The Impact of a Practice-Teaching Professional Development Model on Teachers’ Inquiry Instruction and Inquiry Efficacy Beliefs

This study examined changes in middle school teachers’ beliefs about inquiry, implementation of inquiry practices, and self-efficacy to teach science through inquiry after participating in a year-long professional development program. The professional development model design was based on Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory of learning and literature on effective professional development. Using the Electronic Quality of Inquiry Protocol (EQUIP) before and after the program (Marshall, Smart & Horton, 2010), teachers’ quality of inquiry instruction significantly increased across all 4 EQUIP factors. To assess teachers’ inquiry teaching efficacy, the Teaching Science as Inquiry (TSI; Dira-Smolleck, 2004) instrument was administered 3 times to the teacher participants. Changes between time points of TSI administration were examined for personal self-efficacy and outcome expectancy across 5 essential features of classroom inquiry. Findings for the personal self-efficacy scale showed statistically significant gains from pre-Institute to 1-year follow-up for all 5 inquiry features. Teachers’ outcome expectancy beliefs significantly increased across the program for 3 of the 5 essential features of inquiry. The results indicate the effectiveness of the professional development model at increasing the participants’ inquiry efficacy as well as the quality of their inquiry instruction. Our study provides evidence to support the need to include collaborative practice-teaching and reflection opportunities within professional development models that aim to increase teachers’ use of inquiry-based instructional strategies.     

Performance on Middle School Geometry Problems With Geometry Clues Matched to Three Different Cognitive Styles

ABSTRACT— This study investigated the relationship between 3 ability‐based cognitive styles (verbal deductive, spatial imagery, and object imagery) and performance on geometry problems that provided different types of clues. The purpose was to determine whether students with a specific cognitive style outperformed other students, when the geometry problems provided clues compatible with their cognitive style. Students were identified as having a particular cognitive style when they scored equal to or above the median on the measure assessing this ability. A geometry test was developed in which each problem could be solved on the basis of verbal reasoning clues (matching verbal deductive cognitive style), mental rotation clues (matching spatial imagery cognitive style), or shape memory clues (matching object imagery cognitive style). Straightforward cognitive style–clue‐compatibility relationships were not supported. Instead, for the geometry problems with either mental rotation or shape memory clues, students with a combination of both verbal and spatial cognitive styles tended to do the best. For the problems with verbal reasoning clues, students with either a verbal or a spatial cognitive style did well, with each cognitive style contributing separately to success. Thus, both spatial imagery and verbal deductive cognitive styles were important for solving geometry problems, whereas object imagery was not. For girls, a spatial imagery cognitive style was advantageous for geometry problem solving, regardless of type of clues provided.     

Examining the Gender Gap in Educational Outcomes in Public Education: Involving Pre-Service School Counsellors and Teachers in Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Research

International educational statistics have reported a gender gap in educational outcomes, with boys falling behind girls in regard to grades, high school graduation and university enrollment and retention. This study involved pre-service teachers and school counsellors in Colleges of Education at three universities on three continents carrying out focus groups with public school students, interviews with educators, and examining national and international quantitative data to investigate this issue from a local and a cross cultural perspective. Common themes were found in each country and implications for addressing the problem considered.     

A lower extremity strength-based profile of NCAA Division I women’s basketball and gymnastics athletes: implications for knee joint injury risk assessment

This study aimed to provide a comprehensive strength-based physiological profile of women’s NCAA Division I basketball and gymnastic athletes; and to make sport-specific comparisons for various strength characteristics of the knee flexor and extensor muscles. A focus on antagonist muscle balance (hamstrings-to-quadriceps ratios, H:Q) was used to elucidate vulnerabilities in these at-risk female athletes. Fourteen NCAA Division I women’s basketball and 13 gymnastics athletes performed strength testing of the knee extensors and flexors. Outcome measures included absolute and relative (body mass normalised) peak torque (PT), rate of torque development at 50, 100, 200 ms (RTD50 etc.) and H:Q ratios of all variables. The basketball athletes had greater absolute strength for all variables except for isokinetic PT at 240°s^?1 and isometric RTD50 for the knee extensors. Gymnasts showed ~20% weaker body mass relative concentric PT for the knee flexors at 60 and 120°·s^?1, and decreased conventional H:Q ratios at 60 and 240°·s^?1 (~15%). These findings suggest that collegiate level gymnastics athletes may be prone to increased ACL injury risk due to deficient knee flexor strength and H:Q strength imbalance. Coaches may use these findings when implementing injury prevention screening and/or for individualised strength training programming centered around an athletes strength-related deficits.     

Individual differences in memory-monitoring accuracy

The reliability of memory-monitoring accuracy was examined in two studies. In Study 1, college students recalled answers to general knowledge questions and rated confidence in the answers. Odd-even reliability of monitoring accuracy was not significantly different from zero; students with at least 20 correct and 20 incorrect answers had higher reliability when the odd and even subsets of questions were matched on recall accuracy. The best reliability was observed when the distribution of confidence ratings was equated across odd and even question subsets, and students had at least 20 confidence judgments at each level. In Study 2, a 100-item mutiple-choice general knowledge test led to odd-even reliability for confidence-recognition accuracy that was fairly high, relative to previous research, but well below desired levels. For FOK-recognition, odd-even reliability was significantly different from zero, but low. These data indicate that current methods allow an individuals' monitoring accuracy to be assessed with low to moderate reliability. Suggestions for further research are offered.     

Applications of desensitization procedures for school-related problems: A review

A variety of desensitization and counterconditioning procedures have been utilized to deal with school-related problems. These procedures are reviewed with respect to applications for treating school phobia, test anxiety, and other academic anxieties. The case and experimental studies reviewed indicate that desensitization procedures in combination with other techniques are most effective. Guidelines for using these procedures in the schools are suggested.