Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment of Plant Identification

Developing plant identification skills is an important part of the curriculum of any botany course in higher education. Frequent practice with dried and fresh plants is necessary to recognize the diversity of forms, states, and details that a species can present. We have developed a web-based assessment system for mobile devices that is able to pose appropriate questions according to the location of the student. A student’s location can be obtained using the device position or by scanning a QR code attached to a dried plant sheet in a herbarium or to a fresh plant in an arboretum. The assessment questions are complemented with elaborated feedback that, according to the students’ responses, provides indications of possible mistakes and correct answers. Three experiments were designed to measure the effectiveness of the formative assessment using dried and fresh plants. Three questionnaires were used to evaluate the system performance from the students’ perspective. The results clearly indicate that formative assessment is objectively effective compared to traditional methods and that the students’ attitudes towards the system were very positive.     

Economic globalisation,youth expectations and social class: The case of Sri Lanka

Whether economic globalisation is associated with a narrowing or a widening of the social class gap between the education and occupation expectations of Sri Lankan youth is examined through a test of four hypotheses. Methodologically, the study employs the estimated parameters from a system of seemingly unrelated equations for testing hypotheses. Youth expectations for education and occupation are higher than those of their parents when young. Social class effects vary among youth and fathers and mothers when young. The occupation expectations of youth show a widening gap between the middle and low social classes. In all other comparisons, the gaps are positive, indicating a widening, but none attains statistical significance. Causal explanations are explored and the implications for future investigations are identified.     

Mindfulness for education students: addressing welfare as part of the professional training

Students in special education teaching and counselling are exposed to relatively high levels of stress during their studies and their professional career, which are commonly manifested in high occupational burnout. Professional development programmes normally do not address this issue. A practicum course was developed to provide theoretical framework for research on mindfulness, training of self-application techniques, and guidelines for fieldwork teaching of these techniques to children, with the aim of improving quality of life by reducing anxiety and stress levels. Participants of mindfulness and control practicum filled questionnaires at the beginning and end of the year. Significant reduction in stress, rumination and sleep disturbances as well as elevated level of mindfulness were observed in the mindfulness practicum only. The results suggest that mindfulness training can be successfully introduced in traditional academic settings to enhance the personal mental health of future teachers, and subsequently lower their chances to suffer from burnout.     

The Integration of English Language Development and Science Instruction in Elementary Classrooms

This paper explores one district’s attempt to implement a blended science and English Language Development (ELD) elementary program, designed to provide English language learners opportunities to develop proficiency in English through participation in inquiry-based science. This process resulted in blended program that utilized a combined science/ELD lesson plan format to structure and guide teachers’ efforts to use science as the context for language development. Data, collected throughout the first 2 years of the program, include teacher-generated lesson plans, observation notes, and interviews with teachers and principals. The process by which the blended program was developed, the initial implementation of the program, the resulting science/ELD lesson plan format, and teachers’ perceptions about the program and its impact on their students are described.     

Childhood trauma and suicide risk in a sample of young individuals aged 14–35 years in southern Brazil

Suicide is among the main causes of death of people aged between 15 and 44 years old. Childhood trauma is an important risk factor for suicide. Hence, the objective of this study was to verify the relationship between childhood trauma and current suicide risk (suicidal behavior and ideation) in individuals aged 14–35 years, in the city of Pelotas, Brazil. This is a cross-sectional, population-based study. Sample selection was performed by clusters. Suicide risk was evaluated using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and Childhood trauma was assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Moreover, the participants responded to a questionnaire concerning socioeconomic status, work, and substance use. The sample was composed of 1,380 individuals. The prevalence of suicide risk was 11.5%. The prevalence figures of childhood trauma were 15.2% (emotional neglect), 13.5% (physical neglect), 7.6% (sexual abuse), 10.1% (physical abuse), and 13.8% (emotional abuse). Suicide risk was associated (p < .001) with gender, work, alcohol abuse, tobacco use, and all types of childhood trauma. The odds of suicide risk were higher in women (OR = 1.8), people who were not currently working (OR = 2.3), individuals who presented alcohol abuse (OR = 2.6), and among tobacco smokers (OR = 3.4). Moreover, suicide risk was increased in all types of trauma: emotional neglect (OR = 3.7), physical neglect (OR = 2.8), sexual abuse (OR = 3.4), physical abuse (OR = 3.1), and emotional abuse (OR = 6.6). Thus, preventing early trauma may reduce suicide risk in young individuals.     

What Do We Expect from Students' Physics Laboratory Experiments?

We want physics specialized high school and college students to think like physicists, and this involves an understanding of the scientific methods of inquiry and the ability to use these methods in their own investigations. In order to do that, students have to be made aware that no experimental result has any physical meaning unless an estimate of the uncertainty or precision is assigned to it. In this paper, we describe two simple experiments in which high school and college students measure physical constants, and make an easy analysis of their experimental data by applying the tools offered by microcomputers.     

Learning about energy: The influence of alternative frameworks,cognitive levels,and closed-mindedness

This article reports on a two-part study designed (a) to find the relation, if any, between junior high school students' alternative frameworks on energy held prior to instruction and their cognitive level of operations, either preformal or formal, and (b) to determine the relation, if any, between junior and senior high school students' success or failure in learning about energy and their alternative frameworks, their levels of cognitive operations, and their tendencies toward open- or closed-mindedness. In Part 1, we found no significant relation between junior high school students' prior alternative frameworks on energy and their cognitive levels of operations. In Part 2, we found that significantly better learning outcomes were achieved by students who had higher cognitive level scores. We also found that the extent to which students succeeded in learning the energy concept was a function of their prior knowledge. That is, certain alternative frameworks held prior to instruction may have facilitated the learning process. Finally, we found that the two groups (i.e., those who succeeded in learning about energy and those who did not) could not be distinguished according to scores in open- or closed-mindedness. These finding reinforce the assumption that learning is more domain specific than earlier theorists believed.     

Central auditory processing ability in children with ADHD with and without learning disabilities

A few studies have shown more central auditory processing deficits in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than in nondisabled children. Because these studies failed to screen participants with ADHD for learning disabilities (LD), it is not clear whether these deficits are correlates of ADHD or LD or both. In the present study, the central auditory processing ability of children with ADHD, ADHD with LD, and no disabilities was examined. Results indicated lower central auditory processing ability, and significant correlations between reading and ADHD symptoms and reading and central auditory processing ability in the ADHD with LD group compared with the other two groups. These findings suggest that central auditory processing deficits are more likely to be associated with LD than ADHD.