Examining emotional expressions in discourse: methodological considerations

This methodological paper presents an approach for examining emotional expressions through discourse analysis and ethnographic methods. Drawing on trends in the current literature in science education, we briefly explain the importance of emotions in science education and examine the current research methodologies used in interactional emotion studies. We put forth and substantiate a methodological approach that attends to the interactional, contextual, intertextual, and consequential aspects of emotional expressions. By examining emotional expressions in the discourse in which they are constructed, emotional expressions are identified through semantics, contextualization, and linguistic features. These features make salient four dimensions of emotional expressions: aboutness, frequency, type, and ownership. Drawing on data from a large empirical study of pre-service elementary teachers’ emotional expressions about climate change in a science course, we provide illustrative examples to describe what counts as emotional expressions in situ. In doing so we explain how our approach makes salient the nuanced nature of such expressions as well as the broader discourse in which they are constructed and the implications for researching emotional expressions in science education discourse. We suggest reasons why this discourse orientated research methodology can contribute to the interactional study of emotions in science education contexts.     

Metrics for Students’ Soft Skills

This article presents a systematic approach to defining, applying, evaluating, refining, and revising metrics for students’ soft skills—their abilities like critical thinking, problem solving, leadership and responsibility, communication, and collaboration. The importance of these skills in educational and work settings is growing rapidly. While such skills are easy to notice, they are hard to measure. Metrics do exist, but vary from one case to another, and are often rather implicit and vague. Contrary to that, this article proposes the use of precisely specified, measurable, low-inference indicators (metrics) to assess soft skills. The article also introduces an open set of principles that can be used to guide the specification of concrete, evidence-based metrics for different soft skills. Two case studies are used to illustrate the approach. These case studies are part of a larger research effort that has developed an open set of metrics for different soft skills; some of them are discussed in the article extensively. Generalizing the metrics used in specific educational contexts is also discussed.     

Crossing the ‘bridges’ and navigating the ‘learning gaps’: Chinese students learning across two systems in a transnational higher education programme

ABSTRACT

Chinese universities are actively pursuing cross-border collaborations in the form of transnational higher education programmes. Our study captures the experiences of Chinese students to illuminate how they navigate their learning journeys in a China-Australia articulation programme. To communicate the complexity of learning in modern transnational higher education programmes, we employed activity theory as the theoretical framework to explore cross-cultural contradictions shaping students’ experiences of learning. Assessment, programme rules, teaching strategies, and class and campus settings created contradictions that students had to negotiate as in-between learning spaces. We argue that cross-system contradictions play important roles in transnational higher education programmes. Therefore, instead of seeking to eliminate these contradictions or smooth cross-educational differences, these contradictions should be leveraged as learning opportunities to enrich transnational higher education programmes.     

Statistical variation in a chance setting: A two-year study

A series of 13 survey questions based on a 50-50 spinner is used to explore school students' understanding of statistical variation in a chance setting. Five questions set the context by assessing the understanding of theoretical expectation and representation of repeated trials in a stacked dot (line) plot. Four questions provide opportunity to display appreciation of variation from point expectation and four questions address variation from distributional expectation. Three hundred and seventy-five students in Grades 3–9 answered some or all of these questions. These students then took part in a unit of study on chance and data emphasizing variation. Of these students, 334 answered a post-test including the same items and a further subset of 199 students completed a longitudinal survey of the same items two years later. Analysis of the initial data showed a progression of understanding across the years of schooling, plateauing at Grade 7, improvement for all grades after instruction, and generally sustained and continuing improved performance after two years. Educational issues are considered. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The influences of integrating reading,peer evaluation,and discussion on undergraduate students’ scientific writing

Scientific writing is related to the practice of communicating scientific knowledge. This study treats scientific writing as a social practice, taking as its premise the notion that participating in related activities such as reading, peer evaluation, and discussion would positively affect the competence of students’ scientific writing, by developing their epistemic cognition regarding scientific knowledge communication and legitimation. An empirical study was conducted with twenty-two Chinese undergraduate students to test this premise. These students were majoring in chemistry and undertook a researcher-designed intervention course (Advanced Organic Chemistry Experiment), which embodied the integrated strategy of reading, peer evaluation, and discussion on scientific writing. Based on data pertaining to those students’ performance in terms of the normativity, objectivity, and logicality of scientific writing drawn from a previous study by the current author (Deng, Kelly, & Xiao, 2019. The development of Chinese undergraduate students’ competence of scientific writing in the context of advanced organic chemistry experiment course. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 20, 270–287), alongside data drawn from students’ written texts in reading reflections and on-line discourse related to peer evaluation and discussion, this study claimed that the tasks of reading, peer evaluation, and discussion were seen gradually to lead to the development of Chinese undergraduate students’ greater competence in scientific writing regarding the synthetic experiments of organic chemistry.     

Getting Under the Hood: How and for Whom Does Increasing Course Structure Work?

At the college level, the effectiveness of active-learning interventions is typically measured at the broadest scales: the achievement or retention of all students in a course. Coarse-grained measures like these cannot inform instructors about an intervention''s relative effectiveness for the different student populations in their classrooms or about the proximate factors responsible for the observed changes in student achievement. In this study, we disaggregate student data by racial/ethnic groups and first-generation status to identify whether a particular intervention—increased course structure—works better for particular populations of students. We also explore possible factors that may mediate the observed changes in student achievement. We found that a “moderate-structure” intervention increased course performance for all student populations, but worked disproportionately well for black students—halving the black–white achievement gap—and first-generation students—closing the achievement gap with continuing-generation students. We also found that students consistently reported completing the assigned readings more frequently, spending more time studying for class, and feeling an increased sense of community in the moderate-structure course. These changes imply that increased course structure improves student achievement at least partially through increasing student use of distributed learning and creating a more interdependent classroom community.     

Professional attitudes to the use of pupil performance data in English secondary schools

This paper presents findings from an exploratory survey of teachers' perceptions, understanding, and use of pupil performance data in English secondary schools and examines the extent to which these are associated with school-level performance and a range of factors, including teachers' positions of responsibility. The survey was supplemented by a series of in-depth interviews. Use and availability of pupil performance data was found to be widespread, but classroom teachers reported significantly lower levels of use and understanding. The research also reveals a data-use hierarchy in schools, with many indicating that some data are accessible only to school leaders or provided pre-interpreted. Most teachers make regular use of their own sources of pupil data, which is seen as at least as useful as “official” data, which poses challenges for policymakers in raising levels of use and creating a “mixed economy” of sources.     

Lifting the Curtain: Examining the importance of the Shared Foundation IV: Curate in the National School Library Standards for Learners,School Librarians,and School Libraries

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has offered a multi-layered approach to serving our schools with the National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. This column explores Shared Foundation IV: Curate, and considers the importance and impact of school librarians modeling and sharing processes of curation with students.     

Applying the Tiers of Assessment: A Holistic and Systematic Approach to Assessing Library Collections

Collection assessment is a key component of collection development, budget allocation, and justification of library collections. Unfortunately, comprehensive collection assessment is daunting, subject to the weaknesses of individual tools and the overwhelming number of subject areas to assess. Few studies have attempted systematic assessment projects using multiple tools or methods, nor have many attempted to assess an entire collection subject-by-subject. This study implements an alternative to the single-tool model, combining multi-tool analysis with a systematic, subject-by-subject approach to the collection. The goal was to determine whether such a model of collection assessment was feasible in an academic library setting, providing usable data without overinvestment of manpower and resources. To this end, the method was tested in a pilot program at George Mason University (Mason), assessing three subjects at varying levels of depth. While there was concern that the methodology would prove too ambitious for full-scale implementation, the pilot yielded valuable, tangible results in a timely manner and provides a solid model for future assessment efforts at Mason and elsewhere.