Science Students’ Classroom Discourse: Tasha’s Umwelt

Over the past twenty-five years researchers have been concerned with understanding the science student. The need for such research is still grounded in contemporary issues including providing opportunities for all students to develop scientific literacy and the failure of school science to connect with student’s lives, interests and personal identities. The research reported here is unusual in its use of discourse analysis in social psychology to contribute to an understanding of the way students make meaning in secondary school science. Data constructed for the study was drawn from videotapes of nine consecutive lessons in a year-seven science classroom in Melbourne, post-lesson video-stimulated interviews with students and the teacher, classroom observation and the students’ written work. The classroom videotapes were recorded using four cameras and seven audio tracks by the International Centre for Classroom Research at the University of Melbourne. Student talk within and about their science lessons was analysed from a discursive perspective. Classroom episodes in which students expressed their sense of personal identity and agency, knowledge, attitude or emotion in relation to science were identified for detailed analysis of the function of the discourse used by students, and in particular the way students were positioned by others or positioned themselves. This article presents the discursive Umwelt or life-space of one middle years science student, Tasha. Her case is used here to highlight the complex social process of meaning making in science classrooms and the need to attend to local moral orders of rights and duties in research on student language use, identity and learning in science.     

A Single 30-s Stretch Is Sufficient to Inhibit Maximal Voluntary Strength

While it has been well established that an acute stretching program can inhibit maximal muscle performance, the amount of stretching needed to produce the deleterious response is unknown. Therefore this study examined the dose-response relationship between acute stretching and strength inhibition. Eighteen college students performed a one repetition maximum (1-RM) test of knee-flexion following 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 30-s bouts of hamstring stretching held at the limit of toleration. All seven dose variations were done by each subject, with each variation done on a separate day. One week separated each test, and the order of the stretch variations was balanced across the seven testing days. Stretching significantly (p < .05) reduced 1-RM after one 30-s stretch (5.4%), and continued to decrease 1-RM up to and including six 30-s stretches (12.4%). A single 30-s stretch, if held at the limit of toleration, is sufficient to cause an inhibition in a person's 1-RM. Additional bouts of stretching will further decrease the 1-RM, suggesting that multiple mechanisms may be involved in stretch-induced strength inhibition.     

Towards a Better Description of Genre Archives: A Case Study of Travel Archives

Abstract

Researchers attempting to access genre archives are often stymied by insufficient metadata. They frequently overlook collections because a processing archivist may not have described those collections in a way which would have benefitted their research. Historic travel writing, often the end-product of a travel archive, generally focused on pilgrimages, exploration, adventure, and leisure. Yet finding these types of archives is a difficult task due to either too narrow/too broad or insufficient metadata. Archivists can play a more active role in helping these collections expand their audiences by making them more accessible.     

Universal values structure and individualism — collectivism: A U.S. test

In re‐evaluating the theory of universal value structure as developed by Schwartz and the Individualism‐Collectivism syndromes as proposed by Triandis and others, this study, using university students in the United States, concludes that both concepts have acceptance in an intercultural setting. The majority of the value types proposed by Schwartz were found compatible by the sample. The Individualism‐collectivism concept finds a qualified support as American, on the whole, opt for Individualist vales. However, results reveal several anomalies which need further investigation. This investigation also has found the importance of social and cultural structures in analyzing values preference.     

Understanding Students' Experiments—What kind of support do they need in inquiry tasks?

Inquiry learning is a widely recognized method for fostering inquiry competence in science education. Nevertheless, there is discussion about how to best support students while working on inquiry tasks (in this case: experiments on causal relationships). To identify the kind of support students need in order to design experiments in upper grades, an empirical study consisting of two parts was conducted. The first part, a quantitative test (N?=?96), tested students' competences in designing an experiment. It was found that students need scaffolding in basic aspects of designing (like dependent and independent variables), to reach higher levels, since only about thirty percent reach levels II or III out of three levels. On more reflective aspects (like confounding variables, test times and repetitions), only a maximum of twenty-five percent reached level I or higher; therefore, even more support is needed on these aspects. The second part of the study was a qualitative video-analysis of students' discussions, designs and implementations of an experiment. It was found that support is needed on procedural knowledge and understanding. Possible implications for inquiry support are discussed.     

Governors Make the Grade: Growing Gubernatorial Influence in State Education Policy

Since the 1970s, American governors have become increasingly active in education politics. Where they once told state education chiefs to “make me the best education governor ever,” they now demand control of state boards of education, push for state control of school funding, and urge statewide standards for teacher evaluation. This article surveys the growth of gubernatorial interest in education in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida. It argues that sustained financial pressure on state budgets and widespread calls for educational equity have undercut both school districts and legislatures as effective arbiters of education policy. These twin pressures have forced governors, who have a statewide political constituency and are responsible for the state budget, to accept greater control over education policy.     

Suicidality, school dropout, and reading problems among adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts and school dropout among youth with poor reading in comparison to youth with typical reading (n = 188) recruited from public schools at the age of 15. In a prospective naturalistic study, youth and parents participated in repeated research assessments to obtain information about suicide ideation and attempts, psychiatric and sociodemographic variables, and school dropout. Youth with poor reading ability were more likely to experience suicidal ideation or attempts and more likely to drop out of school than youth with typical reading, even after controlling for sociodemographic and psychiatric variables. Suicidality and school dropout were strongly associated with each other. Prevention efforts should focus on better understanding the relationship between these outcomes, as well as on the developmental paths leading up to these behaviors among youth with reading difficulties.     

Effects of a school‐based stress prevention programme on adolescents in different phases of behavioural change

This study examines whether the assumptions of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) are useful to evaluate the effectiveness of a school‐based stress prevention programme in adolescence to promote appropriate coping behaviour. The TTM assumes three consecutive phases in the adoption of behavioural patterns. Progress throughout the phases is promoted by three developmental determinants. It, therefore, was expected that programme participation is associated with a progression throughout the phases and with a change in the developmental determinants. Of 372 adolescents, aged between 13 and 16 years, 190 participated in a control condition and 182 in a stress prevention programme. Measurements were taken a week before (pre‐test), a week after (post‐test) and 12 weeks after the training (follow‐up‐test). Results indicated that adolescents in different phases of behaviour change report different numbers of stress symptoms. Programme participation is associated with a progression in phases which, however, was not stable after the programme had run its course. Besides this, adolescents in different phases benefit from participation differentially as different patterns of changes in the developmental determinants show. A systematic promotion in the different phases of behavioural change by integrating TTM‐tailored ‘tools’ into a stress management programme may improve participants’ intention and competence to actually show appropriate coping behaviour.     

The Better Beginnings, Better Futures project: findings from grade 3 to grade 9

Although comprehensive and ecological approaches to early childhood prevention are commonly advocated, there are few examples of long-term follow-up of such programs. In this monograph, we investigate the medium- and long-term effects of an ecological, community-based prevention project for primary school children and families living in three economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Ontario, Canada. The Better Beginnings, Better Futures (BBBF) project is one of the most ambitious Canadian research projects on the long-term impacts of early childhood prevention programming to date. Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development informed program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Using a quasi-experimental design, the BBBF longitudinal research study involved 601 children and their families who participated in BBBF programs when children were between 4 and 8 years old and 358 children and their families from sociodemographically matched comparison communities. We collected extensive child, parent, family, and community outcome data when children were in Grade 3 (age 8–9), Grade 6 (age 11–12), and Grade 9 (age 14–15). The BBBF mandate was to develop programs that would positively impact all areas of child's development; our findings reflect this ecological approach. We found marked positive effects in social and school functioning domains in Grades 6 and 9 and evidence of fewer emotional and behavioral problems in school across the three grades. Parents from BBBF sites reported greater feelings of social support and more positive ratings of marital satisfaction and general family functioning, especially at the Grade 9 follow-up. Positive neighborhood-level effects were also evident. Economic analyses at Grade 9 showed BBBF participation was associated with government savings of $912 per child. These findings provide evidence that an affordable, ecological, community-based prevention program can promote long-term development of children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods and produce monetary benefits to government as soon as 7 years after program completion.