Text interpretation and educational design in Norwegian textbooks of religious education

Drawing on sociocultural perspectives on educational design, this article presents a qualitative study investigating how religious texts emerge as educational objects and mediating artefacts in Norwegian textbooks of religious and moral education. The article describes how the distribution of text references in textbooks influences the formation of religious traditions as objects. It also describes how religious texts are given various roles and how textbook assignments use various means to facilitate the interpretation of religious texts in a response to the demands posed by Norwegian syllabuses of religious and moral education.     

The Influence of Reading Expertise in Mirror‐Letter Perception: Evidence From Beginning and Expert Readers

The visual word recognition system recruits neuronal systems originally developed for object perception which are characterized by orientation insensitivity to mirror reversals. It has been proposed that during reading acquisition beginning readers have to “unlearn” this natural tolerance to mirror reversals in order to efficiently discriminate letters and words. Therefore, it is supposed that this unlearning process takes place in a gradual way and that reading expertise modulates mirror‐letter discrimination. However, to date no supporting evidence for this has been obtained. We present data from an eye‐movement study that investigated the degree of sensitivity to mirror‐letters in a group of beginning readers and a group of expert readers. Participants had to decide which of the two strings presented on a screen corresponded to an auditorily presented word. Visual displays always included the correct target word and one distractor word. Results showed that those distractors that were the same as the target word except for the mirror lateralization of two internal letters attracted participants' attention more than distractors created by replacement of 2 internal letters. Interestingly, the time course of the effects was found to be different for the 2 groups, with beginning readers showing a greater tolerance (decreased sensitivity) to mirror‐letters than expert readers. Implications of these findings are discussed within the framework of preceding evidence showing how reading expertise modulates letter identification.     

Student injuries in the dissecting room

Cadaver dissection is the first opportunity for many students to practice handling human tissue and is their first exposure to the occupational hazards involved with this task. Few studies examine dissection room injuries to ascertain the dangers associated with dissecting. We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of dissection room injuries from four student cohorts over an eleven‐year period (2001–2011), including second‐year medical students, third‐year medical students, second‐year dental students, and third‐year science students. Injury data included activity causing injury, object responsible, and injury site. A total of 163 injuries during 70,039 hours of dissection were recorded, with 66 in third‐year medical students, 42 in second‐year medical students, 36 in third‐year science students, and 16 in second‐year dental students. The overall rate was 2.87 injuries per 1,000 dissection hours, with second‐year medical students most frequently injured (5.5 injuries per 1,000 hours); third‐year medical students were least frequently injured (1.3 injuries per 1,000 hours). A significant difference in injury rates between student groups indicated a higher than expected injury rate to second‐year medical students and lower than expected rates to third‐year medical students. Injury rates increased for most groups between 2001–2006 and 2007–2011 periods. Most injuries (79%) were from scalpel cuts to the finger or thumb. This study provides injury rates for dissection room injuries to students, indicating differences in injury frequency between cohorts and an increase in injury rate over time. As scalpel cuts were the most likely injury mechanism, targeting scalpel handling with preventative strategies may reduce future injury risk. Anat Sci Educ 6: 404–409. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Toward Practical Procedures for Predicting and Promoting Success in Virtual School Students

Abstract

Two lines of research have emerged to study the causes and prevention of student failure in virtual (K–12) schools: studies of learner characteristics and studies of learning environment characteristics. To develop a useful model for predicting failure and promoting success in virtual school environments, a study was designed to measure the relation between a combination of student and environmental factors derived from previous research and successful course completion during one semester at a large (N =?4,100) virtual school. Study findings yielded a model that can discriminate between successful and unsuccessful online school students and is especially effective at identifying those likely to succeed.     

Metaphorical understandings and scientific ideas

This study looks at the ideas which children have of the particulate model of matter, at the time they start formal science in school. Pupils aged about eleven in three European countries‐‐Greece, Portugal and the UK‐‐were studied using word association tests. In the UK and Portugal the children had received no teaching of the particulate model; in Greece the pupils had received one year of introductory science, containing some teaching of the particulate model. Key words associated with the particulate model were investigated as free associations. In Portugal and the UK there was little or no evidence of particulate ideas in the pupils’ responses. In the Greek data particulate ideas were more in evidence. There were other clear differences in the data from the three countries. Educational and research implications of the findings are discussed.     

A causal framework for analysing alternative conceptions

A model for the analysis of subjects’ causal reasoning is proposed, drawing on de Kleer and Brown's ‘mechanistic mental models’. The purpose of the model is to provide a framework for understanding the possible causal structure of children's and adults’ spontaneous reasoning about the physical world. The model is used to analyse data on students’ understanding of aspects of forces and motion; to reanalyse a protocol of Driver's; and to compare and criticize the models of Andersson and of Rozier. We show how the model can provide a language for describing common‐sense causal thinking.     

Causal Modeling and Research on Teacher Education

Causal modeling was applied to data collected in a naturalistic setting in an attempt to validate a conceputal model of teaching. These data, collected on 44 student teachers, included supervisory ratings of the variables: specifying performance objectives, diagnosing learners, selecting instructional strategies, and interacting with learners. Additionally, the mean number of objectives achieved by the classes of each of the student teachers was used as a measure of the fifth variable in the model, evaluating the effectiveness of instruction. A recursive causal model which described the relationship of these variables was developed and analyzed, using four linear equations. Examination of the path coefficients from these equations revealed that the variables, specification of performance objectives, and diagnosing learners account for over one-half the variance in selecting instructional strategies. Other results indicated there were low to moderate amounts of variance shared by the variables in the model. This study illustrates the application of causal modeling techniques in testing theoretical models in education using data collected in naturalistic, nonexperimental settings.     

Rhetorical imperialism and Sun‐Tzu's art of war: A response to combs’ rhetoric of parsimony

This essay discusses how Wesker conveys his central intuition about the limitations of language by employing verbal and visual games and rituals that function as narrative, analogue, symbol, and subtext in The Trilogy. These games take the form of playfulness to indicate emotional solidarity, of everyday rituals with archetypal or religious undertones, or of games about the acquisition of language itself.     

A test of anxiety/uncertainty management theory: The intercultural adaptation context

Anxiety/Uncertainty Management theory, as formulated by Gudykunst and Hammer (1987a), proposes that intercultural adaptation outcomes are based on the two mediating dimensions of uncertainty reduction and anxiety reduction and sixteen secondary variables that systematically influence uncertainty and anxiety reduction. In this paper, the sixteen variables originally identified are categorized into four “fundamental factors”; (interpersonal saliencies, intergroup saliencies, communication message exchange, and host contact conditions). The present study examines this revised Anxiety/Uncertainty Management (AUM) theory of intercultural adaptation. A total of 291 international students at two universities in the United States participated in the study. The study found overall fit of the revised AUM theory vis‐a‐vis the two mediating factors of uncertainty and anxiety reduction, the importance of interpersonal saliencies for uncertainty reduction, and the importance of host contact conditions for facilitating feelings of comfort and reducing anxiety. Intergroup saliencies were significantly related to uncertainty reduction but not, contrary to expectation, to anxiety reduction. Communication message exchange (which consists of information gathering strategies and second language proficiency) was, again contrary to expectation, not significantly related to either uncertainty or anxiety reduction. Finally, cultural identity showed a small though significant negative relationship to intergroup saliencies, suggesting a stronger, ingroup identity was associated with increased uncertainty. The paper concludes by proffering explanations for the findings and suggestions for future research.