The Development of Scientific Thinking in Elementary School: A Comprehensive Inventory

The development of scientific thinking was assessed in 1,581 second, third, and fourth graders (8‐, 9‐, 10‐year‐olds) based on a conceptual model that posits developmental progression from naïve to more advanced conceptions. Using a 66‐item scale, five components of scientific thinking were addressed, including experimental design, data interpretation, and understanding the nature of science. Unidimensional and multidimensional item response theory analyses supported the instrument's reliability and validity and suggested that the multiple components of scientific thinking form a unitary construct, independent of verbal or reasoning skills. A partial credit model gave evidence for a hierarchical developmental progression. Across each grade transition, advanced conceptions increased while naïve conceptions decreased. Independent effects of intelligence, schooling, and parental education on scientific thinking are discussed.     

Quality assurance and its impact from higher education institutions’ perspectives: methodological approaches,experiences and expectations

This paper reports on methodological approaches, experiences and expectations referring to impact analysis of quality assurance from the perspective of three higher education institutions (students, teaching staff, quality managers) from Germany, Finland and Romania. The presentations of the three sample institutions focus on discussing the core characteristics of quality assurance procedures applied and their expected and observed impacts, and how intended and non-intended undesirable ones are measured. It turns out that all sample institutions have already some instruments and sub-procedures in place for impact analysis of quality assurance and all of them are striving for further improvement by applying internal and external quality assurance procedures and impact analyses. Finally, a closer look at the recently revised Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area shows that the European sample institutions are on their way towards coherent quality assurance policies, while there is also room left for further improvement and investigation (for example, in implementing systematic methodologies of impact evaluation and quality policies in general).     

Social-Emotional Competence as Support for School Readiness: What Is It and How Do We Assess It?

The overall issue of assessment during early childhood, and its relation to school readiness and other decisions, is currently widely debated. Expanding early childhood education and child care enrollments, better scientific knowledge about early childhood development, and decisions about public spending, necessitate careful consideration of which assessment tools to use, as well as why and when to use them. More specifically, the disconnection between the importance of social and emotional domains of development, and their status within educational programming and assessment, has long been lamented. The last several years have, however, witnessed a blossoming of attention to these areas during early childhood, as crucial for both concurrent and later well-being and mental health, as well as learning and academic success. Teachers view children's “readiness to learn” and “teachability” as marked by positive emotional expressiveness, enthusiasm, and ability to regulate emotions and behaviors. Based on these assertions, I suggest a battery of preschool social-emotional outcome measures, tapping several constructs central to emotional and social competence theory, specifically emotional expression, emotion regulation, emotion knowledge, social problem solving, and positive and negative social behavior.     

Sportunterricht

Physical education is linked with hopes of health improvement. Especially for children and adolescents who are inactive in leisure, physical education (P.E.) is of great importance. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question whether the health status of inactive children and adolescents differs depending on the number of P.E. lessons attended. This question was analyzed with a sub-sample of the KiGGS (children and adolescents health survey) and MoMo (motoric module) studies of inactive subjects (n=310; age 7–17 years) who were classified into two groups depending on the number of P.E. lessons attended (up to 2 lessons/week; more than 2 lessons/week). Health status was assessed using questionnaires, motor performance tests and laboratory findings. Analyses of variance showed no significant differences between the two groups concerning health parameters.     

„Fördern und Entwickeln“

Dieser Beitrag untersucht Konzepte der Organisationsentwicklung einerseits als diskursives Ereignis im Foucaultschen Sinne und andererseits als institutionelle Handlungslogiken. Das hier zu untersuchende Wissen funktioniert auf normalisierende Weise. Es entwirft den „lebenslang lernenden Unternehmer seiner selbst“. Das „F?rdern und Entwickeln“ l?sst sich als Normalisierungswissen zur Steigerung der Leistungsf?higkeit von „Humanressourcen“ beschreiben, das innerhalb eines Machtdispositivs zur Geltung kommt. Dieses Machtdispositiv entspricht nicht mehr dem pyramidenf?migen Modell der Maschinenbürokratie, sondern dem netzf?rmigen Machtmodell des Organisationstypus „Markt“. Die Brücke zwischen Diskursanalyse und Organisationsforschung l?sst sich mittels eines Verfahrens „loser Kopplung“ schlagen. Auf der Ebene einer organisationssoziologischen Analyse lassen sich organisationstypische Varianzen des diskursanalytisch untersuchten „Drehbuchwissens“ feststellen. Verschiedene Organisationen nutzen dieses Wissensangebot auf verschiedene Weise. über die Singularit?t und Partikularit?t des Einzelfalles hinausgehend lassen sie sich in die Typologie von „Bürokratie“, „Clan“ und „Markt“ einbetten. In dieser Typologie nimmt das P?dagogische systematisch unterschiedliche Positionen ein. Die Position des „F?rderns und Entwickelns“ l?sst sich dem Organisationstypus „Markt“ zuordnen. Auf der Ebene eines diskursanalytischen Konstruktivismus hat die Organisation den Stellenwert des Ortes, an dem die Norm sich ausstellen kann.     

Learning together: a transdisciplinary approach to student–staff partnerships in higher education

ABSTRACT

Partnership in higher education has gained prominence over recent decades, but recent studies have identified a lack of research exploring how partnership practices unfold in specific disciplinary contexts. This article explores how a transdisciplinary approach can be used to better understand and facilitate student–staff partnerships where staff and students have diverse disciplinary backgrounds and knowledge. We present a case study of the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation at the University of Technology Sydney, focusing on the adaptation of our curriculum co-creation processes by drawing on multiple knowledge types through a reflexive process of mutual learning. We conclude that explicit consideration of these principles, which are common to both transdisciplinary and partnership frameworks, have the potential to enhance consideration of diverse perspectives and the roles played by worldviews, norms and values when building student–staff partnerships around curriculum co-creation.     

Attitudes and experiences of parents regarding inclusive and special school education for children with learning and intellectual disabilities

In a survey, 840 parents of children with cognitive deficits who were educated either in special schools or in inclusive classes were asked to assess their children's school experiences. The results showed an overall high degree of satisfaction with the schooling, but there were marked differences among the parents' assessments depending on the degree of learning disabilities and on the type of school. Satisfaction with their children's social experiences and satisfaction with the special education curriculum depend on these two factors. All in all, many parents of children in inclusive classes were satisfied with their children's schooling than those of children in special schools. The analysis of the causes for discontent showed that dissatisfied parents had chosen the type of school under less favourable conditions and a larger part of them are still not convinced of this necessity of additional help. This applied to parents of pupils in inclusive classes as well as to those of pupils in special schools. Furthermore, parents of children with German as a second language showed a higher degree of discontent than others.     

Crossing ‘boundaries’ with the collective girl: a poetic intervention into sex education

Feminist poststructuralist approaches to research can authorize different ways of working with different types of texts in search of insight into the discursive constitution of subjects. In this paper I undertake a close reading of women's memories about early sexual experiences generated in a small collective biography workshop. The collective poetic text that emerges from the workshop is analysed in terms of recent feminist sociological research on girls' experiences of (hetero)sex and in terms of Foucault's work on power. Analysis reveals the discursive complexity and deep (and often dangerous) contradictions through which girls negotiate their shifting subjectivities as they become sexual. My readings of this text imply that school sex education programs might attend more closely to the ambiguities of agency and desire experienced by adolescent subjects of the curriculum. Finally, I suggest that reflexive readings of our own (sexed) subjectivities can be productive professional development strategies for teachers of sex education.     

A domain-specific account of self-regulated learning: the cognitive and metacognitive activities involved in learning through historical inquiry

Educational researchers have recently begun to conceptualize theoretical constructs and mechanisms of metacognitive activities in terms of the features that are specific to particular academic domains and subject matter. In this paper, we propose a framework of domain-specific metacognition in relation to learning through historical inquiry. The framework postulates that students’ comprehension of historical events is mediated by a state of coherence in understanding the causes that explain why an event occurred. Comprehension breaks down when the causes that explain the occurrence of historical events are unknown, uncertain, or unreported. In order to reinstate coherence in understanding, students engage in cognitive and metacognitive activities in accordance with disciplinary-based practices. Drawing on the existing empirical evidence, we discuss how the study of self-regulatory processes contributes to our understanding of the challenges faced by students while learning about complex historical topics as well as the skills that are required to gain knowledge while investigating the past.     

Differences in Conversational Skills as a Function of Attachment Style: A Follow-up Study

A recent set of studies demonstrated that people evaluate their own and their partner's social skills differently as a function of attachment style. The present study extends this work by examining attachment-style differences in four conversational skills—expressiveness, composure, other-orientation, and interaction management—as rated by observers. To test for attachment-style differences, romantic couples were videotaped as they discussed relational problems or conflict issues. Based on a pretest, one of the romantic partners was targeted as representative of the secure, dismissive, fearful avoidant, or preoccupied attachment style. Two dimensions related to attachment—anxiety and avoidance—were also investigated in regard to their relations with conversational skills. Results suggest that the behavioral profiles largely reflect attachment theoretical assumptions for secures, dismissives, and fearful avoidants, and to a lesser extent, preoccupieds.