Peer‐mediated interventions with elementary and secondary school students with emotional and behavioural disorders: a literature review

Peer‐mediated interventions (PMIs) have been shown to be effective for increasing adaptive social and academic behaviours of children and youth. Although PMI efficacy is generally well supported, there have been relatively few published intervention studies that focus on elementary, middle and high school students with emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD). The present review examines selected empirical literature in order to identify characteristics and relative efficacy of PMI. Findings of 12 peer‐reviewed journal papers including research designs and outcomes were examined. Results provide support for the efficacy of PMI for improving behavioural and social skills of students with EBD. Recommendations include further research on PMI for high school students and longitudinal research of PMI.     

Conservation Education and Environmental Communication in Great Ape Re-Introduction Projects: Two Cases From the Republic of Congo

Among species recovery tools available, re-introduction of animals to the wild is one of the more complex. Since the mid-1990s two successful great ape re-introductions have taken place in the Republic of Congo, leading some conservationists to revisit re-introduction as a strategy. This research explored the role of conservation education and environmental communication in the projects, including activities undertaken, stakeholder perceptions of success and impacts on project outcomes. The research found that education and communication activities, while varied and broad, were managed in an ad hoc, intuitive manner, lacking priority, expertise, and funding leading to recommendations for future reintroduction projects.     

Comparison of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Traditions: epistemological,theoretical, and methodological differences

There has been much discussion about quantitative and qualitative approaches to research in different disciplines. In the behavioural and social sciences, these two paradigms are compared to reveal their relative strengths and weaknesses. But the debate about both traditions has commonly taken place in academic books. It is hard to find an article that deals with the generic issues related to the quantitative and qualitative divide by drawing on distinguished research literature. Interested in addressing this need, this article aims to explain the essential characteristics of quantitative and qualitative research approaches with an emphasis on their underlying epistemological, theoretical, and methodological differences. It elucidates the research design issues and concepts in relation to both research paradigms, from planning research to collecting and analyzing data, and reporting findings. The criteria that are used to evaluate research strategies and findings are also discussed.     

One Science Teacher’s Professional Development Experience: A Case Study Exploring Changes in Students’ Perceptions of Their Fluency with Innovative Technologies

The purpose of this case-study is to narrate a secondary science teacher’s experience of his professional development (PD) education and training in innovative technologies (IT) in the context of engaging students in environmental research projects The sources from which the narrative is derived include (1) the science teacher’s reflective reports during three summer institute programs and (2) the science teacher’s reflective reports while subsequently engaging students in IT-embedded environmental research projects in his classroom. The science teacher’s explanations for changes in students’ perception of their IT fluency illuminate his personal narrative. The science teacher attributed his growth and significant changes in students’ perceptions of their IT fluency to the following mechanisms: (a) a personal commitment to developing his own and his students’ IT abilities in the context of doing environmental research projects, and (b) an increase in class time devoted to science education due to school-time scheduling policy. The study implies that immersive professional development opportunities have the potential to produce significant increases in students’ perceptions of their IT fluency.     

ARGUMENTATION AND STUDENTS’ CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF PROPERTIES AND BEHAVIORS OF GASES

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of argumentation-based pedagogy on college students?? conceptual understanding of properties and behaviors of gases. The sample consists of 108 students (52 in the control group and 56 in the intervention group) drawn from 2 general chemistry college courses taught by the same instructor. Data were collected through pre- and post-tests. The results of the study show that the intervention group students performed significantly better than the control group students on the post-test. The intervention group students also showed significant increase in their test scores between pre- and post-test. While at least 80?% of the students in the intervention group abandoned their initial ideas on all of the 17 alternative conceptions that were identified by the authors but one, the percent of student abandoning their initial ideas in the control group was less than 50. The discussion focuses on the implications of these results for addressing students?? alternative conceptions, promoting the argumentation?Cpedagogy in college science courses and the challenges associated with the use of argumentation in college science classrooms.     

Democracy Through Learner-Centered Education: a Turkish Perspective

Aimed at documenting the problems and constraints confronting learner-centered instruction in Turkey, this article first explains the link between democracy and education and the role of learner-centered instruction in realizing democratic ends. By drawing on John Dewey’s ideas and Turkish scholars’ perspectives on Turkish education, the article then presents the problems and constraints that pose threats to the implementation of learner-centered instruction in Turkey. The author also explains the problems within the Turkish educational system and teacher education programmes, and the challenges that in-service teachers and students may experience with learner-centered instruction.     

Changes in Attitudes Towards Science–Technology–Society of Pre-service Science Teachers

This research focuses on use of a triadic teaching approach in a science–technology–society (STS) course designed for future science teachers for middle schools in Turkey. Forty-three pre-service science teachers were enrolled in a semester-long course organized around issues students identified and used throughout the semester. The triadic teaching approach includes library-online searches that lead the students to design and conduct investigations, to carrying out mini-scientific symposia, and to preparing and conducting poster presentations open to the entire student body and faculty. The results of a 30-item Likert scale, administered to the students as a pretest and a posttest, indicated that there were significant increases in positive attitudes towards STS issues from the beginning to the end of the study. Individual interviews were also conducted with the students to determine the individual effects of each component of the triadic teaching approach on their attitudes towards STS issues. All aspects of the new approach provided significant contributions to the development of more positive attitudes among the students towards STS via interviews and on all sub-scales of a survey administered that include: (1) pupil interest in STS issues; (2) teacher interest in STS issues; (3) general perceptions regarding importance of STS issues.

The effect of poverty on the verbal scores of gifted students

A nonexperimental design was used to determine whether the verbal scores of low-income gifted fifth graders (n = 38) differed from those of their higher income peers (n = 83). The Otis–Lennon School Ability Test, Eighth Edition and the Stanford Achievement Test-Tenth Edition were used to collect student data. Results of a MANOVA showed a statistically significant difference between the verbal scores of the two groups, with low-income students scoring significantly lower. A large effect size for the multivariate main effect of income level on verbal intelligence and verbal achievement scores was found (η² = .19). The existence of verbal–nonverbal score discrepancy in low-income students questions the practice of using only nonverbal or nonverbal parts of an IQ test to identify and place students in gifted programmes. These results also underscore the need to nurture underdeveloped verbal abilities when they occur in low-income students.     

High School Students’ Reasons for Their Science Dispositions: Community-Based Innovative Technology-Embedded Environmental Research Projects

Research in Science Education - The purpose of this investigation was to qualitatively describe high school students’ reasons for their science dispositions (attitude, perception, and...