Students' self-efficacy for science in different school systems

The important role of self-efficacy (SE) in students' motivation, engagement, persistence, and academic achievements has been reconfirmed by ample research, both in general and for STEM disciplines. As most studies focused on traditional school systems, additional research is needed on how science SE develops in different educational environments, which was the goal of this study. Data were collected from 1979 students in Grades 5–9 from 19 traditional, Waldorf, and democratic schools in Israel. Students completed a questionnaire that assessed their science self-efficacy (SSE), general and academic self-efficacy (GASE), and the sources of their SSE: teachers', parents', and peers' social persuasions, vicarious experiences and mastery experiences. Results revealed that SSE and GASE differed in their levels and in the way they changed with grade. These differences, and variations in the roles of the various sources of SSE, appeared to be influenced by the schools' cultures and curricula. Quantitative results are accompanied by verbal illustrative examples from interviews with students and teachers.     

Calculated democracy—Explorations in gerrymandering

This paper describes a lesson centered around a metric for measuring partisan gerrymandering: the efficiency gap. We situate the efficiency gap in the current US political climate, describe the activity itself, and then provide recommendations for readers interested in adapting the lesson for their own classrooms.     

Assessing Marijuana Use,Anxiety, and Academic Performance Among College Students

This article examines the relationship between marijuana use and anxiety symptoms among college students, with a secondary focus on marijuana use and grade point average (GPA). A secondary analysis was conducted on data obtained from the American College Health Association–National College Health Assessment. Results indicated that marijuana use was negatively associated with GPA among students with current anxiety and no formal treatment. The relationships between these variables may be more complex than previously thought.     

Instructor Humor as a Moderator of Instructors’ Inappropriate Conversations and Instructional Dissent

This study (N?=?326) was conducted to examine the associations among instructor humor, inappropriate conversations, and instructional dissent. First, results showed students are more likely to employ rhetorical dissent when they perceive their instructors as humorous in the classroom. Second, using expectancy violations theory as a guide, results also indicated that students’ perceptions of instructor-relevant humor moderated the relationships between enactment of inappropriate conversations and students’ expressive and vengeful dissent. These findings support the importance of employing relevant humor in course instruction, especially when instructors engage in inappropriate conversations in the college classroom.     

A Critical Review of Students’ and Teachers’ Understandings of Nature of Science

Science & Education - There is widespread agreement that an adequate understanding of the nature of science (NOS) is a critical component of scientific literacy and a major goal in science...     

If we build it,will they come? The effect of new athletic facilities on recruiting rankings for power five football and men's basketball programs

College athletics is currently in the midst of a building boom in which universities are competing with each other to reach an always-increasing standard of lavish athletic facilities. While these facilities are costing in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, little research is examining the return on investment for athletic programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of new athletic facilities on recruiting rankings for Power Five football and men's basketball programs. Data was collected on athletic facilities newly constructed or renovated from 2005 through 2015 at Power Five NCAA Division I programs. Using LSDV fixed effects regression models, results found a lack of significant improvement within football and basketball recruiting rankings following the completion of new athletic facilities, but some significance in the two years before the project was completed. Significant control variables also highlighted the effects that coaching changes can have on recruiting.     

中国留学生在美国的师生互动压力：以美国某大学为例

本文从师生互动的维度解析了中国留学生在美国大学中的学业压力因素.四种因素构成了中国学生和美国教授互动的主要压力因素:语言功力不足、缺少对学业的自治和自主引领、言语表达的被动性、交流模式的非直接性.中国学生的压力是中关两种文化模式和教育模式碰撞合力作用的结果.这为反思中国教育的问题提供了有效切入点.本文从英语语言教育和转变人才培养观念两个方面为中国教育提出了相应的建议.并指出中国学生应进行"深层结构性社会文化转化",充分适应美国大学的学术文化,与美国教授形成良性互动,最终减缓跨文化所带来的压力.     

Making Bio-Expectations

This paper marks one attempt to open up the boundaries of humanitarianism to the diverse effects of scientific objects, practices and technologies. It follows the frontiers of their effects with one particularly consequential practice of scientific reductionism through its implication with vitamin A deficiency. I open up how the scientific articulation of vitamin A is not simply about reductionism as a process of limiting, but one that unfolds as something more malleable, more multiple; how it is a shifting, distributed reality that speaks of the ongoing effects of reductionism as giving life to, among other things, emotive abstractions, and efforts to widen a distinctly humanitarian promise. I show how this scientific practice puts into play a set of emotive abstractions around the figure of the ‘Third World child’, un/remaking the problem as a morally tense ‘bio-expectation’ that ensures the survival of children across the generalised expanse of the Global South.