Scoring Neutral or Unsure on an Identity Development Instrument for Higher Education

The use of neutral or unsure on an instrument designed to measure identity development in college students was explored. The nominal response model from item response theory was used to evaluate whether neutral or unsure was used more frequently by those at low or middle levels of development; the results depended on the subscale and sometimes on the item within the subscale. Scoring based on the nominal response model allows for this category to be treated differently for different items.     

Maternal parenting and children's conscience: early security as moderator

Socialization research is shifting from direct links between parenting and children's outcomes toward models that consider parenting in the context of other factors. This study proposed that the effects of maternal responsive, gentle parenting on child conscience are moderated by the quality of their relationship, specifically, early security. A 2-process model of early conscience development was proposed and confirmed in this longitudinal study. The child's security and trust in the caregiver, assessed at 14 months in the Strange Situation, rendered him or her receptive and eager to accept the caregiver's socialization agenda. That early security then enhanced the effectiveness of parental adaptive parenting style, observed from 14 to 45 months, in terms of promoting conscience at 56 months, which encompassed moral conduct, moral cognition, and moral self.     

STEM in England: meanings and motivations in the policy arena

STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, is widely used in science education. There is confusion, however, as to its provenance and meaning which is potentially problematic. This study examines the purpose of STEM practice in education in England and asks if there are differences in perceptions of STEM between science and mathematics educator stakeholders. The study’s contribution to the literature is its unusual focus on those who were responsible for making and enacting national STEM policy. A two-phase qualitative approach was followed comprising an analysis of government documentation together with semi-structured interviews with key contributors to the science and mathematics education discourse. Findings suggest that there is a disconnect between the interpretations of the science and mathematics educators with a danger-advantage dichotomy to participation in STEM being perceived by the mathematics educators. Early aims of the STEM agenda, including increasing diversity, gave way to a focus on numbers of post-16 physics and mathematics students. We conclude that if the term STEM is to continue to be used then there is a need for greater clarity about what it represents in educational terms and a wider debate about its compatibility with the aims of science education for all.     

Developmental Relations Among Behavioral Inhibition,Anxiety, and Attention Biases to Threat and Positive Information

This study examined relations between behavioral inhibition (BI) assessed in toddlerhood (n = 268) and attention biases (AB) to threat and positive faces and maternal‐reported anxiety assessed when children were 5‐ and 7‐year‐old. Results revealed that BI predicted anxiety at age 7 in children with AB toward threat, away from positive, or with no bias, at age 7; BI did not predict anxiety for children displaying AB away from threat or toward positive. Five‐year AB did not moderate the link between BI and 7‐year anxiety. No direct association between AB and BI or anxiety was detected; moreover, children did not show stable AB across development. These findings extend our understanding of the developmental links among BI, AB, and anxiety.     

Knowledge Restructuring in Biology: Testing a Punctuated Model of Conceptual Change

Emerging from a human constructivist view of learning and a punctuated model of conceptual change, these studies explored differences in the structural complexity and content validity of knowledge about prehistoric life depicted in concept maps by learners ranging in age from approximately 10 to 20 years. Study 1 (cross-age) explored the frequencies of concepts, relationships, levels of hierarchy, branching, and cross-links in concept maps drawn by students in grades 5, 8, 11, 13, and 14. The results provide some support for a punctuated model of conceptual change. Study 2 (longitudinal) explored the same frequencies on repeated occasions among students enrolled in a college course on prehistoric life, and documented the shift in frequencies of “novice” and “expert” concepts occurring during the semester. The results suggest that college students engage in much restructuring of their knowledge frameworks during the period of a semester. Together, the two studies raise questions about common classroom practices that encourage the rote learning of biology and geology concepts at all levels.     

The addition of audio‐teleconferencing to interactive telecourses: An experimental anaysis of drop‐out rates

Audio‐teleconferencing which allows peer interaction has been proposed as a potentially effective means to increase student completion rates in distance education courses. This hypothesis was examined in two experiments in which audio‐conferences were added to a telecourse which also included live‐interactive (one‐way video, two‐way audio) segments. Although there were differences in the completion rates between the groups of students involved in the audio‐teleconferencing and the control groups, these were not found to be statistically significant. It is suggested that the on‐air live interactive telecourse component may have made the audio‐teleconferences redundant. There were generally high completion rates overall.     

Exploring ethnohistory and Indigenous scholarship: what is the relevance to educational historians?

For educational historians involved in the representation of Indigenous contexts and peoples, what is the relevance of ethnohistory as a discipline or methodology, and what is lost or gained in using it? This article reviews ethnohistorical literature, and brings it in conversation with literature by Indigenous scholars on research methodologies, as well as history and historiography. The inquiry raises questions for consideration by educational historians in conducting Indigenous educational histories. It is suggested that while ethnohistory as it is described in the literature may demonstrate limitations, turning towards Indigenous scholarship for guidance may extend and enhance research on the educational past that is responsive to the interests of Indigenous communities.     

A critique of the teaching standards in England (1984–2012): discourses of equality and maintaining the status quo

This study presents a critical analysis of the state-prescribed teaching standards from 1984 to 2012 in order to reveal discourses of equality imbued within. Critical discourse analysis and critical race theory are employed to explore and explain how the discourses of equality are shaped by the prevailing political ideology of the state. Up to 2007, the analyses revealed the gradual emergence of two seemingly incompatible discourses: recognition of the difference within notions of appropriacy of curriculum input vs. the assertion of a homogenised knowledge valid for all. It is argued that because this tension remained unexamined in the documents, damaging assumptions of deficit were obscured, thereby effecting a failure to critique the hegenomic norms against which such deficit was assumed, with the ultimate effect of maintaining the status quo of inequitable outcomes. The standards of 2012 also operate to maintain the status quo, but do so far less discretely. Here homogeneity appears overtly approved through an overarching assimilationist agenda. Deficit is now more openly articulated as attached to those who need to assimilate. The paper concludes with ideas for an alternative transformative teacher education.