Instructional models for the acquisition of English as bridges into school science: effects on the science achievement of U.S. Hispanic English language learners

Science educators have suggested that, for minority and low-income students, gaps between home and school science cultures necessitate ‘border crossing’ for successful learning in science. Our analysis used National Assessment of Educational Progress 2000 and 2005 data to assess the impact of U.S. state-level policy regarding instructional models for language acquisition for the learning of science. Specifically, we assessed whether policy favouring structured English immersion led to better student outcomes than bilingual education among Hispanic English language learners in 4th and 8th grades in the U.S. We found significantly higher science achievement among 4th grade Hispanic ELLs in states with stronger bilingual emphasis in their policy, suggesting that policy support for bilingual education could provide a better bridge to span the cultural gap between home and school science, at least for younger students.     

Students' transition into higher education: The role of self-efficacy,regulation strategies,and academic achievements

Transition into higher education (HE) has received increased interest in recent years, since it represents a challenging period for students. The aim of this study was to further understand the associations between self-efficacy, academic achievements, and regulation in first-year university students during their transition into HE. The convenience sample consisted of 374 first-year university students (230 females, 61.5%), aged from 18 to 33 (M = 19.86, SD = 1.51) and recruited from an Italian university. Self-efficacy was assessed using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire; regulation strategies were assessed with the Inventory of Learning Patterns of Students; and a self-reported grade point average was taken as an indicator of each student's academic performance. Result shows that students' self-efficacy was positively associated with self-regulation and negatively associated with a lack of regulation. Students with higher self-efficacy and self-regulation strategies had better academic performance. Female students performed better in academic activities and adopted more external regulation strategies. The findings represent an opportunity for university institutions to consider the interventions they provide to first-year students in order to facilitate the successful transition from secondary school; they also provide researchers with further knowledge about the effect of self-efficacy, and regulation strategies on students' adjustment to HE.     

Incorrect order of draw could be mitigate the patient safety: a phlebotomy management case report

Procedures involving phlebotomy are critical for obtaining diagnostic blood specimens and represent a well known and recognized problem, probably among the most important issues in laboratory medicine. The aim of this report is to show spurious hyperkalemia and hypocalcemia due to inadequate phlebotomy procedure. The diagnostic blood specimens were collected from a male outpatient 45 years old, with no clinical complaints. The tubes drawing order were as follows: i) clot activator and gel separator (serum vacuum tube), ii) K₃EDTA, iii) a needleless blood gas dedicated-syringe with 80 I.U. lithium heparin, directly connected to the vacuum tube holder system. The laboratory testing results from serum vacuum tube and dedicated syringe were 4.8 and 8.5 mmol/L for potassium, 2.36 and 1.48 mmol/L for total calcium, respectively. Moreover 0.15 mmol/L of free calcium was observed in dedicated syringe. A new blood collection was performed without K₃EDTA tube. Different results were found for potassium (4.7 and 4.5 mmol/L) and total calcium (2.37 and 2.38 mmol/L) from serum vacuum tube and dedicated syringe, respectively. Also free calcium showed different concentration (1.21 mmol/L) in this new sample when compared with the first blood specimen. Based on this case we do not encourage the laboratory managers training the phlebotomists to insert the dedicated syringes in needle-holder system at the end of all vacuum tubes. To avoid double vein puncture the dedicated syringe for free calcium determination should be inserted immediately after serum tubes before EDTA vacuum tubes.     

Gender Differences in Mathematics Self-concept Across the World: an Exploration of Student and Parent Data of TIMSS 2015

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - Using data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 assessment of fourth-grade students in 32...     

Effectiveness of citrate buffer-fluoride mixture in Terumo tubes as an inhibitor of in vitro glycolysis

Introduction

Glycolysis affects glucose determination in vitro. The placement of sample tubes in ice-water slurry with plasma separation within 30 minutes is recommended, or alternatively the use of a glycolysis inhibitor. The aim of our two-steps study was to evaluate which Terumo tube is best for glucose determination in routine clinical setting.

Materials and methods

In the first study, blood from 100 volunteers was collected into lithium heparin (LH), NaF/Na heparin (FH) and NaF/citrate buffer/Na₂EDTA (FC-Mixture) tubes. LH sample was treated as recommended and considered as reference, while FH and FC-Mixture samples were aliquoted, maintained at room temperature (RT) for 1, 2 and 4 hours; centrifuged and plasma analysed in triplicate. In the second study, samples from 375 volunteers were collected in LH, FH and FC-Mixture tubes and held at RT before centrifugation from 10 to 340 minutes, depending on each laboratory practice. Samples were analysed in one analytical run.

Results

In the first study, FH glucose concentrations were 5.15 ± 0.66 mmol/L, 5.05 ± 0.65 mmol/L and 5.00 ± 0.65 mmol/L (P < 0.001) in tubes stored at RT for 1, 2 and 4 hours, respectively. Mean biases in all time points exceeded the analytical goal for desirable bias based on biological variation criteria. FC-Mixture glucose concentrations were 5.48 ± 0.65 mmol/L, 5.46 ± 0.6 mmol/L and 5.46 ± 0.64 mmol/L in tubes stored at RT for 1, 2 and 4 hours, respectively. Mean biases for FC-Mixture glucose in all time points reached optimal analytical goals. In the second study, the biases for LH and FH glucose compared to reference FC-Mixture glucose exceeded the preset analytical goals, regardless of the blood collection to centrifugation time interval.

Conclusions

FC-mixture tubes glucose concentrations were preserved up to 4h storage at RT. We confirmed that NaF alone does not allow immediate glycolysis inhibition in real life pre-centrifugation storage conditions (up to 340 minutes). FC-Mixture should be used exclusively for glucose determination in laboratories unable to implement the recommended blood samples’ treatment.Key words: glucose, pre-analytical phase, sodium fluoride, citrate acidification, stability     

The Dutch gender gap in mathematics: Small for achievement, substantial for beliefs and attitudes

In general, studies on gender and mathematics show that the advantage held by boys over girls in mathematics achievement has diminished markedly over the last 40 years. Some researchers even argue that gender differences in mathematics achievement are no longer a relevant issue. However, the results of the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study of 2003 (TIMSS-2003), as well as the participation rates of girls in (advanced) mathematics courses, show that in some countries, such as the Netherlands, gender equity in mathematics is still far from a reality. Research on gender and mathematics is often limited to the relationship between gender differences in attitudes toward mathematics and gender differences in mathematics achievement. In school effectiveness research, theories and empirical evidence emphasize the importance of certain school and class characteristics (e.g., strong educational leadership, safe and orderly learning climate) for achievement and attitudes. However, there is little information available at to whether these factors have the same or a different influence on the achievement of girls and boys. This study used the Dutch data from TIMSS-2003 to explore the relationship between school- and class characteristics and the mathematics achievement and attitudes for both girls and boys in Grade 4 of the primary school. The explorations documented in this paper were guided by a conceptual model of concentric circles and involved multilevel analyses. Interaction effects with gender were assessed for each influencing factor that turned out to have a significant effect. The results of these analyses provide additional insight into the influence that non-school-related and school-related factors have on the mathematics achievement and attitudes of girls and boys.     

Enhancing wayfinding in pre-school children through robot and socio-cognitive conflict

Wayfinding is one of the most important skills that children have to learn in order to safely move in the environment. One problem that 5-year-old children encounter with wayfinding is changing their point of view to that of another person in different position in the same environment, such as that of a person opposite them whose perspective is turned 180° with respect to their own. Robots could help children in learning this skill, since children can instruct them to move in the environment, in predetermined paths, by starting from a rotated perspective. This study compares classic socio-cognitive conflict with a human partner, but in this case with a robot partner, in order to evaluate how a specific activity (instructing a robot to perform a given route) enhances the wayfinding skills of 156 5-year-old children. Using two different robots (humanoid and non-humanoid) and two different conditions (a child and the robot and two children and the robot), the study shows that children who performed the task with the humanoid robot improved their performance significantly better compared with those who used the non-humanoid robot. Furthermore, children engaged in the Socio-Cognitive Conflict situation with another child-outperformed children in the Socio-Cognitive Conflict with robots. Finally, children with low-level performance in the pretest made the greatest improvement both in terms of moves made and time taken to complete the task in comparison with children in the High-Level Group and of the Control Group.     

Recommendations for effective university study based on students’ point of view

This research examined what university students recommend for effective university study and whether their recommendations differ by gender, faculty or study programme degree. The research was based on 985 questionnaires. The following words were most commonly used in advice for freshmen: Go, Lectures, Learn, Continuously, Be, Prepare, Information, Have, Do, Materials. The fundamental advice seems to be: to go to lectures, to have needed materials and information and to learn and prepare continuously. Some stated recommendations react to the development of information and communication technologies and the massive usage of the Internet (such as obtaining a laptop and a cell phone or setting up a Facebook profile). Quite a lot of advice was connected with health, such as to sleep enough, to eat regularly, to not smoke, to relax and to restrict alcohol consumption. The recommendations gained in this survey were categorised by thematic similarities to characteristics, knowledge, skills, behaviour and background. The findings highlight the fact that given recommendations for effective study differ by the respondent’s gender and faculty. Women concentrated more on recommendations on how to behave and men mentioned more often what personality characteristics are important for effective university study. Students of the Faculty of Multimedia Communications highlighted the necessity of creativity and practical experience more often than others.     

Erratum: Student affect and conceptual understanding in learning chemistry

In this article (Journal of Research in Science Teaching 2007;44(7):908–937. DOI 10.1002/tea.20169 © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.), part of the author's affiliation had been inadvertently omitted. The corrected affiliation appears above. For the reader's information, the acronym “OISE/UT” stands for “Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.” The author regrets any inconvenience this may have caused.     

Making connections among multiple graphical representations of fractions: sense-making competencies enhance perceptual fluency,but not vice versa

Prior research shows that representational competencies that enable students to use graphical representations to reason and solve tasks is key to learning in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics domains. We focus on two types of representational competencies: (1) sense making of connections by verbally explaining how different representations map to one another, and (2) perceptual fluency that allows students to fast and effortlessly use perceptual features to make connections among representations. Because these different competencies are acquired via different types of learning processes, they require different types of instructional support: sense-making activities and fluency-building activities. In a prior experiment, we showed benefits for combining sense-making activities and fluency-building activities. In the current work, we test how to combine these two forms of instructional support, specifically, whether students should first work on sense-making activities or on fluency-building activities. This comparison allows us to investigate whether sense-making competencies enhance students’ acquisition of perceptual fluency (sense-making-first hypothesis) or whether perceptual fluency enhances students’ acquisition of sense-making competencies (fluency-first hypothesis). We conducted a lab experiment with 74 students from grades 3–5 working with an intelligent tutoring system for fractions. We assessed learning processes and learning outcomes related to representational competencies and domain knowledge. Overall, our results support the sense-making-first hypothesis, but not the fluency-first hypothesis.