The pedagogical agent enhances mathematics learning in ADHD students

Gaining the attention is the first key step to enhance learning. In Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as the most prevalent deficit in school age, the learners face some impairment in attention that requires appropriate intervention. An environment that embedded Pedagogical Agent in computer-assisted instruction (CAI) has been designed to support learning through gaining and guiding attention to relevant information for these students. This study investigated how much the presence of pedagogical agent can improve learning in ADHD students. The learning environment was integrated with a pedagogical agent, named Koosha, as a tutor and motivator. This study employed a pretest and posttest experimental design with a control group. The statistical population was 30 boy students with ADHD in primary school from the North of Iran. The participants were randomly assigned to work with either an agent presenting a multimedia program or without an agent in mathematics. The results (Analysis of covariance -ANCOVA) suggested that experimental and control groups show a significant difference in mathematics achievement. According to this research, using the pedagogical agent can enhance the learning of ADHD students; so it can be considered as a valid school-base intervention for these students.     

Ways of composing teaching teams and their impact on teachers’ perceptions about collaboration

The present study examined the impact of teacher team composition on characteristics and attributes regarded as necessary for effective cooperative teaching. The study focused on potential differences between self-selected teacher teams and teams composed by the school administration. The central assumptions were that teachers working in self-selected teacher teams show more positive ratings of enjoyment, shared responsibility, job satisfaction and collective self-efficacy expectations than teachers who worked in institutionally composed teams. In order to investigate these hypotheses, an online survey was created. 321 language arts teachers participated in the survey. MANCOVA revealed significant differences in the dimensions ‘shared responsibility’ and ‘enjoyment with the co-teaching process’, where teachers from self-selected teaching teams showed significantly more positive ratings. These results support the assumption that self-selection of the team-mate is helpful for establishing compatible teaching teams, but does not necessarily lead to a higher quality of collaborative teaching.     

Students’ preferences for lecturers’ personalities

The present study set out to examine students’ preferences for lecturers’ personality as a function of their classroom behaviour, core self-evaluations and self-rated character strengths. Various hypotheses were tested: first, students’ Big Five traits would significantly predict corresponding personality preferences for lecturers (the matching hypothesis); second, students’ core self-evaluation scores would significantly predict preferences for extraverted, agreeable and conscientious lecturers; and third, self-rated character strengths would also significantly predict extraverted, agreeable and conscientious lecturers. We also investigated difference in preferences among two ethnic groups (South East Asian/Chinese versus Caucasian/British). In all, 264 British students completed four questionnaires. Conscientiousness was the most desired trait in lecturers, followed by agreeableness, extraversion and openness; neuroticism was the least desired trait. Preference for agreeable lecturers was best predicted by all individual difference variables. Caucasian students had a stronger dislike for neurotic lecturers, while Asians had higher preferences for extraverted, open and agreeable lecturers. There was some evidence of the student–lecturer personality match. Limitations and further research options were discussed.     

The culture of power and science education: Learning from Miguel

In this paper we begin a discussion around the need for science educators to understand the relationship between cultural and socioeconomic issues and the science education of inner‐city students. We refer to the works of critical scholars in science, education, and sociology in order to help us deconstruct the relationship between sociopolitical agendas and the lack of opportunity in science education for students from lower socioeconomic inner‐city enclaves. Through our ethnographic case study of a homeless family in a major metropolitan area in the Northeast, we frame our analysis through the pedagogical questions of representation of science through culture, socioeconomic status, and “culture capital.” We use this analysis to raise questions for further research on the significance of understanding, accessing, and critiquing the “culture of power” in science education. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 871–889, 2000     

Examining the social and scientific roles of invention in science education

I have been drawn to the construct of “invention” and “inventive acts” because in my research involving how homeless children construct science and the self-in-science, an overwhelming theme has been the multiple ways in which self-identity in science has been described by the children through a language of invention. Using post-modern feminism and science and technologies studies, I examine the multiple uses and definitions of “invention” in science in order to develop a theory of invention and inventive acts around the themes: invention as a social act, invention as a recursive and socially linked process, and embodied agency. I use this framework to examine the construct of “invention” in two different case studies involving the science education of urban homeless children. Finally, I link this discussion of invention and inventive acts with current international reform initiatives revolving around constructivist science teaching and learning.     

Emergent writing forms in Spanish

The purpose of this work was to study the variationsin children's early writing forms in Spanish and therelationship among different writing forms,phonological awareness and the demands of the writingtasks. A group of kindergarten children was assessedin: a) the ability to match initial sounds in words,b) the ability to segment words in phonemes, c) theknowledge of sound-letter correspondences, and d) theperformance on tasks presenting different cognitivedemands: word writing and text writing. Results showthat children produced a wide range of forms in bothtasks, being the forms used for word writing moreelaborated than the forms used for text writing. Theseresults suggest that in the process of writingacquisition, children move back and forth across formsof writing. The analysis of the relationship betweenthe writing forms and phonological awareness resultedin the identification of the different mechanismschildren might be using to write, from an unanalyticapproach to print to an analytic phonologicalmechanism. The pattern of variation observed in thechildren's performance when writing words and textsseems to reflect the interplay among different typesand levels of knowledge- knowledge about print, thephonological structure of words, sound-lettercorrespondences- and the cognitive demands of thetasks.     

The politics of sexual morality and evangelical activism in Hong Kong

This paper aims to review the discourse of sexual morality as recently staged by Christian evangelical groups in Hong Kong and the effects of this new round of evangelical activism on the shaping of recent political culture in Hong Kong. Unlike the moral campaign against decriminalization of homosexuality in the 1980s, which eventually lost to the reasoning of British rule of law implicit in Hong Kong legislature, this new Christian movement for the defense of sexual morality in Hong Kong is situated at the juncture of political contestation between the local democratic movement and the pro-establishment political forces, including pro-Beijing businessmen, political organizations and personnel. With a high degree of ideological and strategic affinity with the Christian Right movement, which collaborates with conservative Republican groups in the United States, the evangelical campaigners of Hong Kong, whether consciously or not, have gained much political currency in collaborating with the pro-establishment forces of Hong Kong. As a result, sexual morality articulated in the name of the preservation of traditions, whether they are Christian or Chinese, has fed an autocratic political movement of Hong Kong that partakes the dangerously divisive politics of the fundamentalist religious movements around the globe.