A Report on the Hoshingabad Science Teaching Program in India

The Hoshingabad Science Teaching Program has been a grassroots curriculum reform effort to contextualize science instruction in the locality of the Hoshingabad district, Madhya Pradesh, India. This report examines the discrepancies between multiple curriculum representations within the context of this science curriculum innovation. The paper concludes that local interpretations of the nature of science have in fact been an impediment to what seemed to be a valid, locally relevant science instruction.     

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING OF THAI COLLEGE STUDENTS,GOAL ORIENTATIONS,AND GENDER

This paper examined the direct and interaction effects of students’ learning and performance‐avoidance goal orientations on their psychological wellbeing and a moderating role of students’ gender in these relationships. Using 564 self‐reports of freshman college students in a Thai university, we found students’ psychological wellbeing to be positively related to their learning goal orientation and negatively related to their performance‐avoidance goal orientation. Additionally, the negative relationship between students’ performance‐avoidance goal orientation and psychological wellbeing was stronger for men than women. Lastly, differences in students’ psychological wellbeing between men and women became more pronounced with increases in learning goal orientation for students with low levels of performance‐avoidance goal orientation, but not for students with high levels of performance‐avoidance goal orientation. These findings were obtained after controlling for students’ grade point average and academic program.     

Relationship between perceptions of classroom climate and institutional goal structures and student motivation,engagement and intention to persist in college

Disengagement and a lack of motivation have been found to be the major reasons for student drop out from higher education. In order to broaden our understanding of institutional and personal factors associated with intention to complete a college degree, this investigation examined the relationship between students’ perceptions of classroom climate and institutional goal structures and their motivational orientation, engagement and intention to persist in college. Data was collected from first-year students (N = 1778) enrolled in an institution of higher education near Bangkok, Thailand. The results indicate that perceptions of classroom climate and institutional goal structures have significant associations with students’ motivational orientations and levels of engagement and contribute to intention to persist in college.