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.     

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.     

Validity of GRE General Test scores and TOEFL scores for graduate admission to a technical university in Western Europe*

Graduate admission has become a critical process in tertiary education, whereby selecting valid admissions instruments is key. This study assessed the validity of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test scores for admission to Master’s programmes at a technical university in Europe. We investigated the indicative value of GRE scores for the Master’s programme grade point average (GGPA) with and without the addition of the undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and the TOEFL score, and of GRE scores for study completion and Master’s thesis performance. GRE scores explained 20% of the variation in the GGPA, while additional 7% were explained by the TOEFL score and 3% by the UGPA. Contrary to common belief, the GRE quantitative reasoning score showed only little explanatory power. GRE scores were also weakly related to study progress but not to thesis performance. Nevertheless, GRE and TOEFL scores were found to be sensible admissions instruments. Rigorous methodology was used to obtain highly reliable results.     

Email use in elementary school: an analysis of exchange patterns and content

Email was embedded in a project in design and technology education in elementary school. During four lessons children worked in groups on building a flying object. These groups communicated through email with groups of children from another school. The analyses of the emails, as viewed from distributed cognition theory, focus on the exchange patterns and content. Two characteristic exchange patterns are stacking and compounding. In stacking emails are sent out quickly enough to afford a "just-in-time" exchange of information. In compounding the emails transcend lessons. An "old" section of the email reacts to the partner's email about a previous lesson. A "new" section deals with the current lesson.
Question-answer exchanges accounted for only about 15% of the communications. Connected discourse with explicit or implicit references to the partner's email was likewise scarce. Groups mainly connected to each other through adoption, leading to shared scenarios of "We tell you our story—You tell us yours". The conclusion discusses the impact of the task on the children's communication. Among others, a precise definition and teaming of the task is deemed necessary to favour embedded email use. Because the genre of email use in elementary school is yet to be defined the authors caution against imposing many constraints on what children write to each other.     

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     

Setting Standards for English Foreign Language Assessment: Methodology,Validation, and a Degree of Arbitrariness

Cut‐scores were set by expert judges on assessments of reading and listening comprehension of English as a foreign language (EFL), using the bookmark standard‐setting method to differentiate proficiency levels defined by the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Assessments contained stratified item samples drawn from extensive item pools, calibrated using Rasch models on the basis of examinee responses of a German nationwide assessment of secondary school language performance. The results suggest significant effects of item sampling strategies for the bookmark method on cut‐score recommendations, as well as significant cut‐score judgment revision over cut‐score placement rounds. Results are discussed within a framework of establishing validity evidence supporting cut‐score recommendations using the widely employed bookmark method.     

Shift of meaning and students' alternative concepts

The purpose of the study was to establish a relationship between the shift of meaning of the concept oxidation that has taken place during the historical development, and students' alternative concepts. First Examination Board papers were examined. The result enabled us to specify the research question. In the main part of the study, multiple‐choice items were given to 3074 senior high school students. They were asked to select the correct answer and to justify their choices. Additional illustrative material was collected in four interviews with senior high school students. The analysis of the data revealed the mechanism that some students used to interpret the reactions from NO₃ ^? to NO and from CO₃ ^2? to CO₂. Students' interpretations were based on the concept of a transfer of oxide ions. The mechanism explains some correct and incorrect answers to the problems. The interview study also revealed that students were reluctant to accept water as a Brønsted base. It is suggested to use students' alternative concepts about oxidation reactions in class, helping them to better understand the half‐reaction method. Students should also understand that the meaning of the concept oxidation has shifted in the course of time. In the area of acid‐base reactions, further research is needed.     

Teachers as mediators: an exploration of situated English teaching

Within the context of lower secondary English teaching in South West England, this study identifies in broad terms the competing goals between which English teachers mediate and the explicit and hidden tensions that result. To understand the interactions of competing goals, teachers' goal‐oriented behaviours are referenced to a set of idealised ‘role types’ based on the dimensions of goals, norms, discourses and practices. It is asserted that competing goals, significant to particular educational circumstances, emanate from various sometimes contradictory local, national and perhaps broader social and cultural influences on practice. Yet the teachers observed moved smoothly between goal‐oriented behaviours in a continuous and comfortable style, easily and without reflecting any tensions between them. Thus, this article elaborates an account of situated English teaching.     

Teachers’ conceptions of quality and organisational values in higher education: compliance or enhancement?

Teachers are often assumed to have a negative attitude towards quality endeavours of their institutions and to hold defensive organisational values. However, there is little empirical research on this issue. This study focuses on teachers’ conceptions of quality, on their preferred organisational values and on the relationships between the two. A written questionnaire was presented to the teaching staff from 18 departments of universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands (N?=?266). It comprised 18 questions about teachers’ conceptions of quality, representing two quality scales: compliance and accountability and enhancement and improvement. A further 24 questions, related to organisational values, represent two scales that typify flexible organisations, and two that typify control-oriented organisations. The results reveal a neutral score on the compliance and accountability conceptions of quality and on the control-oriented organisational values, and a high score on enhancement and improvement and on the flexibility-oriented values. Both pairs appear to be moderately positively correlated. Despite the need for further qualitative research, it can be concluded that teachers perceive quality first and foremost as enhancement and improvement, rather than as compliance to external standards and accountability. These findings offer interesting perspectives for the further development of an internal quality culture in higher education.