Gender Differences in High‐school Students’ Views about Science

This study examined gender differences in 79 high‐school students’ attitudes towards their science classes, their perceptions of science and scientists, and their views about majoring in science. The study identified some of the subtleties underlying females’ low participation in, and interest in, science documented in previous research. Four themes emerged from responses on the rating scales and questionnaire. First, even when females planned to major in science, they were more interested than males in the people‐oriented aspects of their planned majors. Second, biology was the one exception to females’ low interest in science. Third, females often planned a science major mainly because they needed a science background in order to enter a health profession such as medicine or physical therapy. Fourth, females generally found science uninteresting and the scientific lifestyle (as perceived by them) unattractive. Implications for teaching science were discussed.     

Data in Motion: Sports as a site for expansive learning

ABSTRACT

Background and Context

Sports and technology are often pitted as being at odds with one another. While there are several educational activities that make reference to sports we seldom see sports used as an authentic context for learning computing.     

Children born at risk: What's happening in kindergarten?

Many studies examine the development of infants born at risk for medical and developmental problems during the early years of life, but far fewer follow these children into their school years. This project compared high-risk vs. low-risk children in their performance on the WPPSI at pre- and postkindergarten levels. In general, both groups of children demonstrated increases in performance; however, their patterns of performance were different. The high-risk children showed increases predominantly in the Performance areas of the test, whereas the low-risk children demonstrated increases predominantly in the Verbal areas.     

Secondary school experiences of individuals with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder: perspectives of parents and their children

The purpose of this study was to examine persistence in school among students with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) from the perspectives of the students themselves and their parents. Tinto’s (1975 Tinto, V. 1975. Dropout from higher education: a theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 45(1): 89–125. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1997 Tinto, V. 1997. Classrooms as communities: exploring the educational character of student persistence. Journal of Higher Education, 68(6): 599–623. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Student Integration Model (SIM) provided the theoretical framework for this research. This model involves an interplay between (1) background characteristics and attributes affecting the level of goal commitment, (2) level of academic integration, and (3) level of social integration into the institution that determine whether or not a student will graduate. The findings showed limited support for Tinto’s SIM and that parental advocacy is strongly linked with persistence among adolescents with FASD. A new model showing the parents’ role in encouraging persistence through their actions at home and advocacy at the schools is presented.     

Design Pedagogy for an Unknown Future: A View from the Expanding Field of Design Scholarship and Professional Practice

This article draws on current research investigating the notion of design for an unknown future. It reflects on recent thinking about the role of creativity in design practice and discusses implications for the development and assessment of creativity in the design studio. It begins with a review of literature on the issues and challenges associated with the assessment of creativity in design education. It then discusses and distinguishes three significant assessment models in design and creative arts education and emphasises the importance of opening debate on notions of creativity within the discipline. Following this, the article examines recent developments in the way that creativity is being practised, driven, fostered and implemented in contemporary design practice, and argues that these recent developments must feature in current scholarship about the development and assessment of creativity in design education. The article recommends areas for future research that pay close attention to developments in the rapidly expanding field of design practice.     

Writing evaluation: rater and task effects on the reliability of writing scores for children in Grades 3 and 4

We examined how raters and tasks influence measurement error in writing evaluation and how many raters and tasks are needed to reach a desirable level of .90 and .80 reliabilities for children in Grades 3 and 4. A total of 211 children (102 boys) were administered three tasks in narrative and expository genres, respectively, and their written compositions were evaluated in widely used evaluation methods for developing writers: holistic scoring, productivity, and curriculum-based writing scores. Results showed that 54 and 52% of variance in narrative and expository compositions were attributable to true individual differences in writing. Students’ scores varied largely by tasks (30.44 and 28.61% of variance), but not by raters. To reach the reliability of .90, multiple tasks and raters were needed, and for the reliability of .80, a single rater and multiple tasks were needed. These findings offer important implications about reliably evaluating children’s writing skills, given that writing is typically evaluated by a single task and a single rater in classrooms and even in some state accountability systems.     

The contributions of vocabulary and letter writing automaticity to word reading and spelling for kindergartners

In the present study we examined the relation between alphabet knowledge fluency (letter names and sounds) and letter writing automaticity, and unique relations of letter writing automaticity and semantic knowledge (i.e., vocabulary) to word reading and spelling over and above code-related skills such as phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge. These questions were addressed using data from 242 English-speaking kindergartners and employing structural equation modeling. Results showed letter writing automaticity was moderately related to and a separate construct from alphabet knowledge fluency, and marginally (p = .06) related to spelling after accounting for phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge fluency, and vocabulary. Furthermore, vocabulary was positively and uniquely related to word reading and spelling after accounting for phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge fluency, and letter writing automaticity.     

Girls Helping Girls: Assessing the Influence of College Student Mentors in an Afterschool Engineering Program

Current data suggest fewer females than males continue to be interested in engineering and that this gender gap is first evidenced during middle school years. One might expect that female engineering role models would encourage adolescent girls to pursue future careers in engineering and thereby increase the girls’ interests in and attitudes towards science and mathematics. This study sought to correlate middle school girls’ overall confidence in science and mathematics with a year-long, afterschool mentoring program led by female engineering students from a local university. The results demonstrated that there was a significant correlation between the quality of the mentoring relationship and the girls’ confidence in mathematics. The relationship between female role models and young girls’ attitudes toward science and mathematics is discussed.     

Use of Decontextualized Talk Across Story Contexts: How Oral Storytelling and Emergent Reading Can Scaffold Children's Development

This study examined 33 mothers' and preschoolers' oral language skills (decontextualized discourse) across an emergent reading, shared reading, and oral storytelling interaction. The sample comprised primarily African American families from various socioeconomic backgrounds, ranging from Head Start families to middle-income families. Two measures of decontextualized language were assessed—literate language features and type of talk (i.e., a coding scheme categorizing comments/questions on a continuum from contextualized to decontextualized talk). Mothers used more decontextualized language during the oral storytelling interaction versus the other interactions, but children used more during the emergent reading interaction. Mothers with advanced literacy skills were more likely to make decontextualized comments/questions and use mental/linguistic verbs during the interactions. Results are discussed in terms of implications for parent-child home literacy interventions.