What disengages doctoral students in the biological and environmental sciences from their doctoral studies?

This study explored the causes of student disengagement from their doctoral studies in the biological and environmental sciences. The data came from interviews of 40 doctoral students (male?=?15, female?=?25) and underwent qualitative analysis for content. Our results showed that doctoral studies provide multiple contexts for disengagement, such as the scholarly community and supervision, while doctoral students’ sense of distress, cynicism and inefficacy emerged as central components of disengagement. The study identified isolation, indifference, and lack of support and constructive feedback as sources of cynicism, while distress and inefficacy were more often related to failure or lack of progress in research. Our findings indicate that the source of disengagement can vary not only between individuals, but also between the academic activities at hand. Thus, while promoting an engaging doctoral experience, awareness of what typically triggers disengagement in the doctoral journey is vital.     

Teaching for Scientific Literacy? An Examination of Instructional Practices in Secondary Schools in Barbados

This study examined the extent to which the instructional practices of science teachers in Barbados are congruent with best practices for teaching for scientific literacy. Additionally, through observation of practice, it sought to determine the teachers’ demonstrated role in the classroom, their demonstration of learning through discourse, learning goals and the nature of classroom activities. Five hundred nineteen students from 12 of the 23 secondary schools on the island and 15 teachers across 8 schools participated in the study. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire, an observational schedule and field notes. It was found that while problem-solving and questioning were mainly used in the classroom, the use of experiments was among the least popular teaching strategies. Additionally, results showed that teachers’ display of the knowledge of the characteristics of scientific literacy was unsatisfactory. Generally, the findings indicate a gap between teaching for scientific literacy as expressed in the literature and current instructional practices in secondary science classrooms in Barbados.     

Changing Preservice Science Teachers’ Views of Nature of Science: Why Some Conceptions May be More Easily Altered than Others

The purpose of this study was to assess preservice teachers’ views of Nature of Science (NOS), identify aspects that were challenging for conceptual change, and explore reasons why. This study particularly focused on why and how some concepts of NOS may be more easily altered than others. Fourteen preservice science teachers enrolled in a NOS and Science Inquiry course participated in this study. Data were collected by using a pre/post format with the Views of Nature of Science questionnaire (VNOS-270), the Views of Scientific Inquiry questionnaire (VOSI-270), follow-up interviews, and classroom artifacts. The results indicated that most students initially held naïve views about certain aspects of NOS like tentativeness and subjectivity. By the end of the semester, almost all students dramatically improved their understanding about almost all aspects of NOS. However, several students still struggled with certain aspects like the differences between scientific theory and law, tentativeness, and socio-cultural embeddedness. Results suggested that instructional, motivational, and socio-cultural factors may influence if and how students changed their views about targeted NOS aspects. Students thought that classroom activities, discussions, and readings were most helpful to improve their views about NOS. The findings from the research have the potential to translate as practical advice for teachers, science educators, and future researchers.     

If I experience formative assessment whilst studying at university,will I put it into practice later as a teacher? Formative and shared assessment in Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

The aim of this article is to analyse whether having experience of formative assessment during their initial teacher education courses (ITE) influences graduates’ subsequent practice as teachers. That is, if the assessment methods that university students are subject to during their learning process are then actually employed by them during their professional practice as schoolteachers. To address this issue, questionnaires were issued and focus groups were held with a sample of ITE graduates. The main results of the study are that: (1) formative and shared assessment (FSA) is not used a great deal during ITE, but is highly valued; (2) some graduates have implemented FSA in their practice as teachers, following their experience on their ITE course; and (3) significant variables are found regarding the implementation of FSA in schools (possible resistance from colleagues and/or pupils’ parents, etc.).     

School counsellor training,attitudes, and perceptions of preparedness to provide services to students with disabilities in inclusive schools in Turkey

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of school counsellors’ attitudes and training on their perceptions of preparedness to provide services to students with disabilities (SWD). Participants were 105 practicing school counsellors who completed the Attitudes toward Disabled Persons Scale Form-O (ATDP-O) as well as the School Counsellor Preparedness Survey-Revised (SCPS-R) in a web-based format. A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted with three types of counsellor training (courses, experiences and conferences/workshops) and counsellor attitudes towards SWD. The results revealed that school counsellors’ attitudes and training significantly predicted preparedness with an approximately 10% of variance explained. Out of all four variables, attitudes appeared to be the only significant predictor of preparedness scores. Results also indicated that school counsellors did not feel completely prepared to work with SWD.     

The effect of a specialized dyslexia font,OpenDyslexic, on reading rate and accuracy

A single-subject alternating treatment design was used to investigate the extent to which a specialized dyslexia font, OpenDyslexic, impacted reading rate or accuracy compared to two commonly used fonts when used with elementary students identified as having dyslexia. OpenDyslexic was compared to Arial and Times New Roman in three reading tasks: (a) letter naming, (b) word reading, and (c) nonsense word reading. Data were analyzed through visual analysis and improvement rate difference, a nonparametric measure of nonoverlap for comparing treatments. Results from this alternating treatment experiment show no improvement in reading rate or accuracy for individual students with dyslexia, as well as the group as a whole. While some students commented that the font was “new” or “different”, none of the participants reported preferring to read material presented in that font. These results indicate there may be no benefit for translating print materials to this font.     

Partnerships in Learning: A Collaborative Project between Higher Education Students and Elementary School Students

Higher education and K-12 school partnerships are typically designed with an end-goal that serves the instructional needs of one group over the other. For this project, a university professor and elementary school instructor used problem-based and project-based learning strategies to design a curriculum that served the academic needs of both groups of students. Undergraduate students in an urban planning course partnered with elementary students from a local school to work on an interdependent civic engagement project. The partnership provided innovative, twenty-first teaching for both groups of students while also reinforcing public service.     

2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the year 2016 was awarded to three illustrious chemists, Professors Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir Fraser Stoddart, and Ben Feringa. Pioneering works of these chemists on designing molecules, chemically synthesizing them, and extracting a work out of such designed molecules open-up a new area of chemistry in a paradigm shifting manner. Beginning with controlling the molecular motions, particularly involving interlocked macrocycles in late 1980s, the advancement progressed to envelop energy storage and retrieval, and varieties of examples around the concept. Molecular motion alone can also be a rich source for such a work output has also been established. These developments possess the required momentum to uncover a new area of chemistry, wherein energy input-output can be used beneficially to conduct a useful work, in a close analogy to machines such as an electric motor.     

The brachistochrone

The brachistochrone problem posed by Bernoulli and its solution highlights one of the most famous experiments in physics which illustrates the variational principle. This pedagogical study is designed to ignite a classroom discussion on the variational problem. We overview the Euler–Lagrange formalism of the variational principle and obtain the solution to the brachistochrone problem. We demonstrate the success of the variational method using brachistochrone models which were fabricated specially for this purpose.     

Unearthing the Banach–Tarski paradox

Greeks used the method of cutting a geometric region into pieces and recombining them cleverly to obtain areas of figures like parallelograms. In such problems, the boundary is ignored. However, in our discussion, we will take every point of space into consideration. The human endeavour to compute lengths, areas, and volumes of irregular complicated shapes and solids created the subject of ‘measure theory’. The paradox of the title can be informally described as follows. Consider the earth including the inside stuff. It is possible to decompose this solid sphere into finitely many pieces and apply three-dimensional rotations to these pieces such that the transformed pieces can be put together to form two solid earths! The whole magic lies in the word ‘pieces’. The pieces turn out to be so strange that they cannot be ‘measured’.