Making Connections: Learning and Teaching Chemistry in Context

Even though several studies have reported positive attitudinal outcomes from context-based chemistry programs, methodological obstacles have prevented researchers from comparing satisfactorily the chemistry-learning outcomes between students who experience a context-based program with those who experience a content-driven program. In this narrative inquiry we are able to address the question: how do the recalled experiences of a student and her teacher in context-based and concept-based chemistry programs compare? From the student’s unique perspective of experiencing both programs with the same teacher, we have constructed our collective account around four themes; namely, the extent to which the student makes connections between chemistry concepts and real-world contexts, developing research independence through engaging in extended experimental investigations related to contexts, learning chemistry concepts through contexts, and conceptual sequencing in a context-based program. The student reported real-world connections between chemistry concepts and contexts, found her engagement in the context-driven tasks interesting and productive, and identified connected sequences of concepts across the contexts studied. Despite difficulties for teachers who are required to shift pedagogies, the student’s lived experiences and outcomes from a context-based program provide some encouragement in working through these issues.     

Theorising the academic viva in higher education: the argument for a qualitative approach

The argument made in this essay is that it is necessary to theorize a form of assessment—the academic viva in higher education. It is threatened with extinction because of its high cost compared with written exams, multiple choice and other forms of assessment. However, little empirical research, both in Norway and internationally, has been undertaken to reveal what is actually going on in the viva. This has partly been because it has been difficult to gain access to systematically observe the viva examination as it takes place. In the qualitative research presented by the author, on the higher education viva in Norway, permission was obtained to film a number of master’s in education vivas where candidates defended 50,000‐word dissertations. Three research questions were asked: how was the viva talked into being, what kinds of judgements were made by examiners, and, lastly, what would a validity argument look like for the viva? Answering these research questions moves some way to proposing a theory of the viva and hence providing a foundation for determining whether its continued existence is legitimate, at least from a theoretical and qualitatively researched point of view.     

Effortful Control, Surgency, and reading skills in middle childhood

We examined the associations between components of temperament and children’s word and pseudo-word reading skills, in a school-age sample using a within-family internal-replication design. We estimated the statistical prediction of word and pseudo-word reading in separate regression equations that included the main effects of, and two-way interaction between, Surgency and Effortful Control. Children with better Effortful Control scores showed better reading skills. Surgency was unrelated to reading skills, but moderated the effect of Effortful Control. The positive association between reading skills and Effortful Control was present only for children who were low in Surgency. Thus, reading achievement in school-age children is optimized by strong Effortful Control, but these processes may be disrupted for those children who are high in Surgency.     

Growing where you are planted: Exogenous firms and the seeding of Silicon Valley

What are the respective roles of indigenous and exogenous factors in the development of high-tech regions? Entrepreneurs and their start-ups have dominated Silicon Valley's economy in recent decades, but a different dynamic was at work from 1940 to 1965, when the Valley emerged as a formidable high-tech region. In key industries (electronics, semiconductors, computers, and aerospace) that defined Silicon Valley as a high-tech cluster during that period, companies based elsewhere played critical roles in planting the organizations that would - through the innovations they made, the technical talent they attracted, and the start-ups they spun off - help make the Valley the world's most admired and emulated high-tech region.     

A willingness to be vulnerable: norm psychology and human–robot relationships

Ethics and Information Technology - Should we welcome social robots into interpersonal relationships? In this paper I show that an adequate answer to this question must take three factors into...     

Interstimulus interval and viewing time effects in monkey list memory

Two rhesus monkeys were tested in 6- and 10-item list memory tasks for performance changes as a function of the exposure duration of the list stimuli and the interstimulus interval (ISI) between successive list stimuli. Accuracy increased with longer item exposure duration and tended to decrease with longer ISI duration. Humans, by contrast, typically show increases in accuracy with ISI, a result taken as evidence of rehearsal. The decrease in accuracy for monkeys suggests that they were not using rehearsal processes in these list memory experiments. Further tests in which choice accuracy with predictable ISIs was compared with choice accuracy with unpredictable ISIs also yielded no evidence of rehearsal by the monkeys. This apparent absence of rehearsal mechanisms in monkeys, in situations also shown to support human rehearsal, is discussed as a potential difference in the visual working memory processes of the two species.     

The Development and Design of a Framework to Match Mentees and Mentors Through a Systematic Review andThematic Analysis of Mentoring Programs Between 2000 and 2015

ABSTRACT

The need for longitudinal and holistic support of medical students throughout their training has led to the development of formal mentoring programs. Whilst success of formal mentoring programs has been attributed to (a) pairing mentees with trained and experienced mentors (matching), (b) the quality of mentoring interactions and (c) the presence of a nurturing environment, little attention has been attributed to establishing an effective matching process in medical school. We sought, in this review, to redress this gap within the context of matching medical students for mentoring. Modified PRISMA guidelines were followed to guide the review process. PubMed, ERIC, Cochrane Database, OVID and ScienceDirect databases were searched for articles on matching in medical schools and in allied health specialities published between 2000 and 2015.     

M.A.S.S.: A Model for Producing Transfer

Transfer is the application in the workplace of the knowledge, skills and attitudes learned in training. With transfer, trainers hope to link training to increased job performance. However, training alone will not produce transfer. To affect job performance as a result of training, trainers must intentionally promote transfer using a variety of strategies based on known principles of human performance technology. The MASS model, presented in this paper, brings together four of these principles. According to the MASS model, trainers who promote transfer (and who thereby become performance technologists) 1) Motivate trainees to learn and use the training material; 2) increase trainees' Awareness of when to use new skills and ideas; 3) enable trainees to master and to apply Skills; and 4) give trainees psychological and physical Support on the job. When performance technologists follow the MASS model, they can expect to produce trainees who apply at work what they have been taught in training. Use of the model is illustrated with two examples.