Lower Secondary Students’ Views in Astrobiology

Astrobiology is, on a profound level, about whether life exists outside of the planet Earth. The question of existence of life elsewhere in the universe has been of interest to many societies throughout history. Recently, the research area of astrobiology has grown at a fast rate, mainly due to the development of observational methods, and the media is frequently reporting on new research findings. International surveys show that astrobiology questions are among those that interest young people the most. The popularity of astrobiology and the way it captures much science content makes it an interesting area for science teaching. However, there is very little research directly focused upon students’ views in astrobiology. The study reported in this paper draws from the answers of 186 Swedish lower secondary students (16 years old) to a questionnaire, with closed and open-ended questions regarding their views of issues in astrobiology. The study was guided by the worldview theory (Cobern 1991; Cobern, Science Education 80(5):579–610, 1996; Cobern, Science and Education 9:219–246, 2000). The results show that even though basic reasoning in astrobiology is known by a majority of the students, there is a considerable number of students, for whom this is not the case. Furthermore, it was found that for all questions, there are students answering in different ways when asked to describe their own view and the view they associate with science researchers. The implications of the study for further research and for the teaching of astrobiology in science class are discussed.     

Attachment style and mentoring relationships in adolescence

This study examined the relationship between adolescents’ attachment style and their decision to enter mentoring relationships. The participants were 569 Greek Cypriot high school students. It was found that adolescents who have a mentor are more secure in their attachment than those who do not. Girls with low scores in secure attachment do not enter easily into mentoring relationships. Older adolescents are more anxious in their attachments, probably because they can better appreciate the possible difficulties if something goes wrong; thus, they are more reluctant to take the risk of starting a mentoring relationship than younger students. Furthermore, secure attachment was found to be positively correlated to the perceived impact of the whole experience: the more secure the attachment, the stronger the mentoring bond seems to be.     

Understanding and describing mathematical knowledge for teaching: knowledge about proof for engaging students in the activity of proving

This article is situated in the research domain that investigates what mathematical knowledge is useful for, and usable in, mathematics teaching. Specifically, the article contributes to the issue of understanding and describing what knowledge about proof is likely to be important for teachers to have as they engage students in the activity of proving. We explain that existing research informs the knowledge about the logico-linguistic aspects of proof that teachers might need, and we argue that this knowledge should be complemented by what we call knowledge of situations for proving. This form of knowledge is essential as teachers mobilize proving opportunities for their students in mathematics classrooms. We identify two sub-components of the knowledge of situations for proving: knowledge of different kinds of proving tasks and knowledge of the relationship between proving tasks and proving activity. In order to promote understanding of the former type of knowledge, we develop and illustrate a classification of proving tasks based on two mathematical criteria: (1) the number of cases involved in a task (a single case, multiple but finitely many cases, or infinitely many cases), and (2) the purpose of the task (to verify or to refute statements). In order to promote understanding of the latter type of knowledge, we develop a framework for the relationship between different proving tasks and anticipated proving activity when these tasks are implemented in classrooms, and we exemplify the components of the framework using data from third grade. We also discuss possible directions for future research into teachers’ knowledge about proof.

Functional reading difficulties in Denmark

In this first Danish study of adult reading skills, 1124 adults between 18 and 67 years of age participated in an interview about reading habits and skills, and 445 were tested individually at home using six common texts. Great care was taken to ascertain that subjects were representative of the whole adult population and that the texts covered most types of everyday reading. Three percent of the participants were found to have severe functional reading difficulties and a further 9 percent to have moderate difficulties. Regression analyses found several unique predictors of reading difficulties: age (adults over 45 years reading more poorly than younger adults), limited basic education, no vocational training nor higher education, and a small amount of reading needed at work. The rate of poor readers was about four times higher among persons with low income than among others. Men and women read equally well although men tended to rate themselves lower as readers than women did. Methodological issues and some educational implications are discussed.     

‘Children’s clans’; social organisation and interpretive reconstruction as aspects on development of peer-groups in outdoor play

The focus of this article is children’s self-organisation of peer-groups through play. The play was initiated by encounters with the environment. The use of ethnographic methods in early childhood research has proved helpful to elucidate, interpret, and understand children’s experiences and the creation of meaning in their everyday lives. This inquiry draws on field notes, informal conversations with the children, and photos from a study of kindergarten children’s experiences of outdoor places and landscapes in Norway. Going out of doors together with the children regularly over a period of 10 months revealed aspects of how children’s interactions in play connect to their use of natural landscapes and its place in peer-group social organisation. The data are presented as ‘narrative maps’ and episodes written as ‘emplotted’ narratives.     

Teaching science skills and knowledge to students with developmental disabilities: A systematic review

A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted to identify current practice on teaching science to students with intellectual disability (ID) and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in relation to two review questions—students' science outcomes and students' and teachers' experiences of the interventions. Six databases related to education, psychology, and science were systematically searched. A detailed protocol can be viewed on PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42017057323). Thirty studies were identified that reported on science interventions and 20 on student/teacher experiences of the interventions. The majority of the studies targeted science vocabulary and concepts. Other targets included inquiry skills and comprehension skills. The majority of the interventions used components of systematic instruction (n = 23). Five studies focused on self-directed learning and two on comprehension-based instruction. Students and teachers reported positive experiences of the interventions. The findings suggest that components of systematic instruction in particular might be effective in teaching science content to students with ID and/or ASD. Further research is needed to explore the effectiveness of identified interventions on teaching more complex science skills and with students with severe disabilities. Some limitations related to the search strategy are highlighted.     

Field dependence/independence cognitive style and problem posing: an investigation with sixth grade students

Field dependence/independence cognitive style was found to relate to general academic achievement and specific areas of mathematics; in the majority of studies, field-independent students were found to be superior to field-dependent students. The present study investigated the relationship between field dependence/independence cognitive style and problem-posing ability among sixth grade students. The 94 students’ sample was clustered into three groups, according to the cognitive-style field dependence/independence (field dependents, field mixed and field independents). The results suggest that field-independent participants outperformed field-mixed and field-dependent ones in both problem-posing ability and the complexity of the problems posed. It was also found that the content of the task influenced the differences between the three groups of students as regards the ability in problem posing and the complexity of the problems posed; while in the first (informal context), second and fourth task differences were found between the groups, in the third task (formal context), no differences were evident. The results are interpreted in consideration to the relevant literature findings. Some educational implications are discussed and directions for future research are drawn.     

Eye-movement parameters and reading speed

This study addressed the relationship between four eyemovement parameters and reading speed of 20twelve-year-old children during silent and oralreading. The results indicated that each of theparameters correlated significantly with speed ofsilent reading. In fact, reading speed could bepredicted by the following variables: recognitionspan, average fixation duration, and number ofregressive saccades. Moreover, the relationshipbetween silent and oral reading speed, on one hand,and between reading fluency and reading errors in oralreading speed, on the other, was examined. The resultsindicated that in terms of reading speed, significantinterrelationships existed between silent and oralreading. Furthermore, fluency and errors wereintercorrelated phenomena, but only fluency wassubstantially related to oral reading speed.     

Is the Simple View of Reading too Simple?

According to the Simple View of Reading (SVR), reading comprehension is the product of word decoding ability and linguistic comprehension (R = D × C). However, there is also evidence showing that an additive model (R = D + C) explains just as much or even more of the variance in reading comprehension than the product model. To further evaluate these models, 467 Norwegian students in grade 6 were administered measures of reading comprehension, decoding ability, listening comprehension, phonemic awareness, and rapid digit naming. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the explanatory power of each model, in addition to the influence of phonemic awareness and rapid naming. The preliminary hierarchical regression analyses were replicated among Swedish students. According to the present study, the additive model explained more of the variance in reading comprehension than the product model, and only rapid naming contributed significantly to explain variance in reading comprehension, above and beyond that explained by the SVR.