Students’ Research-Informed Socio-scientific Activism: Re/Visions for a Sustainable Future

In many educational contexts throughout the world, increasing focus has been placed on socio-scientific issues; that is, disagreements about potential personal, social and/or environmental problems associated with fields of science and technology. Some suggest (as do we) that many of these potential problems, such as those associated with climate change, are so serious that education needs to be oriented towards encouraging and enabling students to become citizen activists, ready and willing to take personal and social actions to reduce risks associated with the issues. Towards this outcome, teachers we studied encouraged and enabled students to direct open-ended primary (e.g., correlational studies), as well as secondary (e.g., internet searches), research as sources of motivation and direction for their activist projects. In this paper, we concluded, based on constant comparative analyses of qualitative data, that school students’ tendencies towards socio-political activism appeared to depend on myriad, possibly interacting, factors. We focused, though, on curriculum policy statements, school culture, teacher characteristics and student-generated research findings. Our conclusions may be useful to those promoting education for sustainability, generally, and, more specifically, to those encouraging activism on such issues informed by student-led research.     

Preparing the Next Generation of Educational Measurement Specialists: A Call for Programs With an Integrated Scope and Sequence

The field of educational measurement has evolved considerably since the first doctoral programs were established. In response, programs have typically tacked on courses that address newly developed theories, methods, tools, and techniques. As our review of current programs evidences, this approach produces artificial distinctions among topics and techniques that are in fact a tightly coupled whole. This position paper advocates a redesign of the scope and sequence for doctoral programs focused on the preparation of the next generations of educational measurement specialists; a redesign that reflects the full life‐cycle of instrument development and use.     

Elementary school teachers' beliefs about and perceptions of elementary school science,science reading,science textbooks,and supportive instructional factors

This article is a report of elementary school teachers' beliefs about and uses of text material in science. Survey results from 522 K-8 teachers from 299 schools in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were analyzed along three dimensions: teacher attitudes toward teaching of reading in science; teacher beliefs and understanding about models of reading, factors influencing science reading and reading skills; and teacher use of various teaching strategies. Results suggest that teachers do not see reading science as different from any other narrative material. And though most agreed to the importance of having students do activities to support and enhance the use of text material, responses suggest that covering topics is still a concern for most elementary teachers.     

Placement and frequency of powerless talk and impression formation

Study One examined the influence of initial use of hesitations and hedges on evaluations of witnesses and their persuasiveness in a budget hearing context. Results indicate that the negative attributions generated by the use of powerless language cannot be overcome by subsequent use of powerful talk. Study Two examined the relationship between the frequency of powerless language use and impression formation. For award/character and dynamism a perceptual threshold appeared to operate. The results of both studies suggest that auditors are very sensitive to the influence of powerless talk in formal settings.     

解决分布式需求的内在冲突

2006年8月,GEN(I网络创新的全球化环境)项目组公布其项目的设计原则。来自普林斯顿大学、麻省理工大学、华盛顿大学等学校的十二位专家编写了这份报告。该报告阐述了GENI的研究范围、用户的需求、需求的内在压力,以及工程设计的原则。报告指出了GENI的价值主张,广泛的部署、多样化可扩展的网络技术集合、对真实用户流量的支持仍是GENI关注的原则和方向。上期已经介绍第一部分——“分布式需求定义GENI的重心”,本期刊出第二部分——“解决分布式需求的内在冲突”。     

Learning Strategies Training

A learning strategies program emphasizing primary (text-oriented), and support (affective) strategies was evaluated. Participants were given training in one of two sequences: primary-support or support-primary. A no-treatment group served as a control. In general, the results revealed that strategy training significantly improved performance on both text-processing and self-report measures. The primary-support group typically scored higher than the support-primary group on the text-processing measures. Conversely, the support-primary group reported more positive responses on the self-report measures. Long-term follow-up results are also presented.