'Living in Different Worlds': Gender differences in the developing sexual values and attitudes of primary school children

A small-scale study into the developing sexual values and attitudes of 35 9 and 10 year-old children found a number of important gender differences. The girls were more willing to offer detailed, serious reflections, whereas the boys' contributions were shorter and more jokey, with a greater use of sexual slang. The family was the main source of sexual information for the girls, but friends and the media for the boys. The boys were more interested in contraception, abortion and the mechanics of intercourse and childbirth, whereas the girls were more interested in relationships and more aware of the pain that could be caused by loss of children and early pregnancy. The girls had clearer and more realistic aspirations than the boys in terms of both career and family life, and understood the dangers which drugs, alcohol and violence could pose to relationships; the boys, on the other hand, sometimes appeared insecure in their self-image, and tended, albeit in a joking manner, to link violence and sex. These findings are rich in implications both for policy and practice in sex education and more generally for an understanding of the way that a differentiated sexual identity develops in boys and girls.     

Gender differences among students undertaking iSTEM projects in multidisciplinary vs unidisciplinary STEM classrooms in government vs nongovermnment schools: Classroom emotional climate and attitudes

In response to the leaky STEM pipeline, particularly for girls, many schools have introduced integrated STEM (iSTEM) programs to enable students to solve problems using skills from each STEM area and hopefully enhance their interest in continuing with STEM subjects in senior-high school and university. We investigated whether gender differences in students’ perceptions of classroom emotional climate and attitudes to STEM depend on whether students are undertaking iSTEM projects as part of a multidisciplinary curriculum (S, T, E and M) or unidisciplinary curriculum (S, T, E or M) and also whether they attend a government or nongovernment coeducational school. The sample consisted of 256 students in 24 coeducational grade 7–9 classes in 8 government schools and 157 students in 12 coeducational grade 7–10 classes in 6 nongovernment schools. Whereas boys were significantly more positive than girls in perceptions of clarity, motivation, consolidation and attitudes to iSTEM in coeducational government schools, there were no significant gender differences in coeducational nongovernment schools. Students of both genders in government schools were significantly more positive about all aspects of classroom emotional climate and attitudes than students of both genders in nongovernment schools, even after controlling for socioeconomic status. Also, females were slightly more positive about classroom emotional climate and in their attitudes in multidisciplinary STEM classes in government schools. This study suggests that multidisciplinary STEM classes could motivate girls to pursue STEM subjects in senior-high school and at university.

     

An Extreme Degree of Difficulty: The Educational Demographics of Urban Neighborhood High Schools

Despite the growth of a variety of alternatives to the neighborhood high school, most students in big-city school systems still attend large comprehensive high schools that serve a particular residential area. The authors contend that the extreme concentration of educational need at these schools is often overlooked by policymakers, school reform programs, and even district personnel. To illustrate the challenges facing neighborhood high schools, this article examines key academic characteristics of 9th-graders in Philadelphia during the 1999-2000 school year. The authors find that a large percentage of 9th graders at neighborhood high schools have been 9th graders for 2 or more years. Many of the 1st-time 9th graders either are over-age, are 2 or more years below grade level in reading and math, or had weak attendance in 8th grade. These data suggest that large and sustained investments of human and financial capital are desperately needed in the many neighborhood schools that serve primarily, and often almost exclusively, students with multiple risk factors for academic failure.     

Sexual harassment in Jewish and Arab public schools in Israel

OBJECTIVE: Current empirical literature on sexual harassment in schools is mostly based on nonrepresentative samples of middle-class high-school Caucasian female students. Thus the scope of research regarding gender, age, and cultural differences is very limited. This article reports on findings on sexual harassment in Jewish and Arab schools in Israel with regard to gender, age, and cultural differences. METHOD: The study is part of the first national survey on school violence in Israel. The representative sample includes 10,400 students in grades 7 through 11 attending public schools in Israel. Students were asked to report whether they were victims of specific acts of sexual harassment in school during the month before the survey. RESULTS: Overall, 29.1% of the students were victims of at least one act of harassment. The more common acts were to show offensive pictures or to send obscene letters, to take off or to try to take off part of the student's clothing, and to try to kiss a student. The most vulnerable groups are the Arab boys and 8th grade students. Report rates were the lowest among Arab girls. CONCLUSIONS: Sexual harassment is prevalent in Israeli schools. The pattern of victimization is different for boys and girls and for students in Jewish and Arab schools. These patterns are a complex phenomenon that must be considered in the intervention and policy measures addressing sexual harassment at school.     

And Santayana lives on: Students' views on the purposes for studying American history

This paper explores 30 students' views on the purposes for studying US history. Twelve students were 5th graders, 12 were 8th graders, and six were high school students. Responses were drawn from detailed interview protocol data compiled over three years in the context of a larger research programme that extensively studied the teaching and learning practices in five American history classrooms, two at 5th grade, two at 8th grade, and one at the high school level. Two questions from the protocol frame this exploration:'Why do you think they teach you American history in school?' and 'How might learning American history help you in your life away from school?'. Responses indicated that (a )all the students were able to construct some answer to the questions; (b ) rationales for learning history varied considerably by age, interest and ethnic background, but versions of the Santayanan rationale and utilitarian responses were most common; (c ) students seemed initially puzzled by the questions as though they had never considered them before; and (d ) students appeared to hold a 'stabilized', consensus view of history, meaning that they thought of history as a collection of putative facts and that their task was to learn them. Implications are considered against the backdrop of teaching and learning American history and the current history curriculum.     

云南边疆哈尼族中学生自我价值感研究

为了研究云南省边疆地区哈尼族中学生自我价值感的特点,为边疆少数民族的心理健康和教育提供依据,采用黄希庭、杨雄编制的青少年自我价值感量表对三所中学的656名哈尼族中学生进行调查研究。结果显示:哈尼族中学生自我价值感许多方面显著高于全国常模;哈尼族中学男生的总体自我价值感和个人取向生理自我价值感显著高于女生;哈尼族女生的人际自我价值感和个人取向道德自我价值感显著高于男生;初二学生自我价值感的各个方面都显著高于初一和初三学生;初一学生个人取向的一般自我价值感、社会取向的人际自我价值感和社会取向的道德自我价值感显著高于初三学生;初三学生的总体自我价值感、个人取向的特殊自我价值感、社会取向的心理自我价值感、社会取向的家庭自我价值感显著高于初一学生;杂居地区哈尼族中学生的总体自我价值感和特殊价值感均显著高于聚居地区的哈尼族中学生。     

Exploring students’ conceptions of science learning via drawing: a cross-sectional analysis

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional study explored students’ conceptions of science learning via drawing analysis. A total of 906 Taiwanese students in 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade were asked to use drawing to illustrate how they conceptualise science learning. Students’ drawings were analysed using a coding checklist to determine the presence or absence of specified attributes. Data analysis showed that the majority of students pictured science learning as school-based, involving certain types of experiment or teacher lecturing. In addition, notable cross-sectional differences were found in the ‘Activity’ and ‘Emotions and attitudes’ categories in students’ drawings. Three major findings were made: (1) lower grade level students conceptualised science learning with a didactic approach, while higher graders might possess a quantitative view of science learning (i.e. how much is learned, not how well it is learned), (2) students’ positive and negative emotions and attitudes toward science learning reversed around middle school, and (3) female students expressed significantly more positive emotions and attitudes than their male counterparts. In conclusion, higher graders’ unfruitful conceptions of science learning warrant educators’ attention. Moreover, further investigation of girls’ more positive emotions and attitudes found in this study is needed.     

SCIENCE TEACHING METHODS PREFERRED BY GRADE 9 STUDENTS IN FINLAND

Students find science relevant to society, but they do not find school science interesting. This survey study analyzes Finnish grade 9 students’ actual experiences with science teaching methods and their preferences for how they would like to study science. The survey data were collected from 3,626 grade 9 students (1,772 girls and 1,832 boys) across randomly sampled secondary schools. Students were asked to evaluate how often a particular teaching method is used in science (chemistry and physics) teaching and how often they would like to see the teaching method used. Data were analyzed using nonparametric tests. Boys seemed to be more satisfied with current and traditional science teaching methods like direct teaching, solving basic problems, reading textbooks, and conducting practical work, while girls desired more discussion. Students who are interested in school science or think that school science is relevant in everyday life would like more creative activities such as brainstorming and project work. Results indicated that understanding the connection between student interest and teaching method preferences, especially interpreting interested students’ desire for creative activities, are important aspects for future research.     

Does interest have an expiration date? An analysis of students’ questions as resources for context-based learning

ABSTRACT

Context-based approaches can bridge the gap between abstract, difficult science concepts and the world students live in. However, the relevance of specific contexts to different groups of learners, and its stability over time, have not been extensively explored. This study used four datasets, collected in different formal and informal settings, to examine which types of contexts could capture the interest of many students and remain so for many years. In the formal setting, responses to closed-ended questionnaires in which 4–12th graders indicated their interest in studying the answers to science questions were compared. Over 700 questionnaires collected in 2007 were compared to over 1600 questionnaires collected in 2016. To document the stability of children’s interest in informal science learning settings we compared over 1600 science questions sent to a TV science show in 2004 with over 7000 science questions submitted to a commercial exhibition in 2014. Although there were some differences across ages, students’ interest in science remained relatively stable over the 10 years. In the formal setting, this similarity was reflected in the significant linear relationship between the two databases (r?=?0.917) with regard to the questions students found interesting. In the informal setting, there was a striking similarity in the proportions of spontaneous questions in biology, astrophysics, Earth Science and chemistry. Based on the findings of this study and the literature we recommended, frequently asked questions are a valuable resource for context-based teaching which can serve to identify contexts that enhance the relevance of science in students’ lives.     

Achievements in Mathematics and Science in an International Context

Starting from educational aims that emphasise tolerance and understanding, the focus of this article is to analyse how difference is constructed in students’ informal relations, by enactments of bullying and sex-based and racist harassment. The article also discusses how young people themselves and teachers reflect on these kinds of processes. These questions are explored using data obtained from different perspectives: 1) ethnographic observations in secondary school classes of 7th graders; 2) interviews of the students in these classes (about 13 years of age); 3) interviews of the teachers that taught these classes; and 4) follow-up interviews of the same young people at the age around 18. The findings suggest that students’ individual diversities are sometimes constructed to “different-ness” in everyday life at school. “Different-ness” might be used as a reason for bullying, racism, or sex-based harassment. In schools this is not effectively addressed by teachers.     

A cross‐cultural study of pre‐adolescents’ moral,religious and spiritual questions

This study investigated differences across four countries in the amount and nature of above‐average ability and average‐ability pre‐adolescents’ everyday life, scientific, moral, spiritual and religious questions. The participants (N?=?975) of this study were fifth‐and sixth‐grade elementary school students from different schools in Finland (N?=?367), the USA (N?=?164), Hong Kong (N?=?169) and Bahrain (N?=?275). Approximately half of the students in each country came from special programmes or schools serving above‐average‐ability students. The results showed that above‐average‐ability students from each participating country asked more scientific and moral questions than their average‐ability peers. This finding was not found to be gender‐related. Furthermore, in each country the average‐ability students asked more everyday life questions than their gifted peers. The Christian influence in the Finnish and US data, and Muslim influence in the Bahrain data were seen in the spiritual and religious questions asked by pre‐adolescents. Additionally, in all the data sets girls asked more spiritual and religious questions than boys. The results point to the need for teachers to discuss moral, religious and spiritual questions influencing pre‐adolescents’ futures.     

Number sense strategies used by 6th‐grade students in Taiwan

In an interview setting, 21 6th‐graders from four public schools in south Taiwan were asked a series of questions, related to whole and decimal numbers, designed to assess their number sense. Eight students were randomly selected from both low and middle performance levels, and five were selected from a high‐performance level, according to their mathematical capabilities. Results indicated that, regardless of performance level, very few number sense strategies (e.g. using benchmarks, estimation or numbers of magnitude) were used. The evidence also revealed that Taiwanese students tended to apply rule‐based methods and standard written algorithms to explain their reasoning. Their inclination to use paper‐and‐pencil procedures narrowed their thinking and reasoning powers: this heavy reliance on written algorithms seemed to be a major impediment to the development of number sense.     

Investigating Turkish Primary School Students’ Interest in Science by Using Their Self-Generated Questions

This paper reports on an attempt to investigate Turkish primary school students’ interest in science by using their self-generated questions. We investigated students’ interest in science by analyzing 1704 self-generated science-related questions. Among them, 826 questions were submitted to a popular science magazine called Science and Children. Such a self-selected sample may represent a group of students who have a higher level of motivation to seek sources of information outside their formal education and have more access to resources than the students of low social classes. To overcome this problem, 739 students were asked to write a question that they wanted to learn from a scientist and as a result 878 questions were gathered. Those students were selected from 13 different schools at 9 cities in Turkey. These schools were selected to represent a mixture of socioeconomic areas and also to cover different students’ profile. Students’ questions were classified into two main categories: the field of interest and the cognitive level of the question. The results point to the popularity of biology, astrophysics, nature of scientific inquiry, technology and physics over other science areas, as well as indicating a difference in interest according to gender, grade level and the setting in which the questions were asked. However, our study suggests that only considering questions submitted to informal learning environments, such as popular science magazines or Ask-A-Scientist Internet sites has limitations and deficiencies. Other methodologies of data collection also need to be considered in designing teaching and school science curriculum to meet students’ needs and interest. The findings from our study tend to challenge existing thinking from other studies. Our results show that self-generated questions asked in an informal and a formal setting have different patterns. Some aspects of students’ self-generated questions and their implications for policy, science curriculum reform and teaching are discussed in this paper.     

Black South African freshmen's experience of first coitus and contraception

The purpose of this study was to investigate Black South African freshmen's experience of first intercourse and contraception. The study found that many students do not use contraception during first intercourse and that peers were reported as the primary first source of learning about sexual intercourse as well as the preferred source. Freshmen who are contemplating, anticipating or deferring the transition from virginity to non-virginity are an important target group for campus safer sex programmes because safer sex behaviours could be encouraged before a high risk sexual behavior pattern develops.     

The public–private test score gap in Brazil

This paper presents a counterfactual decomposition of the public–private gap on test scores obtained by 8th graders in Brazil. Quantile regression methods are used to obtain a characterization of the conditional distribution of scores, which is then used to build counterfactuals. The results obtained suggest that low performance students attending public schools would perform even worse with the returns to characteristics from private schools’ students. Further analysis brings the importance of the family background to children's scholar achievement.     

Who intends to learn and who intends to leave? The intention to leave education early among students from inclusive and regular classes in primary and secondary schools

ABSTRACT

Early school leaving is a serious problem for individual students, especially for students with special educational needs (SEN). This study tests predictors of early school leaving, using data collected among 1,047 students from 60 inclusive and regular classes in primary and secondary schools in Austria with 4th- and 7th-grade students aged 9–11 and 12–14 years. Multilevel regression analyses show that higher school wellbeing and a more positive student–teacher relationship reduce the intention of both 4th and 7th graders to leave school early. Additionally, for 7th graders, having a migrant background and more individualised instruction are predictors of a greater intention to leave school early. School grade, gender, socioeconomic background, SEN, social integration, class climate, school setting (regular class vs. inclusive class), and the heterogeneity of the class composition had no impact on the intention to leave school early.     

Affective rating of color and black-and-white pictures

How does color affect students’ feelings about pictures? Do those feelings vary with sex and age? This study sought to answer those questions by having 148 4th, 7th, and 12th graders rate color and black-and-white slides on nine semantic differential scales — good/bad, happy/ sad, fair/unfair, large/small, strong/weak, heavy/light, fast/slow, hot/cold, restless/ quiet — and a blue/red scale.     

Development and application of a scale to measure students’ STEM continuing motivation

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to develop a scale to measure students’ STEM continuing motivation (CM). In accordance with the conceptualisation of CM by Maehr (1976. Continuing motivation: An analysis of a seldom considered educational outcome. Review of Educational Research, 46(3), 443–462. doi:10.3102/00346543046003443), we define STEM CM as students’ tendencies to actively engage in STEM-related activities. The STEM Continuing Motivation Scale was developed from a literature review and student cognitive interviews, and was validated on a sample of 465 Chinese 7th and 8th graders. The results demonstrated that the developed scale had high reliability (Cronbach’s α?=?0.91) and good validity. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that boys had significantly higher STEM CM than girls and there were significant differences in engineering CM among students from different schools. The implications of the findings of this study are also discussed.     

Delivering Food Safety Education to Middle School Students Using a Web-Based, Interactive, Multimedia, Computer Program

ABSTRACT:  More than 76 million persons become ill from foodborne pathogens in the United States each year. To reduce these numbers, food safety education efforts need to be targeted at not only adults, but school children as well. The middle school grades are ideal for integrating food safety education into the curriculum while simultaneously contributing to national and state education standards in science, technology, and family and consumer sciences. For this project, a multimedia, self-paced online resource for delivering a food safety curriculum to middle school children was developed. Animated characters were used to deliver the lesson content. The application also included video segments, quiz feedback, and interactive games and activities. The effectiveness of the Web site was evaluated using validated cognitive and attitudinal assessment tools, and by comparing student cognitive gains to individual student learning styles. Participants were recruited from 6 middle schools in 5 states, totaling 217 students (20 sixth graders, 157 seventh graders, and 40 eighth graders). The results show that students had statistically significant modest gains in pretest to posttest knowledge and enjoyed using the Web site. The 6th grade students had significantly lower pretest to posttest improvement compared to 7th and 8th grade students, suggesting that this program may not be appropriate for this grade level. Furthermore, the results indicate that this Web-based computer application meets the needs of varying individual student learning styles.     

Looking back: reasoning and metacognition with narrative texts

This study explored the abilities of 5th, 8th, and 10th graders, and College students to reason logically about what they read. Both students’ metacognitive behavior (looking back at previously read text) and their performance on logical deduction questions were recorded and analyzed in a reading task. Conditional logic premises and deductive questions were embedded in three narratives containing premise information that was factual (True Story), contrary to fact (False Story), or unverifiable via common world knowledge (Neutral Story). The texts and questions were presented one sentence at a time on a computer screen; participants controlled the presentation of sentences. For answering the questions, three response tasks were devised. One task (labeled Generate) required readers to generate their own logical conclusions in response to deduction questions. Two tasks (labeled Valid and Invalid) required readers to evaluate logically valid or logically invalid conclusions drawn by story characters in the texts. Students in early and late adolescence looked back more when asked to evaluate logical conclusions than when asked to generate conclusions on their own; College students’ lookback frequencies were not significantly affected by response task, but were greater overall than those of younger students. With conditional forms requiring an uncertainty response (Affirmed Consequent and Denied Antecedent), readers looked back more when evaluating logically invalid conclusions than when evaluating logically valid ones. Readers of all ages were more likely to agree with story characters’ (valid) uncertain conclusions with the AC and DA forms than they were to disagree with story characters’ (invalid) certain conclusions to these forms. Both lookback frequency and performance on logic questions were lowest when readers were required to reason from contrary to fact premises.