Cleaning Dirty Data in Excel

This article gives a flavour of the CHIME materials on data handling in Microsoft Excel. It demonstrates the facilities for data validation within Excel.     

Learning set-ups

A child reaching toddler stage is ready to learn about the basic shapes that comprise much of his/her world. With an accent on fun, here are some simple activities designed to teach children how to identify and distinguish between the shapes ... of things to come! Doris Allen is a career teacher in early childhood education. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Oswego Community Day Care center, and has co-authored an article on handwriting in the current edition of theBook of Knowledge. Angela Collins is currently a kindergarten teacher in an Open Education program based on the British Primary System model, and during the summers directs remedial reading programs.     

Project design factors that affect student perceptions of the success of a science research project

Throughout the United States, various summer science programs for precollege students are conducted with an aim toward increasing the involvement of young people in science. Most of these programs are perceived as successful by teachers and scientists because they involve students in hands-on science activities, improve their scientific skills and confidence, and allow them the opportunity to use science to answer questions and solve problems. The work described here involves a detailed assessment of a summer National Science Foundation (NSF) Young Scholars Program, which was carried out over 2 summers. Student participants were entering 9th and 10th grade. The data used for this assessment included journals kept by teaching assistants, questionnaires administered to the participants and parents, and interviews with the participants. Analysis revealed that students perceived program success differently from teachers and program organizers. Their perception of the success of a program is directly related to whether or not their individual research project met its goals, regardless of other project activities. Designing projects that have a high likelihood of success from this perspective can be complex, but this work identified six variables that must be incorporated appropriately into the design of a project to ensure its success: (1) extent of project structure and who structures the project, faculty or student; (2) project relevance; (3) project flexibility; (4) project background research; (5) tangible results; and (6) project introduction.     

Transformational School Leadership Effects: A Replication

Most school restructuring initiatives assume significant capacity development on the part of individuals, as well as whole organizations; they also depend on high levels of motivation and commitment to solving the substantial problems associated with the implementation of restructuring initiatives. Transformational approaches to leadership have long been advocated as productive under these conditions, and evidence suggests that transformational practices do contribute to the development of capacity and commitment. Much less evidence is available, however, about whether these socio-psychological effects actually result in organizational change and enhanced organizational outcomes. Survey data from an achieved sample of 1818 teachers and 6490 students from 94 elementary schools in one large district were used to replicate an earlier study of the effects of transformational leadership practices on selected organizational conditions and student engagement with school. Similar in most respects to our earlier study, results demonstrated strong significant effects of such leadership on organizational conditions, and moderate but still significant total effects on student engagement.     

Assessing and developing critical-thinking skills in higher education

Generic skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and communication are essential for students' success in higher education and their careers. This article presents findings from an international study of students' (n ≈ 120,000) generic skills from six countries using a performance-based assessment. Results indicate that higher education students, on average, gain generic skills between entry and exit. However, learning gain is less marked than could be expected and varies significantly among country samples. Various background variables such as gender, ethnicity, parental level of education, and primary language are also explored. The authors conclude that it is feasible to reliably and validly measure generic skills in a cross-cultural context and that assessment of these skills is an essential component of best practices in higher education.     

The impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK for doctoral and early career researchers

Higher Education - Doctoral researchers and early career researchers (ECRs) are crucial to producing scientific advancements and represent the future of academic leadership. Their research...