Investigating Quality of Class Talk in Grade 7: the Case of Pattern Generalization

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - The purpose of this study is to investigate the quality of class talk during episodes corresponding to different levels of...     

Racial and Ethnic Heterogeneity in the Effect of MESA on AP STEM Coursework and College STEM Major Aspirations

Previous research suggests that racial and ethnic disparities in postsecondary STEM outcomes are rooted much earlier in the educational pipeline. One possible remedy to these disparities is participation in early STEM enrichment programs. We examine the impact of MESA, which is an early program that targets socioeconomically disadvantaged students, on outcomes that may lead students down the path to STEM. We analyze three waves of restricted nationally-representative data from the High School Longitudinal Study that trace the STEM progress of more than 25,000 students throughout high school and into their postsecondary careers. Propensity score matching models reveal that MESA participation increases students’ odds of taking AP STEM courses in high school and their aspirations for declaring a STEM major in college. However, these effects are driven primarily by black and white students, respectively. Latino and Asian students remain largely unaffected. A formal sensitivity analysis concludes that these findings are moderately robust to unobserved confounding. The results are also robust to alternative matching schemes. Collectively, the findings suggest that MESA may improve black students’ high school STEM engagement but may have little impact on black and Latino students’ STEM outcomes in college.     

A Quick,Accurate, and Free-of-Cost Inventory and Shelf-Reading Solution

This article presents a solution that was used at Notre Dame University–Louaize (NDU) Library, Lebanon, to conduct efficient, accurate, and low-cost inventory and shelf reading. By exporting catalog records into an Excel spreadsheet and using nested formulas to compare records exported from the online library system against the books existing on the shelves, the inventory was successfully completed in a manageable time period. This simple solution, using a laptop and a handheld bar code reader, significantly reduced the number of staff and the amount of time required to perform the inventory. It also greatly reduced human error and inconsistencies faced in previously conducted inventories while helping to maintain staff concentration and enthusiasm for the project.     

Developing and acting upon one's conception of the nature of science: A follow‐up study

This study aimed to delineate the factors mediating the translation of preservice teachers' conceptions of the nature of science into instructional planning and classroom practice. Additionally, the study assessed the influence of temporally separating teaching preservice teachers about the nature of science and teaching them how to address it instructionally. This latter intervention was based on the results of a previous investigation. Prior to student teaching, the 13 participants responded to an open‐ended questionnaire designed to assess conceptions of the nature of science. Throughout student teaching, daily lesson plans, classroom videotapes, portfolios, and supervisors' weekly clinical observation notes were collected and searched for explicit instances of nature of science planning and/or instruction. Following student teaching, participants were interviewed to validate their responses to the open‐ended questionnaire, identify factors that mediate the translation of their conceptions of the nature of science into classroom teaching, and explicate their pedagogical preferences for teaching the nature of science. Participants possessed adequate understanding of several aspects of the nature of science and, contrary to the results of the earlier investigation, most did not conflate the nature of science with science processes. Furthermore, several participants explicitly addressed some aspects of the nature of science during classroom instruction. Participants, however, failed to include the nature of science among their instructional objectives and did not make a concerted effort to assess student understandings. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 563–581, 2000     

Young people's readings of a political cartoon and the concept of multimodal literacy

This article uses young people's responses to a newspaper cartoon as a way of exploring the concept of multimodal literacy. The discussion draws on data from a study which aimed to elicit the geopolitical views of 16–19-year-olds in a multi-ethnic British city by using cartoons as a way of encouraging them to talk about their thoughts and feelings towards recent political events. We argue that, contrary to popular perceptions, political cartoons are complex and polysemous and require a particular form of literacy. This not only encompasses the ability to read visual grammar, but also an understanding of the cartoon genre and how it is constructed, with a view to conveying particular meanings within a specific social and cultural context.     

Linking ethnic/racial discrimination to adolescent mental health: Sleep disturbances as an explanatory pathway

Ethnic/racial discrimination is associated with negative psychosocial outcomes, and this study considered sleep disturbance as a mediating pathway. Employing a combination of daily diary and biannual surveys, multilevel structural equation models estimated the indirect effects of sleep/wake concerns on negative, anxious, and positive mood, rumination, and somatic symptoms. In a sample of 350 urban Asian (74% Chinese, 8% Korean, 4% Indian, 1% Filipinx, 1% Vietnamese, and 12% other), Black, and Latinx (25% Dominican, 24% South American, 22% Mexican, 15% Puerto Rican, 5% Central American, and 9% other) youth (M = 14.27 years, 69% female, 77% U.S. born, 76% monoethnic/racial, data collected from 2015 to 2018), there was evidence for sleep disturbances mediating the impact of ethnic/racial discrimination on adjustment. Nighttime disturbance, daytime dysfunction, and daytime sleepiness evidenced partial or full mediation for daily- and person-level outcomes (υ = 0.1%–17.9%). Reciprocal associations between sleep disturbances and negative mood and rumination were also observed.     

Constructing a professional development school: A model of one school‐university partnership

Abstract

A partnership between an elementary school and a university in the Midwest evolved into a professional development school. The authors describe this process, making analogies to the process of constructing a house. The steps are also related to Kagan's (1991) stages of organizational development. From laying the foundation of the partnership through adding the sill (the vision), constructing the frame (the goals and objectives), adding the sheathing (the formal structure), installing siding (the implementation), to maintaining through assessment, the parallels are explored and analyzed. Because the process relates to individuals as well as an institution, the authors also discuss ways in which the processes diverge.

The process is presented as a model that might be useful to others engaged in creating a professional development school or improving teacher education. A visual of the model is included.     

Phonemic—Morphemic dissociation in university students with dyslexia: an index of reading compensation?

A phonological deficit constitutes a primary cause of developmental dyslexia, which persists into adulthood and can explain some aspects of their reading impairment. Nevertheless, some dyslexic adults successfully manage to study at university level, although very little is currently known about how they achieve this. The present study investigated at both the individual and group levels, whether the development of another oral language skill, namely, morphological knowledge, can be preserved and dissociated from the development of phonological knowledge. Reading, phonological, and morphological abilities were measured in 20 dyslexic and 20 non-dyslexic university students. The results confirmed the persistence of deficits in phonological but not morphological abilities, thereby revealing a dissociation in the development of these two skills. Moreover, the magnitude of the dissociation correlated with reading level. The outcome supports the claim that university students with dyslexia may compensate for phonological weaknesses by drawing on morphological knowledge in reading.     

Academic procrastination and motivation of adolescents in Turkey

This article presents a study of academic procrastination and associated motivation variables in 508 adolescents from a general secondary school in central Turkey. Girls reported higher levels of self‐efficacy for self‐regulation and predicted higher Turkish grades than boys, but there was no difference in levels of procrastination. Academic self‐efficacy was a stronger predictor of procrastination for girls than for boys, but for both groups self‐efficacy for self‐regulation was the strongest predictor of procrastination. Most participants (83%) reported spending one hour or more procrastinating per day, with writing tasks the most prone to procrastination for boys and girls. When procrastinating, Turkish adolescent boys were more likely to spend time with electronic media (watching TV, emailing, going on‐line, and, in particular, playing computer games), whereas girls were most likely to read books, magazines, and newspapers. The article concludes with implications for researchers, and also for parents and educators of adolescents.