Exploring teachers' informal formative assessment practices and students' understanding in the context of scientific inquiry

This study explores teachers' informal formative assessment practices in three middle school science classrooms. We present a model for examining these practices based on three components of formative assessment (e liciting, r ecognizing, and u sing information) and the three domains linked to scientific inquiry (epistemic frameworks, conceptual structures, and social processes). We describe the informal assessment practices as ESRU cycles—the teacher E licits a question; the S tudent responds; the teacher R ecognizes the student's response; and then U ses the information collected to support student learning. By tracking the strategies teachers used in terms of ESRU cycles, we were able to capture differences in assessment practices across the three teachers during the implementation of four investigations of a physical science unit on buoyancy. Furthermore, based on information collected in a three‐question embedded assessment administered to assess students' learning, we linked students' level of performance to the teachers' informal assessment practices. We found that the teacher who more frequently used complete ESRU cycles had students with higher performance on the embedded assessment as compared with the other two teachers. We conclude that the ESRU model is a useful way of capturing differences in teachers' informal assessment practices. Furthermore, the study suggests that effective informal formative assessment practices may be associated with student learning in scientific inquiry classrooms. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach     

Writing in the Secondary-Level Disciplines: a Systematic Review of Context,Cognition, and Content

Situated within the historical and current state of writing and adolescent literacy research, this systematic literature review screened 3504 articles to determine the prevalent themes in current research on writing tasks in content-area classrooms. Each of the 3504 studies was evaluated and coded using seven methodological quality indicators. The qualitative synthesis of studies is organized by the overarching categories of context, cognition, and content. The studies are further grouped by relevant themes to explore how the incorporation of writing tasks into content-area instruction benefits the secondary students’ content-area learning and knowledge acquisition. Primary themes include the elements of explicit strategy and inquiry-based instruction, the impact of prewriting models, the role of metacognition and journaling, and the writing-related implications for content-area assessment. Recommendations for future research are offered. Additionally, practical implications for secondary content-area teachers are presented.     

Mobile learning and student cognition: A systematic review of PK-12 research using Bloom’s Taxonomy

The rise of mobile learning in schools during the past decade has led to promises about the power of mobile learning to extend and enhance student cognitive engagement. The purpose of this study was to examine trends to determine the cognitive level students are involved in within mobile learning activities. This systematic review involved an aggregated and configurative synthesis of PK-12 mobile learning studies from 2010 to 16 and used Bloom’s Taxonomy as a theoretical framework for categorizing the cognitive level of student activities. Major new findings include that students are involved in activities at all six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This study shows that over 60% of researchers are developing activities that require high levels of cognitive processing, a large increase from past studies. Nonetheless, 40% are integrating mobile devices in ways that keep students working with minimal cognitive processing. In both elementary and secondary studies, there was a 40/60% split in the use of lower versus high level thinking opportunities. New findings show that mobile devices were integrated into science, mathematics, social studies, literacy, art and special education. Studies in science settings were the majority of the studies (40%), followed by literacy (24%).     

Marketing to Their Needs: Utilizing Empathetic Marketing Techniques in Student Outreach

This article describes empathetic marketing, a new marketing approach that was created by Mark Ingwer and outlined in his 2012 book, Empathetic Marketing: How to Satisfy the 6 Core Emotional Needs of Your Customers. The authors discuss how this marketing theory can be used by academic librarians to transform their marketing endeavors by presenting library services and resources to students in a way that helps them meet core human emotional needs (control, self-expression, growth, recognition, belonging, and care). The authors also include examples of empathetic marketing from their libraries.     

The Role of Life-Space,Social Activity,and Depression on the Subjective Memory Complaints of Community-Dwelling Filipino Elderly: A Structural Equation Model

Subjective memory complaints are one of the major concerns of the elderly and remain a challenging area in gerontology. There are previous studies that identify different factors affecting subjective memory complaints. However, an extended model that correlates life-space on subjective memory complaints remains a blank spot. The objective of this study is to investigate the role of life-space, social activity and depression on subjective memory complaints among the selective group of Filipino elderly in the community. To test the factors affecting subjective memory complaints, a structural equation modeling was employed among all parameters. One hundred eighty-nine Filipino elderly aged 60 years and above located in Parañaque City, Makati City and Malabon City were given a multiaspect questionnaire consisting of a robotfoto, Life-Space Assessment (LSA), Research and Development (RAND) Social Health Battery, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and Subjective Memory Questionnaire (SMQ). Results revealed that life-space and social activity inversely affect depression while subjective memory complaints are directly affected by depression. New pathways emerged suggesting the interrelationship between life-space and social activity. Additionally, social activity directly affects subjective memory complaints. This study provides a confirmation of the impact of the factors affecting subjective memory complaints. Incorporation of these factors into the existing practice can help the health care providers in optimizing the quality of care rendered and quality of life of the elderly.     

Habitus and the psychosocial: Bourdieu with feelings

This paper explores the potential of habitus to provide a window on the psychosocial. The paper works with a notion of psychosocial study as inquiry into the mutual constitution of the individual and the social relations within which they are enmeshed. At the same time it attempts to deepen and enrich notions of habitus. Although the strong focus on agency and structure has overshadowed the role of emotions and the emotional life of individuals within conceptualisations of habitus in Bourdieu’s work, the paper argue that there are strong links between the psychosocial and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. Drawing on empirical data on the affective aspects of living in an unequal society, the paper seeks to develop a psychosocial understanding of habitus that allows for a better and richer understanding of how the exterior – wider social structures – is experienced and mediated by the interior, the psyche.     

The Bridge Project: Connecting Home,School, and Community for Mexican Immigrant Children

This study examines the academic and psychosocial effects of the Bridge Project after-school program on 25 prekindergarten through 6th-grade English language learner Mexican immigrant children and their families living in an affordable housing complex in the San Francisco Bay Area. The results of the study show that the program increased the children’s reading comprehension by an average of 2.8 grade levels and increased children’s English proficiency an average of 2.8 California English Language Development Test levels over a 2-year period. Parents also observed their children’s growth in confidence, social skills, motivation, responsibility, and the ability to ask questions.     

Why Does Infant Stepping Disappear and Can It Be Stimulated by Optic Flow?

Two independent experiments (n = 22 and n = 22) showed that 2‐month‐old infants displayed significantly more stepping movements when supported upright in the air than when supported with their feet contacting a surface. Air‐ and surface‐stepping kinematics were quite similar (Experiment 2). In addition, when data were collapsed across both experiments, more air steps and more donkey kicks were seen when infants were exposed to optic flows that specified backward compared to forward translation. The findings challenge the currently accepted heavy legs explanation for the disappearance of stepping at 2 months of age and raise new questions about the visual control of stepping.     

HOW MUCH HOPE IS ENOUGH? LEVELS OF HOPE AND STUDENTS’ PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SCHOOL FUNCTIONING

This study investigated the characteristics of students who report extremely high levels of hope. A sample of 682 students (ages 11–17) completed measures of hope, school engagement, life satisfaction, self‐worth, and mental health. Academic achievement was obtained from students’ school records. Based on their hope scores, students were divided into three groups: “extremely low” (bottom 10% of the distribution), “average” (middle 25%), and “extremely high” (upper 10%). Results indicate that students in the extremely high hope (EHH) group differed from students with average (AH) and extremely low hope (ELH) on all measures. Further, EHH and AH are associated with mental health benefits that are not found among students reporting comparatively ELH levels. Taken together, the findings support the notion that EHH in students is associated with adaptive psychological and school‐related functioning. Overall, given the superior adjustment profile, perhaps ‘‘enough hope’’ should be defined as “EHH.”