Measuring Student Attitude and Knowledge in Technology-Rich Biology Classrooms

The use of technology in schools is now ubiquitous, but the effectiveness on the learning environment has mixed results. This paper describes the development and validation of an instrument to measure students’ attitudes toward and knowledge of technology with the aim of investigating any differences based on gender after a course where the science department made use of technology as an integral part of teaching biology. In this study, conducted in one school in the state of New York, in the United States of America, the Students’ Attitudes Toward and Knowledge of Technology Questionnaire was administered to nearly 700 high school science students. A principal component and principal factor analysis resulted in new scales from the validation of the instrument that demonstrated high reliabilities. There were statistically significant gender differences in all the scales of the questionnaire in favor of males.     

Chromatography an educational tool

The technique of chromatography is studied to bring forth the underlying concepts such as adsorption, partition, polarity/ non-polarity of a compound. The materials required are very simple such as chalk, starch, ink, etc. Once the concepts are understood, the technique can be easily extrapolated to analyze complex biological samples as well.     

The 2008 Presidential Campaign: Political Cynicism in the Age of Facebook,MySpace, and YouTube

Considerable research over the years has been devoted to ascertaining the impact of media use on political cynicism. The impact of the Internet has been difficult to assess because it is not a single monolithic medium. For example, the 2008 presidential campaign was the first presidential campaign in which popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube were widely available to voters. Therefore, the campaign offered the first opportunity to explore the influence of these social media on political cynicism. In this study, we examined whether the use of such social media influenced political cynicism. We also considered the influence of user background characteristics (e.g., self-efficacy, locus of control, political orientation, demographics, and influence of family and friends), motives for using social media for political information, and users’ elaboration on political content. Several individual differences were stronger predictors of political cynicism than was social media use. In fact, social networking use was a negative predictor of political cynicism. Results supported uses and gratifications’ notions that the influence of social media on political cynicism is more attributable to user background and media-use differences than to sheer use of these popular sites.     

Innovation and firm growth in high-tech sectors: A quantile regression approach

We relate innovation to sales growth for incumbent firms in high-tech sectors. A firm, on average, experiences only modest growth and may grow for a number of reasons that may or may not be related to innovative activity. However, given that the returns to innovation are highly skewed and that growth rates distributions are heavy-tailed, it may be misleading to use regression techniques that focus on the ‘average effect for the average firm’. Using a quantile regression approach, we observe that innovation is of crucial importance for a handful of ‘superstar’ fast-growth firms.     

Making Sense out of Incentives: A Framework for Considering the Design,Use, and Implementation of Incentives to Improve Attendance

ABSTRACT

Accumulating evidence indicates that student attendance is closely tied to a range of educational outcomes, and yet millions of students are chronically absent each year. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), schools are now held accountable for their students' attendance at a scale this country has never before seen. As such, this is a crucial time to understand what research and evaluations suggest about what schools can do to move the needle on student attendance. As researchers work toward understanding the impact of different interventions and practices, and how results vary by grade level, on-the-ground experiences in schools highlight the pervasive use of incentives from pre-K to grade 12. Schools have employed a wide range of incentives to improve attendance, with varied levels of success. Unfortunately, there is little guidance on what policymakers and practitioners ought to consider when deciding if incentives are an appropriate intervention, and then how to design incentives in ways that align with the nature of specific attendance barriers and problems. This article presents a framework to fill that gap. We outline the design considerations when creating attendance incentives and offer guidance to practitioners deciding what to implement in their school.     

A group of nurses experience open learning—further explorations of the impact

The ideological moorings of distance education, both as a discipline and as a mode, rest on cognisance of multiple and varying contexts of learners, which it aims to address through responsive course content creation and delivery strategies. One of the frames through which the context needs to be understood is gender. There is research stating that gender both structures and influences the world of the learner and learner experience; therefore, learning needs to be contextualised to women’s personal, social, mental and emotional milieux. Through a qualitative inquiry, undertaken within the constructivist framework, aimed at uncovering the perspectives of learners and counsellors associated with five programmes of Indira Gandhi National Open University, the present paper attempts to revisit gender in open and distance learning (ODL). It seeks to uncover the impact of gender on learning through the distance mode; the need and availability of support structures in ODL to address the specific needs of women; the reflection and transaction of gender perspectives in content and pedagogy and, through this, to identify issues that may be relevant in the present‐day context. The findings of the study are not a function of gender alone. A matrix of variables appears to impact learner experience and response to ODL – the structuring of the programme and its requirements, the role(s) played by the counsellors, the motivations and the learning milieux created by the learners – all independently and collectively influence the learners’ – male and female – experience of ODL. While gender is not the independent variable each time, this does not mean that there are no gender‐specific issues any more – only that they need to be examined and answered in a particular context.     

Development and validation of Online Classroom Learning Environment Inventory (OCLEI): The case of Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic

Learning Environments Research - This paper reports the development and validation of a new questionnaire to assess students' perceptions of the online learning environment in Indonesia during...     

Gender differences among students undertaking iSTEM projects in multidisciplinary vs unidisciplinary STEM classrooms in government vs nongovermnment schools: Classroom emotional climate and attitudes

In response to the leaky STEM pipeline, particularly for girls, many schools have introduced integrated STEM (iSTEM) programs to enable students to solve problems using skills from each STEM area and hopefully enhance their interest in continuing with STEM subjects in senior-high school and university. We investigated whether gender differences in students’ perceptions of classroom emotional climate and attitudes to STEM depend on whether students are undertaking iSTEM projects as part of a multidisciplinary curriculum (S, T, E and M) or unidisciplinary curriculum (S, T, E or M) and also whether they attend a government or nongovernment coeducational school. The sample consisted of 256 students in 24 coeducational grade 7–9 classes in 8 government schools and 157 students in 12 coeducational grade 7–10 classes in 6 nongovernment schools. Whereas boys were significantly more positive than girls in perceptions of clarity, motivation, consolidation and attitudes to iSTEM in coeducational government schools, there were no significant gender differences in coeducational nongovernment schools. Students of both genders in government schools were significantly more positive about all aspects of classroom emotional climate and attitudes than students of both genders in nongovernment schools, even after controlling for socioeconomic status. Also, females were slightly more positive about classroom emotional climate and in their attitudes in multidisciplinary STEM classes in government schools. This study suggests that multidisciplinary STEM classes could motivate girls to pursue STEM subjects in senior-high school and at university.

     

The Landau theory of phase transitions: A mechanical analog

The Landau theory of phase transitions occupies a centerpiece position in physics. We illustrate the theory by a pedagogical example at the pre-university level. In the example a bead of mass is threaded on a ring which is set rotating about a vertical diameter. The dynamics of the bead mimics key features of the Landau theory.