Harnessing technology to improve formative assessment of student conceptions in STEM: forging a national network

Concept inventories, consisting of multiple-choice questions designed around common student misconceptions, are designed to reveal student thinking. However, students often have complex, heterogeneous ideas about scientific concepts. Constructed-response assessments, in which students must create their own answer, may better reveal students' thinking, but are time- and resource-intensive to evaluate. This report describes the initial meeting of a National Science Foundation-funded cross-institutional collaboration of interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education researchers interested in exploring the use of automated text analysis to evaluate constructed-response assessments. Participants at the meeting shared existing work on lexical analysis and concept inventories, participated in technology demonstrations and workshops, and discussed research goals. We are seeking interested collaborators to join our research community.     

数字时代的长文

目前,篇幅较长的文章面临着严峻的挑战.怎样才能够持续吸引网络读者的注意力?因为网络读者更可能喜欢快速点击而不是一页一页地阅读.内容维护者的新群体说,正是移动设备和应用程序增强了长文的吸引力,并再次创造出能坐下来认真阅读的读者.     

首要教学原理

首要教学原理是从一组有效教学的原理和模式中提炼出来的,具体是指聚焦问题或者面向任务开展教学,并以此经历激活旧知、示证新知、应用新知和融会贯通的教学循环圈。首要教学原理中各项要求如果能够一一得到落实,那么,教学策略的效能水平肯定也会逐渐得以提高。在解决复杂问题时,首要教学原理对学业表现的促进作用才得以凸显。     

Toward a history of social science publishing in the United States

Tracing social science publishing back to the eighteenth century, this article discusses the role of the federal government, commercial presses, nonprofit foundations, racial and ethnic publishing groups, professional societies and university presses. The contributions of individual social scientists and publishers are noted, as are recent trends in the field.     

The Scientific Manpower Shortage and Its Implications for the Engineering Technician

Some of the background of the present scientific manpower shortage is reviewed. Utilization as an important aspect of engineer efficiency is discussed. With this setting, the engineering technician's complementary function with the engineer is introduced. The limited availability of technicians is cited. A discussion of the stepping-stone aspect of the technician job, an area worth consideration because of its ramifications, is presented and the concept of a four-year program for engineering technicians is shown to have significant value in coping with several phases of technician training. Four areas of study and investigation are suggested that can contribute to solution of the overall need of increased scientific manpower through increased utilization. Utilization would be improved by the proper preparation of an adequate number of engineering technicians.     

Busy as a Bee or Unemployed?: Shifting Scientific Discourse on Work

Changing images of work in discourse both portray and co-constitute the shift from an industrial to a postindustrial economy. Specifically, work metaphors appear in extra-scientific and intra-scientific discourse on workers and work structures in the natural and social world. An analysis of the entomological discourse from the late nineteenth century to the present shows changes in these metaphors that overlap with the discourse of change in human work and organizational structures. For instance, the metaphor of a busy bee within an efficient hive had traditionally evoked a comparison to the modern industrial workplace. The discourse on the hive currently more closely resembles a postindustrial conception of work. Discourse analysis can illustrate the role of language in co-constructing shared changes in image of work.     

Assessing students' ability to trace matter in dynamic systems in cell biology

College-level biology courses contain many complex processes that are often taught and learned as detailed narratives. These processes can be better understood by perceiving them as dynamic systems that are governed by common fundamental principles. Conservation of matter is such a principle, and thus tracing matter is an essential step in learning to reason about biological processes. We present here multiple-choice questions that measure students' ability and inclination to trace matter through photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Data associated with each question come from students in a large undergraduate biology course that was undergoing a shift in instructional strategy toward making fundamental principles (such as tracing matter) a central theme. We also present findings from interviews with students in the course. Our data indicate that 1) many students are not using tracing matter as a tool to reason about biological processes, 2) students have particular difficulties tracing matter between systems and have a persistent tendency to interconvert matter and energy, and 3) instructional changes seem to be effective in promoting application of the tracing matter principle. Using these items as diagnostic tools allows instructors to be proactive in addressing students' misconceptions and ineffective reasoning.