Exploring undergraduates' understanding of photosynthesis using diagnostic question clusters

We present a diagnostic question cluster (DQC) that assesses undergraduates' thinking about photosynthesis. This assessment tool is not designed to identify individual misconceptions. Rather, it is focused on students' abilities to apply basic concepts about photosynthesis by reasoning with a coordinated set of practices based on a few scientific principles: conservation of matter, conservation of energy, and the hierarchical nature of biological systems. Data on students' responses to the cluster items and uses of some of the questions in multiple-choice, multiple-true/false, and essay formats are compared. A cross-over study indicates that the multiple-true/false format shows promise as a machine-gradable format that identifies students who have a mixture of accurate and inaccurate ideas. In addition, interviews with students about their choices on three multiple-choice questions reveal the fragility of students' understanding. Collectively, the data show that many undergraduates lack both a basic understanding of the role of photosynthesis in plant metabolism and the ability to reason with scientific principles when learning new content. Implications for instruction are discussed.     

How Moroccan mothers and fathers view child development and their role in their children's education

Despite the documented importance of parental engagement in early learning, little is known about how parents in the Middle East and North Africa understand child development. To inform the literature, a small-scale study involving four focus groups was conducted with parents of children aged six years and under living in Casablanca. The purpose of this study was to explore parents' understanding of and support for their children's early development. Results reveal that parents see a vital role for themselves in their children's upbringing as supporters and nurturers, but little role as teachers. Across different education and income levels, parents in this small-scale qualitative study believe that children's experiences in their first years of life do not affect their longer-term intellectual development or school success and see little value in early intellectual stimulation or formal preschool education. Our results suggest that parents need to understand their role as their child's first educators. Also, it is essential that parents are taught how to promote their children's early cognitive development without undermining their nurturing roles.     

U.S.-Produced Entertainment Media and Attitude Toward Americans

This study examines the relationship between Singaporean college students'attitude toward Americans and their exposure to U.S. exported entertainment media.

The 328 Singaporean college student participants expressed relatively neutral attitudes toward Americans and reported high consumption of U.S. entertainment media (movies, television shows, magazines, music). Exposure to American media was found to correlate positively with student attitudes toward Americans.

In contrast to some media critics' contention that exposure to U.S. media fosters negative attitudes among citizens of other countries, this study suggests that U.S. entertainment may influence attitude toward Americans in a positive direction.     

Teachers’ Concepts of Spatial Scale: An international comparison

Metric scale is an important concept taught as part of science curricula across different countries. This study explored metric and relative (body-length) scale concepts of inservice (N?=?92) and preservice (N?=?134) teachers from Austria, and Taiwan, and their concepts were compared with those of teachers from the USA. Participants completed three assessments: the Scale Anchoring Objects (SAO), Scale of Objects Questionnaire (SOQ), and a subsample of participants were interviewed with the Learning Scale Interview. A Rasch analysis was conducted with the SAO and SOQ and results showed that the Rasch model held for these assessments, indicating that there is an underlying common dimension to understanding scale. Further analyses showed that accuracy of knowledge of scale measured by the SAO and SOQ was not related to professional experience. There were significant differences in teachers’ accuracy of scale concepts by nationality. This was true for both metric and body-length SAO assessments. Post hoc comparisons showed that the Austrian and Taiwanese participants were significantly more accurate than the US sample on the SAO and SOQ. The Austrian participants scored significantly higher than the US and the Taiwanese participants. The results of the interviews showed that the Taiwanese experienced teacher participants were more likely to report learning size and scale through in-school experiences than the Austrian or the US participants. US teachers reported learning size and scale most often through participating in hobbies and sports, Taiwanese teachers reported learning scale through sports and reading, and Austrian teachers most often noted that they learned about scale through travel.     

Early childhood arts curriculum: a cross-cultural study

Many countries, including Australia, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, have included art subjects in their core curriculum. Using the theory of governmentality as a critical lens to investigate the intricate power–knowledge system in relation to curriculum, arts and pedagogy, this paper makes a comparative document analysis of two contemporary arts curricula for children aged 5–6 years—the Beijing Kindergarten Happiness and Development Curriculum in the arts learning area (upper class in kindergarten), and the Australian Curriculum: The Arts (Foundation level). Curriculum is best understood as a multi-faceted phenomenon and this paper draws from research which categorized curriculum into three phases: the intended (or planned) curriculum, the enacted (or implemented) curriculum and the experienced (the learner experience) curriculum. By focusing on the first phase: the intended curriculum, this paper compares the documents that comprise the planned curriculum from two very different contexts, and thus makes a contribution to cross-cultural understanding of early childhood arts curriculum in ways that may lead to social change.     

Leadership Perception

Multirater feedback, often called 360‐degree feedback, is a popular development and assessment tool, especially for organizational leaders. Raters from different organizational levels, including subordinates, boss, peers, and self, rate the leader's performance. However, there seldom is strong agreement across rater groups. This study used the data from a commercially available 360‐degree leader development feedback instrument and a second‐order confirmatory factor analysis model to try to explain the differences in ratings between the groups. Rather than an explanation of the differences, what was found were two second‐order factors that may be the underlying elements that all raters consider when observing leader performance.