Classroom Learning Environments and Students' Approaches to Learning

Four hundred and eighty-four students from two metropolitan secondary schools completed the Learning Process Questionnaire, the Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire and the Learner Self Concept scale. Relationships between perceptions of the classroom learning environment, approaches to learning and self concept as a learner were investigated. Gender and level of schooling (junior high versus senior high) differences were examined. Results showed Deep Approaches to learning were significantly related to classroom learning environments which were perceived to be highly personalised and to be encouraging active participation in the learning process and the use of investigative skills in learning activities. High learner self concept was positively associated with Deep Approaches to learning and with classrooms perceived as high in Personalisation. It was negatively associated with Surface Approaches to learning. Differences in perceptions of learning environments and approaches to learning in relation to gender and level of schooling were small. The implications of these findings are discussed and strategies for facilitating Deep Approaches to learning are referred to. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Creating a continuum of STEM models: Exploring how K-12 science teachers conceptualize STEM education

ABSTRACT

As more and more science teachers in the United States are now expected to implement STEM education in their classrooms, it is important to understand how teachers conceptualise STEM education. This information can then be used to provide teachers with meaningful support as they move towards implementation of STEM education. Understanding that not all representations of STEM are equal, this mixed-methods study used a phenomenographic lens to examine science teachers’ perceptions of eight different models of STEM education through photo elicitation interviews. Part of this was done though an activity in which teachers ranked different models of STEM education by arranging them in a continuum. Findings reveal that teachers are most drawn to models of STEM education that show STEM beyond school settings and that include clear intersections between the disciplines represented in the acronym. This study sheds light on the importance of creating a shared conception of STEM education in order to have productive conversations across various stakeholders within the STEM education community.     

The graphics calculator as a teaching aid in statistics

This article explores some ideas for the imaginative use of a graphics calculator in introductory statistics teaching.     

Hospitals and consumer health information in New Zealand: the role of the library

A research project was conducted with the primary objective of finding out what New Zealand hospitals are doing about providing consumer health information to patients, and specifically, the role played by hospital libraries. A database was compiled of all New Zealand hospitals, both public and privately funded. An individual responsible for consumer health information was identified at each hospital and a questionnaire sent directly to them. A 64% response rate was achieved, representing 196 hospitals. Fifty‐four hospitals reported having an in‐house Library or Information Centre for patients, but the materials and services provided varied widely. Results from this survey show that the provision of consumer health information in the hospital sector in New Zealand is ad hoc, and libraries are not necessarily involved.     

A longitudinal study of learning for a group of indigenous Australian university students: Dissonant conceptions and strategies

Conceptions of learning andstrategies used by 15 indigenous students inthree Australian universities were studiedlongitudinally over three years. Their academicachievements were good, but at a high cost interms of time and effort. In spite of the factthat almost half of the students expressedhigher-order (qualitative) conceptions oflearning in the first year and more in thesecond and third years, all of the studentsreported using highly repetitive strategies tolearn. That is, they did not vary their way oflearning, reading or writing in the beginningof their studies and less than half of them didso at the end of the three years. It is arguedthat encountering variation in ways of learningis a prerequisite for the development ofpowerful ways of learning and studying.     

Context Cues in Early Reading

An investigation was carried out to examine any significant differences in the use of four types of context cues by good and poor readers in the early stages of their reading development. Sentences incorporating proactive and retroactive syntactic, and proactive and retroactive semantic cues were presented in the form of deletions at three levels of difficulty. Sixty-four subjects, 32 of each sex, were drawn equally from the six to seven and seven to eight year age levels and subdivided into groups of good and poor readers. Results indicated that all groups other than the youngest poor readers found the proactive semantic cues the most useful and made miscues displaying semantic associations across cue types. Implications for an understanding of strategies employed in early reading and approaches for instruction are discussed.     

Can parents and teachers provide a reliable and valid report of behavioral inhibition?

Reliability and validity of parent and teacher report of behavioral inhibition (BI) was examined among children aged 3 to 5 years. Confirmatory factor analysis supported 6 correlated factors reflecting specific BI contexts, each loading on a single, higher order factor of BI. Internal consistency was acceptable, with moderate stability over 1 year and strong correlation with a brief inhibition subscale from a temperament questionnaire. Children who were rated by mothers and teachers as high BI took longer to initiate contact with a stranger, spoke less often and for shorter periods, and required more prompting to elicit speech compared with low-BI peers in a simulated stranger interaction task. Father report of BI was significantly associated with mean duration of speech and eye gaze.