An implementation study: An analysis of elementary students' and teachers' attitudes toward science in process-approach vs. traditional science classes

In 1983, the Richardson Independent School District conducted an internal audit to assess the status of science education. The audit was in anticipation of Texas Administrative Code Chapter 75 which requires an inquiry-oriented, process-approach to the teaching of science. In response to the data, and to national reports advocating a broadening of the science education curriculum to address the needs of all students, the district established a committee to implement and evaluate their new K-6 SCIENCE THROUGH DISCOVERY curriculum. The Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIIS) was adopted as the focal component of the overall curriculum with subsequent, planned innovations to occur in accordance with the Concerns-Based Adoption Model. The purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes toward science of students who had completed one year of SCIIS compared to students in non-SCIIS classes. In addition, the attitudes of teachers who received inservice education and who had instructed SCIIS were compared to non-SCIIS teachers. While SCIIS and non-SCIIS teachers possess similar perceptions of science, drastic attitudinal differences were observed between SCIIS and non-SCIIS students. The results indicate that the nature of the curriculum, in conjunction with the necessary implementation support including inservice education, greatly enhances students perceptions of science.     

Double-edged sword: social media use in the classroom

The purpose of this research is to identify the students’ perceptions of social media use in a classroom setting. Knowing students’ perceptions of social media can help the instructor build a course that both student and teacher can find effective. Using focus groups this study found a model to determine if social media is an appropriate or inappropriate tool to incorporate into the classroom. The findings showed that social media can be a double-edged sword. Students are willing to accept social media use for class purposes under circumstances they perceive as appropriate. Students deem social media use as appropriate if it can be used without providing personal information, is the most effective tool available, can be engaged in voluntarily, is used for the purpose of announcements, and is perceived by the students as a convenience.     

Collective memory and sacred space in post-genocide Rwanda: Reconciliation and rehumanization processes in Mureithi’s ICYIZERE

ABSTRACT

We assess Mureithi's 2009 documentary, ICYIZERE: hope (Motion Picture, Josiah Films), as a document of representational space and collective memory. We argue that the post-genocide reconciliation workshop represented in the film embodies and constructs a sacred/secular space. The reconciliatory space is produced through (1) negotiations of dialectical tensions between past/present as well as individual/collective memory, and (2) (re)presentations of rehumanization within the workshop whereby participants (and audiences) can (re)interpret the Other. We analyze the rehumanization process in the documentary via identity widening theory (Ellis, D.G., 2006, Transforming conflict: Communication and ethnopolitical conflict. Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) and empathetic human interaction. Finally, we detail how the documentary situates participants within a transformative space of negotiated memories of the genocide with current day reconciliation efforts.     

Mentors and Muses: New Strategies for Academic Success

Mentoring programs in higher education institutions have met with mixed success. In response to the limitations inherent in the dominant approaches to mentoring, we present an example of a unusual mentoring program, the New Scholars Network (NSN). The NSN is a variant of traditional mentoring approaches, having evolved from mentoring into musing. Framed within a radical humanist philosophy, musing is a process of creating peer communities that facilitates connections between naturally developing relationships, shared power, and collective action. Through mentoring as musing new faculty have the potential to evolve as change agents in the institution, instead of assimilating into the existing system.     

The Road from Rio to Johannesburg: Where Are the Footpaths to/from Science Education?

When the United Nations General Assembly authorized holding the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, it was hardly a secret – or even a point in dispute – that progress in implementing sustainable development had been disappointing since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. With poverty deepening and environmental degradation worsening, what was necessary, the General Assembly said, was not a new philosophical or political debate, but rather a summit of actions and results (United Nations, 2002). We can question the WSSD accomplishments and whether the subsequent actions and results will contribute in meaningful ways to sustainable development. However, I think it is more important for science educators to ask: What are the implications of WSSD for science education? Why is science education not more intrinsically linked to the goals of human rights, democracy, and social justice? What are the ways in which science education ought to be connected to issues of sustainable development? In essence, where are the footpaths to/from science education? I investigate such questions in this position paper, while arguing that an education in science ought to enable learners to: (a) understand how the natural world works, (b) understand how human systems are interacting with natural systems, (c) assess the status and trends of crucial natural systems, and (d) promote and follow a long-term, sustainable relationship with the natural world. These are the very ways in which an education in science (i.e., science education) ought to be connected to issues of sustainable development.     

Using person response functions to investigate areas of person misfit related to item characteristics

Individual person fit analyses provide important information regarding the validity of test score inferences for an individual test taker. In this study, we use data from an undergraduate statistics test (N = 1135) to illustrate a two-step method that researchers and practitioners can use to examine individual person fit. First, person fit is examined numerically with several indices based on the Rasch model (i.e., Infit, Outfit, and Between-Subset statistics). Second, person misfit is presented graphically with person response functions, and these person response functions are interpreted using a heuristic. Individual person fit analysis holds promise for improving score interpretation in that it may detect potential threats to validity of score inferences for some test takers. Individual person fit analysis may also highlight particular subsets of items (on which a test taker performs unexpectedly) that can be used to further contextualize her or his test performance.     

Student privacy in learning analytics: An information ethics perspective

ABSTRACT

Higher education institutions have started using big data analytics tools. By gathering information about students as they navigate information systems, learning analytics employs techniques to understand student behaviors and to improve instructional, curricular, and support resources and learning environments. However, learning analytics presents important moral and policy issues surrounding student privacy. We argue that there are five crucial questions about student privacy that we must address in order to ensure that whatever the laudable goals and gains of learning analytics, they are commensurate with respecting students' privacy and associated rights, including (but not limited to) autonomy interests. We address information access concerns, the intrusive nature of information-gathering practices, whether or not learning analytics is justified given the potential distribution of consequences and benefits, and issues related to student autonomy. Finally, we question whether learning analytics advances the aims of higher education or runs counter to those goals.     

Do baseball pitchers improve mechanics after biomechanical evaluations?

The purpose of this study was to determine how often flaws in pitching mechanics identified from biomechanical analysis are corrected. The biomechanics of 46 baseball pitchers were evaluated twice, with an average of 12 months (range 2–48 months) between evaluations. Pitchers were healthy at the time of both evaluations, competing at the high school, college, minor league or Major League level. After warming up, each participant pitched 10 full-effort fastballs. Automated three-dimensional motion analysis was used to compute eight kinematic parameters which were compared with a database of elite professional pitchers. Flaws—defined as deviations from the elite range—were explained to each participant or coach after his initial evaluation. Data from the second evaluation revealed that 44% of all flaws had been corrected. Flaws at the instant of foot contact (stride length, front foot position, shoulder external rotation, shoulder abduction, elbow flexion) or slightly after foot contact (time between pelvis rotation and upper trunk rotation) seemed to be corrected more often than flaws near the time of ball release (knee extension and shoulder abduction). Future research may determine which level athletes or which training methods are most effective for correcting flaws.