A follow-up study of students using portable computers at a secondary school

This paper reports on the findings of a 1999 study that set out to investigate the current perceptions of students and teachers towards the use of portable computers at a secondary school. The aim was to compare these with the findings of a 1995 study carried out by the researcher at the same school. Data were collected from 102 Year Twelve students (17 year old), 104 Year Eight students (13 year old) and 40 teachers. The results indicated that for the Year Twelve students the computers had been of limited value while the Year Eight students appeared to be divided with about a quarter indicating negative attitudes. For the younger students the computers appeared to be used more often and for a greater range of tasks. Many teachers indicated concerns about the management of computers in the classroom and linking computer use to learning outcomes. These perceptions underline the need for targeted professional development, systematic support for the development of student computer-related skills, and changes in the curriculum towards more learner-centred approaches.     

Doing time—Killing time at school: An examination of the perceptions and allocations of time among teacher-defined at-risk students

“Doing time” is an expression that is generally associated with prisoners who are disconnected from society and find themselves counting the days and minutes until their release from prison. In many respects, at-risk students attending our nation's large, urban, inner-city middle and high schools also consider themselves as not being connected to school or society and to be “doing time” in the classroom. Qualitative and subjective impressions of doing time at school have become the theme of many movies, books, and research articles. This study extends this qualitative type of research by quantitatively framing time allocation preferences and temporal dominance characteristics for a large sample of teacher-perceived “at-risk” students at several large urban high school sites. A sample of normal attaining students at the same school site served as a comparison group. The findings of this research effort generally support other more qualitative studies and indicate that there are strong preferences in at-risk students toward nondirected time-consuming activities (i.e., hanging out, video games, watching TV, etc.) with low-directed to nondirected time preference ratios. Normal attaining students had the reverse pattern, i.e., higher-directed to nondirected time preference ratios and higher preferences toward directed time-consuming activities that might be associated with investments in the schooling process (homework, studying, personal development, etc.). Interpretation of the circles test, a projective psychological procedure for establishing temporal dominance for at-risk students, revealed a general lack of recognition and connectiveness between past, present, and future events in their life and weak temporal dominance or orientation toward the future.     

Denying Genetic Causality

This edited volume of essays presents a countermainstream view against genetic underpinnings for cancer, behavior, and psychiatric conditions.This edited volume is a project from the Council of Responsible Genetics, a private organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, whose mission, as stated on its website, includes as one of several goals to “expose oversimplified and distorted scientific claims regarding the role of genetics in human disease, development and behavior.” This book represents such an effort. Editors Krimsky and Gruber are chair and president/executive director, respectively, of the organization and appear to have solicited contributions to the book from affiliates and other colleagues. Fewer than half of the 16 chapters are written by active laboratory scientists, however, and as a result, the book suffers from arguments clouded by imprecise use of terminology and preconceptions about genes and their functions. One might consider this book, or parts thereof, for an advanced undergraduate genetics class in which positions counter to the mainstream scientific view are presented and evaluated, and in which students are challenged to critically assess the quality of support for all arguments.The general theme of this book is to question the role of genes (and reproducible molecular mechanisms, more broadly) in cancer, behavior, psychiatric disorders, evolution, and other phenomena. One chapter promotes the tissue organization field theory (TOFT) against the somatic mutation theory of cancer. TOFT was proposed by the chapter authors in 2011 (Soto and Sonnenschein, 2011 ) but has not found traction and has garnered little attention beyond an initial refutation (Vaux, 2011 ). The authors assert that cancer is a disease of development and tissue repair primarily from environmental exposures and independent of genetic changes. Most cancer researchers agree that environmental factors can trigger cell growth but that ensuing mutations complete the picture in the genesis of malignancies. This chapter would be a good starting point from which one could assign students to explore papers cited in the Cancer Genome Atlas database, a growing resource compiling cancer genome data and subsequent validation in other systems of the effects of mutations found. In another chapter, a nonscientist author asserts that “in only a small percentage of cases are genes notable contributors to breast cancer,” implying imprecisely that only rare inherited cancer predisposition is genetic, when in fact cancer stemming from somatic mutations is also gene based. To assert that cancer stems only from environmental effects, to the exclusion of genes, overlooks the intertwining of the two arenas—radiation induces somatic mutations, for example, and estrogen mimics trigger cell division, which sets the stage for additional new mutations during DNA replication. Open in a separate windowOther sections of the book argue a lack of evidence for genetic influence on behaviors and psychiatric conditions. One chapter centers on several refuted ideas of biology and behavior (for example XYY and monoamine oxidase genotypes associated with aggression), with the intended implication that all other biological connections to behavior must be suspect. A chapter on autism accepts but downplays a partial role of genetics in the disorder, while emphasizing environmental exposures. Students exploring this topic could examine the growing literature on de novo mutations found in autism patients (Huguet et al., 2013 ), among other autism studies, to see how interlocking causes of the disorder might best explained by the available data. In the context of disorders such as schizophrenia, the book does not acknowledge or address the literature reporting genetic associations with psychiatric predispositions. In a troubling instance, a cited reference is misrepresented as refuting a genetic connection to schizophrenia; the reference in question (Collins et al., 2012 ) actually reports genome-wide association studies showing linkage of schizophrenia to particular loci (just not to the genes originally suspected). The same research group the previous month reported copy number variations associated with schizophrenia (Kirov et al., 2012 ), but this finding was not cited. Psychiatric genetics is a rich area for students to explore, and the contrarian viewpoint of the book can provide a starting point to trigger students’ delving into the literature.Genetic Explanations: Sense and Nonsense includes two chapters with assertions counter to the neo-Darwinian synthesis of evolution. One claims, fairly misleadingly, that “a growing number of evolutionary biologists … believe that macroevolution was the result of mechanisms other than natural selection.” Another states that “not genomic DNA but epigenetic environmental influences … overwhelmingly affect our health and well being.” The idea that gene regulation via environmental and epigenetic effects is somehow not reducible to genes (and that genes are therefore not central to evolution) would be an interesting subject for students to explore in the literature to see what the data actually support.This book is recommended only for use in advanced classes centered on weighing evidence and dissecting arguments in scientific controversies. The book''s countermainstream assertion of a lack of significant genetic connection to cancer, autism, schizophrenia, and other phenomena provides multiple opportunities for students to explore the scientific literature surrounding such genetic connections.     

A Theoretical Model for Preparing Incarcerated Youth for Careers in an Increasingly Technological World: Computational Logic as a Vehicle for Improving Human Decision-making Skills

Most youth in juvenile delinquent systems end up incarcerated due in part to poor decision-making skills. This study describes a theoretical framework undergirding the relationships across delinquency, learning climate, decision-making, and computational logic. This framework will inform a team of educators, criminologists, and psychologists, and their peers in computer science and mathematics, instructional software design, and content experts as they build and test an innovative instructional model for youth in secure care settings. The goal of the system is to improve human decision-making skills, while preparing youth for further education potentially leading to careers in STEM fields.     

Studieren an der Berufsakademie oder an der Universität, Fachhochschule oder Pädagogischen Hochschule?

Beim übergang von der Schule auf die Universit?t müssen sich Abiturienten u.a. für einen bestimmten Hochschultypus entscheiden. Der Fokus in diesem Beitrag liegt auf der sogenannten Berufsakademie, die in einigen Bundesl?ndern eine interessante, aber wenig beachtete Alternative zu Universit?t, Fachhochschule und P?dagogischer Hochschule darstellt. Anhand einer gro?en L?ngsschnittstudie, die in Baden-Württemberg durchgeführt wird, werden der Leistungsstand, der famili?re Hintergrund, die beruflichen Interessen und die Studienwahlmotive von (künftigen) Studierenden an den verschiedenen Hochschultypen untersucht. Berufsakademien erwiesen sich insbesondere für Abiturienten mit weniger günstigem famili?ren Hintergrund und dem Wunsch, rasch finanziell unabh?ngig zu sein, sowie für Absolventen beruflicher Gymnasien als attraktive Alternative zur Universit?t. Berücksichtigt man die schulische Herkunft (berufliches vs. allgemeinbildendes Gymnasium), so fanden sich ?hnliche kognitive Eingangsvoraussetzungen bei Studierenden wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher F?cher an Berufsakademie, Fachhochschule und Universit?t.     

ONE'S OWN TEACHER AND THE CHOICE OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION

Gustafsson, J.‐E. Differential Effects of Imagery Instructions on Pupils with Different Abilities. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 21, 157‐179. A study investigating interactions between imagery instructions and aptitude variables is presented. A group of seven fifth‐grade classes was given imagery instructions in the reading of a short text, while another group read the text in a regular way. Three different outcomes covering different types of learning were registered. Tests of verbal ability and spatial (or imagery) ability were used as aptitude variables. The data analysis indicated that there were differences for the girls between the treatment groups among the aptitude variables; the results for the girls thus had to be excluded. A positive effect of imagery instructions was found for boys high in verbal and imagery ability with respect to the acquisition of simple terms. For other outcomes and groups of subjects either no effect or a negative effect was found.     

Effects of Individualized Instruction on Control Expectancy: A Field Test

Abstract

This study was conducted in order to determine whether or not one semester of individualized instruction is enough time to create in students an increased sense of being able to control payoffs in life and to lead students to develop a more realistic appraisal of their ability to control payoffs in an academic environment. Paradoxically, the converse may occur. When first confronted with a success-oriented instructional process and opportunities for self-pacing, students with failure histories may become more external, anxious, or uncertain. In order to examine these notions, a sample of 126 educationally deficient students who were beginning their first semester of study in a community college were selected from 18 different sections of math, English, and history and tested twice—once at the beginning of the term and again late in the term just prior to finals.     

Acceptance or rejection? The social experiences of children with special educational needs and disabilities within a mainstream primary school

ABSTRACT

This article details a study which investigated the social acceptance and friendships of children with SEND, and their typically developing peers, at a mainstream primary school in the North West of England. Participants were 29 children aged five and six years old, separated into three groups; typically developing children, children who were being monitored for SEND, and children with formally identified SENDs. With the use of a peer nomination sociometric technique, findings revealed that children with SEND had less promising peer relations and friendships compared to children tracked for SEND and their typically developing peers, consequently questioning the mainstream ‘ideal’.