Categories in conflict: Combating the application of an intuitive conception of inheritance with category construction

The idea that characteristics acquired by an organism during its lifetime can be inherited by offspring and result in evolution is a substantial impediment to student understanding of evolution. In the current study, we performed a preliminary examination of how acquiring physical changes in a question prompt may differentially cue intuitive and scientific justifications of inheritance and evolution and how this varies based on how student learned the concept. Middle school students in a suburban northeastern district (N = 314) either learned about evolutionary change with a category construction task (with different levels of feedback support) or completed a worksheet. Three days later students responded to two free response scenarios (one where a physical change is acquired). Responses were coded based on student justifications for either science accuracy or intuitive nature. Specific reasons were coded by justification type with high inter-rater agreement (k > 0.93). Results showed that students were more likely to apply intuitive reasoning when a physical change was acquired (50%) than if the change was behavioral in nature (16%). Additionally, students who completed the category construction task provided significantly more scientifically accurate justifications about inheritance (M = 1.12) than control students (M = 0.47), and significantly less intuitive justifications (M = 0.67) than control (M = 1.13). Finally, category construction produced the most scientific reasoning when feedback was provided. Taken together, these results suggest that intuitive reasoning is differentially applied based on physical organismal changes, intuitive reasoning is less frequent when learning via category construction, and the category construction task is more effective for this population with the inclusion of feedback.     

The (Dis)inclusion of Latina/o Interests from Utah’s Dual Language Education Boom

Utah’s state planned model of dual language education has grown and spread rapidly. Drawing on critical race theory and LatCrit, we examined state policy documents and promotional materials for their discursive portrayal of Latinas/os. Our analysis revealed a pattern of centering the interests of the White, English-dominant majority and those without an ethnic connection to the target language, while marginalizing or silencing Latina/o interests. Implications for dual language education stakeholders are discussed.     

Before,after, in and beyond teacher education

The author uses a trip to a Holocaust museum to explain and illustrate psychoanalytic concepts from Freud to Lacan in order to re-imagine persistent dilemmas in teacher education. The author suggests that psychoanalytic vocabularies provide an additional and productive lens to conceptualize productive possibilities in teacher education.     

The Stability of School Effectiveness Indices Across Grade Levels and Subject Areas

School effectiveness indices (SEIs) based on regressing achievement test performance onto earlier test performance and a socioeconomic status (SES) measure were obtained for eight subject–grade level combinations for a large sample of elementary schools. School means based on longitudinally matched student scores comprised the data set used in the analysis. The resulting SEIs were found to be somewhat unstable across subject areas (reading and mathematics) and very unstable across grade levels (1 through 4). Grade-to-grade correlations of the SEIs measuring mathematics performance, although small, tended to be statistically significant, whereas those measuring reading performance were generally nonsignificant. Thus, school effects may be more readily discernible in some subject areas than in others. Implications for research on effective schools and for the design of school recognition programs based on student test performance are discussed.     

Personalizing college mathematics with technology

Abstract

This study investigated personalization as an innovation that can be used to impact college mathematics achievement. In the reported study, similar tasks using personalized data and teacher-selected data were implemented in courses in both 4-year and 2-year colleges. Pre- and posttests and student work were analyzed to examine the impact of personalization on student understanding. Our findings provide insight into how the use of the technology can influence students’ thinking and ability to connect with and use personally authentic data.     

The Social Construction of the ‘At‐risk’ Child

The ‘at‐risk’ child has become a topic of increasing concern to American educators. It has been estimated that fully one‐third of all school‐age children are currently at risk for academic failure, and a recent report on pre‐school‐age children suggests that all are at risk to some degree. This article explores contemporary constructions and constructions over time in an effort to deconstruct the notion of the ‘at‐risk’ child and to examine how meaning is produced and to what end. The theoretical and historical material provide a framework in which data from a statewide survey of school administrators, regarding their preferences for pre‐kindergarten programs, are interpreted.     

Process Versus Content: Integrating Personal Awareness and Counseling Skills to Meet the Multicultural Challenge of the Twenty‐First Century

The authors describe a study in which there was a strong relationship between personal awareness and multicultural counseling skills during group supervision. The authors suggest that during supervision, supervisors should help counselors‐in‐training to attain wisdom, as defined by F. J. Hanna, F. Bemak, and R. C. Chung (1999). This should be done by promoting personal awareness and may result in improvement in both multicultural and general counseling skills.