通过小组活动发展幼儿元认知的个案研究

元认知是指主体能够反思自己的思想,能为完成某一目标对自己的思维进行自觉监控。个案研究发现,小组合作解决问题的方式有助于幼儿元认知的发展。为幼儿提供适当的任务以及与他人合作解决问题的机会,不仅有利于幼儿积极运用已有的元认知技能,也有利于幼儿获得他人的反馈,同时反思自己,以便构建新的有效的问题解决策略,舍弃无效的策略,最终促进幼儿元认知的迅速发展。     

Walking through Walls: the sexual harassment of high school girls

For most females, crude language and other forms of sexually harassing behaviour are part of the fabric of our daily lives. To date, however, our focus on sexual harassment has been limited primarily to the experiences of adult women in academic and work place settings. What has not been explored is the prevalence of sexual harassment in schools and the way it interferes with young women's education. Equal opportunity programmes are of limited use if, for example, we urge female students into traditional male courses but we neglect to consider the hostile climate they encounter there. In this study I explored young women's experiences of sexual harassment in the setting lauded as their gateway to opportunity: school. Based on their testimonies I make recommendations for educators who are committed to making high school a more equitable place for female students.     

Increasing physical literacy in youth: A two-week Sport for Development program for children aged 6-10

PROSPECTS - Regular physical activity significantly improves health outcomes, yet rates of childhood physical activity remain alarmingly low. Physical literacy has been identified as the...     

A research methodology for studying how people think

Although science education intends to help students learn to think, research in this area does not usually use psychological research on how people think. The purpose of this article is to describe one type of research, commonly called information-processing psychology. Its goal is understanding how people think while doing complex tasks. It uses detailed data, usually from individual subjects, and develops precise yet powerful models of human performance, often by using a computer. After describing information-processing research, we illustrate it with two studies. The first shows how computer models are used to explain thinking. A computer program models the knowledge needed to understand and use a physics textbook. The second study shows how information-processing approaches can be used systematically but more simply. This study clarifies why students find it so difficult to master the “factor-label” method for converting chemical units. The article concludes with a discussion of guidelines and suggestions for using information-processing ideas.     

Factors influencing students' decisions to participate in a short “dissection experience” within a systemic anatomy course

Changes in medical education have affected both curriculum design and delivery. Many medical schools now use integrated curricula and a systemic approach, with reduced hours of anatomy teaching. While learning anatomy via dissection is invaluable in educational, professional, and personal development, it is time intensive and supports a regional approach to learning anatomy; the use of prosections has replaced dissection as the main teaching method in many medical schools. In our graduate‐entry medical degree, we use an integrated curriculum, with prosections to teach anatomy systemically. However, to not exclude dissection completely, and to expose students to its additional and unique benefits, we implemented a short “Dissection Experience” at the beginning of Year 2. Students attended three two‐hour anatomy sessions and participated in dissection of the clinically relevant areas of the cubital fossa, femoral triangle, and infraclavicular region. This activity was voluntary and we retrospectively surveyed all students to ascertain factors influencing their decision of whether to participate in this activity, and to obtain feedback from those students who did participate. The main reasons students did not participate were previous dissection experience and time constraints. The reasons most strongly affecting students' decisions to participate related to experience (lack of previous or new) and new skill. Students' responses as to the most beneficial component of the dissection experience were based around practical skills, anatomical education, the learning process, and the body donors. We report here on the benefits and practicalities of including a short dissection experience in a systemic, prosection‐based anatomy course. Anat Sci Educ 6: 225–231. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Assessment of decision-making performance and in-game physical exertion of Australian football umpires

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of in-game physical exertion on decision-making performance of Australian football umpires. Fifteen Australian football umpires (M_age = 36, s = 13.5 years; M_{games umpired} = 235.2, s = 151.3) volunteered to participate in the study. During five competitive Australian football pre-season games, measures of in-game physical exertion (blood lactate levels, global positioning system [GPS]) and decision-making performance (video-based test) were obtained. There were no significant correlations between physical exertion in a particular quarter and decision-making performance in either the same quarter or any other quarter. Video-based decision-making performance was effected by time in game χ²(3) = 24.24, P = 0.001, with Quarter 4 performance significantly better than both Quarter 2 and Quarter 3. In-game physical exertion (blood lactate) significantly decreased over the course of the game χ²(3) = 11.58, P = 0.009. Results indicate no definable link between in-game physical exertion and decision-making performance. It is, however, presumed that decision-making performance may be affected by the time or context of the game. Future research is warranted to explore the relationship between physical exertion and decision-making performance to potentially inform Australian football umpire training programmes that replicate in-game physical and decision-making demands.     

The Utility of Augmented Subscores in a Licensure Exam: An Evaluation of Methods Using Empirical Data

Will subscores provide additional information than what is provided by the total score? Is there a method that can estimate more trustworthy subscores than observed subscores? To answer the first question, this study evaluated whether the true subscore was more accurately predicted by the observed subscore or total score. To answer the second question, three subscore estimation methods (i.e., subscore estimated from the observed subscore, total score, or a combination of both the subscore and total score) were compared. Analyses were conducted using data from six licensure tests. Results indicated that reporting subscores at the examinee level may not be necessary as they did not provide much additional information over what is provided by the total score. However, at the institutional level (for institution size ≥ 30), reporting subscores may not be harmful, although they may be redundant because the subscores were predicted equally well by the observed subscores or total scores. Finally, results indicated that estimating the subscore using a combination of observed subscore and total score resulted in the highest reliability.     

Socially mediated metacognition and learning to write

Writing can be viewed as a recursive process involving both cognitive and metacognitive processes. Task, environment, individual cognition and affective processes all impact on producing written text. Recent research on the development of metacognition in young children has highlighted social constructivist and socio-cultural factors. Metacognition is seen as facilitated through collaborative tasks and through talk. This study investigated the peer construction of metacognition in 5-7-year-old children engaged on collaborative writing tasks. Six year 1 and year 2 classes were involved in the project (n = 172). 25 h of video observation data, teacher and researcher reflections and structured field notes were analysed qualitatively using ATLAS ti software. The written texts produced in these sessions were analysed using a qualitative content analysis, looking specifically for evidence of the process of text construction and metacognition. The findings provide evidence of young children's ability to engage in metacognitive talk and to use metacognition intentionally in the co-construction of written texts. The relationships between children and their talk partners mediated the effect of pre-determined ability in literacy. Teachers’ direct questioning aimed at reflection on the writing process did not always support metacognitive dialogues. Drawing on recent models of metacognition and writing the paper highlights the role of social factors in developing metacognition and illustrates the ways in which young children negotiate task demands during shared writing tasks.     

‘I Hate Maths: Why Do We Need to Do Maths?’ Using iPad Video Diaries to Investigate Attitudes and Emotions Towards Mathematics in Year 3 and Year 6 Students

Accessing children’s feelings and attitudes towards mathematics is a challenging proposition since methods for data collection may be fraught in terms of bias and power relations. This article explores a method of collecting information from young students about their attitudes towards mathematics using iPads, and a video diary technique not dissimilar to the ‘Big Brother’ room, with which many children are familiar. We describe the development of the tool and process when implemented in a primary school setting. We allude to both the enabling prospects of the technique as well as some of the limitations we found when implementing the method. We then discuss the implications of the largely negative attitudes and emotions that the students recorded and suggest that these negative attitudes are well formed by the end of the early years of schooling.