Technology as ‘Applied Science’

The current consideration of technology as ‘applied science’, this is to say, as something that comes ‘after’ science, justifies the lack of attention paid to technology in science education. In our paper we question this simplistic view of the science-technology relationship, historically rooted in the unequal appreciation of intellectual and manual work, and we try to show how the absence of the technological dimension in science education contributes to a naïve and distorted view of science which deeply affects the necessary scientific and technological literacy of all citizens.     

Illuminating Agency: A Latin@ Immigrant Parent's Testimonio on the Intersection of Immigration Reform and Schools

Anti-immigration reform has created a hostile and threatening climate for Latin@ immigrants and their families. Simple everyday acts that are often taken for granted (i.e. parents dropping off children at school, driving to the grocery store, etc.) became acts that threaten to separate families. As a result, many Latin@ families are currently “living in the shadows” — hiding their immigration status from any agency (including schools) or individuals that may pose a threat. Via the use of field notes and interviews, the author reconstructs one parent's (Blanca) experience cruzando la frontera/crossing the border, as well the moment when Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials appeared at her doorstep, and subsequent actions thereafter. By utilizing Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latin@ Critical Race Theory (LatCrit), this study centers and prioritizes Blanca's experience navigating the intersecting space between seemingly disconnected immigration reforms and school policies and practices. In doing this, the author illuminates the moment when the convergence of immigration reform and the school resulted in a heightened awareness of parental agency.     

History by quota?

This article is part of the center's study of leadership and social change in the United States.     

The influence of trait meta-mood on subjective well-being in high school students: a random intercept cross-lagged panel analysis

Trait meta-mood refers to people’s conscious awareness of their own emotions. This reflexive process is relevant to developing a better adaptation to the environment, understanding the individual differences in how people perceive and attend to emotions, and how they can understand and regulate them in an optimal way. Previous research has indicated that trait meta-mood plays an important role in well-being. Accordingly, the main objective of this study was to analyse the prospective effects of trait meta-mood on levels of subjective well-being. A sample of 570 high school students (289 females), from 12 to 17 years (M?=?13.80, SD?=?1.45), completed measures of trait meta-mood, satisfaction with life, and positive and negative mood states across three waves separated by 1-year intervals. Random intercept cross-lagged panel analyses indicated that the dimensions of meta-mood accounted for a significant amount of variance in both cognitive and affective dimensions of well-being across time.     

Teaching machine learning in robotics interactively: the case of reinforcement learning with Lego® Mindstorms

Preparing students for dealing with a world more and more densely populated with physical machines that possess learning capabilities, e.g. intelligent robots, is of the utmost importance in engineering. In this paper, we describe and analyse a design of interactive sessions devoted to the application of some machine learning (ML) methods within a master degree subject named “Cognitive Robotics”, in particular, reinforcement learning (RL), a technique that allows the machine to autonomously learn decision-making in a physical environment. The paper contains a complete depiction of the interactive teaching sessions, implemented with reasonable cost and resources thanks to a suitable mixture of the constructivist and instructivist paradigms. It also gathers the experiences of students and teachers through both qualitative and quantitatively indicators.     

Another look at college student’s ratings of course quality: data from Penn State student surveys in three settings

This study assessed the relationships of student attributes, course characteristics and course outcomes to college students’ ratings of course quality in three types of settings. The analysis utilised data from online surveys of samples of college students conducted in 2011 and 2012 at the Pennsylvania State University. Included in the analysis were: (1) 1805 students at the main campus; (2) 1453 students at 19 smaller satellite campus locations of the university scattered across the state; and (3) 522 students participating in online degree programmes through Penn State’s World Campus. Students were asked to rate the quality of instruction they received in a randomly selected course in which they had been enrolled during the previous semester, and to respond to a number of questions about the course, the instructor’s behaviour and themselves. The relationships of these factors to how students rated the course were assessed for subjects in the three study settings. In all three settings, student and course characteristics, course difficulty and amount of required work had little effect on course ratings. Grade received was modestly related to course rating. However, instructor’s use of selected recommended pedagogical practices and students’ perceptions of how much they felt they learned were by far the strongest correlates of students’ course evaluations. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Spirited dispute: the secret split between Wallace and Romanes

Alfred Russel Wallace's role in prompting the original publication of "On the Origin of Species" is now generally acknowledged. Wallace is now widely recognised as 'Darwin's co-discoverer', but the role that he played in the development and promotion of Darwinism is more often overlooked. From the very beginning of their collaboration in 1858, there were important differences between the works of Wallace and Darwin. Within Darwin's lifetime, the two men also disagreed over several significant evolutionary debates, most notably the role that Natural Selection might play in evolution. Following Darwin's death in 1882, Wallace set about promoting his own version of 'Darwinism', but not without opposition. A rather ungentlemanly debate between Wallace and Darwin's chief disciple George John Romanes throws light on the contested nature of what it meant to be a Darwinian in the late nineteenth century.