Advance organizers in videos for software training of Chinese students

The effectiveness of demonstration-based training (DBT) videos for software training has been investigated for a Western audience. These studies have generally found that the demonstration videos significantly enhanced self-efficacy and task performance, but also that there was a gap between task practice and learning with the latter lagging behind. The present study investigated the effectiveness of DBT-videos for software training of Chinese students. The control condition presented demonstrations only. In the experimental condition demonstrations were preceded with advance organizers that aimed to enhance learning. The 61 participants (mean age 11.8 years) came from a middle school in China. Data analyses revealed that self-efficacy significantly improved in both conditions. Task performance success also increased significantly over time. The familiar gap between task practice and learning was found between task practice and outcomes on an immediate post-test. However, on the delayed post-test this difference had disappeared. An effect of the advance organizer was found for accuracy of the self-efficacy appraisals, and for gain scores from pretest to delayed post-test. It is concluded that DBT-based demonstration videos are moderately effective for software training of Chinese students, and that it can be beneficial to precede these with advance organizers.     

Promoting academic satisfaction and performance: Building academic resilience through coping strategies

The aim of this article is twofold: (a) to validate the psychometric properties of the Academic Resilience Scale (AR‐S) in a Spanish university context; and (b) to test a model where different coping strategies are antecedents of AR, and where academic satisfaction and performance are its consequences. The studies were conducted with 185 (study 1) and 780 (study 2) students. In study 1, the construct validity, reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the AR‐S were analyzed. The hypothesized model (study 2) was tested using structural equation modeling. The results confirmed the good psychometric properties of the AR‐S in the Spanish context, providing evidence of its validity. Furthermore, the distinctive role of different coping strategies in resilience was confirmed, as well as the relationship between resilience and academic satisfaction. No direct relationship between resilience and performance was found, highlighting the full mediation of satisfaction.     

Proof and application

This paper outlines an epistemological conception which attempts to relate the formal aspects of mathematical proof to its pragmatic dimensions. In addition to the key concept of application, the paper makes use of several concepts from the domain of analytical philosophy, to present a view of proof that might best be categorized as a dialectical one. A number of implications for teaching are discussed.     

On defining quality of education

In this paper quality of graduates is distinguished from quality of education, which is renamed efficiency of education. The first concept is defined in a quantitative manner, the second by way of a set of 66 statements concerning the efficiency of education derived from judgements about the effectiveness of particular teaching methods in the achievement of different types of teaching objectives.Paper presented at the conference on Efficiency of Teaching Methods in Higher Education, organized by the University Teaching Methods Unit of the University of London, 6–7 April, 1976.     

Soziale Ungleichheit in der Schulklasse und Schulerfolg

Zusammenfassung In dieser Arbeit verfolgen wir die Frage, ob sich auf den Schulerfolg nicht nur die sozio?konomische Lage der Herkunftsfamilie (SES) und der Erziehungsstil der Eltern auswirken, sondern auch die in jeder Schulklasse entstehende Ungleichheit der Kinder nach ihrem sozialen Rang. Zur Beantwortung stehen Daten aus einer Querschnittsuntersuchung an zwei Berliner Schulen zur Verfügung, an der 234 M?dchen und Jungen aus zehn Schulklassen der dritten und fünften Jahrgangsstufe untersucht wurden. Zun?chst zeigte sich, dass der Schulerfolg — hier gemessen an der Durchschnittsnote aus Mathematik, Deutsch und Sachkunde sowie am Urteil des Klassenlehrers über die Lernbef?higung — wie in der PISA-Studie von SES und Erziehungsstil der Eltern beeinflusst wird. Zus?tzlich h?ngen aber der soziometrisch gemessene Einfluss-und Beliebtheitsrang der Kinder und ihr Verhalten gegenüber anderen Kindern mit dem Schulerfolg zusammen, wobei dieser Zusammenhang mit dem Lehrerurteil über die Lernbef?higung noch ausgepr?gter ist als mit der Durchschnittsnote. Diese Zusammenh?nge bleiben erhalten, wenn für SES und Erziehungsstil kontrolliert wird. Dabei dürfte es sich um Wechselwirkungen handeln. Für künftige L?ngsschnittforschung richtungsweisend ist aber die generalisierende Interpretation und Feststellung: Die auf der Grundlage von Interaktionen und Kommunikationen unter Kindern entstehende Ungleichheit des sozialen Ranges der Kinder in der Schulklasse wirkt sich ebenso auf den Schulerfolg aus wie die soziale Ungleichheit des Familienhintergrundes. Auch Prozesse in der eigenst?ndigen Kinderwelt bef?rdern oder mindern Lern-und damit Lebenschancen.

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Summary Social inequality in schools and school success — An investigation in years 3 and 5 in Berlin primary schools This paper deals with the question of whether success in schools is not solely attributable to the socio-economic background of pupils’ families (SES) and the style of children’s upbringing, but also to the inequality of pupils in respect of their social rank in the classroom. This question will be investigated on the basis of data from two Berlin schools which includes 234 pupils from ten classes in the third and fifth years. The analysis shows how school success as measured by average marks in maths. German and general studies and by the judgment of children’s learning ability by their classroom teacher — as in the PISA-study — is influenced by SES and how parents bring up their children. Further, the socio-metric measurement of children’s popularity and influence and their behavior towards other children correlates with school marks and moreso still with teachers’ judgments of their learning ability. This correlation remains even when controlled for SES and style of upbringing. This is likely to be attributable to interdependencies. The following general interpretation will give the direction of future longitudinal studies: Inequalities of social rank between children, which emerge based on their interaction and communication with each other, influence success at school just as family background and style of upbringing do. Processes in children’s personal worlds, therefore, promote or hinder their chances for learning and subsequently for life.

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Das Projekt wurde von der DFG finanziert.     

Intra-active entanglements: What posthuman and new materialist frameworks can offer the learning sciences

This paper examines what new materialist and posthumanist frameworks can offer learning science research in diverse maker learning environments. We explore what is gained by grappling with the entanglements between humans, non-humans and more-than-humans. To do this, we draw on Karen Barad's ethico-onto-epistemology and agential realism where she redefines connections to the shared world by attuning to the entangled matter that is created within intra-actions. We use this framework across four international cases: digital media camps, a university-level classroom-based makerspace, a Saturday outdoor makerspace workshop and a classroom-based museum makerspace. Each case study attends to how intra-actions enact agential forces in maker education research—forces that posthuman and new materialist frameworks help us see. In so doing, these case studies challenge many of the assumptions prevalent in the learning sciences about mattering and its implications in research sites.     

The impact of physics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and motivation on students’ achievement and interest

This paper examines students’ achievement and interest and the extent to which they are predicted by teacher knowledge and motivation. Student achievement and interest are both considered desirable outcomes of school instruction. Teacher pedagogical content knowledge has been identified a major predictor of student achievement in previous research, whereas teacher motivation is considered a decisive factor influencing students’ interest. So far, however, most research either focused on knowledge or motivation (both on the students’ as well as the teachers’ side), rarely investigating them together or examining the instructional mechanisms through which the supposed effects of teacher knowledge and motivation are facilitated. In the present study, N = 77 physics teachers and their classes in Germany and Switzerland are investigated utilizing a multi‐method approach in combining data obtained from test‐instruments (teacher pedagogical content knowledge, student achievement) and questionnaires (teacher motivation, student interest, student perceived enthusiastic teaching) as well as videotaped instruction (cognitive activation rated by observers). Multi‐level structural equation modeling was used to support the assumptions that teacher pedagogical content knowledge positively predicted students’ achievement; the effect was mediated by cognitive activation. Teachers’ motivation predicted students’ interest which was mediated by enthusiastic teaching as perceived by students. Neither did teacher pedagogical content knowledge predict students’ interest, nor teacher motivation students’ achievement. This implies that in order to improve students’ cognitive as well as affective outcomes, both teachers’ knowledge but also their motivation need to be considered. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Research in Science Teaching Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54:586–614, 2017