The effect of nature documentaries on students’ environmental sensitivity: a case study

Despite the potential educational value of nature documentaries, the contribution of such films to environmental education is largely unknown. In the present study, we attempt to delineate the role of nature documentaries to the environmental sensitivity of students when the films are simply introduced to the class. More specifically, the present study experimentally checks whether students who have been exposed to a nature documentary on insects develop a greater level of environmental sensitivity towards those animals compared to students who have not. Moreover, we explore whether nature documentaries of a distinct type (i.e., verbal vs. non‐verbal) have a different effect on the students’ sensitivity. The results suggest that traditional nature documentaries have a positive effect on students’ sensitivity, while the non‐verbal, less conventional documentary is more effective in the development of environmental knowledge and feelings about insects. However, the non‐conventional approach is equally effective in the change in attitudes and beliefs as the verbal, ‘traditional’ one. Finally, the study discloses that students in general report more positive emotional reactions to insects than perceived knowledge and understanding. Although nature documentaries seem to improve all components of environmental sensitivity, they do not subvert the predominance of emotion over knowledge about insects.     

Longitudinal study of a cooperation-driven,socio-scientific issue intervention on promoting students’ critical thinking and self-regulation in learning science

ABSTRACT

This longitudinal study explored the effects of a Cooperation-driven Socioscientific Issue (CDSSI) intervention on junior high school students' perceptions of critical thinking (CT) and self-regulation (SR) in Taiwan. Forty-nine grade 7 students were randomly selected as an experimental group (EG) to attend a 3-semester 72-hour intervention; while another 49 grade 7 students from the same school were randomly selected as the comparison group (CG). All participants completed a 4-wave student questionnaire to assess their perceptions of CT and SR. In addition, 8 target students from the EG with the lowest scores on either CT or SR were purposefully recruited for weekly observation. These target students and their teachers were interviewed one month after the intervention in each semester. Analyses of covariance and paired-wise t-tests revealed that the EG students' perceptions of CT and SR in learning science were improved during the study and were significantly better than their counterparts' at the end of the study. Systematic interview and classroom observation results were consistent with the quantitative findings. This study adds empirical evidence and provides insights into how CDSSI can be integrated into planning and implementing effective pedagogical strategies aimed at increasing students' perceptions of CT and SR in learning science.     

The nature of students’ informal science conceptions

Case studies have been constructed of primary school children's developing explanations of a range of air pressure phenomena. A range of conceptions relating to air pressure have been identified, and insights gained concerning the way these interrelate over time and over context. It was found that children are naturally generative in their construction of explanations, but that they use conceptions in quite complex and fluid ways. It is argued that naive conceptions maintain a valuable function as intuitive recognition elements that feed more sophisticated conceptions, and that generating a satisfying explanation for a phenomenon can involve having access to a range of interrelated conceptions. A range of contextual factors were identified, which influence the construction of explanations, and can act as barriers to the application of scientific conceptions.     

The role of students’ emotions in formal feedback situations

A growing, but still relatively small body of research underscores the importance of attending to students’ experiences and emotions in higher education. One specific context in which emotions have a focal role is formal feedback situations. The aim of this paper is to provide a literature overview on the role of emotions, in sociology in general and learning in particular, and to draw on this literature in order to tentatively suggest how the role of students’ emotions can increasingly be accounted for in the context of feedback situations. The claim of the paper is that emotions should not be considered as hindering learning. Rather, it underlines the focal role of emotions in learning as being a natural part of it. The paper suggests that learning activities such as ‘feedback preparation activities’ and ‘feedback-on-the-feedback’ can be helpful in order to acknowledge students’ emotions in formal feedback situations.     

The role of engagement in immigrant students’ academic resilience

Academic resilience refers to academic success despite chronic socio-educational adversity. Given increases in immigration across the world in the past decade (including in Europe), there have been calls to identify factors (e.g., engagement) that can better support immigrant students’ academic resilience. With a sample of N = 17,241 immigrant students from 18 European countries, the present investigation employed multi-level probit regression to determine the extent to which cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional engagement predict academic resilience status at both the student- and school-level. Findings revealed that cognitive engagement and behavioral engagement, at both the student- and school-level, are positively associated with academic resilience (yielding moderate and large effect sizes), while the findings regarding social-emotional engagement were more equivocal.     

The role of students’ questions in aligning teaching,learning and assessment: a case study from undergraduate sciences

The quality of teaching and learning has been one of the major concerns of foundation chemistry disciplines for science and engineering undergraduates at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Student‐centred approaches are being continuously developed, exploring ways of stimulating active and meaningful student learning by encouraging questioning by students. The development of questioning competences is regarded as fundamental, particularly in science education. In order to reinforce adequate alignment with teaching strategies, a new assessment method was implemented during the academic year of 2004–2005. This study is mainly aimed at exploring the use and integration of students’ questions as alternative assessment tools. Written formative and summative problem‐based cases were designed for these purposes. The questions raised by students during those assignments were analysed according to their cognitive level, relationship and orientation to the problem posed, herein considered to be quality indicators for learners’ questions. The findings suggest a deep engagement of students within these situations along the year, supporting the use of these alternative assessment tools as a way of fostering students’ questioning capability. Results also reveal that it is possible to achieve, with students’ questions placed at the centre of these processes, alignment between teaching, learning and assessment.     

The role of social-academic goals in Chinese students’ self-regulated learning

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The role of mastery and performance goals in self-regulated learning (SRL) has received much attention. However, in collectivist and Confucian-heritage...     

University students’ perceptions of summative assessment: The role of context

We report on a mixed-method study that compared students’ perceptions of summative assessment across two distinct disciplines – education and mathematics, at two research-intensive institutions in the UK. The disciplines chosen represent opposing positions in Biglan’s classification of academic disciplines, as well as having very different assessment practices. Results suggest that these education students prefer to be assessed by methods they perceive to discriminate on the basis of academic abilities. Moreover, they perceive the traditional closed-book examination as inadequate to assess the capabilities which are key to being successful in their subject, which fits some but not all of the general findings in the literature. However, comparing these results with those of an identical study with mathematics students, we find that the perceptions of summative assessment are very different. We account for that difference by suggesting that students’ epistemic beliefs play a role in shaping these perceptions and conclude that, in designing summative assessment in higher education, generalised and centralised forces for change need to be tempered by contextual and disciplinary factors.     

The role of students’ employability perceptions on Portuguese higher education choices

In a context where mass higher education has eroded the job security once guaranteed by higher qualifications, students are more likely to view higher education as an ‘investment’ which should yield return in terms of their employability. The aim of this study is to understand whether Portuguese students consider employability as the main reason to choose to enrol in higher education, to choose a specific programme and to choose a specific higher education institution. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 60 first-year students, from universities and polytechnics, both public and private, and from three first-cycle study programmes (Arts, Pharmacy and Computer Engineering). The analysis is based on a qualitative study exploring Portuguese students’ perceptions underlying their higher education choices. Findings suggest that the majority of the students interviewed considered employability as the major reason to enrol in higher education, although its importance was largely undervalued in the choice of study programme and of institution.     

The role of social capital in students’ perceptions of progress in higher education

This paper aims to analyse the effects of students’ social relationships at university on students’ success. Specifically, whether a student with heterogeneous relationships obtains better academic results than a student whose relationships are mostly with classmates. Further, the research examines whether students’ social relationships make up for their parents’ lack of human capital. A survey was answered by a sample of 867 students from universities in the metropolitan region of Barcelona. The findings suggest that the effects of social relationships are not always positive. The benefits of social networks at university interact with the type of degree studied, the student’s dedication to studies, and the student’s social class. Perceptions of progress for each category of students is different: It is more positive for those with frequent heterogeneous relations, who do not work or do so for a few hours, and for those who are enrolled in “hard” science courses.     

The influence of multiperspectivity in history texts on students’ representations of a historical event

School history textbook narratives of a nation’s past often present limited perspectives, which may impede the aim of teaching history from multiple perspectives. Less is known about the influence of including multiple perspectives on students’ representations of the past. This study examines the extent to which students include multiple perspectives when processing a schoolbook text that includes multiple perspectives compared to a schoolbook history text containing fewer perspectives. Tenth grade students (N = 104) in four schools were randomly assigned to read one of two texts on the Dutch Revolt and asked to make a summary. Multiperspectivity was analysed through the representation of actors, aspects of scale, dimensions and historiography. The students working with the text having high multiperspectivity showed more perspectives in their representations. In the summaries, these students included significantly more perspectives than did the students using the text with fewer perspectives. Moreover, these students’ representations of the main actors were more nuanced. The students using the text with high multiperspectivity situated the conflict in a broader international context and integrated more historiographical dimensions. The insights generated by these outcomes emphasize the important role of textbooks when aiming to teach history from multiple perspectives.

     

The ‘nature of science’ in the school curriculum: the great survivor

This paper explores the ways in which the ‘nature of science’ (NoS) has been interpreted, accommodated and justified within school curricula since science was first schooled in the mid-nineteenth century. It explores how different interpretations of ‘the NoS’ have been invoked by those seeking to reform school science education in response to wider political, economic or social concerns such as the demand to ‘humanise’ school science teaching, to increase the supply of qualified scientists or to promote scientific literacy. It offers some comments upon the implications of these interpretations for current attempts to promote the ‘NoS’ in school science education. The focus of attention is England and, to a lesser extent, the USA but the issues raised are of contemporary relevance to many other parts of the world.     

‘You need a system’: exploring the role of data in the administration of university students and courses

Universities generate a mass of data related to students and the courses that they study. As such, ‘data work’ using digital technologies and digital systems is integral to educational administration within higher education. Drawing on in-depth interviews with administrative and managerial staff in an Australian university, this article examines the data practices and processes that have grown up around students and courses. In particular, the article explores the ‘back-stage’ issues surrounding data – e.g. concerns and tensions associated with appropriate uses of data; the organisational cultures that form around the use of data; and the (un)intended consequences of data work. These findings point towards an implicit ‘black-boxing’ of data that shapes the generation and use of digital data in ways that are predominantly restricted and bounded. The article concludes by considering how these constrained forms of data use might be problematised and reconsidered.     

The ‘secrets’ of Chinese students’ academic success: academic resilience among students from highly competitive academic environments

Abstract

Given Chinese students often perform well academically despite the challenges of their competitive academic environments, it is important to explore what enables the academic resilience of these students. Moreover, because the extant resilience literature is biased towards Western accounts of resilience, it is crucial that non-Western perspectives be added to this literature. In this study, three factors from family and school settings were examined: namely, parental supervision, school involvement and recognition, and school expectation of behaviour. We did so among 693 11th grade Chinese students from two of the largest provinces participating in the competitive college entrance examination in China. Participants completed a questionnaire comprising a series of individual, family, and school variables that were complemented by academic achievement data drawn from school records. Results showed that Chinese parents’ supervision and school involvement and recognition are significantly and negatively associated with low school commitment and individual conflict attitude, which are important protective factors in reducing adolescents’ risk of problem behaviours and promoting academic resilience. This study highlights the importance of taking a multidimensional approach to building academic resilience among those from highly competitive settings in China.     

The subjectivities of ‘included’ students with disabilities in schools

The contextual precept of this paper is to re-theorise inclusive education beyond technical rational solutions to the ‘problem’ of disability. Drawing on Foucauldian and critical disability theories, I make the case for the analysis of inclusive schooling through the lens of students’ ‘included’ subjectivities – notwithstanding the presence of diagnosed special educational needs. I contend that there is a theoretical mismatch between humanist inclusive schooling and the posthumanist position of disability: an epistemic fissure that impedes inclusive development. Through analysis of the voices of students with disabilities from two different schooling contexts in Australia and Spain, I demonstrate how fragmented virtues of normalcy suffused their subjectivities. I conclude the paper with a discussion of the roles that DisHuman disability studies might play in recasting inclusive schooling by troubling normative discourse.     

The role of students’ interests in self-regulated learning: The relationship between students’ interests, learning strategies and causal attributions

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between students’ interests, their use of certain specific learning strategies and causal attributions which they made for their academic achievement. In this manner, we attempted to explore the relationships between some important variables from three different, but connected phases of self-regulated learning: the forethought phase (interests), the performance control phase (learning strategies) and the self-reflective phase (causal attributions). Results confirmed the presumption that learning strategies could be a potential mediator in the relationship between students’ interests and their academic achievement. Also, results indicate that the causal dimension of controllability could have a partial mediating role between students’ academic achievement and their interests. Generally, our findings indicate a dynamic and cyclical nature of learning process — interest is an integral part of this process and it could be conceptualized as both a consequence and an antecedent of cognitive aspects of learning.     

The role of constructivist educational software on students’ learning regarding mechanical interaction

This paper mainly describes the role of the multimedia software package ‘Interactions between Objects’ on students’ learning of mechanical interaction forces and Newton’s laws. We designed and developed this software within social constructivism on the basis of 226 students’ initial conceptions (categorized in six categories), in order to help students construct appropriate knowledge about the subject. Teaching with the software was conducted in 13 primary, lower secondary and upper secondary school classes. In the software’s evaluation research 226 students (aged 11–16) and 13 teachers of the classes participated. Data analysis showed students’ substantial learning gains with respect to their initial alternative conceptions of the six conceptual categories. Particularly, the students’ incorrect answers to the post-test questionnaire have perceptibly decreased (a mean of 65%). In contrast, their correct answers to the questions reached high percentages, from 60% to 90% depending on the question and the students’ age. Also the teachers’ opinions and comments enhanced software’s evaluation. The contribution of the software’s specific characteristics on students’ learning is discussed along with implications for designing constructivist science learning tools.     

‘Me and maths’: towards a definition of attitude grounded on students’ narratives

The attitude construct is widely used by teachers and researchers in mathematics education. Often, however, teachers’ diagnosis of ‘negative attitude’ is a causal attribution of students’ failure, perceived as global and uncontrollable, rather than an accurate interpretation of students’ behaviour, capable of steering future action. In order to make this diagnosis useful for dealing with students’ difficulties in mathematics, it is necessary to clarify the construct attitude from a theoretical viewpoint, while keeping in touch with the practice that motivates its use. With this aim, we investigated how students tell their own relationship with mathematics, proposing the essay “Me and maths” to more than 1,600 students (1st to 13th grade). A multidimensional characterisation of a student’s attitude towards mathematics emerges from this study. This characterisation and the study of the evolution of attitude have many important consequences for teachers’ practice and education. For example, the study shows how the relationship with mathematics is rarely told as stable, even by older students: this result suggests that it is never too late to change students’ attitude towards mathematics.