EXPLORING INDIVIDUAL AND SCHOOL-RELATED FACTORS AND ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY: COMPARING U.S. AND CANADA USING PISA 2006

Questions remain about how to best prepare students to be environmentally literate. Although Canada and U.S. share similarities in education systems, diversity in student population, and historical roots in formalizing environmental education, Canada is one of the top performing countries in international science assessments while U.S. matches average performing countries. This study examined the relationship of individual and school-related factors to environmental literacy by comparing students’ performances in knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and behavior about environmental issues between U.S. and Canada using PISA 2006. Findings suggest that knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and behavior are inter-related, and development of certain domains of environmental literacy may be enhanced by classroom student investigations. Prior explanations for U.S. lower performance in environmental literacy cannot be attributed only to low socio-economic status and student diversity.     

Immediate Dissemination of Student Discoveries to a Model Organism Database Enhances Classroom-Based Research Experiences

Use of inquiry-based research modules in the classroom has soared over recent years, largely in response to national calls for teaching that provides experience with scientific processes and methodologies. To increase the visibility of in-class studies among interested researchers and to strengthen their impact on student learning, we have extended the typical model of inquiry-based labs to include a means for targeted dissemination of student-generated discoveries. This initiative required: 1) creating a set of research-based lab activities with the potential to yield results that a particular scientific community would find useful and 2) developing a means for immediate sharing of student-generated results. Working toward these goals, we designed guides for course-based research aimed to fulfill the need for functional annotation of the Tetrahymena thermophila genome, and developed an interactive Web database that links directly to the official Tetrahymena Genome Database for immediate, targeted dissemination of student discoveries. This combination of research via the course modules and the opportunity for students to immediately “publish” their novel results on a Web database actively used by outside scientists culminated in a motivational tool that enhanced students’ efforts to engage the scientific process and pursue additional research opportunities beyond the course.     

Online Plagiarism Training Falls Short in Biology Classrooms

Online plagiarism tutorials are increasingly popular in higher education, as faculty and staff try to curb the plagiarism epidemic. Yet no research has validated the efficacy of such tools in minimizing plagiarism in the sciences. Our study compared three plagiarism-avoidance training regimens (i.e., no training, online tutorial, or homework assignment) and their impacts on students’ ability to accurately discriminate plagiarism from text that is properly quoted, paraphrased, and attributed. Using pre- and postsurveys of 173 undergraduate students in three general ecology courses, we found that students given the homework assignment had far greater success in identifying plagiarism or the lack thereof compared with students given no training. In general, students trained with the homework assignment more successfully identified plagiarism than did students trained with the online tutorial. We also found that the summative assessment associated with the plagiarism-avoidance training formats (i.e., homework grade and online tutorial assessment score) did not correlate with student improvement on surveys through time.     

The Larger Project within Fantasy Literature: the Lewis/Pullman Divide

This article deals with Philip Pullman's insistence on the importance of the creative power of stories in education and the need for children to think deeper about texts than the surface plot; the suitability for fantasy literature to be used for this ‘larger project’ and the current power of children's fantasy, leading to Pullman's winning of the Whitbread Prize; and Pullman's vehement rejection of links between His Dark Materials and C.S. Lewis's Narnia books. Both series are influenced by Paradise Lost but read from their own religious position: Lewis is the conservative traditionalist and Pullman the liberal reformer. In both, Christian allegory is used to encourage deeper readings of the works. Ultimately, Pullman's criticism of Narnia draws attention to similarities between the two series and the power of both to provoke challenging questions rather than straightforward answers.     

Management training and national sport organization managers: Examining the impact of training on individual and organizational performances

Within sport, a tremendous amount of effort is committed to the on-the-field performance of athletes and coaches, neglecting the off-the-field performance and development of sport managers. This study examines the impact of human resource training on the performance of five Canadian national sport organizations (NSO) and their managers (N = 22). Data were collected on three outcome variables (learning, individual performance, organizational performance) and three mediating variables (motivation to transfer, training design, organizational climate) at three time measures (pretraining, post-training¹, post-training²). Results indicate that training improves the learning and individual performance of sport managers, as well as the organizational performance of NSOs. Varying relationships were found at each of the three time measures, demonstrating that a progression to training-related performance change exists. Implications and future research directions are discussed and highlighted the need for on-going training opportunities for Canadian sport managers.     

Do the effects of early severe deprivation on cognition persist into early adolescence? Findings from the English and Romanian adoptees study

Cognitive outcomes at age 11 of 131 Romanian adoptees from institutions were compared with 50 U.K. adopted children. Key findings were of both continuity and change: (1) marked adverse effects persisted at age 11 for many of the children who were over 6 months on arrival; (2) there was some catch-up between ages 6 and 11 for the bottom 15%; (3) there was a decrease of 15 points for those over 6 months on arrival, but no differentiation within the 6-42-month range; (4) there was marked heterogeneity of outcome but this was not associated with the educational background of the adoptive families. The findings draw attention to the psychological as well as physical risks of institutional deprivation.     

探究教学的认知理论

本文选用多学科教学实例来说明教师如何运用探究教学的十种策略促使学生解决各种问题。在这一过程中,学生既学习知识领域的具体理论,又学习各种推理技能,包括构建假设、验证假设、提出预测、选择验证理论的合适的案例、提出反例和假设案例、区别必要条件和充分条件、考虑不同的假设、熟悉规则或理论可能的形式、知道提问的策略等。在某种意义上,探究法为学生展示了一个造就科学家的模拟过程。这种教学模式对学生的学习有特别的激励作用。