Derived search keys for government documents

The purpose of this study was to propose a design for a Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) number search key to retrieve bibliographic records for United States Government documents from OCLC's On-Line Union Catalog. Experimentation with a test file of 25,000 records indicated that a search key derived from a maximum of the first 14 digits in the SuDocs number is sufficiently distinctive to obtain an expected average retrieval of 2.5 records per search. OCLC will implement a SuDocs number search key in the future. It is expected that this key will be a valuable tool for library catalogers and users.     

Social coping and self-concept among young gifted students in Ireland and the United States: a cross-cultural study

Social coping and self-concept were explored among Irish (n = 115) and American (n = 134) grades 3–8 students. Denying one’s giftedness or the impact it has on peer relationships were associated with poor self-concept in both samples. Among Irish students, denying giftedness was associated with more positive self-concept when paired with a high activity level. Engaging in many activities in the US sample and helping one’s peers in the Irish sample were positive predictors of academic self-concept. Findings suggest young gifted students may benefit from learning more about their exceptional abilities and their impact on peers. They should also be encouraged to engage in extracurricular activities and find ways to use their exceptional abilities to support their peers.     

Charismatic cops,patriarchs and a few good women: leadership,club culture and young peoples' drinking

The paper reports on key findings of a research project that examined the roles that community-based sporting clubs in the Australian state of Victoria play in shaping young people's understandings and uses of alcohol. Our research imagined clubs as community hubs that are located in complex networks that impact on the ways that clubs understand their locations in communities, and which have unpredictable influences and consequences on club histories, culture and orientations to issues such as young people and alcohol use. The paper focuses on understanding the key roles played by club leaders in facilitating change and transformation in these contexts, particularly in terms of alcohol-related practices and the potential impact of these on young people's uses and understanding of alcohol. We situate these findings in a framework that draws on the literature of complexity science and complex adaptive systems (CAS) to suggest that these practices and changes need to be understood in ways that allow for complexity, uncertainty, emergent behaviours and adaptive change.     

Argumentation: A strategy for improving achievement and revealing scientific identities

In this paper we explore the relationship between learning gains, measured through pre‐assessment and post‐assessment, and engagement in scientific argumentation. In order to do so, this paper examines group discourse and individual learning during the implementation of NASA Classroom of the Future’s BioBLAST!® (BB) software program in a high school biology classroom. We found that the argumentative structures, the quality of these structures, and the identities that students take on during collaborative group work are critical in influencing student learning and achievement in science. We provide recommendations for instructors implementing argumentation in their science classrooms, and provide suggestions for the development of future research in this area.     

Group composition and National Curriculum assessment at seven years

This paper presents the initial findings of a long-term study to examine whether the introduction of compulsory school science for pupils in UK schools in 1991 is effective in raising the general level of scientific literacy. The use of the term 'scientific literacy' in the literature is considered and a definition of the term as it is applied in this study is offered. The scientific literacy level of two groups of initial teacher training studentswith contrasting experiences of school sciencewas compared. Students completed a simple science test that had been originally written for 11-year-old children. The average test score of students who had experienced compulsory school science from the ages of 11 to 16 was found to be significantly higher (p = 0.014) than that of students for whom school science was optional at secondary level. The study also highlights specific areas of conceptual difficulty in basic science experienced by almost all of the students tested. Test questions relating to the circulatory system, light and sound produced very low scores from almost all students, regardless of their science background. The paper considers the implications of these findings for science teachers and policymakers in both the primary and secondary sectors.     

Producing Knowledge About Physical Education Pedagogy: Problematizing the Activities of Expertise

In the process of problematizing what intellectual work looks like, poststructuralist discourses have opened up new spaces through which to examine the processes of knowledge production. Our purpose is to engage with these processes of knowledge production as they attempt to tell particular truths about good pedagogy in Physical Education (PE). Indeed, there has been a long running debate between various forms of expertise claiming to tell the truth about what constitutes good pedagogy in PE. In this paper, we revisit this debate via a mobilization of Hall's (1985) theorization of articulation, and the reflexive modernization thesis of Beck, Giddens and Lash (1994). These lenses lead us to argue that a more reflexive modernity profoundly problematizes all forms of truth telling in Education.     

Factor structure,reliability and validity of the Parental Support for Learning Scale: Adolescent Short Form (PSLS-AS)

Parental involvement in children’s learning has been found to influence academic success. However, very few tools exist for measuring parental involvement, particularly ones that target adolescents’ self-report. The present study assessed the factor structure, reliability and convergent validity of a new scale to assess adolescents’ perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ educational involvement: the Parental Support for Learning Scale: Adolescent Short Form (PSLS-AS). The PSLS-AS, as well as a questionnaire measuring the risk of high school drop-out, was administered to a sample of 825 youth (aged 13–14 years). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure representing parental involvement: Controlling Involvement and Autonomy Supportive Involvement. Adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ involvement correlated with a risk of high school drop-out. Implications and future directions for further validation of the PSLS-AS are discussed.