Scholarly Communities at the Crossroads: Internationalizing Sociological Networks in Valparaíso,Chile (2003–2019)

Minerva - Achievements and tensions derived from the internationalization of national scholarly communities have attracted extensive attention. However, very little is hitherto known about the...     

Temperature,handling, micturition,and the survival of early weaned rats

Previous investigations reported that providing nonlactating maternally behaving adult females to infant rats weaned at 13 days of age substantially reduces the mortality rate of such weanlings. In experiments undertaken to isolate the maternal variable(s) promoting survival of early weaned rats we found that periodically inducing micturition or stimulation by handling did not alter viability. Thirteen-day-old weanlings did survive if provided with a source of heat, but did not survive at normal room temperature. It appears that the role of the nonlactating mother in the early weaning studies, at least in promoting survival, may simply be that of maintaining adequate body temperatures.

     

Navigating dilemmas in transforming assessment practices: experiences of mathematics teachers in Ontario,Canada

Current thinking encourages teachers to incorporate a range of assessment practices that are responsive to student thinking and promote student learning. At the same time, teachers are situated in a landscape of accountability, where they are often seen as technicians who implement prescribed curriculum, policies, and procedures with success measured by externally created assessments. This paper considers how teachers navigate this difficult terrain as they incorporate new assessment practices in their classrooms. We report on a two-year project undertaken with 42 teachers of mathematics (Grades 4–12) in Ontario, Canada. Using an analytic framework adapted from Windschitl (Review of Educational Research, 72(2), 131–175.2002), we explore the dilemmas these teachers identified as they met in communities of practice. Our findings highlight the need for coherence in the assessment messages communicated to teachers and provide evidence of the critical role of ongoing collaboration and dialogue to support the development of teachers’ professional judgement and enable change in their assessment practice.     

Analyzing Different Types of Moderated Method Effects in Confirmatory Factor Models for Structurally Different Methods

An extension of two confirmatory factor models for multitrait-multimethod measurement designs with structurally different methods to the analysis of latent interaction effects is presented: the nonlinear latent difference (NL-LD) model and the nonlinear correlated trait–correlated method-minus-one (NL-CTC[M – 1]) model. Both models are compared with regard to (a) the psychometric definition of the latent variables, (b) the capabilities of explaining latent method effects, and (c) the analysis of latent interaction effects. Using the latent moderated structural equation approach, we show how moderated method effects can be examined in the NL-CTC(M – 1) model. This fine-grained analysis of method effects is not feasible using the classical NL-LD model. We propose an extended version of the NL-LD model, which recovers the results of the NL-CTC(M – 1) model. The different versions of the nonlinear multimethod models are illustrated using real data from a multirater study. Finally, the advantages and challenges of incorporating latent interaction effects in complex CFA–MTMM models are discussed.     

Motivating first-year university students by interdisciplinary study projects

ABSTRACT

In order to increase student commitment from the beginning of students’ university careers, the Technische Universität Darmstadt has introduced interdisciplinary study projects involving first-year students from the engineering, natural, social and history, economics and/or human sciences departments. The didactic concept includes sophisticated task design, individual responsibility and a differentiated support system. Using a self-determination theory framework, this study examined the effects of the projects based on survey findings from two projects with more than 1000 students. The results showed that the projects were successful in fulfilling students’ basic psychological needs and in promoting students’ academic engagement. Basic psychological needs were found to be significant predictors of academic engagement. These findings suggest that interdisciplinary study projects can potentially contribute to improving higher education as they fulfil students’ basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy and enhance students’ academic engagement.     

Torture of children: An investigation of Chilean immigrant children in Denmark: Preliminary report

Torture of children occurs in many different ways: children may be forcibly adopted by strangers; children may be arrested and imprisoned; they may witness torture of their parents or may be tortured in the presence of their parents; and, similarly several reports of mass executions of children are available.The Danish Medical Group under Amnesty International has investigated 88 Chilean children now living in Denmark, whose parents had been tortured. Approximately $\text{1}\text{3}$ of the children were abnormally anxious and approximately $\text{1}\text{3}$ had disturbances of sleep in the form of difficulty falling asleep accompanied by broken sleep with nightmares. Approximately $\text{1}\text{4}$ of the children developed secondary nocturnal enuresis. Seventeen percent of the children showed behaviour difficulties in the form of aggression while 16% became introverted and depressed and had difficulties in establishing contact with children of the same age-group.     

Skills needed for reading comprehension of physics texts and their relation to problem-solving ability

This article reports an investigation of some of the skills needed for the critical reading of physics texts. To assess these skills a reading comprehension test was developed that combines features of errordetection and true–false–unreported tests. This test was administered to college students of physics, and the results were analyzed statistically to determine the separability of the skills and their hierarchical ranking. It was found that the skill required to comprehend texts in continuous format is of a higher level than and separable from the skill required to comprehend texts in the form of a separated list of statements. The skill required to discriminate unreported statements from the others (true and false) was found to be of a higher level than and separable from the skills required to make the other discriminations. The relation between the students' reading comprehension skills and their problem-solving ability was also investigated. Students' scores on reading comprehension of texts that require a very low problem-solving ability were found to be uncorrelated to their grades on solving problems that require a very low decoding ability. This implies that the two abilities are independent.     

Erratum to: Curricular Influences on Female Afterschool Facilitators’ Computer Science Interests and Career Choices

Journal of Science Education and Technology -