Children's Beliefs about Long-Term Retention

In 2 experiments, we examined pre-school, grade 1, and grade 3 children's metamemory about long-term retention. Specifically, we examined beliefs about the type of information most likely to be forgotten and beliefs about the impact of suggestions and retroactive interference on memory. Children made and explained paired-comparison judgments concerning the differential forgetting of peripheral versus central information, whether misinformation effects would arise from suggestions by others, and whether retroactive interference would arise from experiencing two similar events. The major findings were that ( a ) most children believed that events central to a story would be retained better than peripheral details; ( b ) in preschool and first grade, children believed that memory was invulnerable to suggestion (from a parent or a sibling), but in third grade, children believed suggestion could adversely affect memory; ( c ) most preschoolers believed that retroactive interference effects would not occur, whereas most first and third graders acknowledged that they would; ( d ) older children believed that both suggestibility and interference were less likely given a retention interval of several months compared to 1 day; and ( e ) in explaining their beliefs, children assigned sensory-behavioral factors a major causal role in determining what would be remembered over the long term. These results are discussed in terms of the development of beliefs about memory and the mind in general.     

Stratified at seven: in‐class ability grouping and the relative age effect

There is an established body of evidence indicating that a pupil's relative age within their school year cohort is associated with academic attainment throughout compulsory education. In England, autumn‐born pupils consistently attain at higher levels than summer‐born pupils. Analysis here investigates a possible channel of this relative age effect: ability grouping in early primary school. Relatively younger children tend more often to be placed in the lowest in‐class ability groups, and relatively older children in the highest group. In addition, teacher perceptions of pupils' ability and attainment are associated with the child's birth month: older children are more likely to be judged above average by their teachers. Using 2008 data for 5481 English seven‐year‐old pupils and their teachers from the Millennium Cohort Study, this research uses linear regression modelling to explore whether birth month gradation in teacher perceptions of pupils is more pronounced when pupils are in‐class ability grouped than when they are not. It finds an amplification of the already disproportionate tendency of teachers to judge autumn‐born children as more able when grouping takes place. The autumn–summer difference in teacher judgements is significantly more pronounced among in‐class ability grouped pupils than among non‐grouped pupils. Given evidence that teacher perceptions and expectations can influence children's trajectories, this supports the hypothesis that in‐class ability grouping in early primary school may be instrumental in creating the relative age effect.     

Delivery Method: Does it Matter? A Study of the North Carolina Developmental Mathematics Redesign

In 2009, the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) began the process of redesigning developmental mathematics (DMA) courses. The first classes were offered in 2012 with final state implementation in fall 2013. The purpose of this study was to examine the subsequent gateway course success rates achieved by former DMA students in relation to the delivery method (i.e., teacher-centered, student-centered, and computer-centered) used in the redesigned North Carolina DMA courses. Students included in this study took a gateway math course and a developmental math course during the same or previous academic year. Students who participated in student-centered and computer-centered instruction in their DMA course had a statistically significant pass rate in subsequent gateway courses compared with students receiving teacher-centered instruction. Along with the findings, this paper discusses considerations for redesign, including the choice of delivery methods and instructional techniques, and recommendations for further research.     

Teachers' Beliefs and Self-Reported Use of Inquiry in Science Education in Public Primary Schools

This paper describes Ecuadorian in-service teachers and their science teaching practices in public primary schools. We wanted to find out to what extent teachers implement inquiry activities in science teaching, the level of support they provide, and what type of inquiry they implement. Four questionnaires applied to 173 teachers resulted in the identification of high context beliefs and moderately high self-efficacy beliefs. Teachers declared to implement activities mostly to develop understanding of the material, as contrast to actual manipulation of data and/or coming to conclusions. They adopt rather a strictly guided approach in contrast to giving autonomy to learners to work on their own. Finally, teachers keep control with regard to question formulation and choice in solution procedures, which constrains the development of real inquiry. When comparing teacher beliefs, we found that teachers' context beliefs make a difference in the level of support that teachers provide to their students. Teachers with lower context beliefs ask students to perform inquiry activities on their own to a lesser extent when compared with teachers with higher context beliefs. This implies that further research on the implementation of inquiry in science teaching should take into account teachers' differences in their context beliefs. We also found out that the use of high or low support in inquiry activities remained the same for teachers with either higher or lower self-efficacy beliefs.     

Enhancing relevance: Embedded ARCS strategies vs. Purpose

The hypothesis of this study assumes that the cognitive effects of motivation result primarily from the relevance of what is being learned, that is, whether the ideas being studied are meaningful and whether they fulfill the goals of the learner. This study compared the effects of intrinsic relevance (material fulfilling a purpose or need of the learner) with embedded, extrinsic relevance-enhancing strategies based on the ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) Model of Instruction on perceived motivation and the learning outcomes of identification, terminology, comprehension, and drawing. Both intrinsic and extrinsic strategies enhanced the motivation of the college learners and their performance on identification, terminology, and comprehension questions following instruction. Embedded relevance-enhancing strategies resulted in greater motivation and performance gains than did intrinsic relevance. She is currently teaching reading and writing strategies to elementary school children. His publications include the recently completedHandbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology, reviewed in this issue. Francis M. Dwyer is Professor of Instructional Systems at the Pennsylvania State University, where he has been a leading researcher in the role of visuals in instruction. He is a past-president of AECT.     

Elementary Teachers’ Selection and Use of Visual Models

As science grows in complexity, science teachers face an increasing challenge of helping students interpret models that represent complex science systems. Little is known about how teachers select and use models when planning lessons. This mixed methods study investigated the pedagogical approaches and visual models used by elementary in-service and preservice teachers in the development of a science lesson about a complex system (e.g., water cycle). Sixty-seven elementary in-service and 69 elementary preservice teachers completed a card sort task designed to document the types of visual models (e.g., images) that teachers choose when planning science instruction. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to analyze the card sort task. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a subsample of teachers to elicit the rationale for image selection. Results from this study showed that both experienced in-service teachers and novice preservice teachers tended to select similar models and use similar rationales for images to be used in lessons. Teachers tended to select models that were aesthetically pleasing and simple in design and illustrated specific elements of the water cycle. The results also showed that teachers were not likely to select images that represented the less obvious dimensions of the water cycle. Furthermore, teachers selected visual models more as a pedagogical tool to illustrate specific elements of the water cycle and less often as a tool to promote student learning related to complex systems.     

Scientific discovery and topological transitions in collaboration networks

We analyze the advent and development of eight scientific fields from their inception to maturity and map the evolution of their networks of collaboration over time, measured in terms of co-authorship of scientific papers. We show that as a field develops it undergoes a topological transition in its collaboration structure between a small disconnected graph to a much larger network where a giant connected component of collaboration appears. As a result, the number of edges and nodes in the largest component undergoes a transition between a small fraction of the total to a majority of all occurrences. These results relate to many qualitative observations of the evolution of technology and discussions of the “structure of scientific revolutions”. We analyze this qualitative change in network topology in terms of several quantitative graph theoretical measures, such as density, diameter, and relative size of the network's largest component.To analyze examples of scientific discovery we built databases of scientific publications based on keyword and citation searches, for eight fields, spanning experimental and theoretical science, across areas as diverse as physics, biomedical sciences, and materials science. Each of the databases was vetted by field experts and is the result of a bibliometric search constructed to maximize coverage, while minimizing the occurrence of spurious records. In this way we built databases of publications and authors for superstring theory, cosmic strings and other topological defects, cosmological inflation, carbon nanotubes, quantum computing and computation, prions and scrapie, and H5N1 influenza. We also built a database for a classical example of “pathological” science, namely cold fusion. All these fields also vary in size and in their temporal patterns of development, with some showing explosive growth from an original identifiable discovery (e.g. carbon nanotubes) while others are characterized by a slow process of development (e.g. quantum computers and computation).We show that regardless of the detailed nature of their developmental paths, the process of scientific discovery and the rearrangement of the collaboration structure of emergent fields is characterized by a number of universal features, suggesting that the process of discovery and initial formation of a scientific field, characterized by the moments of discovery, invention and subsequent transition into “normal science” may be understood in general terms, as a process of cognitive and social unification out of many initially separate efforts. Pathological fields, seemingly, never undergo this transition, despite hundreds of publications and the involvement of many authors.     

Launching Interdisciplinary Programs as College Signature Areas: An Example

Increasingly administrators are concerned with inspiring and supporting faculty members in the creation of interdisciplinary programs in response to research and funding shifts and public need. This article presents an initative undertaken at the University of Colorado Denver, demonstrating a method for identifying and launching a set of signature interdisciplinary programs for a diverse college environment that overcomes hesitancy and hindrances at the individual, departmental, and institutional levels.     

Departments in Academic Receivership: Possible Causes and Solutions

This article explores the concept of academic receivership in U.S. colleges and universities. Academic receivership occurs when control of an academic department or program is removed from the faculty and an outside chair is put in place by the college or university administration. A literature review is supplemented by a small survey to assess how common receivership is and how it is administered. Combined, these elements allow for a discussion of the warning signs that a department is becoming dysfunctional and a procedure to guide a department through the receivership process.

Identity formation of teacher–mentors: An analysis of contrasting experiences using a Wengerian matrix framework

In order to understand the process of identity formation in a community of practice, Wenger (2002) proposes a matrix framework whereby three qualities (connectedness, expansiveness and effectiveness) are matched against three modes of belonging (engagement, imagination and alignment). In this paper we use this framework to analyse the experiences of two teacher–mentors and interpret how their identities are formed during the process of mentoring student–teachers. Factors that contribute significantly to the development of their identity include the school culture, the ‘personalities’ of the other community members, and the influence of other relevant communities of practice.