Bringing Up Girls in Science (BUGS): The Effectiveness of an Afterschool Environmental Science Program for Increasing Female Students’ Interest in Science Careers     

Tandra Tyler-Wood  Amber Ellison  Okyoung Lim  Sita Periathiruvadi 《Journal of Science Education and Technology》2012,21(1):46-55

Bringing Up Girls in Science (BUGS) was an afterschool program for 4th and 5th grade girls that provided authentic learning experiences in environmental science as well as valuable female mentoring opportunities in an effort to increase participants’ academic achievement in science. BUGS participants demonstrated significantly greater amounts of gain in science knowledge as measured by the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in Science (ITBS-S). The original BUGS participants and contrasts have now completed high school and entered college, allowing researchers to assess the long-term impact of the BUGS program. Fourteen former BUGS participants completed two instruments to assess their perceptions of science and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Their results were compared to four contrast groups composed entirely of females: 12 former BUGS contrasts, 10 college science majors, 10 non-science majors, and 9 current STEM professionals. Results indicate that BUGS participants have higher perceptions of science careers than BUGS contrasts. There were no significant differences between BUGS participants, Science Majors, and STEM professionals in their perceptions of science and STEM careers, whereas the BUGS contrast group was significantly lower than BUGS participants, Science Majors, and STEM Professionals. Additional results and implications are discussed within.  相似文献   

The role of emotions and task significance in Virtual Education     

Gwen Noteborn  Katerina Bohle Carbonell  Amber Dailey-Hebert  Wim Gijselaers 《The Internet and Higher Education》2012,15(3):176-183

This paper analyzed the role of emotions in a virtual world (Second Life) through students' level of enjoyment and boredom and their influence on students' achievement level. The virtual world was an educational tool used to fully immerse students in the content of the course. In addition to supporting prior research on the importance of task value on academic enjoyment, the current research provides a new perspective on the relationship between academic emotions and academic success, particularly for virtual worlds. A regression analysis was conducted to measure the relationship of task value and emotions on two types of academic performance: Individual exam scores and team scores on their Second Life assignment. Pekrun's Academic Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) was used to measure two academic emotions: boredom and enjoyment. Both academic emotions were measured on an individual level. Results from this study show that task value was positively related to enjoyment and negatively related to boredom, yet it was unrelated to academic performance. While enjoyment had a positive relationship to exam performance, boredom also had a positive relationship to the team assignment conducted in the virtual world. The possibility that students might have answered the AEQ relating to the theoretical aspects of the course instead of the practical aspects of the Second Life Assignment, may be one possible explanation for this result.  相似文献   

The acquisition of spatial constructions in American sign language and English     

Martin AJ  Sera MD 《Journal of deaf studies and deaf education》2006,11(4):391-402

Spatial relations in American Sign Language (ASL) are often signed from the perspective of the signer and so involve a shift in perspective and mental rotation. This study examined developing knowledge of language used to refer to the spatial relations front, behind, left, right, towards, away, above, and below by children learning ASL and English. Because ASL is a classifier language in which noun referents are placed into groups, each spatial relation also appeared with person, animal, and vehicle classifiers. Twenty-three children and adults who learned ASL before the age of 5 years and 23 native English-speaking adults and children participated. Both language groups participated in a comprehension task in which they chose which of 2 pictures depicted a signed or spoken relation. Results showed that children learning ASL acquired the constructions for spatial relations that typically involve perspective shifts and mental rotation later than constructions that do not involve these abilities and later than English-speaking children. Children learning ASL did not differ from English-speaking children in learning constructions that did not involve these abilities. Results also suggest that users of ASL initially comprehend spatial relations more accurately with person and animal classifiers than with the classifier for vehicles. The results are relevant to understanding the acquisition of spatial relations in ASL.  相似文献   

The CCM Model: A Management Approach to Performance Optimization     

Gary D. Geroy  Amber Bray  Donald L. Venneberg 《Performance Improvement Quarterly》2005,18(2):19-36

ABSTRACT Three leadership styles are frequently discussed in the literature today: transactional, transformational, and most recently—transcendental. Managers may be able to put transactional, transformational, and transcendental leadership style theories into practice without inventing a new set of processes and procedures to achieve individual follower optimal performance and effect positive change and optimal individual performance within an organization. The management activities of coaching, counseling, and mentoring are articulating activities for transactional, transformational, and/or transcendental leadership styles.  相似文献