Knowledge of Sets: a Didactic Phenomenon

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - This paper examines a didactic phenomenon, a perception that the elements of sets have a common property, e.g. that {1, 2, 3} and {a, b,...     

Is Canada really an education superpower? The impact of non-participation on results from PISA 2015

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - The purpose of large-scale international assessments is to compare educational achievement across countries. For such cross-national...     

Has this begun to change the way they think? Moving undergraduate learners’ level of reflection from where it is to where it needs to be

This paper documents the ongoing development of a framework for reflection for undergraduate learners new to the reflective process. Motivated by the gap between students’ abilities and experience of reflection and the expectations of them at undergraduate level, the author experimented with a variety of approaches over a number of years. After much trial and error, a three-step pyramid method loosely based on Mezirow's three stages of the reflective process has been meeting with some success and is presented here. Findings indicate that recognizing the limitations in novice practitioners ability to reflect effectively, and providing them with a practical framework of initial support can empower them and result in greater expression and confidence in their reflective journal writing.     

Jump Distance Increases While Carrying Handheld Weights: Impulse, History, and Jump Performance in a Simple Lab Exercise

This laboratory exercise is designed to provide an understanding of the mechanical concept of impulse as it applies to human movement and athletic performance. Students compare jumps performed with and without handheld weights. Contrary to initial expectation, jump distance is increased with moderate additional weights. This was familiar to Ancient Greek athletes where halteres were a part of the original Olympic jumping sports. The effectiveness of this laboratory was assessed with a prelab questionnaire evaluating understanding of the concepts relevant to jumping mechanics and a postlab questionnaire assessing understanding of the same principles in the context of a different but mechanically analogous circumstance, that of throwing. Results indicate that understanding improved significantly as a result of participation in the laboratory exercise.     

Individual and Contextual Differences in the Approaches to Learning of Australian Secondary School Students

Data, based on responses of 1274 Australia secondary school students, are reported which link the student's learning motives and strategies to both personological and school environment factors and learning outcomes. The results indicate substantial positive relationships between the students’ level of self‐esteem and their perceptions of the learning environment as enjoyable and worthwhile with both deep and achieving approaches to learning. Students with more versatile learning strategies are also likely to be the more successful academically.     

Course withdrawals: A probit model and policy recommendations

Withdrawals from college courses prior to the assignment of grades, but after the add-drop period, are analyzed. In a probit model student withdrawals appear to occur randomly with notable exceptions. The more experience a student has in college, the more likely it is that he or she will withdraw from any given course. Students who have withdrawn from courses in the past tend to withdraw again. Student motivation measures are related to the withdrawal decision. Physical and mental disabilities affect withdrawals only in certain courses while athletes are no more likely to withdraw from courses than nonathletes. Finally, there appear to be economies of scale in teaching: The more students an instructor teaches in other courses, the less likely it is that students will withdraw from the course under consideration. The number of students enrolled in the course, however, is not significantly related to withdrawals.