“The good university teacher” as perceived by the students

Many universities, recognizing the student as the main consumer of college instruction, have begun to seek his views regarding the quality of teaching. In this study the Israeli student's concept of a good teacher has been investigated. A sample of second year university students were asked to select the three most important characteristics of a good teacher from a list of fifteen.It was shown that students attached primary importance to method of instruction. Of secondary importance was the teacher's ability to spark intellectual growth. Research talents, personality, and academic status were of relatively little concern. Social science, life science, law and medical students all concurred in emphasizing the importance of the teacher's ability to communicate ideas, whereas humanities students stressed his ability to stimulate thinking.It appears that undergraduate students rate teachers by their ability to transmit knowledge rather than according to the university's criteria of research and publication.The concepts good teacher and effective instruction are used interchangeably in this article, although they are not identical.     

Processing inflected morphology in second language word recognition: Russian-speakers and English-speakers read Hebrew

This paper reports on an investigation into the morphosyntactic processing of second language (L2) learners who differ in terms of language learning experience. The chief area of interest was the relationship of L2 learning patterns and experience to the acquisition of automatized processing skills in the morphological domain. English- and Russian-native speakers of Hebrew as L2 were assessed on their sensitivity to complex morphological structures which do not exist in their respective native languages (L1). The Hebrew word formation rule which was the focus of investigation was the affixation of prepositions to nouns, resulting in single words which are also full prepositional phrases. In both English and Russian, prepositions and nouns in prepositional phrases must be autonomous. Participants named high frequency words of one (e.g., /parah/ cow) and three morphemes (e.g., /bakis/ in the pocket), which were presented in a control condition and also presented in conditions which either preserved or disrupted the natural morpheme boundaries through the manipulation of font-size. In addition to the experimental measure, participants were also asked to read an expositional passage from a popular Israeli newspaper. Results showed that the Russians, although significantly more accurate than the English speakers at text reading, were significantly less accurate and slower than the English at the naming task, and less impaired by the experimental manipulations. The results are discussed in terms of automaticity, print exposure and age of L2 acquisition.     

On the chemical equilibrium concept: Constrained word associations and conception

The use of the method of constrained word associations to gain knowledge on the conception of the chemical equilibrium concept is reported. The analysis provides information on:

• (a) A general indication of change in the cognitive structure of students associated with chemical comprehension.
• (b) The comparison of clusters of concepts at pre- and postinstruction indicating the associated concepts.
• (c) A graphical representation of the links among concepts which resulted from instruction.

The results obtained by this technique were similar to those obtained by the method of free sorting of a set of concepts. As the latter was found to correlate with problem-solving ability, it is argued that the method of constrained word associations is a reliable tool for mapping certain aspects of cognitive structure concerned with understanding.     

How can a Website for Physics Teachers Serve as a Tool for Professional Development?

Misconceptions among students studying physics have been widely reported in the research literature. Many teachers are not acquainted with this literature. Moreover, many of them claim that only weak students have misconceptions. This paper reports on an online activity focusing on misconceptions of students regarding Newton’s 3rd Law, that is being carried out through the website of the National Center of Physics Teachers. The aims of the activity are: (1) To convince the teachers that sometimes difficulties in understanding concepts do not stem from the inability of certain students to understand the concept, but rather because of misconceptions in physics. (2) To present the teachers with the findings of studies on physics instruction that deal with the concepts under discussion. (3) To convince the teachers to try out new, innovative teaching strategies.     

For Better or Worse? System-Justifying Beliefs in Sixth-Grade Predict Trajectories of Self-Esteem and Behavior Across Early Adolescence

Scholars call for more attention to how marginalization influences the development of low-income and racial/ethnic minority youth and emphasize the importance of youth's subjective perceptions of contexts. This study examines how beliefs about the fairness of the American system (system justification) in sixth grade influence trajectories of self-esteem and behavior among 257 early adolescents (average age 11.4) from a diverse, low-income, middle school in an urban southwestern city. System justification was associated with higher self-esteem, less delinquent behavior, and better classroom behavior in sixth grade but worse trajectories of these outcomes from sixth to eighth grade. These findings provide novel evidence that system-justifying beliefs undermine the well-being of marginalized youth and that early adolescence is a critical developmental period for this process.     

The summer learning effect in writing in New Zealand

Reading and Writing - The summer learning effect has been identified as a major barrier in creating equitable outcomes in the United States, especially in reading and mathematics. Less is known...     

How do children who understand mixed emotion represent them in freehand drawings of themselves and others?

This research is the first to assess children’s representation of mixed emotion using a freehand drawing task. Two hundred and forty-one 5–11-year olds completed a drawing and a colour preference task. Children heard a condition appropriate vignette about themselves or a protagonist designed to evoke mixed emotion, and were asked to draw the self or the protagonist experiencing neutral, happy and sad affect. Children who reported mixed emotions after the story also drew themselves or the protagonist experiencing mixed emotion. For mixed emotion, children used red, green and blue more in drawings of the protagonist, and yellow more in drawings of the self. Interestingly, strategies for mixed emotion drawings were similar to those used for happy drawings; more specifically, in drawings of the self, children were particularly more likely to use smiles (for happy and sad drawings) and fewer frowns. Findings are discussed in relation to self-presentational behaviour.     

Drawings of Emotionally Characterised Figures by Children from Different Educational Backgrounds

Previous research has shown that children systematically alter the size and colour of their drawings in response to the emotional character of the figures which they draw. However, these findings have been demonstrated only with children receiving mainstream Western education. This experiment was designed to investigate whether children receiving a different kind of education also use scaling and colour differentially for depicting figures of contrasting emotional significance. 76 children, 44 children from mainstream schools (21 boys, 23 girls) and 32 children from Steiner schools (15 boys, 17 girls) were divided into two age groups, with 38 children in the younger age group (mean age 4 years 7 months) and 38 in the older age group (mean age 6 years 8 months). All children completed three drawings of differentially characterized human figures: a neutral, a happy, and a sad figure. Children from the mainstream schools drew larger figures overall, but educational background did not interact with the specific emotional character of the figures in producing these scaling changes. However, there were differences between the two educational groups in relation to the colours used for the negatively characterised figures. The findings are discussed in terms of the need to further understand the role of the educational system in mediating children's depictions of emotional character in their drawings.     

Family Effects on Student Achievement in Hong Kong

We examine the effects of family structures and processes on student achievement in Hong Kong. Specifically, we show that the negative effects of single parenthood in past studies are not universal. In Hong Kong, 4,405 15-year-old students completed a questionnaire, and tests in reading, mathematics and science. We analysed the data using multilevel models of Rasch test scores and Warm estimated indices of questionnaire items. In all subjects, the scores of children living with single parents did not differ significantly from those of children living with two parents. Moreover, students living with no parents had lower reading and science scores than other students, and this effect was mediated by lower family investment and involvement.