Stigmatised learners: mature-age students negotiating university culture

Research on the socially-situated nature of learning shows how practices and identities are affected by participation in communities, but very little is known about how mature-age students experience the relational dynamics of university. Based on data from a qualitative study of first-year students, we consider written accounts by older learners to examine how they negotiate the culture of higher education. We found that mature-age students encounter a university culture dominated by younger students, who draw separating boundaries between the social and the academic and stigmatise older students because of their academic practices. Drawing on Lave and Wenger’s learning theory, we examine the way mature-age students negotiate the process of becoming legitimate members of the learning community, and the resistance they face in doing so. Knowing how mature-age students learn, and how to support them, depends on examining their negotiation of university culture, as well as their differing aspirations and needs.     

The effect of sodium pentobarbital on attraction in the albino rat

Two “target” rats, one drugged and one undrugged, were tethered on opposite sides of an open arena in which single, undrugged “subject” rats were allowed to roam free. On the last 2 days of testing, the S rats spent significantly more time in physical contact with the undrugged target rat than with the drugged target rat. Prior adaptation to the arena of S rats had no effect on the relative preferences for the target animals.     

Using Stakeholder Input to Guide Cultural and Contextual Adaptations for a Universal School-Based Intervention

The Urban Review - Strong student–teacher relationships foster students’ social, emotional, and academic development, particularly for students from marginalized racial/ethnic groups....     

Faculty and instructional designers on building successful collaborative relationships

Employing phenomenological techniques this qualitative study investigates perceptions of collaborative relationships between instructional designers and faculty at an R1 university. While past research has considered the growing involvement of instructional designers in course development, and knowledge and skills expected from an instructional designer, little attention has been paid to what constitutes an effective collaboration and how it can be developed from the perspectives of both instructional designers and faculty. Based on semi-structured interviews of faculty and instructional designers, the following four thematic categories were uncovered: (1) reasons for collaborative efforts; (2) structure of collaborative relationships; (3) supports of and barriers to collaboration; and (4) essential competencies and strategies for instructional designers and faculty in a collaborative partnership. Our findings support the existing research on the importance of collaboration between instructional designers and faculty, and spotlights instructional designers in the higher education setting. They also outline key elements of an effective relationship, including understanding the role of an instructional designer, trust and rapport building (and its components), administrative support and faculty buy-in. Suggestions are made for to how overcome potential barriers to ensure an effective and collaborative partnership. Implications and future directions for research and training programs are discussed.

     

The relationship between working memory and writing in younger and older adults

This study investigated therelationship between working-memory (WM) spanand writing performance in three age groups(mean of ages of 15, 30, 77 years). Asexpected, older adults' performance wasinferior to younger adults on measures ofverbal and visual-spatial WM and structuralcomplexity in writing. More important, WM spanmoderated structural complexity in writingacross age and those effects remainedsignificant when short-term memory, readingcomprehension, word knowledge, spelling andhandwriting speed were partialed from theanalysis. Overall, the results support thenotion that age-related changes in textgeneration are moderated by limitations in ageneral WM system.     

Problems in Teaching the Topic of Redox Reactions: Actions and Conceptions of Chemistry Teachers

Although there is growing interest in studies of teachers' actions and conceptions, little is known about content-related teaching problems arising in science classrooms. This article presents a case study of problems which can occur when teaching the topic of redox reactions to Grade 11 students. Two chemistry teachers, a senior and a junior teacher, were involved in the study. Their reflective comments on the teaching problems were also investigated. Research data were obtained from classroom observations and audiotaped recordings of classroom practice. After the lessons, we conducted semistructured interviews with the teachers. The teaching problems are reported in terms of teaching activities causing difficulties for students in considering new conceptions to be necessary, intelligible, plausible, or fruitful. Analyses of the teachers' comments on these teaching activities clarifies a number of reasons why they acted as they did. It can be concluded that teachers' scientific expertise is an important source of difficulties when teaching redox reactions. Implications for an improvement of current chemistry classroom practice and content-related teacher training are offered.     

The influence of prior knowledge on experiment design guidance in a science inquiry context

Designing and conducting sound and informative experiments is an important aspect of inquiry learning. Students, however, often design experiments that do not allow them to reach conclusions. Considering the difficulties students experience with the process of designing experiments, additional guidance in the form of an Experiment Design Tool (EDT) was developed, together with reflection questions. In this study, 147 pre-university students worked in an online inquiry learning environment on buoyancy and Archimedes’ principle. Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, each of which contained a different version of the EDT. Since students’ prior knowledge has been found to influence the amount and type of guidance they need, the versions of the tool differed with respect to the level of guidance provided. A pre- and post-test were administered to assess students’ conceptual knowledge. No overall differences between conditions were found. In a subsequent analysis, students were classified as either low, low-intermediate-, high-intermediate, or high prior knowledge students. For Archimedes’ principle we found that low-intermediate prior knowledge students gained significantly more conceptual knowledge than low prior knowledge students in the fully guided condition. It is hypothesised that students need at least some prior knowledge in order to fully benefit from the guidance offered.