Language as an indicator of meaning generation: An analysis of middle school students' written discourse about scientific investigations

The purposes of this study were to (a) investigate how one group of middle school students generated meanings for scientific data and expressed them in writing, and (b) develop a methodology for assessing the relationship between students' written text and their scientific thinking. Previous research on writing to learn has focused on the reformulation of content material supplied by the teacher, rather than authentic inquiry data that provide opportunities for meaningful interpretation. The research design was a content analysis of documents produced in a naturalistic setting. Data analysis focused on the frequency, placement, and purpose of meaningful inferences embedded in the reports, as well as coding for the elaboration, extension, and enhancement of science ideas. Results indicated that many student reports included a minimal number of written inferences, expressing only vague meanings for the data. However, some students integrated inference and data, using inference to (a) explain specific meanings for data points in context, and (b) pose new hypotheses to explain data. An analysis of expansion characteristics revealed that some students were able to elaborate richly upon their initial ideas through the use of language, thereby generating new meaning for the investigations. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 1044–1061, 1999     

Poles Apart? An exploration of single-sex and mixed-sex educational environments in Australia and England

This paper contributes to debates on the benefits of single-sex and co-educational school environments by considering both single-sex versus co-educational schools and single-sex versus co-educational classes in co-educational schools. Two research studies provide the empirical basis for this discussion. One study was a 10-year-long investigation of two Australian secondary schools which had been single-sex schools and became co-educational secondary schools over a two-year period. The second study involved a two-year investigation in an English co-educational secondary school where single-sex mathematics classes were introduced for one cohort of pupils for five school terms, after which mixed-sex classes were reintroduced. Evidence relating to academic self-concept, pupil, parent and staff perceptions and academic achievement are discussed. Overall, the evidence suggests that co-educational environments create possible social/interaction disadvantages for girls, but that academic self-concept is not adversely affected by transferring from single-sex environments into mixed-sex ones.     

How Early Is Too Early to Begin Life Career Planning? The Importance of the Elementary School Years

The relationship of early and middle childhood experiences to life career planning is discussed. Life career planning is presented as a life skill beginning in infancy. The authors present five premises on which they have based their discussion: Life career development is a life-long, spiraling process; Life career planning includes a series of sub-skills; Career awareness and career exploration form the foundation for effective life career planning; Idiosyncratic factors influence the decision-making of each person; and Child development theory (e.g., Erikson, Piaget and Vygotsky) and career development theory (e.g., Super and Gottfredson) are interrelated. Implications for practice are included.     

Affordances and constraints of computers in science education

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, computers in science teaching were seen as a panacea for many problems plaguing the domain. While considerable research has been done to determine cognitive achievements of students who interact with computers during their science learning, more basic questions have not yet been addressed. This study was designed to investigate how computers and a modeling software contributed to students' interactions and learning in a physics course. The interpretations focused on the microworld as a tool that supported but also limited students' sense-making activities. First, the computer microworld contributed in significant ways to the maintenance and coordination of students' physics conversations. Second, the computer environment (a) was sometimes “unready to hand” so that students spent more time learning the software rather than physics, and (b) limited the interactions within groups. It was concluded that while computer environments have some potential as learning tools, they also limit interactions in significant ways, rendering them less than ideal for everyday classroom use. With the use of software … students can be provided with the necessary tools and experiences to practice the investigative skills used by scientists and mathematicians… [Students] can pursue specific topics of their own interest and deal with this information in sufficient depth to construe personal meaning to various concepts. (Barman, 1993, p. viii) In educational applications, user interface design has received little attention, despite the fact that the interface is particularly important for educational software… This concern goes much deeper than the nebulous concept most often represented by the buzz phrase, ‘user friendliness.’ (Jackson, Edwards, & Berger, 1993b, p. 414) © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Correlates of College Retention and GPA: Learning and Study Strategies,Testwiseness, Attitudes,and ACT

This study assessed unique contributions of learning, study, and test-taking strategies; students' attitudes about college; and ACT scores, and linked them to college GPA and to retention. Although several variables contributed significantly to GPA, only GPA made a significant unique contribution to attrition and retention. This suggests that learning and study strategies and students' college attitudes affect attrition indirectly through GPA.     

Conflict in the Dyadic Play of 3-Year-Old Children

Episodes of conflict provide a rich source of information about children's development of interactive skills. In the present study, 184 3-year-old children were observed in dyadic play and the 287 conflicts that occurred during their play were transcribed and coded. In general, children's conflicts arose in the context of ongoing play and were brief, lasting less than 15 seconds. Most disputes concerned toy possession, and almost 80% were ended by the simple withdrawal of one or the other children from the conflict. When children responded with emotional intensity to conflict, their conflicts lasted longer and were more likely to be followed by continued negative interaction. Individual difference data were available for one member of each dyad observed in play. Children rated in infancy as having difficult temperaments were found to be more intense during conflict, to spend more time in conflict, and to score higher on an index of conflict resolution competence, whereas concurrent social behavior was not related to conflict variables. Girls scored higher than boys on competence at conflict resolution, and children with better language skills spent less time in conflict. The more time children spent in nonmaternal child care up to age 3, the less likely they were to initiate conflict.     

Student perceptions of gender roles: Implications for counsellors

Occupational aspirations of school children are undergoing changes as more men and women enter nontraditional spheres of work. Nevertheless, Papageorgiou (1982) reported that the overwhelming majority of a sample of upper elementary through high school students in Colorado regarded traditional gender roles as their only choice, and gender role stereotyping as placing serious limitations on career choices, particularly for females. In this article, we describe a replication of Papageorgiou's study in a western Canadian school district, with similar results. Gender-role stereotyping still appears to dominate the occupational aspirations of the majority of school children. Implications are drawn for counsellors interested in promoting career aspirations based on abilities and interests rather than gender-role stereotypes.