Effect of Time on Perceived Gains from an Undergraduate Research Program

The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent in an undergraduate research experience (URE). Data for the study come from a survey administered at three points over a 1-yr period: before participation in the program, at the end of a Summer segment of research, and at the end of the year. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to examine the effect of time on perceived gains in student research skills, research confidence, and understanding of research processes. The results suggest that the students experienced different gains/benefits at developmentally different stages of their UREs. Participants reported gains in fewer areas at the end of the Summer segment compared with the end of the yearlong experience, thus supporting the notion that longer UREs offer students more benefit.     

An anthropometric analysis of elite Australian track cyclists

An anthropometric analysis was conducted on 35 elite male Australian track cyclists having a mean age of 22.6 years and who had been competing on average for 9 years. The relationship of anthropometric parameters to both bicycle saddle height and cycling performance was also investigated. Subjects were allocated, for purposes of comparison, to an endurance or sprint group on the basis of their competitive event. The group members in total were ectomorphic mesomorphs of height 178±4.8 cm and weight 72.5 ±6.6 kg on average. Percentage of saddle height to lower limb length averaged 99±1.6%, and significant correlations existed between strength and both body mass (r=0.57) and thigh girth (r = 0.55). No significant correlation was seen between any anthropometric parameter and performance in an individual event. Cyclists in the sprint group were heavier (76.2 ± 7.4 vs. 70.0 ± 4.7 kg, P<0.01) and stronger (258 ± 44.4 vs. 216 ± 30.5 Nm, P<0.01), and had larger chest (98.2 ± 6.2 vs. 92.4 ± 2.9 cm, P<0.01), arm (33.0±2.2 vs. 30.7± 1.6 cm, P<0.01), thigh (57.5 ± 3.4 vs. 54.3 ± 2.5 cm, P<0.01) and calf girths (37.8±1.7 vs. 36.2±1.9 cm, P<0.05) than cyclists in the endurance group. They were also more mesomorphic (5.3 ± 0.7 vs. 4.7 ± 0.8, P<0.05) and less ectomorphic (2.3 ± 0.9 vs. 2.9±0.6, P<0.05) than the endurance cyclists.     

Moral Foundations Theory and Moral Reasoning in Video Game Play: Using Real-Life Morality in a Game Context

Although research has indicated that moral decisions are made during video game play, less research has examined moral reasoning during play. Using a think-aloud protocol, participants’ decisions and reasoning were recorded during game play and coded as either strategic or moral. Players’ reasoning was also coded using Moral Foundations Theory. Results indicated an almost equal percentage of strategic and moral reasoning; the salience of several individual moral foundations predicted moral reasoning during play. Video game experience was positively related to the use of moral reasoning, which can be explained by relating reasoning to rational and experiential processing during game play.     

Putting Mutual Exclusivity in Context: Speaker Race Influences Monolingual and Bilingual Infants’ Word-Learning Assumptions

Previous work indicates mutual exclusivity in word learning in monolingual, but not bilingual toddlers. We asked whether this difference indicates distinct conceptual biases, or instead reflects best-guess heuristic use in the absence of context. We altered word-learning contexts by manipulating whether a familiar- or unfamiliar-race speaker introduced a novel word for an object with a known category label painted in a new color. Both monolingual and bilingual infants showed mutual exclusivity for a familiar-race speaker, and relaxed mutual exclusivity and treated the novel word as a category label for an unfamiliar-race speaker. Thus, monolingual and bilingual infants have access to similar word-learning heuristics, and both use nonlinguistic social context to guide their use of the most appropriate heuristic.     

The Development and Validation of a Measure of Science Capital,Habitus, and Future Science Interests

Research in Science Education - There is growing evidence that science capital (science-related forms of social and cultural capital) and family habitus (dispositions for science) influence STEM...     

Recognising and responding to radicalisation at the ‘frontline’: Assessing the capability of school teachers to recognise and respond to radicalisation

Governments across the west have put teachers at the forefront of efforts to tackle radicalisation of young people based on their proximity to potentially vulnerable students. This has proven controversial, as critics claim that this securitises teachers’ work and that they cannot be expected to accurately identify and respond to extremism. Despite investment in P/CVE teacher training, research to assess teachers’ competence to identify signs of radicalisation and to respond in an appropriate manner is scarce. This article presents findings from a survey experiment with 2,173 teachers in Great Britain and Denmark. It shows that British and Danish teachers largely recognise radicalisation cues and respond to student radicalisation in similar ways. However, our data shows that British teachers are more likely than Danish teachers to react formally (e.g. report to authorities), and that British teachers feel more confident in reacting to signs of radicalisation. The results enhance our understanding of the effects of radicalisation prevention in schools. Furthermore, they challenge arguments within the extant literature by suggesting that what leads to concerns of radicalisation is not entirely subjective or completely context dependent.     

Do You Want to Know What I Learned? Using Informational Trade Books as Models to Teach Text Structure

Informational text is an important resource for classroom teachers that places unique comprehension demands on young students. Research on teaching expository text structure to young children shows that explicit instruction improves student comprehension. This practical article addresses how to use “well-structured” expository trade book titles to teach text structure. A lesson plan template and an extended example of an explicit lesson on order/sequence are provided.     

Learning analytics: challenges and limitations

Learning analytic implementations are increasingly being included in learning management systems in higher education. We lay out some concerns with the way learning analytics – both data and algorithms – are often presented within an unproblematized Big Data discourse. We describe some potential problems with the often implicit assumptions about learning and learners – and indeed the tendency not to theorize learning explicitly – that underpin such implementations. Finally, we describe an attempt to devise our own analytics, grounded in a sociomaterial conception of learning. We use the data obtained to suggest that the relationships between learning and the digital traces left by participants in online learning are far from trivial, and that any analytics that relies on these as proxies for learning tends towards a behaviorist evaluation of learning processes.