Predicting students' epistemological orientation from demographic,ability, and learning style variables

Although college students' epistemological orientation largely determines how they approach, interpret, and learn in higher educational contexts, little is known about the student characteristics which reliably predict the orientation. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the relative potency of different student characteristics potentially salient to differentiating epistemological view. The student variables evaluated were demographic (major and sex), verbal ability, and learning style (four scales from the Inventory of Learning Processes). Results of correlational and multiple regression analyses reveal that only students verbal skill accounted for a significant percent of the variance in epistemological orientation. The results are discussed in terms of the meaning of the orientation, its relevance to practitioners, and implications for further investigation.     

Towards An Understanding of Muslim American Adolescent High School Experiences

The researchers conducted a grounded theory study to explore the experiences of Muslim American adolescents in high school. Findings indicate that students had to navigate unique challenges because of their religious faith, but those obstacles presented opportunities to confront bias and discrimination. Recommendations for how school counselors can support the development of Muslim American adolescents are presented.     

Unsettling equity frames in Australian universities to embrace people seeking asylum

ABSTRACT

Transnational migration, especially the growth of forced migration is unsettling the literature on widening access to university education. Equity definitions and understandings that frame social inclusion have presumed stable domestic populations within nations and targeted redressing historic internal social inequalities. Refugees and people seeking asylum have high aspirations to access to university education to gain recognition or update qualifications. University access for refugees and people seeking asylum is hampered by restricted funding entitlements that privilege citizens and admissions criteria that position them in the international student market and favour language and cultural requirements that reflect the dominant national culture. A qualitative narrative-based case-study of the admissions practices in one university in Australia explored the opportunities and blockages experienced by those seeking access and the dilemmas recognised by the admissions’ gatekeepers. Employing organisational theory and Scott’s three pillars of a neo-institutional framework, the regulative, the normative and the cultural-cognitive pillars, the article argues that homogenised institutional policies and practices to assess applications construct norms of access and equity, which create new exclusions for forced migrants. In revealing how some gatekeepers sought to ‘workaround’ these practices of exclusion, the article provides hope that informal learning within organisations can lead to organisational change.     

Foreign patent flows to and from the United Kingdom

A substantial part of the stock of technological knowhow in any given country is determined by foreign companies. Flows of technology are reflected in part by the international pattern of patenting behaviour. This paper examines both the patent applications in the UK by foreign countries and UK patent applications abroad. It concludes that each country is exposed to a subset of world-wide technology determined by the profitability of transfer of new knowhow. Profitability is affected by the size of potential supply of new inventions in donor countries, by the attractiveness of markets for knowhow in recipient countries and by the costs of transfer.     

Framing the Problem: effects of wording on children's statistical inferences

ABSTRACT A total of 96 children aged 11 to 12 years were given statistical inference problems (base‐rate and law of large numbers) designed to test the effects of wording on their answers. The wording of the problems was manipulated to make the information on base‐rates and on the law of large numbers either more salient or less salient. The latter condition was established by adding extraneous information to base‐rates, or, in the case of the law of large numbers, making the context unfamiliar or focusing choice on a particular person rather than on the group. A significant main effect of wording was found across all problems in favour of the salient condition. The results indicated that the children had a high level of statistical intuition and that they knew when to reason statistically and when not to.     

Writing across the academic languages: introduction

Reading and Writing -     

Sport education and extracurricular sport participation: an examination using the trans-contextual model of motivation

In this study, we used the trans-contextual model of motivation (TCM) to examine the effect of Sport Education (SE) on students' participation in a voluntary lunch recess sport club. A total of 192 participants (ages 9-14 years) completed measures of the TCM constructs before and after a 12-week SE intervention period. Participants had the opportunity to participate in weekly, voluntary lunch recess sport club sessions during the intervention period. SE elicited a moderate increase in autonomous motives in physical education. The TCM accounted for a significant proportion of the explained variance in lunch recess sport club intention and participation. Autonomy-supportive curricular models, such as SE, may have the potential to facilitate transfer of motivation and participation in physical activity from a physical education to an extracurricular context.     

TEACHERS’ MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF ADDITION OF MORE REACTANTS OR PRODUCTS ON CHEMICAL EQUILIBRIUM

The importance of research on misconceptions about chemical equilibrium is well recognized by educators, but in the past, researchers’ interest has centered on student misconceptions and has neglected teacher misconceptions. Focusing on the effects of adding more reactants or products on chemical equilibrium, this article discusses the various misconceptions held by high school teachers. A misconception test was administered to two samples of chemistry teachers in Nanjing, China. Of the 109 teachers who participated in the test, only one understood that adding more CS₂ gas to the equilibrium system CS₂(g) + 4H₂(g) ⇌ CH₄(g) + 2H₂S(g) at constant pressure and temperature can shift the equilibrium to the reactant or product side, depending upon the amount of CS₂ in the initial equilibrium system. Most of the teachers relied on Le Chatelier’s principle and thus made erroneous predictions. The misconception test also revealed that those teachers who managed to compute equilibrium constants had a limited conceptual understanding of chemical equilibrium. Implications of these findings for teacher education and chemistry curriculum development are discussed.