Promoting conceptual change of learning sorting algorithm through the diagnosis of mental models: The effects of gender and learning styles

It has been advocated that pedagogical content knowledge as well as subject matter knowledge are important for improving classroom instructions. To develop pedagogical content knowledge, it is argued that understanding of students' mental representations of concepts is deemed necessary. Yet assessing and comparing mental model of each individual is very tedious and time consuming. This study attempted to use gender and learning styles to associate mental models in learning sorting algorithm. The Gregorc Style Delineator (GSD) was used to measure learning styles of the participants. Mental models were assessed using the Pathfinder Scaling Algorithm (PSA). Results indicated that females showed greater similarity in mental models than males and concrete learners also exhibited closer resemblance to the expert mental model than abstract learners. These suggest that gender and learning styles can be meaningfully used to associate mental models in order to provide a group-based instead of individual-based diagnosis and thus promote conceptual change in learning. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.postprin

Pakistan Climate Crises Charter 2022

Population Council researchers in Pakistan contributed to this charter, which was developed in the aftermath of the floods of 2022

Reinventing the City: Three Prerequisites for Greening Urban Infrastructures

This report from the WWF discusses how city infrastructure can be modernized to reduce carbon emissions and increase general environmental sustainability

Climate friendly lifestyle practices in India

"The environmental consequences of unsustainable lifestyles and patterns of production and consumption are now widely acknowledged. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are mainly driven by population size, economic activity, lifestyle, energy use, land use patterns, technology and climate policy." "Prepared for Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) by WWF-India, with contributions from Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Sahapedia and Development Alternatives (DA).

WWF Greenprint Issue Brief

This paper discusses several key areas where U.S. policy should be reshaped, both domestically and internationally, to ensure we lead the world towards a safe, sustainable future. We should: Establish a price for carbon by adopting an ambitious 2020 emissions reduction target. Make investments and adopt policies to stimulate a green economy. Lead the world toward an effective and equitable global climate agreement Support efforts to stop emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries. Contribute to global financing mechanisms for climate mitigation and adaptation in the developing world. Ensure that climate change-related impacts are addressed under the Endangered Species Act. Improve science and information to prepare communities and ecosystems for unavoidable climate change. Build public support for sustained action to fight climate chang

Antarctic Climate Change in the 20th and 21st centuries: Extracts from the Executive Summary of SCAR’s Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) Review Report

The instrumental period began in the Antarctic with the International Geophysical Year, about 50 years ago. The snapshot we have of the climate during this period is tiny in the long history of the continent. Determining how the environment of the Antarctic will evolve over the next century presents challenges. Climate models are the only means we have of providing synoptic views of future environmental behaviour, albeit crudely and at coarse resolution. However, the effects of increased greenhouse gases are already evident, and the effects of their expected increase over the next century, if they continue to rise at the current rate, will be remarkable because of their speed