Ameliorating gender differences in attitudes about science: A cross-national study

The outcomes of two studies reported here indicate that the teacher inservice workshops, combined with activity-based science lessons, affected students' attitudes and perceptions about electricity. Australian and U.S. studies produced different patterns explored and explained in the paper.This material is based upon research supported by the National Science Foundation under grant MDR-88-50570 in the United States and supported by a grant from the Special Projects Program of the Commonwealth Schools Commission in the Education of GirlsDD section of Projects of National Significance in Australia. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the Commonwealth Schools Commission.     

Globalisation and citizenship education: diversity in South Korean civics textbooks

This study examines how textbooks in the Republic of Korea incorporate liberal, Western notions of diversity and multiculturalism. Through a systematic analysis of 60 civics textbooks over time, this study shows that ideas of multiculturalism and diversity have dramatically increased in the South Korean intended curriculum. While in the past, textbooks depicted South Korean society as racially and ethnically homogenous with little or no mention of disadvantaged groups or ethnic minorities, starting in the 1990s, textbooks increasingly discuss the rights of diverse groups and the need to empower these groups to address problems of social inequality. Yet, traditional citizenship narratives of national homogeneity still remain, especially in textbooks that discuss prospects for the reunification of the Korean peninsula.     

A Social Support Intervention and Academic Achievement in College: Does Perceived Loneliness Mediate the Relationship?

The authors examined whether a social support intervention reduced loneliness and increased academic achievement among college freshmen. Eighty‐eight 1st‐year students randomly assigned to a social support group program reported less loneliness in the spring of their freshman year and obtained higher grade point averages in the fall of their sophomore year, compared with control participants, after controlling for demographic variables. Loneliness barely mediated the relationship between the social support intervention and academic achievement, suggesting other mechanisms by which the intervention enhanced academic performance.     

Teachers’ beliefs about the impact of games on the academic and social experiences of diverse and at-risk children in schools: a Deleuzian perspective

This paper explores teachers’ beliefs about the ways in which the use of digital games in schooling contexts impacted upon students who they believed to be in some way at risk of educational or social alienation or failure. Drawing upon the theoretical resources provided by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, the paper explores opportunities games-based learning created for students who had previously been positioned in narrow, limiting, or marginalized relationships to academic achievement or social acceptance. In describing teachers’ beliefs about the various lines of flight that games-based learning was able to spark, the paper argues the importance of continuing to explore how at-risk learners might benefit from particular uses of games in schools.     

Who Am I Online? Examining Voluntary Use as Symbolic-Collective Action

This article reports on a test of an integrated voluntary information technology use model that draws on social identity theory to extend the functional utility model of the user. User feedback on a health care insurance firm's electronic service in South Africa was analyzed qualitatively using pattern matching to test the model's propositions. While functional utility was found to be a significant determinant of voluntary information technology use, both functional utility and symbolic needs were significant for some user segments. Information technology research can benefit from further cross-fertilization with social identity theory to explain use patterns in different voluntary contexts. Providers seeking to move beyond functional utility should consider the symbolic needs of strategically important user segments to strengthen long-term relationships.     

Identity in science learning: exploring the attention given to agency and structure in studies of identity

This paper explores the ways in which the concept of identity has been conceptualised and studied within science education. The Personality and Social Structure Perspective is used to examine the attention paid by researchers to three levels of identity analysis: personality, interaction and social structure. Tracing the development of science identity studies and the resulting body of literature reveals that most authors have focused their attention on aspects of identity related to individual agency to the exclusion of issues of social structure. This paper argues that this attention is related to the position of communities of practice as the dominant theoretical framework for identity studies and argues that researchers need to consider broader frameworks that encourage the integration of ideas at all three levels of analysis. Broadened methodological approaches, including mixed methods, are also advocated as a way to increase consideration of the level of social structure.     

Explainers' perceptions of visitors' learning at an Interactive Science and Technology Centre

This paper reports part of a larger study into the learning of the general public during visits to an interactive science centre. Much previous research on visitors' learning has focused on students, whereas the explainers, who have most interaction with visitors, have rarely been used as a data source. Reported here are the views of a representative sample of explainers from a science centre. Data were collected through interviews and conclusions scrutinised by a wider group of explainers. The findings suggest that explainers believe that first, visitors have fun at the centre; second, learning is not the main purpose of the visit; third, their own role is to facilitate understanding of the exhibits, not to teach; fourth, learning occurs when visitors relate experiences at the centre to experiences in the outside world; fifth, analogies facilitate understanding; and sixth, incidental learning, unrelated to the intention of an exhibit, often occurs. Specializations: interactive science and technology centres. Specializations: gender issues and assessment in science and technology education.     

Robust hope,democracy and early childhood education

This paper discusses a recent Australian study of boys' education using case studies to determine successful practices. It focuses on an early childhood site where access to ‘discourses of power’ for students and parents and a valuing of students' ‘action knowledge’ created a particular democratic culture achieving improved outcomes for boys. The data are drawn from focus groups with families, interviews with educators, conversations with children and on‐site observations over two days. The findings are discussed in terms of those factors deriving from Henry Giroux's work on democracy and hope. In addition, we build on the work of Giroux by discussing the site as an exemplar of what we have come to call ‘robust hope’.