Chemistry teaching objectives in Italian secondary schools

Responses to a written beliefs test for 178 eighth grade students and interviews with a subset of the students are analysed to investigate students' beliefs about the tentativeness of scientific knowledge and about the autonomy and strategies appropriate for science learning. These three dimensions of beliefs are salient because they align with the image of science teaching promoted by current reform movements. Analyses focus on change in beliefs and relationships among dimensions of beliefs and between those beliefs and students' understandings of science concepts. Results show that students' beliefs do not change much during the one-semester course. Students who view scientific knowledge as tentative also try to understand science. Autonomous students do not hold the most productive learning strategies, though students with low autonomy develop significantly less coherent understandings of science concepts. Instructional implications focus on potential roles of teachers and technology in promoting productive beliefs about scientific knowledge and science learning. Implications for individualized instruction follow classroom-level implications.     

The Use of Representations and Argumentative and Explanatory Situations

This paper discusses the use of non-verbal representations in a modelling-based science teaching context, in which argumentative and explanatory situations occur. More specifically, we analyse how the students and teacher use representations in their discourse in modelling activities, and we discuss the relationships between the functions of these representations and the demands of the explanatory and argumentative situations that exist in that classroom. The data were collected by video recording all the classes in which a teaching sequence about intermolecular interactions was used—a topic which the students had not previously studied. In the activities, the students had to create, express, test, and discuss models in order to understand the difference between intermolecular and interatomic interactions, as well as their influences on the properties of substances. Initially, we selected excerpts of the recorded classes in which a non-verbal representation was used. Then, we used criteria to identify the argumentative and explanatory situations (previously defined), and we created categories for the functions of the representations that were used in order to analyse all the identified situations. The analysis supports conclusions indicating the relevance of the use of non-verbal representations in the construction, use, and defence of explanations. As the defence of explanations was the main context in which argumentative situations occurred in this study, our conclusions also indicate the contribution that representations make towards changing the status of the students' explanations.     

Creation of an Innovative Sustainability Science Undergraduate Degree Program: A 10-Step Process

We explain the process used at Kean University (New Jersey) to create an innovative undergraduate degree program in sustainability science. This interdisciplinary program provides students with the strong science background necessary to understand and address the opportunities associated with sustainability. We articulate seven steps taken during the first year of developing the major and three additional steps that explain its evolution. Sustainability is the primary focus of each course within the curriculum. By sharing our experiences, other institutions may be encouraged or assisted in developing a similar program.     

Cable and New Media

Mary Alice Mayer Phillips' CATV: A History of Community Antenna Television (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1972—$9.75)     

Unique contributions of eye-tracking research to the study of learning with graphics

The author examines the empirical, methodological, theoretical, and practical contributions of the six studies in this special issue on eye tracking as a tool to study and enhance multimedia learning. The design of learning environments involving graphics should be consistent with a research-based theory of how people learn and evidence-based principles of how to help people learn. Research using eye tracking offers a unique path to testing aspects of theories of multimedia learning, particularly concerning perceptual processing during learning. The studies reported in this special issue add to the evidence base on how people learn and think with graphics.     

Conversations about sexuality on a public university campus: perspectives from campus ministry students and leaders

Little is known about university campus religious organisations’ influence on students’ sexuality-related attitudes and behaviours. This study sought to better understand sexuality-related communication within the context of campus ministries by exploring students’ and campus ministry leaders’ conversational experiences at a public university in the south-east USA. Data sources included an online survey of undergraduates participating in student religious organisations (n = 57), focus groups with campus ministry students (n = 36), and individual interviews with campus ministry leaders (n = 19). Findings indicated student satisfaction with the focus and frequency of conversations about romantic relationships and sexual health within the context of campus ministries. However, both campus ministry students and leaders indicated discomfort in discussions of sexuality. Leaders acknowledged their need for better strategies to engage students; students focused on how to integrate religious messages about sexuality with messages from other sources. These findings suggest campus ministry leaders may benefit from focused training and support to communicate more effectively with college students about sexuality.     

The role of social identification as university student in learning: relationships between students’ social identity,approaches to learning,and academic achievement

This article describes research exploring the relationship between students’ self-perceptions in the context of university learning (i.e. student social identity), their approaches to learning, and academic achievement. The exploration of these inter-related aspects requires a mix of theoretical approaches, that is, in this research both social identity perspective from social psychology and the student learning research framework are used to explore student identity and learning in the context of higher education. Two structural equation models drawing on both these theoretical frameworks were tested. In the first of these models, deep approaches to learning are positively associated with students’ social identification as university student and positively predict academic achievement. In the second model, surface approaches to learning are negatively associated with students’ social identification and negatively predict academic achievement. The mediational roles of deep and surface approaches to learning in the relationship between student social identity and academic achievement are also explored.