The aim of this study was to examine the effects of science theatre plays on secondary school students’ attitudes towards the subject of science and their views on scientists. The study was conducted ...with 38 seventh grade secondary school students over a six-month period. The “Scale of Attitudes Towards the Subject of Science” and “Opinion Survey About Scientists” were used to collect the quantitative data, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for the analysis of the obtained data. For the collection of the qualitative data, the compositions written by the students and the researcher’s observation notes were used, and the obtained data were subjected to inductive content analysis. In the study, it was concluded that the science theatre plays were highly effective in increasing secondary school students’ attitudes towards the subject of science. On the other hand, it was determined that the activities had no effect on the students’ views about scientists. The results obtained from the qualitative data reveal the advantages of science theatre plays for students, as well as their contribution to students’ personal development. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature and recommendations were made for future research in line with the results.
Interdisciplinarity—or the interrelationships among distinct fields, disciplines, or branches of knowledge in pursuit of new answers to pressing problems—is one of the most contested topics in higher ...education today. Some see it as a way to break down the silos of academic departments and foster creative interchange, while others view it as a destructive force that will diminish academic quality and destroy the university as we know it. In Undisciplining Knowledge, acclaimed scholar Harvey J. Graff presents readers with the first comparative and critical history of interdisciplinary initiatives in the modern university. Arranged chronologically, the book tells the engaging story of how various academic fields both embraced and fought off efforts to share knowledge with other scholars. It is a story of myths, exaggerations, and misunderstandings, on all sides.
Touching on a wide variety of disciplines—including genetic biology, sociology, the humanities, communications, social relations, operations research, cognitive science, materials science, nanotechnology, cultural studies, literary studies, and biosciences—the book examines the ideals, theories, and practices of interdisciplinarity through comparative case studies. Graff interweaves this narrative with a social, institutional, and intellectual history of interdisciplinary efforts over the 140 years of the modern university, focusing on both its implementation and evolution while exploring substantial differences in definitions, goals, institutional locations, and modes of organization across different areas of focus.
Higher education scholars, faculty members, and administrators and will find the book’s practical advice on building, operating, and avoiding fallacies and errors in interdisciplinary research and education invaluable.
Background
Despite increasing attention to STEM education worldwide, there is considerable uncertainty as to what constitutes STEM education and what it means in terms of curriculum and student ...outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the commonalities and variations in educators’ conceptualizations of STEM education. Sensemaking theory framed our analysis of ideas that were being selected and retained in relation to professional learning experiences in three contexts: two traditional middle schools, a STEM-focused school, and state-wide STEM professional development. Concept maps and interview transcripts from 34 educators holding different roles were analyzed: STEM and non-STEM teachers, administrators, and STEM professional development providers.
Results
Three themes were included on over 70% of the 34 concept maps: interdisciplinary connections; the need for new, ambitious instructional practices in enacting a STEM approach; and the engagement of students in real-world problem solving. Conceptualizations of STEM education were related to educational contexts, which included the STEM education professional development activities in which educators engaged. We also identified differences across educators in different roles (e.g., non-STEM teacher, administrator). Two important attributes of STEM education addressed in the literature appeared infrequently across all contexts and role groups: students’ use of technology and the potential of STEM-focused education to provide access and opportunities for all students’ successful participation in STEM.
Conclusions
Given the variety of institutionalized practices and school contexts within which STEM education is enacted, we are not convinced that a single worldwide definition of STEM education is critical. What we do see as essential is that those working in the same system explore the common elements that are being attributed to STEM education and co-construct a vision that provides opportunities for all their students to attain STEM-related goals. This is especially important in the current reform contexts related to STEM education. We also see that common conceptions of STEM education appear across roles and contexts, and these could provide starting points for these discussions. Explicitly identifying the ideas educators are and are not selecting and retaining can inform professional learning activities at local and larger scales.
Teachers and curriculum specialists are exposed to many ideas from educational leaders, but it is difficult to know which ones can be transformed into meaningful learning experiences in the ...classroom. "Concept-Based Instruction": (1) Helps educators translate the works of leading educational thinkers into concept-based units; (2) Draws from the works of Lynn Erickson, Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Carol Ann Tomlinson, Jay McTighe, Grant Wiggins, Benjamin Bloom, and John Hattie; (3) Challenges all students to think through active and meaningful learning experiences; (4) Shares tips for creating units in writing, literature, reading, social studies, and science; and (5) Includes helpful examples of units to guide teachers and curriculum specialists. Readers will learn how to create practical and organized units that inspire student thinking, discussion, conversation, and written assignments, as well as use levels of questioning and task complexity based on various forms of assessments and demonstrated readiness.
This pioneering piece of research on the situated study of language issues in the context of forced migration provides interdisciplinary insights into language as learned, used and lived by 12 ...Congolese refugees in Norway. It offers an innovative contribution to the field of SLA by bringing together structural, cognitive, social and critical approaches to data collected among the same individuals, these individuals being underrepresented within the field of SLA research as both refugees and learners whose experiences with language stem from the Global South. Their histories of mobility and their learning contexts are rarely reflected in theories and concepts from the Global North and this book thus makes a much-needed contribution to the field.
Background
Lack of agreement about criteria and terminology for children's language problems affects access to services as well as hindering research and practice. We report the second phase of a ...study using an online Delphi method to address these issues. In the first phase, we focused on criteria for language disorder. Here we consider terminology.
Methods
The Delphi method is an iterative process in which an initial set of statements is rated by a panel of experts, who then have the opportunity to view anonymised ratings from other panel members. On this basis they can either revise their views or make a case for their position. The statements are then revised based on panel feedback, and again rated by and commented on by the panel. In this study, feedback from a second round was used to prepare a final set of statements in narrative form. The panel included 57 individuals representing a range of professions and nationalities.
Results
We achieved at least 78% agreement for 19 of 21 statements within two rounds of ratings. These were collapsed into 12 statements for the final consensus reported here. The term ‘Language Disorder’ is recommended to refer to a profile of difficulties that causes functional impairment in everyday life and is associated with poor prognosis. The term, ‘Developmental Language Disorder’ (DLD) was endorsed for use when the language disorder was not associated with a known biomedical aetiology. It was also agreed that (a) presence of risk factors (neurobiological or environmental) does not preclude a diagnosis of DLD, (b) DLD can co‐occur with other neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. ADHD) and (c) DLD does not require a mismatch between verbal and nonverbal ability.
Conclusions
This Delphi exercise highlights reasons for disagreements about terminology for language disorders and proposes standard definitions and nomenclature.
Background
Societal challenges that call for a new type of engineer suggest the need for the implementation of interdisciplinary engineering education (IEE). The aim of IEE is to train engineering ...students to bring together expertise from different disciplines in a single context. This review synthesizes IEE research with a focus on characterizing vision, teaching practices, and support.
Purpose
We aim to show how IEE is conceptualized, implemented, and facilitated in higher engineering education at the levels of curricula and courses. This aim leads to two research questions:
What aspects of vision, teaching, and support have emerged as topics of interest in empirical studies of IEE?
What points of attention regarding vision, teaching, and support can be identified in empirical studies of IEE as supporting or challenging IEE?
Scope/Method
Ninety‐nine studies published between 2005 and 2016 were included in a qualitative analysis across studies. The procedure included formulation of research questions, searching and screening of studies according to inclusion/exclusion criteria, description of study characteristics, appraisal, and synthesis of results.
Conclusions
Challenges exist for identifying clear learning goals and assessments for interdisciplinary education in engineering (vision). Most pedagogy for interdisciplinary learning is designed to promote collaborative teamwork requiring organization and team management. Our review suggests that developing interdisciplinary skills, knowledge, and values needs sound pedagogy and teaming experiences that provide students with authentic ways of engaging in interdisciplinary practice (teaching). Furthermore, there is a limited understanding of what resources hinder the development of engineering programs designed to support interdisciplinarity (support).
Si propongono brevi osservazioni in margine agli esiti del progetto di ricerca su “Privacy and Consent”. Almeno cinque sono i collegamenti con dibattiti in corso: sulle “anomalie del comportamento”, ...sul valore delle informazioni “involontarie”, sulla cibersicurezza, sulla cosiddetta “intelligenza artificiale”, sull’atteggiamento “anti-disciplinare” necessario per far fronte all’innovazione nelle “corporate technologies” ( e eventualmente intervenire con «fundamental changes in the law»). Brief notes are proposed to accompany the outcomes of the research project on “Privacy and Consent”. There are at least five links to ongoing debates: on “behavioural anomalies”, on the value of “involuntary” information, on cybersecurity, on “artificial intelligence”, on the “anti-disciplinary” attitude required to tackle innovation in “corporate technologies” (and possibly intervene with «fundamental changes in the law»).