Learning science in an alternative context: The effects on a selected group of young science educators

The Ontario Science Centre is a popular alternative learning environment for science and technology. Using semi-structured interviews, the research underpinning this paper investigates the experiences and effects of working as a Host or exhibit interpreter at the Science Centre. It examines how the Hosts benefit from the program in terms of their knowledge about and attitudes toward science and technology. What is distinctive about learning in this context, and its implications for science and technology education in schools, are discussed. The dominant aspects of learning for the respondents tended to be inspirational and attitudinal, as well as cognitive. The comments of the respondents indicate that in order to encourage learning in science and technology, science education needs to focus on more than a narrow concern with curriculum content.     

Developing Theories of Mind: Understanding Concepts and Relations between Mental Activities

The purpose of the study was to expand our knowledge of older children's understanding of the unique features and potential relations existing among mental activities. 8- and 10-year-olds as well as adults were asked to rate the similarity of pairs of mental activity scenarios in terms of how their mind would be used for each one. The scenarios involved primarily Prospective Memory, List Memory, Recognition Memory, Comprehension, Inference, Planning, Comparison, or Selective Attention. There was a developing tendency to organize mental activities on the degree to which memory was a component of the activity. Several distinctions were also more likely to be made with age: the distinction between recall and recognition, the distinction between the roles of internal and external cues in mediating cognitive activity, and the distinction among the various roles of attentional processes in regulating input from the sensory world. Together, these findings suggest that a constructivist theory of mind develops in later childhood.     

Experimenting with Sound and Silence: sonorous bodies,sonic selves,acoustic topographies,and auditory histories of schooling

Abstract

This article deconstructs some of the underlying assumptions that inform projects in Paynter and Aston’s 1970 book, Sound and Silence. Foucauldian and Deleuzian technologies of power and technologies of desire are used to frame an argument that Paynter and Aston’s projects play into the fabrication of sonorous bodies and sonic selves but also provide potentialities for the creativity of the subject. Sound and silence as material-in-flux is analysed through notions of temporality and affect to argue for a context of hope in acoustic topographies and auditory histories of schooling.     

Discipline and rules in four Hong Kong kindergarten classrooms: a qualitative case study

Classroom discipline is a topic of international interest and teachers are bombarded with advice regarding how to and why they should manage children’s behaviour in their classrooms. This paper draws on data related to classroom discipline gathered from a detailed classroom observation schedule, teacher interviews, and field notes with four purposively selected kindergarten teachers working in Hong Kong with children aged 5–6 years. The findings of this qualitative case study show that the teachers were concerned about disciplining children to ensure good behaviour. They expected all children to follow the rules and used characteristic discipline strategies such as stating expectations and ‘praising the opposite’ to maintain good behaviour. The paper discusses these findings in light of the Westernisation of kindergarten teaching practices in Hong Kong.     

Expert and novice solutions of genetic pedigree problems

This study compared the problem-solving performance of university genetics professors and genetics students, and therefore fits the expert versus novice paradigm. The subjects solved three genetic pedigree problems. Data were gathered using standard think-aloud protocol procedures. Although the experts did not differ from the novices in terms of the number of correct solutions obtained, there were significant differences favoring the experts in terms of the completeness and conclusiveness of the solutions. The experts identified more critical cues in the pedigrees which were used to generate and test hypotheses, they tested more hypotheses by assigning genotypes to individuals in the pedigrees, and were more rigorous than the novices in the falsification of alternative hypotheses. The experts varied their problem-solving strategy to suit the particular conditions of problems involving rare or common traits. Novices did nor recognize the need to make such modifications to their strategies.     

University students' perceptions of influences on external studies

Fifty‐three external university students and a comparison group of 51 on‐campus social and political theory students responded to a written questionnaire on their perceptions of the factors influencing their external studies. Responses were obtained to objective questions and by written open‐ended advice to two hypothetical prospective external students.

In both sets of responses students identified family, job and life circumstances as major influences on external university study.. Advantages of external study were self‐reliance and finances, and disadvantages were related to access to the library and academics' demands. Students expressed preference for studying on‐campus or by the combination of campus and external courses which was available at the university. The study provides base‐line data about students' perceptions of contextual frames or constraints on external study.     

#5: Non-Supine (e.g., Upright or Side-Lying) Positions for Birth

In this position paper—one of six care practice papers published by Lamaze International and reprinted here with permission—the benefit of non-supine positions for birth is discussed and presented as an evidence-based practice that helps promote, protect, and support normal birth. The paper is written for childbearing women and their families. Upright and gravity-neutral positions facilitate rotation and descent of the baby and result in reduced duration of second stage, a reduction in episiotomies, and fewer abnormal fetal heart rate patterns. The accompanying commentary—written by a leading proponent of maternity care—supports these benefits. Lamaze International recommends that laboring women not push until they feel an urge to do so, and that they choose positions for birth that are most comfortable for them.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of Conflict and Delay Inhibitory Control in Toddlers and Preschoolers

Research Findings: A total of 81 children participated in a longitudinal investigation of inhibitory control (IC) from 2 to 4 years of age. Child IC was measured via maternal report and laboratory measures under conditions of conflict and delay. Performance on delay IC tasks at 3 years was related to performance on these same tasks at 2 and 4 years, but performance on conflict IC tasks was not related over time. Delay IC task performance was concurrently related to conflict IC task performance in 3- and 4-year-olds but was not related in 2-year-olds. Measures of IC varied in their associations with measures of verbal ability and maternal-report IC. Such findings highlight important similarities and distinctions between conflict and delay IC abilities in their relation to one another and to temperament and language over time. Practice or Policy: Studies of IC and related concepts reveal that children who are regulated enjoy school more and have higher school competence, particularly in mathematics and reading achievement. Because conflict IC and delay IC show unique patterns of development over time, educators can expect classroom behaviors drawing on the state-like conflict IC to show more fluctuation over time than those drawing on the trait-like delay IC.     

User satisfaction with computer-based career information delivery systems

Conclusions In this study, support for the CIDS in use in New York State emerged from each of the user groups—principals, counselors, students, and parents. There are, however, two areas of future work that emerged from the results of this study which may be applicable on a broader basis. The first deals with the information content of the CIDS. The second relates to its increased utilization.Counselors did not give overwhelmingly high marks to the content of systems. Although counselors can do their part by letting the developers know what is good and what is not good, the responsibility lies primarily with developers and state providers to incorporate current, locally relevant information at the level of detail most appropriate for the user.Spreading the use of CIDS in a school beyond its provision for individual college and career counseling will not only help in making school more relevant to the students' life-careers, but will also provide increased access to the information and the computer for those students who might not otherwise seek it. School personnel can reexamine practices to see that full use of the CIDS resource is being made. System developers can work on the identification of model programs and the dissemination of information about them to their sites. It is hoped that with the increasing availability of microcomputers in schools, not only in guidance offices, but in laboratories and classrooms, such uses will continue and spread.Deborah Perlmutter Bloch, Ph. D., is an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration, Department of Education, Baruch College, City University of New York.Joyce Ford Kinnison is a consultant in Cary, North Carolina.This study was conducted as part of the project, Evaluating Computerized Career Information Systems for Use with Occupational Education Curricula, sponsored by the New York State Education Department and the New York State Occupational Information Coordinating Committee. Funding was provided by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act.