The adventures of a day care provider

B. J. Richards operates a licensed day care home in Logan Square, Chicago, Illinois. She founded and worked in a day care cooperative in New York City for twelve years.     

Girls,boys and conceptual physics: An evaluation of a senior secondary physics course

This paper reports an evaluation of the physics course at Dickson College (ACT) looking at students' high school experience, their expectations before beginning and their impressions and feelings during the course. In general, students seem to have a fairly negative approach to physics, enrolling for a variety of often vague utilitarian reasons but with little expectation of enjoyment or interest. These opinions were most prevalent in girls who tend to find the content difficult and the course as a whole uninteresting. There is also a significant difference between girls and boys in their response to different types of assessment items. In an attempt to enhance the level of interest and enjoyment in students we have been phasing in a more ‘conceptual’ approach to the teaching of physics. Specializations: senior Physics, Chemistry and Biology.     

Unique Patterns of Cognitive Outcomes for Undergraduate Students at Southern Baptist Colleges: A Comparative Analysis

The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of growth in cognitive outcomes among students attending Southern Baptist universities, as compared to their peers at other Council of Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), Catholic, and nonsectarian institutions, and to identify the college experiences that contribute to cognitive development. Using data from the College Senior Survey, inferential analyses revealed that students enrolled at Southern Baptist colleges and universities had significantly higher levels of academic self-concept and perceived cognitive skills than students enrolled at other types of Christian institutions. In addition, regression analyses showed that the Baptist sample yielded some unique patterns as to which college experiences contributed to cognitive outcome development among students.     

Understanding food processing and systems: Pilot testing a standards‐aligned middle school curriculum

Consumer confidence and trust, as it relates to the food system, is one of the most sensitive areas within consumers’ understanding of food. Surveys have shown that a large majority of people would like to learn more about agriculture and food manufacturing, with young people being among those most eager for more information about where their food comes from. Food‐focused educational resources often go unused due to teachers’ lack of familiarity with the subject area, the pressures of standardized testing, and lack of alignment to state content standards. Building on the success of the Hands On Classrooms platform that developed and validated curricula with high adoption rates by teachers and a demonstrated impact on student knowledge and self‐efficacy, a new curriculum on food system and food processing was developed and pilot tested. Two teachers from rural Virginia and Tennessee participated in the study. Both teachers received online professional development prior to implementation. Students were given pretests and posttests to measure (a) what impact does the curriculum have on students’ knowledge of food systems and processing and (b) to what extent does the curriculum have an impact on student's self‐reported skills related to these topics? A total of 87 students completed the assessments and showed significant improvements from pretest to posttest on both knowledge (p < .001) and skills (p < .001) related specifically to where food comes from and how it is processed, content that is typically not covered in middle school curriculum. Further research can be undertaken to measure the impact on others in different geographic and socioeconomic areas to provide additional data to validate the program.     

The Effects of Instruction on Students' Generation of Self-Questions When Reading Multiple Documents

The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of instruction on students' generation of questions when reading multiple documents. Participants were 151 undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a treatment condition that received question generation instruction and a control condition that did not receive question generation instruction. All participants read four primary-source documents and were asked to generate up to 10 questions based on those documents. Results indicate that students generated significantly fewer higher-order integration questions without instructional support. These results are replicated with an alternative document set to demonstrate that the effects found were not due to the specific historical topic.     

Beyond Average: Contemporary statistical techniques for analysing student evaluations of teaching

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) have been used to evaluate higher education teaching performance for decades. Reporting SET results often involves the extraction of an average for some set of course metrics, which facilitates the comparison of teaching teams across different organisational units. Here, we draw attention to ongoing problems with the naive application of this approach. Firstly, a specific average value may arise from data that demonstrates very different patterns of student satisfaction. Furthermore, the use of distance measures (e.g. an average) for ordinal data can be contested, and finally, issues of multiplicity increasingly plague approaches using hypothesis testing. It is time to advance the methodology of the field. We demonstrate how multinomial distributions and hierarchical Bayesian methods can be used to contextualise the SET scores of a course to different organisational units and student cohorts, and then show how this approach can be used to extract sensible information about how a distribution is changing.     

Is starting with the feet out of the water faster in backstroke swimming?

This study aimed to determine if starting with the feet above the water (FAW) in male backstroke swimming resulted in faster start times (15-m time) than when the feet were underwater (FUW). It was hypothesised that setting higher on the wall would generate increased horizontal force and velocity, resulting in quicker starts. Twelve high-level male backstrokers performed three trials of the FAW and FUW techniques. A biomechanical swimming testing system comprising one force plate (1,000 Hz), four lateral-view (100 Hz), and five overhead (50 Hz) video cameras captured the swimmers' performance. Data for each participant's fastest trial for each technique were collated, grouped, and statistically analysed. Analysis included Wilcoxon, Spearman Rho correlation, and regression analysis. Wilcoxon results revealed a significantly faster start time for the FAW technique (p < 0.01). Peak horizontal force was significantly smaller for FAW (p = 0.02), while take-off horizontal velocity was significantly greater (p = 0.01). Regression analysis indicated take-off horizontal velocity to be a good predictor of start time for both techniques, and the horizontal displacement of the centre of mass for the FAW start.     

A Genetically Optimized Predictive System for Success in General Chemistry Using a Diagnostic Algebra Test

In higher education, many high-enrollment introductory courses have evolved into “gatekeeper” courses due to their high failure rates. These courses prevent many students from attaining their educational goals and often become graduation roadblocks. At the authors’ home institution, general chemistry has become a gatekeeper course in which approximately 25% of students do not pass. This failure rate in chemistry is common, and often higher, at many other institutions of higher education, and mathematical deficiencies are perceived to be a large contributing factor. This paper details the development of a highly accurate predictive system that identifies students at the beginning of the semester who are “at-risk” for earning a grade of C- or below in chemistry. The predictive accuracy of this system is maximized by using a genetically optimized neural network to analyze the results of a diagnostic algebra test designed for a specific population. Once at-risk students have been identified, they can be helped to improve their chances of success using techniques such as concurrent support courses, online tutorials, “just-in-time” instructional aides, study skills, motivational interviewing, and/or peer mentoring.     

Development and Testing of a Curriculum to Improve Decision-Making Skills in Middle and High School Students

Adolescence is a key developmental period for developing and strengthening brain circuits that underlie effective decision-making skills, which profoundly impact lifelong health and academic, professional, and economic achievement. But decision-making skills are learned rather than inherent. School presents an ideal environment for the direct instruction and frequent practice of decision-making skills, however, finding time in the school day is a challenge for contemporary educators. We have developed a learning curriculum that involves active student participation to strengthen decision-making skills that is sufficiently flexible and adaptable to be utilized in a wide variety of content-specific classwork. Using this curriculum, students show evidence of improved decision-making skills, including increased consideration of the number of factors that are relevant to their decision, the resources needed to make a particular decision, and both the short-term and long-term consequences of decisions.     

LONGITUDINAL PREDICTION OF 1ST AND 2ND GRADE ENGLISH ORAL READING FLUENCY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: WHICH EARLY READING AND LANGUAGE SKILLS ARE BETTER PREDICTORS?

This study investigates the relation between Spanish and English early literacy skills in kindergarten and first grade, and English oral reading fluency at the end of first and second grade in a sample of 150 Spanish‐speaking English language learners. Students were assessed in kindergarten, first, and second grades on a broad bilingual academic battery that included phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, word reading, and oral reading fluency. These measures were analyzed using hierarchal multiple regression to determine which early reading skills predicted English oral reading fluency scores at the end of first and second grade. Predictive relationships were different between English and Spanish measures of early literacy and end of year first grade and second grade English oral reading fluency. This study has important implications for early identification of risk for Spanish‐speaking English language learners as it addresses the input of both Spanish and English early reading skills and the relation between those skills and English oral reading fluency.