First Experiences with Reading Primary Literature by Undergraduate Life Science Students

Learning to read and understand research articles (primary literature) is an important step in the enculturation of higher education students into the scientific community. We presume, based on ideas from the field of genre analysis, that it is important for the development of reading skills to become conscious of the rhetorical structures in research articles. So, we determined how well science students are able to identify 2 important elements of this rhetorical structure: conclusions and grounds. First-year undergraduate life science students who followed a course called ‘Biomedical Research’ made assignments in which they had to identify these 2 elements. We analysed the answers of 20 students in detail and compared their answers with 2 expert readers. Furthermore, we conducted task-based interviews with 4 students to gain more insight into their reading strategies and to determine how they identify conclusions and grounds. Our results show that students and experts defined conclusions and grounds in different ways. Students and experts agreed on the most important conclusion of the articles. However, students identified a wide range of sentences which were not seen as conclusions by the experts. The grounds students mentioned mostly matched their conclusions. Students sometimes failed to mention important grounds for a particular conclusion. In conclusion, our study shows the differences between student and expert readers of primary literature. Based on our results, we formulated criteria for the design of a teaching strategy that aims to improve students' skills for reading primary literature.     

Haraway's ‘bag lady story-telling’: relocating childhood and learning within a ‘post-human landscape’

In this article, we explore some alternate ways of approaching childhood and learning by taking three short forays into what Donna Haraway calls a ‘post-human landscape’. This exploration takes us beyond the horizons of orthodox educational approaches, in which the individual child is typically seen to be developing and learning within his/her (exclusively human) sociocultural context. The post-human landscape relocates childhood within a world that is much bigger than us (humans) and about more than our (human) concerns. It allows us to reconsider the ways in which children are both constituted by and learn within this more-than-human world. Adopting Haraway's feminist narrative strategy, we offer three very different ‘bag lady’ stories that consider the ethics and politics of child/non-human animal cross-species encounters. Each of these stories gestures towards the ways in which we can learn to live with ‘companion species’ rather than only ever learn about them.     

基于国际大规模学生评估的中国高中毕业生质量研究

在过去的二十年间,国际大规模学生评估主要对教育研究、学校体系和教育政策产生影响.本文着重介绍这些项目的主要结果,并在此基础上,于2003年在中国四个省份展开数学胜任力测试.作为过去几十年国际大规模学生评估的非参与国,中国无疑提供一个特殊视角.因而,本文所报告的中国学生成绩国际比较是一项独特工作.     

Young girls’ spatial and arithmetic performance: The mediating role of maternal supportive interactions during joint spatial problem solving

The present study addresses girls’ (6–7-year-olds; N = 162) early spatial and arithmetic skills within the context of learning environments provided by their mothers. The study was designed to determine the relationship between maternal supportive interactions on a joint origami spatial problem-solving task and their first grade daughters’ spatial and arithmetic skills. During home visits the mothers and daughters were videotaped jointly solving origami tasks with maternal supportive interactions assessed through ratings of maternal stimulation of cognitive development and maternal quality of assistance; the girls were separately assessed in school on spatial and arithmetic skills. Using structural equation modeling, the main findings were (1) maternal supportive interactions on a mother–child origami task mediated the relation between mothers’ spatial skills/educational level and their daughters’ spatial skills and (2) their daughters’ spatial skills in turn mediated the relation between quality of maternal supportive spatial interactions and the daughters’ arithmetic achievement. The present findings indicate the importance of early maternal supportive interactions relating to spatial problem solving for girls’ spatial and arithmetic achievement. Furthermore, all pathways linking girls’ home environments and arithmetic skills were mediated through the girls’ spatial skills, suggesting that for young girls, development of early spatial skills may be important for effective arithmetic learning.     

Maps & GIS Data Libraries in the Era of Big Data and Cloud Computing

In upcoming years, two major changes in the computing landscape will reshape how map and GIS data libraries (MGDLs) will be required to perform their core functions in the future. These advancements—cloud computing and the “Big Data era”—offer opportunities and challenges for libraries, but most dramatically changes. Commercial cloud computing solutions are available as on-demand service; low-cost, internal private clouds are now a financial possibility. Simultaneously, Geographic Information Science (GISci) data and services have advanced at an ever-increasing pace into the “Big Data,” swelling the types and amounts of GIS data and services available. These two shifts have and will impact the entire GIS world and MGDLs, in response, and will now be required to collect, curate, and make available more data and services than ever. The MGDL community must be prepared to respond and react in order to remain effective. This article explores the evolving landscapes within which MGDLs must operate and examines how their roles and operational organization will be impacted. The hope of the authors is that such analyses will spark community-driven discussion to motivate the next major phase of research and implementation in the world of MGDLs.     

Mapping out the ICT integration terrain in the school context: identifying the challenges in an innovative project

This article discusses the research findings from the start-up phase of an innovative information and communication technology (ICT) project focused on ICT integration as a complex process involving many factors such as leadership, school readiness and organisational culture. Known locally as Hermes, the project's core objective was to provide an improved and ‘trouble-free’ ICT infrastructure for schools using thin client technology and a wireless broadband network, which would be managed centrally rather than locally. It was anticipated that this solution would help remove the barriers associated with ICT integration caused by technical issues. Based on an in-depth study of innovation adoption in eight schools involving a survey (n=119 teachers) and interviews (n=60 teachers), the study portrays a picture of the ICT integration patterns prior to and during the Hermes intervention in terms of schools' ICT readiness, leadership and vision. This small scale study can help us understand first- and second-order barriers to ICT integration in schools. In particular, this study informs us about the ecology of schools and ICT-based innovation, innovation scalability and contributes to a critical study of educational technology via a context-rich account of how educational technology is actually being mediated, rather than an idealised account of how technology could be used.     

The National Institutes of Health's AREA Program in Action

The National Institutes of Health Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program introduces research funding into regional universities and liberal arts colleges where hurdles to successful pursuit of research programs are substantial. Nevertheless, the authors of papers in this issue competed successfully and have benefited undergraduates in their respective institutions, as evidenced both by heightened retention rates and the numbers of student assistants who advance to graduate school. We discuss the role of a summer institute in helping to advance the work of these investigators, and suggest that the network which evolved may be extended as a model for collaborative and interdisciplinary research. We also describe details of the AREA program and where to obtain additional information about it.     

Helping preservice teachers realize the transformative potential of read alouds

ABSTRACT

A common instructional practice in early childhood classrooms is the picturebook read aloud. The purpose of this investigation was to help preservice teachers learn to plan picturebook read alouds with the goal of helping children interpret the visual affordances of picturebooks, including visual elements (e.g., cclor, line) and peritextual components (e.g., title page, endpapers) as they engage in collaborative meaning making. In this qualitative study, the participants were 12 preservice teachers enrolled in an undergraduate children’s literature course. The findings presented here are focused on three participants that represented a range of growth and understandings about the picturebook format as well as growth and understandings about designing read aloud lessons. Findings indicate that while participants grew in their understandings of picturebook formats and in their ability to develop read aloud lesson plans with a visual focus, the rates and ways in which this occurred varied. Furthermore, the findings also suggest that crafting read alouds with a focus on visual affordances is a complex process and deserves careful attention in teacher preparation programs.     

Presence in teaching

This article articulates a theory of ‘presence’ in teaching and seeks to establish a theoretical foundation for presence that can serve as a platform for further research. It seeks to address the current educational climate that sees teaching as a check list of behaviors, dispositions, measures, and standards, and to articulate the essential but elusive aspect of teaching we call presence. Presence is defined as a state of alert awareness, receptivity, and connectedness to the mental, emotional, and physical workings of both the individual and the group in the context of their learning enviroments, and the ability to respond with a considered and compassionate best next step. The article is divided into four sections and explores existing conceptions of presence: presence as self‐awareness, presence as connection to students, and presence as connection to subject matter and pedagogical knowledge. Within each section the role that context plays in a teacher’s ability to be present is also explored. The authors draw upon papers and stories from student teachers, interview data from children and experienced teachers, and stories from a study group of experienced educators that explored the notion of presence on three different occasions. They conclude by connecting presence to the essential purpose of teaching and learning, the creation of a democratic society.