Learning qualitative and quantitative reasoning in a microworld for elastic impacts

From a psychological point of view efficient teaching by means of an intelligent tutoring system necessarily involves that the communication of knowledge is adapted to the requirements of the learner: to her cognitive abilities, her pre-instructional knowledge and her learning capabilities. To tackle these topics in a precise way, we have developed the artificial-intelligence-based microworld DiBi (disk billiard) and MULEDS, a multi-level diagnosis system. The microworld DiBi sets up a learning environment which simulates elastic impacts as a subtopic of classical mechanics. DiBi enables and supports reasoning on different levels of mental domain representation ordered along the dimension ‘qualitative/quantitative’. This way of representing the domain provides a basis for passive adaptation in an advanced way. Correspondingly, active adaptation is supported by MULEDS, wherein student modeling is realized by assessing the student’s correct and/or incorrect domain-specific knowledge at these different levels. Within this psychological perspective, the use of instructional tools, such as the microworld DiBi and the computerized diagnosis system MULEDS, aims at gradually supporting and guiding the student in the construction of more and more powerful an sound domain representations. The progression through these levels of domain representation will enable the student to solve the problems posed by the domain in a flexible way.     

Follow-up of a preschool epidemiological sample: cross-age continuities and predictions of later adjustment with internalizing and externalizing dimensions of behavior

The continuity of behavioral adjustment from preschool through elementary school and junior high school years was examined. 541 children aged 9-15 years from a preschool epidemiological study were relocated and behavior checklist data obtained. Analyses focused on the relationship between internalizing and externalizing behavior dimensions from the preschool to follow-up periods. It was found that preschool externalizing symptoms were positively correlated with later externalizing and internalizing symptoms in the entire sample. Preschool internalizing symptoms, however, were predictive of later internalizing symptoms only for 2-year-old girls and 5- and 6-year-old boys. Similar results were obtained for clinically disturbed preschoolers. Results are consistent with previous findings regarding the longitudinal continuity of externalizing behavior but are at odds with reports of equal or greater stability of internalizing behavior. Given the magnitude of obtained correlations, even when significant, the results support the view that discontinuity rather than continuity in behavioral adjustment from preschool to later ages is the rule. The importance of examining other mediating variables in the prediction of behavioral adjustment and the need for models of development that encompass both stability and change are discussed.     

Early tracking and different types of inequalities in achievement: difference-in-differences evidence from 20 years of large-scale assessments

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Research to date on the effects of between-school tracking on inequalities in achievement and on performance has been inconclusive. A...     

When learning from animations is more successful than learning from static pictures: learning the specifics of change

The results of three meta-analyses show that the effectiveness of learning from animations, when compared to learning from static pictures, is rather limited. A recent re-analysis of one of these meta-analyses, however, supports that learning from animations is considerably more effective than learning from static pictures if the specifics of the displayed changes need to be learned. In order to further validate this finding as well as to clarify the educational strengths and weaknesses of animations and static pictures, an experimental study with three groups was conducted. Overall, 88 university students participated in the study. One group of learners (n?=?30) watched a single picture of a gear mechanism, one group of learners (n?=?28) watched four pictures, and one group of learners (n?=?30) watched an animation. All groups had to identify specific motions and spatial arrangements covered by the gear mechanism. While learners who watched the animation exhibited the best performance with respect to the identification of motions, learners who watched the pictures showed the best performance with respect to the identification of spatial arrangements. The effect sizes are large. The results of the study help to clarify when animations and when static pictures are most suitable for learning.

     

Clarity and coherence of lesson goals as a scaffold for student learning

The article addresses clarity and coherence of lesson goals as a scaffold for student learning. In 13 physics classes video recordings of the introductory lesson of two topics were rated with respect to clarity and coherence of the lesson structure. HLM analyses showed a positive effect of classes with high goal clarity and coherence on the students' reports on supportive learning conditions, self-determined learning motivation and organising learning activities. Over the course of a school year high goal clarity and coherence resulted in a positive competence development. No effect was found for individual interest development.     

The retention and success of under-represented groups in a Bachelor of Education program in New Zealand

For several decades researchers have raised questions regarding factors that enable undergraduate students, particularly those from ethnic minority groups living in low socio-economic areas, to persist with their studies to degree completion. Seeking answers to these questions becomes more urgent as universities around the world enrol increasingly diverse cohorts of students. This article reviews the patterns of participation and success for students enrolled in a Bachelor of Education program at one university, distributed across three different locations and attracting different cohorts of students. This provided the university with a unique opportunity to learn about the retention and success of diverse cohorts, particularly those traditionally under-represented at undergraduate-level study. At least 75% of students in the under-represented groups passed their courses. Surprisingly the pass rates of students at the three campuses were similar, despite dissimilarities in ethnicity, socio-economic status and previous academic success.     

Structural, ecological, and psychosocial variables of schooling and their impact on the development of student's self-concept

This chapter deals with the development of student's self-concept in the school context. Using a Systems approach main categories and structural aspects of self-concept and its relation to other variables in the educational field are described. Self-concept is discussed with regard to an ecological perspective by analyzing its relation to variables like social climate, class-size, and reference norms. Under a developmental perspective it is shown that variables of schooling not only produce quantitative changes of self-concept, but also qualitative changes. As a conclusion an integrative view of self-concept development is presented, according to which four developmental levels are distinguished.     

Dissonant Voices: The teacher's 'personal' in women's studies

This article grows directly from a collaborative project on the pedagogies of women's studies at the College of Ripon and York, and the University of York, and from the presentation given at the Gender and Education conference at the University of Warwick in April 1999. It is presented as a dialogue which polarises two voices considering a variety of positions adopted by tutors of women's studies in relation to their students, and, in particular, the ways in which the personhood of the tutor is implicit - or implicated - in the praxis of feminist teaching. Rather than moving to any synthesis or resolution of the apparently binary positions voiced, the article goes on to question the notion that the personal is always necessarily good and beneficial within feminist pedagogy, and to posit the liberatory potential of the impersonal for our teaching and our feminism.