Students' perceptions of teaching and learning in first-year university physics

The transition from school to university involves substantial change in the structure and organization of teaching, and in the nature and purpose of learning contexts. This paper, which reports some data from a broader study of learning and teaching in first year university physics, focuses on aspects of the school-university transition. In particular, we report perceptions of first year physics students about how they should learn physics, what it is intended they should learn, and what they believe to be the functions of the various teaching situations in which they are placed.     

Student Performance and the Cost of Failure

This paper examines student performance and calculates the theoretical cost of academic failure by Australian undergraduates, using factors implicit in government funding formulae. In order to survive, higher education institutions have had to diversify their funding base and at the same time the government appears now to perceive its contributions as a subsidy to university students, rather than as being an investment in society's broad human infrastructure. The demand for accountability has increased, and output-based funding is much discussed. The ultimate university output is student success, and governments could place a monetary value on this in a very direct way. This paper takes a methodological approach in analysing the cost of failure.     

Promoting student flow and interest in a science learning game: a design-based research study of School Scene Investigators

Educational technology research and development - We report on a design-based research study that was conducted over three iterations. It chronicles the design, development, and implementation of...     

Language,discipline and ‘teaching like a champion’

This article presents an analysis of various language policy mechanisms currently circulating in secondary schools in England, with a particular focus on those that intermingle ‘language’, ‘standard English’ and ‘discipline’. Although the connections between language, ideology and behaviour are well established within critical educational linguistics, this has not been explored in relation to current education policy in England, which is characterised by an overt focus on standardised English and behaviour ‘management’. In a grounded approach, I explore how the disciplining of language correlates with the disciplining of the body, based on ethnographic-orientated fieldwork undertaken in a London secondary school and drawing on a broad range of policy mechanisms such as curricula, textbooks, classroom artefacts and Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion industry. I show how the current linguistic conservatism found within government policy gets reproduced in school-level policies, pedagogies and classroom interactions, and highlight these relations within a network of policy actors and key terms associated with so-called ‘zero-tolerance’ and ‘no-excuses’ schools. I show how teachers are positioned as language policy managers who work within a system of surveillance, compliance, coercion and control. As such, this article contributes to current thinking within critical language policy and the sociology of education by offering an expanded view of language ideologies in schools, whereby connections between language and discipline are explicitly illustrated and critiqued.     

Primary science education: Views from three Australian States

This paper reports an empirical study of science education in Australian primary schools. The data show that, while funding is seen as a major determinant of what is taught and how it is taught, teacher-confidence and teacher-knowledge are also important variables. Teachers are most confident with topics drawn from the biological sciences, particularly things to do with plants. With this exception there is no shared body of science education knowledge that could be used to develop a curriculum for science education. There was evidence that most teachers see a need for a hands-on approach to primary science education involving the use of concrete materials. A substantial proportion of teachers agree that some of the problems would be alleviated by having a set course together with simple, prepared kits containing sample learning experiences. Any such materials must make provision for individual teachers to capitalise on critical teaching incidents as they arise and must not undermine the professional pride that teachers have in their work. Specializations: science education, school effectiveness, teacher education Specializations: science education, teacher education in science     

Contentious dialogue: University presidential response and the 2016 U.S. presidential election

ABSTRACT

In recent years, technology has made it possible, and at times critical, for college and university presidents to increase their campus-wide public communication. However, there is little research that analyses these frequent and timely presidential communications. Using grounded theory, this study took steps to fill this gap by analysing the unprecedented response campuses had to the 2016 United States presidential election of Donald Trump. The analysis focused on the responses of presidents from the fifty state flagship universities and found emergent themes of unity, contentious election, negative event, university values, civil dialogue, services offered, and emotional rhetoric, while also finding significance in whether the letters were sent proactively or reactively.     

University Teachers' Conceptions of Memorising in Learning Science

This paper describes what a sample of university teachers in science conceive to be the role of memorising and the relationship between memorising and understanding in their disciplines. Sixteen, purposively selected university teachers were interviewed in depth. The university teachers were from three disciplines--mathematics, physiology and physics. Analysis of the data was undertaken from a phenomenographic perspective (Marton, 1988) and indicates a set of conceptions of memorising including memorising as rote learning for reproduction, as facilitating learning--a way to progress--and as a key component of the learning process. Opposing views of the relationship between memorising and understanding were expressed; these were viewed either as unrelated processes or as dynamically interwoven.     

Ex vivo expansions and transplantations of mouse bone marrow-derived hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells

To examine the effects of co-culture with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on expansion of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and the capacities of rapid neutrophil engraftment and hematopoietic reconstitution of the expanded cells, we expanded mononuclear cells (MNCs) and CD34⁺/c-kit⁺ cells from mouse bone marrow and transplanted the expanded cells into the irradiated mice. MNCs were isolated from mouse bone marrow and CD34⁺/c-kit⁺ cells were selected from MNCs by using MoFlo Cell Sorter. MNCs and CD34⁺/c-kit⁺ cells were co-cultured with mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) under a two-step expansion. The expanded cells were then transplanted into sublethally irradiated BDF1 mice. Results showed that the co-culture with MSCs resulted in expansions of median total nucleated cells, CD34⁺ cells, GM-CFC and HPP-CFC respectively by 10.8-, 4.8-, 65.9- and 38.8-fold for the mononuclear cell culture, and respectively by 76.1-, 2.9-, 71.7- and 51.8-fold for the CD34⁺/c-kit⁺ cell culture. The expanded cells could rapidly engraft in the sublethally irradiated mice and reconstitute their hematopoiesis. Co-cultures with MSCs in conjunction with two-step expansion increased expansions of total nucleated cells, GM-CFC and HPP-CFC, which led us to conclude MSCs may create favorable environment for expansions of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. The availability of increased numbers of expanded cells by the co-culture with MSCs may result in more rapid engraftment of neutrophils following infusion to transplant recipients. Project supported by NIH-Blood, Heart & Lung (National Institute of Health, USA, IR 01 4L70593-01) and Zhejiang Provincial Science Foundation (No. 011103397), China     

College MOON Project Australia: Preservice Teachers Learning about the Moon’s Phases

This paper is a report of the Australian segment of an international multi-campus project centred on improving understanding of the Moon’s phases for preservice teachers. Instructional strategies adopted for a science education subject enabled Australian participants to make extended observations of the Moon’s phases and keep observational data records which were shared in asynchronous on-line discussion with fellow preservice teachers in the USA. An adaptation of an online inventory of lunar phases was completed by participants before and after the observation cycle. The analysis of inventory data showed that although there was statistically significant overall improvement in mean scores for the inventory this could be accounted for by statistically significant increases in only some conceptual domains related to the lunar phases. In addition, the findings indicate that some concepts involved in having a deep understanding of lunar phases can be improved by instruction however, misunderstandings of other concepts involved in lunar phases are difficult to change and may require increased attention to developing students’ visual-spatial capabilities.