Eozoön: debunking the dawn animal

Discovered in the nineteenth century by the Canadian Geological Survey, the Eozo?n canadense fossil, or 'dawn animal of Canada', created a sensation in the geological community. Only a few initially challenged its status as a fossil organism, including two professors in the remote Irish town of Galway. These men claimed that Eozo?n was nothing more than a mineral formation and did not represent the discovery of the primordial organism. Supporters of Eozo?n closed ranks and a heated debate soon broke out in a range of periodicals. The story of Eozo?n lays bare the construction of scientific credibility, a process that was threatened in the second half of the nineteenth century by the proliferation of popular science.     

Using a blended learning approach to support women returning to STEM

ABSTRACT

This paper examines a blended learning model designed to support women returning to STEM after a career break and its delivery in a unique partnership between an online distance education provider and a community-based equality organisation. Through this partnership additional activities such as networking events, returnships, career clinics and webinars were used in conjunction with a structured online Badged Open Course (BOC), which enabled a successful return to employment for many of the participants. This article outlines the results and implications of this integrated model and argues that blended learning approaches need to be flexible and adaptable to be able to incorporate the needs of learners at different life-course stages, taking into consideration gender and other diversity characteristics.     

Toward a procedure for minimizing and detecting false positive diagnoses of learning disability

Assessment procedures that can significantly enhance motivation to perform are needed so that poor performance due to low or avoidance motivation is not misdiagnosed as indicating ability deficits or as symptomatic of learning disabilities (LD). In this connection, research is under way to investigate the degree to which a highly motivating computer game learning task can improve differential diagnoses of LD. Findings from the initial investigation indicate that a large proportion of students diagnosed as LD were able to learn effectively when pursuing such a task. The results illustrate the key role motivation plays in determining the validity of diagnostic assessment and demonstrate the potential value of similar tasks for use in differentiating, from among individuals diagnosed as LD, those who do not have impaired learning processes.     

Extrinsic and intrinsic factors in graduation and academic failure among LD college students

A group of 110 LD college students were compared to a random stratified sample (RSS) of 153 peers attending the same moderately selective college between 1980 and 1988. The LD students received comprehensive, highly coordinated support services for at least one semester. The groups were matched on gender, college experience, semester, and year of entry to the college. The LD and RSS groups were compared on high school preparation and performance, ACT and college performance, and graduation and academic failure rate. Although the LD students’ high school records, ACT scores, and college performance were inferior to that of the RSS group, they graduated at the same rate and within the same time frame. Neither was there any significant difference in the academic failure rate. Closer examination of the LD graduates and academic failures’ performance showed that in spite of the similarities in intellectual abilities, academic achievement, and aptitude-achievement discrepancy, two factors differentiated between the LD graduates and non-graduates: oral language abilities and motivation and attitude toward the teaching-learning process. These two factors accounted for 60 percent of the variance in graduation status. This research was supported in part by grants from the Butz and Thorn River Foundations.     

Learning problems, anger, perceived control, and misbehavior

Fifty-four students diagnosed as having learning disabilities (LD) and 73 students in regular education were administered the School Anger Inventory and the Perceived Control at School Scale. Teachers and parents rated student deportment and motivation. Predictably, those in the LD sample indicated higher school anger levels and were rated as exhibiting more negative behavior, less positive behavior, and lower motivation for on-task performance. The samples did not differ in their ratings of perceived control, which was moderate, and were given comparable positive teacher ratings for recall of relevant and interesting material. Significant correlations between school anger and behavior were found only in the LD sample, and there was no significant overall relationship between school anger, behavior, and perceived control within either sample. Overall, however, students who reported both a high level of anger and high perceived control were found to exhibit more negative behavior than those with high anger and low perceived control.