Whatever happened to STS? Pre-service physics teachers and the history of quantum mechanics

If issues in the history and philosophy of science and those related to science, technology and society are generally accepted in policy, how ought these be handled in practice? Mandate in policy does not guarantee implementation in practice. Indeed, HPS and STS have for decades been marginalized in the curriculum. Subject areas designated to teach components of HPS and STS, such as design and technology, social studies and science, seem preoccupied with other aspects of the curriculum and rarely get around to HPS and STS. This study aimed at eliciting pre-service physics teachers’ perspectives on using HPS to address quantum mechanics and scientific literacy. Through questionnaires, observation of and participation in a physics methods class, 16 pre-service teachers were asked to identify topics they considered problematic to teach or learn. They were challenged to identify those topics that could effectively be taught or learned from HPS. The pre-service teachers agreed that HPS and STS were more appealing for teaching some topics, such as quantum mechanics, which is the focus of this article. This intervention in physics teacher education demonstrates the importance of using specific methods in physics instruction to demonstrate the value of HPS in scientific literacy.     

Children's expectancies and perceptions of adults: effects on rapport

Interpersonal expectancy effects are less thoroughly understood in children than in adults, yet they can have practical implications for children's interactions. To understand better children's expectancies, this study extended earlier work to include expectancies of adults, preexisting (i.e., noninduced) expectancies, and joint effects of expectancies and subsequent perceptions. Children (N = 81) in Grades 4 through 6 (i.e., 9- to 12-year-olds) indicated their expectancies of adults who subsequently interacted with them using a style of either autonomy support (AS) or control (CN). After each interaction, children reported on perceived AS and on rapport. Results indicated that children's expectancies and subsequent perceptions interact to predict rapport, adult AS is associated with increased rapport, and the effect of children's expectancies on rapport is only partially mediated by their perceptions.     

RSS made easy: a basic guide for librarians

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) uses extensive markup language (XML) to constantly scan the content of Web sites for updates, which will then be delivered to subscribers' desktops or mobile devices through an RSS feed. RSS helps professionals stay current while reducing workloads. Librarians need to get familiar with RSS to educate their users, to stay current in information technology, and to generate and disseminate selected information to target user groups. doi:10.1300/J115v26n01_04.     

It Takes a Team

In this column, the editor of The Journal of Perinatal Education (JPE) compares the need for careful planning, preparation, and coordinated teamwork in preparing for a safe, healthy birth with similar needs necessary for putting together each issue of JPE. The editor also describes the contents of this issue, which offer a broad range of resources, research, and inspiration for childbirth educators in their efforts to promote, support, and protect natural, safe, and healthy birth.     

Informing research (practices) through pedagogical theory: focus groups with adolescents

The focus of this article is how pedagogical theory and applied linguistic research informed the development of a multifaceted methodology designed to elicit middle school students’ perspectives on bilingualism and their language identities within the context of a one-way French Immersion programme in New Brunswick, Canada. The theoretical context of our research is language socialization theory which emphasizes how learners actively construct new identities for themselves, consciously or unconsciously, as they acquire and use language. This language socialization is embedded in particular socio-political and historical contexts, bringing fluidity to the meanings of bilingualism and to identity. Our discussion is about our methodological journey, how we drew upon the broader principles of constructivist learning, and specifically Universal Design for learning and Multiple Intelligences, within focus group research to access these perspectives and identities. Our methodology involved multiple opportunities to present, express and engage in the construction of knowledge, and to engage students in identifying and expressing meaning related to their identities and perspectives as learners of French. Our research demonstrated that, by drawing on pedagogical theory, focus groups can be transformative for participants, and they provide ways to circumvent challenges in conducting qualitative research with adolescents.     

Do creativity self-beliefs predict literacy achievement and motivation?

Previous work has suggested that creativity self-beliefs show only small relations with academic achievement and may only be related to intrinsic, not extrinsic motivation. We set out to re-examine these relationships accounting for the multifaceted and process embedded nature of creativity self-beliefs and the full domain range of extrinsic motivation. One hundred and twenty-two secondary school pupils completed self-report measures of creativity self-beliefs and motivation and were administered as test of fluid intelligence. Creativity self-beliefs were positively related to teacher assessed literacy attainment, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and also inversely related to amotivation. Creativity self-beliefs accounted for a significant additional proportion of variance in both literacy achievement and in motivational measures, beyond that already accounted for by fluid intelligence. These findings suggest that it is important to attend to the multifaceted nature of creative self-beliefs and the full domain range of extrinsic motivation.     

A Commitment to Excellence

In this column, the editor of The Journal of Perinatal Education describes two international credentialing programs, the Magnet Recognition Program and the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. Both require an ongoing commitment to excellence. The editor also describes the contents of this issue, which offer a broad range of resources, research, and inspiration for childbirth educators in their efforts to promote, support, and protect natural, safe, and healthy birth. Open in a separate windowWendy C. BudinEditor     

Missing link: Integrated individual leadership development,employee engagement,and customer value‐added improvement

Long‐term care is a key public issue that affects all of us in some way at some time of our lives. Nowhere is performance improvement and quality management more imperative. Through an 8‐month field study and follow‐up case study, we discuss how using an integrated approach to individual leadership development, employee engagement, and customer value‐added improvement might provide the missing link toward sustaining and growing organizational culture change in a very demanding environment.     

Writing-to-learn in undergraduate science education: a community-based, conceptually driven approach

Despite substantial evidence that writing can be an effective tool to promote student learning and engagement, writing-to-learn (WTL) practices are still not widely implemented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, particularly at research universities. Two major deterrents to progress are the lack of a community of science faculty committed to undertaking and applying the necessary pedagogical research, and the absence of a conceptual framework to systematically guide study designs and integrate findings. To address these issues, we undertook an initiative, supported by the National Science Foundation and sponsored by the Reinvention Center, to build a community of WTL/STEM educators who would undertake a heuristic review of the literature and formulate a conceptual framework. In addition to generating a searchable database of empirically validated and promising WTL practices, our work lays the foundation for multi-university empirical studies of the effectiveness of WTL practices in advancing student learning and engagement.