An Investigation of Concept Mapping to Improve the Reading Comprehension of Science Texts

This study investigated how well 74 6th-grade science students represented text structures from a 900-word textbook chapter on soil conservation, given a concept map template with four superordinate terms and 24 unsorted concepts. Findings suggest students were more successful at classifying pre-selected terms under given superordinate categories than they were at fully identifying relevant concept sets and articulating three different relationship types between terms. No significant differences were noted in the mapping performance of students at different reading levels. About two-third of students indicated they enjoyed concept mapping and would prefer to both read and map rather than just read without mapping. Students also expressed a strong preference for mapping in pairs or small groups compared to mapping alone. Multiple recommendations are provided for improving the relational thinking of students tasked with concept mapping expository science texts, including bridging to more open-ended maps, embedding mapping in longer-term inquiry projects, and leveraging collaborative and tool-based scaffolds.     

Comparing Course Assessments: When Lower is Higher and Higher,Lower

This paper describes an exercise in determining the cognitive difficulty of the assessment tasks in six computing courses within an Information Technology (IT) degree, importing Bloom's taxonomy from the field of educational psychology as an analytical framework. Three of the six courses comprise a Programming stream and three a Data Communications and Networking stream. Bloom's taxonomy is described and we present other studies within computer science based on it. Next, we introduce the courses that were selected for the study and describe the process of analysis. The aggregated results are then presented and some inferences made. The results indicate that the programming courses required a relatively higher cognitive level in assessment tasks compared to the data communications and networking courses. This outcome suggests the need for alternative approaches to assessment.     

The politics of method: from leftist ethnography to educative research

In the last two decades, ethnography has become the dominant methodology of the American educational left. While debates have raged over the use of this method, for the most part they have focused on concepts of reliability and validity. Unfortunately, this emphasis has obscured the relation between method and what the researcher is trying to achieve through the method ‐ its political moment. We strive to put the political moment back in the methodological debate by considering the potential of ethnography to foster emancipatory change ‐ the express purpose of the left. Our analysis suggests that the separation of understanding and application, as well as that of the researcher from those researched, constrains the potential of ethnography to inform and foster emancipatory change.     

The danger of dichotomizing continuous variables: A visualization

Four rather different scatterplots of two variables X and Y are given, which, after dichotomizing X and Y, result in identical fourfold‐tables misleadingly showing no association.     

Are professional young rugby league players eating enough? Energy intake,expenditure and balance during a pre-season

Abstract

Due to the unique energetic demands of professional young collision sport athletes, accurate assessment of energy balance is required. Consequently, this is the first study to simultaneously investigate the energy intake, expenditure and balance of professional young rugby league players across a pre-season period. The total energy expenditure of six professional young male rugby league players was measured via doubly labelled water over a fourteen-day assessment period. Resting metabolic rate was measured and physical activity level calculated. Dietary intake was reported via Snap-N-Send over a non-consecutive ten-day assessment period, alongside changes in fasted body mass and hydration status. Accordingly, energy balance was inferred. The mean (standard deviation) difference between total energy intake (16.73 (1.32) MJ^.day^?1) and total energy expenditure (18.36 (3.05) MJ^.day^?1) measured over the non-consecutive ten-day period was unclear (?1.63 (1.73) MJ^.day^?1; ES?=?0.91?±?1.28; p?=?0.221). This corresponded in a most likely trivial decrease in body mass (?0.65 (0.78) kg; ES?=?0.04?±?0.03; p?=?0.097). Resting metabolic rate and physical activity level across the fourteen-day pre-season period was 11.20 (2.16) MJ^.day^?1 and 1.7 (0.2), respectively. For the first time, this study utilises gold standard assessment techniques to elucidate the distinctly large energy expenditures of professional young rugby league players across a pre-season period, emphasising a requirement for equally large energy intakes to achieve targeted body mass and composition adaptations. Accordingly, it is imperative that practitioners regularly assess the energy balance of professional young collision-sport athletes to ensure their unique energetic requirements are achieved.