Students’ Overuse of Linearity: An Exploration in Physics

In mathematics education, a vast amount of research has shown that students of different ages have a strong tendency to apply linear or proportional models anywhere, even in situations where they are not applicable. For example, in geometry it is known that many students believe that if the sides of a figure are doubled, the area is doubled too. However, also history of science provides several cases of thinkers who inadequately postulated linear relations to describe situations. This article focuses on secondary school students’ over-reliance on linearity in physics. Now and then, science educators report students’ tendency to assume and impose linear relations in physics, but—as far as we know—no substantial efforts were undertaken to study this phenomenon systematically. We conducted an empirical investigation aimed at identifying the competence of 8th- and 11th-graders—before and after being taught the relevant physical topics—to qualitatively grasp various situations in physics, as well as their tendency to quantify that qualitative insight linearly. The results provide an ambivalent picture of students’ overuse of linearity in physics: Although linear reasoning is sometimes used as a default strategy, even after instruction that addresses the relevant physical contents, this study also indicates that context is taken into account more often than is suggested by research on mathematical problem solving.     

Framework for Empirical Research on Science Teaching and Learning

In view of the research on education—and subject-related education in particular—that has been conducted in recent years, it would seem useful to describe the current state and future trends of research on science teaching and learning. In the present article, research findings are described, the deficits of science education are analyzed, and medium- and long-term research goals are specified from the perspective of an interdisciplinary cooperative effort between specialists in the fields of empirical educational research; the psychology of learning and instruction; and biology, chemistry, and physics education. Revised and supplemented version of Fischer, H. E., Klemm, K., Leutner, D., Sumfleth, E., Tiemann, R., and Wirth, J. (2003). Naturwissenschaftsdidaktische Lehr-Lernforschung: Defizite und Desiderata [Natural science-didactical learning research: Deficits and desiderata]. Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften, 9, 179–208.     

Student-centred instruction and learning processes in physics

During the 1970s, student-centred instruction—that is, “play orientation in physics education” (Spielorientierter Unterricht)—was at the centre of curriculum development at the Institute of Physics Education in Bremen. During the past decade, we investigated this kind of instruction with a particular focus on students' learning processes using a situated cognition perspective. Our research group at the Institute conducted several empirical studies of physics learning for different age groups. The aim of these case studies was to construct detailed understandings of how individual learning processes unfold. On the basis of these studies, we attempt to design physics lessons more effectively than they have been in the past. This paper exemplifies our approach providing information about the theoretical and methodological frameworks, the main outcomes of our studies; and reflections about the possibilities for “more effective” student-centred instruction.     

Web-based education: A reality check

Conclusion Developing an easy-to-use, complete, practical, reliable, and cost-effective solution for delivering training and education on the Internet has required considerable research and development. We have found that off-the-shelf technologies offer only partial solutions, at best. Even when the software problems were solved, however, we found that our work was just beginning. An effective solution requires software technology, but expertise in instructional design has been equally important. The learning environments our clients create on the Internet have the potential for both “high tech” and “high touch.” These clients are finding ways to reach beyond the physical limitations of the classroom, but—perhaps more significantly—they are using the system to reach beyond the limiting assumptions of the classroom as well. As they—and we—do so, we will begin to understand the ways in which the Net really is a new medium.     

Fermion number fractionization

Solitons emerge as non-perturbative solutions of non-linear wave equations in classical and quantum theories. These are non-dispersive and localised packets of energy — remarkable properties for solutions of non-linear differential equations. In the presence of such objects, the solutions of Dirac equation lead to the curious phenomenon of ‘fractional fermion number’. Under normal conditions the fermion number takes strictly integral values. In this article, we describe this accidental discovery and its manifestation in polyacetylene chains, which has led to the development of organic conductors. (left) Kumar Rao is a Postdoctoral Fellow at PRL, Ahmedabad. He is interested in particle physics phenomenology as probed in particle colliders and formal aspects of quantum field theory. (right) Narendra Sahu is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Lancaster University, UK. His main research area includes Cosmology and Astroparticle physics. Currently he is working on dark matter and matter anti-matter asymmetry of the universe. (center) P K Panigrahi’s research interests are in the area of quantum computation, solitons in Bose Einstein condensates & nonlinear optical media. He is also deeply interested in science education and derives pleasure from long weekend walks.     

Symmetry principles and conservation laws in atomic and subatomic physics — 2

This article is the second part of our review of the important role that symmetry plays in atomic and subatomic physics. We will concentrate on the discrete symmetries — parity, charge conjugation, and time reversal — that have played a significant part in the development of the ‘standard model’ of particle physics during the latter part of the 20th century. The importance of experimental tests of these symmetries, in both atomic and particle physics, and their sensitivity to new phenomena is also discussed. To conclude, we describe how ‘symmetry breaking’ in the standard model leads to the generation of mass via the Higgs mechanism and how the search for evidence of this symmetry violation is one of the principal goals of the Large Hadron Collider, which began operating at CERN, Switzerland in 2009.     

The importance of being ignorant

In many real life situations, we have to draw conclusions from data which are not complete and have been affected by measurement errors. Such problems have been addressed from the time of Bayes and Laplace (late 1700’s) using concepts which parallel Boltzmann’s use of entropy in thermal physics. The idea is to assign probabilities to different possible conclusions from a given set of data. A critical — and sometimes controversial — input is a ‘prior probability’, which represents our knowledge before any data are given or taken! This body of ideas is introduced in this article with simple examples.     

Great experiments in physics

In 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson of Bell Telephone Laboratories in USA discovered weak microwave radiation coming from all directions which was soon realised to be a relic from a hot dense early phase of our Universe—the ‘big bang’. This article focuses on the key experimental techniques and innovations which made this momentous—and accidental!—discovery possible. Amit Roy is at the Nuclear Science Centre, New Delhi, building a superconducting linac booster for the pelletron accelerator. He spent over two decades at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai investigating nuclei using accelerators and probing symmetries in physics. His hobbies are books and music.     

Systematic comparison of solved problems as a cooperative learning task

Problem-solving skills and understanding of domain, knowledge (e.g., fighting misconceptions) are important goals in both secondary and tertiary science education. A prototype of an instructional task is presented which aims at improved problem-solving skills based on understanding of domain knowledge. In this task, comparing carefully selected solved problems by groups of students is utilised as a learning activity for the acquisition of adequate problem schemata. The task is designed as a part of the so-called UBP-program (UBP=Understanding Based Problem solving) currently being developed, for education in science. The result of an evaluative study for the field of mechanics is presented. The UBP-task appears apt to improve problem-solving skills at a less advanced level of physics education (e.g., 10th grade), especially for students normally performing poorly—who are often girls.     

An exploratory study into the complexity of relations between physics lecturers’ crafting of practice and students’ expectations of quality teaching

This study contributes to research that characterises the affective learning that is evoked and taken on by students in response to their perceptions of their contextual learning environments. Interview-discussions were held with lecturers of both introductory and higher-level physics courses (n = 3) concerning how they formulated their patterns of teaching in terms of a particular conceptual framing that they considered to best optimize making learning possible. Subsequently their students (n = 212) were asked with written questions, and some select follow-up interview-discussions, to describe what they expected from ‘a good physics lecturer’. The relationships between these two things—the lecturer’s crafting of practice and the students’ expectations of quality teaching—were investigated. Results show that students’ expectations tend to match their lecturers’ practice, indicating that students are strongly influenced by a contextually based appreciation of ‘good’ teaching.     

A new formulation of the ethical self through kierkegaard’s notion of subjectivity: in search of a new moral education

This paper examines in detail the distinctive features of Kierkegaard’s notion of subjectivity in an attempt to find a new theoretical formulation of moral education; that is, a self-regarding—as opposed to an other-regarding—ethics of moral education. Heavily relying upon an existentialist line of ethical questioning, my aspiration underlying this investigation is not presumptuous in claiming that the self-regarding approach to moral education can—or should—compensate the other-regarding one. For it reveals an ethically non-trivial aspect of human subjectivity which has been overlooked by dominant approaches to moral education, like the moral reasoning and care-ethics models, in such a way as to suggest a way of diagnosing the moral predicament in the contemporary (Korean) society.     

The 21st Century: The Century of the American Research University

Higher education in America has experienced periodic “inflection points” that have served to significantly alter the higher education landscape and dramatically change the focus and actions of the American research university community. We are on the leading edge of a new inflection point that could be—despite prevailing economic challenges—an opportunity for higher education to meet and address some of the great challenges facing our nation, such as economic competitiveness, health care and health care delivery, and environmental sustainability. These are challenges higher education is, in fact, uniquely suited to address.     

Wallerstein’s world-systems analysis in comparative education: A case study

Since the 1970s, using his world-systems analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein has developed a wide-ranging framework for the social sciences, with potential applications for comparative educational research. In this paper we outline key aspects of Wallerstein’s theorising, and then analyse the uptake, understandings, and applications of his analysis in the field of comparative and international education, through a case study of the Comparative Education Review (CER) journal from 1980 to 2008. This paper examines how, and how widely, his analysis has been adopted and interpreted. Our analysis highlights significant and—given the broader emphasis in comparative education on questions of education and development—surprising absences in the application of this approach. We conclude by arguing for the use and development of three critical features of his analysis in comparative work, as relevant and timely interventions in the field.     

Differentiation and social selectivity in German higher education

In this paper we investigate social selectivity in access to higher education in Germany and, unlike most previous studies, explicitly devote attention to semi-tertiary institutions such as the so-called universities of cooperative education. Drawing on rational choice models of educational decisions we seek to understand which factors influence upper secondary graduates from different social backgrounds in their choices of diverse tertiary institutions in Germany. We find that scholastic performance, expected job security, study duration, monetary costs and preferences for study content considerably contribute to the creation of socially selective choice patterns of post-secondary careers. The characteristics of semi-tertiary institutions—such as universities of cooperative education that combine firm-based training with tertiary education—constitute a potential alternative that could reduce inequities in access to higher learning.     

The relationship between performance on mathematical word problems and language proficiency for students learning through the medium of Irish

Ireland has two official languages—Gaeilge (Irish) and English. Similarly, primary- and second-level education can be mediated through the medium of Gaeilge or through the medium of English. This research is primarily focused on students (Gaeilgeoirí) in the transition from Gaeilge-medium mathematics education to English-medium mathematics education. Language is an essential element of learning, of thinking, of understanding and of communicating and is essential for mathematics learning. The content of mathematics is not taught without language and educational objectives advocate the development of fluency in the mathematics register. The theoretical framework underpinning the research design is Cummins’ (1976). Thresholds Hypothesis. This hypothesis infers that there might be a threshold level of language proficiency that bilingual students must achieve both in order to avoid cognitive deficits and to allow the potential benefits of being bilingual to come to the fore. The findings emerging from this study provide strong support for Cummins’ Thresholds Hypothesis at the key transitions—primary- to second-level and second-level to third-level mathematics education—in Ireland. Some implications and applications for mathematics teaching and learning are presented.

Catalyzing country ownership and aid effectiveness: Role of the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative Catalytic Fund

This article examines the contribution of the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) global partnership in strengthening aid effectiveness in the education sector, and specifically how the implementation modalities of the EFA-FTI Catalytic Fund (CF) have contributed to this strengthening. The empirical findings are based on a review covering the period 2005–2007, when the CF grant was first established. The review includes an assessment of the quality of the education sector plans for 25 countries in the partnership, the implementation modalities of the CF grant in 18 countries, and feedback from countries’ participants. The qualitative assessment of the CF implementation modalities is based on three areas—alignment, harmonization, and managing for results—and uses a good practice checklist based on the Paris Declaration partnership commitments. Progress on the good practice checklist in the education sector is compared to progress at the country level as a whole; the latter is derived from the Aid Effectiveness Profiles prepared by the World Bank. The review of the sample countries finds that in the education sector, alignment was stronger than at the country level, progress toward harmonization was somewhat stronger, and managing for results was the same as at the country level. The article concludes that while the FTI has contributed to improving aid effectiveness, moving forward requires different actions at the two levels—global and country level—on which the partnership operates.     

Models and Modelling in Physics Education: A Critical Re-analysis of Philosophical Underpinnings and Suggestions for Revisions

The model-based view (MBV) of science education, which strives for authenticity in science teaching, is currently seeking support from the philosophical positions related to the Semantic View of Theories (SVT). These recent advances are promising steps towards establishing a robust philosophical framework, but they need revision in so far as they are meant to apply to physics and physics education. It is suggested here that in physics education, attention needs to be guided to the notion of the empirical reliability of models and modelling, and to the methodological question of how empirical reliability is established in the process of making a match between theory and experiment. The suggested picture – intended for the purposes of physics teacher education – replaces the current more limited philosophical frameworks used in science education with one of a wider scope. Moreover, the revised philosophical background gives a more authentic picture of physics as science, and the modelling activity within it, than the other current stances in the science education.     

Chinese perceptions of the interface between school and museum education

The current political and social backdrop in China that is characterized by rapid educational reforms to the K-12 education system, rapid growth in the number of science museum institutions, and Central Government policy which encourages collaboration between museums and school has the potential to be fertile ground for meaningful engagement between museums and schools. Notwithstanding, the Chinese K-12 education system generally does not utilize museum resources to support the curriculum, as is common in Western countries. This hermeneutic phenomenographic study elucidates the current Chinese views and perceptions among three stakeholders—school teachers, museum staffs and science educators—around this collaborative concept. The outcomes demonstrate that strongly entrenched cultural views and long-standing practices among stakeholder groups are obstacles to meaningful collaboration despite Central Government policy which encourages such engagement. The cultural values and perceptual views of stakeholder groups were discerned with the purpose of promoting mutual understandings and ultimately enabling meaningful collaboration in support of K-12 education in China.     

Higher education in East Asia and Singapore: rise of the Confucian Model

The paper reviews Asia–Pacific higher education and university research, focusing principally on the “Confucian” education nations Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong China, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam. Except for Vietnam, these systems exhibit a special developmental dynamism—still playing out everywhere except Japan—and have created a distinctive model of higher education more effective in some respects than systems in North America, the English-speaking world and Europe where the modern university was incubated. The Confucian Model rests on four interdependent elements: (1) strong nation-state shaping of structures, funding and priorities; (2) a tendency to universal tertiary participation, partly financed by growing levels of household funding of tuition, sustained by a private duty, grounded in Confucian values, to invest in education; (3) “one chance” national examinations that mediate social competition and university hierarchy and focus family commitments to education; (4) accelerated public investment in research and “world-class’ universities. The Model has downsides for social equity in participation, and in the potential for state interference in executive autonomy and academic creativity. But together with economic growth amid low tax regimes, the Confucian Model enables these systems to move forward rapidly and simultaneously in relation to each and all of mass tertiary participation, university quality, and research quantity and quality.     

Promising Findings on Preschoolers’ Emergent Literacy and School Readiness In Arts-integrated Early Childhood Settings

An approach to early childhood education that integrates visual and performing arts throughout the preschool curriculum—Art as a Way of Learning—was implemented in a program (Promoting and Supporting Early Literacy through the Arts) designed to improve the emergent literacy and school readiness of at-risk young children in community-based preschool settings. A quasi-experimental pre-post treatment-only design was used to explore this program’s potential effects in a real-world setting. Preliminary results revealed improvements in young children’s emergent literacy on a number of targeted and standardized measures after participation in the program. This arts-integrated approach to the teaching of and learning in young children shows considerable promise and warrants a rigorous test of its effects.