An Improved Questionnaire for Gathering Student Perceptions of Teaching and Learning

An instrument used to gather university students' perceptions of their learning environments, the Perceptions of Learning Environments Questionnaire (PLEQ) has been used recently in higher education research. The current paper examines the strengths and limitations of the PLEQ, particularly in relation to uncovering student perceptions about responsibility for their own learning. A study trialling a modified questionnaire, which builds on the advances and addresses the limitations of the PLEQ, is reported.     

Publication Rates of Molecular Versus Non-Molecular Biologists: A Case Study of Seven Primarily Undergraduate Institutions

At many primarily undergraduate institutions, biology faculty members mentor student research collaborators. If publication is required for tenure and promotion, this research is expected to result in periodic publications; and publication rates are a common metric used to assess faculty productivity. However, we have uncovered a highly significant difference in the time required to publish articles based on biological sub-discipline. It takes, on average, twice as long for molecular biologists to publish articles than scholars from other sub-disciplines in biology. We believe that this analysis can be used to assess whether this phenomenon generalizes to other disciplines and/or other categories of institutions.     

Executive function: association with multiple reading skills

Reading and Writing - Executive function (EF) is related to reading. However, there is a lack of clarity around (a) the relative contribution of different components of EF to different reading...     

WISE Inquiry in Fifth Grade Biology

This paper reports on a two year study designed to investigate how a Web-Based Integrated Science Environment (WISE) project called Plants in Space featuring classroom investigations can enable fifth grade students to increase their understanding of plant growth and development. A multidisciplinary partnership consisting of teachers, scientists, science education researchers, and technology specialists developed this project, tested it in fifth grade, modified it based on the data collected in year one and tested it again. We investigate these two versions of the curriculum and consider how understanding of the material improved with the revised curriculum.Participants were fifth grade students and a fifth grade teacher who was a co-developer of the curriculum and participated in the re-design process at an urban elementary school. An identical pre- and a post-subject matter assessment was administered to all students each year. Interviews and students' in-class work helped clarify the results. Overall, students made significant gains in understanding standards-based science concepts including photosynthesis.     

Prescient … and Not Always Accounted For: The Wisdom and Foresight of George A. Roeper

When George A. Roeper enlisted the aid of Dr. A. Harry Passow and other leaders in the field to help George convert his Michigan independent school to focus on gifted children in 1956, there was only one other elementary school in the country at the time devoted exclusively to gifted child education. Though his wife and school cofounder, Annemarie, later became quite well known in the field, George also wrote and spoke extensively about gifted children and their education. Those writings and speeches were rarely published but have been preserved in The Roeper School Archives. In this first in-depth examination, George’s writings display insight and prescience about the challenges and rewards of educating gifted children, touching on problems that still preoccupy the field, such as inclusive identification and motivation, all rooted in his humanistic point of view.     

Influences on students' internal locus of attribution for academic success in the first year of college

This study sought to determine the extent to which students' development of internal locus of attribution for academic success during the first year of college was influenced by institutional characteristics, students' academic experiences, and their social/nonacademic experiences. The sample was 2,392 first-year students attending 23 diverse two- and four-year institutions Iocated in 16 states throughout the country. Controlling for precollege internal attribution, academic ability, and other potentially confounding influences, a number of variables had significant, net, positive associations with end-of-first-year internal attribution. These included attending a two-year (versus a four-year) college, level of exposure to postsecondary education, work responsibilities, the extent of course organization, instructional clarity, and instructor support in the teaching received, and participation in intercollegiate athletics. Additional analyses indicated that many of the associations with internal attribution were conditional rather than general, differing in magnitude for different kinds of students.