From activity to gestures and scientific language

Abstract: Gestures may provide the long sought‐for bridge between science laboratory experiences and scientific discourse about abstract entities. In this article, we present our results of analyzing students' gestures and scientific discourse by supporting three assertions about the relationship between laboratory experiences, gestures, and scientific discourse: (1) gestures arise from the experiences in the phenomenal world, most frequently express scientific content before students master discourse, and allow students to construct complex explanations by lowering the cognitive load; (2) gestures provide a medium on which the development of scientific discourse can piggyback; and (3) gestures provide the material that “glues” layers of perceptually accessible entities and abstract concepts. Our work has important implications for laboratory experiments which students should attempt to explain while still in the lab rather than afterwards and away from the materials. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 103–136, 2001     

Globalization and the freedom of knowledge

This article considers the transmission of knowledge in higher education. It takes the metaphor of the music industry that pre‐selects the music people can buy. The sales potential is the leading principle in the selection process. Often the small producer is excluded because his or her music is not of commercial interest. The end‐customer does not know what he or she is missing because he or she has never heard the music. It is to be feared that a similar market principle will also influence the selection of knowledge and affect the capacity of higher education institutions to freely generate and transmit new knowledge. The globalization of higher education risks homogenizing the cultural traditions of the non‐Western world through a process of Western cultural domination. On the other hand, the Internet, via open source software like LINUX, might serve to democratize higher education and allow greater grassroots input.     

Academic socialization,parental educational expectations,and academic self‐efficacy among Latino adolescents

This study examined the direct association between parental educational expectations and adolescents’ academic self‐efficacy, as well as the moderating influence of parental academic socialization messages. Participants were 148 Latino parent–adolescent dyads with the majority of Mexican origin (80.4%). Most of the parent participants were mothers (85.8%). Adolescents were 13 (46%) or 14 (54%) years of age, and 53% identified as female. Adolescents reported their academic self‐efficacy and perceptions of their parents’ educational expectations; parents reported on their academic socialization messages of shame/pressure and effort regarding academics. The results suggest that, after accounting for parents’ level of education and immigrant status, parental educational expectations were positively associated with adolescent academic self‐efficacy. This association was stronger among adolescents whose parents reported transmitting fewer messages of shame/pressure and academic effort. These results point to the importance of nuances in the content and type of academic socialization messages within Latino families.     

Community College Counseling: Why Are Research Outcomes So Elusive?

This article focuses on counseling research in the community college context. The article suggests the need for a robust community college knowledge base, describes some limitations of the current community college literature, and suggests a framework for more effective work in this area. The authors’ own experiences and selected examples of published studies are used as illustrations of the hurdles encountered and solutions available when examining counseling theories, practices, and outcomes in 2‐year settings.     

The Metamorphosis of Industrial Designers from Novices to Experts

Professional training for designers is crucial in the field of design studies. The characteristics of novices versus those of expert designers have been identified in the literature; however, studies exploring the issue of professional training processes in the actual workplace are not well developed. Our study addresses the topic by using qualitative research methods along with flexible design. Collected data from the interviewees with different work experience were analysed by open, axial and selective coding. Herein, we argue that the processes by which a designer transforms from a novice into an expert in the industry are constructed through the interaction of several complicated factors. The re‐learning inherent in design professions is implemented through knowledge transfer gained from participation in design projects, particularly regarding tacit knowledge. Also, the novice's process of learning and training yields the characteristics and skills that companies and firms require of designers; this process involves a series of disciplinary sub‐processes, from destructive to reconstructive, implemented by employers. In these sub‐processes, the subjectivity of designers is neglected, leading to the suppression of imaginative expression and feelings of alienation among these workers.     

‘Learning Style’: frameworks and instruments

In both education and training an important aspect of the design, development and delivery of learning is the role of individual differences between learners in terms of their ‘learning styles’. One may identify four broad categories of what have been termed ‘learning style’: (i) ‘cognitive personality elements’ (e.g. Witkin et al. 1977; Riding, 1991); (ii) ‘information‐processing style’ (e.g. Kolb, 1984; Honey & Mumford, 1992); (iii) ‘approaches to studying’ (e.g. Entwistle & Tait, 1994); (iv) ‘instructional preferences’ (e.g. Riechmann & Grasha, 1974). A study of 245 university undergraduates in business studies aimed to: (i) describe the range of individual differences present within the sample; (ii) investigate the relationship between learners’ cognitive styles, learning styles, approaches to studying and learning preferences; (iii) consider the implications of ‘learning style’ for teaching and learning in higher education. The present study suggested some overlap between the dimensions measured by the Learning Styles Questionnaire (Honey & Mumford, 1986; 1992) and the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (Entwistle & Tait, 1994). No statistically significant correlations were found between cognitive style, as measured by the Cognitive Styles Analysis (Riding, 1991) and any of the other ‘style’ constructs used. Further research is required to investigate these relationships, as is a large‐scale factor analytical study of the Honey and Mumford and Kolb instruments. The notions of whole brain functioning, integra‐tive approaches to studying and degree of learning activity are discussed.     

Examining the effect of positive behaviour support on academic achievement of students with disabilities

Students who engage in challenging behaviour compromise the fundamental ability of schools to educate children. Consequently, teachers face the daunting task of designing effective strategies to promote positive educational outcomes for their students. Since the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act amendments, the use of positive behaviour supports (PBS) to address the behavioural needs of children challenged by disabilities has expanded. There is evidence to support the utility of PBS in reducing challenging behaviour among students. However, successful schools are also gauged by the academic achievement of their students. Hence, it is important to examine the extent to which behavioural outcomes are related to academic outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which PBS interventions aimed at reducing challenging behaviour result in corresponding improvement in academic achievement. A meta‐analysis of extant research indicated a positive correlation of 0.40 between improvement in problem behaviour and academic achievement. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/c9OUU0GkGrw .     

Family Instability and Young Children's School Adjustment: Callousness and Negative Internal Representations as Mediators

This study examined the mediating roles of children's callousness and negative internal representations of family relationships in associations between family instability and children's adjustment to school in early childhood. Participants in this multimethod (i.e., survey, observations), multiinformant (i.e., parent, teacher, observer), longitudinal study included 243 preschool children (M_age = 4.60 years) and their families. Findings from the lagged, autoregressive tests of the mediational paths indicated that both children's callousness and negative internal representations of family relationships mediated longitudinal associations between family instability and children's school adjustment problems over a 2‐year period (i.e., the transition from preschool to first grade). Findings are discussed in relation to the attenuation hypothesis (E. J. Susman, 2006) and emotional security theory (EST; P. T. Davies, M. A. Winter, & D. Cicchetti, 2006).