Using Computer Simulations for Promoting Model-based Reasoning

Scientific reasoning is particularly pertinent to science education since it is closely related to the content and methodologies of science and contributes to scientific literacy. Much of the research in science education investigates the appropriate framework and teaching methods and tools needed to promote students’ ability to reason and evaluate in a scientific way. This paper aims (a) to contribute to an extended understanding of the nature and pedagogical importance of model-based reasoning and (b) to exemplify how using computer simulations can support students’ model-based reasoning. We provide first a background for both scientific reasoning and computer simulations, based on the relevant philosophical views and the related educational discussion. This background suggests that the model-based framework provides an epistemologically valid and pedagogically appropriate basis for teaching scientific reasoning and for helping students develop sounder reasoning and decision-taking abilities and explains how using computer simulations can foster these abilities. We then provide some examples illustrating the use of computer simulations to support model-based reasoning and evaluation activities in the classroom. The examples reflect the procedure and criteria for evaluating models in science and demonstrate the educational advantages of their application in classroom reasoning activities.     

Emotional intelligence profiles and learning strategies in secondary school students

The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship among emotional intelligence (EI) and learning strategies, identifying different emotional intelligence profiles and determining possible statistically significant differences in learning strategies through the identified profiles. Thousand and seventy one Spaniards secondary school students aged 14–17 participated in the study, completing the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24) and the Cuestionario de Estrategias de Aprendizaje [Learning Strategies Questionnaire] (LSQ). Cluster analysis identified four differentiated EI profiles: a group of adolescents with a low EI profile, a group with high scores in attention and low scores in repair, a high EI profile group, and a group of adolescents with predominance of low attention and high repair. The results also revealed statistically significant differences among the profiles in most of the learning strategies, in which students with high general EI and those with predominance of low attention and high repair use more learning strategies than the other groups, suggesting the importance of developing programmes of emotional skills to study in greater depth EI and its influence on students’ learning strategies.     

Implementing Gender Equity Policies in a University Sport Organization: Competing Discourses from Enthusiasm to Resistance

Gender policies in sports have expanded considerably in most countries in recent decades. Nevertheless, the implementation of these policies in sports organizations is by no means an automatic process. This article explores what happens when gender equity policies are applied in an university sports organization. Participatory action research over a four-year period was developed by the authors to increase the participation of women, and it also aimed to explore the perceptions and thoughts of key actors regarding equity actions. The analysis shows the participation numbers in the specific promotional campaign and reveals a wide range of responses among staff, ranging from enthusiasm and interest to resistance and fear. Gender equity actions often encounter resistance which cannot, and should not, be ignored. This article highlights certain forms of resistance that proposals of this kind should be prepared for.     

Neuropsychological treatment of dyslexia: does type of treatment matter?

In this study, 123 children with a diagnosis of developmental dyslexia were assigned to different treatment groups, either variations of Bakker's intervention program based on the balance model or a control, a specific reading training group. Thorough cognitive and neuropsychological assessment allowed determination of the subtype of dyslexia according to the balance model and the neuropsychological profile with respect to reading and spelling abilities, verbal memory, and phonemic awareness. Characteristics of hemisphere-specific stimulation were systematically manipulated in an effort to shed light on the bases and mechanisms of reading improvement. It was shown that the effects of treatment vary according to type of dyslexia and that the different intervention programs have differential effects on reading-related neuropsychological functions. Since opposite effects can be produced by the same type of treatment in different dyslexia subtypes, the results of the study suggest that accurate classification of subtype on the base of reading and reading-related variables is advantageous for an optimal planning of the therapy.     

Teachers' Pedagogical Competence as a Prerequisite for Entering the Profession

Since 1980, the recruitment of teachers in many countries has followed a systematic certification procedure, i.e. a selection procedure according to criteria set by the State which are considered the minimum qualification for entrance into the profession. The term used in the last few years to define the desired level of qualification of teachers is competence. The purpose of this article is two-fold: a) to review the relevant literature and research in order to record those qualifications that ensure teachers' pedagogical competence at international level, and b) to present the Greek case — a State that evaluates teachers' pedagogical competence before they become a part of the teaching profession — in order to reveal the strengths and limitations of this evaluation process. In brief, assessing teachers' pedagogical competence is a difficult and complex procedure, as competence is ensured through the acquisition of multiple — in terms of amplitude and content — qualifications. Assessing the acquisition of these qualifications is based, to a great extent, on the procedures followed and the practices of evaluation adopted. Given that contemporary research has triggered a relevant discussion in a context of pedagogical knowledge that secures pedagogical competence, assessing the acquisition of this knowledge is, to a certain degree, possible. The evaluation of pedagogical and teaching skills and opinions is more difficult, and the monitoring of viewpoints, attitudes and beliefs, as well as capabilities, is even more difficult.     

Distance Learning for Teacher Professional Development in Statistics Education

We provide an overview of EarlyStatistics, an online professional development course in statistics education targeting European elementary and middle school teachers. The course facilitates intercultural collaboration of teachers using contemporary technological and educational tools. An online information base offers access to all of the course content and resources.     

Informal formative assessment: The role of instructional dialogues in assessing students’ learning

This paper focuses on an unceremonious type of formative assessment - informal formative assessment - in which much of what teachers and students do in the classroom can be described as potential assessments that can provide evidence about the students’ level of understanding. More specifically, the paper focuses on assessment conversations, or dialogic interactions or exchanges, which continuously happen in the classroom and that are at the center of informal formative assessment. It is argued that assessment conversations make students’ thinking explicit in an unobtrusive manner, and when students’ thinking is explicit, it can be examined, questioned, and shaped as an active object of constructive learning. The paper conceptualizes informal formative assessment at the center of effective instructional activities with the use of instructional dialogues as assessment conversations, a typical informal formative assessment practice. The paper then presents a discussion about the evidence on the effect of assessment conversations on student learning.     

What a difference a day makes: Estimating daily learning gains during kindergarten and first grade using a natural experiment

Knowing whether time spent in formal schooling increases student achievement, and by how much, is important for policymakers interested in determining efficient use of resources. Using the ECLS-K, we exploit quasi-randomness in the timing of assessment dates to examine this question. Conservative estimates suggest a year of school results in gains of about one standard deviation above normal developmental gains in both reading and math test scores. The results are statistically significant and extremely robust to specification choice, supporting quasi-randomness of test dates. Estimates of skill accumulation due to formal schooling do not vary based on socioeconomic characteristics.     

Overeducation in developing economies: How can we test for it, and what does it mean?

A worker is said to be overeducated if he/she has acquired more education than is required to perform his/her job. In the absence of data measuring the number of years of schooling required to perform particular jobs, we propose a new approach to testing for overeducation. Overeducation is confirmed if we observe that education levels rose in jobs that offer very low returns to education and that underwent little technological change. Using labor force surveys from four developing countries, we find evidence of overeducation in unskilled jobs in the Philippines, mild evidence in Mexico, and little evidence in India and Thailand. We show that a job's mean and modal years of schooling are poor proxies for required education. We also show that overeducation sometimes increases within unskilled jobs, even while a growing share of educated workers enter skilled jobs. This may be because the quality of education segments the labor market.