“I wanted to go here”: Adolescents’ perspectives on school choice

New Zealand legislation removing school zones radically reshaped school choice, resulting in increased school stratification from parental choice frequently driven by social factors such as ethnic makeup of the school community. This article considers school choice through the eyes of 1,465 adolescents from 12 secondary schools in Dunedin (New Zealand). The most common reasons for school choice included: preference for a coeducational school, school’s facilities, positive comments from parents/students, and friends’ enrollment. Reasons for school choice differed by who was making the decision. Social factors and school programs/facilities, rather than proximity to home, influenced school choice decisions in Dunedin.     

Key challenges and future directions for educational research on scientific argumentation

At the 2015 NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning Through Research Annual International Conference, a group of scholars held an extended pre‐conference workshop to discuss key challenges and future directions faced by argumentation researchers around the world. This wide‐ranging group of facilitators and participants represented varying perspectives and experiences with argumentation research. Learning artifacts from the workshop were collected and analyzed utilizing multiple qualitative coding techniques. Analysis of these artifacts revealed five major themes that emerged from the NARST workshop describing this group of scholars’ views on current issues and potential directions for the field of argumentation research. These themes center on: (i) establishing a classroom culture that values argumentation; (ii) how differing theoretical frameworks challenge how researchers communicate findings; (iii) the challenge of assessing various aspects of scientific argumentation in a valid and reliable fashion; (iv) pedagogical challenges in supporting student discourse and social collaboration; and (v) challenges concerning the professional development of teachers. Each of these themes is described using direct quotes from the workshop artifacts, and implications for future research in argumentation are discussed. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 55: 5–18, 2018     

The link between executive functions and literacy: introduction

This special issue was born within the M2S Project (Mindfulness to students’ success: Relating executive functions and writing through a mindfulness app to promote children’s cognitive, social, and health-related outcomes) to call researchers and practitioners’ attention to the role that executive functions play on the acquisition and development of literacy skills, a neglected topic in the field. The selected papers include various methods and techniques to examine the relationships between literacy and executive functions across languages/cultures and different age groups, with and without disabilities.

     

Impact of European projects on engineering education

Various European programmes represent invaluable help and source of experience for universities in Central and Eastern Europe. Being an emerging university that was established just 8 years ago, we welcomed the chance to be involved in numerous projects that introduced us to the area of European cooperation. Last summer two very interesting projects concerning our university were finished (in terms of financing from the sources mentioned above) and so it is a good occasion to evaluate the progress of our international co-operation in the last 3 years and to look forward towards further development of our established links. The first project was financed by The British Know How Fund and its aim was to bring together the University of Hull, UK, and the Faculty of Informatics and Management UHK in Hradec KrÁlové (FIM). The second project, called INSYPA, was a Joint European Project within the frame of the TransEuropean Mobility Programme for University Studies (Tempus). Both projects were extremely fruitful for us but so different one from another that we think it might be interesting to compare them. The contribution describes our original plans, their development, evolution of our partnership, the problems which arose and were solved. The main stress is given to expertise obtained, methods of assessment, persistent links and their influence on our integration to EU educational and research programmes.     

On the World Bank's education report: Replies to Peter Williams

Viewpoints and Controversies

On the World Bank's education report: Replies to Peter Williams     

Ozone forming potential and sulfur effects on in-use vehicles of the metropolitan area of Mexico City

INTRODUCTION Motor vehicles continue to be the dominant source of air pollution, despite tremendous advances in engine technology and pollution control. Vehicles are significant sources of CO, HC, and PM and comprise one of the most important sources of NOx, which along with HC, are the essential precursors of ground-level ozone. In view of emissions harm to human health, major efforts to control them have been made, both through improved emission control technologies and through gasol…     

Argumentation and concept development: the role of imagination

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Vygotsky stated that concepts cannot be transmitted from mind to mind but instead developed through communication. Specifically, the instructional use...     

Interrogating Social Justice Paradigms in School Finance Research and Litigation

Interchange - The search for equitable educational opportunities has lead school finance reformers toward solutions conceptualized largely through distributive social justice. Inhibiting justice in...     

Association between gross motor competence and health-related quality of life in (pre)schoolchildren: the mediating role of cardiorespiratory fitness

ABSTRACT

Background: Motor competence, defined as a person’s ability to execute different motor skills, is directly associated with children’s physical, mental, and social development and may be essential in encouraging an active lifestyle in childhood. Although health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children has been described as an individual’s subjective perception of the impact of health status on physical, psychological and social functioning, in very young children, a HRQoL parent-proxy report is needed since (pre)schoolchildren have problems expressing their feelings and understanding items on HRQoL instruments. In addition, the influence of motor competence on fitness levels has strong empirical support, so it seems reasonable to hypothesize that cardiorespiratory fitness might play a crucial role in the association between motor competence and HRQoL in children.

Objectives: This study examined the association between gross motor competence (G-MC) and HRQoL in typically developing children, and whether this association between G-MC and HRQoL was mediated by cardiorespiratory fitness.

Methods: An observational cross-sectional study with 1088 (pre)schoolchildren (51.84% boys, 48.16% girls) aged between 4 and 7 years (5.32?±?0.60) belonging to 21 schools in the Spanish provinces of Cuenca and Ciudad Real were included. G-MC was evaluated using the MABC-2 battery, HRQoL was assessed using the KINDL-R questionnaire and cardiorespiratory fitness using the 20m-shuttle-run-test. Partial correlations, covariance models and mediation analyses were conducted.

Results: The mean scores of HRQoL (physical well-being, self-esteem, friends, school and global score index) were significantly higher (p?<?0.05) in children with higher G-MC. When cardiorespiratory fitness was added as a covariate, all the results remained unchanged (p?<?0.05), except for physical well-being for the total sample as well as emotional well-being and the global score index for girls. Simple mediation analyses showed that cardiorespiratory fitness acted as a mediator between G-MC and physical well-being (Indirect Effect?=?0.04 [95% CI?=?0.01; 0.07]) for the total sample. For boys, it acted as a mediator between G-MC and physical well-being (Indirect Effect?=?0.04 [95% CI?=?0.00; 0.08]) and school (Indirect Effect?=?0.05 [95% CI?=?0.01; 0.09]), and, for girls, between G-MC and emotional well-being (Indirect Effect?=?0.04 [95% CI?=?0.01; 0.08]) and the global score index (Indirect Effect?=?0.02 [95% CI?=?0.00; 0.05]).

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that good G-MC levels are associated with better HRQoL, mainly in global score index of HRQoL and self-esteem, friends, and school dimensions in typically developing children. Further, cardiorespiratory fitness mediates the association between G-MC and the physical dimension of HRQoL in (pre)schoolchildren. Additionally, physical and academic dimensions are mediated by cardiorespiratory fitness for boys and the emotional and global score indices of HRQoL are mediated by cardiorespiratory fitness for girls. These findings provide scientific evidence that improving motor competence and cardiorespiratory fitness might be a practical strategy to increase HRQoL in children. Thus, families and the educational community should promote effective interventions and incorporate opportunities inside and outside school that aim to jointly improve motor competence and cardiorespiratory fitness.