Project Spraoi: two year outcomes of a whole school physical activity and nutrition intervention using the RE-AIM framework

We aimed to assess the impact of Project Spraoi: a school-based physical activity (PA) and nutrition intervention that reached 473 primary school children and 43 school staff in Cork (Ireland). Four primary schools (2 intervention, 2 control) with similar characteristics participated and for 2 school years, intervention schools were assigned an ‘Energizer’, who promoted PA and healthy eating. A subsample of children from the intervention schools (n?=?106) and matching controls (n?=?125) had measures of body mass, waist circumference, blood pressure, fitness, nutritional knowledge/attitudes and PA recorded at baseline and after 2 school years. Process evaluation techniques assessed the impact of the intervention on teachers, parents and children. Analysis of covariance revealed the intervention was associated with smaller waist circumference relative to gender and age (p?<?0.0005), slower resting heart rate (p?=?0.003) and favourable nutritional attitudes among 10 year olds. No significant change across other variables or among 6 year olds was found. Teachers, parents and children reported positive outcomes for PA behaviour and nutritional knowledge/attitudes. Project Spraoi has shown to improve heart rate and prevent further gains in fat mass amongst older aged children. The positive impact of the intervention supports the need for its continued delivery, particularly as children age.     

Effects of a Cognitive Acceleration Programme in a Low Socioeconomic High School in Regional Australia

This paper presents research on the effects of a cognitive acceleration intervention in science lessons on low socioeconomic students in a government high school in regional Western Australia. Thinking Science Australia is a programme currently being implemented in Australian junior high school classes. The research was conducted for over two years as a case study in one school with students as they entered high school in Year 8 (n?=?71). Findings show that significant cognitive gains were made, with concomitant improvement in the state-wide testing in science when participating students were in Year 9, aged 13 and 14. Teachers reported changes to the ways they teach and described the challenges in implementing the intervention programme.     

Integrating Clinical Reasoning Skills in a Pre-professional Undergraduate Human Anatomy Course

Clinically integrated curricula in health science education has been shown to promote the development of problem-solving schema and positively impact knowledge acquisition. Despite its’ purported benefits, this type of curricula can impose a high cognitive load, which may negatively impact novice learners’ knowledge acquisition and problem-solving schema development. Introducing explicit clinical reasoning instruction within pre-professional undergraduate basic science courses may limit factors that increase cognitive load, enhance knowledge acquisition, and foster developing clinical problem-solving skills. This study, conducted over the Fall and Spring semesters of the 2018–2019 school year, sought to evaluate whether the implementation of a clinical reasoning instructional intervention within a clinically integrated pre-professional undergraduate general human anatomy course influenced students’ acquisition of anatomical knowledge and development of clinical problem-solving skills. Results of the study were mixed regarding the acquisition of anatomical knowledge. Both the intervention and comparison groups performed similarly on multiple choice examinations of anatomical knowledge. However, the clinical reasoning intervention positively impacted students’ ability to apply clinical reasoning skills to anatomically based clinical case studies. Results from M\mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance comparing scores on Written Clinical Reasoning Assessments revealed a significant interaction between time and group affiliation, with the groups receiving the interventions outperforming the comparison groups: Fall, P < 0.001; Spring, P < 0.001. The results of this study may imply that explicit clinical reasoning instruction within a clinically integrated undergraduate Human Anatomy course could hold potential for fostering students’ early clinical reasoning skills.     

The Effect of Increasing Conceptual Challenge in Primary Science Lessons on Pupils' Achievement and Engagement

This paper reports research into the effect on 11‐year‐old pupils of introducing more cognitively challenging, practical, and interactive science lessons. Our hypothesis was that such lessons would increase the children's enthusiasm for science and their engagement with the scientific process, thereby improving educational performance. Schools in England are under pressure to raise achievement, as measured by the results of national tests. This has an impact on teaching, where revision of subject knowledge often dominates and can be particularly detrimental to more able pupils. The research was a controlled trial which took place in thirty‐two English primary schools as part of a project “Conceptual Challenge in Primary Science”. Teachers from 16 intervention schools participated in continuing professional development (CPD) and developed science lessons that had more practical work, more discussion, more thinking and less (but more focused) writing. The proportion of pupils achieving the highest level (level 5) in the national science tests at age 11 was compared in the matched‐school pairs before and after the intervention. Focus group interviews were also held with a group of pupils in each intervention school. There was a 10% (95% Confidence Interval 2–17%) increase in the proportion of children achieving the top score in the intervention schools. The pupils and teachers reported greater engagement and motivation. These findings suggest that moving from rote revision to cognitively challenging, interactive science could help improve science education. They merit replication in other international settings to test their generalisability.     

Supplemental Fluency Intervention and Determinants of Reading Outcomes

This study replicates research on the efficacy of a repeated reading intervention with word-level instruction for students in Grades 2 and 3 with low to moderate fluency skills, examines differences between treatment implementers, and tests unique contributions of treatment-related variables on outcomes. Students from 13 schools were randomly assigned to dyads; dyads were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Schools were matched into treatment implementer groups (teachers or paraeducators) at study onset. Tutoring occurred during school hours for 15 weeks (M = 25.5 hr). Multilevel model results showed treatment students (n = 98) gained more than controls (n = 104) on measures of letter-sound knowledge (d = .41), fluency (d = .37–.38), and comprehension (d = .30–.31); students tutored by teachers gained more than their paraeducator-tutored peers on word reading and fluency. Finally, dyads tutored with greater fidelity gained more in word reading and fluency; dyads that read more complex words in their texts gained less on letter-sounds, fluency, and comprehension.     

Investigating Socioscientific Issues via Scientific Habits of Mind: Development and validation of the Scientific Habits of Mind Survey

In this paper, we describe the Scientific Habits of Mind Survey (SHOMS) developed to explore public, science teachers’, and scientists’ understanding of habits of mind (HoM). The instrument contained 59 items, and captures the seven SHOM identified by Gauld. The SHOM was validated by administration to two cohorts of pre-service science teachers: primary science teachers with little science background or interest (n?=?145), and secondary school science teachers (who also were science graduates) with stronger science knowledge (n?=?145). Face validity was confirmed by the use of a panel of experts and a pilot study employing participants similar in demographics to the intended sample. To confirm convergent and discriminant validity, confirmatory factor analysis and evaluation of the reliability were calculated. Statistical data and other data gathered from interviews suggest that the SHOMS will prove to be a useful tool for educators and researchers who wish to investigate HoM for a variety of participants.     

Improving academic outcomes in poor urban schools through nature-based learning

This paper presents results from the evaluation of the Nurture thru Nature (NtN) programme, a natural science and environmental education intervention designed to help elementary school children from disadvantaged backgrounds increase their knowledge of science and strengthen overall academic performance. Using an experimental design the pilot NtN programme in New Brunswick, NJ was assessed in one elementary school for a period of four years. The evaluation revealed that NtN students (n = 18) consistently outperformed a group of controls (n = 34) in mathematics and science with the differences in science reaching statistical significance. The paper discusses the active learning philosophy that motivates NtN teaching, the programme components that operationalise this philosophy, and a natural history paradigm from which this philosophy derives.     

Learning support assistants can deliver effective reading interventions for ‘at-risk’ children

Evidence suggests that phonic interventions delivered by trained researchers improve early reading and spelling. This study sought to explore whether school Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) can also improve performance using these methods. Four groups (each of n?=?27) of the poorest reading 6-year-old children in nine schools were screened and selected for this study. LSAs were briefly trained to administer phonic programmes as small group interventions for nine weeks. Rhyme- and phoneme-based programmes were also contrasted with controls receiving the National Literacy Strategy. At post-test, all intervention group children were better decoders, and had better phonological awareness and letter?–?sound knowledge than controls. The phoneme-based group had better letter?–?sound knowledge than the other intervention groups. It is concluded that trained Learning Support Assistants can deliver effective early preventive programmes for literacy difficulties.     

‘Discover,Understand, Implement,and Transfer’: Effectiveness of an intervention programme to motivate students for science

Considerable research has focused on how best to satisfy modern societies’ needs for skilled labour in the field of science. The present study evaluated an intervention programme designed to increase secondary school students’ motivation to pursue a science career. Students from 3 schools of the highest educational track participated for up to 2 years in the intervention programme, which was implemented as an elective in the school curriculum. Our longitudinal study design for evaluating the effectiveness of the intervention programme included all students at the grade levels involved in the programme with students who did not participate serving as a control group. Mixed-model analyses of variance showed none of the intended effects of the intervention programme on science motivation; latent growth models corroborated these results. When the programme began, students who enrolled in the science elective (n?=?92) were already substantially more motivated than their classmates (n?=?228). Offering such an intervention programme as an elective did not further increase the participating students’ science motivation. It seems worthwhile to carry out intervention programmes with talented students who show (comparatively) little interest in science at the outset rather than with highly motivated students who self-select into the programme.     

Promoting science motivation in American Indian middle school students: an intervention

U.S. national data show that American Indians earn lower math and science scores than other ethnic/racial groups. In the current study, a brief, self-affirmation intervention was aimed at increasing science motivational beliefs in American Indian middle school students (n?=?212, M_age?=?12.7 years). Students, each read a biography of a successful scientist who was matched to them on both ethnicity and gender; ethnicity but not gender; gender but not ethnicity; or no match. Students then wrote a short essay describing traits they shared with the scientist. Pre- and post-intervention science self-efficacy, individual interest, and goal orientations were measured to assess intervention efficacy immediately following the intervention and one week later. Results revealed no benefits of the intervention in increasing motivational beliefs for students in any experimental condition. We discuss the fragile fidelity of self-affirmation interventions and conditions that might be necessary for intervention success.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Integrating Food Science Lessons in High School Biology Curriculum in Comparison to High School Chemistry Curriculum

Historically, high school chemistry has been the predominate venue for the introduction of food science curriculum to students. With the current decline in chemistry as a required course for graduation, the possibility of exposure to food science in high school could equally decline. The purpose of this research was to determine if high school students in a biology class without a chemistry background could comprehend eight basic food science principles equally as well as students in a chemistry class that were taught the same principles. This study assessed baseline knowledge of high school students, determined the effect of food science‐based lessons on baseline knowledge and level of understanding, and determined the effect of food science‐based lessons on students’ awareness of and interest in food science. Baseline knowledge and awareness of food science was low. Food science‐based instruction resulted in higher posttest scores. Results indicated no differences in students’ knowledge base and level of understanding between biology and chemistry classes and supported the idea of further incorporating a food science curriculum into high school biology.     

Implementing curriculum-embedded formative assessment in primary school science classrooms

The implementation of formative assessment strategies is challenging for teachers. We evaluated teachers’ implementation fidelity of a curriculum-embedded formative assessment programme for primary school science education, investigating both material-supported, direct application and subsequent transfer. Furthermore, the relationship between implementation fidelity and teacher variables was explored. N = 17 German primary school teachers participated in professional development on formative assessment, N = 11 teachers formed a control group. Teachers’ implementation fidelity was evaluated via classroom observations student ratings and an analysis of students’ workbooks, focusing on the frequency and quality of intended formative assessment elements (assessments, feedback and instructional adaptations). Regarding direct application, treatment group teachers’ implementation fidelity was high, with slight variations in quality. Regarding transfer, implementation fidelity was lower but teachers still implemented more formative assessment elements than the control group. Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and their evaluation of the formative assessment intervention were associated with implementation success.     

Efficacy of the Nemours BrightStart! Early Literacy Program: Treatment Outcomes From a Randomized Trial With At-Risk Prekindergartners

Research Findings: This study reports outcomes from a randomized, controlled trial of an emergent literacy intervention for prekindergarten children at-risk for reading failure. Children (N = 2219) in 114 preschools and childcare centers were screened for eligibility in fall. Children who scored at-risk (n = 476) were randomized to fall or spring treatment and received nine weeks of explicit, multisensory, emergent literacy instruction in small groups provided by early literacy interventionists. Trained observers noted high implementation fidelity. Pre-reading skills were assessed before and after intervention for both treatment groups. The spring intervention group served as at-risk controls for children who completed fall intervention. Three-level, linear growth models (time-student-school) were used to estimate treatment effects, found for print awareness, elision, rhyming, and the screener (print and letter knowledge, phonological awareness), replicating previous findings for the screener, rhyming, and print knowledge, and extending them to elision. Significantly accelerated growth in print knowledge, elision, rhyming, and the screener was observed during intervention. Practice or Policy: Results demonstrate benefits of high-quality emergent literacy instruction for children at risk. Growth in skills for both fall and spring treatment groups following this 18-lesson program supports some implementation flexibility among interventionists with delivery constraints during the year.     

Analysing teachers' operations when teaching students: what constitutes scientific theories?

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to analyse teachers’ efforts to develop secondary school students’ knowledge and argumentation skills of what constitutes scientific theories. The analysis is based on Leontiev’s three-level structure of activity (activity, action, and operation), as these levels correspond to the questions why, what, and how content is taught. The unit of analysis was a school development project in science education, where design-based interventions were conducted. Data comprised notes and minutes from eight meetings, plans, and video recordings of the lessons, and a written teacher evaluation. The teachers’ (n = 7) learning actions were analysed to identify (a) concept formation in science education, (b) expressions of agency, (c) discursive manifestations of contradictions, and (d) patterns of interaction during the science interventions. Three lessons on what constitutes scientific theories were implemented in three different student groups (n = 24, 23, 24), framed by planning and evaluation meetings for each lesson. The results describe (1) the ways in which teachers became more skilled at ensuring instruction met their students’ needs and (2) the ways in which teachers’ operations during instruction changed as a result of their developed knowledge of how to express the content based on theoretical assumptions.     

Effects of the Active Smarter Kids (ASK) Physical Activity School-based Intervention on Executive Functions: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a seven-month curriculum prescribed physical activity (PA) intervention (the Active Smarter Kids [ASK] intervention) on executive functions in 10-year-old Norwegian children. A linear mixed model was used to analyze data from 971–1,123 fifth grade children at 28 intervention schools and 29 control schools. The intervention constituted three PA elements: PA educational lessons, PA breaks, and PA homework, adding 165 minutes of PA to the mandatory 135 minutes of PA and physical education. There was no effect of the intervention on executive functions in the intention-to-treat analyses. Per protocol analyses (n?=?776–850) revealed small effects of the intervention on the composite score of executive functions, cognitive flexibility, and motor skills. Cognitively engaging and coordinative demanding activities/games seem viable options to increase executive functions and possibly improve academic performance in children.     

Chinese and Australian Year 3 Children's Conceptual Understanding of Science: A multiple comparative case study

Children have formal science instruction from kindergarten in Australia and from Year 3 in China. The purpose of this research was to explore the impact that different approaches to primary science curricula in China and Australia have on children's conceptual understanding of science. Participants were Year 3 children from three schools of high, medium and low socio-economic status in Hunan Province, central south China (n?=?135) and three schools of similar socio-economic status in Western Australia (n?=?120). The students' understanding was assessed by a science quiz, developed from past Trends in Mathematics and Science Study science released items for primary children. In-depth interviews were carried out to further explore children's conceptual understanding of living things, the Earth and floating and sinking. The results revealed that Year 3 children from schools of similar socio-economic status in the two countries had similar conceptual understandings of life science, earth science and physical science. Further, in both countries, the higher the socio-economic status of the school, the better the students performed on the science quiz and in interviews. Some idiosyncratic strengths and weaknesses were observed, for example, Chinese Year 3 children showed relative strength in classification of living things, and Australian Year 3 children demonstrated better understanding of floating and sinking, but children in both countries were weak in applying and reasoning with complex concepts in the domain of earth science. The results raise questions about the value of providing a science curriculum in early childhood if it does not make any difference to students' conceptual understanding of science.     

Can social and emotional learning improve children’s academic progress? Findings from a randomised controlled trial of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum

Despite the significant evidence base demonstrating the positive impact of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum on children’s social-emotional and mental health outcomes, there has been very little research on its efficacy in improving academic attainment. More generally, the relationship between implementation variability and PATHS intervention outcomes has been underexplored. A cluster-randomised controlled trial with two arms: intervention (PATHS – 23 schools) and control (usual practice – 22 schools) was implemented to assess the impact of PATHS on English and Mathematics for children in years 5 (aged 9–10 years, n = 1705 pupils) and 6 (aged 10–11 years, n = 1631 pupils) in English primary schools. Two-level hierarchical linear models (school, child) were used to assess both primary ‘intention-to-treat’ effects and secondary ‘subgroup’ effects (for children eligible for free school meals). Additionally, the moderating role of implementation variability was assessed in 31 year 5 (n = 712 pupils) and 32 year 6 (n = 732 pupils) classes across the 23 intervention schools, with fidelity, dosage, quality/responsiveness and reach data generated via classroom-level structured lesson observations. Intention-to-treat and subgroup analyses revealed no significant positive effect of PATHS on children’s academic attainment. Cluster analyses of observational data revealed four distinct implementation profiles, differentiated primarily by dosage levels. However, these profiles were not significantly associated with differential academic outcomes. In light of our findings and their likely generalisability, it is not possible to recommend PATHS as an effective intervention for improving the academic attainment of children in English primary schools.

Trial registration: ISRCTN85087674

     

Evaluating climate change behaviors and concern in the family context

Abstract

Although research suggests that family dynamics likely play a role in shaping children’s behaviors, few studies focus on environmental behaviors, and none to our knowledge investigate how parents shape climate change mitigation behaviors among their children. We begin to fill this gap through a quantitative case study using matched household-level survey data from 182 coastal North Carolina families (n?=?241 parents aged 29–77; n?=?182 students aged 11–14) associated with 15 middle school science teachers. Family climate change discussions, parent behaviors, and children’s climate change concern levels predicted the degree to which children will participate in individual-level climate mitigation behaviors. These results provide evidence that promoting climate-related conversations within households may promote climate action even when parents are apathetic about climate change. Similarly, parental behaviors, but not their concern levels, were important predictors of adolescent behaviors. This study highlights novel ways that family dynamics may promote climate change mitigating behaviors and a new pathway to promoting climate mitigation at familial, and ultimately, societal levels.     

CLASSROOMS AND CULTURE: THE ROLE OF CONTEXT IN SHAPING MOTIVATION AND IDENTITY FOR SCIENCE LEARNING IN INDIGENOUS ADOLESCENTS

Many rural indigenous communities rely on science knowledge and innovation for survival and economic advancement, which requires community members to be motivated for learning science. Children in these communities have been viewed by some as unmotivated due to their low science achievement as they progress in school, particularly into majority secondary schools. Current theories of motivation, such as achievement goal theory, take classroom context into account when examining individual motivation. However, motivational climate can also be considered as tightly woven with the cultural and social practices of a community rather than individual perception. In this study, researchers spent time in two indigenous villages observing classrooms, participating in community events, and talking with community members. During those visits, Attayal/Sediq children in Taiwan (n?=?18) and Mopan Mayan children in Belize (n?=?18) participated in three semi-structured interviews about their experience learning science in school, home, and community. Results indicate that motivation for learning science is closely linked with their identity as science learners. Three themes emerged to illuminate how social practices may or may not support individual identity, and consequently motivation, for learning science—student/teacher relationships, support for learning, and motivational climate. Differences between children in Taiwan and Belize are explored. Implications for motivation theory, educational practice, and policy are discussed.     

Association between schoolwide positive behavioural interventions and supports and academic achievement: a 9-year evaluation

This study evaluated the long-term impact of schoolwide positive behavioural interventions and supports (PBIS) on student academic achievement. In this quasi-experimental study, academic achievement data were collected over 9 years. The 21 elementary, middle, and high schools that achieved moderate to high fidelity to the Save & Civil Schools’ PBIS model were matched with 28 control schools to assess academic gains. There were 5 years of baseline data (no intervention in treatment schools) and 4 years of intervention data, including 1 year of maintenance. Results indicate that implementation of the PBIS programme was significantly associated with increased student academic achievement (p = .001) and that the rate of change for students’ academic achievement in treatment schools was greater than for students in control schools. This study suggests that PBIS programmes, such as Safe & Civil Schools’ Foundations, may complement other efforts to improve academic outcomes.