Connecting high school physics experiences,outcome expectations,physics identity,and physics career choice: A gender study

This study explores how students' physics identities are shaped by their experiences in high school physics classes and by their career outcome expectations. The theoretical framework focuses on physics identity and includes the dimensions of student performance, competence, recognition by others, and interest. Drawing data from the Persistence Research in Science and Engineering (PRiSE) project, which surveyed college English students nationally about their backgrounds, high school science experiences, and science attitudes, the study uses multiple regression to examine the responses of 3,829 students from 34 randomly selected US colleges/universities. Confirming the salience of the identity dimension for young persons' occupational plans, the measure for students' physics identity used in this study was found to strongly predict their intended choice of a physics career. Physics identity, in turn, was found to correlate positively with a desire for an intrinsically fulfilling career and negatively with a desire for personal/family time and opportunities to work with others. Physics identity was also positively predicted by several high school physics characteristics/experiences such as a focus on conceptual understanding, real‐world/contextual connections, students answering questions or making comments, students teaching classmates, and having an encouraging teacher. Even though equally beneficial for both genders, females reported experiencing a conceptual focus and real‐world/contextual connections less frequently. The explicit discussion of under‐representation of women in science was positively related to physics identity for female students but had no impact for male students. Surprisingly, several experiences that were hypothesized to be important for females' physics identity were found to be non‐significant including having female scientist guest speakers, discussion of women scientists' work, and the frequency of group work. This study exemplifies a useful theoretical framework based on identity, which can be employed to further examine persistence in science, and illustrates possible avenues for change in high school physics teaching. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 978–1003, 2010     

Child and Parent Relationships with Teachers in Schools Responsible for the Education of Children with Serious Medical Conditions

Claire Norris, former research associate at Moray House Institute of Education, and Alison Closs, a lecturer in special education at the Institute, describe a small research project which examined the interpersonal relationships between children with chronic and/or deteriorating conditions and their parents and teachers. The research was one aspect of a wider study (Closs & Norris, 1997) which sought ways of enabling the mainstream education of such children in Scotland.     

Challenges to Stereotypes of International Students’ Prior Educational Experience: undergraduate education in India

The discourse concerning teaching and learning for international students in Australia has been dominated by a cultural‐deficit approach. Proponents of this perspective argue that many international students bring with them learning experiences which are inadequate in the Australian context. These experiences have favoured rote, reproductive, surface, teacher‐centred and dependent approaches to learning; which lack analytical and critical perspectives; and which have occurred in contexts dominated by examinations and substantially lacking in educational resources. More recently, other research has challenged these stereotypes of international students, particularly regarding students from Confucian‐heritage cultures. This paper examines these stereotypes in relation to international students from India, through the use of a review of the available literature on Indian higher education and the analysis of the undergraduate learning experiences of a group of postgraduate students studying at a large Australian metropolitan university. It concludes that while some aspects of the stereotype may apply to Indian undergraduate education, most aspects of the cultural‐deficit perspective are problematic in that context, and a more contextualised approach is of greater use in understanding and describing the diversity of undergraduate learning in India.     

You Gotta Represent¡ Ethnic Identity Development among Hispanic Adolescents

Hispanic students' awareness of cultural, linguistic, and sociopolitical issues are influenced by their experiences in schools and affect their sense of identity. An examination of student discourse between bilingual gifted and bilingual general education students in an urban middle school is presented, with particular attention given to how participating bilingual students relate to each other, peers (in general and gifted education), teachers, administrators, families, and communities, and how they perceive themselves. A discussion of the core issues that emerged, including students' reawakening to their ethnic identity, differing rationales for using native language, and observed differences in self-perceptions between the gifted and general education bilingual Hispanic students is provided, along with results and implications for future research.     

Measuring cultural value in Canada: From national commissions to a culture satellite account

In Canada, government initiatives for the measurement of cultural value can be traced to the 1949 Royal Commission on National Development in Arts, Letters and Sciences, and later evolved to include more empirical measurement with the Culture Statistics Program (1972) as well as research into the social dimensions of cultural investment. In 2009, Statistics Canada launched a four-year Feasibility Study to culminate in the creation of a Canadian Culture Satellite Account (CSA), an accounting framework to measure the impact of culture, the arts, heritage and sport on the Canadian economy. Taking account of both the recent and broader historical context out of which the CSA emerged, this paper examines its intended use and future plans. The CSA is a useful tool to the Government of Canada in supporting its activities related to the funding of culture, but this paper takes the position that it is not in and of itself a sufficient means for measuring the value of culture in Canada, and so it is best understood as part of a constellation of tools with differing but complementary approaches.     

A single session of treadmill running has no effect on plasma total ghrelin concentrations

Ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates hunger. Intense exercise has been shown to temporarily suppress hunger after exercise. In the present study, we investigated whether post-exercise hunger suppression is mediated by reduced plasma total ghrelin concentrations. Nine men and nine women participated in the study. Their mean physical characteristics were as follows: age 24.8 (s(x) = 0.9) years, body mass index 22.9 (s(x) = 0.6) kg x m(-2), maximal oxygen uptake (VO(2max)) 57.7 (s(x) = 2.2) ml x kg(-1) x min(-1). The participants completed two 3-h trials (exercise and control) on separate days in a randomized balanced design after overnight fasts. The exercise trial involved a 1-h treadmill run at 73.5% of VO(2max) followed by 2 h of rest. The control trial consisted of 3 h of rest. Blood samples were collected at 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 h. Total ghrelin concentrations were determined from plasma. Hunger was assessed following blood sampling using a 15-point scale. The data were analysed using repeated-measures analysis of variance. Hunger scores were lower in the exercise trial than in the control trial (trial, P = 0.009; time, P < 0.001; trial x time, P < 0.001). Plasma total ghrelin concentrations did not differ between trials. These findings indicate that treadmill running suppresses hunger but this effect is not mediated by changes in plasma total ghrelin concentration.