Zooming in Time—Exploring Students’ Interpretations of a Dynamic Tree of Life

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Central to evolution is the concept of a common ancestry from which all life has emerged over immense time scales, but learning and teaching temporal...     

The links between pedagogical competence,instructional quality,and mathematics achievement in the lower secondary classroom

Educational Studies in Mathematics - It is widely assumed that teachers play a key role in providing high-quality learning opportunities to students and fostering students’ learning. Yet it...     

Our stories matter: storytelling and social justice in the Hollaback! movement

ABSTRACT

As feminist and anti-racist scholars and activists have long known, which stories predominate and which are marginalised is always a question of power and authority – about who is entitled to speak, and who has the authority to decide the meanings of words and actions. Storytelling can be used as a tool for social justice, as exemplified by the international feminist movement Hollaback! and its regional and worldwide struggle to end street harassment and make public spaces accessible for everyone. This article examines the practice of sharing stories within one specific Hollaback! group, highlighting the timeliness of the online storytelling technologies promoted by the movement and considering this work as an example of extra-academic feminist education. The article concludes by questioning to what extent feminists manage to formulate their own localised struggles through storytelling within the feminist movement as a whole.     

Effects of a prenatal care intervention on the self-concept and self-efficacy of adolescent mothers

The objective of this study was to examine changes in self-concept and self-efficacy during the childbearing year among adolescent mothers (defined as young mothers up to age 20) who were involved in a behavioral intervention. Subjects included a sample of 282 urban, pregnant adolescents (94% African American, 4% white, 2% other). The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) was used to measure self-concept. A scale to measure the self-efficacy of the adolescent mother during the childbearing year was developed and evaluated. Questionnaires were administered during intake for prenatal care and in the postpartum period. In the larger study, the intervention was a peer-centered, mastery modeling intervention designed to increase self-efficacy, improve self-concept, and improve long- and short-term perinatal outcomes. The results in this portion of the data showed that self-concept increased significantly for young women in the experimental group but did not change significantly for young women in the control group. Changes were noted in the TSCS for overall self-concept as well as for several subscores, including identity, self-satisfaction, behavior, the personal self, the family self, and the social self. However, differences between groups did not reach significance once age, parity, site, and time were accounted for, except on TSCS subscales of identity and personal self. Between intake for prenatal care and postpartum, self-efficacy changed significantly for both the experimental and the control groups. Both groups increased in self-efficacy for labor and delivery and decreased in self-efficacy for infant care. In this group of mostly African American teens, peer support and small group care demonstrated positive effects on self-concept. Professional and peer interactions were equally associated in intervention and nonintervention groups with regard to self-efficacy.     

Barriers to environmental education: How do teachers’ perceptions in rural Ecuador fit into a global analysis?

Abstract

We identified 48 barriers to teaching environmental education reported by teachers in global literature and compared frequency to empirical data we collected from rural Ecuador, part of an understudied region and continent. We utilized Q methodology and interviews with 25 (78%) teachers at 6 schools to identify and categorize barriers. Perceptions of barriers ranked by Ecuadorian teachers were statistically classified into three factors: logistical (associated with fieldtrips, time, and money); training and lack of government support; and attitudinal (associated with student disinterest). In contrast, barriers related to student testing and controversial topics were only reported in more developed countries. Results enable region-specific recommendations.     

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Vocabulary IQ: Parental Education Level as Moderator

This article examines how parental education level moderates the genetic and environmental contributions to variation in verbal IQ. Data are from 1909 non-Hispanic Whites and African American sibling pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which obtained nationally-based samples of identical (MZ) twins, fraternal (DZ) twins, full and half siblings, cousins (in the same household), and biologically unrelated siblings. In the whole sample, the variance estimate for heritability (h2 = .57, SE = .08) was greater than that for shared environment (c2 = .13, SE = .04). Both heritability and the shared environmental estimate were moderated, however, by level of parental education. Specifically, among more highly educated families, the average h2 = .74 (SE = .10) and the average c2 = .00 (SE = .05). Conversely, among less well-educated families, heritability decreased and shared environmental influences increased, yielding similar proportions of variance explained by genetic and environmental factors, average h2 = .26 (SE = .15), and average c2 = .23 (SE = .07).     

International orientierte höhere Schulen in Deutschland – Zwei Varianten von Internationalität im Wechselspiel von Institution und Schülerbiografie

During the last decades, the education system has been marked by distinct processes of internationalisation. In the field of higher education, there are numerous and varied schools with different international profiles. This paper focuses on processes of internationalisation in the German sector of higher education. We contrast two higher secondary schools with international profiles: one international school in a West German metropolitan region with a long tradition and a younger internationally-profiled school located in the periphery of an East German urban centre. This institutional analysis presents school cultural similarities and differences with regard to different claims and concepts of internationality. This analysis is complemented by a reconstruction of three patterns of biographical meaning examining the internationality of pupils and their respective habitual fit to these internationally-profiled schools. We draw on qualitative data, consisting mainly of interviews with head teachers and pupils of these two schools. We argue that these differing regional forms of internationalisation indicate a stratification and hierarchisation in the field of higher education in Germany.