Primary and secondary school students' attainment of science investigation skills

A practical test instrument was developed to assess students' attainment of skills associated with problem analysis and planning experiments, collecting information, organising and interpreting information, and concluding. Students verbalised their thoughts as they worked on the task and their performance was videotaped for analysis. Data collected from Year 7, 10 and 12 science students illustrate the development of investigation skills and reveal important areas of student weakness. Specialisations: Science teacher education, development of problem-solving expertise, concept development and conceptual change, assessment of laboratory work. Specialisations: Chemistry education, concept development and conceptual change, role of laboratory work.     

Higher Education in the Republic of Ireland: Participation and Performance

This paper describes the expansion and diversification of higher education in the Republic of Ireland and examines some of the principal characteristics of higher education entrants. It is estimated that in 1995, some 43 per cent of the age cohort entered the full-time higher education system in the Republic of Ireland with a further 5 per cent enrolling in UK colleges. While these increasing admission rates have been fuelled by rising completion rates at second level they reflect, primarily, rising transition rates into higher education from those who complete the Leaving Certificate. The greater part of the expansion has taken place in the non-university sector which is characterised by a preponderance of sub-degree programmes, heavily concentrated in the areas of Business Studies, Engineering and Applied Science. A noticeable feature of higher education admissions is the low percentage of older students. The great majority come directly from school with increasingly high levels of attainment in the Leaving Certificate reflecting stiff competition for places, especially in the university sector. While there continues to be large disparities by socioeconomic group in access to higher education, the most recent data point to some reduction in equality. Western counties have consistently had higher third level admission rates with lower rates in eastern counties, including Dublin, and border counties.     

Roommate Effects on Grades: Evidence from First-Year Housing Assignments

This paper estimates the effect of students’ background characteristics on the academic outcomes of their college roommates. It uses data from four classes of students at Wellesley College, where roommate assignment is credibly random, conditional on student responses to a housing preference form. In linear specifications, there are no peer effects on students’ grade point averages. There is some evidence that students’ SAT scores have nonlinear effect on their roommates’ achievement, but the results are not robust. We conclude that roommate peer effects might exist among small groups of students, but they are not a key determinant of students’ average academic outcomes at Wellesley College.     

CACREP's Relevance to Professionalism for School Counselor Educators

Archival data from 1994 to 2003 were used to examine the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Program's (CACREP) association with professionalism for school counselor educators. Indicators of professionalism included school counselor educators' contributions to the profession (i.e., journal publications and conference presentations), leadership in professional organizations, and pursuit of counseling credentials. Data analysis revealed weak (small effect sizes), yet statistically significant, relationships between CACREP accreditation and indicators of professionalism for school counselor educators.     

The Relationship Between Children's Drawings of Rectangular Solids from Memory and Performance in Cognitive Tests,Art and Practical Subjects

A total of 127 11 + and 81 12 + subjects drew rectangular solids from memory, after viewing them from different positions. The results were correlated with IQ, vocabulary, verbal judgement and reasoning, and a spatial test with assessment in art and crafts. Unexpectedly high and significant correlations were yielded between drawing solids and cognitive tests involving verbal ability, when compared with correlations between solids, the spatial test and craft subjects, especially for the 12 + group. This appeared contrary to received views on the association of aptitude in drawing with spatial ability. Furthermore, as spatial factors are considered to underpin drawing and craft subjects, a closer association between these, rather than between drawing and verbal ability, was expected. This outcome raised certain theoretical questions concerning drawing and its interaction with perception, language, memory and intellectual development.     

Informal faculty-student contact and commuter college freshmen

Based on prior research conducted at residential colleges and universities, nonclassroom informal faculty-student contact appears to be an element of student socialization. This study extends this line of research to a commuter student population. The extent to which informal contact socializes students by influencing their educational aspiration level in a commuter setting is investigated using a longitudinal data collection with the student as unit of analysis. Ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares techniques are used to analyze the data. Significant interactions between informal faculty-student contact and race were found. White and nonwhite students were sbusequently analyzed separately. The ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression results suggest that informal contact makes a slight but significant contribution to the explanation of freshmen aspirations for whites, but not for nonwhites. The two-stage least squares (2SLS) analysis suggests that the assumption that contact influences aspiration may not be valid and, indeed, that aspiration level may cause students to seek to initiate informal contact with faculty.     

A Classroom Study on the Relationship Between Student Achievement and Retrieval-Enhanced Learning

Retrieval practice has been shown to produce powerful learning gains in laboratory experiments but has seldom been explored in classrooms as a means of enhancing students’ learning of their course-relevant material. Furthermore, research is lacking concerning the role of individual differences in learning from retrieval. The current study explored the effects of retrieval in a large undergraduate introductory biology course as a function of individual differences in student achievement. Students completed in-class exercises that required them to retrieve course information (e.g., recalling definitions for terms and labeling diagrams) followed by feedback or to simply copy the information without retrieving it. A later quiz over the information showed that high-performing students benefited more from retrieving than copying, whereas middle- and low-performing students benefited more from copying than retrieving. When asked to predict their quiz scores following the in-class exercises, high-performers demonstrated better overall metacognitive calibration compared to middle- or low-performers. These results highlight the importance of individual differences in learning from retrieval and encourage future research using course-relevant material to consider the role of student achievement in classroom-based interventions.     

Reinvigorating adolescent sexuality education through alternate reality games: the case of The Source

This paper presents findings from a focus group study conducted to evaluate The Source, an alternate reality game (ARG). ARGs are a relatively new genre of interactive digital games that use a variety of media to engage game players. We developed modules on sexual health, sexual orientation, and homophobia in a game that was delivered to 133 predominantly African-American and Latino US youth. Ten focus groups were conducted with 43 young people aged 13–18 who played The Source to understand feasibility and acceptability issues and the impact of the game on young people’s attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours. Data were transcribed and analysed for common themes by two independent coders. Four primary themes were identified: (1) the feasibility and acceptability of using an ARG for sexual education; (2) the acceptability of The Source’s specific sexual health content; (3) the game’s influence on sexual health-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours; and (4) the impact of the game on young people’s thoughts and responses to sexual orientation and homophobia. Study findings indicate that an ARG is an exciting and interactive way to educate young people on sensitive topics in sexuality education, but that attention to narrative authenticity and effective messaging are important issues to address.     

重围之下的大学——当代学术领域中的信任和责任制

本文探索发生在欧洲高等教育中的变革:从冯堡的大学理念转变为在准市场压力下操作的大学模式。虽然促进了大学中的责任制,但是,与大学的资助制度和相关“使命”上的变化相联系的这种发展,是与传统信任机制的被侵蚀联系在一起的。本文主要从英国的经验出发,这种经验现已在国际上得到延伸和拓展,思考目前可能存在于英国和欧洲大学中的制度变革和问题的教训。