Students’ adaptability in mathematics: Examining self-reports and teachers’ reports and links with engagement and achievement outcomes

Adaptability refers to the capacity to adjust one’s thoughts, behaviors, and emotions in order to manage changing, new, or uncertain demands. Although preliminary research has highlighted its relevance for positive student outcomes, there remain several important empirical questions to be examined. In particular, research on adaptability has used domain-general measures (i.e., not tied to a particular domain such as a school subject) and has focused only on self-reports of adaptability (not, for example, reports by significant others). The aim of the current study was to advance knowledge of adaptability by addressing these gaps. We examined students’ domain-specific adaptability in mathematics as reported by students themselves and by their mathematics teachers (n = 371). We examined the extent to which the two reports of mathematics adaptability are associated with students’ mathematics engagement, mathematics achievement, and literacy achievement (the latter a test of discriminant validity). Well-known covariates were included as controls (e.g., gender, prior achievement). Results revealed that student-reported adaptability predicted students’ mathematics engagement. Moreover, student-reported and teacher-reported adaptability uniquely predicted mathematics achievement. In terms of discriminant validity, (mathematics-based) student and teacher reports of adaptability were not associated with students’ literacy achievement. Together, findings advance knowledge of the adaptability construct, including providing preliminary evidence of domain-specificity and the complementary nature of self- and teacher-reports for assessing adaptability. Implications for practice are discussed.     

The impact of theories of 'New Public Management' on the provision of support services for low-incidence special needs

This short report examines the impact of changes of government policy within England and Wales on the organization and provision of support services to pupils with a low-incidence disability. The specific case of support for pupils who are visually impaired is explored against a framework based on theories of ‘New Public Management’.     

An illustration to assist in comparing and remembering several multiplicity adjustment methods

There are many well‐known or new methods to adjust statistical tests for multiplicity. This article provides an illustration helping lecturers or consultants to remember the differences of three important multiplicity adjustment methods and to explain them to non‐statisticians.     

Representational competence: towards a distributed and embodied cognition account

Multiple external representations (MERs) are central to the practice and learning of science, mathematics and engineering, as the phenomena and entities investigated and controlled in these domains are often not available for perception and action. MERs therefore play a twofold constitutive role in reasoning in these domains. Firstly, MERs stand in for the phenomena and entities that are imagined, and thus make possible scientific investigations. Secondly, related to the above, sensorimotor and imagination-based interactions with the MERs make possible focused cognitive operations involving these phenomena and entities, such as mental rotation and analogical transformations. These two constitutive roles suggest that acquiring expertise in science, mathematics and engineering requires developing the ability to transform and integrate the MERs in that field, in tandem with running operations in imagination on the phenomena and entities the MERs stand for. This core ability to integrate external and internal representations and operations on them – termed representational competence (RC) – is therefore critical to learning in science, mathematics and engineering. However, no general account of this core process is currently available. We argue that, given the above two constitutive roles played by MERs, a theoretical account of representational competence requires an explicit model of how the cognitive system interacts with external representations, and how imagination abilities develop through this process. At the applied level, this account is required to develop design guidelines for new media interventions for learning science and mathematics, particularly emerging ones that are based on embodied interactions. As a first step to developing such a theoretical account, we review the literature on learning with MERs, as well as acquiring RC, in chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics and engineering, from two perspectives. First, we focus on the important theoretical accounts and related empirical studies, and examine what is common about them. Second, we summarise the major trends in each discipline, and then bring together these trends. The results show that most models and empirical studies of RC are framed within the classical information processing approach, and do not take a constitutive view of external representations. To develop an account compatible with the constitutive view of external representations, we outline an interaction-based theoretical account of RC, extending recent advances in distributed and embodied cognition.     

The effect of different goals and self-recording on self-regulation of learning a motor skill in a physical education setting

This study examined the effect of different goals (process, performance outcome, and multiple goals) and self-recording on self-regulation of learning a dart-throwing skill. Participants were 105 fifth and sixth graders who were randomly assigned to six (3 Goal type × 2 self-recording) experimental and one control group. Results showed a positive effect of self-recording on students’ performance, while no difference was found between the goal conditions. Moreover, goal group students made more technical attributions and adaptive inferences compared to the control group students. Results are discussed with reference to self-regulated learning, the pursuit of multiple goals and self-recording in physical education.     

政府购买公共图书馆服务之网络化治理研究

政府购买公共图书馆服务旨在更好地实现图书馆服务均等化和提升图书馆服务质量,满足社会公众日益增长的文化需求。其网络化治理是保障服务供给、形成制度规范、优化运作程序、实现技术应用的迫切要求,必须明确政府机构、企业单位、第三部门与社会公众等多元主体各自的功能定位,建立集信任、协调、互动、整合于一体的实现机制,遵循确定目标一致的战略方案、打造信息共享的管理平台、提升政府部门的治理能力、完善高效运转的监管体系等治理途径。     

改进的小生境粒子群优化算法

传统的小生境粒子群优化算法（NPSO）需要两个参数的输入,一个是判断子群合并的阈值,另一个是子群产生的阈值。参数设置的不当,将直接影响计算结果。引入一个函数判断两个点是否在同一座山峰上,以克服NPSO算法需要输入参数的弊端。在程序运行时,无须严格限定小生境的半径,也不需太多的先验知识。实验结果证明,该算法合理有效,能够能快速有效地找到多峰函数的全局最优点。     

城市居民低碳消费行为及影响因素研究——以福建省福州市为例

由城市居民消费产生的碳排放量问题日益突出,并对空气质量及生态环境构成一定的威胁。本文通过对福州市城区的实地问卷调查,运用描述统计、单因素方差模型和多元线性回归模型实证分析了城市居民的低碳消费行为问题。研究结果显示:当前城市居民实施低碳消费的行为倾向处于中等略偏上的水平,反映出调控城市居民低碳消费行为的重要性;人口统计学变量对于城市居民低碳消费行为的影响并无显著差异,反映出低碳消费并没有"专属区",具有明显的社会共性特征;而"价值观"、"关注度"、"行政性政策"、"操作能力"、"社会规范"5个变量对城市居民低碳消费行为产生了显著的正向影响作用,反映出心理因素、法规政策及外部因素等会对低碳消费行为产生影响作用。因此,建议开展全员式的低碳消费理念普及与教育活动,引导城市居民正确认知低碳消费行为对自身、经济发展及生态环境产生的价值,提高城市居民实施低碳消费行为的操作能力,并适时出台促进实施低碳消费行为的相关法规政策,从而努力减少由城市居民消费所产生的碳排放量以推动可持续发展。     

多元智力理论评价观在大学成绩评定中的运用--以重庆文理学院法学专业学生实践为例

多元智力理论提出对学生的评价需要考虑情境性、发展性、多元性和独特性等方面。多元智力理论评价观与应用型本科院校法学专业实践教学成绩评定具有内在的契合性。按照多元智力理论的评价观,应用型本科院校法学专业实践教学成绩评定应该遵循情景体验与其他方式相结合、全程性评价与结果性评价相结合、一元评价与多元评价相结合、量化评价与质性评价相结合等原则,在学生成绩评定中应该从评价方式、评价主体、权重构成、评分标准等方面进行相应的改革。     

多元智力理论对计算机设计类课程改革的启示

分析了多元智能理论的内涵及其对《三维动画》课程教学改革的启示,为计算机设计类课程的教学理论和实践提供参考借鉴。近年来,多元智能理论的提出与引入,打破了传统的单一的智力观。它强调智力的多面性,为我国课程改革提供了重要的理论依据。