Promoting environmentally sustainable attitudes and behaviour through free‐choice learning experiences: what is the state of the game?

Environmental education, both in and outside of the classroom, aims to facilitate adoption of sustainable practice by both school students and the general public. This paper explores the role of free‐choice learning experiences in this regard. An overview of theoretical approaches underpinning free‐choice learning research is provided, examples are presented of the ways in which informal educational settings can promote environmentally sustainable attitudes and behaviour, and the factors contributing to the effectiveness of these endeavours are discussed. By reviewing research evidence in relation to these issues, the paper identifies the current ‘state of the game’ and areas where new research is needed.     

Developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors in childhood and adolescence

This article describes the average and group-based developmental trajectories of aggression, opposition, property violations, and status violations using parent reports of externalizing behaviors on a longitudinal multiple birth cohort study of 2,076 children aged 4 to 18 years. Trajectories were estimated from multilevel growth curve analyses and semiparametric mixture models. Overall, males showed higher levels of externalizing behavior than did females. Aggression, opposition, and property violations decreased on average, whereas status violations increased over time. Group-based trajectories followed the shape of the average curves at different levels and were similar for males and females. The trajectories found in this study provide a basis against which deviations from the expected developmental course can be identified and classified as deviant or nondeviant.     

The Swedish WAIS-R factor structure and cognitive profiles for adults with dyslexia

Factor analysis of the Swedish version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) on a group of 88 adult individuals with dyslexia showed a three-factor structure with a verbal comprehension (VC) factor, a perceptual organization (PO) factor, and a freedom from distractibility (FD) factor. The results of this factor analysis support earlier findings from factor analyses of adults in the original U.S. normative sample and in different clinical groups. The profile of scores for the sample of individuals with dyslexia showed the expected pattern, with PO highest and FD lowest. The predicted pattern was also observed using Bannatyne's recategorization of WAIS-R subtests. As has been true for other typical and exceptional samples, women scored significantly higher than men on the Digit Symbol subtest. Related to this gender difference, Digit Symbol scores proved to be sensitive to problems associated with dyslexia only for men with dyslexia. Also, education level was shown to be related to verbal (V)-performance (P) IQ discrepancy, with larger P > V differences observed for participants with fewer years of formal schooling. Regardless of these gender and education differences, the characteristic factor score and Bannatyne patterns were identified for both men and women and for three different subsamples categorized by educational level.     

Longitudinal retention of anatomical knowledge in second‐year medical students

The Radboud University Medical Center has a problem‐based, learner‐oriented, horizontally, and vertically integrated medical curriculum. Anatomists and clinicians have noticed students’ decreasing anatomical knowledge and the disability to apply knowledge in diagnostic reasoning and problem solving. In a longitudinal cohort, the retention of anatomical knowledge gained during the first year of medical school among second‐year medical students was assessed. In May 2011, 346 medical students applied for the second‐year gastro‐intestinal (GI) tract course. The students were asked to participate in a reexamination of a selection of anatomical questions of an examination from October 2009. The examination consisted of a clinical anatomy case scenario and two computed tomography (CT) images of thorax and abdomen in an extended matching format. A total of 165 students were included for analysis. In 2011, students scored significantly lower for the anatomy examination compared to 2009 with a decline in overall examination score of 14.7% (±11.7%). Decrease in knowledge was higher in the radiological questions, compared to the clinical anatomy cases 17.5% (±13.6%) vs. 7.9% (±10.0%), respectively, d = 5.17. In both years, male students scored slightly better compared to female students, and decline of knowledge seems somewhat lower in male students (13.1% (±11.1%) vs. 15.5% (±12.0%), respectively), d = ?0.21. Anatomical knowledge in the problem‐oriented horizontal and vertical integrated medical curriculum, declined by approximately 15% 1.5 year after the initial anatomy course. The loss of knowledge in the present study is relative small compared to previous studies. Anat Sci Educ 10: 242–248. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

Evidence for the role of higher order reasoning processes in cue competition and other learning phenomena

When people judge the contingency between a target cue and an outcome, they also take into account the contingency between the outcome and other cues with which the target cue co-occurred. Several authors have argued that such cue competition effects are due to higher order reasoning processes. We review the evidence that supports this hypothesis and discuss whether higher order reasoning might also play a role in other learning phenomena.     

Academics’ Strategies and Obstacles in Achieving Collaboration between Universities and SMEs

There is an ongoing debate both in the United States and Europe about the need to develop a broader view of scholarship and the different activities connected with it, including ‘service to the community’. This empirical study reveals that researchers who are engaged in collaboration with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) encounter many hindrances within the academic structure and obstacles due cultural differences that needs to be overcome. But it is also evident that they are creative and learn different strategies in accomplishing their goals and they also bring back useful experiences and knowledge from their cooperation into their research and teaching within the academic organization. We suggest that attention should be paid to the broader and more elaborate view of collaborative knowledge production that we present in the article if university structures are to provide better support for their academic staff to interact profitably with the community, and thereby create a ‘win-win situation’ for everyone involved.

     

Different aspects in designing mathematics education: Three examples from the Freudenthal Institute

Three teaching designs are offered. They were developed for 12 to 16 year old pupils taking into account their personal differences in terms of gender (in Making Up the Cube), culture (in Mecca), knowledge, and use of calculators in The integrating calculator. The designs concern the representation of three-dimensional objects in the plane, directions and great circles on the sphere, and exploration of the integrating calculator.