Students’ individual schematization pathways - empirical reconstructions for the case of part-of-part determination for fractions

According to the design principle of progressive schematization, learning trajectories towards procedural rules can be organized as independent discoveries when the learning arrangement invites the students first to develop models for mathematical concepts and model-based informal strategies; then to explore the strategies and to discover pattern for progressively developing procedural rules. This article contributes to the theoretical and empirical foundation of the design principle of progressive schematization by empirically investigating students’ individual schematization pathways on the micro-level for the specific case of part-of-part determination of fractions. In design experiments series in laboratory settings, nine pairs of sixth graders explored the part-of-part determination and progressively schematized their graphical strategies before discovering the procedural rule. The qualitative in-depth analysis of 760 min of video shows that progressive schematization is a multi-facetted process that cannot be described by internalization of graphical procedures alone. Instead, the compaction of concepts- and theorems-in-action is crucial, especially for the goal of justifiable procedural rules.     

Simulating the global workplace for graduate employability

Higher education institutions increasingly recognise the need to develop both disciplinary knowledge and soft skills to foster the employability of their graduates. For students in International Studies programmes, the workplace opportunities to develop soft skills relevant to their intended professions are scarce, costly and unavailable to many. This paper argues that universities can harness the power of ICTs in ways that students find engaging and offer opportunities to gain professional experience that prepares them for an international workplace. We describe a new work-integrated learning model that embeds a multi-layered in-person simulation within an academic context. Facilitated by cross-national pedagogical collaboration, students participate live in cross-campus experiential learning with online peers. Students’ reflections on the model indicate that this model can foster a range of generic soft skills that enable them to apply their academic knowledge, collaborate with a culturally diverse group and work in a digital world. To refine this blended learning model, more attention needs to be paid to designing appropriate evaluation tools and harnessing cultural diversity more effectively.     

Urban African American Children's Prerogative at Home and School

The study replicates a previous investigation done with middle class children to examine their conceptions of prerogative and restriction, Weber (1999). For the present study, forty nine first, third and fifth grade children who were primarily African American, were drawn from two public schools in a small aging midwestern industrial city. They participated in two interviews which elicited responses concerning personal prerogative at home and school. The children identified areas of prerogative in both settings. They distinguished between personal and conventional issues at school. Children's claims to prerogative appeared to increase with age, as did the amount of disagreement and conflict over such issues. There appeared to be a flattening out of opportunity at school however, that did not occur at home. Unlike the middle class sample, these children sometimes used prudential and punishment reasoning to justify restrictions. Direct responses from the children clearly indicated that school should be different from home in prerogative offered them. They appeared to accept more narrow and rigid boundaries at school with little reservation. The totality of the children's responses, however, suggests the possibility of more complex attitudes. The flattening of provision at school, combined with some presence of punishment reasoning, suggests that there may be some interesting differences in approach between middle class and working class schools.     

The status of Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA): Adherence to standard practice in FBA methodology

The application of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) has become increasingly visible in school settings since its inclusion in the 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Despite the mandate for FBAs within the educational program of students with disabilities displaying behavior problems, the federal government put forth guidelines that made what constituted an FBA subject to interpretation. Many states have assumed the responsibility of establishing policy for completing FBAs. This investigation examined the resources acquired or developed and disseminated by each of the 50 states for FBA completion and compared the information from these resources to standard practice for FBA and functional analysis (FA). © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 737–744, 2005.     

Reading teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature and English phonology

We investigated relationships among elementary teachers’ reading-related content knowledge (knowledge of literature and phonology), their philosophical orientation toward reading instruction, their classroom practice, and their students’ learning. Correlations showed little relationship between instructional philosophy and content knowledge, and little relationship between instructional philosophy and classroom practice. However, relationships emerged between content knowledge and instruction, and between kindergarten teachers’ phonological knowledge and their students’ reading achievement. We recommend that the recent focus on teacher’s disciplinary knowledge be broadened to include teachers of beginning reading and that teachers be afforded opportunities to develop the necessary knowledge base to teach reading effectively.     

Examining the relationship between emotion variability,self-regulated learning,and task performance in an intelligent tutoring system

Educational technology research and development - Prior research has focused extensively on how emotion tendencies (e.g., duration, frequency, intensity, and valence) affect students’...     

Writing reviews: perspectives from the editors of Educational Studies in Mathematics

Educational Studies in Mathematics -     

Supporting medical decision making with argumentation tools

This study investigated the collaborative decision-making and communicative discourse of groups of learners engaged in a simulated medical emergency in two conditions. In one condition subgroups used a traditional whiteboard (TW group) to document medical arguments on how to solve a medical emergency. In the other condition subgroups used interactive whiteboards (IW group) where they could document their medical arguments by using a structured template for constructing, annotating and sharing arguments. The discourse of each group was coded with respect to decision-making and communicative activities. The research goal was to identify relationships between the decision-making and collaborative discourse under the two conditions. The IW condition differed from the TW condition in that participants engaged in more adaptive decision-making behavior early on in the intervention. This early engagement led to shared understandings and subsequently to more effective patient management. Group differences were also found in the types of collaborative discourse and the IW groups produced more productive argumentation.     

‘Am I sexually abused?’ Consent in a coach-athlete lesbian relationship

Elite-athlete Karin was 17 years old when the considerably older team coach Selma became her girlfriend. Responding to calls to prevent harm and sexual abuse in sport, this study represents Karin’s story, investigates how she makes sense of her coach–athlete sexual relationship, and analyses what can be learnt about consent. Although sexual consent is often the defining criterion of sexual abuse, consent is rarely explicitly defined or its social implications examined. Moreover, there are no studies on coach–athlete lesbian or gay relationships despite sexual minority vulnerability. The interview with Karin was analysed using narrative case study methods; represented as a short story and discussed in reference to sexual consent theory. The analysis outlines contextual factors conditioning the negotiation of consent and problematises heteronormative, gendered perpetrator and victim stereotypes. Secrecy, alienation and isolation is recognised, extending into additional vulnerability inflicted on socially problematic and atypical coach–athlete relationships. In conclusion, social implications of consent are more complex than yes/no to sex or inherent incapability to consent. Consent is multi-layered, alternately absent and present; an ongoing process that includes compromises, contradictions and (re)negotiations influenced by structure and agency. Further research examining a diversity of sexual experiences among majorities and minorities is proposed.     

Creativity,Complexity and Self‐similarity: The Vision of the Fractal University

Creativity and communication processes in engineering education have become more and more necessary in highly complex structures such as technological networks and ‘virtual’ reality. These issues also include an educational challenge for university: all education for the future has to be based on experiencing reality. A new socio‐technical approach describes the engineering profession in all aspects beside technology, such as tasks, views, organizational structures or cooperation. Therefore, university and higher education have to change into self‐similar structures to support the learning of complexity in real life. The experiences of the Department of Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Technology in Aachen, as a socio‐technical, self‐similar and creative system, show such learning processes of students (and staff) in undergraduate education, research and organizational structures.