Researcher and experiences of adults in biographical research – based on andragogical projects

ABSTRACT

On examining today’s research practices in the area of social sciences, one can perceive a distinct interest in biography. Observation of the lives of individuals, (re)cognising social micro worlds from the perspective of individual biographies, and analysis of – and searching for – meanings of individual life experiences are subjects of great interest as well as confidence among researchers. It is also noticeable that researchers, with even greater attention and concern, are turning their attention to the methodological legitimacy and correctness of the projects they undertake. This is especially important when there is a necessity to problematize and further specify the methodological identity of the biographical approach. The article is a contribution to the discussion concerning the nature and types of so-called biographical research conducted in the area of andragogy – which may adopt at least three differing forms: biographical, auto/biographical and autobiographical approaches.

It is also our intention to reflect on the research process as a learning process, experienced by the researcher-andragogue. These reflections are based on the individual experiences of researchers acquired during the Microworlds of motherhood and Life between the notes projects, in which the biographical and auto/biographical approach was applied.     

Scenario-Based Assessments in Writing: An Experimental Study

Writing from source text is critical for developing college-and-career readiness because it is required in advanced academic environments and many vocations. Scenario-based assessment (SBA) represents one approach to measuring this ability. In such assessment, the scenario presents an issue that the student is to read and write about. Before writing, lead-in exercises are presented to encourage the examinee to engage with the source materials and to model the process used in a classroom writing project. This study experimentally manipulated a middle-school assessment design to understand if (1) the lead-in/essay structure increased scores erroneously with a concomitant decrease in test technical quality, and (2) the presence of a single unifying scenario affected scores or score meaning. In general, the SBA design did not appear to artificially increase total-test or essay scores. As importantly, it functioned as well as, sometimes better than, the alternative designs in terms of the measurement characteristics examined.     

Influence of recovery time on post-activation potentiation in professional rugby players

Following a bout of heavy resistance training, the muscle is in both a fatigued and potentiated state with subsequent muscle performance depending on the balance between these two factors. To date, there is no uniform agreement about the optimal acute recovery required between the heavy resistance training and subsequent muscle performance to gain performance benefits. The aim of the present study was to determine the recovery time required to observe enhanced muscle performance following a bout of heavy resistance training. Twenty professional rugby players performed a countermovement jump at baseline and approximately 15 s, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 min after a bout of heavy resistance training (three sets of three repetitions at 87% one-repetition maximum squat). Power output, jump height, and peak rate of force development were determined for all countermovement jumps. Despite an initial decrease in countermovement jump performance after the heavy resistance training (P<0.001), participants' performance increased significantly following 8 min recovery (P<0.001) (i.e. jump height increased by 4.9%, s=3.0). The findings suggest that muscle performance during a countermovement jump can be markedly enhanced following bouts of heavy resistance training provided that adequate recovery (approximately 8 min) is allowed between the heavy resistance training and the explosive activity.     

Teachers’ use of educative curriculum materials to engage students in science practices

New reform documents underscore the importance of integrating science practices into the learning of science. This integration requires sophisticated teaching that does not often happen. Educative curriculum materials – materials explicitly designed to support teacher and student learning – have been posited as a way to support teachers to achieve these ambitious goals, yet little is known about how elementary teachers actually use educative curriculum materials to support student engagement in science practices. To address this gap, this study investigated how five upper elementary teachers supported students to engage in science practices during an enactment of two curriculum units. Three of the teachers had units enhanced with educative features, informed by current research and reforms, while two of the teachers had units without these features. The teachers varied in how they supported students in the science practices of justifying predictions, constructing evidence-based claims, recording observations, and planning investigations. For example, some of the teachers with the educative features supported students in constructing evidence-based claims and justifying predictions in ways called for by the educative features. Implications for curriculum developers and teacher educators are discussed based on the patterns found in the teachers’ use of the educative curriculum materials.     

Differential Effects of Salient Visual Events on Memory-Guided Attention in Adults and Children

Both salient visual events and scene-based memories can influence attention, but it is unclear how they interact in children and adults. In Experiment 1, children (N = 27; ages 7–12) were faster to discriminate targets when they appeared at the same versus different location as they had previously learned or as a salient visual event. In contrast, adults (N = 30; ages 18–31) responded faster only when cued by visual events. While Experiment 2 confirmed that adults (N = 27) can use memories to orient attention, Experiment 3 showed that, even in the absence of visual events, the effects of memories on attention were larger in children (N = 27) versus adults (N = 28). These findings suggest that memories may be a robust source of influence on children's attention.     

Who has come out of the pipeline? African-Americans in criminology and criminal justice

This study analyzes survey data collected from African-Americans with PhDs who teach criminology or criminal justice. This research is particularly concerned with the experience of African-Americans in institutions of higher education. In addition to demographic data, the survey collected information on school of graduation, scholarly productivity, and collegial relations. The results indicate that African-Americans are graduating from, and being hired at, some of the top-ranked PhD programs in criminology/criminal justice. African-Americans are generally entering the academic profession as assistant professors with limited publication experience. Finally, African-Americans, in most cases, feel included and a part of their departmental activities.     

Differential Associations Between Domains of Sibling Conflict and Adolescent Emotional Adjustment

Issues of equality and fairness and invasion of the personal domain, 2 previously identified topic areas of adolescent sibling conflict (N. Campione‐Barr & J. G. Smetana, 2010), were examined in 145 dyads (M_first‐born = 14.97, SD = 1.69 years; M_{second‐born} = 12.20, SD = 1.90 years) for their differential effects on youths' emotional adjustment over 1 year. The impact of internalizing symptoms on later sibling conflicts also was tested. Invasion of the personal domain conflicts were associated with higher levels of anxiety and lower self‐esteem 1 year later, whereas Equality and Fairness issues were associated with greater depressed mood. Conversely, greater internalizing symptomatology and lower self‐esteem predicted more of both types of conflict. Moderating influences of gender and ordinal position were also examined.     

Learning in physics by doing laboratory work: towards a new conceptual framework

Drawing on a study that explores university students’ experiences of doing laboratory work in physics, this article outlines a proposed conceptual framework for extending the exploration of the gendered experience of learning. In this framework situated cognition and post‐structural gender theory are merged together. By drawing on data that aim at exploring the gendered experience of learning in physics in the laboratory setting, a case is made for the proposed conceptual framework to facilitate an analysis of gender as an active process that relates the dynamics of this process to the emerging physicist identities of the students. In other words, this framework allows for an analysis of the gendered learning experiences in a context such as physics education that goes well beyond the usual ‘women‐friendly’ teaching approaches.     

HOW STUDENT TEACHERS UNDERSTAND DISTANCE FORCE INTERACTIONS IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS

In this paper, we describe empirical research on the recording of primary school and preschool student teacher conceptions of the concept of distant force interactions in different contexts related to the school curriculum for this subject. For this objective to be achieved, we undertook ten semi-structured interviews with student teachers. Based on the findings from these interviews, we developed a written ten-item questionnaire that was distributed to 264 first-year student teachers at three Greek universities. The main findings of our research are that a significant number of students: (i) experience difficulty in recognizing the interactions in different contexts, and even in different cases within the same context; (ii) place the arrow representing the force on the body that exerts it and not on that which accepts it; and (iii) hold the alternative view that the larger the body interacting, the greater the force it exerts. Based on the above results, as well as in the ways in which they seem to be related, we developed hypotheses, potentially able to lead to the construction of a teaching–learning sequence, which focuses on the comprehension of force as the measure of a unified concept of interaction between two entities.