The Influence of 16‐year‐old Students’ Gender,Mental Abilities,and Motivation on their Reading and Drawing Submicrorepresentations Achievements

Submicrorepresentations (SMRs) are a powerful tool for identifying misconceptions of chemical concepts and for generating proper mental models of chemical phenomena in students’ long‐term memory during chemical education. The main purpose of the study was to determine which independent variables (gender, formal reasoning abilities, visualization abilities, and intrinsic motivation for learning chemistry) have the maximum influence on students’ reading and drawing SMRs. A total of 386 secondary school students (aged 16.3 years) participated in the study. The instruments used in the study were: test of Chemical Knowledge, Test of Logical Thinking, two tests of visualization abilities Patterns and Rotations, and questionnaire on Intrinsic Motivation for Learning Science. The results show moderate, but statistically significant correlations between students’ intrinsic motivation, formal reasoning abilities and chemical knowledge at submicroscopic level based on reading and drawing SMRs. Visualization abilities are not statistically significantly correlated with students’ success on items that comprise reading or drawing SMRs. It can be also concluded that there is a statistically significant difference between male and female students in solving problems that include reading or drawing SMRs. Based on these statistical results and content analysis of the sample problems, several educational strategies can be implemented for students to develop adequate mental models of chemical concepts on all three levels of representations.     

Influence of Three Different Methods of Teaching Physics on the Gain in Students' Development of Reasoning

The Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR) was used to gauge the relative effectiveness of three different methods of pedagogy, Reading, Presenting, and Questioning (RPQ), Experimenting and Discussion (ED), and Traditional Methods (TM), on increasing students' level of scientific thinking. The data of a one-semester-long senior high-school project indicate that, for the LCTSR: (a) the RPQ group (n?=?91) achieved effect-sizes d?=?0.30 and (b) the ED group (n = 85) attained effect-sizes d?=?0.64. These methods have shown that the Piagetian and Vygotskian visions on learning and teaching can go hand in hand and as such achieve respectable results. To do so, it is important to challenge the students and thus encourage the shift towards higher levels of reasoning. This aim is facilitated through class management which recognizes the importance of collaborative learning. Carrying out Vygotsky's original intention to use teaching to promote cognitive development as well as subject concepts, this research has shown that it is better to have students experience cognitive conflict from directly observed experiments than by reflecting on reported experience from popularization papers or writings found on the internet.     

Can political inequality be reduced in the classroom? Testing the compensation hypothesis and the BFLPE on youth civic competence

This study examines the general question of how classroom characteristics are linked with differences among students in civic competence, which is seen to be an important basis for political inequality. A resource-mobilisation account of youth civic competence is presented, and this is tested using hierarchical linear modelling and International Civic and Citizenship Study 2009 data. The determinants of youth civic competence are explored at the individual, family, and classroom levels, where resource and mobilisation factors at each level are examined. Evidence for classroom effects are tested using Campbell’s compensation hypothesis and insights derived from Marsh’s big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). This case study of the Czech Republic shows limited evidence for an open classroom climate reducing civic competence differences between low- and high-SES students, and no evidence of BFLPE increasing such differences among youths.     

Curriculum Analysis of Food Safety Competences at Elementary and Upper‐Secondary Level of Formal Education Inside Food‐Related Programs in Slovenia

Since formal education is guided through food‐related curricula, there is a concern regarding to which extent food safety elements are supported in the current educational objectives presented in syllabi. The aim of this study was to analyze the existing food safety elements in the syllabi at the elementary (for students between 6 and 14 y of age) and upper‐secondary level (food‐related programs) of formal education (for students between 15 and 18 y of age). Analysis was done through predefined criteria, evaluating the educational objectives listed in available syllabi approved by the national government. The results revealed the elementary level as a good prestage for education at the next level concerning food safety elements. At the upper‐secondary level, the acquisition of knowledge and development of skills related to food safety elements of interest are well supported. However, based on frequent errors made by professional food handlers reported in the literature, the role of food handlers and their food safety awareness should receive more attention in the syllabi. To support this and to overcome a lack of educational objectives identified, several actions are suggested. Based on methodological recommendations for the teacher in the syllabi, the importance of qualified teachers was once again confirmed. Vocational schools are and will remain an indispensable pillar in the education of future professional food handlers; however, teachers with sufficient knowledge and a positive attitude toward food safety seems to be, besides quality curricula, one of the important factors in achieving the proper attitudes of people required to implement food safety.     

A social inequality of motivation? The relationship between beliefs about academic success and young people's educational attainment

Meritocratic ideals, which emphasise individual responsibility and self‐motivation, have featured prominently in discourses about Australia's international competitiveness in academic achievement. Young people are often encouraged to attribute academic success and failure to individual factors such as hard work and talent, and to downplay extrinsic factors such as luck, task difficulty, or broader structural advantages and disadvantages. Using longitudinal data on a large, single‐age cohort (n=2,145) of young Australians participating in the Social Futures and Life Pathways (‘Our Lives’) project, we analyse the relationship between attributions for academic success across their final years of secondary schooling and how they related to educational attainment at the end of school. The belief that hard work would lead to academic success was widespread within the sample and positively associated with subsequent educational performance. Most students also emphasised the importance of having a supportive family, despite this being negatively associated with performance. Consistent with claims about a ‘social inequality of motivation’, the findings suggest that emphasising meritocracy may compound the disadvantages of young people from less educated or vocational backgrounds, and those living in rural and regional Australia, whilst impacting unevenly on males' and females' academic performance.     

Kinematic differences between successful and faulty spikes in young volleyball players

ABSTRACT

This study was designated to investigate the kinematical differences between successful and faulty spikes, in order to identify the best strategies leading to better spike performance. Simulating a real-game condition, 13 elite youth attackers performed 6 spikes in the presence of 2 blocks. The kinematic variables of the spike performances were recorded using 6 optoelectronic cameras (Vicon Motion systems, Oxford, UK). The paired sample t-test was used to compare the kinematic variables recorded during the delivery of successful and faulty spikes. Among the successful trials, both the angular velocities of the knees (≈12.4%) and hips (≈13.3%), and the vertical velocity of the centre of mass at take-off (≈6.5%) and arm swing (≈8.2%) were considerably higher during the plant phase. Consequently, the jump (≈4.3%) and spike (≈1.5%) heights, as well as the wrist velocity (≈5.5%), were significantly higher during the jump phase of successful spikes. In successful spike performances, the attackers adopted higher hip and knee angular velocities, combined with efficient arm swings, to produce higher take-off velocities and reach higher jump heights. This approach provides them with the better position regarding the ball and the blockers to find the best path and hit the ball with higher arm velocities.     

Cross-cultural Study of Understanding of Scale and Measurement: Does the everyday use of US customary units disadvantage US students?

Quantitative and qualitative studies of various aspects of the perception of biotechnology were conducted among 469 Slovenian high school students of average age 17 years. Our research aimed to explore relationships among students' pre-knowledge of molecular and human genetics, and their attitudes to four specific biotechnological applications. These applications—Bt corn, genetically modified (GM) salmon, somatic and germ line gene therapy (GT)—were investigated from the viewpoints of usefulness, moral acceptance and risk perception. In addition, patterns and quality of moral reasoning related to the biotechnological applications from the aspect of moral acceptability were examined. Clear gender differences were found regarding the relationship between our students' pre-knowledge of genetics and their attitudes to biotechnological applications. While females with a better genetics background expressed a higher risk perception in the case of GM salmon, their similarly well-educated male colleagues emphasized the risk associated with the use of germ line GT. With all four biotechnological applications, patterns of both rationalistic—deontological and teleological—and intuitive moral reasoning were identified. Students with poorer genetics pre-knowledge applied an intuitive pattern of moral reasoning more frequently than their peers with better pre-knowledge. A pattern of emotive reasoning was detected only in the case of GM salmon. A relatively low quality of students' moral reasoning, as demonstrated by their brief and small number of supporting justifications (explanations), show that there is a strong need for practising skills of argumentation about socio-scientific issues in Slovenian high schools on a much larger scale. The implications for future research and classroom applications are discussed.     

The overall knowledge of genetics in Serbian speech and language pathologists

ABSTRACT

An increase in the number of children with speech–language pathology also having a genetic disorder imposes the need for speech and language pathologists (SLPs) to have sufficient knowledge about genetic basis of speech–language disorders. Research aim was to estimate in Serbian SLPs different aspects of theoretical and practical knowledge about intercorrelation of genetics and speech and language pathology and to compare obtained results with the results of SLPs in the United States. The questionnaire from Tramontana’s study was used in our study. Comparison of the results that obtained in our study with those in Tramontana’s study has shown that our study respondents have higher General Knowledge Index (78.6%: 66.2%), higher mean confidence summary score (22.2: 16.7) and higher mean score of ‘overall’ attitudes about genetics and its relation with communication disorders (20.8: 13.6). Differences which emerge from educational programmes, educational levels and practical experience in the observed groups are indicated as possible causes of differences in the obtained results. On the basis of the obtained results, it may be concluded that it is necessary to elevate SLPs’ level of general knowledge about genetics and to acquire their knowledge through clinical practice.     

A comparative study of variations in arithmetic fluency between Norwegian and Finnish third graders

ABSTRACT

The study aimed to investigate variations in addition and subtraction fluency by observing grade three students in Norway (n = 253, M_age = 8.38 y.) and Finland (n = 209, M_age = 9.35 y.) while controlling for their age and non-verbal reasoning. Gender differences were also examined. The focus of the study was on the performance of the low-achieving (LA) students in comparison to the typically achieving (TA) group, not neglecting differences in how early educational support was organised across the two countries. Two-minute speed tests in both addition and subtraction within the 1–20 number range were used to assess fluency. The Finnish students outperformed students in the Norwegian sample both in addition and subtraction fluency. There were more Norwegian students in the LA group (i.e. performance at or below the 25th percentile) in both addition (37.9% vs. 20.1%) and subtraction (39.1% vs. 15.8%). In comparison to the TA students, the LA students made more errors and skipped over more arithmetic tasks in an attempt to solve them. Observed differences are discussed in relation to both country characteristics concerning early mathematics education and early educational support.