Effects of ‘Environmental Chemistry’ Elective Course Via Technology-Embedded Scientific Inquiry Model on Some Variables

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of ‘environmental chemistry’ elective course via Technology-Embedded Scientific Inquiry (TESI) model on senior science student teachers’ (SSSTs) conceptions of environmental chemistry concepts/issues, attitudes toward chemistry, and technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) levels. Within one group pre-test–post-test design, the study was conducted with 117 SSSTs (68 females and 49 males—aged 21–23 years) enrolled in an ‘environmental chemistry’ elective course in the spring semester of 2011–2012 academic-years. Instruments for data collection comprised of Environmental Chemistry Conceptual Understanding Questionnaire, TPACK survey, and Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionnaire. Significant increases in the SSSTs’ conceptions of environmental chemistry concepts/issues, attitudes toward chemistry, and TPACK levels are attributed to the SSSTs learning how to use the innovative technologies in the contexts of the ‘environmental chemistry’ elective course and teaching practicum. The study implies that the TESI model may serve a useful purpose in experimental science courses that use the innovative technologies. However, to generalize feasibility of the TESI model, it should be evaluated with SSSTs in diverse learning contexts.     

Challenging the premises of international policy reviews: an introduction to the review symposium

In 2009, a think tank called the International Alliance of Leading Education Institutes (IALEI) announced the results of a study entitled Climate Change and Sustainable Development: The Response from Education. Intended for a policy audience, the study offered a glimpse into the status of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and an early look at the emergence of Climate Change Education (CCE), in 10 different nations. As with most international reports, the IALEI report provoked many questions, some of which are more broadly relevant to scholarship and practice. This paper introduces a review symposium that addresses three such questions: (1) How coherent is the concept of ESD across national contexts and what conceptual tensions continue to surround ESD and CCE? (2) Can nation-level analyses tell us anything useful about countries where education is not centrally governed? and (3) In light of the evolving relationship between educational research and policy, how should researchers engage with ongoing policy debates?     

Network-based control of nonlinear large-scale systems composed of identical subsystems

This paper deals with a control of coupled nonlinear identical systems that admit full exact feedback input-output linearization. The subsystems are linearized using this nonlinear transformation. In the next step, an auxiliary low-dimensional system is derived whose stability implies stability of the original large-scale system. The control law is designed so that the control loops are only local, no information exchange between subsystems is required. Unknown time delay in the feedback are allowed. Two cases are studied: equal time delay for all subsystems or different delay in all subsystems. Results are illustrated by two examples.     

Hot and Cool Self-Regulation,Academic Competence,and Maladjustment: Mediating and Differential Relations

This study examined differential and mediating relations between hot and cool self-regulation (M_age = 48.2 months; N = 1,155, 48% girls), first-grade (M_age = 77.5 months) maladjustment (externalizing [EXT] and internalizing [INT] behavior), and first- and second-grade (M_age = 89.5 months) academic competence (AC). Using teacher reported EXT, INT, and AC, partial support for the differential perspective was found in that only hot self-regulation was significantly related to EXT, whereas both hot and cool self-regulation was significantly related to AC. Moreover, hot self-regulation indirectly predicted second-grade AC through first-grade EXT, lending some support for the mediating perspective also. The findings contribute to an understanding of how self-regulation is related to academic and behavioral school adjustment.     

Diagnosing Teachers’ Understandings of Rational Numbers: Building a Multidimensional Test Within the Diagnostic Classification Framework

We report a multidimensional test that examines middle grades teachers’ understanding of fraction arithmetic, especially multiplication and division. The test is based on four attributes identified through an analysis of the extensive mathematics education research literature on teachers’ and students’ reasoning in this content area. We administered the test to a national sample of 990 in‐service middle grades teachers and analyzed the item responses using the log‐linear cognitive diagnosis model. We report the diagnostic quality of the test at the item level, mastery classifications for teachers, and attribute relationships. Our results demonstrate that, when a test is grounded in research on cognition and is designed to be multidimensional from the onset, it is possible to use diagnostic classification models to detect distinct patterns of attribute mastery.     

Introducing Children to Anatomy: “Getting to Know Our Bodies: The First Step Toward Becoming a Scientist”

Museums are used in every discipline to collect, classify, and present information for scientific purposes. They also serve as an effective educational medium. Since the establishment of a boutique anatomy museum at Bahçeşehir University, lectures, conferences, and seminars have been organized there over the past four years on the history of human anatomy and the human body. In order to raise awareness about the need to make anatomy accessible to kindergarteners and school-aged children, rather than exclusively to undergraduate students, activities that are suited to a wide range of ages have been developed at the museum and at the anatomy laboratory. Four different sessions were conducted, including activities such as lectures using plastic models as props, shaping organs out of playdough, anatomy puzzles, watching cartoons, and examining specimens through a microscope. Healthy and pathologic anatomies were chosen to match daily themes. Among the kindergarteners and elementary school children, no grading was done, nor was any questionnaire administered; however, a survey was administered in the 10–12 age group (N = 64). According to the students' written feedback, 93.75% said they “are happy with microscope activities” while 84.37% said they “had so much fun” participating in the playdough activities. However, 18.75% criticized the activities, saying they “could have been longer.” In conclusion, it is believed that these “getting to know our bodies” activities that were hosted in the anatomy museum, including conferences, workshops, material preparation, and instructional movies, may play an important role in the development of a healthy society.     

Religiosity,the headscarf,and education in Turkey: an analysis of 1988 data and current implications

Previous research highlights the continuing relevance of family culture in explaining educational inequalities in Turkey, especially patriarchal beliefs and practices that discourage investment in the education of girls. We extend that research by introducing two much‐debated, but empirically untested, aspects of family culture – parental religiosity and headscarf preferences. An analysis of a nationally representative sample of 15–19 year olds in 1988 shows that while religiosity had no significant effect on educational attainment, children who lived in families whose fathers expected them to wear a headscarf in public had lower educational attainment, especially girls. The large negative headscarf effect suggests that the government ban on headscarves in schools may be an obstacle to eliminating gender inequality in education. The results are discussed in light of recent trends in Turkish society.     

‘Everywhere they say that it’s harmful but they don’t say how,so I’m asking here’: young people,pornography and negotiations with notions of risk and harm

Debate about pornography and minors has mainly centred on questions of control, regulation and media policy; the urge to protect children from dangers of sexually explicit content being the primary motivator of these conversations. Instead of discussing the use of pornography by minors in the light of relevant research findings, public discourse on these issues is more usually shaped by views of sexual cultures as inherently dangerous to minors, and young people as vulnerable, easily harmed, and endangered by the media. This paper builds on data consisting of 4212 questions about sexuality that were sent by young people in Finland to experts on sexual health. Only 64 (1.5%) of these contributions explicitly focused on pornography. The small number of porn-related submissions suggests that for young people there are other more important concerns in the field of sexuality than pornography, on which adult guidance is sought. This paper argues that young people’s perceptions of pornography are more diverse than is typically assumed in public debate. Young people challenge risk talk by constantly referring to the vagueness of the alleged harm that characterises the discourse of danger that can be found in much public discussion. According to the findings of this study, blurry notions of harm bother young people more than the actual pornographic content they encounter.     

Student counselling in Hungary in the mid-nineties

The 1993 Law on Higher Education started the modernization of higher education. The most important aim of this development is to gradually elevate the number of participants in higher education to the 30% level that is typical in developed democratic countries, and to increase openness, flexibility and accessibility. Changes in higher education have necessitated a paradigmatic change in higher education counselling as well: the earlier mental hygienefocussed practice has been expanded to independent career orientation and competent career building through comprehensive information services and individual and group counselling aimed at coping strategies improvement. A new trend also is the increasing volume of peer counselling activity and the training of higher education counsellors.