Families Are Learning in Science Museums

This report is based on research findings of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study conducted by the Philadelphia/Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative (PISEC), which consists of four institutions: The Franklin Institute Science Museum, the New Jersey State Aquarium, The Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Philadelphia Zoological Garden. The first year's study addressed the question “How can we identify and measure family learning in science museums?” It documented a relationship between learning levels and observable behaviors. On the basis of coding family conversations and interview data for level of learning, we see that families do learn from exhibits and that the level of learning is related to specific observed behaviors. Grouping these behaviors as performance indicators provides a useful measure of exhibit learning.     

High school students' understanding of food webs: Identification of a learning hierarchy and related misconceptions

Developing an understanding of the nature of food webs is an important topic in today's biology curricula. The relationships represented in a food web are rule-like in nature. Hence, it should be possible to construct a learning hierarchy for this concept. A hierarchy leading to the ability to determine how a change in the size of one population can affect another population in the same web but not on the same chain was hypothesized. Data from 200 subjects were extremely consistent with the hierarchy. A second major focus related to the identification of specific misconceptions held by subjects for food webs. The need to identify students' misconceptions of important concepts has been expressed widely in the recent science education literature. In the present article, an argument is presented for the usefulness of learning hierarchies in this work. Specific misconceptions and the frequencies of their occurrence are reported.     

The difference of literature: Writing now for the future of young readers

CLIE is pleased to print the 1992 Sidney Robbins Lecture, given at the Annual Conference of The International Association of School Libraries at The Queen's University, Belfast. Sidney Robbins founded this journal in 1970, arising from the series of Children's Literature Conferences which be had initiated at St. Luke's College, Exeter, where be worked. He died in 1971.Aidan Chambers began his career as a secondary school teacher of English and drama. For the last twenty-seven years he has been an author of fiction for young readers and a part-time tutor of pre-and inservice teachers. In 1969, with his wife Nancy, he founded Thimble Press, publisher of the magazineSignal and various guides to and monographs on children's books. He is a visiting lecturer in literature for children at Westminster College, Oxford.     

Preschoolers Use Emotion in Speech to Learn New Words

Two experiments examined 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds' use of vocal affect to learn new words. In Experiment 1 (n = 48), children were presented with two unfamiliar objects, first in their original state and then in an altered state (broken or enhanced). An instruction produced with negative, neutral, or positive affect, directed children to find the referent of a novel word. During the novel noun, eye gaze measures indicated that both 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds were more likely to consider an object congruent with vocal affect cues. In Experiment 2, 5‐year‐olds (n = 15) were asked to extend and generalize their initial mapping to new exemplars. Here, 5‐year‐olds generalized these newly mapped labels but only when presented with negative vocal affect.     

Why Should We Group Students Within-Class for Learning?

The purpose of this article is threefold. First, we bring to the attention of the European and international research community the research evidence concerning within-class grouping. In a previous quantitative review, we computed 103 independent effect sizes from studies comparing within-class instruction and whole class instruction. The mean weighted effect size (ES) of within-class versus no grouping on student achievement was 0.17, which was significantly greater than zero (p < .05). We also reported that the findings were statistically heterogeneous and explored which of 26 study features accounted for the variability. Second, we address the issues related to our research integration raised by Prais (1998, 1999). We argue that our review focused only on grouping effects on students, not other features of classroom organization or teacher outcomes. We also believe that our data suggest that Continental Education would be further enhanced by the use of small group instruction. In particular, our findings are: useful; not so variable as to be meaningless; provide evidence of beneficial effects for students of all relative abilities; are thorough and detailed; and provide a rather complete picture of the available evidence. Third, we elaborate further on the pedagogical techniques which encourage effective small group instruction. We describe cooperative learning in general, the important elements of positive interdependence and individual accountability in particular, and summarize reviews of research on its effectiveness. We remain convinced that educators should group students within-class for learning and rely on the research evidence for guidance in doing so.     

Keeping dissection alive for medical students

Traditional dissection teaching is being reduced in a number of medical schools, particularly in the United Kingdom. In response to this, 12 medical students from Warwick University, UK, traveled to the Island of Grenada for an intensive extracurricular dissection course at St. George's University. This course not only benefited the host university through the creation of prosections for teaching but also allowed the participants to completely immerse themselves in anatomical study, by developing their dissection skills and consolidating anatomical knowledge. We believe that similar courses could be easily implemented by other medical schools, thereby allowing future students to keep traditional dissection alive. Anat Sci Educ 2: 302–303, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Enabling Metacognition in the Laboratory: A Case Study of Four Second Year University Chemistry Students

This paper explores the Competency Tripod model and flow diagrams as two resources for enabling students' metacognition in the chemistry laboratory. It focuses on four selected students' statements in interviews, questionnaires and their performance in practical reports, examinations and tests. These students were from diverse backgrounds and all were successful in the sense that they passed the course. All four students were found to engage in metacognitive practices, all found flow diagrams extremely useful, all understood the Competency Tripod model but only two found it useful. Possible reasons for this are explored.