Professional development of Russian HEIs' management and faculty in CDIO standards application

The paper presents the approach to complex training of managers and faculty staff for system modernisation of Russian engineering education. As a methodological basis of design and implementation of the faculty development programme, the CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) Approach was chosen due to compliance of its concept to the purposes and tasks of engineering education development in Russia. The authors describe the structure, the content and implementation technology of the programme designed by Tomsk Polytechnic University and Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology with the assistance of Chalmers University of Technology and KTH Royal Institute of Technology and other members of the CDIO Initiative. The programme evaluation based on the questionnaire results showed that the programme content is relevant, has high practical value and high level of novelty for all categories of participants. Therefore, the CDIO approach was recommended for implementation to improve various elements of the engineering programme such as learning outcomes, content and structure, teaching, learning and assessment methods. Besides, the feedback results obtained through programme participants’ survey contribute to identification of problems preventing development of engineering education in Russia and thus serve as milestones for further development of the programme.     

Social Justice,Sport and Racism: A Position Statement

ABSTRACT

Despite common claims that society is “post-racial” and that sport is apolitical, issues of racial injustice continue to permeate sport and recreational institutions. Drawing insight from critical race theory, we articulate a vision of social justice oriented toward illuminating and addressing issues of racial injustice in sport and recreation. In particular, we highlight pressing matters of racial injustice in sport at the elite, competitive levels, as well as community and recreational settings. We also discuss contemporary examples and strategies for resisting racial injustice, noting the challenges and difficulties associated with various approaches. In doing so, we hope to provide direction for scholars and activists in fighting for social justice with respect to racism and racial inequality in sport.     

Text memory: Recalling Twice,using different perspectives

Three hundred College students read a 760 word text under one of two instructed perspectives. After full recall, an additional recall (squeeze) was requested under either the same (unchanged) or the alternative perspective. The first recall confirmed earlier results: a strong bias towards perspective related ideas. The second recall yielded substantial additional material. It was expecially effective in recalling alternative perspective related ideas and this most markedly so if the instructions were to recall using the alternative perspective. These results confirm and complement the results of Anderson & Pichert (1978) in so far as it is both the chance of a second recall as well as the change in perspective that raises the amount of recalled material.     

A Comparison of Student Achievement and Satisfaction in an Online Versus a Traditional Face-to-Face Statistics Class

In this study we examined differences between online distance education and traditional classroom learning for an introductory undergraduate statistics course. Two outcome dimensions were measured: students final grades and student satisfaction with the course. Using independent samples t-tests, results indicated that there was no significant difference in grades between the online and traditional classroom contexts. However, students enrolled in the online course were significantly less satisfied with the course than the traditional classroom students on several dimensions. This finding is inconsistent with the no significant difference phenomenon, described in Russells (1999) annotated bibliography, which supports minimal outcome differences between online courses and face-to-face courses.Jessica J. Summers and Tiffany A. Whittaker are Assistant Professors, and Alexander Waigandt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology at the University of Missouri–Columbia. Dr. Summers holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include the study of social contexts of motivation, academic classroom community, and cooperative learning. Dr. Waigandt holds a Ph.D. in Community and School Health from the University of Oregon. His primary research interest is in demographic analysis. Dr. Whittaker holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include model selection methods in structural equation modeling and multiple regression, interpretation of score reports in computer-based testing, and the effects of missing data on the recovery of item and person parameters in the item response theory framework.     

Gender Labels and Play Styles: Their Relative Contribution to Children's Selection of Playmates

The relative contribution of gender labels and play styles (masculine or feminine) in playmate selection was evaluated in 60 children between the ages of 4 and 8 years using a novel interview measure. In the interview, when targets' gender labels and targets' play styles were presented as independent dimensions, children showed predicted sex differences in preferences for gender labels and for play styles (including toys, rough-and-tumble play, and activity level). However, when targets' gender labels and targets' play styles were presented as competing dimensions, boys of all ages chose female targets with masculine play styles over male targets with feminine play styles. In contrast, younger girls (4–5-year-olds) chose female targets with masculine play styles, whereas older girls (6–8-year-olds) chose male targets with feminine play styles. This suggests possible sex differences in the contribution of gender labels and of play styles in the development of children's preferences for same-sexed playmates.     

Scientific and Religious Perspectives on Evolution in the Curriculum: an Approach Based on Pedagogy of Difference

There is a long history of some students finding that the science instruction they receive in schools fails to address their deeply held concerns about the theory of evolution. Such concerns are principally religious, though there are also students with deeply held religious views who are perfectly comfortable with the theory of evolution. New instructional strategies are emerging, aimed at reducing the tensions that may exist between evolution and religion by making space for students to examine their own views and recognize the spectrum of views that exists between atheistic evolution and special creation, as well as the bounded nature of science and different ways of knowing. In this article, we discuss the teaching of evolution in societies where acceptance of the theory of evolution is far from universal, and argue that an approach based on pedagogy of difference has considerable potential to enhance students’ development of epistemic insight through recognition of the multiple perspectives that exist concerning the relationship between religion and science. In doing so, we explicate precisely what pedagogy of difference entails and introduce an approach that should enhance evolution education, and even aid students’ situating of science as a resource for making decisions about issues with scientific and societal aspects where the acknowledgement of multiple perspectives is valuable.     

Detecting Instruction Effects—Deciding Between Covariance Analytical and Change-Score Approach

Educational Psychology Review - The article focuses on estimating effects in nonrandomized studies with two outcome measurement occasions and one predictor variable. Given such a design, the...     

Conversations with Five Highly Successful Female Educational Psychologists: Patricia Alexander,Carol Dweck,Jacquelynne Eccles,Mareike Kunter,and Tamara van Gog

Educational Psychology Review - Previous studies have investigated the characteristics, influencing factors, and working strategies of highly successful educational psychologists. These studies,...     

The development of inventive thinking skills in the upper secondary language classroom

The given paper presents the results of an empirical study into the efficacy of the Thinking Approach (TA) to language teaching and learning which is aimed at the development of students’ inventive thinking skills in the context of foreign language education, namely learning of English. The study was conducted among upper secondary students of two schools in Latvia and aimed to answer whether students working with the Thinking Approach demonstrate an increase in their inventive thinking skills. An inventive thinking test was employed as the research instrument. The results of the study suggest that students working with the TA demonstrate a significant increase in their inventive thinking skills in comparison with the control group (t = 3.32, p = 0.001). At the same time a number of limiting factors that appeared in the process of the study due to its naturalistic setting call for further research that could increase the reliability of the findings.     

Concept mapping as a follow-up strategy to learning from texts: what characterizes good and poor mappers?

Concept maps consist of nodes that represent concepts and links that represent relationships between concepts. Various studies have shown that concept mapping fosters meaningful learning. However, little is known about the specific cognitive processes that are responsible for such mapping effects. In a thinking-aloud study, we analyzed the relations between cognitive processes during concept mapping as well as the characteristics of the concept maps that the learners produced and learning outcomes (38 university students). To test whether differences in learning outcome are due to differences in general abilities, verbal and spatial abilities were also assessed. In a cluster-analysis two types of ineffective learners were identified: ‘non-labeling mappers’ and ‘non-planning mappers’. Effective learners, in contrast, showed much effort in planning their mapping process and constructing a coherent concept map. These strategies were more evident in students with prior concept-mapping experience (‘advanced beginners’) than in those who had not used this learning strategy before (‘successful beginners’). Based on the present findings, suggestions for a direct training approach (i.e., strategy training with worked-out examples) and an indirect training approach (i.e., supporting the learners with strategy prompts) were developed.