Supporting Teachers on Science‐focused School Trips: Towards an integrated framework of theory and practice

Although science centres and museums are important educational resources, school trips to these places are not often conducted in a manner that could maximise learning. In addressing this issue, a Framework for Museum Practice (FMP) is proposed, derived from the perspectives of Cultural Historical Activity Theory, theories of intrinsic motivation, and research into conceptual learning. It is hypothesised that this theoretically derived framework, if implemented by museum educators, can potentially lead to the creation of resources for teachers that would enable them to make better use of the learning opportunities afforded by school trips, and to maximise the impact on pupil learning, including their affective experience. This paper also describes how the framework was used to guide the development of resources to be used in conjunction with a science museum trip. The resources were tested by two primary school teachers and their classes, and the data were analysed for evidence of teacher and student behaviour consistent with the design principles in the FMP. Findings lend some empirical support for the FMP and suggest that it may offer a guide for the development of museum‐provided resources, which would have the potential to improve the utilisation by teachers of informal science institutions and, consequently, their impact on pupil learning.     

Collaborative knowledge-making in the everyday practice of youth suicide prevention education

The development and implementation of a new school‐based suicide prevention education programme in one secondary school in Vancouver, British Columbia, recently provided us with an opportunity to conduct an in‐depth, qualitative case study. The purpose of our study was to deepen our understanding of how school‐based suicide prevention education programmes like this one get planned and enacted in particular, local settings. We argue that the narrow range of methodologies that have traditionally been deployed to study school‐based youth suicide prevention education programmes have hindered our ability to see the complexities and potentialities of this work. Through the presentation of a sub‐set of findings, we aim to show the possibilities for fresh thinking and contextualized understandings that a qualitative case study, informed by a constructionist methodology, invites.     

Learning to engage: how positive attitudes about the news,media literacy,and video production contribute to adolescent civic engagement

Many students enroll in video production courses in high school as part of a vocational, career, or technical program. While there has been an explosion of scholarly work in digital literacy in informal settings, less is known about how digital and media literacy competencies are developed through school-based video production courses. This study explores the relationship between civic engagement and the various multimedia instructional practices used in a high school video production course with a single-school convenience sample and an ethnically diverse population of students. Findings reveal that the best predictors of the intent to participate in civic engagement are having positive attitudes about news, current events, reporting, and journalism. Media literacy attitudes and a range of in-classroom learning experiences with video production are also associated with civic engagement.     

Happiness matters: towards a pedagogy of happiness and well-being

The role of the emotions in learning has long been acknowledged but is often overlooked. This article considers the impact one particular emotion, happiness, has on learning and the school curriculum. Recent reports have drawn attention to the importance of happiness (or the lack of it) by highlighting concerns about childhood well-being. At the same time, there is increasing evidence from psychology and neuroscience to suggest that periods of happiness are linked to personal growth, health and development. When we are happy it seems we are more likely to be receptive to outside stimuli than when we are sad or distressed. Happiness also makes us more disposed to engage in creative endeavour, which is itself another source of fulfilment. Positive psychologists argue that rather than being fixed, happiness, optimism and other positive traits can be learnt. We offer evidence from our own professional experience in teaching to corroborate these claims and to extend the debate about the relevance of affective neuroscience to education. In conclusion, we consider how a focus on happiness might underpin a positive approach to curriculum reform.     

Improving the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation for Nonnormal Conditions in Structural Equation Modeling

In this study, the authors investigated incorporating adjusted model fit information into the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) fit index. Through Monte Carlo simulation, the usefulness of this adjusted index was evaluated for assessing model adequacy in structural equation modeling when the multivariate normality assumption underlying maximum likelihood estimation is violated. Adjustment to the RMSEA was considered in 2 forms: a rescaling adjustment via the Satorra-Bentler rescaled goodness-of-fit statistic and a bootstrap adjustment via the Bollen and Stine adjusted model p value. Both properly specified and misspecifed models were examined. The adjusted RMSEA was evaluated in terms of the average index value across study conditions and with respect to model rejection rates under tests of exact fit, close fit, and not-close fit.     

Are Environmental Professors Unbalanced? Evidence From the Field

Most outcomes assessment in higher education has focused on content knowledge or skills development; however, attitudinal change is also a legitimate focus of assessment. We use the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) to test whether courses designed to meet the same university environmental literacy requirement changed student environmental attitudes, and whether these changes resulted from instructor and/or course-content effects. We found student environmental attitudes did change significantly but in different directions depending upon who taught the course. The ability to measure such changes adds to the discussion in the environmental education community on the desired nature of attitudinal change and of the responsibilities of higher education instructors.     

Evaluation of a core team centred professional development programme for building a whole-school cooperative problem solving approach to conflict

This study evaluated a professional learning approach using a core team (CT) model to assist primary (elementary) schools to develop whole-school collaborative conflict resolution processes. Thirteen schools were matched and randomly assigned to the enhancing relationships in school communities programme (n?=?10) or a non-programme control group (n?=?3). Programme schools provided a core (professional learning) team, who attended professional learning days, and disseminated programme content throughout their schools. Programme schools also received one full school staff workshop. After one year, CT participants were more likely to apply a collaborative conflict resolution model to problem scenarios and report greater knowledge and skills compared to non-programme-school control participants. Compared to the non-programme control group, non-core team programme school staff described using more cooperative approaches to handling conflict, especially when they had received more professional development from their CT. Programme school teachers taught more hours conflict resolution curriculum, and increases in hours taught by programme (but not control) teachers were associated with teacher reported increases in student understanding and use of cooperative methods. Patterns also supported a role of self-efficacy in implementation. The potential usefulness of a CT professional learning model for assisting schools to develop cooperative conflict resolution approaches was supported.     

Evidence for the Validity of a Social Connectedness Scale: Connectors Amass Bridging Social Capital Online and Offline

One of the key characteristics of effective opinion leaders is that they are highly connected; they know many people and have numerous weak-tie relationships. Two studies were conducted that found evidence consistent with construct validity. The first (N = 35 and N = 57) found that connectors knew more people from a randomly selected list of names. A second study, with two surveys, was created (N = 561 and N = 189) such that the connectedness scores of some of the subjects in the first survey could be linked to how many subjects knew them in the second. Results indicated that those with higher connection scores were more likely to be known by others. Moreover, in the second survey, measures of Facebook use and bridging social capital were found to be associated substantially with connector scores.