‘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.     

Effect of acute ingestion of β-hydroxybutyrate salts on the response to graded exercise in trained cyclists

Acute ingestion of ketone salts induces nutritional ketosis by elevating β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB), but few studies have examined the metabolic effects of ingestion prior to exercise. Nineteen trained cyclists (12 male, 7 female) undertook graded exercise (8 min each at ～30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, and 80% VO_2peak) on a cycle ergometer on two occasions separated by either 7 or 14 days. Trials included ingestion of boluses of either (i) plain water (3.8?mL?kg?body mass^?1) (CON) or (ii) βHB salts (0.38?g?kg?body mass^?1) in plain water (3.8?mL?kg body mass^?1) (KET), at both 60 min and 15 min prior to exercise. During KET, plasma [βHB] increased to 0.33?±?0.16?mM prior to exercise and 0.44?±?0.15?mM at the end of exercise (both p?.05). Plasma glucose was 0.44?±?0.27?mM lower (p?.01) 30?min after ingestion of KET and remained ～0.2?mM lower throughout exercise compared to CON (p?.001). Respiratory exchange ratio (RER) was higher during KET compared to CON (p?.001) and 0.03–0.04 higher from 30%VO_2peak to 60%VO_2peak (all p?.05). No differences in plasma lactate, rate of perceived exertion, or gross or delta efficiency were observed between trials. Gastrointestinal symptoms were reported in 13 out of 19 participants during KET. Acute ingestion of βHB salts induces nutritional ketosis and alters the metabolic response to exercise in trained cyclists. Elevated RER during KET may be indicative of increased ketone body oxidation during exercise, but at the plasma βHB concentrations achieved, ingestion of βHB salts does not affect lactate appearance, perceived exertion, or muscular efficiency.     

An Examination of the Sibling Training Hypothesis for Disruptive Behavior in Early Childhood

Sibling training for disruptive behavior (one sibling teaching another disruptive behavior) is examined during early childhood. We used a conservative, recently developed, statistical model to identify sibling training. Sibling training was operationalized as the cross‐lagged association between earlier child behavior and later sibling behavior, and differentiated from other reasons that contribute to sibling similarity. A three‐wave longitudinal study tracked 916 children (M_age = 3.46, SD = 2.23) in 397 families using multi‐informant data. Evidence for sibling training was found. Earlier younger siblings’ disruptive behavior predicted later lower levels of older siblings’ disruptive behavior. Thus, the sibling training found in early childhood was producing greater dissimilarity, rather than similarity, on disruptive behavior.     

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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...     

Becoming Data Driven: The Influence of Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy on Concerns Related to Data-Driven Decision Making

Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) reform has proven to be an effective means for improving student learning. However, little DDDM reform has happened at the classroom level, and little research has explored variables that influence teacher adoption of DDDM. The authors propose a model in which teachers’ sense of efficacy for the skills that support classroom-level DDDM and DDDM anxiety significantly influenced teachers’ DDDM efficacy, which then influenced collaboration concerns that influenced refocusing concerns. The authors used structural equation modeling to analyze data on 537 teachers in order to validate this hypothesized model. Results supported this model and are discussed.     

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.     

Student engagement in the educational interface: understanding the mechanisms of student success

Student success and retention continue to be of concern for higher education institutions. Wider participation, combined with lower completion rates for non-traditional students, highlights the need for new ways of understanding the student experience to ground policy and practice. This article provides this insight by drawing together a number of key constructs to refine a recent framework of student engagement. We argue that the transition metaphor, focusing on the first year, is limited because it depicts differences between students and institutions as both transient and temporal. Instead, we use a cultural lens to introduce the educational interface as a metaphor for the individual psychosocial space within which institutional and student factors combine and student engagement in learning occurs. Incorporating the interface into the existing framework of student engagement makes three contributions to our understanding of the student experience. First, the educational interface is a tangible way of representing the complex interactions between students and institutions, and how those interactions influence engagement. Second, the refined framework highlights four specific psychosocial constructs: self-efficacy, emotions, belonging and well-being, which, we contend, are critical mechanisms for mediating the interactions between student and institutional characteristics and student engagement and success. Finally, the refined framework helps to explain why some students with demographic characteristics associated with lower completion rates are retained and do go on to successfully complete their studies, while similar others do not. These three contributions, the interface, the key constructs within it being mediating mechanisms and their explanatory utility, provide focus for the design and implementation of curricula and co-curricular initiatives aimed at enhancing student success and retention, and importantly to evaluate the impact of these interventions.