The Law of Inertia: How Understanding its History can Improve Physics Teaching

The law of inertia is a problem in teaching due to the impossibility of showing the proposition experimentally. As we cannot do an experiment to verify the law, we cannot know if it is correct. On the other hand, we know that the science based upon it is successful. A study in the history of mechanics has shown that there are different foundations for the law but also that the law plays the same role in the science since Newton. To avoid a statement of which we cannot be sure, the present paper proposes to understand the law through its function in the theory. In this case, we do not have to say how a free body moves, but rather that the rectilinear and uniform motion is the motion of reference in Newtonian mechanics.     

Differences in Motivation Towards Science Subjects Among Kibbutz and Urban High School Students

This paper study analyzes differences in motivation towards science subjects among kibbutz and urban high school students in Israel. Students' motivational traits in science were explored by a questionnaire whose items corresponded to four motivational patterns: achievement, curiosity, conscientiousness and sociability. The major findings of this study are that a) Kibbutz students were mostly sociability oriented in the learning of science, b) city students were mostly sociability and achievement oriented in the learning of science, c) city students were better achievers than kibbutz students in junior high school, while in senior high school the difference between them was nonsignificant, d) there was a significant increase in kibbutz students' achievement motivation in learning science when passing from junior to senior high school.     

WHO ACHIEVES LEVEL 2 QUALIFICATIONS DURING ADULTHOOD? EVIDENCE FROM THE NCDS

ABSTRACT:  This paper describes the characteristics of people who return to learning to achieve at least a level 2 qualification, drawing on the 1958 National Child Development Cohort Study. Results show that adults who gained level 2 were more likely than those who did not to have been engaged in a range of learning activities at earlier ages, including learning during childhood, staying in education during adolescence and undertaking courses leading and not leading to qualifications during adulthood. The factor that has the highest impact on progression by age 33 and by age 42 is early school attainment. This means that for individuals who do well at school there is a greater chance of achievement of qualifications during adulthood, even when this qualification is not achieved by age 23. We further find that socioeconomic constraints in adulthood may be less of a barrier to progression than is often believed. Taking together, these findings suggest that the main focus should be on paying particular attention to attitudinal barriers to learning, rather than just being concerned with removing economic and social constraints.     

Unraveling sources of stimulus control in a temporal discrimination task

In temporal discriminations tasks, more than one stimulus may function as a time marker. We studied two of them in a matching-to-sample task, the sample keylight and the houselight that signaled the intertrial interval (ITI). One group of pigeons learned a symmetrical matching-to-sample task with two samples (2 s or 18 s of a center keylight) and two comparisons (red and green side keys), whereas another group of pigeons learned an asymmetrical matching-to-sample task with three samples (2 s, 6 s, and 18 s) and two comparisons (red and green). In the asymmetrical task, 6-s and 18-s samples shared the same comparison. In a subsequent retention test, both groups showed a preference for the comparison associated with the longer samples, a result consistent with the hypothesis that pigeons based their choices on the duration elapsed since the offset of the houselight (i.e., sample duration + retention interval). Results from two no-sample tests further corroborated the importance of the ITI illumination as a time marker: When the ITI was illuminated, the proportion of choices correlated positively with the retention interval; when the ITI was darkened, choices fell to random levels. However, the absolute value of choice proportions suggested that the sample stimulus was also a time marker. How multiple stimuli acquire control over behavior and how they combine remains to be worked out.     

The Comtesse de Genlis’ <Emphasis Type="Italic">Théâtre à l’usage des jeunes personnes</Emphasis> (1779–1780): Educating for Order and Prejudice in Pre-revolutionary France

This essay explores the educational contribution of the Comtesse de Genlis’ Théâtre à l'usage des jeunes personnes [Theatre of Education] (1792/1779–1780), a four-volume collection of closet drama, in light of the social, political and cultural shifts occurring in France in the period prior to the French Revolution. In particular, in two plays from Theatre of Education, La Marchande de Modes [The Milliner] and Le Libraire [The Bookseller], Genlis depicts the bourgeoisie’s proper behaviour toward the aristocracy and its natural place in the world. Thus both plays exemplify the educational and the political role of Genlis, who attempts to tame the bourgeoisie through the twofold argument of proper education and effective parenthood, so as to keep alive the social order of the ancien régime.     

On the difficulties to resurrect the beyond. A commentary on the article Learning beyond the body by Juan-Ignacio Pozo / Sobre las dificultades para resucitar el más allá. Un comentario sobre el artículo Aprender más allá del cuerpo de Juan-Ignacio Pozo

This commentary follows Pozo’s critique of psychological theories rooted in the ‘cognitive revolution’ prompted by the emergence of computer technologies in the mid-twentieth century. The core of his criticism is the assumption of the mind/body dualism built in these theories. Pozo makes the case for an approach striving to integrate mind and body while postulating the notion of a basic incarnate mind, which grows beyond the restrictions of the body by mastering the symbolic formal systems of our culture. I argue that this vision smooths the mind/body dualism without overcoming it. I elaborate on four areas in which Pozo’s theory coincides with assumptions characteristic of the mind/body dualism: explicitness, formal notations, animal cognition and representations.     

Validation of clay modeling as a learning tool for the periventricular structures of the human brain

Visualizing anatomical structures and functional processes in three dimensions (3D) are important skills for medical students. However, contemplating 3D structures mentally and interpreting biomedical images can be challenging. This study examines the impact of a new pedagogical approach to teaching neuroanatomy, specifically how building a 3D‐model from oil‐based modeling clay affects learners’ understanding of periventricular structures of the brain among undergraduate medical students in Colombia. Students were provided with an instructional video before building the models of the structures, and thereafter took a computer‐based quiz. They then brought their clay models to class where they answered questions about the structures via interactive response cards. Their knowledge of periventricular structures was assessed with a paper‐based quiz. Afterward, a focus group was conducted and a survey was distributed to understand students’ perceptions of the activity, as well as the impact of the intervention on their understanding of anatomical structures in 3D. Quiz scores of students that constructed the models were significantly higher than those taught the material in a more traditional manner (P < 0.05). Moreover, the modeling activity reduced time spent studying the topic and increased understanding of spatial relationships between structures in the brain. The results demonstrated a significant difference between genders in their self‐perception of their ability to contemplate and rotate structures mentally (P < 0.05). The study demonstrated that the construction of 3D clay models in combination with autonomous learning activities was a valuable and efficient learning tool in the anatomy course, and that additional models could be designed to promote deeper learning of other neuroanatomy topics. Anat Sci Educ 11: 137–145. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

A questionnaire for listening to students’ voices in the assessment of teaching quality in a classical medical school

The purpose of this study was to develop a teaching quality assessment questionnaire and assess its reliability by using it with a sample of first‐year medical students. Principal components analysis with varimax orthogonal rotation resulted in the development of a 12‐item, two‐component tool, adequate for use in lectures and small‐group sessions. The two components were named ‘curriculum’ and ‘relationship’. The Cronbach coefficient alpha values indicated high reliability and internal consistency. According to the results obtained this teaching quality scale is a reliable measure and may be useful in identifying themes in disciplines and among teachers that may benefit from some professional development. Amongst its advantages is that it can be used with an optical reading tool.