The interface between mathematics and design and technology in secondary schools

ABSTRACT

This article suggests that there are important connections between design and technology and mathematics curricula and that these are not fully made in the United Kingdom National Curriculum. Using three examples, the authors show how there are real opportunities in design and technology teaching for incorporating mathematical learning, but that all too often these are lost because they are not made explicit. Again, the authors argue that too much mathematics teaching is dominated by abstract investigation rather than practical problem‐solving. They conclude by suggesting that teaching should transcend subject boundaries and be concerned with real‐life situations.     

Physical Disability on Children's Television Programming: A Content Analysis

Research Findings: Media representations of physical disability can influence the attitudes of child audiences. In the current study, the depiction of physical disability was analyzed in more than 400 episodes of children's television programming to better understand how media depict physical disability to children and, in turn, how exposure may influence children's attitudes toward this social minority. Characters with a physical disability were rare. When present, characters with a physical disability tended to be older White males. The disabilities were not central to the characters' importance, but the characters themselves were not central to the plot. A majority of characters with a physical disability were depicted as morally good, attractive, and satisfied with life. Able-bodied characters were shown as treating characters with a physical disability the same way they treated other able-bodied characters. Practice or Policy: The results of the current study could be utilized by policymakers, media professionals, and educators in an effort to increase depictions of physical disability in children's programming as a method of integrating individuals with physical disabilities into a predominantly able-bodied society.     

Medicalised pupils: the case of ADD/ADHD

Changing financial arrangements for undergraduates have led to a growth in widening participation research. However, hardly any studies explore gender differences in the impact of differential funding on students' sense of well‐being, their financial coping strategies and their educational attainment. Our research shows that there are few gender differences in students' actual financial situation, reflecting the similarity of their social class backgrounds, but women perceive themselves to be under greater pressure. Women worry more about their finances and express lower levels of well‐being, but this has no overall effect on their attainment, since the strategies they use to ameliorate worry align with sound educational practice. Men express a more complacent financial attitude, which does not usually affect their attainment. There is, however, evidence of a gender‐related ‘threshold effect’ among students who express low levels of well‐being. Extreme worriers perceive themselves to be, and genuinely are, worse off than other students, despite the apparent homology of their social class backgrounds. In this extreme group, the strategies women devise to cope with worry, such as curtailing their student life and building supportive friendship groups, appear to consolidate their attainment, but men's complacency sometimes pushes them down into the lowest class of degree.     

Matching/mismatching revisited: an empirical study of learning and teaching styles

This paper presents results of a research project that explored the relationship between matching and mismatching instructional presentation style (breadth-first and depth-first) with students' cognitive style (field-dependence/-independence) in a computer-based learning environment. 73 postgraduate students were asked to create Web pages using HTML, using instructional materials that were either matched or mismatched with their cognitive styles. Significant differences in performance on a multiple choice test of conceptual knowledge were found for students learning in matched and mismatched conditions. Performance in matched conditions was significantly superior to that in mismatched conditions. However, significant effects were found for gender, matching mainly affecting male students. Performance on a practical test of Web page creation was not linked to matching or mismatching, but was linked to an interaction between gender and instructional presentation style. The findings provide support for the notion that matching and mismatching can have significant effects on learning outcomes. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research.