Hybrid Deterministic Views About Genes in Biology Textbooks: A Key Problem in Genetics Teaching     

Vanessa Carvalho dos Santos  Leyla Mariane Joaquim  Charbel Ni?o El-Hani 《Science & Education》2012,21(4):543-578

A major source of difficulties in promoting students’ understanding of genetics lies in the presentation of gene concepts and models in an inconsistent and largely ahistorical manner, merely amalgamated in hybrid views, as if they constituted linear developments, instead of being built for different purposes and employed in specific contexts. In this paper, we report the results of a study about how textbooks can provide the grounds for the students’ construction of such hybrid views about genes. These views are a key problem in genetics teaching, because they make it more difficult that students properly understand this central biological concept and strengthen genetic deterministic ideas, which characterize a widespread discourse about genes in the public opinion. We analyzed 18 textbooks using categorical content analysis, employing categories derived from the literature addressing the historical development of gene models and concepts. Our findings indicate that the analyzed textbooks do convey hybrid views about genes, with no correspondence to scientific models related to this biological concept. These views reinforce genetic deterministic discourses and may lead students to serious misunderstandings about the nature of genes and their role in living systems, with consequences to future learning about genetics.  相似文献   

Students’ conception of infinite series     

Rafael Martínez-Planell  Ana Carmen Gonzalez  Gladys DiCristina  Vanessa Acevedo 《Educational Studies in Mathematics》2012,81(2):235-249

This is a report of a study of students’ understanding of infinite series. It has a three-fold purpose: to show that students may construct two essentially different notions of infinite series, to show that one of the constructions is particularly difficult for students, and to examine the way in which these two different constructions may be built so that we may uncover ways to help students improve their understanding. The theoretical framework consists of action–process–object–schema theory and the specific model of conceptions in Balacheff’s theory of conception, knowing, and concept. Approaching the problem from these two different theoretical perspectives allows us to provide different and at the same time complementary explanations of observed phenomena. The two different infinite series constructions are, briefly stated, series as an infinite unending process of addition and series as a sequence of partial sums. Students are found to have difficulty building an understanding of series as a sequence of partial sums and thus tend to have difficulty in problem situations that require this interpretation. The study uses semi-structured interviews with 10 graduate students. The interviews explore situations that might give insight into students’ notion of the sequence of partial sums.  相似文献   

A Moderated Mediation Model: Racial Discrimination,Coping Strategies,and Racial Identity Among Black Adolescents     

Eleanor K. Seaton  Rachel Upton  Adrianne Gilbert  Vanessa Volpe 《Child development》2014,85(3):882-890

This study examined a moderated mediation model among 314 Black adolescents aged 13–18. The model included general coping strategies (e.g., active, distracting, avoidant, and support‐seeking strategies) as mediators and racial identity dimensions (racial centrality, private regard, public regard, minority, assimilationist, and humanist ideologies) as moderators of the relation between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. Moderated mediation examined if the relation between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms varied by the mediators and moderators. Results revealed that avoidant coping strategies mediated the relation between perceptions of racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. The results indicated that avoidant coping strategies mediated the relation between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms among youth with high levels of the minority/oppressive ideology.  相似文献   

Conceptual Variation or Incoherence? Textbook Discourse on Genes in Six Countries     

Niklas M. Gericke  Mariana Hagberg  Vanessa Carvalho dos Santos  Leyla Mariane Joaquim  Charbel N. El-Hani 《Science & Education》2014,23(2):381-416

The aim of this paper is to investigate in a systematic and comparative way previous results of independent studies on the treatment of genes and gene function in high school textbooks from six different countries. We analyze how the conceptual variation within the scientific domain of Genetics regarding gene function models and gene concepts is transformed via the didactic transposition into school science textbooks. The results indicate that a common textbook discourse on genes and their function exist in textbooks from the different countries. The structure of science as represented by conceptual variation and the use of multiple models was present in all the textbooks. However, the existence of conceptual variation and multiple models is implicit in these textbooks, i.e., the phenomenon of conceptual variation and multiple models are not addressed explicitly, nor its consequences and, thus, it ends up introducing conceptual incoherence about the gene concept and its function within the textbooks. We conclude that within the found textbook-discourse ontological aspects of the academic disciplines of genetics and molecular biology were retained, but without their epistemological underpinnings; these are lost in the didactic transposition. These results are of interest since students might have problems reconstructing the correct scientific understanding from the transformed school science knowledge as depicted within the high school textbooks. Implications for textbook writing as well as teaching are discussed in the paper.  相似文献   

Teachers' Awareness of the Learner–Teacher Interaction: Preliminary Communication of a Study Investigating the Teaching Brain     

Vanessa Rodriguez  S. Lynneth Solis 《Mind, Brain, and Education》2013,7(3):161-169

A new phase of research on teaching is under way that seeks to understand the teaching brain. In this vein, this study investigated the cognitive processes employed by master teachers. Using an interview protocol influenced by microgenetic techniques, 23 master teachers used the Self‐in‐Relation‐to‐Teaching (SiR2T) tool to answer “What are you focusing your mind on throughout the process of teaching?” A number of emergent themes were identified in participants' responses and one, awareness of interaction, is discussed here. This theme refers to teachers' recognition of the learner–teacher (L‐T) relationship as a separate entity or system. Within interaction, at least three types of awarenesses emerged in teachers' responses: (1) connection, (2) collaboration, and (3) mutual effects. Furthermore, some teachers described a sense of synergy with their students due to this L‐T interaction. The results suggest that a teacher's awareness of interaction plays an important role in the teaching brain, and support the implications of the proposed teaching brain framework.  相似文献   

Measuring perceived competence and social acceptance in children with cerebral palsy     

Vanessa Scholtes  Adri Vermeer  Geoffrey Meek 《欧洲特需教育杂志》2013,28(1):77-87

The Dutch Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Children with Cerebral Palsy was translated and administered to an English sample. This scale was developed to assess the child's perception on cognitive, physical and social domains. Thirty-two children, aged 4 to 9 years, were tested twice. The results indicate good test/retest reliability and good internal consistency. The results on the intercorrelations between the four sub-scales supported internal validity of the pictorial scale. It is concluded that the pictorial scale for young children with cerebral palsy is a reliable and valid instrument for determining the perception of children with cerebral palsy, and application in clinical and class settings is discussed.  相似文献   

Scan Rate: A New Metric for the Analysis of Reading Behaviors in Asynchronous Computer Conferencing Environments     

Jim Hewitt  Clare Brett  Vanessa Peters 《The American journal of distance education》2013,27(4):215-231

This article introduces a new computer conferencing metric called Scan Rate, which is a measure of students' and instructors' online reading speed. The term “scan” refers to the practice of either skimming through a message at an unusually rapid pace or reading a message partially and then stopping before the end is reached. It is proposed that the Scan Rate metric offers a useful way of monitoring how thoroughly students attend to the messages they read. Four analyses illustrate the utility of the metric. These reveal that (1) scan rates increase with message size, (2) students are more likely to scan the messages of their peers than messages written by their instructor, (3) students engage in scanning practices more frequently than instructors, and (4) scan rates are partially a function of class size and class configuration.  相似文献   

What’s in a Name: Differential labelling of plant and animal photographs in two nationally syndicated elementary science textbook series     

Melanie A. Link‐Pérez  Vanessa H. Dollo  Kirk M. Weber  Elisabeth E. Schussler 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(9):1227-1242

This study investigated plant and animal photographs in elementary science textbooks to discern whether there were disparities in the number of plant and animal photographs or in how those photographs were labelled. We examined the Life Science sections of two nationally syndicated (USA) textbook series. For each text, we identified the photographs with plant and/or animal content and evaluated them for two features: (1) the subject of the photograph, and (2) the specificity of the label (name) provided. We found that photographs with animal subjects were more numerous than those with plant subjects; they also represented a greater diversity of animals and had a higher instance of repetition than did plant photographs. We also found a significant naming disparity: animal photographs were three times more likely to be provided with a specific label (common name) than were plant photographs. Not only were plant photographs less likely to be provided with a specific name for the plant (e.g. orchid or dandelion), but also they were commonly identified only by the name for a plant part (such as flower or leaf) or life‐form (e.g. tree or shrub). To address the disparity revealed by this study, and to encourage student interest in and knowledge about plants, we recommend that educators go beyond textbooks to expose students to a diversity of named plants, and present plants as distinct organisms rather than as a collection of parts.  相似文献   

Making diversity safe for democracy: American pluralism and the presidential local address, 1885–1992     

Vanessa B. Beasley 《Quarterly Journal of Speech》2013,99(1):25-40

Research suggests that modern U.S. presidents increasingly use the local address to speak to voters where they live, both literally and figuratively. Yet most explanations of these speeches suggest that their political efficacy is limited to winning votes. Here I call for a reconsideration of the local address as part of rhetorical presidents’ responses to U.S. citizens’ diversity. Specifically, I provide a historical‐critical account of why presidents may have been able to use the local address to manage American pluralism and then offer a reading of how they might have done so, using examples from 1885–1992.  相似文献   

Behind the Findings: Yes,the Science Explorations Program Worked,but Why?     

Jill Florence Lackey  Susan Sullivan Borkin  Vanessa Torti  Timothy Welnetz  D. Paul Moberg 《Curator: The Museum Journal》2007,50(3):319-340

Abstract The Science Explorations program was developed by the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) out of a desire to use the unique resources of MPM to advance informal science education and to address a community need of local and national concern: improving science education and accessibility for underserved audiences. In 2002, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and private donors, MPM launched this after‐school program for a target group of urban, mostly minority, middle school girls, a group at risk for underachievement in science and technology. The museum staff built a combined program with five middle schools and also sought to reach out to family members of the participating girls in order to increase support for the young women's science endeavors. A three‐year evaluation of the Science Explorations program demonstrated positive findings from primarily quantitative data. An aim of this article is to present findings from the qualitative data to shed light on the reasons this program met nearly all of its targets. Findings from case studies and qualitative interviews suggest that the museum staff's efforts to demystify science—a process that provided ongoing access to real scientific endeavors and invited personal contact with scientists—influenced the program's success. Findings also suggest that strong school liaisons may help increase family support for young women's scientific pursuits, which can in turn play a role in their success in this program.  相似文献