Using learning environments to create meaningful work for co-op students

For students in cooperative education (co-op) programs, meaningful work is a critical aspect of participation and a key component of program success. However, studies have not explored how meaningful work can be created for co-op students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between co-op students’ perceptions of a learning environment, perceived relatedness of the work experience (to their potential careers and to their academic studies), and self-reported meaningfulness of work. Data were collected from undergraduate co-op students in a Canadian university immediately following a co-op work term. Results from testing a parallel mediation model showed that both forms of relatedness partially mediated the influence of learning environments on self-reported meaningfulness. These findings offer insight into the ways in which work terms can be designed to enhance co-op students’ work experiences.     

What price presentation? The effects of typographic variables on essay grades

The marks awarded to 130 second‐year undergraduate word‐processed essays were assessed in relation to their use of different typographic features. By and large most of these features had little effect on the essay grades. However, essays printed in 12‐point type gained significantly higher marks (mean = 56.8) than essays printed in 10‐point type (mean = 52.7), and essays using a combination of popular features (Times Roman, 12‐point, double‐spaced unjustified text, and a line‐space to denote new paragraphs) gained significantly higher marks (mean = 59.6) than those using other combinations (mean = 55.8).     

Varying effects of subgoal labeled expository text in programming,chemistry, and statistics

Originally intended as a replication study, this study discusses differences in problem solving performance among different domains caused by the same instructional intervention. The learning sciences acknowledges similarities in the learners’ cognitive architecture that allow interventions to apply across domains, but it also argues that each domain has characteristics that might affect how interventions impact learning. The present study uses an instructional design technique that had previously improved learners’ problem solving performance in programming: subgoal labeled expository text and subgoal labeled worked examples. It intended to replicate this effect for solving problems in statistics and chemistry. However, each of the experiments in the three domains had a different pattern of results for problem solving performance. While the subgoal labeled worked example consistently improved performance, the subgoal labeled expository text, which interacted with subgoal labeled worked examples in programming, had an additive effect with subgoal labeled worked examples in chemistry and no effect in statistics. Differences in patterns of results are believed to be due to complexity of the content to be learned, especially in terms of mapping problem solving procedures to solving problems, and the familiarity of tools used to solve problems in the domain. Subgoal labeled expository text was effective only when students learned more complex content and used unfamiliar problem solving tools.     

Bringing the Science of Team Training to School-Based Teams

Teams are ubiquitous in schools in the 21st Century; yet training for effective teaming within these settings has lagged behind. The authors of this article developed 5 modules, grounded in the science of team training and adapted from an evidence-based curriculum used in medical settings called TeamSTEPPS®, to prepare instructional and administrative personnel for teamwork and to enhance their teamwork skills. The resulting 5 modules, available for download on the American Psychological Association website, are collectively called Teach Teamwork and include: Introduction to Teams and Teamwork, Communication, Mutual Support, Situation Monitoring, and Leadership. In this article, the modules and supplemental materials are described, along with recommendations for implementation.     

Exploring connections between environmental learning and behavior through four everyday-life case studies

Decades of research emphasize that information alone rarely influences environmental behavior. We addressed the question of, “what, then, does influence environmental behavior?” by asking more specifically: what factors mediate the relationship between learning about environmentally related issues and engaging in environmentally related behaviors? Following Yin’s case study approach, we designed a California (USA)-based case study focused on four everyday-life activities: purchasing food, commuting, engaging in leisure activities, and interacting with mobile technology. We grounded the study in four propositions that previous sociological, psychological, and learning sciences research suggested might influence learning–behavior connections in complex everyday-life contexts. To address the propositions across the four cases, we conducted 197 short, semi-structured interviews grounded in a narrative, relational frame. Using thematic content analysis, we found support for three of our propositions as mediators of learning–behavior connections; we also uncovered two emergent themes. Our findings suggest a web of elements that affect learning–behavior connections; those elements offer insights for environmentally related programming.     

Determinants of foster care placement for the maltreated child

This study examined the records of the North Carolina Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect to determine which social, family, and child characteristics were most influential in the decision to place a child in foster care. These records contained all theoretically relevant factors as well as demographic data. Analysis included the computation of odds ratios for foster care for each of 250 variables. A maximum likelihood logistic regression model was constructed to obtain the independent and cumulative contribution of each factor. Some expected variables such as parental stress factors (substance abuse) and types of abuse (burns and scalds) placed a child at a significant risk for placement in foster care (p < 0.01). However, less obvious factors such as referral source (law enforcement agencies) or geographic area also placed children at risk. Overall, the model explained little of the variance of these decisions (R² = 0.168) and poorly predicted placement (sensitivity 66.3 per cent, specificity 74.6 per cent). Using existing data. we were unable to adequately describe the decision process in selecting foster care.     

L’Intégration de Nouvelles Connaissances: Entre Arithmétique et Algèbre

This study analyses students integration of new knowledge in the domain of elementary algebra, which is based on arithmetics, but differs from it in a number of ways. Subjects aged between 11 and 16 years were presented with a task which consisted in evaluating equivalence of either numerical or algebraic isomorphic expressions. The results indicate that the context plays an important role in determining the choice of a strategy of comparison. In evaluating algebric expressions, students use formal rules. The observed errors derive from over-generalisation of prototypical rules and their conditions of application. In the case of numerical expressions, the dominant strategies are re-writing procedures: these may or may not be followed by quantitative evaluations of the resulting expressions. Errors are less frequent, but our analyses show that the semantics of the procedures are not always well understood. In sum, students posses a fair amount of knowledge of various kinds, but this knowledge is not well integrated or interrelated. Hence their knowledge base is not very stable and can easily become deformed.     

From principle to practice: community consultation regarding access to Indigenous language material in archival records at the State Library of New South Wales

In the context of Indigenous languages, archival science in Australia continues to move from a theoretical framework of considering record subjects as third parties to a ‘participants model’. In a participants model framework record subjects are considered co-creators and custodians of the intellectual property of the record. However, the shift from theory to practice is still an under-described challenge currently facing archival professionals. This article reports on an experience of applying guidelines developed by First Languages Australia (FLA) and National and State Libraries of Australasia (NSLA) aimed at enhancing the rights of Indigenous Australians over records that contain Indigenous language material. A team of researchers from the State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) Indigenous Services branch and Western Sydney University engaged with four Indigenous language groups to evaluate records containing Indigenous language material held at the SLNSW. On viewing the archival records of Indigenous language material members of community groups expressed a diversity of opinions and suggestions. This feedback was grouped by the authors into the following themes: painful remembrance of the provenance of the archival record, evaluations of the value of the documents, custodianship and use of the language material, and access to the SLNSW records. The authors found that participants in the study substantially shaped the process of implementing the protocols.