Students’ intentions towards studying science at upper-secondary school: the differential effects of under-confidence and over-confidence

Understanding students’ intentions to study science at upper-secondary school, at university, and to follow science careers continues as a central concern for international science education. Prior research has highlighted that students’ science confidence has been associated with their intentions to study science further, although under-confidence and over-confidence (lower or higher confidence than expected, given someone’s attainment) have not been considered in detail. Accordingly, this study explored whether under-confident, accurately evaluating, and over-confident students expressed different attitudes towards their science education, and explored how under-confidence and over-confidence might influence students’ science intentions. The questionnaire responses of 1523 students from 12 secondary schools in England were considered through analysis of variance and predictive modelling. Under-confident students expressed consistently lower science attitudes than accurately evaluating and over-confident students, despite reporting the same science grades as accurately evaluating students. Students’ intentions to study science were predicted by different factors in different ways, depending on whether the students were under-confident, accurate, or over-confident. For accurately evaluating and over-confident students, science intentions were predicted by their self-efficacy beliefs (their confidence in their expected future science attainment). For under-confident students, science intentions were predicted by their self-concept beliefs (their confidence in currently ‘doing well’ or ‘being good’ at science). Many other differences were also apparent. Fundamentally, under-confidence may be detrimental not simply through associating with lower attitudes, but through students considering their choices in different ways. Under-confidence may accordingly require attention to help ensure that students’ future choices are not unnecessarily constrained

Contemplation and Social Transformation: The Example of Thomas Merton

This essay examines the relationship between the Christian tradition of contemplation and social action. It takes as its paradigm the life and writings of Thomas Merton (Fr Louis), an American Cistercian monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, who became one of the most widely-read and influential spiritual writers as well as Christiansocial commentators of the mid-twentieth century. Merton, who often wrote through an autobiographical medium, gradually moved away from an early emphasis on contemplative withdrawal to a belief that the monastic life is a form of counter-cultural solidarity with those who struggle for social transformation and justice. The essay more broadly explores the theological basis for a coherence of mysticism and action in contrast to some misinterpretations of the Christian language of interiority. It concludes with an exploration of the relationship between contemplation and politics in a number of twentieth and twenty-first century theologians, both Catholic and Protestant.The American Cistercian monk and social activist Thomas Merton (1915-1968) has been described as one of the greatest spiritual writers of the twentieth century. He merited this description partly because, while a Roman Catholic,he embraced a generous “catholicity” beyond the boundaries of a single institution (cf. Mursell 2001:340)

The impact of nature on children’s wellbeing

Engaging with nature has been found to be associated with various benefits, including benefits for physical health and self-reported well-being (e.g. Rogerson, Barton, Bragg, & Pretty, 2017). However, most of the research to date has been undertaken with adults and much less is known about the benefits to children. Here we report on a project funded by The Wildlife Trusts in which we undertook research to investigate what children felt they got from participating in outdoor activities

Primary children’s views about appreciating, supporting, and learning about nature

Biology education aims to inspire interest, curiosity, and understanding about the natural world, foster children’s interests and orientations towards supporting and protecting nature, and support children towards biology-related careers (including those involving nature and animals). However, it remains less clear how these views might associate with different aspects of education and life. In order to gain new insights, 679 children in England (between 7 and 10 years old) were surveyed. The questionnaire included established measures for views about nature and learning, alongside new areas. The analysis applied predictive modelling to reveal independent associations between the children’s views. The children’s appreciation of nature and affinities towards animals were two of the strongest positive predictors of their interest in learning about nature, which was the strongest positive predictor of their aspirations towards careers involving nature or animals. Other findings highlighted the importance of nature-related activities and also children’s wider educational contexts and views. Watching nature-related media positively predicted children’s interest in learning about nature, while reading books about nature or wildlife positively predicted children’s aspirations towards careers involving nature or animals. Children’s confidence and enjoyment in their schoolwork positively predicted their appreciation of nature and also their interest in learning about nature

Extending functional databases for use in text-intensive applications

This thesis continues research exploring the benefits of using functional databases based around the functional data model for advanced database applications-particularly those supporting investigative systems. This is a growing generic application domain covering areas such as criminal and military intelligence, which are characterised by significant data complexity, large data sets and the need for high performance, interactive use. An experimental functional database language was developed to provide the requisite semantic richness. However, heavy use in a practical context has shown that language extensions and implementation improvements are required-especially in the crucial areas of string matching and graph traversal. In addition, an implementation on multiprocessor, parallel architectures is essential to meet the performance needs arising from existing and projected database sizes in the chosen application area. [Continues.

Children’s Aspirations Towards Science-related Careers

Science-related careers are often considered to be less accessible by many children. More research is needed to distinguish any influences from different aspects of life so that support and/or interventions can be focused to help mitigate any disadvantage and inaccessibility. In order to gain greater understanding of constraints or influences on children’s aspirations towards science-related careers, a nationally-representative cohort of 7820 children in England was considered at age 11 and at age 14. At age 11, children’s science-related career aspirations were predictively associated with their ethnicity, gender, and science self-confidence, and also (at lower magnitudes) with the children’s motivation towards school and indicators of family advantage. At age 14, children’s aspirations were predictively associated with their prior aspirations (as of age 11), science self-confidence (as of age 14), and again with ethnicity and gender. Notably, these gender and ethnicity associations varied when considering specific aspirations towards science/engineering and towards medicine/health: boys were more likely to express science/engineering aspirations and less likely to express medicine/health aspirations; concurrently, children from some minority ethnic backgrounds were less likely to express science/engineering aspirations and more likely to express medicine/health aspirations. Overall, the findings suggest that support after age 11 still needs to promote the feasibility of different science careers for all children

Changes in soil carbon and nutrients following 6 years of litter removal and addition in a tropical semi-evergreen rain forest

Increasing atmospheric CO$_2$ and temperature may increase forest productivity, including litterfall, but the consequences for soil organic matter remain poorly understood. To address this, we measured soil carbon and nutrient concentrations at nine depths to 2 m after 6 years of continuous litter removal and litter addition in a semi-evergreen rain forest in Panama. Soils in litter addition plots, compared to litter removal plots, had higher pH and contained greater concentrations of KCl-extractable nitrate (both to 30 cm); Mehlich-III extractable phosphorus and total carbon (both to 20 cm); total nitrogen (to 15 cm); Mehlich-III calcium (to 10 cm); and Mehlich-III magnesium and lower bulk density (both to 5 cm). In contrast, litter manipulation did not affect ammonium, manganese, potassium or zinc, and soils deeper than 30 cm did not differ for any nutrient. Comparison with previous analyses in the experiment indicates that the effect of litter manipulation on nutrient concentrations and the depth to which the effects are significant are increasing with time. To allow for changes in bulk density in calculation of changes in carbon stocks, we standardized total carbon and nitrogen on the basis of a constant mineral mass. For 200 kg m$^{-2}$ of mineral soil (approximately the upper 20 cm of the profile) about 0.5 kg C m$^{-2}$ was "missing" from the litter removal plots, with a similar amount accumulated in the litter addition plots. There was an additional 0.4 kg C m$^{-2}$ extra in the litter standing crop of the litter addition plots compared to the control. This increase in carbon in surface soil and the litter standing crop can be interpreted as a potential partial mitigation of the effects of increasing CO$_2$ concentrations in the atmosphere.Funding for the project was originally from the Mellon Foundation (1999–2002); ongoing costs were paid for by the Gates Cambridge Trust (E. Sayer); The University of Cambridge Domestic Research Studentship Scheme and the Wolfson College Alice Evans Fund (A. Vincent); and The Drummond Fund of Gonville and Caius College and Cambridge University (E. Tanner)

Science teaching and students’ attitudes and aspirations: The importance of conveying the applications and relevance of science

More people studying and working within science are desired in numerous countries, although it remains less clear how educators can help. Analysis considered nationally-representative samples of students in England, aged 15 (Year 11), from 2006 and 2015. On both occasions, accounting for students’ background and other views, students’ perceived utility of science most strongly and positively associated with their science-related career aspirations, while students’ reports of encountering different teaching approaches had smaller or no associations. Conveying the wider applications of science to students was the only teaching approach to consistently and positively associate with students’ utility and other attitudes. Developing students’ attitudes, and hence their aspirations, through highlighting the applications and relevance of science to everyday life may be beneficial

Calibration of self-evaluations of mathematical ability for students in England aged 13 and 15, and their intentions to study non-compulsory mathematics after age 16.

Mathematics self-evaluation (the calibration of mathematics task confidence against ability) was longitudinally explored through 2490 students from England. Students with accurate task calibration at Year 10 (age 15) reported the highest intentions to study mathematics in Years 12 and 13 (when mathematics is not compulsory), and also generally gave the highest self-reports for further mathematics self-beliefs and attitudes including task-level enjoyment, ease, and interest, and subject-level self-concept. Earlier at Year 8, no differences in intentions were found; over-confident students generally gave the highest self-reports at Year 8, while under-confident students generally gave the lowest self-reports. Gender differences also emerged: girls showed no differences in self-beliefs of ability across calibration groups at Year 10, while accurate boys reported the highest self-beliefs