‘Computer games can get your brain working’: student experience and perceptions of digital games in the classroom

There is considerable enthusiasm in many quarters for the incorporation of digital games into the classroom, and the capacity of games to engage and challenge players, present complex representations and experiences, foster collaborative learning, and promote deep learning. But while there is increasing research documenting the progress and outcomes of game-based learning, relatively little attention is paid to student perceptions and voice. In order to effectively target game-based learning pedagogy, it is important to understand students' previous experience, if any, of the use of games in the classroom, and what they made of these. In this paper, we present findings from a survey of 270 primary and secondary school students in Year Levels 4–9 (aged 9–14) in 6 Queensland schools at the start of a 3-year Australian Research Council project researching the use of digital games in school to promote literacy and learning.     

美国幼儿保育与教育中的政府职能

美国实行联邦、州、县学区三级的按年龄分段的二元式幼儿保育与教育管理体制。概括而言,联邦宏观调控,各州全面负责,县学区具体督导。三级政府之间和政府各部门之间的幼儿保教职能分工明晰。     

Expanding the landscape: developing knowledgeability through communities of practice

Rapid changes in the Higher Education (HE) sector are increasing the pressure on teaching staff to introduce technology-enhanced learning experiences into the curriculum. Institutions therefore need to provide effective means of enabling academics to successfully transition to these new modes of curriculum delivery. This paper reports on an inquiry into the efficacy of a community of practice (CoP) approach trialled at a HE institution to contribute to the design of a renewed, blended curriculum. Analysis indicated that participation in the CoP had a positive impact on academics’ sense of community and their knowledgeability in relation to new teaching approaches.     

Ways of Knowing beyond Facts and Laws of Science: An Ethnographic Investigation of Student Engagement in Scientific Practices

In this study, an anthropological perspective informed by sociolinguistic discourse analysis was used to examine how teachers, students, and scientists constructed ways of investigating and knowing in science. Events in a combined fourth‐ and fifth‐grade elementary class were studied to document how the participating teacher provided opportunities for students to diverge from the intended curriculum to pursue their questions concerning the behavior of sea animals in a marine science observation tank. Analysis of the classroom discourse identified ways that particular teaching strategies provided opportunities for student engagement in scientific practices. Implications of this study for the teaching of science in elementary classrooms include the value of student‐initiated science explorations under the conditions of uncertainty and for topics in which the teacher lacked relevant disciplinary knowledge. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 237–258, 2000.     

Sex and gender in transition in US schools: ways forward

Abstract

This paper examines the current state of law and policy in relation to US transgender youth and their lived experiences. We approach this from different disciplinary backgrounds, identities, and ways of writing terms related to gender identity. We begin with an examination of the current legal climate in the USA and explore how students have pushed back against gender and sexuality norms even in a restrictive climate. Some transformations are already happening in public schools and some backlash, too, is being felt. Laws and policies in some locations are encouraging students, teachers, school leaders and community members to collaborate in making schools more educationally concerned about trans student success and teaching the school community about gender diversity. In shifting among scales and experiences of youth thinking and working on gender, we aim to emphasise youth agency and outline young people’s frustrations at the obstacles related to trans, gender dissidence and sexuality. In conclusion, we point to changes that can be made in schools to help professionals understand how policy and curricular innovation can bolster the openings that trans, gender creative and gender non-binary youth are already creating, whether or not those opportunities are officially recognised.     

Universals and specifics in learning strategies: Explaining adolescent mathematics, science, and reading achievement across 34 countries

We examined whether strategies of memorization, transfer through elaboration, and metacognition accounted for reading, science, and mathematics achievement across 34 countries. 158,848 fifteen-year-olds completed a reading literacy test and a questionnaire. Of these students, 88,401 completed a science test, and 88,590 completed a mathematics test. We analyzed the data using multi-level regressions of Rasch-estimated test scores and modeled differences across countries and across schools. Students who reported using memorization strategies often scored lower in all subjects. Transfer through elaboration was not significantly linked to any achievement scores. Lastly, students reporting greater use of metacognitive strategies often scored higher. Compared to students in individualistic societies, to achievement scores of students in collective cultures were linked more strongly to schoolmates' use of metacognitive strategies and less strongly to their own use of metacognitive strategies. These results highlight how cultural contexts can moderate the links between adolescents' learning strategies and their academic achievement.     

Ask Dr. Discovery: the impact of a casual mobile game on visitor engagement with science museum content

Educational technology research and development - This study examines the impact of a mobile game app on science museum visitors’ level of engagement with exhibit content, compared to a non...     

Applying Emotional Intelligence: Exploring the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies curriculum

This paper describes a collaborative action research project in one primary school that arose from a mutual interest in applying the concept of “Emotional Intelligence”. It involves an exploratory qualitative study of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum. This is an approach aimed at promoting emotional competence in children and young people. The PATHS curriculum was chosen because of its clear conceptualisation of emotion, its emphasis upon cognitive and developmental aspects and its research history. One class of 9 and 10 year olds took part in the project. Target children were selected from within this group for closer monitoring. The outcomes suggest that PATHS was rated very positively by class teachers, pupils and other staff involved in the project. Positive emotional, social and behavioural changes at a class and individual level were attributed to the effects of PATHS. Finally, the importance of developing a positive school ethos was highlighted as promoting these effects.     

“You're going to want to find out which and prove it”: collective argumentation in a mathematics classroom

One of the proposals of the North American educational reform movement is that teachers should stress scientific argumentation more than the manipulation of symbols and algorithms in their mathematics instruction. The aim of this article is to apply some theoretical concepts, drawn from the fields of sociolinguistics and rhetoric, to the analysis of argumentation in a lesson conducted in an urban middle school classroom. Our analysis focuses on the implementation of the classroom teacher's instructional goals during a lesson on area measurement. As a result of our analyses, we found that she achieved her instructional goals of being nondirective in her teaching and getting students actively involved in arguing about mathematical concepts. The teacher was able to orchestrate discussion by recruiting attention and participation from her class, aligning students with argumentative positions through reported speech, highlighting positions through repetition, and pointing out important aspects of their arguments through expansion. In addition, we also found that her students differed in the way they framed the mathematical content of the lesson in terms of the facts or grounds, algorithms or warrants, premises or backings, as well as solutions or claims. Their arguments also varied in terms of explicitness and ability to integrate their classmates' arguments. In conclusion, we feel that discourse analysis, based on sociolinguistic and rhetorical theoretical frameworks, can be a valuable tool for the evaluation of educational reform in mathematics.     

Understanding cellular respiration: An analysis of conceptual change in college biology

This study explored and documented the frequencies of conceptual difficulties confronted by college students seeking to understand the basic processes of cellular respiration. Using concept maps, clinical interviews and an open-ended instrument, viewpoints were elicited from 100 (novice) introductory biology students before and after relevant instruction in cellular respiration and from 100 (experienced) students enrolled in advanced biology courses. Chi-square analyses revealed significant differences among groups in the frequencies of scientifically acceptable and alternative conceptions. The findings suggest that novices harbor a wide range of conceptual difficulties that constrain their understanding of cellular respiration. Furthermore, many of these difficulties persist after instruction and new ones arise. Often these conceptual problems remain intact among experienced students despite well-planned, repeated instruction at advanced levels.