Interpersonal behaviour in senior high school biology classes

This article describes the first use of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction in senior biology classes and describes students' perceptions of their interpersonal relationships with their teachers in the classroom environment. The article also describes associations between students' perceptions of interpersonal relationships with their teachers and student outcomes. The study confirmed the reliability and validity of the QTI when used in senior secondary biology classes. Generally, the dimensions of the QTI were found to be significantly associated with student attitude scores. In particular, students' attitude scores were higher in classrooms in which students perceived greater leadership, helpful/friendly, and understanding behaviours in their teachers.     

Chinese adolescents' reasoning about democratic and authority-based decision making in peer,family, and school contexts

This study explored the judgments and reasoning of Chinese adolescents (13-18 years of age) from 3 regions of mainland China (N = 574) regarding procedures for making decisions involving children in peer, family, and school contexts. Participants evaluated 2 democratic decision-making procedures (majority rule and consensus) and decision making by adult authorities for 2 decisions embedded in each social context. Judgments and reasoning about decision-making procedures varied by social context and by the decision under consideration, and evaluations of procedures became more differentiated with increasing age. The findings reveal that concepts of rights, individual autonomy, and democratic norms (majority rule) are salient aspects of Chinese adolescents' social reasoning and are used to evaluate critically existing social practices.     

Designing patient‐focused information: An opportunity for communicating anatomically related information

Literature clearly demonstrates that there has been a large increase in the time devoted to teaching oral communication skills within medical curricula worldwide. In contrast, the ability to communicate with patients through written means does not appear to be a feature in many programmes, despite its fundamental importance in creating understanding of medicine within the general population. This article investigates one way patient‐centered written communication has been integrated into part of the early training years of medical students using anatomically related material as a focus. Following a series of interactive seminars and debates as part of a student‐selected component, students were asked to prepare a patient‐focused information leaflet on a particular birth defect. The leaflets included aspects of anatomy and embryology as well as causes of the birth defect, signs and symptoms, treatments, outlook, and support mechanisms. Evaluation of the leaflets using set marking criteria and readability indexes showed that students had successfully targeted the chosen audiences. Feedback showed that the component was rated highly by the students in terms of quality, usefulness, and interest. Students viewed sessions as an excellent forum for appreciating the importance of and developing their own effective written communication skills. It is hoped that such developments will enhance the capacity of all potential doctors to communicate more effectively with patients and colleagues in both the written and spoken form. Anat Sci Ed 1:41–45, 2008. © 2007 American Association of Anatomists.     

Item Pool Maintenance in the Presence of Item Parameter Drift

Differential linear drift of item location parameters over a 10 -year period is demonstrated in data from the College Board Physics Achievement Test. The relative direction of drift is associated with the content of the items and reflects changing emphasis in the physics curricula of American secondary schools. No evidence of drift of discriminating power parameters was found. Statistical procedures for detecting, estimating, and accounting for item parameter drift in item pools for long-term testing programs are proposed     

An Alternate Multiple-Choice Scoring Procedure in a Macroeconomics Course

In the standard scoring procedure for multiple‐choice exams, students must choose exactly one response as correct. Often students may be unable to identify the correct response, but can determine that some of the options are incorrect. This partial knowledge is not captured in the standard scoring format. The Coombs elimination procedure is an alternate scoring procedure designed to capture partial knowledge. This paper presents the results of a semester‐long experiment where both scoring procedures were compared on four exams in an undergraduate macroeconomics course. Statistical analysis suggests that the Coombs procedure is a viable alternative to the standard scoring procedure. Implications for classroom instruction and future research are also presented.     

Changing Primary Students’ Perceptions of Teacher Interpersonal Behaviours in Science

The paper reports on part of a large-scale study aimed at examining students’ perceptions of teacher–student interactions. This paper will report on a study utilising mixed methodology in 12 Queensland primary classrooms. After the students’ perceptions were established, the teachers, through a consultative process, developed strategies to change the students’ perceptions of their classroom over a 3 month period. The paper reports on what strategies these teachers utilised and what changes in students’ perceptions resulted. The classroom teachers were interviewed about the change in students’ perceptions, what changes they had sought to promote in their classrooms, and what they felt had been achieved in their classrooms. The study found that students were able to articulate what changes the teacher had implemented, what their reaction was to these changes and their perception of the classroom environment as a result of these implemented strategies.     

Schools’ Computing Policy as State‐directed Innovation

The decade 1980‐90 was one of great importance for educational computing. The outstanding feature of the first half of the decade was the Micro‐electronics Education Programme (MEP) which ran from 1981 to 1986. This period may be described as one of relatively open‐ended exploration. In the second half of the decade, by contrast, there was a sharpening of policy goals and a move towards curriculum compulsion. This paper seeks to establish the key role of central government in promoting the use of computers in schools. It notes a shift throughout the decade away from a rationale based on industrial and vocational considerations towards a rationale based on considerations of effective teaching and learning. But it argues that there is still a need for greater clarification of objectives and more precise identification of the resources necessary to meet those objectives.     

Emergence of Learning Environment Research in South Africa: Editors' Introduction

This introduction provides information about the learning environment strand of the Third International Conference on Science, Mathematics and Technology Education which was held in January 2003 in East London, South Africa. The theme of the conference and the titles of key note addresses and selected presented papers are provided together with information about the forthcoming published Proceedings and the next conference. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Teacher communication behavior and its association with students' cognitive and attitudinal outcomes in science in Taiwan

In the study described in this article a questionnaire was employed that can be used to assess students' and teachers' perceptions of science teachers' interpersonal communication behaviors in their classroom learning environments. The Teacher Communication Behavior Questionnaire (TCBQ) has five scales: Challenging, Encouragement and Praise, Non‐Verbal Support, Understanding and Friendly, and Controlling. The TCBQ was used with a large sample of secondary science students in Taiwan, which provided additional validation data for the TCBQ for use in Taiwan and cross‐validation data for its use in English‐speaking countries. Girls perceived their teachers as more understanding and friendly than did boys, and teachers in biological science classrooms exhibited more favorable behavior toward their students than did those in physical science classrooms. Differences were also noted between the perceptions of the students and their teachers. Positive relationships were found between students' perceptions of their teachers' communication behaviors and their attitudes toward science. Students' cognitive achievement scores were higher when students perceived their teacher as using more challenging questions, as giving more nonverbal support, and as being more understanding and friendly. The development of both teacher and student versions of the TCBQ enhances the possibility of the use of the instrument by teachers. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 63–78, 2002