The paper frames consuming practices as ‘dispersed’ (general) practices and, illustrated through empirical data from multiple projects, we progressively outline how these contribute to the learning of ‘integrative’ (specialized work) practices. Our overall aim is to (re)position consuming practices from prosaic, to having much relevance for research on workplace learning.     

Between Fiction and Reality: Maps and Cartographic Logic in the Works of Peter Sís

This article examines the use of maps in the works of Czech author- illustrator Peter Sís in order to consider the role that cartography plays in the construction of four of his biographical picturebooks: Follow the Dream: The Story of Christopher Columbus (2003/1991), Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei (1996), The Tree of Life: A Book Depicting the Life of Charles Darwin, Naturalist, Geologist and Thinker (2003), and The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (2013). The profusion of maps found in Sís’s biographical picturebooks expresses an understanding that the exploration of identity is intimately linked with the exploration of the spaces in which that identity is formed. The maps represent three basic functions for Sís: first, he uses maps to situate the reader in a specific time and place; second, maps are elements that initiate adventure; and third, the profusion of maps, combined with other textual elements, raises a question that runs through all of Sís’s work regarding the limits of representations of reality. The article illustrates the three functions by presenting a walk through the pages of the four chosen picturebooks, describing and analysing the different types of maps that Sís uses.     

Individual and Institutional Productivity in Educational Psychology Journals from 2009 to 2014

This article examines the productivity of both individuals and institutions, indexed through an examination of five educational psychology journals (Cognition and Instruction, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Psychologist, Educational Psychology Review, and Journal of Educational Psychology) from 2009 to 2014. These results are discussed relative to four previous studies (Hsieh et al. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 29, 333–343, 2004; Jones et al. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 35, 11–16, 2010; Smith et al. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 23, 173–181, 1998; Contemporary Educational Psychology, 28, 422–430, 2003). Vanderbilt University and Fred Paas replaced the University of Maryland and Richard E. Mayer as the top research institution and author, respectively. Sixteen of the top 19 researchers’ institutions were outside the USA, compared to only 10 of the top 32 during 2003–2008 and three of the top 20 during 1991–1996. Educational psychology research continues the trend of becoming more international.     

The Influence of Afrocentric Spirituality on Counselling Stigma and Help-Seeking Perceptions among Nigerian Americans

This empirical study examined the relations between Afrocentric spirituality and psychological help-seeking attitudes, intentions, and stigma among Nigerian adults living in the United States of America (N = 122). Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Spirituality Scale (Jagers and Smith in Journal of Black Psychology, 22, 429–442, 1996), the Perception of Stigmatization by Others for Seeking Psychological Help Scale (Vogel et al. in Journal of Counseling Psychiatry, 56, 301–308, 2009), the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale (Vogel et al. in Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 325–337, 2006), the Intention to Seek Counselling Inventory (Cash et al. in Journal of Counseling Psychology, 6, 111–112, 1975), and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (Fischer and Turner in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1, 79–90, 1970). Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that there was no relation between Afrocentric spirituality and help-seeking attitudes or self-stigma about seeking counselling. However, there was a positive correlation between Afrocentric spirituality and other-perceived stigma, demonstrating that increased Afrocentric spirituality predicted increased perceived stigma from others about seeking counselling services. Contrary to expectations, there was a positive correlation between Afrocentric spirituality and intentions to seek counselling. Implications for counselling practice and theory are presented.     

Surviving the “School of Slavery”: Acculturation in Sharon Draper’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Copper Sun</Emphasis> and Joyce Hansen’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Captive</Emphasis>

Although children’s literature has long alluded to cultural connections between Africans and African Americans, very few texts establish clear lines of influence between particular African ethnic groups and African American characters and communities. Joyce Hansen’s The Captive (1994) and Sharon Draper’s Copper Sun (2006) stand out in portraying protagonists Kofi’s and Amari’s reliance on their past upbringing as Ashanti and Ewe, respectively. As Kofi and Amari endure the traumas of the Middle Passage and slavery in eighteenth-century America, they adapt by relying on their past socialization in traditional West African societies. The two novels challenge the idea of cultural erasure promoted in Elizabeth Yates’ Amos Fortune, Free Man (1950), which is still a fixture on multicultural reading lists for middle school students. The Captive and Copper Sun do provide sharply contrasting visions of their protagonist’s relationships to American society. Copper Sun indicates that a black girl’s concerns, including her need for subsistence and protection, and her desire for creative expression and personal autonomy, can complement the economic and military interests of the state. By contrast, The Captive insists on the necessity for its emancipated protagonist to maintain an adversarial role within a stratified, white-dominated U.S. culture. The novels thus highlight the very different messages about social identity and participation that recent multicultural children’s literature can convey.     

Mappaemundi,Maps and the Romantic Aesthetic in Children’s Books

This article considers the extent to which medieval mappaemundi are an important precedent for literary cartographies in fiction for children. It connects the notion of embeddedness to Peta Mitchell’s (2011) suggestion that mappaemundi refused to entertain the later, post-Enlightenment cartographic distinction between subject and environment, positing instead the “absorption” of the medieval subject into the religious medieval world space. The article documents some of the visual conventions that maps in children’s literature have appropriated from mappaemundi. In doing so, it articulates the contradictions inherent both to ecological rhetoric and cartographic space and the visual lexicon of maps included with children’s books, which contribute to a rhetoric of ecomimesis. The article argues that maps in children’s literature are invested in a rhetoric of ecomimesis, that we are, as Timothy Morton (2009) has it, “embedded” in Nature, and that this embeddedness conceit threatens to forestall critique in that it reproduces the related oppositions of culture/Nature, subject/object and subject/environment even as it appears to collapse their respective terms. In the process, it considers maps in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (2007/1719), the Alderley Edge books of Alan Garner, Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons (2012/1930), and Rosemary Sutcliff’s Outcast (1998/1955).     

The Piagetian <Emphasis Type="Italic">Schème</Emphasis>: a Framework to Study Professional Learning Through Conceptualization

Different theories of learning have been used in vocational education studies and Piaget is a common source of reference. Our intent is to present a specific and original way in which the Piagetian theory of schèmes has been developed since the 1990s in studies called “vocational didactics”. Developed in French-speaking countries and mostly unknown to an international audience, this approach offers a specific use of Jean Piaget’s theory of learning, which has been applied to adult learning and vocational education. We will first develop the theoretical foundation of the theory of schèmes as developed by Vergnaud (1989, Recherches en didactique des mathématiques, 10(2–3), 133–170, 1990, 1996, 2001) and others after Piaget (1947). Then, we will present the methodological perspective of this approach. We will finally present significant research results to illustrate outcomes and practical implications for vocational training.     

The Cartographic Eye in Children’s Picturebooks: Between Maps and Narratives

This article examines the place occupied by maps in children’s picturebooks. After a brief overview of the different roles that are assigned to maps in children’s books, the article considers five French picturebooks—Warja Lavater’s Le petit chaperon rouge (1965), Olivier Douzou and Isabelle Simon’s L’autobus numéro 33 (1996), Véronique Vernette’s Cocorico poulet Piga (1999), Rebecca Dautremer and Arthur Leboeuf’s Le loup de la 135 ^ème (2008) and Kochka and Fabienne Cinquin’s Dans ma ville, il y a… (2011)—in order to focus on how the narrative, whether enclosed, superimposed or linked to the text in some other way, is evoked by the geographic shape of the maps. It is argued that the particular use and function of a map depends on its shape or placement in a book, distinguishing between the incorporation of maps only as a significant picture (its use) from the subject within the whole narrative (its function). Thus the article articulates what uses a map can have within a narrative. It also explores the mechanics of the iconotext, showing that a cartographic picture fulfils a precise, rather than a general, function of spatialisation. Hence three main functions of spatialisation in maps and mapping are distinguished, whereby an author could use maps to help a character discover, conquer, or organise a space.     

“But The Soldier’s Remains Were Gone”: Thought Experiments in Children’s Literature

In this article thought experiments are uncovered as key stimuli of philosophical potential in children’s literature and their presentation and function is examined in a selection of focal texts, including: Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871); Even the Parrot by Dorothy Sayers (1944); Nina Bawden’s Carrie’s War (1974); and A Game of Soldiers (1985) by Jan Needle. The thought experiment is a device common to science and philosophy and has been recognised as an heuristic tool in literature generally, but here children’s literature is drawn into the conversation, revealing that—as a dynamic mechanism of children’s narrative—thought experiments have a long-standing and particular role to play in books for young people. This paper connects with a recent turn in children’s literature discourse toward the conditions of power in books for young readers; it moves on the debate by demonstrating that the apparatus of thought experimentation places the implied child reader in a position of philosophical responsibility and forward thinking. Presenting thought experiments in different ways, formal properties of the thought experiment—such as conversational mode, double engagement and modal positioning—are identified and shown to open up a philosophical space of subsequence in children’s texts.     

Whose interests and under whose control?: Interest convergence in science-focused school–community collaborations

In this dialogue with Monica Ridgeway and Randy Yerrick’s Whose banner are we waving?: exploring STEM partnerships for marginalized urban youth, I engage the critical race theory (CRT) tenet of interest convergence. I first expand Derrick Bell’s (1980) initial statement of interest convergence with subsequent scholarly work in this area. I then explore ways CRT in general and interest convergence specifically have been applied in the field of education. Using this framing, I examine how interest convergence may be shed new insights into Monica Ridgeway and Randy Yerrick’s study. For example, the tenet of interest convergence is used to frame why it was beneficial for the White artist, Jacob, and the Achievement Scholars to collaborate in the service-learning mural. Then the idea of interest divergence is brought into explore the ways in which Jacob benefitted from his participation in the service learning project while the Achievement Scholars were left with an unfinished project which they had to problem solve. To conclude, I provide future directions for the application of interest convergence and divergence to issues facing science education.     

Female Participation as Top-Producing Authors,Editors, and Editorial Board Members in Educational Psychology Journals from 2009 to 2016

This article examines top-producing female authors, editors, and editorial board members in five educational psychology journals (i.e., Cognition and Instruction, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Psychologist, Educational Psychology Review, and Journal of Educational Psychology) from 2009 to 2016. Results extend data from four previous studies (Evans et al. Educational Psychology Review, 17(3), 263–271, 2005; Fong et al. Educational Psychology Review, 21(3), 267–277, 2009; Greenbaum et al. Educational Psychology Review, 28, 215–223, 2016; Robinson et al. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 23, 331–343, 1998) and also compare top female authors to the top male authors. The top-producing women in the field have, on average, less seniority in the field than do top male authors. Male authors have more publications, on average, and more sole authorships and first authorships, as compared to female authors. No discernible progress has been made by women in terms of editorial board memberships or editorships since 2004.     

Supporting Students’ Learning and Socioscientific Reasoning About Climate Change—the Effect of Computer-Based Concept Mapping Scaffolds

Climate change is one of the most challenging problems facing today’s global society (e.g., IPCC 2013). While climate change is a widely covered topic in the media, and abundant information is made available through the internet, the causes and consequences of climate change in its full complexity are difficult for individuals, especially non-scientists, to grasp. Science education is a field which can play a crucial role in fostering meaningful education of students to become climate literate citizens (e.g., NOAA 2009; Schreiner et al., 41, 3–50, 2005). If students are, at some point, to participate in societal discussions about the sustainable development of our planet, their learning with respect to such issues needs to be supported. This includes the ability to think critically, to cope with complex scientific evidence, which is often subject to ongoing inquiry, and to reach informed decisions on the basis of factual information as well as values-based considerations. The study presented in this paper focused on efforts to advance students in (1) their conceptual understanding about climate change and (2) their socioscientific reasoning and decision making regarding socioscientific issues in general. Although there is evidence that “knowledge” does not guarantee pro-environmental behavior (e.g. Schreiner et al., 41, 3–50, 2005; Skamp et al., 97(2), 191–217, 2013), conceptual, interdisciplinary understanding of climate change is an important prerequisite to change individuals’ attitudes towards climate change and thus to eventually foster climate literate citizens (e.g., Clark et al. 2013). In order to foster conceptual understanding and socioscientific reasoning, a computer-based learning environment with an embedded concept mapping tool was utilized to support senior high school students’ learning about climate change and possible solution strategies. The evaluation of the effect of different concept mapping scaffolds focused on the quality of student-generated concept maps, as well as on students’ test performance with respect to conceptual knowledge as well as socioscientific reasoning and socioscientific decision making.     

Development and Evaluation of Turkish Language Versions of three Positive Psychology Assessments

This study reports the development and evaluation of a Turkish-language version of three positive psychology assessments for use in clinical, education and research settings with Turkish-speaking individuals. A multistage translation of the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS; Smith et al. in International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 194–200, 2008), the General Mattering Scale (GMS; Marcus 1991) and the Short Grit Scale (GS; Duckworth & Quinn in Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 166–174. doi:10.1080/00223890802634290, 2009) is detailed, as well as the procedure used to evaluate the internal structure of the translated assessments. The results yielded from data of 268 participants indicated factor structures ranging from acceptable to robust model fit for the BRS, GMS, and GS. Implications for counseling practice and future research are discussed.     

Cross-Cultural Validation of Four Positive Psychology Assessments for Use with a Ghanaian Population

This study reports the evaluation of four positive psychology assessments for use in clinical, education, and research settings with individuals in Ghana, Africa. The analyses attempted to identify validity evidence for internal structure and relationships with related variables for the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS; Diener et al. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75, 1985), General Mattering Scale (GMS; Marcus 1991), Short Grit Scale (GS; Duckworth and Quinn Journal of Personality Assessment, 9, 166–174, 2009), and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS; Smith et al. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 194–200, 2008). The data yielded from 657 Ghanaian participants indicated factor structures ranging from a strong model fit (SLS and GMS) to an acceptable fit following modifications to factor structure (GS and BRS), while evidence based on relationships to related variables was convincing. Implications for use of these assessments and for future research are discussed.     

Child Readers and the Worlds of the Picture Book

Children as readers of picture books and the ways they respond to, and make meaning from, such texts are the focus of this article, which reports on a small-scale study undertaken in Norway and Wales, UK. The theoretical framing of the research draws on concepts of the multimodal ensemble in picture books and of the reading event as part of a social practice. The research design was developed from the team’s analysis of two texts, Pappa by Svein Nyhus (1998) and What does Daddy Do? by Rachel Bright (2009). Twenty-four children, who were 7 and 8 years old, took part in the study. This was built around two reading events for each book, staged as an immediate response and as a guided response. The data subsequently collected were analysed according to three overarching organisational principles, as book world, real world and play world. For both Daddy and Pappa, the first reading event showed the children’s responses were mainly directed towards exploring the book world. On the second reading event, references to the real world predominated for Daddy, while for Pappa the book world was again dominant. Across both reading events and for both books, the playworld revealed those occasions when the children expanded the meaning of the story, demonstrating an inventive ability to play with the text. Overall, the children’s responses moved fluidly across the three worlds, showing them to be energetically making connections between the reading, their experience of books and their own lives.     

Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale: Re-Exploration and Refinement

This study refined the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale (MCKAS; Ponterotto et al. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 30, 153–180, 2002) in response to concerns in the literature (e.g., Constantine et al. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 8(4), 334–345, 2002) focusing on original sample representation, factor structure, and constructs of interest within this scale. For this refinement study, a total of 176 participants from various counseling fields in the United States completed an online survey. The results of an exploratory factor analysis presented a 28-item 2-factor refined version of the MCKAS (MCKAS-R). The preliminary MANOVA analysis indicated that this refined scale differentiated multicultural counseling competencies of participants who were counselors, counseling students, and counselor educators. Implications of this scale for counselor training, practice, and future research are provided.     

Building Bridges: Seeking Structure and Direction for Higher Education Motivated Learning Strategy Models

Many of our current higher education (HE) learning strategy models intersect at important points. At the same time, these theories also often demonstrate important unique perspectives on student learning within HE. Currently, research with one learning strategy model rarely leads to developments in others, as each group of researchers works in close but largely unconnected islands of learning strategy investigation. This integrative theoretical review aims to support the convergence of intersecting models and (at the same time) the sharing of their unique features. These aims are undertaken first by reviewing past discussions of the divide between established European and American learning strategy models (Pintrich, Educational Psychology Review, 16, 385–407, 2004). Then, as an example of how general models (e.g. 3P; Biggs, Higher Education, 12, 73–86, 1993) might better support HE learning strategy development and convergence, the potential incorporation of perceived control theory (Skinner 2017) is reviewed. The theoretical support that this particular theory offers for explaining 3P sequential and reciprocal connections is discussed. Furthermore, the organisational and thereby alignment opportunities of this additional structure are presented and reviewed. In addition to implications for future theory and practice, alternative theoretical integration approaches are discussed.