Gender Differences in the Consistency of Middle School Students’ Interest in Engineering and Science Careers

This longitudinal study analyzes survey responses in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade from diverse public school students (n = 482) to explore gender differences in engineering and science career preferences. Females were far more likely to express interest in a science career (31%) than an engineering career (13%), while the reverse was true for males (58% in engineering, 39% in science). After controlling for student and school demographic characteristics, females were as consistent as males in their science career interests during the three years of the study but less consistent in their engineering career interests. Knowing an engineer significantly predicted consistent career interest in engineering for males but not for females. Childhood interest in science and engineering was related to whether females and males expressed any interest in those subjects. Females and males both showed interest for careers where they can discover new things that help the environment or people’s health; females were less interested in designing and inventing, solving problems, and using technology. These findings suggest that increasing the number of diverse students who pursue engineering careers may require introducing students from early elementary to middle school to engineering as an array of careers that can improve health, happiness, and safety, and make the world a better place

Teacher questioning to elicit students’ mathematical thinking in elementary school classrooms

Downloaded from 380 Cognitively guided instruction (Cgi) researchers have found that while teachers readily ask initial questions to elicit students' mathematical thinking, they struggle with how to follow up on student ideas. This study examines the classrooms of three teachers who had engaged in algebraic reasoning Cgi professional development. We detail teachers' questions and how they relate to students' making explicit their complete and correct explanations. We found that after the initial "How did you get that?" question, a great deal of variability existed among teachers' questions and students' responses

Teacher questioning to elicit students’ mathematical thinking in elementary school classrooms

Cognitively guided instruction (Cgi) researchers have found that while teachers readily ask initial questions to elicit students' mathematical thinking, they struggle with how to follow up on student ideas. This study examines the classrooms of three teachers who had engaged in algebraic reasoning Cgi professional development. We detail teachers' questions and how they relate to students' making explicit their complete and correct explanations. We found that after the initial "How did you get that?" question, a great deal of variability existed among teachers' questions and students' responses

What About the “Instruction” in Instructional Sensitivity? Raising a Validity Issue in Research on Instructional Sensitivity

In instructional sensitivity research, it is important to evaluate the validity argument about the extent to which student performance on the assessment can be used to infer differences in instructional experiences. This study examines whether three different measures of mathematics instruction consistently identify mathematics assessments as being sensitive to instruction. Mixed findings across fourth-grade (n = 8,298) and fifth-grade (n = 9,336) students and their teachers across three school districts raise questions as to whether different ways of measuring instruction provide similar inferences about the instructional sensitivity of assessments. This raises validity concerns about the quality of inferences based on different measures of instruction

Does the Match between Gender and Race of Graduate Teaching Assistants and Undergraduates Improve Student Performance in Introductory Biology?

Research suggests there are potential benefits to students when taught by instructors who share the same gender and/or race/ethnicity. While underrepresented students have shown increased persistence and academic performance when they were taught by gender- and/or race/ethnicity-congruent faculty, there is little research that has explored the influence of matching for graduate student teaching assistants (GTAs). Given that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) GTAs spend a significant amount of time with undergraduates, measurable impacts on student outcomes have the potential to contribute to the success of undergraduates who have been underrepresented in STEM fields. This study evaluated the effects on academic performance of GTA (n = 50) matching for first-year students (n = 976) in an introductory biology lab course at a Hispanic-serving institution. There was no significant difference in academic performance for students who matched with the gender, race/ethnicity, income, and first-generation status of their GTAs. Results were consistent across multiple cohorts of students, after including statistical controls for prior academic performance and other demographic characteristics and accounting for the nested structure of the data. These results suggest there is a need of supporting GTAs to develop more effective teaching practices and to consider effects of GTA matching on other outcomes

Educational psychology and psychological literacy in higher education : developmental and cultural aspects of racial diversity

Positive psychology has been defined as the scientific study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions (Gable & Haidt, 2005). An underlying premise of this science is that mental health is more than the absence of mental illness and therefore it is valid and important to enhance well-being and cultivate positive emotions (Keyes, 2007). Noble and McGrath (2008) claim that many of the components of positive psychology are not new; however, Linley and Joseph (2004) believe that it is a useful umbrella term that has the potential to unite a range of related but disparate directions in theory and research about what makes life worth living. Positive psychology can be differentiated from previous "positive" approaches in psychology because it is firmly grounded in empirical research (Seligman, 2007)