Spatial versus object visualisation: The case of mathematical understanding in three-dimensional arrays of cubes and nets

This paper investigates the relations of students’ spatial and object visualisation with their analytic, creative and practical abilities in three-dimensional geometry. Fifty-three 11-year-olds were tested using a Greek modified version of the Object–Spatial Imagery Questionnaire (OSIQ) (Blajenkova, Kozhevnikov, & Motes, 2006) and two mathematics tests, one on three-dimensional arrays of cubes and one on nets. The results suggest that spatial visualisation was related to students’ practical abilities in three-dimensional arrays of cubes, whereas object visualisation was related to students’ creative abilities in nets. Furthermore, high and low spatial visualisers differed in their practical abilities in three-dimensional arrays of cubes and in their analytic abilities in nets, whereas, high and low object visualisers differed in their creative abilities in nets.     

Integrating the epistemic and ontological aspects of content knowledge in science teaching and learning

A study has been made of how physics problems are attempted by school and by university students, in both examination and tutorial situations. The performance of the students is interpreted within the framework of a psychological model of learning which incorporates working memory capacity and disembedding ability. The implications of the results for teaching and for setting problems is emphasized, in that the same question in different forms may be testing different skills.     

Major Influences on Attitudes Toward Science

This research study investigated the attitudes toward science of 8th-grade students in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, and Korea, based on recent TIMSS data, and suggests a model of family and school influences on their attitudes. The structural equation model contained 3 exogenous constructs – family’s educational background, aspiration, school climate – and 2 endogenous constructs – teaching and student attitudes toward science. Educational background, aspiration, and school climate were shown to have a direct effect on attitudes, while teaching was shown to directly affect attitudes and to be affected by aspiration and school climate.     

Broadcasting in the ICBM age

When discussion of earth orbital satellites first left the pages of science fiction magazines and “became respectable,”; the use of these devices for relaying of television programs was first seriously suggested. Today, the future is so close upon us that there exists a recent Congressional Report with the title, Satellites for World Communication.

Coupled with the world‐wide shortage of frequencies, the development of space satellites for broadcasting purposes could cause tremendous changes in the current systems of domestic broadcasting. Even though they will be first used for point‐to‐point communication rather than broadcasting, the means by which such satellites will be regulated may well become of as much importance to the broadcaster as the NARBA and similar agreements are today.     

Latino Students' Perceptions of the Academic Library

Library use is strongly linked with student persistence in higher education, and Latino students have lower rates of academic library use and proficiency than other racial/ethnic groups of students. This study explores Latino undergraduate students' perceptions of the academic library and library staff and identifies the conditions which impede or facilitate the students' use of the library. Using a multiple case study design, this study describes the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate students who identify as Latino and attend a four-year public research-intensive university in the Midwest. The findings suggest that Latino students use the library through the influence of peers, interpret the library as a space for cultural support based on their experiences with public libraries, and do not fully understand the range of resources and support available.     

Social Media Research: An Assessment of the Domain's Productivity and Intellectual Evolution

The purpose of this study is to conduct a bibliographic investigation and meta-analysis of the full body of social media scholarship produced over eight years, since the domain's emergence in 2004. A total of 610 journal and conference papers were carefully reviewed and subjected to bibliometric and meta-analysis techniques. A number of research questions pertaining to country, institutional, and individual productivity, as well as research design and data practices in the social media field, were proposed and answered. Our results reveal two main challenges faced by the field. First, the social media domain displays limited intellectual diversity in terms of productive and impactful actors—individual, institutions, and countries—as well as publications that have hitherto skewed the domain's focus in a limited direction. Second, the research design approaches and data practices characterizing the domain seem to reflect methodological singularity characterized by a strong tendency for cross-sectional, individual-level, survey or case-based studies. Furthermore, speculative and anecdotal evidence, based on personal opinions and armchair hypotheses, is extremely widespread and stand in the way of the domain's methodological and theoretical advancement. These challenges not only help to improve one's understanding of the identity and intellectual core of social media as a distinct scientific field but can also further prompt academic debate and careful (re)examination of the domain's scholarly practices and assumptions to ensure its future advancement in the most productive manner.