Power,Perceptions, and Relationships: A Model of Co-Teaching in Higher Education

Co-teaching has historically been used in K–12 education to provide students with disabilities access to general curriculum; therefore, much of the co-teaching literature has focused on the K–12 population. Research on collegiate co-teaching has been more limited and largely focused on the advantages and disadvantages of co-teaching, omitting important factors that affect relationships between partners. This qualitative study involved seven interviews of co-teachers of graduate and undergraduate classes in order to better understand interactions between college-level co-teaching dyads. Data analysis revealed themes of power and authority structures, dynamics of co-teaching relationships, and co-teachers' perceptions related to advantages of co-teaching, disadvantages of co-teaching, and student experiences. The researchers developed the Circular Model of Collegiate Co-Teaching, an original model to explain how these themes and subthemes are interrelated and affect each other. Specific best practices and new insights for collegiate co-teaching practice are discussed.     

A causal model of students' achievement in a college physics course

To explain students' achievement in the mechanics segment of a college physics course, a causal model is proposed whose variables are the three constructs: Newtonian physics, math ability, and science experience. Each variable specifies several variates, whose numerical values were measured and intercorrelations computed. The Factorial Modeling (FaM) procedure is applied to the data to estimate the coefficients of the proposed model's structural equations. The FaM results indicate that the model is plausible and that its first two variables account for approximately 34% of the variance in the criterion variate, students' mechanics achievement. The implications of the findings for physics instruction are discussed.     

Environmental Detectives—the development of an augmented reality platform for environmental simulations

The form factors of handheld computers make them increasingly popular among K-12 educators. Although some compelling examples of educational software for handhelds exist, we believe that the potential of this platform are just being discovered. This paper reviews innovative applications for mobile computing for both education and entertainment purposes, and then proposes a framework for approaching handheld applications we call “augmented reality educational gaming.” We then describe our development process in creating a development platform for augmented reality games that draws from rapid prototyping, learner-centered software, and contemporary game design methodologies. We provide a narrative case study of our development activities spread across five case studies with classrooms, and provide a design narrative explaining this development process and articulate an approach to designing educational software on emerging technology platforms. Pedagogical, design, and technical conclusions and implications are discussed.

Aggression and avoidance byBetta splendens toward natural and artificial stimuli

The aggressive display of male Bettas was elicited maximally by another male, followed by a mirror image, a moving model, and a stationary model. The same order of effectiveness obtained regardless of the order of presentation of the stimuli. After a few days’ exposure to each stimulus, 1 h per day, the Bettas’ aggressive displays declined sharply. This did not represent a loss of attentiveness to the stimulus, but an active avoidance response. It is argued that this and other behaviors classified as “habituation” may profit from further behavioral analysis.     

Feedback (F) Fueling Adaptation (A) Network Growth (N) and Self-Organization (S): A Complex Systems Design and Evaluation Approach to Professional Development

This paper reports on the efficacy of a professional development framework premised on four complex systems design principles: Feedback, Adaptation, Network Growth and Self-organization (FANS). The framework is applied to the design and delivery of the first 2 years of a 3-year study aimed at improving teacher and student understanding of computational modeling tools. We demonstrate that structuring a professional development program around the FANS framework facilitates the development of important strategies and processes for program organizers such as the identification of salient system variables, effectively distributing expertise, adaptation and improvement of professional development resources and activities and building technological, human and social capital. For participants, there is evidence to show that the FANS framework encourages: professional goal setting, engagement in a strong professional community and personal autonomy by enabling individualized purpose—all fundamental components in promoting self-organization. We discuss three meta-level themes that may account for the success of the FANS framework: structure versus agency, exploration versus exploitation and short-term versus long-term goals. Each illustrates the tension that exists between competing variables that need to be considered in order to work effectively in real world complex educational systems.     

Augmented Reality Simulations on Handheld Computers

Advancements in handheld computing, particularly its portability, social interactivity, context sensitivity, connectivity, and individuality, open new opportunities for immersive learning environments. This article articulates the pedagogical potential of augmented reality simulations in environmental engineering education by immersing students in the roles of scientists conducting investigations. This design experiment examined if augmented reality simulation games can be used to help students understand science as a social practice, whereby inquiry is a process of balancing and managing resources, combining multiple data sources, and forming and revising hypotheses in situ. We provide 4 case studies of secondary environmental science students participating in the program. Positioning students in virtual investigations made apparent their beliefs about science and confronted simplistic beliefs about the nature of science. Playing the game in “real” space also triggered students' preexisting knowledge, suggesting that a powerful potential of augmented reality simulation games can be in their ability to connect academic content and practices with students' physical, lived worlds. The game structure provided students a narrative to think with, although students differed in their ability to create a coherent narrative of events. We argue that Environmental Detectives is 1 model for helping students understand the socially situated nature of scientific practice.