Using the Bifocal Modeling Framework to Resolve “Discrepant Events” Between Physical Experiments and Virtual Models in Biology

In this paper, we investigate an approach to supporting students’ learning in science through a combination of physical experimentation and virtual modeling. We present a study that utilizes a scientific inquiry framework, which we call “bifocal modeling,” to link student-designed experiments and computer models in real time. In this study, a group of high school students designed computer models of bacterial growth with reference to a simultaneous physical experiment they were conducting, and were able to validate the correctness of their model against the results of their experiment. Our findings suggest that as the students compared their virtual models with physical experiments, they encountered “discrepant events” that contradicted their existing conceptions and elicited a state of cognitive disequilibrium. This experience of conflict encouraged students to further examine their ideas and to seek more accurate explanations of the observed natural phenomena, improving the design of their computer models.     

The effects of organizational factors on student ratings and perceived instruction

The objective of this study is to explore a) which dimension of student ratings and which aspects of perceived instruction are affected by the two organizational factors, enrollment size and academic affiliation, and b) the nature of their effect. Two thousand five hundred students participating in 125 courses evaluated their instructors on Q-1 Evaluation of Instruction by Students. The 125 evaluated instructors responded to Q-2 Perception of own Instruction indicating the extent to which they employ various teaching planning and strategy attributes (TPS). Major findings suggest that academic affiliation has no effect on student ratings yet affects abstract aspects of perceived instruction. Instructors of the social sciences, unlike those of the humanities, manifest a vocational outlook in their instruction planning. Data indicate that enrollment size has an effect on the dimensions of student ratings and the perceived instruction, referring to concrete aspects of teaching. Students participating in small classes are more critical of instruction than those in larger classes. The nature of its effect on perceived instruction is mainly in terms of practical solutions of teaching methods and strategies and is hardly manifested in the planning phase of instruction. The relevance of these findings to university administrators is also discussed.     

The Macro- and Micropolitics of Personnel Evaluation: A Framework

In this article, the authors explicate a conceptual framework for analyzing the politics of personnel evaluation in an educational context. Using several elements of their framework, they discuss the politics of teacher evaluation in California in relation to the types of personnel evaluation decisions, the actors, their access to these decisions, their sources and level of power, and the outcomes related to their decisions. The authors further portray how politics enters into personnel evaluation at the district level by describing an actual case.     

The Role of Gender-related Information and Self-Endorsement of Traits in Preadolescents' Inferences and Judgments

The major purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a target child's gender typicality on different aspects of preadolescents' inferences and judgments. The secondary purpose of the study was to investigate the relation between children's self-endorsement of traits and their inferences and judgments. Fifth and sixth graders were shown a video film, portraying a child playing either a gender-appropriate game with members of the same sex or a gender-inappropriate game with members of the other sex. In addition, subjects completed an adapted version of the BSRI and were categorized into sex-typed, androgynous, and undifferentiated subjects. Subjects made a number of different types of judgments and inferences about the target, including inferences about traits, popularity, choice of gift and name, and willingness to engage in activities with the target. All types of inferences and judgments were affected by the variations in the targets' gender-related behaviors, whereas self-endorsement of traits was not related to the inferences and judgments. The results suggest that the gender typicality of the target behavior is salient to preadolescents, regardless of their sex-role orientation.     

Teaching primary science: emotions, identity and the use of practical activities

This paper uses cultural historical activity theory to examine the interactions between the choices primary teachers make in the use of practical activities in their teaching of science and the purposes they attribute to these; their emotions, background and beliefs; and the construction of their identities as teachers of science. It draws on four case studies of science lessons taught over a term by four exemplary teachers of primary science. The data collected includes video recordings of science lessons, interviews with each teacher and some of their students, student work, teachers?? planning documents and observation notes. In this paper, we examine the reflexive relationship between emotion and identity, and the teachers?? objectives for their students?? learning; the purposes (scientific and social) the teachers attributed to practical activities; and the ways in which the teachers incorporated practical activities into their lessons. The findings suggest that it is not enough to address content knowledge, pedagogy and pedagogical content knowledge in teacher education, but that efforts also need to be made to influence prospective primary teachers?? identities as scientific thinkers and their emotional commitment to their students?? learning of science.     

Once she makes it,she's there!: a case study 1

Computer science is possibly one of the few remaining disciplines almost entirely dominated by men, especially university staff and in the hi-tech industries. This phenomenon prevails throughout the western world; in Israel it starts in high school, where only 30% of students who choose to take computer science as an elective are women, and continues in university and college, where usually less than 30% of the entire computer science student population is female. In this paper we present data describing women taking the undergraduate computer science program at the Open University of Israel. Covering a period of 10 years, we have examined the enrollment and results of thousands of students on 20 undergraduate computer science courses. An attempt has been made to identify whether there is a specific stage in the undergraduate program which is more difficult for women to pass. The good news is that within the Open University of Israel out of the entire population of computer science students the percentage of female enrolments and the percentage of females graduating is almost the same, and the differences in average final grade between men and women are generally not significant. This study is unique because of the large number of students which served as the study population, covering the entire undergraduate program.