Connecting learning to the world beyond the classroom through collaborative philosophical inquiry

This study explored the impact of facilitating collaborative philosophical inquiry (CPI), in the tradition of “Philosophy for Children,” on connectedness pedagogies. The study employed an experimental design that included 59 primary teachers in 2 groups. The experimental group received an intervention that comprised training in CPI and the comparison group received training in Thinking Tools (graphic organisers), a subset of the CPI training. Lessons were coded on four variables of connectedness pedagogies, across the two groups, at three time-points. Teacher interviews were conducted to gather participants’ perspectives. Between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) on particular measures of pedagogy revealed that CPI significantly broadened teachers’ pedagogical repertoires, in ways that included drawing on students’ background knowledge and preparing a problem-based curriculum which connects students to the world beyond the classroom.     

On the identification of weather avoidance routes in the terminal maneuvering area of Hong Kong International Airport

The safety and efficiency of air traffic are significantly affected by adverse weather. This holds especially in terminal maneuvering areas (TMA) where, in addition to the impact of weather itself, potential weather avoidance routes are strongly restricted by air traffic regulations. A weather avoidance model DIVMET has been developed which proposes a route through a field of developing thunderstorms. Air traffic control regulations have not been included in it at this stage. DIVMET was applied to the TMA of Hong Kong International Airport as air traffic control (ATC) there has become interested in improving the controller’s work load, especially for managing incoming traffic by avoidance route simulations. Although visual inspection of simulated avoidance routes by ATC was satisfactory, a quantitative validation of simulated with real observed routes was also carried out. Two real adverse weather situations with thunderstorms within the TMA of Hong Kong and with heavily distorted traffic were chosen. The main objective prior to any validation, however, was to identify routes which are solely impacted by weather but do not show any signs of regulation. Route selection was done on the base of flight position data. Landing flights were selected and deviations from standard approach routes were analyzed. As a result, the majority of 272 flights were found to be affected by both weather and regulations (60%), highlighting the challenge for air traffic controllers to manage landing traffic under adverse weather conditions safely and efficiently. Only a few weather-affected flights (7%) were not regulated and could be used for validation. DIVMET simulation routes were presented to local air traffic controllers who confirmed them as potential and realistic avoidance routes. DIVMET weather avoidance route simulations within a TMA appear to be helpful but further model development has to incorporate traffic regulations, to include holdings, short-cuts, and slow-downs.     

Adapting to large-scale changes in Advanced Placement Biology,Chemistry, and Physics: the impact of online teacher communities

Over the past decade, the field of teacher professional learning has coalesced around core characteristics of high quality professional development experiences (e.g. Borko, Jacobs, & Koellner, 2010. Contemporary approaches to teacher professional development. In P. L. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGaw (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (Vol. 7, pp. 548–556). Oxford: Elsevier.; Darling-Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner, 2017. Effective teacher professional development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute). Many countries have found these advances of great interest because of a desire to build teacher capacity in science education and across the full curriculum. This paper continues this progress by examining the role and impact of an online professional development community within the top-down, large-scale curriculum and assessment revision of Advanced Placement (AP) Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. This paper is part of a five-year, longitudinal, U.S. National Science Foundation–funded project to study the relative effectiveness of various types of professional development in enabling teachers to adapt to the revised AP course goals and exams. Of the many forms of professional development our research has examined, preliminary analyses indicated that participation in the College Board's online AP Teacher Community (APTC) – where teachers can discuss teaching strategies, share resources, and connect with each other – had positive, direct, and statistically significant association with teacher self-reported shifts in practice and with gains in student AP scores (Fishman et al., 2014). This study explored how usage of the online APTC might be useful to teachers and examined a more robust estimate of these effects. Findings from the experience of AP teachers may be valuable in supporting other large-scale curriculum changes, such as the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards or Common Core Standards, as well as parallel curricular shifts in other countries.     

Understanding summary statistics and graphical techniques to compare Michael Jordan versus LeBron James

Understanding summary statistics and graphical techniques are building blocks to comprehending concepts beyond basic statistics. Its known that motivated students perform better in school. Using examples that students find engaging allows them to understand the concepts at a deeper level.     

Data teams for school improvement

The use of data for educational decision making has never been more prevalent. However, teachers and school leaders need support in data use. Support can be provided by means of professional development in the form of “data teams”. This study followed the functioning of 4 data teams over a period of 2 years, applying a qualitative case study design. The findings show that data use is not a linear process, and that teams go through different feedback loops to reach higher levels of depth of inquiry. The data team procedure is a promising way of enhancing data-based decision making in schools.     

Sensitivity to Visual-Tactile Colocation on the Body Prior to Skilled Reaching in Early Infancy

Two experiments examined perceptual colocation of visual and tactile stimuli in young infants. Experiment 1 compared 4- (n = 15) and 6-month-old (n = 12) infants’ visual preferences for visual-tactile stimulus pairs presented across the same or different feet. The 4- and 6-month-olds showed, respectively, preferences for colocated and noncolocated conditions, demonstrating sensitivity to visual-tactile colocation on their feet. This extends previous findings of visual-tactile perceptual colocation on the hands in older infants. Control conditions excluded the possibility that both 6- (Experiment 1), and 4-month-olds (Experiment 2, n = 12) perceived colocation on the basis of an undifferentiated supramodal coding of spatial distance between stimuli. Bimodal perception of visual-tactile colocation is available by 4 months of age, that is, prior to the development of skilled reaching.     

Global citizenship education through curriculum-as-relations

PROSPECTS - The Covid-19 pandemic was a reminder of the importance of increasing connectivity amidst the accelerated rate of changes and disruptive events of our era. The need and the rationale for...     

A meta‐analysis of Tier 2 interventions implemented within School‐Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

This meta‐analysis synthesized 26 published single‐case design (SCD) studies on Tier 2 behavior interventions implemented within the educational framework of school‐wide positive behavioral interventions and supports. We used Tau‐U indices to determine the overall magnitudes of effect of the Tier 2 behavior interventions and the potential variables that moderate improved student behavioral outcomes. The 26 studies that were analyzed included a total of 243 student participants. The studies were evaluated to determine whether and to what extent they met What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) SCD standards. Of these, 10 studies were confirmed as meeting WWC SCD standards with or without reservations. Notable findings were that outcomes for students in kindergarten and secondary grade levels were limited, and insufficient screening methods were used to identify and select students needing Tier 2 interventions. The results indicate that the literature reports Tier 2 interventions with effect sizes ranging from 0.26 to 0.98. Average effect size for social skills instruction was found to be large, whereas Check‐in/Check‐out, group contingency, and intervention packages had medium effect sizes. Moderator analyses indicated different effect sizes across intervention types, outcomes, and implementers. The results are discussed in relation to implications for practice, limitations, and future research.