Assessing Chinese Students' Understandings in Mathematics and Science: Ensuring Valid and Reliable Data within International Contexts

Assessment practices in China are based largely upon the quantification of students' understandings, which are measured using multiple-choice tests based upon rote-learning and memorisation. These methods differ from global trends in education where there is a move towards assessment approaches that attempt to identify what students 'know' and 'can do'. To explore alternative modes of assessing the conceptual understanding of Chinese students, a study was designed based upon the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) model as the theoretical framework. While the model has been used extensively in many Western countries including Australia, United States and the United Kingdom, this was the first study to be undertaken with Year 5 students in China. This paper describes the research issues that emerged from the pilot study including problems in ensuring the accuracy of translations from Chinese to English, the need to provide Chinese students with the opportunity to provide their 'best possible' explanations, and the importance of the researcher being present for the collection of data. Once identified, each of these issues was considered carefully in the design and implementation of the main study to ensure improved validity. With this achieved, emerging patterns demonstrate the applicability of the SOLO model not only for assessing student understanding but in helping to identify a learning trajectory for mathematics and science conceptions for these Chinese students

Decisions by 'Science Proficient' Year 10 Students About Post-Compulsory High School Science Enrolment: A Sociocultural Exploration

Motivated by chronic declines in post-compulsory high school science participation, this research provides a new perspective on the enrolment decisions of science proficient Year 10 students in New South Wales (NSW). The study adapted the 'multiple worlds' model of Phelan, Davidson and Cao (1991) to explore students' perceptions of their family, peer, school science and mass media worlds, for influences on their decisions about enrolling in post-compulsory science courses. A survey of 196 science proficient students, in six schools, provided a context for interviews with 37 students deciding for, or against, taking further science. The study considered influences within each world, and the effects of congruency or incongruency between cultural features of different worlds. The opinions of 24 science teachers regarding the enrolment decisions of science proficient students provided a triangulation of perspectives. The study found science proficient students often cross referenced perceptions of the attitudes and values within family and school science worlds when deciding whether to take science courses. In particular, the resources of cultural and social capital within students' families were strongly influential in many decisions, since experiences of school science alone did not tend to encourage further participation, particularly in the physical sciences. Teachers' opinions that science proficient students were being drawn away from science courses and careers by external influences were not supported by students' narratives

Are you reading me? Narrative and the student experience in education for archaeology

In this study, I set out to address a problem of conceptualisation in archaeology. That problem concerns the role and scope of education in the discipline and has consequences for practice. Despite initiatives in teaching and learning in the discipline in recent decades, a thorough understanding of and attention to the educational task is still not accorded the place it merits in disciplinary activity. Central to a better understanding of the priorities and purposes of education for archaeology is an understanding of the student perspective. This perspective: of what students believe archaeology is for; what formal study of the subject offers; and, the role they see for the discipline in their lives is critical for educational planning and practice. Knowledge of the student perspective is critical because it is where the transactional process of learning begins. Without this knowledge, articulated and explicated in a systematic and in-depth way, educational ventures may be at worst misconceived and at best operating from an unduly partial perspective. Students' reasons for studying are often conceived and represented, by and to themselves and to others, as narrative. Herein, I develop understanding of the student perspective by placing it in the context of disciplinary, educational and narrative theory to illuminate the emergence and development of student interest in archaeology. Such a study has not previously been attempted and is a major step in developing the truly student-centred learning advocated by educational theorists. The study also throws light, from the student perspective, on the discipline itself: its current preoccupations and its ontological and epistemological complexities. I also explore how we can apply a lens to the process of research in archaeology education through the application of an appropriate qualitative methodology for investigating perceptual questions, a grounded theory approach. Foundational to the proposition that knowledge of the student perspective is critical for educational practice, is the consideration that research in the discipline should be extended to education just as it is applied to research about the human past. This study thus looks beyond achieving good teaching techniques and argues for a research culture of education in archaeology, a scholarship of teaching and learning

Genome-wide association study of 23,500 individuals identifies 7 loci associated with brain ventricular volume

The volume of the lateral ventricles (LV) increases with age and their abnormal enlargement is a key feature of several neurological and psychiatric diseases. Although lateral ventricular volume is heritable, a comprehensive investigation of its genetic determinants is lacking. In this meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of 23,533 healthy middle-aged to elderly individuals from 26 population-based cohorts, we identify 7 genetic loci associated with LV volume. These loci map to chromosomes 3q28, 7p22.3, 10p12.31, 11q23.1, 12q23.3, 16q24.2, and 22q13.1 and implicate pathways related to tau pathology, S1P signaling, and cytoskeleton organization. We also report a significant genetic overlap between the thalamus and LV volumes (ρgenetic = -0.59, p-value = 3.14 × 10-6), suggesting that these brain structures may share a common biology. These genetic associations of LV volume provide insights into brain morphology

Science education in rural areas: Exploring the issues, challenges and future directions

Rotterdam, The Netherland

Using research to inform teacher education programs: what are the emerging issues and challenges?

Armidale, NS

Curriculum development in Australia : a history of running the gauntlet between state and national agendas

Olney, M