Differences in Brain Activation Between Novices and Experts in Science During a Task Involving a Common Misconception in Electricity

Science education studies have revealed that students often have misconceptions about how nature works, but what happens to misconceptions after a conceptual change remains poorly understood. Are misconceptions rejected and replaced by scientific conceptions, or are they still present in students' minds, coexisting with newly acquired scientific conceptions? In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare brain activation between novices and experts in science when they evaluate the correctness of simple electric circuits. Results show that experts, more than novices, activate brain areas involved in inhibition when they evaluate electric circuits in which a bulb lights up, even though there is only one wire connecting it to the battery. These findings suggest that experts may still have a misconception encoded in the neural networks of their brains that must be inhibited in order to answer scientifically.     

Reading to Children and Listening to Children Read: Mother–Child Interactions as a Function of Principal Reader

Research Findings: Although storybook reading has received considerable research attention, listening to children read has been the source of much less inquiry. In this study, 40 mother–child dyads were videotaped during adult-to-child and child-to-adult reading. Relations between book-related themes (e.g., types of talk), maternal evaluative feedback (e.g., praise, criticism), maternal miscue feedback (e.g., graphophonemic clues, terminal feedback), and child engagement (e.g., laughter, questions) were analyzed. The results suggest that the development of literacy appreciation and literacy skill can occur during the same storybook-reading session. Specifically, when mothers read to their children, communication about the illustrations was associated with increased child engagement, yet a positive correlation was also observed between text-related productions and child engagement. When children read to their mothers, text-related productions were featured more prominently. After children made reading errors (miscues), graphophonemic and terminal feedback were the 2 most frequent responses by mothers. In addition, graphophonemic cues were positively associated with child engagement. Practice or Policy: In sum, the results demonstrate that adult-to-child and child-to-adult reading serve the goals of both literacy acquisition training and literacy appreciation; furthermore, orienting children toward the text during either session did not hamper child engagement.     

Critical Mass and Pedagogic Continuity: studies in academic habitus

The paper is based on ethnographic work with doctoral students, their supervisors and postdoctoral researchers in three contrasting disciplines: biochemistry, artificial intelligence and physical geography. It explores how stability and continuity in scientific disciplines are sustained through socialisation processes of doctoral research. It identifies the inter‐generational transmission of knowledge, skills and assumptions within the institutional setting of laboratory or the research group. Working on ‘standardised packages’ in such social contexts, doctoral students are enculturated into scientific work. Despite setbacks and uncertainties in getting their research to ‘work’ doctoral students express faith that their problems are ‘doable’. Drawing on these empirical findings we suggest that these forms of pedagogic continuity are of more significance in the enculturation of doctoral students and the reproduction of scientific knowledge than the presence or absence of a ‘critical mass’ of active researchers (as has been suggested by the recent Harris review of postgraduate education in the UK). We therefore suggest that recent UK policy formation that has emphasized the notion of critical mass deserves critical scrutiny, and that there is need for perspectives more sensitive to disciplinary cultures and departmental organization.     

Integrating History of Science in Science Education through Historical Microworlds to Promote Conceptual Change

This paper proposes a new way to integrate history of science in science education to promote conceptual change by introducing the notion of historical microworld, which is a computer-based interactive learning environment respecting historic conceptions. In this definition, “interactive” means that the user can act upon the virtual environment by changing some parameters to see what ensues. “Environment respecting historic conceptions” means that the “world” has been programmed to respect the conceptions of past scientists or philosophers. Three historical microworlds in the field of mechanics are presented in this article: an Aristotelian microworld respecting Aristotle’s conceptions about movement, a Buridanian microworld respecting the theory of impetus and, finally, a Newtonian microworld respecting Galileo’s conceptions and Newton’s laws of movement.     

Revisiting print exposure: exploring differential links to vocabulary,comprehension and reading rate

Undergraduates (N=171) completed a revised version of the Author Recognition Test ( Stanovich & West, 1989 ). The resulting print exposure scores were divided into two dimensions: personal reading experience (primary print knowledge – PPK) and secondary print knowledge (SPK). Both PPK and SPK were correlated with print exposure, but not with each other. PPK correlated more strongly with reading‐related variables (vocabulary, comprehension and reading rate) than did SPK. Of particular importance, PPK accounted for variance in all three criterion variables after the effects of SPK had been factored out. Thus, these data support the notion that it is the act of reading over and above memory for reading‐related information that furthers the development of linguistic skill.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL ACCULTURATION: DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MEASURE FOR PUERTO RICANS ON THE U.S. MAINLAND

Most instruments designed to measure acculturation have relied on specific cultural behaviors and preferences as primary indicators of acculturation. In contrast, feelings of belonging and emotional attachment to cultural communities have not been widely used. The Psychological Acculturation Scale (PAS) was developed to assess acculturation from a phenomenological perspective, with items pertaining to the individual's sense of psychological attachment to and belonging within the Anglo-American and Latino/Hispanic cultures. Responses from samples of bilingual individuals and Puerto Rican adolescents and adults are used to establish a high degree of measurement equivalence across the Spanish and English versions of the scale along with high levels of internal consistency and construct validity. The usefulness of the PAS and the importance of studying acculturation from a phenomenological perspective are discussed.     

Live Simulation for Clinical Education

The Instructional Design Portfolio

Live Simulation for Clinical Education     

Vedic Science Based Education and Nonverbal Intelligence: A Preliminary Longitudinal Study in Cambodia

This study surveys the current status of higher education in Cambodia, and examines the influence of a Vedic Science curriculum, which included the Transcendental Meditation program, on undergraduate nonverbal intelligence. The Culture Fair Intelligence Test was administered to 70 students from two institutions of higher learning: the Institute of Economic Science (n = 23) in Phnom Penh, and Maharishi Vedic University (n = 47) in Prey Veng province. Results suggest that the application of Vedic Science to the curriculum increases the problem solving ability of Cambodian college students.     

Creating a Delicate Balance: the doctoral supervisor's dilemmas

Abstract

Central to the problems facing supervisors of doctoral students is creating a delicate balance between dominating the student's research and neglecting it. Too much control threatens the originality of the PhD and the autonomy of the novice researcher; too little can delay completion and even lead to total failure. Here, supervisors reflect on their successes and failures in the management of that delicate balance. They frequently construct their accounts using contrasts between the past and the present: comparing their own experiences as students with how they supervise now, or comparing current practice with their own early experiences as a supervisor. Such individual accounts and their characteristic rhetorical formats reflect contemporary policy themes at a more general level within the academic profession.