Filling a curriculum gap in chemistry

In most science courses at secondary level, the teaching methods used are not tailored to present different approaches to meet the individual differences in pupils’ learning styles or motivation. Much in the detailed objectives, and blow‐by‐blow worksheet approach, will appeal to the conscientious pupil but may turn off the more creative and curious pupil.

Mini‐projects (problem solving at the bench) were used as a vehicle to motivate the curious pupils. Correlations of factors such as convergence/divergence, field‐dependence/field‐independence and motivational traits with ‘success’ in mini‐projects are set out in this paper. The evidence indicates that those who do best in practical problem solving of the mini‐project type are the curious, field‐independent and divergent pupils. However, all categories of pupils were stimulated to varying degrees by the projects.     

Regional Migration to and from Higher Education Institutions: Scale, Determinants and Outcomes

This paper examines patterns of movement to study by undergraduates and patterns of mobility into work by graduates. Using national data and a large-scale dataset, student movement across regions to Higher Education Institutions is described and modelled. The evidence points to a sizeable group of graduates who never move region and a significant proportion of graduates who move to study but then move back to their home region for work. Investigation is made of whether or not movement and mobility depend on the subject studied, the type of HE undertaken, the characteristics of the individual and the characteristics of the origin and destination regions. A hypothesis is proposed that the motive for movement is to secure greater rewards from Higher Education. However, those who move region to study report significantly lower satisfaction scores with their course of study. The implications of these findings for regional agencies, for institutions and for students are considered.     

The influence of a 6.5% carbohydrate-electrolyte solution on performance of prolonged intermittent high-intensity running at 30 degrees C

Nine male student games players consumed either flavoured water (0.1 g carbohydrate, Na+ 6 mmol x l(-1)), a solution containing 6.5% carbohydrate-electrolytes (6.5 g carbohydrate, Na+ 21 mmol x l(-1)) or a taste placebo (Na+ 2 mmol x l(-1)) during an intermittent shuttle test performed on three separate occasions at an ambient temperature of 30 degrees C (dry bulb). The test involved five 15-min sets of repeated cycles of walking and variable speed running, each separated by a 4-min rest (part A of the test), followed by 60 s run/60 s rest until exhaustion (part B of the test). The participants drank 6.5 ml x kg(-1) of fluid as a bolus just before exercise and thereafter 4.5 ml x kg(-1) during every exercise set and rest period (19 min). There was a trial order effect. The total distance completed by the participants was greater in trial 3 (8441 +/- 873 m) than in trial 1 (6839 +/- 512, P < 0.05). This represented a 19% improvement in exercise capacity. However, the trials were performed in a random counterbalanced order and the participants completed 8634 +/- 653 m, 7786 +/- 741 m and 7099 +/- 647 m in the flavoured water (FW), placebo (P) and carbohydrate-electrolyte (CE) trials, respectively (P = 0.08). Sprint performance was not different between the trials but was impaired over time (FW vs P vs CE: set 1, 2.41 +/- 0.02 vs 2.39 +/- 0.03 vs 2.39 +/- 0.03 s; end set, 2.46 +/- 0.03 vs 2.47 +/- 0.03 vs 2.47 +/- 0.02 s; main effect time, P < 0.01). The rate of rise in rectal temperature was greater in the carbohydrate-electrolyte trial (rise in rectal temperature/duration of trial, degrees C x h(-1); FW vs CE, P < 0.05; P vs CE, N.S.). Blood glucose concentrations were higher in the carbohydrate-electrolyte than in the other two trials (FW vs P vs CE:rest, 4.4 +/- 0.1 vs 4.3 +/- 0.1 vs 4.2 +/- 0.1 mmol x l(-1); end of exercise, 5.4 +/- 0.3 vs 6.4 +/- 0.6 vs 7.2 +/- 0.5 mmol x l(-1); main effect trial, P < 0.05; main effect time, P < 0.01). Plasma free fatty acid concentrations at the end of exercise were lower in the carbohydrate-electrolyte trial than in the other two trials (FW vs P vs CE: 0.57 +/- 0.08 vs 0.53 +/- 0.11 vs 0.29 +/- 0.04 mmol x l(-1); interaction, P < 0.01). The correlation between the rate of rise in rectal temperature (degrees C x h(-1)) and the distance completed was -0.91, -0.92 and -0.96 in the flavoured water, placebo and carbohydrate-electrolyte conditions, respectively (P < 0.01). Heart rate, blood pressure, plasma ammonia, blood lactate, plasma volume and rate of perceived exertion were not different between the three fluid trials. Although drinking the carbohydrate-electrolyte solution induced greater metabolic changes than the flavoured water and placebo solutions, it is unlikely that in these unacclimated males carbohydrate availability was a limiting factor in the performance of intermittent running in hot environmental conditions.     

Book reviews

Mir, Mustansir. Verbal Idioms of the Qur'ān. (Michigan Series on the Middle East, no. I). Ann Arbon University of Michigan, 1989. xxi+378 pp., glossary; US$ 21.95 (paperback).

Fiotini, Stanley and Mallia‐Milanes, Victor, eds. Malta. A Case Study in International Cross‐Currents. Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on the History of the Central Mediterranean held at the University of Malta, 13–17 December 1989. Msida: Malta University Publications, 1991. xxii+300pp. 17 plates, 8 text figures. M£5.

Bellamy, James A. ed. Studies in Near Eastern Culture and History in Memory of Ernest T. Abdel‐Massih. (Michigan Series on the Middle East, no. 2). Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, 1990. x+225pp.

Dajani‐Shakeel, Hadia and Messier, Ronald A. eds. The Jihād and its Times, dedicated to Andrew Stefan Ehrenkreutz. Ann Arbor: Center for Near Eastern and North African Studies, The University of Michigan, 1991. iii+135pp.

Minorités religieuses dans l'Espagne médiévale. (Nos. 63–64 of Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerranée). Aix‐en‐Provence: Édisud, 1992. FF 160.

Burckhardt, Titus. Fez, City of Islam. Translated by William Stoddart. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1992. 175pp. 58pl.

Jayyusi, Salma Kh., ed. The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Leiden: Brill, 1992. (Handbuch der Orientalistik, Erste Abteilung, The Near and Middle East, zwolfter Band), xix+1098 pp. 6 maps; 27 pages of colour and black and white illustrations. Hfl. 450.

Stetkevych, Jaroslav. The Zephyrs of Najd: The Poetics of Nostalgia in the Classical Arabic Nasib. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. xii+326pp.

Corbin, Henry. History of Islamic Philosophy. London: Kegan Paul International/Islamic Publications for The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 1993. xvii+445pp. £55.

Burrell, David B., C.S.C. Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993. xi, 225 pp. Cloth $29.95; paper $13.95.

Köprülü, Mehmed Fuad. Islam in Anatolia after the Turkish Invasion. Translated and edited by Gary Leiser. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993. xviii, 141pp.

Stetkevych, Suzanne Pinckney. The Mute Immortals Speak: Pre‐Islamic Poetry and the Poetics of Ritual (Myth and Poetics. Gen. ed. Gregory Nagy). Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993. xvi, 334pp.; appendix of Arabic texts.

L'Expulsió dels Moriscos. Conseqüències en el món islàmic i el món cristià. Sant Caries de la Ràpita 5–9 de desembre de 1990. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Cultura, 1994. 418pp.

Agius, Dionisius A. and Hitchcock, Richard, eds. The Arab Influence in Medieval Europe (Folia Scholastica Mediterranean Reading: Ithaca Press, 1994. 167pp. £30.

Davidson, Olga M. Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings (Myth and Poetics. Gen. ed. Gregory Nagy). Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1994. xi, 197pp.     

The process of conceptual change in force and motion during computer‐supported physics instruction

The process of students' conceptual change was investigated during a computer‐supported physics unit in a Grade 10 science class. Computer simulation programs were developed to confront students' alternative conceptions in mechanics. A conceptual test was administered as a pre‐, post‐, and delayed posttest to determine students' conceptual change. Students worked collaboratively in pairs on the programs carrying out predict–observe–explain tasks according to worksheets. While the pairs worked on the tasks, their conversational interactions were recorded. A range of other data was collected at various junctures during instruction. At each juncture, the data for each of 12 students were analyzed to provide a conceptual snapshot at that juncture. All the conceptual snapshots together provided a delineation of the students' conceptual development. It was found that many students vacillated between alternative and scientific conceptions from one context to another during instruction, i.e., their conceptual change was context dependent and unstable. The few students who achieved context independent and stable conceptual change appeared to be able to perceive the commonalities and accept the generality of scientific conceptions across contexts. These findings led to a pattern of conceptual change which has implications for instructional practices. The article concludes with consequent implications for classsrooms. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 859–882, 1999     

Interpretations of graphs by university biology students and practicing scientists: Toward a social practice view of scientific representation practices

Using graphs is a key social practice of professional science. As part of a research program that investigates the development of graphing practices from elementary school to professional science activities, this study was designed to investigate similarities and differences in graph‐related interpretations between scientists and college students engaged in collective graph interpretation. Forty‐five students in a second‐year university ecology course and four scientists participated in the study. Guided by domain‐ specific concerns, scientists' graph‐related activities were characterized by a large number of experience‐based, domain‐specific interpretive resources and practices. Students' group based activities were characterized by the lack of linguistic distinctions (between scientific terms) which led to ambiguities in group negotiations; there was also a lack of knowledge about specific organism populations which helped field ecologists construct meaning. Many students learned to provide correct answers to specific graphing questions but did not come to make linguistic distinctions or increase their knowledge of specific populations. In the absence of concerns other than to do well in the course, students did not appear to develop any general interpretive skills for graphs, but learned instead to apply the professor's interpretation. This is problematic because, as we have demonstrated, there are widely differing viable interpretations of the graph. Suggestions for changes in learning environments for graphing that should alleviate this problem are made. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 1020–1043, 1999