Interest-Driven Learning Among Middle School Youth in an Out-of-School STEM Studio

The concept of connected learning proposes that youth leverage individual interest and social media to drive learning with an academic focus. To illustrate, we present in-depth case studies of Ryan and Sam, two middle-school-age youth, to document an out-of-school intervention intended to direct toward intentional learning in STEM that taps interest and motivation. The investigation focused on how Ryan and Sam interacted with the designed elements of Studio STEM and whether they became more engaged to gain deeper learning about science concepts related to energy sustainability. The investigation focused on the roles of the engineering design process, peer interaction, and social media to influence youth interest and motivation. Research questions were based on principles of connected learning (e.g., self-expression, lower barriers to expertise, socio-technical supports) with data analyzed within a framework suggested by discursive psychology. Analyzing videotaped excerpts of interactions in the studio, field notes, interview responses, and artifacts created during the program resulted in the following findings: problem solving, new media, and peer interaction as designed features of Studio STEM elicited evidence of stimulating interest in STEM for deeper learning. Further research could investigate individual interest-driven niches that are formed inside the larger educational setting, identifying areas of informal learning practice that could be adopted in formal settings. Moreover, aspects of youth’s STEM literacy that could promote environmental sustainability through ideation, invention, and creativity should be pursued.     

初为人父

正【阅读难度:】初为人父是什么感觉呢?面对一个既陌生又熟悉的小生命,不知所措?欣喜若狂?文中这位新手爸爸看着自己刚出世的儿子,感慨颇多。他看着小儿子的一颦一笑,还从地质学的角度感慨沧海桑田世事变迁。他不断惊叹造物者的伟大,能创造出一个让他一眼就爱上的完美小生命。     

Synchronization as a Classroom Dynamic: A Practitioner's Perspective

While carefully plotted lesson plans are invaluable in a classroom, tuning into the flow of the moment is just as essential. My experience has shown me that the most effective teaching happens when everyone in the room is in synch with one another. Teaching requires intuiting what each student is experiencing individually and adjusting in order to bring the room to a united rhythm. Too often we define teaching in terms of curriculum, assessment, and practical measures that do not encompass this instinctive evolutionary skill. Teaching is a natural cognitive ability that requires human interaction and is optimal when a form of synchrony or flow exists in interactions. As an experienced classroom teacher, I describe how these principles infuse my practice, which I hope serves as a useful lens for the Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) research community in its quest to uncover the underlying processes of teaching.     

A Cognitive Processing Model of Information Source Use and Stereotyping: African-American Stereotypes in South Korea

This study proposes a cognitive processing model to explain that stereotypes are the result of a two-way interaction between receiver evaluation of the valence of accessed information from the media, and receiver evaluation of the realism and believability of the information. This model is applied to analyze American media use and stereotyping of African-Americans among 378 high school students in South Korea. Findings partially support the proposed model: positive media portrayals perceived to be real and believable result in positive stereotyping, while negative media portrayals perceived to be real and believable result in negative stereotyping. Respondents perceived that messages disseminated by the American media were somewhat realistic and believable, and that American media portray African-Americans negatively.     

HOW MUCH HOPE IS ENOUGH? LEVELS OF HOPE AND STUDENTS’ PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SCHOOL FUNCTIONING

This study investigated the characteristics of students who report extremely high levels of hope. A sample of 682 students (ages 11–17) completed measures of hope, school engagement, life satisfaction, self‐worth, and mental health. Academic achievement was obtained from students’ school records. Based on their hope scores, students were divided into three groups: “extremely low” (bottom 10% of the distribution), “average” (middle 25%), and “extremely high” (upper 10%). Results indicate that students in the extremely high hope (EHH) group differed from students with average (AH) and extremely low hope (ELH) on all measures. Further, EHH and AH are associated with mental health benefits that are not found among students reporting comparatively ELH levels. Taken together, the findings support the notion that EHH in students is associated with adaptive psychological and school‐related functioning. Overall, given the superior adjustment profile, perhaps ‘‘enough hope’’ should be defined as “EHH.”     

Sociomathematical norms and the regulation of problem solving in classroom microcultures

The perspective of situated learning offers a theoretical framework for understanding the dialectical relations between the social and the individual dimensions of classroom microculture. The purpose of this article is to show how sociomathematical norms constructed during whole-class discussions provide a reference for the elaboration of mathematical practices and for the interactive regulation of learning. Qualitative data regarding the transition from additive to multiplicative problem solving were collected in two third-grade classrooms during an entire school year. The sociomathematical norms constructed in the two classrooms were identified and compared. An in-depth analysis focusing on two interactive episodes in one classroom showed the forms of regulation of learning that emerged in relation to the norm of “effectiveness”. Both episodes demonstrated how the processes of regulation resulting from teacher–student interactions incorporated and orchestrated regulations resulting from peer interactions and thereby contributed to the progression of the students’ problem-solving procedures.     

Non-formal basic education as a development priority: Evidence from Nicaragua

Almost 900m adolescents and adults are illiterate in the developing world, yet most policy discussions focus on the educational circumstances of primary aged children. As a result non-formal educational programs for adolescents and adults are given very little support, and this group is virtually ignored in international agreements such as the millennium declaration. This article presents the first serious attempt at evaluating the impact of a non-formal education program. Results show significant learning achievement over the academic year, as well as strong development impacts of the program in non-learning dimensions of participants’ lives. These positive impacts, plus the significantly lower unit costs and self-targeted nature of the program provide strong evidence that this type of program can be an important part of the poverty reduction and human capital enhancement strategy of developing countries with large illiterate adult populations.