Teaching [and] Historical Understanding: Disciplining Historical Imagination with Historical Context

The form, content, and practice of history has shifted including changes in conceptualization and practice that came in viewing history as social science, critiques and reconstructions of historical forms of knowledge, and debates about form, format, genre, and discourse. The central argument of this essay begins with the claim that history is a distinctive discipline. It's distinction lies not only, or even primarily, in its subject matter or materials. Rather, history is distinct as a form of inquiry and mode of understanding, with distinguishing characteristics of historical context and historical imagination. Important implications follow.     

Conduct disorder and comorbidity

Conduct Disorder (CD) research is focusing on complex issues introduced by comorbidity because of its widespread existence, thoeretical importance and practical significance. This review provides critical examination of research published during the past ten years addressing CD and its comorbid conditions, specifically Attention‐Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and internalizing disorders. It is concluded that comorbidity varies with age, gender, informant, diagnostic criteria, and nature of the sample (clinical vs. epidemiological). Implications of comorbidity for etiology, diagnosis, treatment, law, and policy and preventive efforts in work with children and adolescents with CD are offered for school psychologists. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

College Students’ Conceptions of Stem Cells, Stem Cell Research, and Cloning

In this study, we examined 96 undergraduate non-science majors’ conceptions of stem cells, stem cell research, and cloning. This study was performed at a large, Midwest, research extensive university. Participants in the study were asked to answer 23 questions relating to stem cells, stem cell research, and cloning in an on-line assessment before and after instruction. Two goals of the instruction were to: (1) help students construct accurate scientific ideas, and (2) enhance their reasoning about socioscientific issues. The course structure included interactive lectures, case discussions, hands-on activities, and independent projects. Overall, students’ understandings of stem cells, stem cell research, and cloning increased from pre-test to post-test. For example, on the post-test, students gained knowledge concerning the age of an organism related to the type of stem cell it possesses. However, we found that some incorrect ideas that were evident on the pre-test persisted after instruction. For example, before and after instruction several students maintained the idea that stem cells can currently be used to produce organs.     

Non-Science Majors’ Critical Evaluation of Websites in a Biotechnology Course

Helping students develop criteria for judgment and apply examination skills is essential for promoting scientific literacy. With the increasing availability of the Internet, it is even more essential that students learn how to evaluate the science they gather from online resources. This is particularly true because publishing information on the web is not restricted to experts, and content quality can vary greatly across websites. The responsibility of evaluating websites falls upon the user. Little research has examined undergraduates’ evaluation of web sites in science classes. The purpose of this study was to investigate on which websites college students selected and how they evaluated the websites used when developing individual positions about stem-cell research. We used a qualitative approach in search of patterns in undergraduates’ website selection and evaluation criteria. We found that students used a variety of web resources from eleven types of websites to complete their independent research report. Students also used eleven evaluation criteria to evaluate these sources, some useful (e.g., credibility) and some not useful (e.g., readability). We found that university students struggled with critically evaluating online resources. Undergraduates need prompts to learn how to critically evaluate the science content provided within websites. This type of scaffold can facilitate useful evaluation and promote critical thinking required for becoming scientifically literate.     

Exploring physical education teachers ‘everyday understandings’ of physical literacy

ABSTRACT

In recent years, physical literacy (PL) has been the subject of increased publication, promotion, and speculation in physical education (PE). This research sought to understand how PE teachers interpret PL. We investigated teacher’s conceptualisations, understandings, practices, and ideas of ‘what’ PL stands for through a #Chat conversation with physical educators on Twitter. This generated qualitative data that were interpretively analysed. An ‘everyday philosophy’ of PL emerged from the physical educators’ relationship with the PL concept, alongside the notion that some use social media as a PL advocacy tool. A lack of sophistication was evident in the PE teachers understanding and operationalization of PL. We conclude that perhaps too much time and effort has been spent ‘adapting’ PL to national contexts, personal, and institutional agendas, rather than investing in the pedagogical and content knowledge of PE teachers to deliver on the concept of PL. We suggest that it is empirical research rather than academic opinionating that is needed to establish the validity of PL for PE.