Effects of Pointing Gestures on Memory for (In)Congruent Stimuli in Children and Young Adults

We investigated whether finger pointing toward picture locations can be used as an external cognitive control tool to guide attention and compensate for the immature cognitive control functions in children compared with young adults. Item and source memory performance was compared for picture‐location pairs that were either semantically congruent (e.g., a cloud presented at the upper half of the screen) or incongruent (e.g., a cloud presented at the lower part of the screen). Contrary to our expectations, pointing had an adverse effect on source memory compared to visual observation only, in both age groups. As expected, superior source memory performance was found for congruent compared to incongruent picture‐locations pairs in both age groups. These findings suggest that pointing toward pictures compared to only viewing may hamper memory, and that congruent picture locations are easier to remember than incongruent ones.     

Assessing Teachers’ Beliefs to Facilitate the Transition to a New Chemistry Curriculum: What Do the Teachers Want?

In this article, we describe the results of a study of chemistry high school teachers’ beliefs (N = 7) of the chemistry curriculum and their roles, their beliefs on the teacher as developer of materials, and their beliefs about professional development. Teachers’ beliefs influence the implementation of a curriculum. We view the use of a new curriculum as a learning process, which should start at teachers’ prior knowledge and beliefs. The results reveal that it is possible to develop a new curriculum in which teachers’ beliefs are taken as a starting point. Promising approaches to prepare teachers for a new curriculum is to let them (co)develop and use curriculum materials: It creates ownership, and strengthens and develops teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

Development and validation of the ACSI: measuring students’ science attitudes,pro-environmental behaviour,climate change attitudes and knowledge

This article describes the development and validation of the Attitudes towards Climate Change and Science Instrument. This 63-item questionnaire measures students’ pro-environmental behaviour, their climate change knowledge and their attitudes towards school science, societal implications of science, scientists, a career in science and the urgency of climate change. The results from the pilot and the final study show the questionnaire meets validity and reliability criteria. A total number of 671 secondary school students from five European countries (France, Norway, Italy, The Netherlands and Spain) completed the questionnaire. The results of the principal components factor analysis show that all scales were unidimensional. Internal reliability using Cronbach’s alpha varies between 0.71 and 0.87. Concurrent validity was shown by younger students, females and students with high science grades scoring higher on several attitudes than respectively older students, male students, or students with low science grades. Overall, correlations show weak but significant relationships between science-related attitudes on the one hand and climate change- and environment-related attitudes on the other. Based on our findings, our instrument is useful for understanding the ways in which students think about science, scientists, climate change and the environment.     

The development of the representation of conceptual knowledge in memory and the design of instruction

Knowledge comprises facts, concepts and principles. Skills are categorized as either cognitive or motor skills, which are essential for solving problems. The acquisition of knowledge and skills is guided by instructions and by presenting problems to students. Firstly, the instructions for acquiring concepts, based on principles, are discussed and a model for teaching is presented. Further, the integration of class and relational concepts, together with principles, is shown to be necessary for solving problems.     

Classroom Popularity Hierarchy Predicts Prosocial and Aggressive Popularity Norms Across the School Year

This study examined the coevolution of prosocial and aggressive popularity norms with popularity hierarchy (asymmetries in students’ popularity). Cross-lagged-panel analyses were conducted on 2,843 secondary school students (N_classrooms = 120; M_age = 13.18; 51.3% girls). Popularity hierarchy predicted relative change in popularity norms over time, but not vice versa. Specifically, classrooms with few highly popular and many unpopular students increased in aggressive popularity norms at the beginning of the school year and decreased in prosocial popularity norms at the end of the year. Also, strong within-classroom asymmetries in popularity predicted relatively higher aggressive popularity norms. These findings may indicate that hierarchical contexts elicit competition for popularity, with high aggression and low prosocial behavior being seen as valuable tools to achieve popularity.     

Grounding Second Language Vocabulary Instruction in Cognitive Science

Cognitive neuroscience has gained significant insight into the mechanisms underlying the mental lexicon and their impact on second language vocabulary learning. However, relatively little effort has been put into understanding how these mechanisms may impact instructional practices. We attempt to bridge this gap. Towards that end, we first describe three main properties of the mental lexicon: words have distinct form and meaning representations; these representations are organized in multilingual network structures organized by similarity; and the representations differ in strength. Next, we translate the properties into a visual framework that we use to reflect upon how this knowledge affects three important choices in vocabulary instruction: composing word lists, selecting an instruction method, and consolidating newly acquired words. Lastly, we discuss opportunities for both science and practice, highlighting the importance of improving the ecological validity of scientific models and theories, and of developing instructional methods grounded in cognitive science.     

Bullying as a Group Process in Childhood: A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis

This study investigates the dynamic interplay between bullying relationships and friendships in a sample of 481 students in 19 elementary school classrooms (age 8–12 years; 50% boys). Based on a relational framework, it is to be expected that friendships would be formed when two children bullied the same person and that children would start to bully the victims of their friends. Similarly, it is to be expected that friendships would be formed when two children were victimized by the same bully and that children would become victimized by the bullies of their friends. Longitudinal bivariate social network analysis supported the first two hypotheses but not the latter two. This study provides evidence for group processes in bullying networks in childhood.     

Sexual and reproductive health education: opinions of students and educators in Bolgatanga municipality,northern Ghana

There have been few assessments of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education programmes in sub-Saharan Africa from the students' and educators' perspective. This study examined students' opinions on an SRH programme in northern Ghana and explored the facilitators and barriers for educators regarding the implementation of the programme. The sample comprised 147 students and 3 educators. Questionnaires were used to collect data from students, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with educators. According to the students, the SRH programme was both important and interesting. Their expectations were moderately well met. They agreed that the main objectives of the programme and most of the objectives regarding the ‘family planning’ sessions had been achieved. Significant differences were found for school type, age and religion, but not for gender. For the educators, important facilitators were a clear manual, the presence of foreign volunteers working as educators, the increased influence of new media, students' eagerness to learn, and the feeling that the SRH programme really benefited students' lives. Important barriers were traditional and cultural influences, lack of funding and poor scheduling of the programme within the schools. The paper concludes by offering recommendations regarding the implementation of future SRH programmes in Ghana.