Impact of sustained professional development in STEM on outcome measures in a diverse urban district

Sustained professional development can support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reform. The authors describe a 3-year study of sustained professional development for 3 diverse urban schools across the salient factors of fidelity of implementation of project-based learning, development of professional learning communities, and student achievement. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The students who experienced the greatest fidelity of implementation exhibited the greatest gains (d = 1.41–2.03) on standardized test scores, while those with the lowest fidelity of implementation exhibited negative gains (d = –0.16 to –0.08). Qualitative data indicated teachers perceived there were multiple benefits from the implementation of project-based learning.     

The origins and aims of Epistemics

This is the first of two articles describing the nature and historical development of the author's work on Epistemics. The author originally conceived Epistemics as the science of the structure and transmission of human knowledge, but this conception was later elaborated to enable separate emphasis to be given to the human and instrumental aspects of knowledge transmission. Part I of the paper relates the concerns of Epistemics to Instructional Science. Part II of the paper relates Epistemics to insight deriving from the Brain Sciences.     

Effects of personality traits and social status on academic achievement: Gender differences

This study investigates the contribution of personality traits (HEXACO traits and Schizotypy) and social status dimensions (sociometric and perceived popularity) in understanding boys’ and girls’ respective academic achievement. The sample included 163 elementary school students from Serbia, aged 14–15 (87 girls and 76 boys). Regression analysis reveals that personality traits explain a similar amount of academic achievement variance in two gender groups (22% vs. 20% in girls’ favor), but social status proves to be a better predictor of academic achievement for boys (27% vs. 4% in boys’ favor). High Conscientiousness, perceived popularity as well as low extraversion turned out to be related to girls’ academic achievement. Low Schizotypy and Honesty‐Humility, as well as high openness, sociometric, and perceived popularity turned out to be related to boys’ academic achievement. Conscientiousness appears not to be related to boys’ academic achievement. The results are discussed and recommendations for improving educational practices are offered.     

Early Relationship Quality From Home to School: A Longitudinal Study

The aim of this investigation was to examine the role of social relationships in the home as predictors of social functioning in the first years of school. Longitudinal data gathered on 156 children from urban, low-income families were used to examine the unique contributions of mother-child attachment classification at ages 1 and 2 years, the child's relationship with another adult caregiver, the child's closeness to a sibling, and the child's status in the family relative to siblings between ages 3 and 4 years, to teacher reports of their own relationship to the child and the child's social skills in the classroom and peer relations. The role of family-based relationships as possible protective factors for children at social or demographic risk for problems in school was also tested. Results indicate that quality of different family relationships provides relatively independent and complementary information about early social functioning in school, with more limited evidence for compensatory or protective processes at work.     

Search on surfaces: Exploring the potential of interactive tabletops for collaborative search tasks

Collaborative information seeking often takes place in co-located settings; such opportunities may be planned (business colleagues meeting in a conference room or students working together in a library) or spontaneous (family members gathered in their living room or friends meeting at a café). Surface computing technologies (i.e., interactive tabletops) hold great potential for enhancing collaborative information seeking activities. Such devices provide engaging direct manipulation interactions, facilitate awareness of collaborators’ activities, and afford spatial organization of content. However, current tabletop technologies also present several challenges that creators of collaborative information seeking system must account for in their designs. In this article, we explore the design space for collaborative search systems on interactive tabletops, discussing the benefits and challenges of creating search applications for these devices. We discuss how features of our tabletop search prototypes TeamSearch, FourBySix Search, Cambiera, and WeSearch, illustrate different aspects of this design space.     

Model of affective learning for nonformal science education facilities

Objective setting and evaluation for learning in the affective domain are often neglected in educational programs, largely because affective learning is a poorly understood phenomenon. This is particularly problematic in nonformal science education facilities, which are uniquely suited to facilitate affective learning. To address this problem, a heuristic model of affective learning in nonformal educational facilities was developed. The model, referred to as the Meredith Model, displays a sequence of events occurring in the affective responses of learners in nonformal educational experiences and identifies factors which may influence individual events within this sequence. The model is proposed as a conceptual framework for gaining an increased understanding of affective learning and for making recommendations for practice of nonformal science education and for further research. J Res Sci Teach 34: 805–818, 1997.     

‘Who wants to be a travelling teacher?’ Bilingual teachers and weak forms of bilingual education: the Norwegian experience

In this article, I argue that immigrant bilingual teachers and mother‐tongue teachers are not formally recognised as ‘genuine’ teachers in the Norwegian school system. Norwegian education authorities have invested considerable effort in order to strengthen the competences of bilingual teachers and to both recognise and formalise their home country education. Amongst other things, several university colleges were encouraged to provide specially designed higher education programmes for bilingual teachers in order to integrate teachers with bilingual competences into the Norwegian primary school teaching system. This paper is based on data collected in 2007–2008 during the national evaluation of this education, which is the first of its kind in Norway. Although popular amongst immigrant students, it seems that the competences to be gained by graduates of the BA degree programme are not recognised or utilised in the schools where they work. Due to low social status and an unfavourable structural position within the Norwegian school education sector, these teachers will try to distance themselves from their bilingual roles and identities. Within such a framework, the higher education that is intended to strengthen optimum bilingual tuition in the primary schools sector is, in fact, steering bilingual teachers and mother‐tongue teachers away from these more specialised and less valued professions, seeking instead, access into the more mainstream and higher status teaching jobs.     

Teaching the Alphabet: Reconciling the Past and the Present

This guest editorial focuses on a reflective journey of two early childhood professionals as student and teacher turning into classroom teacher and literacy coach. In addition, this editorial explores some of the worries the classroom teacher expressed during a reflective journey in learning ways in which to teach alphabet letter recognition that increased child outcomes.     

Carnival supporters,hooligans, and the ‘Against Modern Football’ movement: life within the ultras subculture in the Croatian context

Abstract

This paper is based on sociological research on Torcida, football supporters of Hajduk Football Club from Split (Croatia). We used ethnographic methodology throughout 37 months of fieldwork (from July 2012 to August 2015) and conducted 23 in-depth interviews with hardcore members of Torcida. Although our research included the distinction between carnival supporters and hooligans, these elements are much more interconnected within the hard core of Torcida than they are separate. Because of various social efforts (sometimes coordinated with other Ultras groups) against the local and global football establishment – especially against the Croatian Football Federation and UEFA – we consider Torcida part of a wide, heterogeneous social movement against modern football. This corresponds to the self-reflection and self-perception of the core group of Torcida. Ultras subculture in the Croatian context represents a key (although not the only) social actor in bearing the AMF movement.