Learning experimentation through science fairs

Experiments are essential for both doing science and learning science. The aim of the German youth science fair, Jugend forscht, is to encourage scientific thinking and inquiry methods such as experimentation. Based on 57 interviews with participants of the competition, this study summarises students’ conceptions and steps of learning about experimentation, taking into account age disparities. Five distinct subdomains of learning were identified in which learning processes may occur. These subdomains are procedure, purpose, material, control, and time. The three separate age groups used slightly different concepts but all the participants took the same or very similar steps of learning independent of their age. Two main reasons for conceptual developments could be detected: Firstly, the participating students had the opportunity to work using methodology similar to the commonly accepted scientific path of knowledge. Secondly, due to communication processes during the competition, a purposive reflection of their own project was promoted. With respect to different educational levels, experimentation proves to be a complex scientific framework that will be learnt step by step throughout students’ education. We therefore argue for a stronger anchoring of research experiments embedded in open or authentic inquiry to be included in science lessons at school.     

Interdisciplinary Research: A Promising Approach to Investigate Elite Performance in Sports

While the call for interdisciplinary studies has been loud and clear over the last decade or so, the number of interdisciplinary publications in sport sciences is rather limited. One of the reasons for this scarcity is the complexity of the research process itself. Still, the combination and integration of information from different scientific disciplines seems to be important to better explain how elite performance comes about. In this article, we focus on this issue and discuss the advantages of interdisciplinary research for understanding how elite athletes are able to achieve such high-proficiency levels. The first section provides an overview of the studies that investigated elite performance in sports. In the second section, we focus on the issue of interdisciplinarity and illustrate how the ecological–dynamical approach and the concept of dimensional reduction can be used to explain how elite performers cope with the complex nature of sport skills. In the last section, we present a research outline and some practical considerations that can be helpful for researchers who aim to study sport skills from an interdisciplinary perspective.     

U.S.-Based Latina/O College Students’ Attitudes toward Online Counseling

The purpose of the study was to examine the attitudes of Latina/o college students in the U.S. toward online counseling, with particular attention to the role of gender, self-stigma, perceptions of stigma by others, and acculturation within a sample of 231 college students. This cross-sectional survey used the ‘Perceived Stigmatization by Others for Seeking Psychological Help Scale’ (Vogel et al. 2009), the ‘Self-Stigma of Seeking Psychological Help Scale’ (Vogel et al. 2006), and the ‘Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics’ (Marin et al. 1987) to measure attitudes toward online counseling. Online counseling had a significant but weak relationship with self-stigma. Additionally, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis tested variables that might predict attitudes toward online counseling, using previous experience with counseling and gender as control variables. In the overall model, previous experience with counseling, acculturation, and self-stigma significantly predicted attitudes toward online counseling. The implications of the findings as well as areas for future research are discussed.     

Assessing efficiency in the Spanish public universities through comparative non-radial and radial data envelopment analysis

In this study we have used data from Spanish public universities to assess their efficiency in a longitudinal framework between 2008/9–2014/15. To carry out the analysis, two windows data envelopment analysis and intertemporal, non-radial and radial analysis methodologies were compared. The main results show a significant deterioration in university efficiency from the 2012/13 academic year for the three proposed frontiers, with both methodologies. Some factors may explain these results, such as the ageing of teaching force and its low replacement rate of 10%, and the lack of incentives for young researchers who wish to pursue a research career, influenced by the presence of endogamy, in hiring or promotion. Finally, the resources necessary for the good governance of the Spanish public university with the consequent accountability of these, in terms of teaching, research and its transfer to society, could become a strategic issue that should be taken into account by all the actors involved.

     

Environmental education research in Brazil: some highlights from theses and dissertations

Abstract

This article discusses an analysis of abstracts of Brazilian theses and dissertations on environmental education from a database organised and maintained by a group of researchers in the EArt Project (www.earte.net). In presenting extracts of key trends in this dataset, our aim is to provide a snapshot of the many possible approaches to, and histories of, Brazilian environmental education research. The data also allow us to raise some questions that explore possible ‘blank spots’, ‘blind spots’ and ‘bald spots’ in Brazilian research on environmental education. Given the temporal development of the research field since the 1980s, we illustrate these ‘spots’ by exploring data related to epistemological and methodological diversity, from the viewpoint of knowledge areas as well as the graduate programmes that have been developing research on environmental education. Finally, we draw a picture of the methodological trends that have been privileged by Brazilian researchers, and pose questions as to what is needed in shaping an agenda for research on environmental education in Brazil into the future.     

Teacher Education and Development Policies: Critical Discourse Analysis from a Comparative Perspective

The purpose of this study is to explore teacher education policies in different countries of Latin America and North America through the comparison of policy documents. The training of teachers, a key component of education, faces educational challenges as a result of various reform policies in different countries. Critical discourse analysis offers the possibility of illuminating certain aspects of educational policies in specific historic moments. A comparative perspective allows researchers to explore similarities and differences between political statements from a number of governments and agencies, in order to characterize general elements and particularities of teacher education policies in the context of late capitalism. The corpus of this study consists of a selection of recent educational policy documents at national and international levels. This study continues a line of previous studies which apply critical discourse analysis to the research of educational policies.     

Associations Among Mothers’ Depression,Emotional and Learning-Material Support to Their Child,and Children's Cognitive Functioning: A 16-Year Longitudinal Study

This study examined the associations among maternal depression, mothers’ emotional and material investment in their child, and children's cognitive functioning. Middle-class Chilean mothers and children (N = 875; 52% males) were studied when children were 1, 5, 10, and 16 years (1991–2007). Results indicated that highly depressed mothers provided less emotional and material support to their child across all ages, which related to children's lower IQ. Children with lower mental abilities at age 1 received less learning-material support at age 5, which led to mothers’ higher depression at child age 10. Mothers’ low support was more strongly linked to maternal depression as children got older. Findings elucidate the dynamic and enduring effects of depression on mothers’ parenting and children's development.     

Introducing Undergraduates to the Nature of Science Through the Co-construction of Evolutionary Trees Evidence from a University Biology Course

Research in Science Education - Contrary to the situation at primary, middle, and secondary school levels, university science courses provide students with very few opportunities to reflect upon...     

Global estimates of the implications of COVID-19-related preprimary school closures for children’s instructional access,development, learning,and economic wellbeing

Observational data collected prior to the pandemic (between 2004 and 2019) were used to simulate the potential consequences of early childhood care and education (ECCE) service closures on the estimated 167 million preprimary-age children in 196 countries who lost ECCE access between March 2020 and February 2021. COVID-19-related ECCE disruptions were estimated to result in 19.01 billion person-days of ECCE instruction lost, 10.75 million additional children falling “off track” in their early development, 14.18 million grades of learning lost by adolescence, and a present discounted value of USD 308.02 billion of earnings lost in adulthood. Further burdens associated with ongoing closures were also forecasted. Projected developmental and learning losses were concentrated in low- and lower middle-income countries, likely exacerbating long-standing global inequities.