Rhesus monkeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Macaca mulatta</Emphasis>) select Arabic numerals or visual quantities corresponding to a number of sequentially completed maze trials

Four number-trained rhesus monkeys were trained to enumerate their sequential responses. After completing a series of computerized maze trials, the monkeys were given a same/different discrimination involving a numerical stimulus (an Arabic numeral or a visual quantity) and the letterD. The goal was to choose the numerical stimulus if it matched the number of just-completed maze trials, and to choose the letterD if it did not. There were large individual differences in performance, but one animal performed above 70% when receiving randomly intermixed series of 1, 3, 5, and 9 maze trials. This indicates that the monkey was keeping track of the approximate number of maze trials completed in each series and using that numerical cue to respond during the same/different discrimination.     

Disciplinary differences and implications for the development of generic skills: a study of engineering and business students’ perceptions of generic skills

Although previous research has examined how generic skills and disciplinary contexts are related, such investigation has not been conducted from students’ perspectives. Implications of disciplinary differences for the design of a generic skills curriculum have also remained unexplored. In this study, a questionnaire was administered to 502 first-year engineering and business students from a Hong Kong university which explored their perceived importance and competence level of their generic skills, as well as their motivation towards developing these skills. The results of engineering and business students were compared which revealed some disciplinary differences. Substantial differences were found in the importance and competency ratings on IT skills and business students gave significantly higher importance ratings on most generic skills than engineering students. This study will help guide curriculum design that leverages the benefits of interdisciplinary programmes and incorporates generic skills as part of learning outcomes within disciplinary contexts.     

Age Differences in Imagery Abilities

Age differences were examined in 4 aspects of visual mental imagery, namely, image generation, maintenance, scanning, and rotation. The results suggested that one or more distinct processes are used to carry out each aspect of imagery, and that this is true for 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and adults. There was no evidence that younger children have fewer processing components, which become differentiated into more specialized subsystems over age. In addition, the results suggested that younger children are relatively poor at scanning, rotating, and generating objects in images, but are relatively good at maintaining images.     

Early Math Trajectories: Low‐Income Children's Mathematics Knowledge From Ages 4 to 11

Early mathematics knowledge is a strong predictor of later academic achievement, but children from low‐income families enter school with weak mathematics knowledge. An early math trajectories model is proposed and evaluated within a longitudinal study of 517 low‐income American children from ages 4 to 11. This model includes a broad range of math topics, as well as potential pathways from preschool to middle grades mathematics achievement. In preschool, nonsymbolic quantity, counting, and patterning knowledge predicted fifth‐grade mathematics achievement. By the end of first grade, symbolic mapping, calculation, and patterning knowledge were the important predictors. Furthermore, the first‐grade predictors mediated the relation between preschool math knowledge and fifth‐grade mathematics achievement. Findings support the early math trajectories model among low‐income children.     

Teacher Educators Struggling to Make Complex Practice Explicit: Distancing Teaching through Video

This self-study examines our use of video with a cohort of preservice teachers as a means to address the challenges we face as teacher educators who are working with candidates in extensive clinical practice. We came to video as a nuanced way to discuss and make meaning of complex practice and as a means of bridging theory and practice. We found that our use of video supported preservice teachers and their mentors in decomposing, representing, and approximating practice. We also found that, as suggested by the literature, the use of video distanced preservice teachers from their experiences in practice. Finally, we discuss the implications for using video to support the work of rich clinical teacher education.     

A Collective Self-Study to Improve Program Coherence of Clinical Experiences

Student feedback collected through program evaluation of secondary education licensure and Master’s program clinical experiences prompted us to conduct a collective self-study. We used a reflective framework for analysis and discussion of the shifts students in our courses made as they progressed from observers to practicing teachers. Along with our graduate students, we collected and shared data and analysis from two courses – an introductory mathematics course for pre-service teachers and a capstone self-study teacher research course for in-service teachers. Data included students’ reflective accounts of their clinical experiences, dialogue with peers in response memos and focus groups, and our meta-conversation about and interpretations of data captured in meeting notes, audio recordings of meetings, email exchanges, and video conferencing over a two-month period. Analysis resulted in reframed thinking about our teaching and implications for program coherence, including provision of meaningful participant observations in diverse settings, design of dialogic platforms for students to make connections, and support of a critical level of reflection to inform teacher professional practice. The results are informative to teacher educators and programs seeking to better understand their roles in designing dialogic spaces for students to think deeply about the connections of their courses to clinical experiences and in supporting ongoing teacher professional development. The study highlights the benefits of faculty collective self-studies and contributes to the literature on self-study for program development.     

Teacher Change Following a Professional Development Experience in Integrating Computational Thinking into Elementary Science

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Computer science and computer science education are marked by gender and racial disparities. To increase the number and diversity of students engaging...     

“I Thought We Were Over This Problem”: Explorations of Race in/through Literature Inquiry

This article examines classroom practices that draw upon students' understandings of race and equity as they engage in critical literature inquiry to explore issues of power in our society. Our research team, comprising a fifth-grade classroom teacher, a doctoral candidate, and a university professor, analyzed students' written and digital projects to better understand what new skills, strategies, and meaning-making opportunities emerge when race is centralized in the curriculum. We documented the various ways students were able to voice their thoughts through multimodal learning in an elementary language arts classroom.