Evaluation of an attempt to teach scientific inquiry and criticism in a working class high school

A group of 15 low SES 14-year-olds, who had not yet reached Piaget's stage of “formal operations”, were taught to design controlled experiments and to criticize poorly controlled experiments. As judged by performance on a nonstandardized text, they learned to do this well, and significantly outperformed matched controls. (p <.001). The results were interpreted with reference to Inhelder and Piaget's work on the origins of scientific thinking.     

Skill-oriented task sequencing in an intelligent tutor for basic algebra

As part of a project to develop an intelligent computer tutor for basic algebra, we have been investigating task sequencing. In this paper we present an approach to task sequencing that is based on a component-skills view of intelligence and learning. We postulate that tutors use inferences about past and present student performance to determine a current skill set that will be the new target for learning. The skill set is then used as a basis for generating tasks that should elicit those skills. Current skill sets are modified slowly over time so that lessons appear coherent and well-planned. We first describe the approach at a general level, where it can be viewed as a cognitive model of human task sequencing. Then we discuss the implementation of the model in our intelligent algebra tutoring system.     

Being together in classrooms at the interface of the physical and virtual: implications for collaboration in on/off-screen sites

This article contributes to thinking about collaboration in classroom/virtual environments by considering how children (aged 10–11) engage in the process of ‘being together’ at the interface of the physical and virtual. It argues that, if educators are to develop effective pedagogies that capitalise on opportunities for collaborative and participatory learning, there is a need for nuanced accounts of the ways that children and young people relate to one another across on/off-screen sites and for new ways of conceptualising their interactions. Using a four-part story based on an illustrative episode from a longitudinal classroom-based study, the article explores how a focus on what Schatzki terms a ‘practice meshwork’ can highlight how relationships are shaped by and shape diverse practices. In particular it explores how embodied relations with things in classrooms mediate ways of ‘being together’ around classroom/virtual environments. It suggests that different timespaces are consequently evoked as children play together on and around screens in class. Drawing on these ideas, the article advances five propositions about ‘being together’ that arise from seeing relationships as entangled with multiple practices. It ends by arguing that, in planning for and researching collaboration, it is important to acknowledge how these five dimensions interface.     

Gender differences in mathematical performance

The present study examined gender differences in children tested at grade levels two, four and six over an eleven year period. Total Mathematics, Mathematical Computation and Mathematical Concept Normal Curve Equivalency (NCE) scores were collected from the past eleven years of administrations of Science Research Associates (SRA) Achievement Series tests. Scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC or WISC-R) controlled for the influence of intellectual level. A multivariate analysis of covariance with repeated measures was used along with a test of magnitude of effect to analyze the data. No significant gender differences or gender by grade level differences were found. A significant difference was found, however, when grade levels were compared. There was a downward trend in performance on the mathematical tasks as grade level increased.     

Chronicling engagement: students’ experience of online learning over time

Although there is ample research into student engagement in online learning, much of this investigates the student experience through surveys administered at a fixed point in time, usually at the exit point of a single unit of study or course. The study described in this paper, by contrast, aimed to understand online student engagement over a whole semester, guided by two overarching questions: What factors impact students’ engagement over a semester? What factors account for fluctuation in engagement levels over time? This paper presents results from weekly feedback on online education students’ engagement over the length of one semester at a regional Australian university. It also chronicles in more depth the experiences of one student across the same semester. The findings offer longitudinal accounts of student engagement, demonstrating that levels of engagement fluctuate and are influenced by a variety of factors.     

Preparing CBI print‐based support material: an information/instructional design perspective

Computer‐based instructional (CBI) materials are frequently accompanied by student study guides. This report details Grant MacEwan Community College's experience in producing print‐based material to support its computer‐managed learning (CML) system. Thus the report is written from a CBI perspective, and attempts to place emphasis on the recognition of cognitive processes in the development of CBI and related materials. Grant MacEwan material has been developed using the instructional design principles promoted by Gagne and Briggs (1979). The first part of this report focuses on content organization. The ideas presented may be applicable to any setting requiring the development of independent study print support material.     

Holy Lemons! Learning from children's uses of the Internet in out‐of‐school contexts

The Internet offers new possibilities for engaging with information and is associated with a wide range of literacy practices. National guidance in the United Kingdom on ‘reading the web’, however, has focused largely on the different skills children may need to learn in school to navigate web‐based texts successfully. Here it is argued that much can be learned both about the potential of the web and of the kinds of reading associated with it by examining children's use of the Internet outside school. This article therefore begins with an overview of particular features of on‐screen reading and the different practices and orientations towards knowledge associated with this. It then reports on the use of the Internet out of school by a group of Year 6 children. It explores the purposes for which these children access the Internet, the attitudes and orientations they demonstrate in their approach to web‐based texts, and their own perceptions of what has enabled them to develop as Internet users. This exploration highlights the way that children may experiment and innovate in their use of the Internet out of school, and in doing so demonstrate considerable autonomy. These findings are used to make suggestions for framing and supporting children's Internet use in school.     

The appearance of literacy in new communicative practices: interrogating the politics of noticing

ABSTRACT

This conceptual article examines how ready-made assumptions about literacy both frame and limit understandings of new communicative practices in educational contexts. Proposing a tripartite heuristic that interrogates the appearance of literacy in terms of emergence, semblance and performance, it uses stories from a study of touchscreen tablets in one early years setting to illustrate the social-material arrangements associated with moments when tablets became texts to be looked at, shared or made. The authors argue that a sociomaterial sensibility can not only sensitise researchers to new communicative practices, but also to the ways in which sociomaterial arrangements help to construct habits of noticing often active in accounts of literacy practice and research. It is their contention that exploring the relations between emergence, semblance and performance is particularly valuable at a time when conceptualisations of literacy are being challenged in response to diversifying communicative practices.     

The impact of a unified curriculum and qualifications system: the Higher Still reform of post‐16 education in Scotland

There is a cross‐national trend towards unified curriculum and qualifications frameworks in upper secondary education, but such reforms face epistemological, political and institutional barriers and ‘unification’ remains a contested issue in many countries, including England. This article examines the experience of the Scottish Higher Still reform, one of the most systematic examples of this trend. It presents data from an Economic and Social Research Council‐funded study which included case studies of schools and colleges, surveys of all secondary schools and colleges in Scotland, analyses of Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) data and interviews with key informants. Higher Still's climbing frame model of provision provided better learning opportunities for different types and levels of students, but its impact on attainment and parity of esteem were more limited. The article concludes that institutional barriers formed the biggest obstacles in the implementation phase, reflected in the contrasting ‘institutional logics’ of schools and colleges.