Examining Educational Climate Change Technology: How Group Inquiry Work with Realistic Scientific Technology Alters Classroom Learning

This study with 79 students in Montreal, Quebec, compared the educational use of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) global climate model (GCM) to climate education technologies developed for classroom use that included simpler interfaces and processes. The goal was to show how differing climate education technologies succeed and fail at getting students to evolve in their understanding of anthropogenic global climate change (AGCC). Many available climate education technologies aim to convey key AGCC concepts or Earth systems processes; the educational GCM used here aims to teach students the methods and processes of global climate modeling. We hypothesized that challenges to learning about AGCC make authentic technology-enabled inquiry important in developing accurate understandings of not just the issue but how scientists research it. The goal was to determine if student learning trajectories differed between the comparison and treatment groups based on whether each climate education technology allowed authentic scientific research. We trace learning trajectories using pre/post exams, practice quizzes, and written student reflections. To examine the reasons for differing learning trajectories, we discuss student pre/post questionnaires, student exit interviews, and 535 min of recorded classroom video. Students who worked with a GCM demonstrated learning trajectories with larger gains, higher levels of engagement, and a better idea of how climate scientists conduct research. Students who worked with simpler climate education technologies scored lower in the course because of lower levels of engagement with inquiry processes that were perceived to not actually resemble the work of climate scientists.     

Specific Language Disorders in Singaporean Children: Four Case Studies

Children with specific disorders of language have failed to develop normal means of spoken and written communication. International studies suggest that 5–10% of children enter school with a significant language disorder that puts them at risk educationally and also affects their social and emotional development.

The invisible nature of language disorders makes early detection and remediation difficult. In multilingual settings, such as Singapore, early detection may be particularly difficult, and remediation is complicated by the desirability of maintaining the range of languages used in the home and at school. Two case studies of specific spoken language disorder and two of written language disorder are presented to illustrate means of remediation and the importance of early intervention.     

Using Piwik Instead of Google Analytics at the Cornell University Library

Like many other libraries, Cornell University Library uses Google Analytics (GA) to track website usage. GA, designed to support Google’s primary revenue stream, advertising, has many strengths, including cost (free). Given our tradition in libraries to protect reader privacy, a compelling argument can be made that Google Analytics is inappropriate for libraries. After a review of alternatives to GA following Edward Snowden's revelations, we selected Piwik (piwik.org) as a replacement for GA. Piwik is a free, open source, and most importantly, supports local data collection. We summarize what some of the library literature says about web analytics tools, explain why we selected Piwik, and describe what is involved when migrating from GA to Piwik.     

I ulu no ka lālā i ke kumu,the branches grow because of the trunk: ancestral knowledge as refusal

Abstract

This paper will discuss the ways that Native Hawaiian scholars are engaging in innovative strategies that incorporate ancestral knowledges into the academy. Ancestral knowledges are highly valued as Indigenous communities strive to pass on such wisdom and lessons from generation to generation. Ancestral knowledges are all around us no matter where we are, they are evident and valued in every setting, whether out on the ocean and land or in a four-walled classroom. However, contrary to Indigenous beliefs, ancestral knowledges are continually threatened by formal education systems – institutions that would have us believe that they have no place in the university setting; whereby Indigenous ways of learning are replaced with Western forms. Ancestral knowledges are devalued due to the fact that most institutions of higher education are not multi-generational, reflecting a bias against elders and elder knowledge and an overemphasis on ‘new’ knowledge. Furthermore, these institutions are dependent on Western epistemologies and ways of thinking. Building upon my own experiences. This paper aims to unveil the ways in which Native Hawaiians have combated alienation and isolation of ancestral knowledges in higher education and to re-imagine what Native Hawaiian higher education could be. More specifically, I analyze exemplary practices at the level of individuals, community, and institutions to illustrate the ways that scholars have refused such exclusion of ancestral knowledges within the academy.     

Students over thirty: Need their classes be different?

In a study at a commuter, upper-division, state university, researchers interviewed 199 randomly selected undergraduates concerning their perceptions of their classroom experiences. The students were divided into four age groups—20–29, 30–37, 38–45, and 46–55—with males and females in each group. Results showed that neither age nor sex could be used to predict student satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their adacemic experience and instruction. If these results are not idiosyncratic, it may be concluded that colleges seeking to recruit mature students for credit-bearing courses need not provide special courses or faculty for them; rather, mature students can be integrated into regular courses.The authors are indebted to Ms. Pamela Seay for her excellent interviewing, and to UTD students for their willingness to be interviewed.     

"I've tried the switch but he laughs through the tears:" the use and conceptualization of corporal punishment during the Machine Age, 1924-1939

OBJECTIVE: To examine attitudes, conflicts, images, circumstances, and time-period effects associated with corporal punishment and other forms of adult-to-child violence during the early 20th century in the United States. METHOD: A sample of 147 letters, referencing corporal punishment and dating from 1924 to 1939, were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The letters were addressed to Angelo Patri (1876-1965), a popular child-rearing expert during the interwar years (also known as the Machine Age), and written primarily by middle class parents with everyday worries about child rearing and proper discipline. RESULTS: People who sought advice emphasized the practical significance of corporal punishment over and above the idea that it violated children's rights to be protected against harm. One in four letters cited conflicts with significant others about corporal punishment. Generally, children were perceived as frail, defiant, or feral. Rarely, were they seen as devilish or, conversely, innocent. Children's disobedience and disrespect were cited more than other misbehaviors as reasons for corporal punishment. Age and gender of the focal child varied by time period when letters from the 1920s and 1930s were compared. CONCLUSIONS: A full understanding of parent-to-child violence cannot be achieved without a firm grasp of its genealogy. The growing popularity of child psychology during the Machine Age had a measurable impact on how children were viewed. A utilitarian frame of interpretation was an important part of the everyday "work" associated with child rearing during this time, foreshadowing the tendency today to emphasize efficacy more than rights when evaluating the legitimacy of corporal punishment.     

Physical Education: What Future(s)?

This paper seeks to prompt professional debate about the future of physical education and, specifically, the form that curricula should take in rapidly changing times and societies. Arguments focus upon a reorientation and restructuring of the subject to address educational needs and interests relevant to the 21st century. The current revision of the National Curriculum for Physical Education in England and Wales is used as a basis from which to present a case for a distinctly new orientation to be reflected in the design of PE curricula, units of work and lessons. The work of Bernstein and Young is utilised in deconstructing long-established practices and outlining their potential reconstruction in ways that are informed by, and express, a 'critical pedagogy for social justice' [Fernandez-Balboa (1997) Critical Post Modernism in Human Movement, Physical Education and Sport (New York, State University of New York Press)]. A curriculum framework privileging learning achieved in and via activity contexts, as compared to learning of activities, is presented. The developments that are proposed are identified as highly challenging but arguably long overdue in physical education, and as matters of relevance to international professional communities, not only those in England and Wales.