A sociocultural perspective on mediated activity in third grade science

This ethnographic study of a third grade classroom examined elementary school science learning as a sociocultural accomplishment. The research focused on how a teacher helped his students acquire psychological tools for learning to think and engage in scientific practices as locally defined. Analyses of classroom discourse examined both how the teacher used mediational strategies to frame disciplinary knowledge in science as well as how students internalized and appropriated ways of knowing in science. The study documented and analyzed how students came to appropriate scientific knowledge as their own in an ongoing manner tied to their identities as student scientists. Implications for sociocultural theory in science education research are discussed. John Reveles is an assistant professor in the Elementary Education Department at California State University, Northridge. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2005. Before pursuing his Ph.D., he worked as a bilingual elementary school teacher for 3 years. His research focuses on the development of scientific literacy in elementary school settings; sociocultural influences on students' academic identity; equity of access issues in science education; qualitative and quantitative research methods. Within the Michael D. Eisner College of Education, he teaches elementary science curriculum methods courses, graduate science education seminars, and graduate research courses. Gregory Kelly is a professor of science education at Penn State University. He is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and physics teacher. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1994. His research focuses on classroom discourse, epistemology, and science learning. This work has been supported by grants from Spencer Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Education. He teaches courses concerning the uses of history, philosophy, sociology of science in science teaching and teaching and learning science in secondary schools. He is editor of the journal Science Education. Richard Durán is a Professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara. His research and publications have been in the areas of literacy and assessment of English Language Learners and Latino students. He has also conducted research on after school computer clubs, technology and learning as part of the international UC Links Network. With support from the Kellogg Foundation, he is implementing and investigating community and family-centered intervention programs serving the educational progress of Latino students in the middle and high school grades.     

Performance models of undergraduate students on computer-assisted instruction in elementary logic

Performance data were collected for students taking the computer-assisted instruction course in logic at Stanford University. The fit of the data to the Suppes, Zanotti, and Fletcher trajectory model was found to be good, though a systematic deviation from the model suggested some changes in the curriculum. A quantitative approach was used to pinpoint areas for curriculum revision. In addition, the model was evaluated for use as the basis of a predictive control mechanism.This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. NSF-SED74-15016. The authors wish to thank Mario Zanotti for several discussions of the original model, and Lauri Kanerva for the use of his program for exponential regression analysis.     

Individualizing through treatment matching: A necessary but not sufficient approach

The effects of various alternative treatments (modules), designed to compensate for student differences in precourse memory abilities (processing and retrieval skills) and motivation (anxiety, curiosity), were investigated for lessons differing in content and task requirements. Performance on each module was compared to performance on the original (mainline) instructional module for 63 to 171 students in the Air Force Advanced Instructional System’s inventory management course. Interaction analyses on lesson times-to-criterion and criterion test scores indicated that the compensating treatments were partially effective in improving the performance of low-memory or low-reading ability students, low-curious students, or high-anxious students. Additional benefits that may be expected from an individualization approach that attempts to modify students’ cognitive and affective learning strategies are discussed. This research was supported by Air Force Human Resources Laboratory Contract F33615-73-C-4004. Requests for reprints should be sent to Barbara L. McCombs, Denver Research Institute, Social Systems Research and Evaluation Division, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208.     

Engaging Undergraduate Students in Research Activities: Are Research Universities Doing a Better Job?

Engaging undergraduate students in research activities has been advocated as an innovative strategy to improve American higher education (Boyer Commission, Reinventing undergraduate education: A blueprint for America’s research universities. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Stony Brook, NY, 1998). This study compared the frequency of undergraduate student research experiences at different types of colleges and universities from the early 1990s through 2004. The results indicate that the frequency of student research experiences increased since 1998 at all types of institutions and that students at research universities were not more likely than their counterparts elsewhere to have such experiences. The findings were consistent across major fields. To live up to their claims, research universities must find additional ways to involve undergraduates in research with faculty members. Shouping Hu is Associate Professor of Higher Education at Florida State University. He received his M.S. degree in Economics and Ph.D. in Higher Education from Indiana University. His research and scholarship focuses on postsecondary access and persistence, college student experience, and higher education finance. George D. Kuh is Chancellor’s Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University Bloomington. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa. His research focuses on the quality of undergraduate education. Joy Gaston Gayles is Associate Professor in Adult and Higher Education at North Carolina State University. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Shaw University, Master’s degree from Auburn University, and Ph.D. in Higher Education from The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on college student learning and development.     

The Cross-Curriculum Manager: Maximizing the Potential of Learners

Mike Reading happened to visit the NAPCE stand at the Education Show, and commented that his school had found the NAPCE resource pack From Head of Year to Year Curriculum Coordinator? very useful in their developments. So a while later he was contacted to write an account for the journal!
This account gives a sense of the particular flavour of the school, which Mike himself suggests is unusual, and also the ways in which one role can become more highly connected and central to the school, especially if it is contributing to an explicit focus on learning.
Mike is Key Stage Manager at George Spencer Foundation School and Technology College. He trained at The University College of Ripon and York St John, and started his career in education as a Religious Education teacher in Oldham before being Head of Department in Grantham. From this position he was appointed to a senior role in his present school. He has studied the contribution which Quality Management makes to secondary school management and gained a Masters degree at Nottingham Trent University.     

Thought reform and education: A view from the University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Kors has received the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 1987 he was elected to the University of Pennsylvania Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility after opposing what he regarded as policies of “thought-reform” introduced on his campus. Carole Iannone is AQ's Managing Editor.     

Expanding the scope of anatomical sciences: the case of "Human evolution: The fossil evidence" course at the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University

The Anatomy Department at Tel-Aviv University Medical School offers its students an elective course of 26 didactic hours on human evolution. The course is open to students from all faculties, who must fulfill all academic requirements, without a prerequisite of a background in anatomy. Approximately 120 students attend annually, a third of them are nonmedical students who major in philosophy, archeology, and sociology. This article discusses the course's contributions to students' understanding of a scientific concept that a scientific theory can be contradicted by new evidence, because facts govern science. Also, research methods of applying scientific principles establish the understanding of the human body, which evidently contributes to health and medicine. In the classes, the students are divided into mini-groups of 2-3 students, while the lecturer moves among students to examine fossils. In addition, analogies, open-discussions, and explanations accompany the tangible experiences. The lecturer of the course is an experienced anthropologist-anatomist researcher. He is a role-model and a mentor, sharing with the students his belief that a scientist should be persistent in his research to overcome difficult circumstances. Students, regardless of their backgrounds, express high appreciation of the course in their feedback questionnaires. The message conveyed by this course is that not only knowledge counts but also its integration with scientific principles. This course teaches us that science can bring students from different areas to study together and share ideas. In conclusion, this is a unique course in the eyes of the faculty and students alike.     

The economics of the University of the Air of Japan

According to the present plan, the enrollment of the University of the Air of Japan will be approximately 30,000 students when it reaches its steady state. Its current expenditure is estimated to be Yen4.1 billion at 1979 prices; adding the annual cost of facilities and equipment and the service that the National Center for Development of Broadcast Education performs for the university, the total amounts to Yen 5.0–7.1 billion. Adding this to the students' study expenses, Yen 6.7–8.7 billion will be required to operate the university. About 50–60% of the cost will be borne by the national treasury. The current expenditure of the university is estimated to be Yen 171,000–237,000 per equivalent undergraduate.As compared with the current expenditure in the humanities and social sciences programs of conventional universities, the academic structures of which are similar to that of the University of the Air of Japan, the current expenditure per equivalent undergraduate is estimated to be 1/4, 1/3, and 2/3 of that at national universities, public universities and day programs of private universities, respectively, and equal to that of evening programs of private universities.From the viewpoint of cost per graduate, it is equal to that of evening programs of private universities, their day programs, public universities, and national universities, when the graduation rate is 60%, 50%, 25%, and 20%, respectively.     

学术、人事与私德：陈独秀被免除北大文科学长论析

1919年春陈独秀被免除文科学长,不久离开北京大学,这是他人生的一大转捩。陈独秀作为文科学长疏于治学,同人喷有烦言;民初北大人事素来复杂,文科为浙籍太炎门生所把持。相对而言,陈独秀人事孤弱,又与他们怨隙颇深,难以在北大立足;因其私德不检、生活放浪,授人以柄,直接导致他被免除学长一职。陈独秀被免除学长,以及不久离开北大,预示着北大由启蒙而学术的学风转向,还隐含着他对政治理想的追求而做出的最终选择。     

The Cross-Curriculum Manager: Maximizing the Potential of Learners

Mike Reading happened to visit the NAPCE stand at the Education Show, and commented that his school had found the NAPCE resource pack From Head of Year to Year Curriculum Coordinator? very useful in their developments. So a while later he was contacted to write an account for the journal!

This account gives a sense of the particular flavour of the school, which Mike himself suggests is unusual, and also the ways in which one role can become more highly connected and central to the school, especially if it is contributing to an explicit focus on learning.

Mike is Key Stage Manager at George Spencer Foundation School and Technology College. He trained at The University College of Ripon and York St John, and started his career in education as a Religious Education teacher in Oldham before being Head of Department in Grantham. From this position he was appointed to a senior role in his present school. He has studied the contribution which Quality Management makes to secondary school management and gained a Masters degree at Nottingham Trent University.     

Are the Factors Affecting Dropout Behavior Related to Initial Enrollment Intensity for College Undergraduates?

We use data from the 1990/1994 Beginning Post-Secondary Survey to determine whether the factors associated with long-term attrition from higher education differ for students who initially enrolled part-time as compared to for students who initially enrolled full-time. Using a two-stage sequential decision model to analyze the initial enrollment intensity decision jointly with attrition, we find no evidence of correlation in the unobservables that necessitates joint estimation, but substantial evidence that the factors associated with attrition differ by initial enrollment status. The timing of initial enrollment, academic performance, parental education, household characteristics, and economic factors had a substantially greater impact on those initially enrolled full-time, while racial and ethnic characteristics had a greater impact on those initially enrolled part-time. The results of our study suggest that separate specifications are necessary to identify at-risk full-time as compared with at-risk part-time students. The data employed here were generated while working under a grant supported in part by the Association for Institutional Research, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the National Science Foundation under the Association for Institutional Research 1999 Improving Institutional Research in Post-secondary Educational Institutions Grant Program. The Spencer Foundation Small Grants program provided funding for the analysis. Leslie Stratton gratefully acknowledges additional support from a 2001 Faculty Excellence Award from Virginia Commonwealth University. Referees from the 2005 Southern Economic Association meetings and from Research in Higher Education provided very helpful comments. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Spencer Foundation, the Association for Institutional Research, the National Center for Education Statistics, or the National Science Foundation.     

A Virtual Language Course Via the Internet: An Example of Good Practice

The instructor in a course in German writing offered electronically at the University of Konstanz in Germany to students at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Ias¸i describes the course. He has used it to teach different styles of writing interactively and to initiate his students in the use of the computer and the Web for the undertaking of research in German literature. He has attempted to structure and to operate his course in such a way as to bring the special characteristics of on-line teaching and learning to the fore and not simply to replicate a traditional course on-line, a frequent situation with on-line teaching and learning.     

Ferdinand Freudenstein

The Freudenstein equation, appearing for the first time in the doctoral dissertation of Ferdinand Freudenstein in 1954, is widely acknowledged to be a turning point in modern analytical kinematics. Professor Freudenstein (1926–2006) during his long career at Columbia University, together with his students, made outstanding research contributions in almost all areas of kinematics and mechanisms, and his direct and indirect influence can be readily seen in teaching, research and industrial practice in the area of mechanisms and machines. In this article the life and work of Ferdinand Freudenstein is revisited.     

The role of foundation programmes in science education: The UNIFY programme at the University of Limpopo,South Africa

Since its inception in 1992, the University of the North's,¹ Science Foundation Year (UNIFY) Programme has provided access to higher education to over 1500 previously disadvantaged² students. However, there has always been doubt about whether the concept of a foundation programme is a worthwhile endeavour. To date, government has not yet fully acknowledged the value of programmes such as UNIFY. This may be attributed, amongst others, to insufficient evidence on the crucial role of programmes of this nature. This paper gives a view of the valuable contribution UNIFY has played in increasing the quality and the quantity of science graduates at the University of the North in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. A tracer study of the performance of ex-UNIFY³ students to that of direct entry⁴ students, in the science programmes at the University of the North shows that ex-UNIFY students perform better than the direct entry students. This reflects the importance of foundation programmes in higher education.     

项目教学法的可实施性探索——项目教学法在《计算机应用基础》教学中的运用

本文通过《计算机应用基础》课程项目教学的研究,探索该课程的改革之路,提出从教材建设入手,切合实际地引入"项目教学"等教学法,并通过任务分解的方式进行项目实施,将专业知识和职业教育融入到计算机基础课的教学中,真正提高职业学校的《计算机应用基础》项目教学法的教学效果。     

蔡元培与北大校风的重塑(1917—1918)

在担任北京大学校长的最初两年时间里,蔡元培对于大学的体认,重在实际行动而非文字建构.他一上任就表示要把北大建成研究高深学问的大学,这也得到了北大师生的认可与支持.在《北京大学日刊》上刊出有关改良图书馆、组织进德会等报道,向各方传达出了北大正在发生的转变.蔡元培对北大校风与学风的重塑,使得北大由官僚养成所逐渐转变为新文化运动的先锋,初步完成了朝向现代意义的大学的转变,也为迎接此后的五四新文化运动做好了准备.     

论思想道德修养课教学中的情感投入

《思想道德修养》课教师要敬业爱生 ,建立良好的师生人际关系 ;要具有高超地教学艺术 ,创造良好的课堂氛围 ;要做到情在行中 ,率先垂范 ;要有肯定积极的情感 ,因势利导 ;要做到情中有严 ,严中有度 ;爱学生要公道正派 ,一视同仁 ,沟通师生之间的情感 ,把教师的教与学生的学带向成功的彼岸     

Engineering Education and Technical Documentation: the Experience of the Civil Engineering School of Barcelona

The objective of this paper is to present the experience of the ETS Ingenieros de Caminos of the Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, in the training of engineering students for a better mastery of specialized information and documentation. The paper defines what the authors’ approach to what an engineer is and what his/her abilities should be. Some aspects related to methodology of access to documentation, as well as the existing facilities at the Technical University of Catalonia are also presented. Finally, the role of computers in engineering education and in handling technical information is discussed     

Impact of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research in Mathematics and Biology on the Development of a New Course Integrating Five STEM Disciplines

Funded by innovative programs at the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Richmond faculty in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer science teamed up to offer first- and second-year students the opportunity to contribute to vibrant, interdisciplinary research projects. The result was not only good science but also good science that motivated and informed course development. Here, we describe four recent undergraduate research projects involving students and faculty in biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science and how each contributed in significant ways to the conception and implementation of our new Integrated Quantitative Science course, a course for first-year students that integrates the material in the first course of the major in each of biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and physics.