Situating teachers’ developmental engineering experiences in an inquiry-based,laboratory learning environment

Many secondary math and science teachers don’t understand the nature and application of engineering adequately to transfer that understanding to their students. Research is needed that investigates and illuminates the process and characteristics of development that addresses this gap. This mixed-method study examines the developmental experiences of 16 public math and science teachers in a yearlong engineering experience. Teachers partnered with university engineering professor-mentors for six weeks on campus followed by ongoing support for transfer to their secondary classes (grades 9–12). Teachers gained engineering knowledge and skills, and an understanding of engineering’s diversity and interdisciplinary nature, plus integrative applied strategies for math and science instruction. They developed productive perceptions (of value, utility, benefits, feasibility and fit) of engineering for their grade 9–12 students, along with efficacy and intent to use what they had learned. Teachers identified positive, profound shifts in their perceptions of engineering and engineers. All teachers integrated engineering principles into their classrooms, but the process was more challenging for math teachers than for science teachers. This developmental experience may help bridge gaps of school-to-life and disciplinary boundaries that separate formal educational environments from authentic life experience.     

Value orientations and motivational interference in school-leisure conflict: The case of Vietnam

The experience of motivational interference during studying and leisure in a school-leisure conflict and its relationship to pupils' value orientations were investigated in a self-report study of Vietnamese pupils (N = 346, mean age = 15 years). The results were compared with a combined sample consisting of pupils from nine other countries (N = 2155). From a cross-cultural perspective, the mean values of the variables show that Vietnamese pupils differ with regard to their values and motivational interference from pupils in other countries. Within the Vietnamese sample, modern value orientation was positively related to decision for a studying activity in a school-leisure conflict and to experience of motivational interference during a leisure activity and negatively related to interference during studying. For post-modern value orientation, the relationships were mostly reversed. Despite differences between sample means, the consistency in the relationships between the variables across the samples indicates that the pattern of relationships can be generalized.     

Cognitive ability and personality variables as predictors of school grades and test scores in adolescents

The predictive power of cognitive ability and self-control strength for self-reported grades and an achievement test were studied. It was expected that the variables use of time structure, academic procrastination, and motivational interference during learning further aid in predicting students’ achievement because they are operative in situations of school-leisure conflict. A sample of 697 eighth-graders was tested twice within the interval of a single school year (about eight months). Cognitive ability and self-control explained substantial variance of grade changes. Procrastination displayed a further portion of the variance. Personality variables were better predictors of grades, while cognitive ability showed higher variance with the achievement test. Variables tapping aspects of self-control strength have been interpreted as key determinants of learning outcomes. The findings suggest that it might be useful to identify students who are at risk, allowing these students to train their ability to shield studying from leisure distractions.     

ELDERCARE IN THE 1990s: CHALLENGES AND SUPPORTS FOR EDUCATING FAMILIES

The purpose of this article is to summarize the recent literature on caregiving in order to identify viable ways to educate families to care for elderly relatives in the home environment. The demands and stresses currently associated with providing home care to older members are discussed, followed by an overview of support services that represent promising and workable approaches in enhancing families’ home‐caregiving capacities. With few exceptions, this paper is based on caregiving research published in the past five years.     

Tools of the Trade: UK Research Intermediaries and the Politics of Impacts

In recent years questions concerning the impact of public research funding have become the preeminent site at which struggles over the meanings and value of science are played out. In this paper we explore the ‘politics of impact’ in contemporary UK science and research policy and, in particular, detail the ways in which UK research councils have responded to and reframed recent calls for the quantitative measurement of research impacts. Operating as ‘boundary organisations’ research councils are embroiled in what might be characterised as the ‘politics of demarcation’ in which competing understandings of the cultural values of science are traded, exchanged and contested. In this paper we focus on the way the UK’s ‘Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’ (EPSRC) has responded to contemporary policy discourses concerning the impacts of public research expenditure. We argue that, in response to the shifting terms of contemporary science policy, the EPSRC has adopted three distinct strategies. Firstly, in collaboration with other research councils the EPSRC have emphasised the intellectual and metrological challenge presented by attempts to quantify the economic impact of public research expenditure, emphasising instead the cumulative impacts of a broad portfolio of ‘basic science’. Secondly, the EPSRC has sought to widen the discursive meaning of research impacts – specifically to include societal and policy impacts in addition to economic ones. Thirdly, the EPSRC has introduced a new framing into the ‘impact agenda’, preferring to talk about ‘pathways to impact’ rather than research impacts per se. In responding to government priority setting, we argue that the EPSRC has sought to exploit both the technical fragility of auditing techniques and the discursive ambiguity of notions of impact.     

Evolution?rer Test von Realzeitsystemen

Zusammenfassung.   Die Entwicklung von Realzeitsystemen ist eine wesentliche Aufgabe im industriellen Umfeld. Der dynamische Test ist die wichtigste analytische Qualit?tssicherungsmethode für Realzeitsysteme. Der dynamische Test ist das einzige Verfahren, mit dem das Laufzeitverhalten der Systeme in der tats?chlichen Einsatzumgebung überprüft werden kann. Bestehende Testmethoden konzentrieren sich weitgehend auf den Test des funktionalen Verhaltens von Systemen. Sie bieten keine besondere Unterstützung für den Test des zeitlichen Verhaltens. Für die Korrektheit von Realzeitsystemen sind jedoch beide Aspekte gleicherma?en wichtig. Folglich müssen die bestehenden Methoden um neue Ans?tze erg?nzt werden, die auf die Prüfung des zeitlichen Verhaltens spezialisiert sind. Ein Fehler im Zeitverhalten von Realzeit-Systemen liegt dann vor, wenn es zul?ssige Eingabesituationen gibt, für die das System nicht in der Lage ist, die spezifizierten zeitlichen Anforderungen zu erfüllen. In den meisten F?llen ist dies darauf zurückzuführen, da?das System eine Ausgabe zu früh macht oder da?die Berechnung einer Ausgabe zu lange dauert und diese daher zu sp?t erfolgt. Aufgabe des Testers ist es folglich, die Eingabesituationen mit den l?ngsten und kürzesten Ausführungszeiten zu finden, um zu überprüfen, ob die für das System spezifizierten Zeitschranken verletzt werden. Wird die Suche nach entsprechenden Eingabesituationen als Optimierungsproblem interpretiert, dann k?nnen evolution?re Algorithmen verwendet werden, um die Eingaben mit den l?ngsten und kürzesten Ausführungszeiten automatisch zu suchen. Die zu optimierende Zielfunktion entspricht hierbei den gemessenen Ausführungszeiten, die generierten Individuen repr?sentieren Testdaten. Die Verwendung evolution?rer Algorithmen für den Test nennen wir evolution?ren Test. Zum Vergleich des evolution?ren Tests mit anderen Testmethoden wurden in dieser Arbeit mehrere Experimente durchgeführt. In allen Experimenten erreicht der evolution?re Test l?ngere bzw. kürzere Ausführungszeiten als durch Zufallstests oder systematische Tests gefunden werden. Der evolution?re Test erscheint daher als gut geeignet für die Prüfung der zeitlichen Korrektheit von Realzeitsystemen. Die Kombination des evolution?ren Tests mit systematischen Tests kann die Testqualit?t weiter verbessern und wird in diesem Papier als Teststrategie für Realzeitsysteme empfohlen. Eingegangen am 14. Dezember 1999 / Angenommen am 30. Mai 2000     

INI-GraphicsNet

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Überzeugungen vom Englischlernen

Der Beitrag fragt, ob das Konzept der überzeugungen für die sprachen-bzw. englischdidaktische Forschung von Nutzen sein kann. Dazu wird zun?chst kurz die Diskussion der epistemologischen überzeugungen von Schülerinnen und Schülern in der dritten TIMS-Studie vorgestellt. Danach werden einige Ergebnisse aus der angloamerikanischen und deutschsprachigen Forschungsliteratur zu überzeugungen vom Sprachenlernen referiert. Am Beispiel eines empirischen Forschungsprojektes werden ansatzweise überzeugungen zweier Englischlehrender zum Grammatiklernen analysiert. Im Ergebnis vertritt der Autor die These, dass die Erforschung der überzeugungen von Lehrenden und Lernenden im Kontext von Schule ein notwendiges und deshalb zu intensivierendes, wenngleich nicht hinreichendes Element der Entwicklung von fremdsprachlichem Unterricht ist.