Contextual animation in multimedia learning materials for pre-adolescents: The saga of null results continues

BackgroundEmotional design approaches tend to be instructionally effective in the case of higher education learners. However, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of emotional design for children is limited. Contextual animation is one way that emotional design can be realized. Contextual animation refers to the non-expository animation of context-providing representational pictures.AimThis study examines the effects of contextual animation on learning outcomes and situational interest in the case of pre-adolescents.SampleParticipants included 50 children 9–11 year of age recruited from all parts of the Czech Republic.MethodParticipants studied exponential growth and public opinion polls from two, 3-min-long, narrated videos; one included contextual animation and the other did not (counterbalanced within-subject design with randomization). Each child participated separately in one online session with a research administrator.ResultsAlthough animated videos triggered interest (d = 0.18, 0.36), null results were found both as regards learning outcomes and maintained situational interest.ConclusionsThis study adds to a small body of literature pointing at limited effects of emotional design approaches on pre-adolescents. Additional studies with young audiences and using other forms of emotional design would be a welcome addition to the literature.     

A longitudinal study on boys’ and girls’ career aspirations and interest in technology

Background: More young people, boys and girls, are needed in technical studies and professions, as the relative number of students in technology-related studies has been decreasing in most industrialised countries. To overcome this decrease several countries implemented mandatory technology classes in the curriculum of secondary education.

Purpose: This study has two goals: exploring the evolution of pupils’ interest during the year(s) they attend the mandatory technology classes and exploring determining characteristics for differences in boys’ and girls’ attitude change over time.

Sample: This study focuses on data gathered in the first and second grade of the first cycle in general secondary education in the North region of Belgium, Flanders. In a first stage we selected a good representation of geographically spread schools (n = 20), from which over 1300 students participated.

Design and methods: A longitudinal study with eight measurement occasions spread over the course of two years is presented in order to capture the evolution of students’ attitudes, making use of a multilevel growth model analysis.

Results: The results show that students’ interest in technology decreases over time, although at the end of each grade interest is increasing again. Boys’ and girls’ interest in technology also evolves a little different in the first cycle of secondary education. For career aspirations we didn’t see any significant difference between boys and girls. Boys’ and girls’ aspirations decrease over time with a little increase by the end of the second grade. Students with a more technological curriculum also have more career aspirations in the field of technology than their peers with other curricula. Although students’ perceptions about technology as a subject for boys and girls are largely stable.

Conclusions: The evolution of students’ attitude is far from linear, this strengthens us in the choice for a more complex analysis model and the choice for more measuring points than only at the beginning and the end when analysing students’ attitudes towards technology. With this research we found that students interest and aspirations in the field of technology are not stable and do change in the first cycle of secondary education. Overall, we can conclude that if the goal of technology education at school maintains to promote ‘a larger number of students in technological oriented studies and professions’, there is still much to do.     

Current State and Development Trends of Education Policy Research in China in the Last Decade (2004–2013): A Statistical Analysis of Papers from Eight Core Chinese Journals

Abstract

The author conducted sampling and statistical analysis of papers on education policy research collected by the China National Knowledge Infrastructure in the period from the years 2004–2013. Under the current state of education policy research in China, the number of papers correlates positively with the year; the papers are concentrated in education journals; the researchers are primarily associated with institutions of higher education; and the studies cover a broad range of topics, while emphasizing the practice of education policy. The development trends of education policy research in China include a general rising trend for research on education policy; in the future, researchers from institutions of higher education will continue to be a dominant force in education policy research, and the authors’ regional distribution will continue to be imbalanced; education policy research will focus more on educational equity and improved quality, and studies of foreign education policies will continue to be a topic of interest.     

Educational Historiography of the Franco Regime: Analysis and Critical Review

Over the last decade, historico-educational studies of the Franco regime in Spain have undergone a remarkable development, even though the first studies of interest date back to the 1980s and even earlier. In consequence, we shall take these as our starting point although we shall, on occasion, refer to earlier studies, either for their relevance or for the scientific prestige of their authors. A thematic criterion has been preferred to a chronological one, after referring to certain studies of a general historiographic nature, essential for a first approximation to the theme. "Ideology and Education" "Educational Policy" and "New Themes" are the blocks into which the monographical studies have been distributed. This is, nevertheless, a methodological and flexible division, it being obvious that there can be no impermeable barriers between the analytic perspectives of a single question - in our case, that of education - and therefore some of them could well fit in two or even all three of the sections.     

Constructing the case study in victimology

This article advocates the use of case studies to illustrate the importance of victimology in the criminal justice curriculum. The case study of a particular victimization introduces emerging issues in criminal justice, and illuminates the responsibility of the criminal justice system to prevent and react to crime. Academic programs are challenged to develop and maintain students' interest in this theoretical framework. Case studies in victimology promote interdisciplinary knowledge, critical thinking and precise writing skills. They also provide students with experience in research, investigation and integration of information.     

Developing a science teacher education course that supports student teachers’ thinking and teaching about the nature of science

This paper reports on part of an ongoing research project in England concerning the Nature of Science (NOS). The particular focus is on the initial thinking of the graduate scientists starting a one-year, Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course and the way the course approaches adopted influence their views and understanding of NOS and their teaching. The research is set against a wealth of literature indicating that teachers find it difficult to teach curricula that emphasise NOS. Thus a key impetus for research in this area has been to look for ways that beginning teachers might be better prepared to face such challenges.

Sample

The paper draws on data from three cohorts of secondary PGCE students in a university–schools partnership, involving a total of 169 students.

Design and method

The research lies within a design research tradition. It has used mixed methods, involving written tasks, interviews and focus groups, with an iterative approach where the outcomes from one cohort have been used to inform course developments in successive years.

Results

The results from these cohorts suggest that, while the students starting the course have a less restricted view of NOS than indicated by some other studies, in most cases there is a lack of breadth and depth to their understanding. There is some evidence that the use of specific tasks focusing on NOS in university-based sessions may be helping to develop and deepen understanding. However, the impact of current approaches remains fairly limited and attempts to develop teaching practices often face considerable barriers in the school-based practicum.

Conclusions

Graduate science students’ understanding of NOS as they embark on the PGCE is not highly developed. Hence, the emphasis on aspects of NOS in the school curriculum presents a considerable challenge. This study suggests that there is a need to both further develop an explicit focus on NOS in university-based sessions and to develop closer relationships between schools and university faculty in seeking to support developments in classroom practice in this difficult area.     

A Model for Using Research Methodologies in Practice

Abstract

Practice domain and needs of a profession should determine development and use of research methodologies. The complexity and broad range of social work interventions require an approach to research that is more far-reaching, with greater depth, than offered by either the positivists or post-modernists. In this article, a model presents research as skills of social work practice, integrating the contentious practice research dichotomy. Acknowledging that differences in language and perceptions of practitioners and researchers create enormous challenges, a basic assumption in the model is that good practitioners conduct research in their implementation of practice. Juxtaposing practice components with research methodologies, case material illustrates the professional helping relationship as a shared conceptualization of reality, social work assessment as theory construction with need for validity and reliability, and use of triangulation to prevent drift and unplanned shifts in the intervention.     

Setting up and Sustaining Peer Support Systems in a Range of Schools over 20 Years

This article begins by detailing some of the key ideas behind the concept of peers helping peers. The history of peer support schemes in the UK and of the author's particular and important role in this development are explored. The use of Re-Evaluation Counselling in this model is described. She also details the processes of setting up and sustaining peer support schemes in schools. The factors that are key to these processes are identified and exemplified via case studies.     

The leeway of qualitative educational research: A case study

This article presents a case study into the question of how research-internal and research-external factors influence the leeway of qualitative research, and ultimately determine which questions can and cannot be addressed in research. First an overview is presented of the position of qualiative research in the field of education in The Netherlands. This position is then analysed by situating educational research in the particular research political context. In the second part of the article the authors focus on effective schools research, one of the strongest research programmes in Dutch educational studies, in order to show the consequences of the lack of a qualitative tradition.     

Mentoring for inclusion: A model class for special and general educators

Abstract

The following paper presents content and outcomes of a model class for instructing general and special educators in best practices of inclusive education. Key components of the class were (a) an emphasis on cooperative learning and team decision making, (b) highly structured problem‐solving activities, and (c) the use of in vivo case studies involving children with disabilities in local schools. These components were designed to model professional activities associated with the successful inclusion of children with disabilities in general education classrooms. Course content is supported by brief reviews of related research. Course outcomes, problems encountered, and recommendations for replication are presented.     

Understanding how social worker compassion fatigue and years of experience shape custodial decisions

BackgroundCompassion fatigue (i.e., a worker’s diminished ability to empathize with clients) is common among “helping workers” and can result in psychological detachment from clients as a coping mechanism.ObjectiveIn the present research, we explored the relationship between social workers’ compassion fatigue and years of job experience on hypothetical child custody case judgments.Participants and settingIn two separate studies, individuals with experience working with children in child dependency court (predominantly social workers, Study 1: N = 173, Study 2: N = 119) were recruited on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and read a vignette depicting a mother attempting to regain custody.ResultsSupporting hypotheses, compassion fatigue significantly mediated the relationship between increased years of social worker job experience on recommendations that a neglectful mother receive custody, Indirect Effect = .06, CIs [.026, .127] (Study 1). We also found preliminary support for our hypothesized theoretically derived serial path model, in which (a) social worker compassion fatigue predicts anticipated secondary traumatic stress associated with the child neglect case, B = .54, p = .0001; (b) secondary traumatic stress predicts detachment from the neglected child, B = .27, p = .0003; (c) detachment from the child predicts job efficacy cynicism B = .65, p < .0001; and (d) job efficacy cynicism predicts decisions to allocate custody to the neglectful mother, B = .46, p = .005 (Study 2).ConclusionOur research shows that compassion fatigue among social workers may change the lens through which they perceive cases of child abuse.     

Research Agendas and Computer Technology Visions: The Need for Closely Watched Classrooms

There are numerous research methodologies that may be applied to the study of computer technology, and each has the potential to provide insights into its usefulness. The selection of research methodologies should be driven by the nature of the questions under investigation rather than a predetermined idea that some research methods are superior to others. This article focuses on a particular methodology, case studies, and it describes their potential for making a unique contribution to our understanding of computer technology. The special value of case studies lies in helping us understand the complexities found in classrooms, where the multiple variables that influence computer use interact in complex ways. © 1999 IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers     

Aspects of consistency and inconsistency in secondary humanities PGCE courses with ‘perfect’ Ofsted grades

Abstract

Detailed enquiry into the learning process requires in‐depth case studies of individual learners, which involves the ‘subjects’ in considerable time commitments, and the risk of exposing their personal limitations as learners. Case studies into learning can be informative for the researcher, but could also be threatening to the researched. The present article considers a research project where a key principle was that the ‘research subjects’ should feel that they were benefiting from being involved in the research. The students who committed time to the project were considered to be colearners. The core of the article is a dialogue constructed around one colearner's comments, as a narrative device to illustrate the frustrations and rewards of being the ‘subject’ of the research process. The extent to which the composed text can be considered to represent the authentic voice of the colearner is discussed.     

Trends in Research in Chemical Education

Summaries

English

In this article, a major review of recent researches and developmental studies in chemical education is presented. The review summarizes and evaluates some 250 different articles and papers published mainly during the period 1975‐77, under the following headings: general research in chemical education, content‐oriented research, research into methods of chemical education, teaching aids and the use of educational technology, research in assessment and evaluation. Trends existing in the various research areas are identified, and future research needs and priorities suggested.     

Life history methodology: "narradigm" regained

Biographies, life histories and other modes of narrative research enjoy increasing popularity as an alternate research genre. However, its status as a legitimate research methodology continues to be challenged by the positivist/empiricist tradition with its artificial dichotomy between qualitative and quantitative approaches to research. This paper critically explores some of the joys and perils of narrative research and its value for educational research in general. In proposing biographical research as a counterculture to traditional methods, this paper examines the potential of biographies in understanding the lives of educators.     

Assessing Methods for Generalizing Experimental Impact Estimates to Target Populations

ABSTRACT

Randomized experiments are considered the gold standard for causal inference because they can provide unbiased estimates of treatment effects for the experimental participants. However, researchers and policymakers are often interested in using a specific experiment to inform decisions about other target populations. In education research, increasing attention is being paid to the potential lack of generalizability of randomized experiments because the experimental participants may be unrepresentative of the target population of interest. This article examines whether generalization may be assisted by statistical methods that adjust for observed differences between the experimental participants and members of a target population. The methods examined include approaches that reweight the experimental data so that participants more closely resemble the target population and methods that utilize models of the outcome. Two simulation studies and one empirical analysis investigate and compare the methods’ performance. One simulation uses purely simulated data while the other utilizes data from an evaluation of a school-based dropout prevention program. Our simulations suggest that machine learning methods outperform regression-based methods when the required structural (ignorability) assumptions are satisfied. When these assumptions are violated, all of the methods examined perform poorly. Our empirical analysis uses data from a multisite experiment to assess how well results from a given site predict impacts in other sites. Using a variety of extrapolation methods, predicted effects for each site are compared to actual benchmarks. Flexible modeling approaches perform best, although linear regression is not far behind. Taken together, these results suggest that flexible modeling techniques can aid generalization while underscoring the fact that even state-of-the-art statistical techniques still rely on strong assumptions.     

Research and Teaching: Conditions for a positive link

It has become increasingly clear over the past decade that the question of a positive link between research and teaching has no simple or general answer. At the same time, there may well be a positive link under particular conditions. This paper argues that a positive link can be due primarily to the processes, rather than the outcomes, inherent in research and teaching, and that, in particular, student-centred teaching and learning processes are intrinsically favourable towards a positive link, while more traditional teaching methods may at best lead to a positive link for the most able students, who in the perception of traditional academics are, of course, the future university teachers. This finding, in turn, leads to a rational explanation of the persistent myth of a general positive link. Finally, it is argued that pedagogic research and its outcomes could play an important role in strengthening the link.     

Weaving an interpretivist stance throughout mixed methods research

ABSTRACT

A recurring debate in mixed methods research involves the relationship between research methods and research paradigms. Whereas some scholars appear to assume that qualitative and quantitative research methods each necessarily belong with particular research paradigms, others have called for greater flexibility and have taken a variety of stances toward the integration of paradigms and methods in mixed-method studies. In this article, we review these arguments and stances, positioning ourselves in favour of flexible (but intentional) integration of any research method with any research paradigm. We then draw on a recent study of teachers’ experiences of professional development to provide an illustration of how a single paradigm can be used to inform the entirety of a mixed methods study, including study design, data collection, analysis and reporting. This illustration is particularly noteworthy since past mixed-method studies that have been grounded in a single paradigm have typically used the post-positivist paradigm, whereas our study involved an interpretive stance and a social constructivist epistemology. This article may, therefore, provide a useful resource for those considering the design of mixed methods studies as well as a practical demonstration to support theoretical claims in support of moving away from binary methods–paradigm associations and assumptions.     

Detection of Differential Item Functioning for More Than Two Groups: A Monte Carlo Comparison of Methods

ABSTRACT

Differential item functioning (DIF) assessment is a crucial component in test construction, serving as the primary way in which instrument developers ensure that measures perform in the same way for multiple groups within the population. When such is not the case, scores may not accurately reflect the trait of interest for all individuals in the population. Most DIF research has focused on the two groups case. However, in practice researchers may wish to investigate DIF for more than two groups; that is, for examinee ethnicity, nation of origin, or treatment condition, among others. DIF detection methods for such cases have been proposed, but little empirical work has been done to investigate their performance. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to use a simulation methodology to compare four proposed methods for assessing DIF in the multiple groups case, including the Generalized Mantel-Haenszel test, Generalized Logistic Regression, Lord’s chi-square test, and the multiple group alignment procedure. Results showed that the Generalized Mantel-Haenszel and alignment procedures provided the optimal combination of Type I error control and power.