Expanding the Foundation: Climate Change and Opportunities for Educational Research

Human-caused climate change is a dominant global challenge. Unlike other disciplines and fields, there has as yet been only limited attention to climate change in educational research generally, and in educational foundations in particular. Education is key to assisting humanity in mitigating and adapting to climate change, and educational researchers working within diverse disciplinary and methodological traditions and a broad array of research contexts need to engage in this most pressing of challenges. We argue that the field needs a new commitment to a form of educational justice appropriately scaled to the size of the challenge we face. We address this gap by reviewing current thinking on the human dimensions of climate change and summarizing what research has been conducted in the area of climate change education as a means of identifying a range of possibilities for educational research and praxis.     

The real world on a short leash: The (mis) application of constructivism to the design of educational technology

Constructivism, or more precisely, a constructivist metatheory, presently prevails throughout professional education circles. Most educators easily accept constructivism's central premise that learners approach tasks with prior knowledge and expectations based on their knowledge of the world around them. Naturally, then, constructivist educational technologists have been guided by the implicit (and increasingly explicit) desire to create authentic environments for learning: environments that correspond to the real world. In this paper, I argue that technologists have tended to paper over the critical epistemological dimension of constructivism by preauthenticating learning environments: creating environments that are predetermined to reflect the real world even though constructivist theory contrindicates precisely this. I suggest that a rhetorical perspective on constructivism offers a way out of this bind and I propose some guidelines to assist developers of educational technologies in accommodating the essentially dialogic nature of teaching and learning.Many of the issues raised in this article are developed in his recent (1998) book entitledReality by Design: The Rhetoric and Technology of Authenticity in Education.     

Explaining the effects of communities of pastoral care for students

This article explains how communities of pastoral care work. It presents an empirically forged theory in action. We examined theoretical and empirical work across the targeted area of personalization for students. We also completed what Hallinger (2012) refers to as “exhaustive review” of the field of school improvement writ large. We treated the literature as qualitative data, inductively developing macro-level constructs, mid-level elements, and micro-level practices. We find that pastoral care for students has important effects on student learning. We conclude that the impact is mediated through two critical variables, institutional affiliation and student engagement.     

Simulation-based performance assessment: an innovative approach to exploring understanding of physical science concepts

This paper illustrates the use of simulation-based performance assessment (PA) methodology in a recent study of eighth-grade students’ understanding of physical science concepts. A set of four simulation-based PA tasks were iteratively developed to assess student understanding of an array of physical science concepts, including net force, acceleration, velocity, and inertia. Illustrative examples drawn from the administration of these simulation-based PA tasks to a sample of eighth-grade students (n?=?74) highlight the potential of simulation-based tasks for revealing conceptual understanding of science concepts and for informing curriculum development within the context of design-based implementation research. The paper also describes a variety of challenges encountered over the course of the development, administration, and analysis of the PA data that may be informative for researchers and educators as they consider implementing simulation-based PAs.     

PREDICTORS OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE IN A B.Ed. COURSE AND IN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

The study Investigated the association between entry qualifications to a BEd course, performance in educational psychology and overall BEd performance. The roles of main area specialisation and sex differences In performance In educational psychology were also investigated. The academic records of 313 students from six year‐groups constituted the data set for the study. Results showed that performance in educational psychology was an efficient predictor of overall performance in the BEd course. Students who specialised in mathematics/science subjects performed better as a group in educational psychology than students in other main areas of specialisation. Also, significant sex differences in performance in educational psychology were observed in some of the year‐groups, with female students out‐performing their male colleagues.     

Effects of gluteal kinesio-taping on performance with respect to fatigue in rugby players

Kinesio-tape^® has been suggested to increase blood circulation and lymph flow and might influence the muscle's ability to maintain strength during fatigue. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of gluteal Kinesio-tape^® on lower limb muscle strength in non-fatigued and fatigued conditions. A total of 10 male rugby union players performed 20-m sprint and vertical jump tests before and after a rugby-specific fatigue protocol. The 20-m sprint time was collected using light gates (SMARTSPEED). A 9-camera motion analysis system (VICON, 100 Hz) and a force plate (Kistler, 1000 Hz) measured the kinematics and kinetics during a counter movement jump and drop-jump. The effect of tape and fatigue on jump height, maximal vertical ground reaction force, reactivity strength index as well as lower limb joint work were analysed via a two-way analysis of variance. The fatigue protocol resulted in significantly decreased performance of sprint time, jump heights and alterations in joint work. No statistical differences were found between the taped and un-taped conditions in non-fatigued and fatigued situation as well as in the interaction with fatigue. Therefore, taping the gluteal muscle does not influence the leg explosive strength after fatiguing in healthy rugby players.     

Book reviews

International Review of Education -     

Computer simulation and concept development in students of genetics

Conclusion Computer simulations in genetics have the potential to complement laboratory activities and to act as an adjunct to the use of traditional sets of problems. In these roles, simulations such as CATLAB, generate qualitative changes in the learning experiences of students. For example, the simulated breeding experiment may be repeated and strategies modified without regard of the time and management constraints associated with actual laboratory experimentation; problem-solving may involve active data generation, in contrast to the style of textbook problems. This study showed that students reported a favourable attitude to CATLAB and that their use of the program lead to meaningful learning. The cognitive gains made by the student group encompassed both genetic concepts and processes. The scope for use of computer simulations as an adjunct to, or in some cases even replacement of traditional activities, and for an analysis of their impact is considerable.