Exploring the Boundary Conditions of the Redundancy Principle

This experiment investigated whether study of a scientific text and a visual display that contained redundant text segments would affect memory and transfer. The authors randomly assigned 42 students from a university in the southwestern United States in equal numbers to 1 of 2 conditions: (a) a redundant condition, in which participants studied a scientific text that described plate tectonics and a corresponding visual display that contained redundant segments from the text; or (b) a nonredundant condition, in which participants studied the scientific text and a corresponding visual display that lacked the redundant text segments. Embedding redundant text segments within the visual display enhanced performance on 3 measures of memory but not on a measure of transfer. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications using the cognitive theory of multimedia learning.     

Articulating syntactic and numeric perspectives on equivalence: the case of rational expressions

Our study concerns the conceptual mathematical knowledge that emerges during the resolution of tasks on the equivalence of polynomial and rational algebraic expressions, by using CAS and paper-and-pencil techniques. The theoretical framework we adopt is the Anthropological Theory of Didactics (Chevallard 19:221–266, 1999), in combination with semiotic aspects from the instrumental approach to tool use. The analysis we present is based on interviews carried out with a 10th grade student who participated in our research. Our findings highlight the mathematical knowledge (technological discourse) constructed in the process of confronting, differentiating, and articulating the several mathematical techniques and theoretical ideas (pertaining to the numeric perspective and the syntactic perspective on algebraic equivalence) related to the designed equivalence tasks.     

Cognitive style of gifted and average readers

Thirty gifted and 30 average readers were selected from a population of 300 eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students in small towns or rural areas in Kansas. Students were classified as field independent or field dependent. It was found that gifted and average readers used the same reading strategies but there were significant differences in how frequently some strategies were used. There were also significant differences in how frequently some strategies were used by field independent and field dependent readers. Gifted readers scored significantly higher than average readers on the Hidden Figures Test. No significant differences in the frequency of reading strategy use were found between field independent gifted readers and field dependent gifted readers or between field independent and field dependent average readers.     

Reducing Student Bias Against Older Adults Through the Use of Literature

Human services educators must address the issue of students’ bias toward older adults to encourage interest and meet the growing need for professionals in the field. The use of literature can challenge students’ preconceptions of older adults while innovative teaching methods can guide their development of more tolerant views and introduce them to a field that they may have previously given little consideration. Based on a model of cultural competence development, teaching strategies, learning objectives, literature, and an evaluation are suggested.     

Building Relationships through Communities of Practice: Museums and Indigenous People

Abstract This paper explores the theory of “communities of practice” and how the ideas contained in it could be applied to museums, by demonstrating how a key stakeholder group, Indigenous people, have been involved with and engaged in the work of the Australian Museum, Sydney, over the past 30 years. It is suggested that the processes museums have developed in building relationships with Indigenous people, particularly at the practitioner level, could form a template for how museums make themselves relevant to broader communities through active engagement with multiple communities of practice.