Factors that prevent learning in electrochemistry

Electrochemistry plays an important role in curricula, textbooks, and in everyday life. The purpose of the present study was to identify and understand secondary‐school students' problems in learning electrochemistry at an introductory chemistry level. The investigation covered four areas: (a) electrolytes, (b) transport of electric charges in electrolyte solutions, (c) the anode and the cathode, and (d) the minus and plus poles. Written tests were given to high‐school students in five cycles. The population from which random samples were drawn totalled 15,700 subjects. Students were asked to select the correct answers and to justify their choices. It was found that students based their reasoning on four alternative concepts: (a) During electrolysis, the electric current produces ions; (b) electrons migrate through the solution from one electrode to the other; (c) the cathode is always the minus pole, the anode the plus pole; and (d) the plus and minus poles carry charges. The results suggest a teaching strategy in which students first experience and learn about electrochemistry concepts. In the second step, appropriate concept terms are added, and students then are confronted with the alternative concepts described in this article. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 258–283, 2007     

An Analysis of Peer Feedback Exchanged in Group Supervision

The authors examined the peer feedback exchanged in 2 supervision groups of counselors‐in‐training (CITs). CITs generated 169 statements grouped into 10 clusters representing 5 regions of peer feedback: counselor focus and engagement, insight‐oriented skills, exploratory skills, therapeutic alliance, and intervention activities. Both positive and corrective peer feedback was exchanged on topics ranging from counselor performance skills to case conceptualization.     

Development and Use of Visual Explanations: Harnessing the Power of the "Seeing" Brain to Enhance Student Learning

ABSTRACT:  When students come to class, they bring with them the most powerful processor known to man—the human brain! Our job as teachers is to discover and implement practices that will make the most effective use of those brains. The human brain is a very powerful processor of sensory information, especially with regard to the sense of vision. We can harness the power of the "seeing" brain to enhance students' learning by providing ("feeding") our students with concrete experiences that are replete with information-rich visual explanations, such as images, diagrams, graphs, video clips, animations, anthropomorphic images, cartoons, samples, demonstrations, experiments, and performances of our subject matter, rather than relying on word-only (verbal and/or text) explanations. As far as our brains are concerned, the old saying "A picture's worth a thousand words" is really true! Thus, the focus of this teaching tip is to explore the benefits and practical aspects of "feeding" visual explanations ("food") to the sensory portion of our students' brains to enhance their learning and to encourage others to not only use visual explanations in their teaching, but also to develop visual explanations specific to their subject matter and to share them with others. This article also provides students and instructors alike with 3 animations, in QuickTime format, and a PowerPoint presentation containing a number of example visual explanations. These materials are available as supplementary materials on the journal website and can be downloaded for free educational use.     

Zukunftsaussichten der Lehrveranstaltungsevaluation aus der Sicht von Studierenden, Lehrenden und Evaluationsanbietern

The current reforms of higher education are accompanied by new forms of evaluation-based quality development. In the area of higher education, the evaluation of specific lessons or seminars by students has become an important component of evaluative feedback along with accreditation and multi-level program evaluation. Using a sample of higher education teachers, students and providers of such evaluations (N?=?258), the prospects for development of this instrument (prognosis for 2015) were surveyed and analyzed. The majority of the surveyed stakeholders expect such evaluations to be widely used as compulsory instruments in the future. In contrast, the implementation of scenarios which are seen as empirically sound and sustainable for quality development is seen by the respondents to be less likely. Differences in the perspectives were most clear in respect of developments in the future. Providers of such evaluations were particularly optimistic about the prospects of particular future developments. Regarding the effectiveness of potential evaluation designs, there was little disagreement; they are seen by the majority of respondents as effective.     

Exploring classroom assessment practices: the case of teachers of English as a foreign language

The research investigated the factors which underlie the perceptions and usage of alternative assessment procedures among EFL teachers in Israel. The research was conducted within the framework of an earlier model by Hargreaves and colleagues comprising four perspectives – technological, cultural, political and postmodern – to account for teachers’ assessment practices and beliefs. The sample included 113 EFL teachers who responded to a self‐report questionnaire. The model’s four perspectives were validated using a two‐stage factor analysis. Results show that the predominant factor related to the usage of alternative assessment is the technological one, followed by the cultural and postmodern perspectives. The political perspective yielded mixed results. The findings highlight the complexity of teachers’ assessment practices reflecting not merely a testing approach but a social and educational paradigm encompassing micro constraints (technological), macro influences (political), ideologies and commonly‐held beliefs (cultural) as well as evidence of critical pedagogy (postmodern).     

Frontal Electroencephalogram Asymmetry, Salivary Cortisol, and Internalizing Behavior Problems in Young Adults Who Were Born at Extremely Low Birth Weight

The authors examined internalizing behavior problems at middle childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood and brain-based measures of stress vulnerability in 154 right-handed, nonimpaired young adults ( M age = 23 years): 71 (30 males, 41 females) born at extremely low birth weight (ELBW; < 1,000 g) and 83 (35 males, 48 females) controls born at normal birth weight (NBW). Internalizing behavior problems increased from adolescence to young adulthood among ELBW individuals. ELBW adults exhibited greater relative right frontal electroencephalogram activity at rest and more concurrent internalizing behavior problems than NBW controls. Being born at ELBW may have subtle influences on brain–behavior relations even in survivors without major impairments and evidence of these influences may not emerge until young adulthood.     

The purpose of education: pedagogues’ and teachers’ negotiations in Danish primary schools*

In 2014, the Danish primary school system went through a major reform. One main change is the greater participation of pedagogues in school. This is a dramatic change both for teachers and for pedagogues, a distinct profession, traditionally working outside school and representing a creative and social approach to learning and wellbeing. This article examines how teachers and pedagogues in an action research project negotiate their new common work and which understandings of good pedagogical practice these negotiations express. The article shows that international educational rationales about learnification and attainment that are found in the Danish reform, affect the professionals’ understandings of professionalism and educational practices, and that this marginalises some traditional pedagogical practices. However, the article also shows that both pedagogues and teachers critique dominant educational policy rationales and explore what space for action exists in the reform.