Children's ideas about evaporation

This article reports on research conducted as part of the Primary Science Processes and Concept Exploration (space) Project. The background to, and orientation of, space is briefly described.

Classroom‐based research into children's thinking about evaporation is reported. This work was conducted in close collaboration with teachers of the 5‐11 years age range with the intention of establishing the viability of the techniques for eliciting ideas and managing subsequent interventions within classrooms.

Children's thinking in relation to three main evaporation phenomena are discussed. Ideas about evaporation were categorized by reference to notions of conservation, change of location and change of form of the water.     

Creating space for learning: conceptualizing women and higher education through space and time

This paper highlights the strengths of giving visibility to the concepts of space and time in research related to women's lives and higher education. It is based on research that explores the everyday practice and experience of women higher education students at a community college in the north of England. It focuses on the ways in which space and time to study are both socially and personally constructed. The concepts of space and time are drawn on to theorize and analyze women students' experiences and to draw attention to the ‘behind scenes of power and control’ shaping action (Layder, 1993 Layder D 1993 New strategies in social research (Cambridge, Polity)  [Google Scholar], p. 249). Women students from a range of backgrounds are considered, including younger/older, mother/non‐mother and differential class and geographical heritage. The paper highlights three issues. Firstly, the increasingly restricted ground available for academic studies in women's lives, resulting from the restructuring of paid work, social welfare and higher education. Secondly, the hierarchy of values and ambiguous meanings attached to higher education when women attempt to study. Thirdly, the intense negotiations undertaken by women students in order to construct space and time for academic work.     

What do upper-elementary and middle school teachers know about the processes of text comprehension?

Reading and Writing - Teachers’ knowledge of reading comprehension processes is underresearched relative to teachers’ knowledge of word identification and phonological awareness. In...     

The Mentoring Relationship as a Complex Adaptive System: Finding a Model for Our Experience

Mentoring theory and practice has evolved significantly during the past 40 years. Early mentoring models were characterized by the top-down flow of information and benefits to the protégé. This framework was reconceptualized as a reciprocal model when scholars realized mentoring was a mutually beneficial process. Recently, in response to rapidly changing organizational and social environments, scholars have explored other models of mentoring such as developmental networks. However, as we, the authors, reflect on our own experience of an informal mentoring process in an academic context we find existing models inadequately describe our experience. The model that best fits our story is a complex adaptive systems (CAS) perspective of the mentoring relationship, and we offer this lens to reconfigure current models.     

Correction to: What do upper‑elementary and middle school teachers know about the processes of text comprehension?

Reading and Writing -