Relationship between achievement and students' acceptance of evolution or creation in an upper‐level evolution course

Students often hold strong attitudes regarding topics they encounter during their studies, and many instructors feel that these attitudes can have strong effects on students' performance. We characterized students' attitudes toward evolution and investigated the influence of students' attitudes (pre‐course and post‐course) regarding evolution on their performance in an evolution course, measured as their final grade. We found our students to hold positive attitudes toward evolution; these attitudes became more positive following the course. The most significant change in attitude occurred in the group of students initially undecided toward evolution. We also found that attitudes prior to the course had little influence on later achievement; however, at the end of the course, students' attitudes were positively related to final grades, although the effect was small. We argue that pedagogical techniques directly addressing students' attitudes help reduce the influence of attitudes (especially prior attitudes) on achievement. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 7–24, 2006     

Older people as users and non-users of a video conferencing service for promoting social connectedness and well-being – a case study from Finnish Lapland

ABSTRACT

There is a need to better understand older people’s use, non-use, and learning of eHealth services in their everyday lives. This paper reports a case study of a phone and video conferencing service aimed at promoting the social connectedness and well-being of older people in the sparsely populated area of Finnish Lapland. The data were derived from qualitative semi-structured interviews of a service coordinator (n = 1), volunteers (n = 2), and service users (n = 2). The volunteers were 69 and 71 years old, and the service users were 88 and 89 years old. Service coordinator and volunteers described the service as a new and needed service for sparsely populated areas. It supports social interaction and well-being of older people. However, some users experienced inconvenience of the service and concern, such as negative feelings due to technical problems. Reported barriers relating to the learning and use of the service included negative perception of oneself as a technology user and cognitive and physical difficulties. Reported enablers included technical support and older people’s willingness and ability to practice and learn. eHealth services can be experienced as useful, especially by older people living in sparsely populated areas. However, inconvenience, concerns, and barriers were recognized as influencing older people’s willingness to use the service. Older people’s digital competence and distributed digital competencies within their network play important roles in learning to use and using an eHealth service. Digital competence also influences domestication of the technology.     

Value-differentiation and self-esteem among majority and immigrant youth

As they inhabit complex social worlds, adolescents often learn competing values, resulting in value-differentiation, within-individual variability in value importance across contexts. But what are the implications of value-differentiation across age groups and cultures? A study of 4007 adolescents aged 11 to 18 (M = 14.41, SD = 2.16), of three Israeli groups (majority, former Soviet Union immigrants, Arabs) discovered negative relations between value-differentiation and self-esteem, suggesting that confusion may result from value incoherence. The relations were stronger among younger adolescents than older ones and were especially strong among younger first-generation immigrant adolescents, pointing to the need to address the value-differentiation of immigrant adolescents.     

‘Hardworking,determined and happy’: first-year students’ understanding and experience of success

While all agree student success in higher education is important, there is less agreement on what it means to be a successful student. Student success is often measured by institutional reports of grades, student retention and qualification completion. More recently, broader definitions have emerged; however, these do not incorporate student perceptions of success. The current study addresses this gap by exploring how first-year students talk about their success. Drawing from weekly interviews of students at an Australian regional university, the data are analysed through the lens of a conceptual framework of student engagement. The findings demonstrate that success is inextricably linked with student engagement as well as other dimensions of the student experience. As expected, students assess their success extrinsically with institutional measures such as grades and feedback. In addition, their behavioural engagement was seen as a more immediate measure of their success, while happiness and satisfaction were necessary for some students to feel successful. Perceptions of success have important consequences for students in terms of increased positive emotions, self-efficacy and course belonging. Success for these students has multiple dimensions. These findings give rise to suggestions for a staged approach to supporting first-year student success. However, the student experience is complex and multifaceted and further research is needed with different student cohorts who may define and experience success in other ways.     

专业技能如何科创产品说话

2021年11月28日至12月9日,北京化工大学举办了第二届本科生科技创新周. 在创新周科技展中,展出了来自7个学院20余个专业的同学设计研发的89件创新作品. 这是一款3秒内完成还原的魔方机器人,把魔方机器人还原的魔方按顺序放进625个小格子后,魔方色块拼合而成了袁隆平院士的画像 这是一个小型的无人飞行器——VR救援...     

Cinderella in the Classroom. Children's Responses to Gender Roles in Fairy‐tales

The project described in this paper was designed to test the feminist hypothesis that the Cinderella‐style fairy‐tales promoted by Anglo‐American society harmfully reinforce restrictive images of girlhood and womanhood. The research was based on work with over 100 boys and girls aged 9‐11 in five Cornish primary schools. Responses came from the children through group discussion, drawing pictures and writing stories. Although the figure of the pretty princess predominated in the girls’ pictures, it was apparent through the children's discussion and stories that few girls identified with this image. The girls favoured ‘upside‐down’ fairy‐tale scenarios that gave their heroines independence, while the boys clung to the traditional image of the prince for the same reason. These results indicate that girls of this age are ‘resisting readers’, able to criticise and manipulate — as well as enjoy — the gender images presented to them in the dominant fairy‐tales of our culture.     

Promoting Student-Centered Learning Using iPads in a Grade 1 Classroom: Using the Digital Didactic Framework to Deconstruct Instruction

In this qualitative case study, we provide a series of vignettes illustrating a Grade 1 teacher's experiences integrating iPad technology into her instruction over a school year. We use the digital didactic model to deconstruct these vignettes and draw upon the teacher's reflections to gain further insights about her instructional experiences using iPads. We highlight the effective use of cognitive, affective, and technical scaffolding for encouraging students to take risks, explore multiple solution paths, and become independent learners. We emphasize the criticality of student-centered learning environments for collaboration and knowledge sharing and discuss how iPads can be integrated into the curriculum.     

Mapping the Learning Styles “Jungle”: An overview of the literature based on citation analysis

Educationists and researchers who consider the use of the learning style concept to address individual differences in learning are often daunted by the multitude of definitions, models, and instruments. It is difficult to make an informed choice. The confusion with cognitive style, a term often used as a synonym, makes it even more complicated. Reviews of the literature give some direction, but there are a number of arguments why the available reviews raise new problems. In this paper, citation analysis is presented as a technique to develop an alternative organisation of the learning style and cognitive style literature. Application of this technique results in a review that clarifies dominant theoretical orientations in the literature, is helpful to identify the relative impact of different orientations, and helps to illuminate their interrelationships. As such, this alternative review of the literature can serve as a roadmap for novices to the styles field.     

Physical education and academic achievement—literature review 1997–2015

The purpose of this review was to organize the results of studies conducted during the last 18 years into a body of knowledge concerning the link between physical education (PE) and academic achievement (AA). Such knowledge may help in clarifying the role of PE in the schools, whose main focus is on improving the AA of the children. The term PE is used to denote those classes taught in the framework of a school curriculum in which physical activity is at the centre. The reviewed studies were divided into three categories: the ‘political’, in which a rationale is provided for PE in mainly achievement-oriented academic schools (n = 10); the ‘interventionist’, in which it is shown that PE given in accordance with a defined intervention programme influences AA (n = 10); and the ‘integrative’, in which it is determined how physical activity incorporated into the daily routine of academic studies contributes to AA (n = 5). The significance of the reviewed studies in each category is discussed, as well as the advantages and limitations of the studies. Ideas for future research on the link between PE and AA are proposed.