Falling in love and staying in love with science: ongoing informal science experiences support fascination for all children

ABSTRACT

Ages 10–14 mark a period in which children develop a strong sense of whether science is ‘for them,’ a time that typically coincides with the start of middle school in the United States and their first exposure to more rigorous science classes and testing. Experiences with science in and out of school can shape children's motivation to choose science careers or participate in voluntary science classes later on, for better or worse. We explore the hypothesis that children who engage in more informal educational science experiences at the start of this period are more likely than their peers to obtain and maintain interest, curiosity, and mastery goals in science (together forming a construct called fascination). We measured 983 children's fascination with science at the beginning and middle of sixth grade. We found that the children who participated in informal science during this time were more likely to maintain or have greater fascination than at the start. These findings held while also controlling for many potentially confounding covariates and are robust across subgroups by gender and race/ethnicity. Further, the effects are largest for those children whose family generally supports their learning.     

The psychological characteristics of experiences that influence science motivation and content knowledge

ABSTRACT

While motivational changes towards science are common during adolescence, our work asks which perceived classroom experiences are most strongly related to these changes. Additionally, we examine which experiences are most strongly associated with learning classroom content. In particular, using self-reports from a sample of approximately 3000 middle school students, this study investigates the influence of perceived science classroom experiences, namely student engagement and perceived success, on motivational change (fascination, values, competency belief) and content knowledge. Controlling for demographic information, school effects, and initial levels of motivation and content knowledge, we find that dimensions of engagement (affect, behavioural/cognitive) and perceived success are differentially associated with changes in particular motivational constructs and learning. Affective engagement is positively associated with motivational outcomes and negatively associated with learning outcomes, behavioural–cognitive engagement is associated only with learning, and perceived success is related only to motivational outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The Learning Benefits of Being Willing and Able to Engage in Scientific Argumentation

Engaging in science as an argumentative practice can promote students’ critical thinking, reflection, and evaluation of evidence. However, many do not approach science in this way. Furthermore, the presumed confrontational nature of argumentation may run against cultural norms particularly during the sensitive time of early adolescence. This paper explores whether middle-school students’ ability to engage in critical components of argumentation in science impacts science classroom learning. It also examines whether students’ willingness to do so attenuates or moderates that benefit. In other words, does one need to be both willing and able to engage critically with the discursive nature of science to receive benefits to learning? This study of middle-school students participating in four months of inquiry science shows a positive impact of argumentative sensemaking ability on learning, as well as instances of a moderating effect of one's willingness to engage in argumentative discourse. Possible mechanisms and the potential impacts to educational practices are discussed.     

The Use of ICT in Education: a survey of schools in Europe

The Survey of Schools: ICT in education commissioned in 2011 by the European Commission took place between January 2011 and November 2012, with data collection in autumn 2011. This article presents the main findings of the Survey based on over 190,000 questionnaire answers from students, teachers and head teachers in primary, lower and upper secondary schools randomly sampled. The article details the analytical framework design and the survey methodology implemented. It then presents the main ‘state of the art’ indicators that have been built, concerning ICT infrastructure and access to it, frequency of students' ICT based activities during lessons, level of teachers' and students' confidence in their digital competences, their opinion about using ICT for teaching and learning, and the school strategies to support ICT integration in teaching and learning. The article also presents the main findings of the exploratory part of the analysis, introducing the concepts of digitally supportive school, digitally confident and supportive teacher and digitally confident and supportive student, estimating their respective proportion at EU level on average and by country and investigating whether high percentage of digitally supportive schools include high percentages of digitally confident and positive teachers and students. A few recommendations for policy making at European, national, regional/local and institutional levels conclude the article.     

Practising Helps: Thermodynamics,History, and Experiment

Teaching undergraduate students thermodynamics is quite often reduced to a mere mathematical treatment of Gedankenexperimente based on the two abstract fundamental postulates of thermodynamics. In a course given at the University of Oldenburg we attempt to remedy the deficiencies of such courses. Our aims are twofold: First we try to take the historical context into consideration in order to illustrate the importance of the socio-economical development for the scientific progress. Secondly, we include experimental work into the course. Here, we use replications of past experiments. In this paper I will describe the course and compare it, firstly, with two ``classical' approaches represented by the textbooks of H.B. Callen and F. Reif; secondly, I will point out the advantages the use of replications have compared to ``modern adaptions'.     

Liquidity and attachment in the mobile hookup culture. A comparative study of contrasted interactional patterns in the main uses of Grindr and Tinder

ABSTRACT

This study compares the interactional practices for the main types of uses of the mobile dating applications Grindr and Tinder. The analysis shows that in both cases, a majority of users share a similar orientation towards a linguistic ideology regarding ordinary conversation as a social institution, as topic-based, as allowing individuals to share and update knowledge so as to enable rapport and intimacy. However, Grindr and Tinder users take almost opposite conversational stances regarding the organization of casual hookups as sexual, one-off encounters with strangers. While many gay Grindr users have to chat to organize quick sexual connections, they become wary of the way their electronic conversations might waylay them into more personal relationships and they try to prevent this by developing an interactional genre made of laconic, fact-checking and very short exchanges. On the other hand, many heterosexual users on Tinder are looking to achieve topically-rich chat conversations. Their interactional dilemma, then, is the achievement of such topically-rich conversation, but with complete strangers. The interaction-oriented comparison provides a more detailed and subtle perspective of the alleged ‘liquefaction’ of romantic relationships into a casual hookup culture through the use of location-aware mobile dating applications.     

Depression,suicide, and the gifted student: A primer for the school psychologist

Growing up gifted often means growing up “different.” As schools struggle to provide appropriately designed interventions for student mental health issues, the role of the school psychologist is becoming increasingly important. In the present article, the role of the school psychologist is discussed, particularly as related to helping gifted students who may be manifesting symptoms of depression, suicidal ideation, and potentially suicidal behavior. Further, a holistic intervention approach is advocated and that accounts for four growth factors—intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental/contextual, and developmental. Importantly, the specific strategies discussed are designed to help the school psychologist in their many capacities of helping gifted students thrive. Increasingly, however, it must also be recognized that the role of the school psychologist has expanded in recent years, and thus many of the intervention strategies offered may require a team of professionals to effectively implement. Regardless, the strategies discussed are designed to help gifted students thrive in the school setting.     

Building a technology foundation for future teachers

It is fitting that the teachers of tomorrow are provided with the correct modeling of technology in their first education class. To separate technology from education is both impossible and foolish. The sooner college students are exposed to the latest forms of technology, the more equipped they will be to integrate these tools into their teaching strategies for the benefit of future learners.     

Discolouration of Gold Decorations

Discoloured 18-carat gold decorations from Sweden have been analysed by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray electron spectroscopy (XPS)/electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (electron spectroscopy).The original gold composition was close to 75% gold, 13% silver, and 12% copper. After manufacture, many details were boiled in sulphuric acid. As a consequence of this, the surfaces are irregular and porous with a gold concentration around 90% and with less than 1% copper. With XPS the outermost 10–20 atomic layers could be examined. No copper was present here, and the silver concentration was significantly higher. Also carbon, sulphur, oxygen, and (in one case) chlorine were present. The valence numbers indicated that gold only occurred in its metallic state, while silver (as Ag⁺) was preferably associated with sulphur to form black silver sulphide (Ag₂S). The grey discolorations are basically due to silver sulphide and organic dirt. Sometimes green, violet, and ‘copper-shining’ colours occur, presumably as a result of light refraction phenomena.     

Effects of examiner familiarity on Black, Caucasian, and Hispanic children: a meta-analysis

This article presents a quantitative synthesis of examiner familiarity effects on Caucasian and minority students' test performance. Fourteen controlled studies were coded in terms of methodological quality (high vs. low) and race-ethnicity (Caucasian vs. Black and Hispanic). An analogue to analysis of variance conducted on weighted unbiased effect sizes indicated that examiner familiarity produced a significant effect, with Caucasian and minority examinees' test performance raised by .05 and .72 standard deviations, respectively. Examiner familiarity's differential effect on Caucasian and minority examinees did not interact with the methodological quality of the studies. Nevertheless, limitations of the extant data base require caution in drawing implications for assessment practice.