Tuition and U.S. private college characteristics: The hedonic approach

Tuition at private colleges in the United States for the academic year 1982–1983 were statistically very closely related to quality characteristics associated with those colleges. Reduced form hedonic regressions reveal the equilibrium marginal tuition revenue estimates for over twenty important measures of quality, including faculty-student ratios, library size, and the percentage of the faculty holding Ph.D. degrees. These findings show that private college tuition responds in economically sensible ways to changes in public tuition, and changes in the quantity and quality of the faculties, facilities, and student bodies at private colleges.     

Advancing opportunities for children’s informal STEM learning transfer through parent–child narrative reflection

This study examined whether families’ conversational reflections after a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)-related experience in a museum promoted learning transfer. 63 children (M = 6.93 years; 30 girls; 57% White, 17.5% Latinx, 8% Asian, 5% African American, 9.5% mixed, 3% missing race/ethnicity) and their parents received an engineering demonstration, engaged in a building activity, and either recorded a photo-narrative reflection about their building experience or not at the museum. Thirty-six of these families completed a building activity with different materials weeks later at home, and the majority (77%) evidenced learning transfer of the building principle demonstrated at the museum. Those who participated in the photo-narrative reflection at the museum also showed learning transfer by talking more about STEM during the home building activity.     

Post-qualitative line of flight and the confabulative conversation: a methodological ethnography

This paper is a methodological ethnography aiming to highlight the difficulties in using conventional methods in connection with an explorative philosophy; Deleuze and Guattari’s. Taking an empirical point of departure in conversations about the future with students in upper secondary school, the struggle to find a scientifically valid label through the focus group interview is outlined. However, combining the particular philosophy with a conventional qualitative method turned out to be an impossible aim since the ideals of the focus group interview departures in the image of stable subject simultaneously as the method is blemished by positivistic language and standards. By turning to post-qualitative research, which encourages new concepts and methods, the confabulative conversation was produced. Within these confabulative conversations, the aim has been to create a methodologically smooth space in order to enable movements beyond manifested knowledge in favor of the virtual and the not-yet-seen, and thus producing possibilities for something new.     

Ramadan Fasting and the Propensity for Learning: Is There a Cause for Concern?

The literature indicates that glucose deprivation, dehydration, decreased sleep quality and quantity, and mood changes, independently and adversely can influence cognitive functions and therefore learning. The Ramadan fast is an annual religious act undertaken by Muslims where individuals refrain from consuming food and fluid during daylight hours, daily over 30 days. Alteration in eating times and sleep–wake cycles lead to a disruption in the body's daily circadian rhythm resulting in sleep perturbations and mood swings. Consequently, Ramadan fasting is linked to daytime lower glucose concentration, dehydration, decreased sleep quality and quantity, mood swings and elevated subjective feelings of fatigue and malaise. This review highlights how Ramadan fasting potentially poses learning difficulties as a result of the independent and/or combined effects of these factors.     

The use of organising purposes in science instruction as a scaffolding mechanism to support progressions: a study of talk in two primary science classrooms

Purpose: This study examines how different purposes can support teachers in their work with progressions as a part of a teaching sequences in science in primary school.

Design/Method: The study was carried out in two classes working with inquiry and the events that took place in the classroom were filmed. In the study, we have chosen to use the technical term proximate purposes for the student-oriented purposes, and ultimate purposes for the scientific purposes. Together, these two types of purposes form the organisational purposes for the classes. Proximate purposes work in such a way that students can use their language and relate to their experiences as ends-in-view. To examine how organising purposes can be used to analyse progressions, we discuss examples from two different lessons.

Result: The study shows the importance of proximate purposes working as ends-in-view and also demonstrates how the teacher and students may create continuity in teaching to enable progression as a part of a teaching sequence.

Conclusions: To create continuity, it was essential that the teacher scaffolded the students in ways which allowed the students to explicitly differentiate between what was relevant or not, about the proximate purposes in relation to the ultimate purpose.     

Promoting social inclusion in the early years of elementary school: a focus on children’s epistemic beliefs for moral reasoning

As classrooms continue to diversify, there is an increasing need to understand children’s inclusive behaviours and moral reasoning. Research shows that epistemic beliefs (beliefs about knowing and knowledge) can influence reasoning for adults, but we know little about this relationship in younger children or how classroom contexts relate to epistemic beliefs for moral reasoning. Thirty-one elementary school children (mean age 6.5 years) participated in epistemic beliefs and moral reasoning tasks in the first year of a three-year longitudinal study. Findings showed that while children described objectivist epistemic beliefs (right/wrong answers) about social inclusion, their justifications revealed an unexpected, more complex set of epistemic beliefs. Implications for moral pedagogies are discussed.     

Development of Working Memory from Grade 3 to 5: Differences between Children With and Without Mathematical Learning Difficulties

Based on the finding that children with mathematical learning difficulties (MLD) have deficits in working memory (WM), the question arises as to whether these children differ from typical learners only in the level or also in the developmental trajectories of WM functioning. To this end, the WM of 80 children with MLD and 71 typical learners was assessed longitudinally from third to fifth grade. Typical learners outperformed children with MLD in the phonological, visuospatial and central executive WM functioning in third grade. Latent change analyses indicated that both phonological and central executive WM functioning developed in a parallel pattern in children with MLD and in typical learners. In contrast, visuospatial WM functioning revealed a different development in children with and without MLD since the gap between both groups decreased over time. Overall, despite starting at a lower level, the WM functioning in children with MLD did not develop more slowly.     

Asian medical students: quality of life and motivation to learn

Issues linked with the notions of quality of life (QOL) and motivation to learn among Asian medical students have not been well documented. This is true in both the international and the New Zealand contexts. Our paper addresses this lack of research by focusing on the QOL of international and domestic Asian students studying in New Zealand, where Asian students form a significant proportion of tertiary students. Although there is evidence to suggest that Asian students do well academically, it was felt that an investigation into their QOL would be instructive as QOL will likely have an impact on cognition, behavior, general well-being, and motivation. The present study surveyed fourth- and fifth-year medical students to examine the relationship between QOL and motivation to learn and to consider how Asian medical students compare against European medical and non-medical student peers. The study utilized the World Health Organization—Quality of Life questionnaire (BREF version) and a shortened version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. The results show that the Asian medical students in this study generated significantly lower scores in terms of their satisfaction with social relationships compared with their non-Asian peers. In addition, international Asian medical students appear to be more at risk than domestic Asian students with respect to test anxiety. The paper considers the findings and the implications for quality of life, motivation to learn, medical education, and the Asian student community.