Distance mathematics teaching in Flanders,Germany, and the Netherlands during COVID-19 lockdown

Educational Studies in Mathematics - The COVID-19 pandemic has confronted mathematics teachers with the challenge of developing alternative teaching practices—in many cases at a distance...     

Comparing the self-concept of students with and without learning disabilities

This study compared self-concept in 50 middle school children with learning disabilities (LD) and 70 of their peers without LD. The students, primarily Hispanic, completed the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and each obtained a score in six subdomains. Differences were found between the groups on the Intellectual and School Status and Behavior subscales, with students without LD scoring higher on both scales. There was no difference between groups on global self-concept. The limitations of this study are identified, and directions for future research are provided.     

Examining Student Engagement with Science Through a Bourdieusian Notion of Field

Student engagement with science is a long-standing, central interest within science education research. In this article, we examine student engagement with science using a Bourdiusian lens, placing a particular emphasis on the notion of field. Over the course of one academic year, we collected data in an inner London secondary science classroom through lesson observations, interviews and discussion groups with students, and interviews with the teacher. We argue that applying Bourdieusian theory can help better understand differential patterns of student engagement by directing attention to the alignment between students’ habitus and capital, and the field. Student behaviours that did not meet the requirements of the wider field were not recognised and valued as constituting engagement. Even when the ‘rules of the game’ of the science classroom were understood by the students, the tensions they experienced within the field made engaging with science impossible and undesirable. We discuss how a greater focus on the field can be useful for planning future interventions aimed at making science education more equitable.     

Democratizing Children's Computation: Learning Computational Science as Aesthetic Experience

In this essay, Amy Voss Farris and Pratim Sengupta argue that a democratic approach to children's computing education in a science class must focus on the aesthetics of children's experience. In Democracy and Education, Dewey links “democracy” with a distinctive understanding of “experience.” For Dewey, the value of educational experiences lies in “the unity or integrity of experience.” In Art as Experience, Dewey presents aesthetic experience as the fundamental form of human experience that undergirds all other forms of experiences and that can bring together multiple forms of experiences, locating this form of experience in the work of artists. Particularly relevant to the focus of this essay, computational literacy, Dewey calls the process through which a person transforms a material into an expressive medium an aesthetic experience. Farris and Sengupta argue that the kind of experience that is appropriate for a democratic education in the context of children's computational science is essentially aesthetic in nature. Given that aesthetics has received relatively little attention in STEM education research, the authors' purpose here is to highlight the power of Deweyan aesthetic experience in making computational thinking available and attractive to all children, including those who are disinterested in computing, and especially those who are likely to be discounted by virtue of location, gender, or race.     

Project-based learning in an internship program: A qualitative study of related roles and their motivational attributes

The roles of task, learner, and mentor in a successful project-based instructional technology (IT) internship program were studied in light of contemporary motivation theories. Interns in four different locations were asked to apply their academic experiences in constructing real projects at work under the supervision of their site mentors and academic advisor. Data included tape-recorded intern interviews, status-review notes, e-portfolios, mentor interviews, and mentor evaluations. Data were collected over 6 semesters, from 18 different cases, 4 of which are highlighted here. The study considered the roles of task, learner, and mentors as they are needed to make the most of project-based internship programs. Implications for the design and development of internship and capstone programs, and specifically successful student performance in internship programs, are considered.     

Research Summaries for Normal Birth

In this column, the author summarizes research studies relevant to normal birth. The studies summarized include a large trial evaluating the effect of prior vaginal births after a cesarean on outcomes in subsequent births; a study linking umbilical cord blood pH with intellectual outcomes in childhood; and a prospective trial evaluating the effect of routine antenatal nonstress testing on maternal anxiety. The author also highlights four articles about normal birth in a recent nursing journal series dedicated to the topic.     

Research Summaries for Normal Birth

In this column, the author summarizes four research studies relevant to normal birth. The studies summarized include a systematic review of trials evaluating the benefits versus harms of routine artificial rupture of the membranes; a study of the effect of continuous female labor support by a minimally trained family member or friend on attachment and early parenting; a systematic review examining the relationship between cesarean surgery and postpartum urinary incontinence; and a randomized controlled trial of warm perineal compresses during the second stage of labor.