Cognitive style and developing scientific attitudes in the SCIS classroom

Cognitive style refers to an individual's way of perceiving and processing information. Field-dependence-independence is one dimension of cognitive style. Field-dependence and field-independence respectively refer to a global in contrast to an analytical way of perceiving. Global versus analytical cognitive styles have been studied with respect to their differential influence on attitude development in ESS by Walters and Sieben (1974). The present investigator sought to examine whether a relationship existed between field-dependence-independence and scientific attitudes of sixth-grade students in SCIS. Findings indicate that such a relationship is not statistically significant.     

Ethics in classroom assessment practices: Issues and attitudes

Student evaluations should “be ethical, fair, useful, feasible, and accurate” [JCSEE (2003). The student evaluation standards. Arlen Gullickson, Chair. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin]. This study focuses on defining ethical behavior and examining educators’ ethical judgments in relation to assessment. It describes the results from a web-based survey of educators in which they read a brief scenario and indicated whether the student evaluation practice in the depiction was ethical or unethical. Results showed strong agreement among the educators on fewer than half of the scenarios presented in this study. These findings suggest that assessment is currently an educational realm without professional consensus.     

关于中等职业学校课堂教学现状的分析与思考

课堂教学是学校教育最重要和最基本的活动形式,是素质教育能不能得到真正贯彻的关键。本文在对中等职业学校课堂教学的现状进行全面分析的基础上,从对不同历史时期中等职业教育培养目标定位的比较中得出结论,要实现新时期的培养目标,课堂教学必须改革。通过研究中等职业教育课程改革成果得出,改革现行的课堂教学评价标准则,是实施课堂教学改革的基本保证。     

Traditional and nontraditional student attitudes toward the mixed age college classroom

As the numbers of nontraditional students on college campuses continue to climb, college educators should become increasingly aware of issues regarding the mixed age college classroom. The research reported in this paper is focused on understanding mixed age classrooms from the student's perspective. Through telephone interviews with over 300 students we explored three major areas: attitudes traditional and nontraditional students hold regarding their mixed age classroom experience; attitudes each group has toward their own age group and the other age group; and perceptions of the differences between older and younger students' relationships with their professors. Data on both younger and older students were collected, analyzed and compared.Jean M. Lynch is an Assistant Professor of Sociology/Anthropology, and Associate Director of the Applied Research Center at Miami University. She received her Masters in Sociology from the University of Rhode Island and her Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University. Her research interests include the mixed age college classroom and the sociology of law and gender. Cathy Bishop-Clark is an Assistant Professor in the Systems Analysis Department at Miami University. She holds an M.S. in Information Systems, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Educational Foundations at the University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include the mixed age college classroom and cognitive style as relates to computer programming.     

Pedagogy and student change in the women's and gender studies classroom

Women's and gender studies (WGS) classes and programmes have been developed on many university and college campuses around the world. Despite some success in the establishment of WGS in higher education, WGS has been the target of significant criticism. Detractors of WGS have charged that WGS is intellectually frivolous and that WGS teachers focus excessively on students' personal thoughts and experiences, are intolerant of differing opinions, present a narrow political ideology and, in many cases, cause distress to students. In contrast, WGS pedagogists have emphasized the importance of allowing students to express their thoughts and opinions and of developing open‐mindedness and scholarly, critical thinking. Further, they have asserted that WGS courses promote important educational goals, including increased awareness of sexism and other social inequities, more egalitarian attitudes toward women and other traditionally oppressed groups, and active community involvement to promote social equality. This review considers the empirical evidence for these competing opinions of the value and impact of WGS.     

Teachers' attitudes toward and frequency of engagement in reading aloud in the primary classroom

Reading aloud to children is considered one of the most highly effective strategies for fostering a range of literacy skills, both at home and within contemporary classrooms. However, little is known about teachers' attitudes toward reading aloud, their self‐reported frequency of engagement in the practice and what may pose as contemporary barriers to the practice. The 2016 Western Australian Study in Reading Aloud (WASRA) collected data from over 100 teachers at 14 Australian schools. The WASRA reveals tensions in translating reading aloud practices into daily practice due to reported lack of time and high curriculum demands. The findings suggest that primary school teachers typically enjoy reading aloud to children, though fewer enjoyed reading themselves. Recommendations are provided to address time and curriculum demands purported as being inhibitors of daily reading practices. These recommendations go some way to help mitigate against literacy inequities within our primary classrooms and in so doing encourage provision of daily reading opportunities for teachers and reading aloud practices.     

Relationship between perceived levels of classroom individualization and science-related attitudes

Relationships between perceived levels of classroom individualization and science-related attitudes were explored for a sample of 712 junior high school science students. Five dimensions of perceived individualization (personalization, participation, independence, investigation, and differentiation) were measured with the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ), while seven distinct attitudes were measured with the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the set of individualization variables accounted for a significant increment in end-of-year attitude scores, beyond that attributable to corresponding beginning-of-year attitude scores, for four of the seven attitudes considered. Significant associations between an individual individualization variable and an attitudinal dimension were positive in all cases. The study also provided support for the reliability and validity of the ICEQ and TOSRA and for their general usefulness in science education research.     

Effects of classroom evaluation strategies on student achievement and attitudes

This study investigated the effects of teacher evaluation and the combination of teacher evaluation and student self-evaluation on student performance and attitudes. Participants in the study were 189 Latvian high school students and their six teachers. The six teachers were assigned to one of three treatment conditions: (a) no evaluation, (b) teacher evaluation, and (c) self-evaluation plus teacher evaluation. All groups completed a 12-lesson instructional program on how to conduct experiments and produce research reports. Students in the teacher-evaluation group received teacher evaluation on their initial research reports. Students in the self-plus-teacher evaluation group self-evaluated their reports and received teacher evaluation on them. The no-evaluation group received no formal evaluation instructions. Students in the teacher-evaluation and the self-plus-teacher evaluation groups received significantly higher ratings on their final projects than those in the no-evaluation group. However, the no-evaluation group had more favorable attitudes toward the program than the other two groups, while the self-plus-teacher evaluation group was significantly more confident of their ability to independently conduct future research experiments. This study was conducted while Dr. Olina was a student at Arizona State.     

More than chalkboards: classroom spaces and collaborative learning attitudes

Learning Environments Research - The well-known benefits of collaborative learning have prompted the development of active learning classrooms that are designed to facilitate peer interaction....     

Assessing positive attitudes toward older and younger adults

Meaningful intergenerational interactions between older and younger adults are rare outside of family relationships. Interventions to increase positive intergenerational interactions are growing, but finding appropriate measures of attitudes toward both younger and older age groups is difficult. Many measures assessing attitudes toward older adults can remind participants of negative stereotypes of aging and are rarely used to assess attitudes toward younger adults. We adapted Pittinsky, Rosenthal, and Montoya’s allophilia measure to assess attitudes toward younger (18–25 years old) and older (over age 65) adults. In the first study, 94 traditional college age and 52 older adults rated older and younger adults. The allophilia measure distinguished between younger and older adults’ attitudes toward each age group. In the second study, we compared the age-related allophilia measures with seven traditional measures of attitudes toward older adults. Forty-seven traditional college age students completed measures. As predicted, correlations between allophilia toward older adults and the traditional semantic differential measures were weak (i.e., r = |0.15|or less), whereas correlations with general attitudes toward older adults were more moderate (r = 0.59 or less). Correlations between allophilia toward younger adults and the traditional measures were primarily non-significant as predicted. The allophilia measure differentiated between the five domains of positive attitudes toward younger and older adults and was not highly correlated with measures of more negative attitudes toward older adults. Results suggest that the allophilia measure can fill a need for a measure of positive attitudes toward older and younger adults.     

Assessing pre-service teachers’ skills for analyzing teaching

This study investigated the learning-from-practice skills that pre-service teachers possess when they enter teacher preparation programs in the United States. Two subskills were hypothesized to represent, at least in part, what is required to learn from practice: (1) the ability to collect evidence about students’ learning in order to analyze the effects of instruction, and (2) the ability to use the analysis to revise the instruction. Because it seems likely that different teaching situations and contexts reveal these learning-from-practice skills in different ways and to different degrees, this study examined the skills that pre-service teachers exhibited under two experimental conditions. Thirty pre-service teachers were asked to analyze the effects of a videotaped mathematics lesson on student learning, to support their analysis with evidence, and to use their analysis to revise the lesson. Based on the results, it appears that many entry level pre-service teachers can carry out a cause-effect type of analysis of the relationships between specific instructional strategies and students’ learning, and can use this analysis to make productive revisions to the instruction. However, prospective teachers’ ability to collect evidence that supports their analysis appears to be less developed. In addition, the type of analysis that prospective teachers carried out about the effects of instruction on students’ learning differed dramatically across the two experimental task conditions.Preparation of this article was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant #0083429 to the Mid-Atlantic Center for Teaching and Learning Mathematics). The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Thanks to James Hiebert for his comments on earlier drafts of the paper.     

Assessing computer technology in the criminal justice classroom: A case study

Previous research examining computer-assisted teaching is inconclusive. Some studies find enhanced student performance while others find no difference from traditional-approach pedagogy. This case study compares student performance and course evaluations for computer-assisted and traditional-approach sections in three criminal justice courses: crime theory, criminal courts, and inequality in the justice system. Overall results indicate a significant difference between student performance in computer-assisted and traditional classes. Yet differences are not the same for each course. The theory course shows the least difference while the courts course had the greatest difference. Student evaluation data indicate computer-assisted activities are enjoyed, yet differences from traditional-approach sections are not significant. Questions for future research on the use of technology in teaching are raised.     

The use of peers in classroom behavior change

The development of research in the use of children to control the behavior of other children in classroom settings is discussed. Several studies utilizing peers are shown to be effective and scientifically sound. In addition, ethical problems which may arise when using peers to change the behavior of other children, such as possible detrimental effects on the pupil contingency manager, are discussed. Suggestions are made for future research using peers as agents of behavior change in the classroom.