Nature watch

Deer are some of the commonest, most visible, and attractive mammals in many forests and grasslands of India. They display a fascinating variety in their antlers, social systems, herd-forming behaviour, and ecology. Unfortunately, several factors have brought some species to the brink of extinction today.     

Interpersonal and relational orientation among pre-service educators: differential effects on attitudes toward inclusion of students with disabilities

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the extent to which pre-service educators’ interpersonal characteristics affected their attitudes toward teaching students with disabilities (inclusion), as measured by the FIRO-B and ATIES pre- and post-course. The FIRO-B was administered to assess expressed and wanted aspects of three interpersonal needs: personal inclusion, affection and control. The ATIES was administered to measure attitudes toward classroom inclusion of students with physical, academic, behavioral and social disabilities. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed a main effect for wanted inclusion and an interaction effect for expressed inclusion and expressed affection on attitudes toward classroom inclusion. Ultimately, these findings reveal how unique relational characteristics may influence preparation initiatives and may encourage consideration of how individual factors may mediate teacher training and preparation.     

How do people read the passages during a reading comprehension test? The effect of reading purpose on text processing behavior

In this study, we investigate the effect of reading purpose on students’ processing behavior during a reading comprehension test. In a repeated measures design, sixty undergraduates answered multiple-choice (MC) reading comprehension questions in a condition with no overarching goal for reading and in an alternate condition where the same students were first provided with the goal of summarizing the text before answering MC questions. Results from eye tracking analysis showed that when students read and answered questions without an overarching goal, they spent much less time reading the passages before answering the questions, more time re-reading the texts while answering the questions, and more time on parts of the text that were not necessary to answer the questions. We conclude that providing examinees without an explicit goal for reading may inadvertently encourage a “search for the answer” reading process, rather than on building a coherent mental model of text content.     

Using Statistical Control Charts to Analyze Data from Student Evaluations of Teaching

In this paper, a method for analyzing data from student evaluations of teaching is presented. The first step of the process requires development of a regression model for teacher's summary rating as a function of student's expected grade. Then, two‐sigma control charts for individual evaluation scores (section averages) and residuals from the regression model are used to identify both excellent and poor outcomes. The performance of an individual whose scores are out of control on both charts cannot be explained by expected grade and therefore is worthy of note.     

Teenage pregnancy: a small comparison group of known mothers

To obtain confirmation of the findings of the authors' earlier comparison of ever-pregnant and nonpregnant Black high school students from Tennessee, 16 students confirmed to be pregnant were substituted for the 33 subjects in the original study whose pregnancy status was based solely on self-report. The nonpregnant control group of 251 teens was utilized in both analyses. Although the confirmed pregnant group was too small to repeat the regression analysis, striking concordance of findings between the 2 studies emerged for all dependent variables except the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire anxiety scale. The lower anxiety scores recorded among subjects in the original study may be either a statistical artifact or a reflection of the fact that these pregnant teens remained in school while subjects in the second study were enrolled in programs centered around their pregnant status. Sexual activity scores were strong or moderate significantly more often in both groups of pregnant teens compared to their nonpregnant counterparts. Interesting was the finding that 81% of pregnant teens regarded romance novels and soap operas to be accurate portrayals of real-life dating relationships compared to only 49% of nonpregnant teens. On the other hand, only 56% of the pregnant subjects regarded their own relationships to have this romantic quality. In a future study, the role of such uncritical romantic ideals in adolescent pregnancy risk will be investigated in a larger sample.     

A content analysis of the presentation of the mole concept in chemistry textbooks

The goal of this study was to examine the means used by textbook authors to introduce, define, and explain the mole concept in high school and introductory college chemistry textbooks. The analysis was framed by four questions:

• 1 How is the mole defined?
• 2 What concepts about the atom are introduced prior to the mole?
• 3 Is Avogadro's constant presented as an experimentally determined value?
• 4 What is the context for introducing the mole?

Twenty-nine high school and introductory college level chemistry texts were examined. After independent reading of appropriate sections of each text, discussion of differences, second or third readings of texts, and subsequent discussions, both authors reach 100% agreement concerning the results. Major conclusions were

• 1 Two ways of defining the mole dominate the texts. One way defines the mole as Avogadro's number (6.02 × 10²³) particles; the other method defines the mole in terms of carbon-12.
• 2 All texts that present a definition in terms of C-12 introduce and define concepts about the atom prior to introducing the mole.
• 3 Most texts at all levels point out that the value 6.02 × 10²³ is an experimentally determined quantity.
• 4 Nearly all texts discuss the mole in relation to die problem of finding a way to count particles that are too small to be directly weighed. Most texts also use a familiar counting unit, such as the dozen, to introduce the mole by analogy.

Four issues were discussed: (a) the defining attributes of the mole concept itself and the cognitive requirements for comprehending the two most frequently used definitions; (b) the connection between the definition of the mole presented in the text and the concepts about atoms that are introduced before the mole concept is developed; (c) the experimental nature of Avogadro's number; and (d) the context or setting for developing the mole concept.     

Multiple Dimensions of Instructional Effectiveness in Reading: A Review of Classroom Observation Studies and Implications for Special Education Classrooms

The purpose of this study was to review and analyze effective classroom reading practices for early graders, using information gathered from the existing content-general and content-specific observation protocols measuring teachers’ classroom reading practices. Dimensions and constructs from 28 observation studies were synthesized to identify classroom instructional practices that have positive impacts on student achievement. Findings revealed that (a) instructional support, emotional support, and classroom management have positive impacts on student achievement, (b) the degree to which instructional practices are effective depends on students’ particular learning needs, and (c) students’ entering skills and primary language are associated with instructional effectiveness in reading. Challenges and implications for future research on effective instructional strategies for special education and the development of an observational protocol for special education teacher effectiveness are discussed.     

Strategic transfer: A tool for academic problem solving

Within the context of classroom learning, strategic transfer can be viewed as a tool for academic problem solving. Strategic transfer is defined as the spontaneous access and retrieval (remembering) of previously learned formal procedures for the successful solution of a problem. The transfer-appropriate processing encoding model (Morris, Bransford, and Franks, 1977), and the transfer-appropriate procedures retrieval model (Roediger, Weldon, and Challis, 1989) are reviewed. An integration of the two models is proposed through the development of a training-for-transfer paradigm (Phye, 1990). By integrating encoding and retrieval processing in a single transfer paradigm the issue of accessing prior knowledge (Bransford, 1990) that is also referred to as the inert knowledge problem (Whitehead, 1929) can directly be addressed.