Second Graders Learn Animal Adaptations through Form and Function Analogy Object Boxes

This study examined the use of form and function analogy object boxes to teach second graders (n = 21) animal adaptations. The study used a pretest–posttest design to examine animal adaptation content learned through focused analogy activities as compared with reading and Internet searches for information about adaptations of animals followed by making an informative puppet play. Students participated in six week‐long lesson sets, each addressing adaptations of two animals, which alternated between the two conditions. In the analogy condition, students matched cards explaining form and function analogies of animal body parts or homes to analogous manufactured items. They mapped analogies, thought of alternate manufactured items, and created new analogies. Students scored similarly on material to be taught through both conditions on the pretest, but made significantly higher posttest mean scores (76.1% analogy versus 57.2% traditional condition) with large effect size (partial η² = 0.58) on animal adaptation content learned through the analogy activities. This study shows the usefulness of form and function analogies in teaching product innovations to second‐grade students, indicating that early childhood students are able to successfully engage in sophisticated analogy activities. Efficacy of the analogy activities was related to objects that focused attention, motivated, and gave concrete representations of concepts; to cards and graphic organizers for organization, connections, and memory; and to complex thinking activities that challenged students and promoted peer interaction.     

Teaching use of formal thought for improved chemistry achievement

Attrition rates from the foundation science programme at the University of Papua New Guinea are high and related to an inability to use formal thought. An intervention measure with marginal students in this foundation course is reported here. This five‐week intensive intervention was intended to assist these marginal students to perform better on formal elements of the chemistry course. Short‐term beneficial effects of intervention were observed but these were not maintained once the intensive programme ceased.     

Exploring and developing reciprocity in research design

The researcher–participant relationship has the potential to be reciprocal, a relationship in which each contributes something the other needs or desires. Participants devote their time, effort, experiences, and wisdom to inform and shape the researcher’s study. The researcher’s scope, depth, and nature of inquiry introduce vulnerability to participants’ lives. In turn, researchers are susceptible to variable involvement and apathy from participants. While neither the relational aspect of research nor its potential for reciprocity is new, we are concerned that the concept is overshadowed in the current, positivistic culture of evidence in education research. Using vignettes from our special education research, we describe the affordances of a stance of reciprocity, illustrating the contours of the component in recruitment, participation, analysis, and presentation. We ask: How do truth traditions support reciprocity? How do we authentically reciprocate participants’ efforts throughout the research process? And finally, how might qualitative work embrace reciprocity and lead education research to a broader conceptualization of evidence, one that expands the transformative potential of our collective work?     

Violence in schools and representations of young people: a critique of government policies in France and England

This paper examines media discourses in France and in Britain relating to young people, violence and disaffection in schools, setting these within the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which emphasises young people’s participation rights. It analyses policy initiatives developed since 1997 in each country to address concerns about young people, disaffection and violence, examining these in the light of research evidence. It considers how public policies are variously shaped by research findings and by media representations. In France, attempts to reduce violence in schools have been accompanied by recognition that schools structurally produce disaffection and violence. In England there has been a shift in policy discourses. In 1997 the primary emphasis was social inclusion, but greater weight has since been given to the need to combat crime. (Male) youth disaffection is linked to crime. Policies addressing standards and achievement have been prioritised over policies to combat social exclusion. In both countries researchers and the media give particular attention to urban communities where minority ethnic communities live. Individual schools are labelled as failing and large numbers of young people are excluded or marginalised. In both countries minority ethnic students are over‐represented among those formally excluded from mainstream education and in the least popular, most stigmatised, schools and classes. Violence and disadvantage are effectively institutionalised. Discourses in each country are racialised and disaffection is associated with minorities. Yet both countries offer universalist rather than targeted policy responses. Opportunities for student participation in school decision‐making are limited.     

Critical Voyages: Postmodern feminist pedagogies as liberatory practice

Critical postmodern feminist theory as a pedagogical tool acknowledges differences and organizes people to create social change. Connections between feminism, critical theory, and postmodernism are discussed in relationship to possible pedagogical directions for schools and other community organizations. The authors outline six guiding principles of a critical postmodern feminist pedagogy including: students' experiences as central to teaching and learning; provisions for safe spaces in the development of students' voices; the revision of centers and margins to understand power and agency; the recognition of difference as central to the reconfiguration of existing social boundaries; the development of a language of critique and possibility; and the evolution of teachers as intellectuals. Finally, the authors highlight, in detail, two curriculum projects based in schools that exemplify these principles, a middle school forum for girls that addresses issues of sexual violence in rural Pennsylvania, USA and a high school class for pregnant and parenting teen mothers in Las Vegas, NV.     

FACTORS INFLUENCING HISPANIC STUDENT RETENTION WITHIN THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

This study is a correlative predictive study focusing on the identification of factors impacting on the ability of Hispanic students to achieve their educational objectives within the community college environment. The study sample of 698 students was selected from a community college in Southwest Texas with a student enrollment that was 61% Hispanic. Through regression analysis, factors that were significantly related to the completion of the students’ educational objectives were identified. These relationships were identified for the total sample and for each of four subgroups, Hispanics, white nonHispanics, males, and females. The results indicated that positive or negative reasons for withdrawal and the students’ positive perceptions of their educational experiences were significantly related to the ability of all students to complete their objectives. However, there were sufficient differences between the groupings of factors retained for the total sample and the four subgroups to warrant the conclusion that the community college needs to consider each subgroup as a unique population and to develop policies and programs specifically oriented to each subgroup's needs. This specificity of approach was seen as being particularly important for the improved retention of high‐risk subgroups, such as the Hispanic students.