A comparison of strategic development for multiplication problem solving in low-, average-, and high-achieving students

The present study investigated the differences of strategy use between low-, average-, and high-achieving students when solving different multiplication problems. Nineteen high-, 48 average-, and 17 low-achieving students participated in this study. All participants were asked to complete three different multiplication tests and to explain how they solved these problems. Results suggested that low achievers used incorrect operation strategies more frequently, indicating a lack of conceptual understanding of multiplication. High-achieving students demonstrated greater flexibility in problem-solving and were more accurate in performing direct retrieval or math algorithm strategies. Results were discussed about improving low achievers’ use of advanced strategies, enhancing their flexibility in choosing strategies and improving students’ accuracy in using direct retrieval or math algorithms.     

Learning about energy: how pupils think in two domains

Abstract

Three strategies for teaching and learning about photosynthesis are described and criticized on the grounds that none of them promotes understanding of photosynthesis as a carbohydrate‐producing process in a way which can be related to students’ prior knowledge. The ‘guided discovery’ strategy, which currently predominates in classrooms, involves experimental procedures which frequently distract students from the crucial aspect, i.e., starch production, but leaves their prior understandings largely undisturbed. An ‘element analysis’ strategy and a ‘meaning of plant food’ strategy are also assessed.     

A Method for Investigating Concept Understanding in Science

Summaries

English

The authors report on an ‘Interview about instances’ technique for the investigation of students’ concept understanding in science. The potential and limitations of this technique has been explored in relation to the concepts ‘work’ and ‘electric current’ in 50 trial interviews involving students over the age range seven to 18 years. Some of the findings are reported here and suggestions made for further studies using the ‘Interview about instances’ technique.     

Teachers’ experiences of a single‐sex initiative in a co‐education school

Argued to ‘raise boys’ grades’ and ‘boost boys’ academic achievement’, single‐sex classes in coeducation schools is one strategy among a plethora aimed at raising standards. This paper explores the experiences of teachers in one coeducation post‐primary school that sought to raise academic performance, particularly among boys, and to improve classroom behaviour by introducing single‐sex classes. Funded by a local Education and Library Board the evaluation took place almost four years after the strategy was introduced and in a climate of increasing teacher concern with the effectiveness of the strategy. The methods involved a questionnaire survey to all teachers in the school and one‐to‐one and small group interviews with teachers responsible for teaching single‐sex classes. Contrary to its stated aims, the majority of teachers believe that, since the introduction of single‐sex classes, academic performance and classroom behaviour have deteriorated. Findings are discussed in terms of teachers’ perceptions of the strategy and the importance organizational and contextual factors have on shaping teachers’ attitudes to new initiatives.     

A new perspective on memorization practices among East Asian students based on PISA 2012

Abstract

This study examined learning strategy use in mathematics among East Asian students in East Asian educational systems. By employing latent class analysis on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 data, we found four classes of learning strategy types, namely memorization with metacognitive strategies (17.49%), metacognitive strategies with memorization (50.70%), elaboration only (10.33%), and metacognitive strategies with elaboration (16.47%). The results showed that the majority of the students in all seven East Asian educational systems belonged to the ‘metacognitive strategies with memorization’ class, and most students adopted more than one type of learning strategy when learning mathematics. Additionally, students who reported the use of metacognitive strategies along with either memorization or elaboration showed higher mathematics achievement. We conclude that the cognitive processes employed by students of East Asian backgrounds are more complex and nuanced than the previous perception that they relied heavily on memorization.     

Strategic competence: Applying Siegler’s theoretical and methodological framework to the domain of simple addition

In this study we investigated the variability, frequency, efficiency, and adaptiveness of young children’s strategy use in the domain of simple addition by means of the choice/no-choice method. Seventy-seven beginning second-graders, divided in 3 groups according to general mathematical ability, solved a series of 25 simple additions in 3 different conditions. In the first condition, children could choose whatever strategy they wanted to solve each problem. In the second and third condition, the same children had to solve all problems with one particular strategy, respectively adding up to 10 and retrieval. The results demonstrate that second-graders as a whole choose adaptively between retrieval, decomposition, and counting strategies when solving simple additions, and that they use these strategies neither equally frequently nor equally efficiently. Furthermore, our results indicate that children with different mathematical ability use generally the same strategies to solve these problems, but differ in the frequency, accuracy and adaptiveness with which they apply these strategies. Finally, this study documents the value of the choice/no-choice method to assess the adaptiveness of young children’s strategy use in the domain of early arithmetic.     

Catastrophes and primary school drawing course design for moral education in China

Abstract

This paper examines how drawing classes can contribute to moral education in primary schools. This paper uses class observation, interviews with teachers and students, and analysis of students’ work to highlight how the students articulate moral concerns by drawing and designing future-oriented architectures, which aims at preventing natural and social catastrophes. It suggests that the design of this drawing class provides new possibilities of doing moral education in China’s primary schools. The drawing class made possible the articulation of becoming moral subjects, which is able to integrate ‘harmony’ into the younger generation’s value system, world views and the possibilities they envision for themselves and human-nature relationships.     

Are first graders' arithmetic skills related to the quality of mathematics textbooks? A study on students’ use of arithmetic principles

A major goal of the first years of schooling is students' development from using counting strategies to using calculation strategies – or even recall – to solve addition or subtraction problems. It requires the perception and usage of arithmetic principles. Although the continued use of counting strategies is problematic for further learning progress, they are frequently used by many students beyond Grade 1. While learning resources possibly play a role in students' development in this field, our knowledge about their impact is limited. In this study we investigated the presented learning opportunities of four different textbooks regarding arithmetic principles in Grade 1, and subsequently the relation to first graders' strategy use by analyzing a one-year dataset of 1614 students from 86 classes. The analyses show differences in the textbooks' quality concerning arithmetic principles as well as a considerable connection to students' strategy use at the end of Grade 1.     

Medical students’ educational strategies in an environment of prestige hierarchies of specialties and diseases

Abstract

Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice, this paper aims to understand whether and how a reproduction of the status hierarchy of medical specialties and diagnoses occurs within a medical school in a North European context as well as students’ educational strategies given the hierarchy. We report data from a cross-sectional survey conducted on a sample of Danish medical students. The 289 respondents ranked diseases and specialities, based on how they believed most health personnel would rank them. In addition, 18 in-depth interviews with medical students were conducted. Comparing the ranking responses of early, mid and late phase students, the analysis tracks the gradual convergence and broad agreement around a hierarchy. The paper concludes that medical school is a highly competitive field of higher education, where distinction is invested in and reproduced by curricular knowledge. This distinction is reinforced within wider structural elements such as governmental educational policies.     

On the Effectiveness of Teaching: Direct Versus Indirect Instruction

ABSTRACT

The literature about the effectiveness of teacher behaviour shows that the teaching style described as ‘direct’ increases academic learning time and therefore learning gain. In the Netherlands, a study was carried out to predict learning gain after the use by teachers of different behaviours. This was done in the elementary school in grade 4, 6 and 8 (students respectively 8, 10 and 12 years of age) for the subjects mathematics and world‐orientation. No significant correlations were found between teacher behaviour and learning gain in world‐orientation. With regard to mathematics, especially in grade 4, correlational analysis showed that learning gain can be well predicted by the behavioural categories ‘giving instruction’, ‘soliciting response’, ‘corrective feedback’, ‘organizing the learning situation’ and ‘monitoring’. These categories describe direct instruction adequately.     

The role of socioscientific issues in biology teaching: from the perspective of teachers

ABSTRACT

Previous research has documented that students who engage with socioscientific issues can acquire some of the complex competences and skills typically related to scientific literacy. But an emerging field of research on science teachers’ understanding and use of socioscientific issues, has documented that a range of challenges hinders the uptake of socioscientific issues. In this study, we investigated the interpretation and implementation of socioscientific issues among Danish biology teachers. We conducted five in-depth group interviews and validated the emergent themes from the teachers’ talk-in-interaction by distributing a questionnaire. Our findings suggest that the participating teachers generally harbour a content-centred interpretation of socioscientific issues which manifests itself in at least three separate ways. First, the teachers generally use socioscientific issues as a vehicle to teach factual biological content. Second, the teachers emphasised mastery of factual content in their assessment. Third, the teachers tended to reduce socioscientific issues to specific biological contents in a way may preclude students from engaging with the real socioscientific issue. Our findings are particularly significant for science educators, policy-makers and curriculum designers, as we argue that key aspects of this content-centred interpretation may be a coping strategy used to navigate a divided curriculum.     

Class acts? Working class student officers in students’ unions

Abstract

This article explores the recent emergence of ‘working-class student officer’ roles in students’ unions associated with elite UK universities. These student representative roles are designed to represent the interests of working-class students within their universities and sit alongside student representatives for liberation groups and/or student communities. Based on interviews with postholders and using Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field and Reay’s applications of a ‘reflexive habitus’, I explore how these students have come to assert a public and political ‘working-class student’ identity within their universities. Their commentaries reveal the ‘makings of class’ in a context where students are very aware of claims for recognition and the ‘hidden injuries of class’ and offer an insight into how working-class students are finding new ways to navigate their classed identities in HE.     

Conceptions and misconceptions about neuroscience in preschool teachers: a study from Argentina

Background: Teachers’ conceptions and misconceptions about neuroscience are crucial in establishing a proper dialogue between neuroscience and education. In recent years, studies in different countries have examined primary and secondary school teachers’ conceptions. However, although preschool education has proved its importance to later academic outcomes, there is limited investigation of neuroscience conceptions focused exclusively on preschool teachers.

Purpose: The present study sought to explore preschool teachers’ conceptions and misconceptions about neuroscience in an Argentine setting.

Sample, design and methods: We used quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore concepts about neuroscience, including specific neuromyths. Data were collected using a 24-statement questionnaire and 5 in-depth interviews. The survey was administered to 204 teachers of children between the ages of 0–5-years in Argentina.

Results and conclusions: Results from this exploratory study suggested a relatively high level of general knowledge of neuroscience amongst the preschool teachers in the study. However, three particular issues seemed unclear for teachers: memory, plasticity and the myth that ‘we only use 10% of the brain’. Specifically, ‘memory’ was understood as ‘learning by heart’; neural underpinnings of memory and plasticity processes were unknown; and the myth that we only use 10% of the brain was used to explain individual differences in intelligence in a straightforward way. In addition, anecdotal evidence was used by teachers to justify their conceptions about neuroscience. Finally, the wider implications of these results for bridging neuroscience and education are discussed.     

Teaching the teacher: exploring STEM graduate students’ nature of science conceptions in a teaching methods course

ABSTRACT

Graduate students regularly teach undergraduate STEM courses and can positively impact students’ understanding of science. Yet little research examines graduate students’ knowledge about nature of science (NOS) or instructional strategies for teaching graduate students about NOS. This exploratory study sought to understand how a 1-credit Teaching in Higher Education course that utilised an explicit, reflective, and mixed-context approach to NOS instruction impacted STEM graduate students’ NOS conceptions and teaching intentions. Participants included 13 graduate students. Data sources included the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS-Form C) questionnaire administered pre- and post-instruction, semi-structured interviews with a subset of participants, and a NOS-related course project. Prior to instruction participants held many alternative NOS conceptions. Post-instruction, participants’ NOS conceptions improved substantially, particularly in their understandings of theories and laws and the tentative nature of scientific knowledge. All 12 participants planning to teach NOS intended to use explicit instructional approaches. A majority of participants also integrated novel ideas to their intended NOS instruction. These results suggest that a teaching methods course for graduate students with embedded NOS instruction can address alternative NOS conceptions and facilitate intended use of effective NOS instruction. Future research understanding graduate students' NOS understandings and actual NOS instruction is warranted.     

Subitisation in Number Tasks in Children with Down Syndrome

ABSTRACT

This paper presents results from the development of a sequence for teaching/learning number concepts for children with Down syndrome that is adapted to their cognitive characteristics and to certain traits of their executive functioning. The mathematical objective is to promote subitising during the initial number learning in order to develop cardinality, composition-decomposition and number facts. We outline activities with different materials and resources, supported by the use of augmentative communication. We present the results of a case study involving two children with Down syndrome (7 and 8 years of age) who followed the proposed intervention for one academic year. The results indicated a different tendency when using the subitising strategy in both children and also depended on the physical arrangement of the objects to be counted. The benefits found were the children’s flexibility in using subitising and counting in numerical activities and the spontaneous use of augmentative communication.     

Innovating science teaching with a transformative learning model

Abstract

This exploratory study aimed to describe the impact of the ‘Science in Family project’, as a transformative learning model for science teachers trying to improve student’s attitudes toward STEM subjects. This study took place in a public elementary school in Monterrey, Mexico, which has been developing this project for more than thirteen years with students from 4th, 5th and 6th grade. We used participant observation and interviews with four families whose children are students of this elementary school, and with one family whose sons were students of this school some years ago. Results showed that there is a relationship between positive attitudes towards science in students who were exposed to transformative learning models of teaching. Two of the participants took steps to follow science related careers. This study helps to illuminate the extent to which teacher education models influence students’ attitudes and how positive attitudes to science are influenced by the use of learning by doing projects.     

Students’ perception of EdD and PhD programmes in Hong Kong

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the learning experiences of students enrolled on a Doctorate in Education programme in Hong Kong. The main questions are as follows. How do EdD students position themselves as doctoral candidates? How do EdD students experience their education in terms of scholarly expertise and scholarly identity? How do EdD students characterise their relationships with their supervisors? What perceptions do PhD students hold of the field of knowledge of EdD students and the value of an EdD degree? The data obtained from 10 semi-structured interviews in one selected institution are discussed with reference to the four main themes; distinction between EdD and PhD degrees: ‘co-existent’ vs. ‘separate’; positioning of EdD programme: title of doctor as ‘unfair’ vs. ‘deserved’; scholarly value: ‘insightful’ vs. ‘non-academic’; and relationship with supervisor: ‘independent and self-managed’ vs. ‘never equal, unlike the relationship between PhD student and supervisor’.     

‘Am I Like a Scientist?’: Primary children's images of doing science in school

A considerable body of evidence highlights how inquiry-based science can enhance students' epistemic and conceptual understanding of scientific concepts, principles, and theories. However, little is known about how students view themselves as learners of science. In this paper, we explore primary children's images of doing science in school and how they compare themselves with ‘real’ scientists. Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire, drawing activity, and interviews from 161 Grade 4 (ages 9–10) students in Singapore. Results indicate that ‘doing science as conducting hands-on investigations’, ‘doing science as learning from the teacher’, ‘doing science as completing the workbook’, and ‘doing science as a social process’ are the images of learning science in school that most of the students held. In addition, students reported that they need to be well behaved first and foremost, while scientists are more likely to work alone and do things that are dangerous. Moreover, students often viewed themselves as ‘acting like a scientist’ in class, especially when they were doing experiments. Nevertheless, some students reported that they were unlike a scientist because they believed that scientists work alone with dangerous experiments and do not need to listen to the teacher and complete the workbook. These research findings further confirm the earlier argument that young children can make distinctions between school science and ‘real’ science. This study suggests that the teaching of science as inquiry and by inquiry will shape how students view their classroom experiences and their attitudes towards science.