From the contribution to the action approach: White teachers' experiences influencing the development of multicultural science curricula

In this exploratory case study, we sought to understand teacher's integration of multicultural curricula in science curriculum units, and how personal experiences influenced the level of integration in light of Bank's typology of ethnic content integration into school curricula. Five research participants volunteered and were selected so as to be representative of the demographic of pre‐service and in‐service teachers in the southern United States. The aim was to explore teachers' personal experiences with cultural others that either facilitated or impeded their adoption of multicultural curricula strategies in science curricula units. Case narratives present and discuss interview data and assigned curricula projects. Findings suggest that participants who had transformative cultural experiences and who identified as the marginalized cultural other, transformed science curricula at higher levels of Bank's typology for curricula' multicultural approaches. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1271–1295, 2012     

Computer Club for Girls: The problem with seeing girls as the problem

This paper presents findings from an evaluation of the Computer Clubs for Girls, an initiative originally delivered in the South East of England, designed to encourage more girls to take up information technology (IT) courses and careers. By targeting girls aged 10–14, the club aimed to provide members with a ‘gender relevant’ experience of IT, tackling issues of access, confidence and negative attitudes about IT. The evaluation, conducted over four years, included the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from members and non-members of the clubs. It included a longitudinal component in order to assess the longer-term impacts of the club. The findings support the critical view that initiatives based on assumptions about the relationship between girls and IT misinterpret ‘the problem’ about female under-representation in IT, and are unlikely to have a significant or sustained impact on what remains an occupational and subject area divided by gender typing. The paper argues for an approach which challenges the social and cultural discourses that maintain this gender divide.     

Verbal reasoning test scores and their stability over time

As part of an extended study into school assessment practices the use of verbal reasoning tests and their possible contribution to measuring pupil progress is being investigated. One phase of the study has involved testing the stability of individual verbal reasoning scores over time. The findings of this phase are presented here and located within the broader context of intelligence testing. The discussion concludes with a number of questions relating to the use of pupils’ academic achievements as appropriate measures of school success. The ongoing work considers how pupil success could be measured fairly, taking into account individual pupil differences, including both genetic and socio-economic factors. The work being developed has potential for both formative and summative assessment procedures and also as a tool for reporting the achievements of individual pupils and educational establishments. The full work will be published in due course.     

University students’ grasp of inflection points

This paper describes university students’ grasp of inflection points. The participants were asked what inflection points are, to mark inflection points on graphs, to judge the validity of related statements, and to find inflection points by investigating (1) a function, (2) the derivative, and (3) the graph of the derivative. We found four erroneous images of inflection points: (1) f ′ (x)?=?0 as a necessary condition, (2) f ′ (x)?≠?0 as a necessary condition, (3) f ″ (x)?=?0 as a sufficient condition, and (4) the location of “a peak point, where the graph bends” as an inflection point. We use the lenses of Fischbein, Tall, and Vinner and Duval’s frameworks to analyze students’ errors that were rooted in mathematical and in real-life contexts.     

Active engagement,emotional impact and changes in practice arising from a residential field trip

This study focused on the learning experiences of 50 undergraduate students undertaking a residential field trip (RFT) to Sweden as part of their Early Childhood Studies degree. Three dimensions were examined: the physical and emotional value afforded to the students from the active learning context; how this was interpreted and reflected in their knowledge, understanding and personal practice once they had left university; and the influence of factors such as age, and professional status on students' practice. The methodology was interpretive, and both deductive and inductive approaches were employed to analyse qualitative, narrative data sets derived from semi-structured questionnaires, interviews and written essays. The findings suggested that the physiological effects of hands on engagement influenced both the students' perceptions of the learning experience and their confidence to become agents of change. Subsequent changes directly attributed to the RFT experience, involved the re-evaluation of both the stereotypical pedagogic role and the way in which they related to children; students re-conceptualised their practices to reflect a more child-centred approach and increased their use of outdoor play and sustainable resources. The RFT was a catalyst that promoted empowerment, and informed both personal and professional transformations.     

Eight-season epidemiological study of injuries in men’s international Under-20 rugby tournaments

The aim of this study was to define the incidence and nature of match injuries sustained in men’s international under-20 rugby. The study comprised an 8-season prospective study of 16 international under-20 rugby tournaments. Procedures complied with the consensus statement for epidemiological studies in rugby. Outputs included players’ mean age, stature and body mass and incidence, severity, location, type and cause of match injuries. The overall incidence of injury was 49.7 injuries/1000 player-match-hours (backs: 48.3; forwards: 50.9) with a mean severity of 32.2 days-absence (backs: 29.4; forwards: 34.4). There were no significant changes in incidence or severity of injury over the study period. Shoulder/clavicle (18.3%), head/face (16.4%), knee (13.7%) and ankle (13.7%) were the most common injury locations and ligament sprain (35.4%), haematoma/bruise (15.9%), concussion (12.5%) and muscle strain (11.2%) the most common types of injury. Being-tackled (29.2%), tackling (24.0%) and collisions (14.3%) were the most common events leading to injury. The results confirm that international under-20 rugby has a high incidence and severity of injury but the incidence is half that reported for senior international players. There was no significant change in the overall incidence of injury at the Under-20 level in the period 2008 to 2016.     

A Critical Co-Constructed Autoethnography of a Gendered Cross-Cultural Mentoring Between Two Early Career Latin@ Scholars Working in the Deep South

Multicultural mentoring has been suggested to support Latin@ faculty success in their careers, yet current literature on effective mentorships of Latin@ faculty is limited. This critical co-constructed autoethnography draws on critical race theory (CRT) and latin@ critical race theory (LatCrit) frameworks to highlight the lived experiences and key elements of an effective gendered cross-cultural mentoring relationship in a Latin@ pretenure faculty dyad working in a predominantly White institution of higher education located in the Deep South of the United States. Drawing upon a methodological rhythm of sorts, a Black scholar acts as a muse providing testimonios and interpretations of a relationship existing among Latin@ scholars in predominantly White intellectual spaces. Findings from this critical co-constructed autoethnography note that a safe colored space supports effective mentoring, familismo, personalismo, enabling effective cross-cultural mentorship.     

A person-centred approach to understanding cultures of assessment

The purpose of the present study was to investigate how faculty members coalesce into distinguishable groups in terms of their perceived cultures of assessment at their respective institutions. To date, although researchers have posited the existence of various cultures of assessment, no study to our knowledge has empirically demonstrated the presence of these unobserved (latent) cultures analytically. Accordingly, a latent profile analysis was conducted using Mplus to identify these unobserved groups based on faculty (n = 1148) members’ responses to 12 items (6-point Likert scale) selected from the 2014 Faculty Survey of Assessment Culture. The resulting 4-class solution, including a previously unidentified group, was confirmed by the Lo-Mendell-Rubin Adjusted Likelihood Ratio Test: Culture of Student Learning (n = 502); Evolving Student Learning Culture (n = 398); Culture of Compliance (n = 168); and Culture of Fear (n = 80). Characteristics of each class are described and the prevalence of each class by type of degree granting institution and primary discipline is provided.     

Motivation and metacognition when learning a complex system

Our cognitive-motivational process model (Vollmeyer & Rheinberg, 1998) assumes that motivational factors (i.e., mastery confidence, incompetence fear, interest, and challenge) affect performance via mediators. Previous studies (Vollmeyer, Rollett, & Rheinberg, 1997) found that strategy systematicity and motivational state during learning mediate the impact of initial motivation on the learning of a complex system. Potential mediators could be other cognitive (e.g., hypothesis testing) and metacognitive aspects, in that more motivated learners (high mastery confidence, low incompetence fear, high interest) analyse more deeply. Verbal protocols from 44 students who learnt to control a complex dynamic system were collected. We measured their initial motivation (on the four factors specified), then during learning we assessed their strategy systematicity and motivational state. Additionally, we analysed the verbal protocols to obtain indicators of learners’ cognitive and metacognitive processes. Performance measures were levels of knowledge acquisition and application. The cognitive-motivational process model was replicated. Qualitative cognitive aspects were added as mediators, however, the results for metacognition were problematic, partly because participants gave relatively few clearly expressed metacognitive statements.