INTEGRATING PHYSICS AND MATH THROUGH MICROCOMPUTER-BASED LABORATORIES (MBL): EFFECTS ON DISCOURSE TYPE,QUALITY, AND MATHEMATIZATION

The purposes of this study were to understand the nature of discourse in terms of knowledge types and cognitive process, source of utterances (student or teacher), and time use in microcomputer-based labs (MBL) and verification type labs (VTL) and to gain an understanding of the role of MBL in promoting mathematization. The study was conducted in 2 grade 11 classes in which students studied Hooke’s law and Newton’s second law of motion using MBL during 1 year while a different group of students studied the same topics with the same physics teacher using a VTL approach. All sessions were videotaped, transcribed and coded using a taxonomy developed by DeVito & Grotzer (2005). In addition, evidence to support each of the 5 steps of mathematization was sought from the actions of the teachers and their discourse with the students. Results showed that conceptual knowledge type utterances were significantly more frequent in MBL sessions, cognitive processes of remembering and understanding were significantly more frequent in the MBL sessions, students spent most of their time analyzing the graphs in the MBL sessions, and MBL has a potential to promote mathematization in favorable instructional environments in physics laboratory classes.     

Teachers’ ability to identify and explain students’ actions in near and far figural pattern generalization tasks

The purpose of this paper is to explore middle school in-service mathematics teachers’ ability (1) to identify and explain students’ actions in pattern generalization and (2) to account for the variation in teachers’ explanations of students’ actions in terms of task and teachers’ factors. Two questionnaires were developed: (1) a questionnaire to measure teachers’ ability to identify students’ actions while finding the nth term in the pattern generalization and (2) a questionnaire to measure teachers’ ability to explain students’ actions in different tasks. The two questionnaires were given to a sample of 83 middle school in-service mathematics teachers from 22 schools in Lebanon. Analysis of data shows that teachers seemed to have the ability to identify students’ actions while finding the nth term in the pattern generalization and that teachers’ explanations of students’ actions in different tasks are lacking in terms of identifying variable-related counting elements. The results of stepwise multiple regression show that teachers’ ability to explain students’ actions to find the general term depends on their ability to explain students’ step-by-step counting or drawing.     

Potential immunomodulation effect of the extract of Nigella sativa on ovalbumin sensitized guinea pigs

Several different pharmacological effects have been described for Nigella sativa (Siah-Daneh), including an anti-inflammatory effect. In the present study, the effect of the extract of N. sativa on lung pathology and blood interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) of sensitized guinea pigs was examined. Three groups (n=8 for each group) of guinea pigs sensitized to ovalbumin (OA) were given drinking water alone, and drinking water containing low and high concentrations of the plant extract, respectively. The animals of the control group (n=8) were treated with saline instead of OA and were given drinking water. The pathological changes of the lung, including infiltration of eosinophils and lymphocytes, local epithelial necrosis, the presence of oedema, thickening of the basement membrane, smooth muscle layer hypertrophy, mucosal secretion, and the presence of mucosal plug, and blood IL-4 and IFN-γ of sensitized guinea pigs were evaluated. The lungs of the sensitized group showed significant pathological changes (P<0.001). Blood IL-4 and IFN-γ were increased in sensitized animals compared to the controls (P<0.01 and P<0.001, respectively). Treatment of sensitized animals with the extract led to a significant decrease in pathological changes of the lung (P<0.01 to P<0.001), except for the oedema in the sensitized group treated with low concentration of the extract, but an increased IFN-γ. These results confirm a preventive effect of N. sativa extract on lung inflammation of sensitized guinea pigs.     

Google glass adoption in the educational environment: A case study in the Gulf area

Education and Information Technologies - The rapid changes in recent years witnessed the development of technology-based education environment where teachers and learners can interact by adopting...     

Trends in the development of student level of reasoning in pattern generalization tasks across grade level

This paper explored (1) the developmental trend of student level of reasoning across grade level in pattern generalization; (2) the mediatory role of task variables in the developmental trend of student level of reasoning within and across tasks; and (3) developmental trend of student level of reasoning associated with strategy use across grade level. A test designed to measure student level of reasoning was given to a sample of 1232 students from grades 4 to 11 from 5 schools in Lebanon. The Structure of the Learned Outcomes or Responses (SOLO) was used as a theoretical model. Results show that student level of reasoning exhibited an increasing trend across clusters of grade levels and that there were several SOLO levels in each cluster of grade levels. Type of task (immediate, near, far) and function type (linear, non-linear) seem to mediate the development of level of reasoning across grade level but the complexity of the task (simple, more complex) did not. Students used several strategies in each cluster of grade levels and the developmental trends of student level of reasoning associated with strategy use were not uniform and varied across clusters of grade levels, thus supporting a neo-Piagetian interpretation of the results.     

Contrasting Perspectives and Performance of High School Students on Problem Solving in Real World, Situated, and School Contexts

This study describes and contrasts theoretically and empirically problem solving of situated problems in school and the real world at the macro level as a social-cultural activity system and analyzes the process of solving situated problems by high school students at the micro level as an activity. Three potentially experiential problem tasks were given to 31 last year high School science students. Action map, a concept derived from activity theory, was used to represent the solutions. Qualitative methods were used to analyze the data obtained from the written solutions as well as interviews with the participants. Leont'ev's activity theory and Engeström's activity system were used as frameworks to analyze and interpret the data. The results indicate that there are fundamental identifiable differences among the activities and the activity systems of problem solving in the real world, situated, and school contexts.     

Split up,but stay together: Collaboration and cooperation in mathematical problem solving

Instructional Science - Conditions under which group&nbsp;work leads to learning have been studied in collaborative settings. Little is known, however, about whether and how the interplay...     

Faculty renewal in Canada and Ontario: No forthcoming shortage! (with particular reference to education professors)

The age profile and other characteristics of the full-time professoriate in Canada and Ontario are discussed, with particular focus on the geographical source, previous activity, and age distribution of new appointments to university teaching posts. Patterns of inter-institutional mobility within the regions of Canada for junior and senior faculty are presented. Analysis includes the sources and implications of attrition and changing age profile trends. Historical data, in most cases from the 1970s onward, are presented and analyzed. The increasing use of part-time faculty is discussed, particularly in the context of diminishing federal and provincial government financial support for universities. Discussion on the future demand and supply of professors in Canada and Ontario is presented, but focuses on Faculties of Education. Some reference is made to the comparable situation in Australia, the United States, and other major industrialized countries. Despite the rapidly aging professoriate, the article concludes that there will not be an overall shortage of university teachers in the coming decade or so.     

Educational Design Framework for a Web-Based Interface to Visualise Authentic Cosmological “Big Data” in High School

Journal of Science Education and Technology - The changing landscape of science and science education has provided an impetus to re-imagine how science can be taught in schools. The dawn of the Big...