Gender and Dialogue in Secondary School Physics

Previous research points up the educational value of opinion exchange between pupils, particularly in science tasks. However, established gender differences in expression of opinion might well have a substantial impact on such activity, and thus on learning. In order to investigate this, male, female and mixed‐sex pairs of 12‐15 year‐olds were videotaped whilst they worked on a computer‐based task that required them to predict the trajectories of falling objects. All progressed equally in understanding, but employed markedly different interactional styles. Male pairs attended to the implications of feedback for individual ideas, whilst female pairs avoided conflict, exploring instead what the problems had in common. Mixed pairs simply interacted in a very constrained fashion. The differences can be seen as a direct consequence of variation in methods of coping with conflict, compounded, in the mixed groups, by ignorance of the accepted behaviour for the opposite sex. Since male and female patterns separately exhibited characteristics central to scientific method, viz. empiricism and generalisation respectively, broader understanding of science might be served by encouraging each gender to adopt some of the behaviours more ‘natural’ to the other. Practical ways in which this might be achieved are suggested.     

What do you recommend? Implementation and analyses of collaborative information filtering of web resources for education

This article examines results from one pilotstudy and two empirical studies of acollaborative filtering (CF) system applied ineducational settings. CF is a populartechnology in electronic commerce, whichleverages the interests of entire communitiesto provide targeted, personalizedrecommendations of interesting products orresources to individuals. In electroniccommerce, entertainment, and related domains,CF has proven an accurate and reliable tool;yet educational applications remain limited.From analyses of data from these three studies,we believe that CF holds promise in educationnot only for the purposes of helping learnersand educators find useful resources forlearning, but as a means of bringing togetherpeople with similar interests and beliefs, andpossibly as an aid to the learning processitself.     

Overcoming barriers to using precision teaching with a web-based programme

Precision Teaching (PT) is an evidence-based intervention, which research indicates is frequently not implemented following training, with few teachers using it in schools after training events. The web-based programme in this research focuses on word-level reading skills and targets blending and segmenting skills rather than whole word reading. This research, undertaken with 10 schools, explored whether a web-based PT programme would provide favourable implementation rates, and support the fidelity of the programme delivery. The study also measured the impact of the PT programme on word decoding and sight word reading using the Test of Word Reading Efficiency. Results suggest favourable implementation rates with 7 of the 10 schools implementing the programme. Full impact data for 34 children suggest that the programme has a positive impact on decoding (effect size 0.7) and sight word reading skills (effect size 0.6). A timed assessment provides evidence that fluency improved as well as accuracy. Gains were sustained at two-month follow-up.     

Failing at Remediation? College Remedial Coursetaking,Failure and Long-Term Student Outcomes

Research in Higher Education - Colleges offer remedial coursework to help students enrolling in post-secondary education who are not adequately prepared to succeed in college-level courses. Despite...     

SELF ASSESSMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE McMASTER PROBLEM SOLVING PROGRAMME

Self assessment is applied to develop students' confidence in their problem solving ability in the context of a four‐course sequence in Chemical Engineering, called the McMaster Problem Solving (MPS) programme. The issues in using self assessment are explored and then illustrated in the context of the MPS programme. The criteria for assessment are public, explicit and related to the learning objectives for each of 35 separate skills, topics or Units that comprise the programme. The criteria are primarily generated by faculty, but the students can generate their own to obtain higher levels of accomplishment. Students use journal writing as the main method of providing evidence, satisfying the criteria and demonstrating achievement. The students rationalise their self assessment in an interview with the instructor. The self assessment counts for between 10 and 27% of their grade. The students receive 6 hours of training on self assessment early in the course. Self assessment is applied to all of the subsequent activities in the MPS programme.

Comparisons are given between students' summative assessments and their performance on a written final examination and their overall mark in the course. The average deviation is usually less than 10%.

The approaches taken in this MPS programme are compared with those of others. Suggestions for development and improvement are noted.     

The People Have Spoken (The Bastards?)

Bourdieu’s field theory presents a distinction between the autonomy of a field and the heteronomity of the fields that surround and potentially encroach on it. Journalism is one such field which attempts to maintain its autonomy in the face of change imposed from beyond its boundaries. This paper looks at how the field of journalism responds to two incursions in the form of feedback: quantitative Web analytics and qualitative reader comments. Each offers an opportunity for the field to adapt to incorporate it—that is, turn heteronomous input into autonomous doxa—or to resist it. Based on an ethnography of eight digital newsrooms, it looks at when the voice of the people is accepted as legitimate input and internalised, and when it is resisted as illegitimate and kept external. The implications for further theorising on the relationship between adjacent fields, as well as autonomous and heteronomous aspects of field theory, are discussed.     

Re-evaluation of Environmental Modifications to an Island Cemetery after 28 Years

ABSTRACT

The Isle of the Dead served as the burial ground for the convict settlement at Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, from 1832 until the settlement closed in 1877. Ninety-one grave markers survive. The author first surveyed the cemetery in 1990 and immediately established environmental monitoring that continued over the following 28 years. This paper discusses the hand-in-hand role of preventive conservation in the overall preservation program, including physical interventions. Delamination of stone is not stopped by re-attachment, only by reducing the environmental causes, once these have been accurately identified. This project has exemplified the need for precise understanding of degradation to ensure that the intervention programme is not, in the long term, a futile exercise. Communicating this understanding to the management authority is essential. It is a popular misconception with outdoor objects and monuments, that to repair an object is to prevent the damage re-occurring. It is essential to convey that this simplistic concept can be very damaging for the object and is one the conservation profession needs to emphasize.     

“Anyone free to chat?” Using technological features to elicit quality support online

This study examines how support seekers can integrate verbal and nonverbal cues in social network sites (SNSs) to elicit quality support from others. Building from sensitive interaction systems theory and verbal person centeredness (VPC), participants (N?=?579) evaluated a SNS profile that contained manipulated levels of directness in status updates used to seek support and nonverbal emotional expression in profile pictures. To capture the transaction of support, participants provided supportive messages in public and private conditions that were coded for their level of VPC. Negative emotional cues in profile pictures increased VPC in private messages, whereas directness in status updates negatively predicted VPC in private messages. Participants produced messages with higher levels of VPC after they viewed profiles that incorporated more features to disclose distress effectively. Broadly, this study addresses whether the content people post on SNS profiles shapes the quality of the supportive messages they receive.