Designing Science Learning in the First Years of Schooling. An intervention study with sequenced learning material on the topic of ‘floating and sinking'

Research on learning and instruction of science has shown that learning environments applied in preschool and primary school rarely makes use of structured learning materials in problem-based environments although these are decisive quality features for promoting conceptual change and scientific reasoning within early science learning. We thus developed and implemented a science learning environment for children in the first years of schooling which contains structured learning materials with the goal of supporting conceptual change concerning the understanding of the floating and sinking of objects and fostering students' scientific reasoning skills. In the present implementation study, we aim to provide a best-practice example of early science learning. The study was conducted with a sample of 15 classes of the first years of schooling and a total of 244 children. Tests were constructed to measure children's conceptual understanding before and after the implementation. Our results reveal a decrease in children's misconceptions from pretest to posttest. After the curriculum, the children were able to produce significantly more correct predictions about the sinking or floating of objects than before the curriculum and also relative to a control group. Moreover, due to the intervention, the explanations given for their predictions implied a more elaborated concept of material kinds. All in all, a well-structured curriculum promoting comparison and scientific reasoning by means of inquiry learning was shown to support children's conceptual change.     

Sleep and Cognition in Preschool Years: Specific Links to Executive Functioning

This study investigated the prospective links between sleep in infancy and preschoolers' cognitive performance. Mothers of 65 infants completed a sleep diary when infants were aged 1 year, and children completed two subscales of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence at 4 years, indexing general cognitive ability and complex executive functioning. Consistent with hypotheses, children getting higher proportions of their sleep at night as infants were found to perform better on executive functions, but did not show better general cognition. Relations held after controlling for family socioeconomic status and prior cognitive functioning. These findings suggest that the special importance of sleep for higher order cognition, documented among adults, may appear very early in life.     

Knowledge-intensive consumer services. Understanding KICS in the innovative global health-care sector

This paper explores a case of knowledge-intensive consumer services (KICS). Services have become less neglected in the economics of technical change and innovation studies in general; nevertheless, the advance of this agenda has been uneven. A significant emphasis has been on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). Despite their direct impact on social needs and individual desires, innovation in consumer-oriented services continues to be relatively under-theorized and under-researched. This paper brings into focus the sources and patterns of innovation in those innovative services that target human satisfaction and well-being as a final goal. We show evidence from a little-explored health industry, oral care. We address Malo Clinic, a company specialized in the most complex patient situations and a rare instance of an internationalized firm in the health services business. On the basis of a 20-year thread of corporate history, we find that a wide array of qualitative (interviews, newspaper coverage, marketing material) and quantitative evidence (papers, patents, trademarks) illuminates some of the features that may characterize a particular class of dynamic activities tending to consumers’ needs, expectations and quality of life. We argue that these key characteristics may be on course to become more general as the learning economy spreads to fully embrace the realm of the service sphere. One conclusion is that both the technological and non-technological capabilities underpinning more types of innovation are increasingly becoming coupled in consumer-relevant services.     

Applying the Science of Learning to the Learning of Science: Newton’s Second Law of Motion

Science teaching and learning require knowledge about how learning takes place (cognition) and how learners interact with their surroundings (affective and sociocultural factors). The study reported on focussed on learning for understanding of Newton’s second law of motion from a cognitive perspective that takes social factors into account. A cognitive refinement instructional approach (CRIA) was used to organise and sequence learning activities, while students were engaged through inquiry and group work. Students’ real-life experiences were used as starting point of the learning sequence. The efficiency of the sequence was determined with the aid of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and complemented with the students’ reflections on the sequence, showing their epistemological preferences. The results indicated that a CRIA aided in constructing more coherent scientific knowledge and enhanced understanding, while reducing misconceptions on the topic. In their reflections, the students acknowledged that experiential and experimental evidence, as well as guided formation of a scientific explanatory framework, are foundational for a deeper understanding of the challenging topic.     

Unterrichtsbezogene Überzeugungen und handlungsleitende Kognitionen von Lehrpersonen

Die hier vorgestellte Studie untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen unterrichtsbezogenen und handlungsleitenden Kognitionen anhand einer Stichprobe von 20 deutschen und 18 schweizerischen Mathematiklehrpersonen. Die untersuchten unterrichtsbezogenen überzeugungen fokussieren auf das konstruktivistische und das rezeptive Lehr-Lernverst?ndnis der Lehrpersonen, die spezifischen Kognitionen auf das konkrete didaktische Handeln in einer Unterrichtseinheit zur Einführung in die Satzgruppe des Pythagoras. In früheren Untersuchungen zeigte sich, dass sich deutsche Lehrpersonen konstruktivistischer als schweizerische Lehrkr?fte einsch?tzten, ihren Unterricht aber eher als fragend-entwickelnd beschrieben. Ausgehend von diesem Befund werden in der Untersuchung deutsche und schweizerische Lehrpersonen hinsichtlich ihrer überzeugungen und handlungsleitenden Kognitionen vergleichend untersucht. In einem zweiten Schritt wird nach Zusammenh?ngen zwischen beiden Facetten professionellen Lehrerwissens gefragt. Die Ergebnisse verweisen darauf, dass sich die deutschen Mathematiklehrpersonen in ihren überzeugungen st?rker als jene in der Schweiz an einem konstruktivistischen Verst?ndnis von Lehr-Lernprozessen orientieren, dieses sich aber sowohl bei deutschen als auch bei schweizerischen Lehrpersonen kaum in den handlungsleitenden Kognitionen widerspiegelt. Als Erkl?rung für diese geringe Korrespondenz zwischen unterrichtsbezogenen überzeugungen und handlungsleitenden Kognitionen kommen u.a. belastende Rahmenbedingungen und eine geringe Selbstwirksamkeit der Lehrpersonen in Frage. Daher werden in einem dritten Schritt Zusammenh?nge zwischen unterrichtsbezogenen überzeugungen und handlungsleitenden Kognitionen unter Kontrolle belastender Rahmenbedingungen und der Selbstwirksamkeit der Lehrpersonen untersucht. Dabei zeigen sich, allerdings in erster Linie nur bei schweizerischen Lehrpersonen, einige erwartungskonforme systematische Zusammenh?nge zwischen konstruktivistischen überzeugungen und handlungsleitenden Kognitionen.