Effects of High and Low Prior Knowledge on Construction of a Joint Problem Space

The participants were 4th-year medical students designing a clinical trial to test a new hypothetical anticancer drug. They worked with the computer simulation the Oncology Thinking Cap in facilitated groups that differed in terms of their prior knowledge. Both groups engaged in constructive activity and reached similar endpoints. The groups differed qualitatively in how they went about constructing and navigating the joint problem space. The high-prior-knowledge group used their knowledge to help them construct plans, evaluate their actions, and stay focused on the goals of the experimental design task. The low-prior-knowledge group searched through the data exhaustively and used them to generate their plans. They were unsystematic in their planning and interpretation. They used the computer representations in their reasoning and worked at mapping the connections between the representations. The computer scaffolding played an important role for both groups, but the facilitator played a greater role in the low-prior-knowledge group.     

The Effect of Written Examinations on Learning and on the Retention of Learning

Approximately equal numbers of Canadian and American education students rated each of four teacher types in terms of 24 characteristics. The ratings were factor-analyzed and the teacher types were arrayed along the four resultant principal components. A stepwise discriminant analysis was performed. Dissonance theory suggests that findings have implications not only for teaching pedagogy but for persons seeking student feedback on teachers as well.     

Overcoming Obstacles to Collaboration and Integration in Physical Education

This paper identifies subdisciplinary fragmentation, academic elitism, and negative stereotyping as obstacles impeding the process of collaboration among different groups within the profession of physical education. It provides examples of projects in which academics interacted among themselves and with physical education teachers, classroom teachers, and volunteer coaches. To the extent that these interactions reduce fragmentation and allow academics and practitioners to act as equal partners in the process of problem setting and problem solving, they are offered as ways to “connect” in physical education and as a basis for professional integration.     

Classifying Korean adolescents’ career preparedness

Latent class analysis was used to examine the career preparation of 5,227 11th-grade Korean adolescents taken from the Korean Education Longitudinal Study of 2005 (KELS:2005). Three career preparedness groups were identified, to reflecting Skorikov’s (J Vocat Behav 70:8–24, 2007) conceptualization of career preparedness: prepared, confused, and unprepared. Most individual, family, and school factors selected for study were statistically significant predictors of group membership. Results provided insight about career decidedness and career planning from a Korean context.     

Surveying Adolescent Worries: Development of the ‘Things I Worry About’ Scale

Steve Decker, Anglia Polytechnic University, Death and Loss: Compassionate Approaches in the Classroom, Oliver Leaman. London: Cassell, 1995. 160pp. hb ISBN 0 304 33087 6, pb ISBN 0 304 33089 2, price not available

Alan Dodds, The Ferrers School, Rushden, Northamptonshire, Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do, Dan Olweus. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. 140pp. pb ISBN 0 631 19241 7

Richard Smith, Elliott School, London, Combating Truancy in Schools, Edith Le Riche. London: David Fulton/ The Roehampton Institute, 1995. 112pp. ISBN 1 85346 337, £11.95

Ron Best, Roehampton Institute, London, Psychology in the Classroom: Reconstructing Teachers and Learners, Phillida Salmon. London: Cassell, 1995. 98pp. hb ISBN 0 304 33254 2, £40.00, pb ISBN 0 204 33256 9, £12.99

David Lambourn, NAPCE Base, Warwick, Primary Teachers at Work, R. J. Campbell and S. R. St.J. Neill. London: Routledge, 1994. 252pp. pb ISBN 0 415 08863 1, £14.99     

Change in Myself-As-a-Learner Scale (MALS) scores as pupils transfer to and progress through secondary school

Longitudinal changes in pupils’ academic self-perception (as measured by Myself-As-a-Learner Scale [MALS]) were investigated between Year 6 and Year 10. The possibility of there being gender and attainment differences was also explored. There was a significant drop in mean MALS scores between Years 6 and 7. There was a further drop between Years 7 and 8 but this was small and not statistically significant. MALS scores remained largely stable between Years 7 and 10. Girls scored lower than boys on this measure and this difference reached significance in the Years 6 to 7 data. The results showed that higher attaining pupils (as measured by the Key Stage 2 levels in English, Maths and Science) had higher average MALS scores. Implications for the standardisation arrangements of the MALS test are discussed, with particular reference to the desirability to include norms to incorporate attainment, age and sex.     

Diversity policy in higher education: the impact of college students' exposure to diversity on cultural awareness and political participation

The current policy environment regarding affirmative action and diversity mandates in higher education makes it necessary to analyse the impact of exposure to diversity on the goals of higher education, including greater cultural awareness and the promotion of democratic citizenship. This essay discusses the findings of a study conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater - a regional, state university located in southeast Wisconsin enrolling approximately 10 000 students - in which students were asked about their attitudes and experiences regarding diversity. Regression analysis indicates that students with greater exposure to diversity in the form of college educational exposure, peer exposure and pre-college exposure had greater levels of cultural awareness and political participation.