An Exploratory Case Study of Olympiad Students’ Attitudes towards and Passion for Science

Much is known about high school students’ attitudes towards science but there is almost no research on what passion for science might look like and how it might be manifested. This exploratory case study took advantage of a unique group of highly gifted science students participating in the Australian Science Olympiad (N = 69) to explore their attitudes towards school science and science as presented in the Olympiad summer camp. In particular the role the summer camp might play in igniting the students’ passion for science was a focus of the research. Data were collected through a two-tiered survey of students’ attitudes towards school science, an evaluative survey of the Olympiad summer camp and in-depth interviews with six participants. Findings indicated that Olympiad students generally had positive attitudes towards school science with most selecting science as one of their favourite subjects. However, an underlying ambivalence about school science was noted in the data. In contrast, the Olympiad summer camp transformed students’ positive attitudes into passion for science. Seven themes emerged from the data providing a foundation for a model of what academic passion for science looks like.     

An Interview Study of Gender Difference in Preschool Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Children’s Play

The aim of this study was to investigate, identify and describe different ways that female and male preschool teachers conceive, understand and experience play. The research questions addressed are: What perspectives do female and male preschool teachers have on play? Are there differences in play experiences related to gender? The interview study is inspired by phenomenographical research. The sample consisted of ten female and ten male preschool teachers’. The results show differences between female and male preschool teachers’ play willingness. This study found that male preschool teachers contribute with more playfulness, and this is something that both female and male preschool teachers noticed. Female preschool teachers tend to value calm play and emphasize the importance of social development while male preschool teachers accentuate the significance of physical development. All preschool teachers in the study emphasized that it is important to create inspiring environments for play and outdoor play.     

College Students’ Appreciative Attitudes Toward Atheists

Atheists are often marginalized in discussions of religious and spiritual pluralism on college campuses and beyond. As with other minority worldview groups, atheists face challenges with hostile campus climates and misunderstanding of their views. The present study used a large, multi-institutional sample to explore predictors of non-atheist college students’ appreciative attitudes toward atheists. Substantial differences were found across identities; secular and spiritual worldview groups hold the most positive views, whereas Christians and Muslims have the most negative attitudes. Interactions with worldview diversity—but not general religious/spiritual engagement—consistently predict more positive attitudes, and these relationships sometimes vary based on students’ own worldviews. These results suggest that colleges and universities can create more inclusive environments for atheists, who constitute a sizable minority group on today’s college campuses.     

Assessment of Greek University Students’ Counselling Needs and Attitudes: An Exploratory Study

The present study is concerned with an exploration of counselling needs of students at two Greek universities as well as their attitudes to utilizing a university counselling centre. The sample consisted of 312 students who completed a Greek version of the Rutgers Needs Assessment Questionnaire as well as a subscale on Attitudes towards the Counselling Centre. The analysis of the data indicated that issues about relationships, goal setting and problem-solving were the main concerns of the participants. It was also found that students, especially those who faced some kind of psychological difficulties, held a negative attitude towards visiting a university counselling centre.     

Teachers’ Use of YouTube in the United Arab Emirates: An Exploratory Study

Teachers around the world are using YouTube movies for different purposes. This mixed-methods study was a preliminary investigation of United Arab Emirates teachers’ perceptions about YouTube's advantages in the classroom, current practices, and major challenges faced. Forty-five teachers completed an open-ended questionnaire. Results indicated that perceived advantages included supporting the learning process, increasing interest and efficiency, and enriching content. Moreover, findings revealed that the majority of participants were using videos for presentation purposes in teacher-led classrooms. Connectivity, technical issues, appropriateness of content, and administrative support were perceived as major challenges.     

Criminal Justice Interns’ Observations of Misconduct: An Exploratory Study

In an effort to explore criminal justice interns’ observations of misconduct and reporting patterns of their observations, a survey of criminal justice interns was conducted after their internships were completed. Students from four universities in the South (n = 463) were asked to participate. While only 2 percent of respondents reported observing illegal behavior by criminal justice agency personnel, over half of the respondents reported observing behavior they suspected was illegal; knew to be violations of department policy; or recognized as generally unprofessional behavior.     

Undergraduates’ Attitudes Toward Science and Their Epistemological Beliefs: Positive Effects of Certainty and Authority Beliefs

Attitudes toward science are an important aspect of students’ persistence in school science and interest in pursuing future science careers, but students’ attitudes typically decline over the course of formal schooling. This study examines relationships of students’ attitudes toward science with their perceptions of science as inclusive or non-religious, and their epistemological beliefs about epistemic authority and certainty. Data were collected using an online survey system among undergraduates at a large, public US university (n = 582). Data were prepared using a Rasch rating scale model and then analyzed using multiple-regression analysis. Gender and number of science and mathematics courses were included as control variables, followed by perceptions of science, then epistemological beliefs. Findings show that respondents have more positive attitudes when they perceive science to be inclusive of women and minorities, and when they perceive science to be incompatible with religion. Respondents also have more positive attitudes toward science when they believe scientific knowledge is uncertain, and when they believe knowledge derives from authority. Interpretations of these findings and implications for future research are discussed.     

A Survey of Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Reading Experiences in Kindergarten

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify, examine, and compare attitudes of kindergarten and primary teachers toward beginning reading instruction in kindergarten. A questionnaire was devised, and teachers were asked to indicate the importance, to kindergarten children, of certain reading skills, concepts, and activities; to designate which kindergarten children should engage in reading activities; and to specify the parent's role. Forty-two of 61 questionnaires were returned. Chi-square values were calculated to compare attitudes of primary and kindergarten teachers. Comments were examined and compiled. The writer concluded that most teachers were interested in and valued reading instruction in kindergarten, but that primary teachers would tend to approach such instruction more formally than kindergarten teachers.     

An Exploratory Study of Teachers’ and Students’ Use of Multi‐modal Representations of Concepts in Primary Science

As part of a long‐term research study to enhance science learning, this paper reports on an exploratory study aimed at identifying initial beliefs and practices of a group of teachers and students (Years 4–6) in Australia when the students engaged with multiple representations of the same science concepts. There is growing recognition in science education research that students need to understand and link different representational modes, such as graphic and verbal modes, in learning to think and act scientifically. This exploratory study used a multi‐site case‐study approach employing qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings indicated that while teachers used various modes to engage students and assess learning, they were not systematic in their focus on student integration and translation across modes. The study found that various factors affected students’ understanding of different modes, and that students who recognised relationships between modes demonstrated better conceptual understandings than students who lacked this knowledge.     

Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers: An Exploratory Study of Students’ and Professors’ Perceptions

Mentoring is believed to be one of the most influential factors in US efforts to encourage college‐aged students to seek careers in science, yet the role that mentoring plays in this process has not been elucidated. The researchers were interested in understanding whether the long‐held beliefs about the importance of mentoring would be revealed as what actually occurs in an undergraduate research program. They describe students’ perceptions of the mentoring process and students’ beliefs about how it impacted their experiences as undergraduate researchers and their development as scientists. Also described are professors’ perceptions of their roles and effectiveness as mentors in students’ development as scientists. A multi‐case narrative analysis was conducted of two groups, undergraduate science scholars (n=5) and mentoring professors (n=5), who were each interviewed on two occasions at the beginning and end of the first year of a funded research program. As this grounded research study shows, students and professors described student gains as increased technical expertise and communication skills. Professors suggested that they were available to students on a regular and frequent basis. However, students’ experiences suggested a contradiction. They were often mentored by postgraduates, technical assistants, and other students; their meetings with mentoring professors were infrequent and at times distant. With respect to mentoring, this finding highlights the differences between beliefs and the reality of what was delivered. Professors discussed the challenges associated with mentoring including the recruitment of and difficulty of working with students whose first language was not English and concerns about the quality of instruction from graduate students.     

Engaging Undergraduates in Feminist Classrooms: An Exploration of Professors’ Practices

This article reports the results of a feminist action research project that sought to ascertain professors’ best practices for engaging undergraduates in feminist classrooms. In semi-structured interviews, professors recommended assigning readings from a variety of positionalities; creating a safe space for class discussion; relying on data to respond to student resistance; and including issues related to diversity, human identity, and social justice at a curricular level. The article concludes with a discussion of the author's experience implementing this advice in his own teaching for two years.     

Fear Appeals and College Students’ Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions Toward Global Warming

This study used Witte's extended parallel process model to examine the relationships between the use of fear appeals and college students’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward global warming. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was adopted. Three hundred forty-one college students from six communication courses at two universities were recruited for this experiment. The results show that when in a high-threat condition, both high- and low-efficacy messages resulted in positive attitudes and behavioral changes, while in a low-threat condition, low-efficacy messages led to negative changes in attitudes and behavioral intentions. This study suggests that when attempting to promote low carbon-emitting behaviors among college students, messages should contain both threat and efficacy information, but messages that contain low-threat and low-efficacy information should be avoided.     

An Exploratory Study of the Supervision of Ph.D./Research Students’ Theses

Twenty-five faculty members were interviewed to determine how they supervised their Ph.D. students’ thesis preparation. A content analysis of the interview data indicated that the majority of them were task-focused. They supported their students intellectually, emotionally, and structurally. Some academics considered their students as colleagues, and a few developed research teams. Watching the students grow and develop and doing research with them as colleagues were the most enjoyable aspects of the supervision process. The integrated competing values framework (ICVF) was used to illustrate how most of the study participants were task-focused and were not able to deliver paradoxical roles; nor were they able to reflect on their supervisory capabilities and learn from those reflections.

A Study of Code-Switching in Students’Talk in College English Class

Code-switching between English and Chinese usually occurs in students’talk when they are involved in taking com?municative language activities in college English class. This paper studies the situation...     

A Study of Code-Switching in Students’ Talk in College English Class

Code-switching between English and Chinese usually occurs in students’ talk when they are involved in taking communicative language activities in college English class. This paper studies the situations in which students are likely to use codeswitching and analyzes it from the perspective of the mental world in Verscheren’s Adaptation Theory. It shows that inadequate mastery of English language, cultural differences and the improper adjustment to context may lead to students’ using of codeswitching. It also shows that the use of code-switching in students’ talk adapts to students’ cognitive elements and emotive elements as well.     

A Study of Interlanguage Fossilization in College Students’ English writing

English writing is the college students’synthetical application about the knowledge of English.English writing,however,is the weak segment of the college students'English learning all the time.Based on the researches home and abroad,the paper makes an implicational study on interlanguage fossilization in English writing of Chinese college students.Though probing the causes of fossilization in English writing,the paper proposes some measures to reduce the fossilization.In the chapter one,the paper introduces simply the interlanguage fossilization.In the chapter two,the paper analyzes college students English writing and get the causal factors of fossilization:unfavorite learning motivation of students,ineffective feedback to errors,interference of the mother tongue.Then,at the last chapter,the paper put up some measures to overcome and avoid the fossilization in college students'English writing:promoting students'motivation,providing right feedback,avoiding mother tongue interference.     

A Case Study of Students’ Motivation in College Algebra Courses

This paper examines data from a larger study that focused upon students’ experiences and motivations in a college algebra course. The study revealed that students failed this course because of various factors and continued to view this course as a “gatekeeper” class. Through a stepwise multiple regression, the analysis of the ARCS instrument showed that Attention, Relevance, and Confidence were strong predictors of Satisfaction in the course.     

Student-Athletes’ Perceptions of Mental Illness and Attitudes Toward Help-Seeking

Given that there is evidence that college student-athletes may be at risk for psychological disturbances (Pinkerton, Hintz, & Barrow, 1989), and possibly underutilizing college mental health services (Watson & Kissinger, 2007), the purpose of this study was to examine attitudes toward mental illness and help seeking among college student-athletes compared to college student nonathletes. The roles that athletic identity and gender play in treatment-seeking comfort were examined. Contrary to what was hypothesized, the results showed that student-athletes and nonathletes did not significantly differ in willingness to seek mental health treatment. Student-athletes perceived significantly less discrimination toward individuals based on mental illness status.     

An Exploratory Study of Minority Students’ Technology Usage and Perceptions of Technology: Nontraditional Adult Students in Technology-Based Environments

Abstract

The study examines nontraditional, African-American adult students’ use of technologies and their perceptions toward this in technology-based environments. Technology perceptions included computer self-efficacy, Internet self-efficacy, user attitude, and computer anxiety. The effects of student characteristics on these factors and the relationships between these factors were examined throughout this study. Participants included minority students who participated in face-to-face or online undergraduate courses offered in continuing education. A quantitative approach was undertaken to analyze the collected data. Results indicated that nontraditional minority students utilized basic software tools more frequently than the advanced ones, suggesting that many of them may lack the knowledge or skills for advanced technologies. Age, hours spent online, and previous online course experiences influenced students’ technology perceptions. Gender did not have an impact on technology perceptions. Internet self-efficacy was affected by most of the student characteristics variables. Computer self-efficacy was found to be a good predictor for both user attitude and computer anxiety. (Keywords: technology usage, technology perceptions, student characteristics, computer and Internet self-efficacy, minority students)     

Students’ Ability to Apply Their Knowledge in a Gaming Exercise: An Exploratory Study

This paper reports on a study exploring master students’ ability to apply their knowledge when solving an internal pricing problem in a supply chain. Analyses of 33 negotiation progress reports and 8 recordings of discussions demonstrate that most of the students were not able to apply relevant concepts and models to guide their handling of the task. The main reason for the variability in performance was the significant differences in the students’ general problem-solving abilities. Most students did not perform a thorough task analysis or develop a solution strategy before they met for negotiations, and they did not keep track of their task performance. The implications for teaching are highlighted, and directions for further research are proposed.