The Future of Zoos: A New Model for Cultural Institutions

Abstract Over the last 30 years, the international zoo movement has gradually adopted conservation as its mantra. World‐class zoos have invested substantially in species conservation and animal research as part of their involvement in wildlife conservation. However, zoo exhibit interpretation, policy development, and strategic planning are yet to be organized around a well‐developed agenda with a clear set of conservation objectives. As museums increasingly redefine their role in society to speak about alternative futures for living with nature, zoos have the potential to become much more focused cultural change agents, potentially crafting a new vision for how society can live in a productive relationship with the world's remaining biodiversity. This article argues for an activist approach in which institutions with living collections would take on unique conservation tasks including scientifically grounded promotion of conservation values.     

Considering student retention as a complex system: a possible way forward for enhancing student retention

This study uses multilayer minimum spanning tree analysis to develop a model for student retention from a complex system perspective, using data obtained from first-year engineering students at a large well-regarded institution in the European Union. The results show that the elements of the system of student retention are related to one another through a network of links and that some of these links were found to be strongly persistent across different scales (group sizes). The links were also seen to group together in different clusters of strongly related elements. Links between elements across a wide range of these clusters would have system-wide influence. It was found that there were no elements that are both persistent and have system-wide effects. This complex system view of student retention explains why actions to enhance student retention aimed at single elements in the system have had such limited impact. This study therefore points to the need for a more system-wide approach to enhancing student retention.     

Adopting E-Readers with a Purpose: Surveying Users to Develop a Recreational Reading Kindle Lending Program

Studies have shown that students and faculty have reservations about the performance and usability of e-readers in an academic setting. However, incorporating e-readers on college campuses for recreational reading purposes has proven to be quite popular. These trends held true in a study conducted by librarians at St. Mary's College of Maryland. Students, faculty, and staff were surveyed on their use of and familiarity with e-books, e-readers, and tablet devices with e-reader functionality. Information gathered from this survey resulted in the launch of a pilot Kindle lending program focused exclusively on promoting recreational reading.     

Guided reading: young pupils' perspectives on classroom practice

Guided reading is widely perceived to be tricky in English primary schools; prior research has found difficulties with teacher interpretation and implementation. The study reported here suggests that to understand the problems associated with it we should also take into account pupils' perspectives on their guided reading lessons. In this case, the pupils were 4–7 years old. The special challenges of accessing young pupil perspectives were addressed through co‐authored drawings, a type of graphic elicitation. The drawings, together with other collected data, generated insights into pupil perceptions of literacy practices, of the role of friends and ability grouping in learning to read, and of their teachers' organisational challenges. A socio‐cultural analysis of these data indicates that these pupils were sensitive to the social and cultural contexts of their guided reading lessons. It may be that precise official advice for guided reading in England, originating in the National Literacy Strategy documents in 1999 and the Primary National Strategy documents in 2003 and 2008, has been insufficiently sensitive to the complex teaching and learning contexts of guided reading and that this discrepancy has contributed to the identified difficulties. The paper concludes that some rethinking of the literacy practice of guided reading would be valuable.     

An Online Questionnaire for Evaluating Students' and Teachers' Perceptions of Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environments

The purpose of this article is to describe the development, validation and use of the Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environment Survey (CMLES). This questionnaire assesses teachers' and students' perceptions of the learning environment when students use online multimedia programs while teachers use constructivism as a referent for their teaching. The design of the questionnaire was based on a constructivist approach to learning and focused on the process of learning with the multimedia program and on the nature of that program. Before the use of the CMLES becomes widespread, it was important to determine whether it is valid and reliable. Therefore, a study involving 221 students in 12 high school classrooms into statistical validation and interpretive validation of the questionnaire was undertaken. For this sample of Grade 10 and 11 students who completed the actual and preferred forms of the questionnaire, the CMLES scales demonstrated a high degree of internal consistency reliability (with alpha reliability coefficients ranging from .73 to .82), as well as satisfactory factorial validity and discriminant validity. Therefore, the study supports the reliability and validity of the CMLES for assessing students' and teachers' perceptions of one important aspect in evaluating learning environments which promote the use of multimedia programs and constructivist learning approaches.     

Associations between school-level environment and science classroom environment in secondary schools

This article describes a study of links between school environment and science classroom environment. Instruments to assess seven dimensions of school environment (viz., Empowerment, Student Support, Affiliation, Professional Interest, Mission Consensus, Resource Adequacy and Work Pressure) and seven dimensions of classroom environment (viz., Student Affiliation, Interactions, Cooperation, Task Orientation, Order & Organisation, Individualisati n and Teacher Control) in secondary school science classrooms were developed and validated. The study involved a sample of 1,318 students in 64 year 9 and year 12 science classes and 128 teachers of science in Australian secondary schools. Using the class mean as the unit of analysis for student data, associations between school and classroom environment were investigated using simple, multiple and canonical correlational analyses. In general, results indicated weak relationships between school and classroom environments and they reinforced the view that characteristics of the school environment are not transmitted automatically into science classrooms.     

Reflecting on institutional support for SoTL engagement: developing a conceptual framework

This paper considers the support required to develop Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) capability across institutions. Rather than developing a checklist or a standardised audit approach, this paper describes the reflective journey taken by a group of academic developers who used strategies and structures previously identified in the literature to develop a conceptual framework for academic professional development. The framework was refined through an iterative process, including reflection on its use within diverse institutional contexts, combined with evaluative feedback from recognised experts in the field. The resulting framework is designed to facilitate and guide conversations to support institutional decision-making related to SoTL capacity building.     

Images in mirrors: Recollections,alternative explanations and modes of cognitive functioning

Students' conceptions of how objects are seen directly, and in mirrors, were explored in an analysis of their written and drawn responses to common visual phenomena depicted in cartoons with brief text. Students in Grades K-10 (n=214) completed a questionnaire and some were interviewed. Evidence was sought to support an hypothesis for increasingly sophisticated responses related to the concepts of sight, light, reflection and image. The developmental model used in this analysis was the updated SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1991; Collis & Biggs 1991). It appears from the results that different modes of functioning can interfere to produce factually incorrect recollections of experience particularly in the age group 7 to 13 years approximately. Also, this is associated with the common spurious conception that mirrors have a lateral inversion property. Explanations involving light were extremely rare and its role related to the production of an image ‘in the mirror’ but not to the perception of an image in the eyes. Specializations: science education, students' understandings of phenomena in science. Specializations: cognitive development, evaluation, mathematics and science education. Specializations: mathematics education, students' understanding of chance and data concepts.