Relation of maternal cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and intrusive behavior during Head Start to children's kindergarten cognitive abilities

The current study examined how parental cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and intrusiveness measured during children's prekindergarten year were related to children's verbal and nonverbal abilities 1 year later. Participants were 110 Head Start children and their caregivers from primarily rural and low-income backgrounds. Analysis of children's scores on the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities confirmed the predictive utility of cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and intrusive behavior for perceptual scores (20% of the unique variance) as well as the predictive utility of emotional support and intrusive behavior for verbal scores (15% of the unique variance). Parental emotional support during guidance of problem solving (positive feedback) explained statistically significant unique variance in children's perceptual scores beyond other measures of emotional support. Cognitive stimulation moderated the relation between positive feedback and perceptual scores. Although other syntactic forms of maternal utterances such as commands did not explain statistically significant unique variance in children's scores beyond emotional support and intrusive behavior, mothers' questions did. Specific policy implications of the effects are discussed.     

University-level teaching of Anthropogenic Global Climate Change (AGCC) via student inquiry

This paper reviews university-level efforts to improve understanding of anthropogenic global climate change (AGCC) through curricula that enable student scientific inquiry. We examined 152 refereed publications and proceedings from academic conferences and selected 26 cases of inquiry learning that overcome specific challenges to AGCC teaching. This review identifies both the strengths and weaknesses of each of these case studies. It is the first to go beyond examining the impact of specific inquiry instructional approaches to offer a synthesis of cases. We find that inquiry teaching can succeed by concretising scientific processes, providing access to global data and evidence, imparting critical and higher order thinking about AGCC science/policy and contextualising learning with places and scientific facts. We recommend educational researchers and scientists collaborate to create and refine curricula that utilise geospatial technologies, climate models and communication technologies to bring students into contact with scientists, climate data and authentic AGCC research processes. Many available science education technologies and curricula also require further research to maximise trade-offs between implementation and training costs and their educational value.     

Reflecting on institutional support for SoTL engagement: developing a conceptual framework

This paper considers the support required to develop Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) capability across institutions. Rather than developing a checklist or a standardised audit approach, this paper describes the reflective journey taken by a group of academic developers who used strategies and structures previously identified in the literature to develop a conceptual framework for academic professional development. The framework was refined through an iterative process, including reflection on its use within diverse institutional contexts, combined with evaluative feedback from recognised experts in the field. The resulting framework is designed to facilitate and guide conversations to support institutional decision-making related to SoTL capacity building.     

媒介素养教学方法和教师培训

由于全球文化急剧变化以及素养在提高个人、社会和文化发展中的作用,如今的素养概念已经扩展为包括数字、视觉和电子媒介以及流行文化在内的一种内涵;这也就提升了媒介素养教育对个人和社会发展的重要意义。开展媒介素养教育可以在正规和非正规教育环境下进行,它将对学生学习动机的激发、师生关系的改善、公民技能的提高产生作用。     

Exploring Australian Preservice Primary Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Teaching Science Using the Dimensions of Attitude toward Science (DAS)

Research in Science Education - Primary teachers’ attitudes have been shown to strongly influence both their intention to teach science, and ultimately student engagement and learning...     

Career Aspirations of Non-Managerial Women: Adjustment and Adaptation

This study addresses career aspirations and planning among non-managerial women. Results indicate career goals often are adapted to meet other life circumstances; and that family responsibilities, job security, and organizational support systems influence career success and satisfaction. Recommendations for organizationally based career initiatives focused on women in non-managerial positions are provided.     

An Evaluation of Three Interdisciplinary Social Science Events Outside of the College Classroom

This article describes three interdisciplinary events held outside of the classroom to examine social psychological concepts in the criminal justice system, with undergraduate students enrolled in criminal justice and psychology courses. These events can most accurately be described as using a synthetic interdisciplinary approach, in which the disciplines of psychology and criminal justice remain clearly identifiable in looking at phenomena like occurrences of bystander apathy, while enabling a holistic view of these phenomena. First, 75 students celebrated the life of Kitty Genovese, a famous victim of bystander apathy. Later in the semester, the same students competed in a game-show-like review session. Finally, 45 students explored the intersection of the mental health and criminal justice systems with professionals from various fields. Overall, students enjoyed the social interaction with their peers across the majors, as well as with their professors and professionals in the field. Students also indicated that the interactive learning techniques enhanced their new understanding of the intersection of the disciplines. Future research should investigate the offering of interdisciplinary events to students within and across academic divisions to build community and enhance students' understanding of their educational and career opportunities.     

An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large-scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.     

Literacy in church and family sites through the eyes of Samoan children in New Zealand

Samoan school children living in New Zealand were given disposable cameras and asked to photograph examples of the uses of reading and writing outside the school. Interviewed later, they explained their photographs including information about literacy in church and family. Rote learning and oral presentation of biblical texts that were read and committed to memory were characteristic of church literacy and supported by practices in the home as Shirley Brice Heath and others have reported. The purpose is closely connected to maintenance of Samoan culture and survival of the language. However, it was found that older siblings introduced school ways of learning to younger family members and that church literacy involved techniques for understanding and assessment that were similar to those of the school. It is asked whether the disparity in measured literacy performance of Samoan people is the consequence of a mismatch between church and family literacy and the literacy of the school.