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This book focuses on the emerging area of partner-driven work-integrated learning inclusive of university or industry stakeholder development, and the integration of these two major stakeholders.

This study examined the preferences for professional development (PD) in primary (elementary) science among pre-service teachers (PSTs) and in-service teachers (ISTs). The contribution of the study is its focus on quantifying the relative importance of factors that were significant for teachers by using best–worst scaling methodology. Rather than considering potential factors in isolation, teachers traded off among content areas of PD, thereby revealing which aspects they most preferred. A comparison of PSTs and ISTs indicated that both sought greater guidance on adapting their science teaching for multi-age classes and on strategies to engage students in activity-based science. Relative to the PSTs, the ISTs reported less need for PD opportunities that emphasized collaboration and networks, and science pedagogy and content. Both groups indicated that they would most benefit from PD that focused on building their knowledge and strategies for teaching guided inquiry and investigation- and activity-based science. The findings offer critical insights into the broader improvement of PD of teachers in the context of science education.

Secondary students’ perceptions of learning science and mathematics have been researched internationally, but less in the global South. This study investigated Grades 9 and 10 students’ experiences of learning biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics in Bhutanese secondary schools. A mixed-methods sequential design was used. First, 524 students from 7 schools completed a survey capturing their perceptions of learning in the four subject areas. Then, 82 of those respondents participated in one of the eight focus groups, exploring patterns in the survey data. Chemistry was seen as the most challenging subject, associated with memorization, poor performance, stress and fear. Biology was perceived as more interesting and less anxiety-provoking, although a need to memorize large amounts of content was common. Mathematics was polarizing, with some students finding it easier and more enjoyable, others the opposite. These findings add to the international literature on students’ perceptions and experiences of science and mathematics. They inform curriculum and pedagogic change to enhance students’ experiences, reduce negative perceptions and anxiety, make the choice to study these subjects in senior secondary years more appealing, and lift performance.

Initial teacher education (ITE) providers prepare graduates to be effective classroom practitioners, but there is little contemporary research capturing what this preparation actually looks like for primary (elementary) science education in Australia. Drawing on a broader study, this paper reports on teacher educators’ practices and perspectives about inquiry-based science education using questionnaire and interview data. The findings unpack five themes that make sense of how inquiry-based science education is understood and enacted in ITE. Implications are discussed in the form of ‘tensions’ for both inquiry-based science teaching and learning with recommendations for navigating these tensions suggested.

In this chapter, the authors discuss two science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education initiatives – a Design and Make Day and a lunchtime Maths Club – that were designed and implemented in the context of school–university partnerships. They draw on evaluative data gathered from primary students, pre- and in-service teachers and teacher educators who were involved in each of the projects. The authors focus on the nature of the learning for primary students and pre-service teachers (PSTs). The PSTs used their tutorial/workshop time on-campus at university to develop their own understandings of the particular science topic and familiarising themselves with the specific primary connections unit through engaging in some of the activities themselves. The tasks that the PSTs designed for the primary students promoted the relevance of STEM learning and created possibilities for collaboration and emotional engagement through activities with multiple pathways to arrive at a variety of successful solutions.

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), Unión Europea, "Una manera de hacer Europa", La "Marató TV3" grant (20141210 to J.F.), Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRDs) are a global crisis facing the aging population and society as a whole. With the numbers of people with ADRDs predicted to rise dramatically across the world, the scientific community can no longer neglect the need for research focusing on ADRDs among underrepresented ethnoracial diverse groups. The Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART; alz.org/ISTAART) comprises a number of professional interest areas (PIAs), each focusing on a major scientific area associated with ADRDs. We leverage the expertise of the existing international cadre of ISTAART scientists and experts to synthesize a cross-PIA white paper that provides both a concise "state-of-the-science" report of ethnoracial factors across PIA foci and updated recommendations to address immediate needs to advance ADRD science across ethnoracial populations.

© 2019 by the authors. As demands on the environment continue to intensify, it becomes increasingly urgent to act sustainably, responsibly and respectfully, to protect and restore environments. Digital technologies, including videoconferencing, mobile apps and virtual and augmented realities, can provide new ways of engaging students in environmental stewardship. Such technologies can pique student interest, while enabling them to capture experiences of local and distal environments, to collect data and share their findings with broader audiences. This article critically explores innovative, formal and informal learning practices in experiential environmental education approaches among schools, families and communities, such as citizen science projects. It draws on qualitative case study vignettes, as well as the authors' previous work and broader literature, to consider the potential and limitations of such technologies and approaches. The key question concerns how existing and emerging technologies might serve as bridges or barriers to apprenticing young people into globally-minded, environmentally responsible and respectful behaviours.

Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRDs) are a global crisis facing the aging population and society as a whole. With the numbers of people with ADRDs predicted to rise dramatically across the world, the scientific community can no longer neglect the need for research focusing on ADRDs among underrepresented ethnoracial diverse groups. The Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART; alz.org/ISTAART) comprises a number of professional interest areas (PIAs), each focusing on a major scientific area associated with ADRDs. We leverage the expertise of the existing international cadre of ISTAART scientists and experts to synthesize a cross‐PIA white paper that provides both a concise "state-of-the-science" report of ethnoracial factors across PIA foci and updated recommendations to address immediate needs to advance ADRD science across ethnoracial populations.

Contains fulltext : 99512.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), We present MINEMO (Minimal Information for Neural ElectroMagnetic Ontologies), a checklist for the description of event-related potentials (ERP) studies. MINEMO extends MINI (Minimal Information for Neuroscience Investigations) to the ERP domain. Checklist terms are explicated in NEMO, a formal ontology that is designed to support ERP data sharing and integration. MINEMO is also linked to an ERP database and web application (the NEMO portal). Users upload their data and enter MINEMO information through the portal. The database then stores these entries in RDF (Resource Description Framework), along with summary metrics, i.e., spatial and temporal metadata. Together these spatial, temporal, and functional metadata provide a complete description of ERP data and the context in which these data were acquired. The RDF files then serve as inputs to ontology-based labeling and meta-analysis. Our ultimate goal is to represent ERPs using a rich semantic structure, so results can be queried at multiple levels, to stimulate novel hypotheses and to promote a high-level, integrative account of ERP results across diverse study methods and paradigms.

In chapter 8, Judith MacCallum and Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn discuss the potential of sociocultural theory for examining change in motivation. While they acknowledge that the nature of motivation has been examined from many different perspectives, they argue that motivation research has rarely explicitly addressed the nature of change, how it is conceptualized, or how motivation develops over time in classroom contexts. In their chapter, MacCallum and Pressick-Kilborn discuss the limitations of traditional views of change and examine how sociocultural theory provides new ways to understand change in motivation. They then illustrate their argument by describing recent research using sociocultural theory to examine change in motivation to further explore the potential of sociocultural theory in motivation reserach.

Until recently, motivation has been considered to be an individual phenomenon. Motivational theorists have accordingly conceptualised key constructs in individualistic terms and emphasised the individual origins and nature of motivation, although they have also long recognised that contextual or social factors have a significant influence on these individual processes. Recently this conceptualisation has been questioned as theorists have suggested, after Vygotsky, that motivation, like learning and thinking, might be social in nature. This idea was first suggested by Sivan (1986) more than twenty years ago but it received a major impetus with the publication of an article by Hickey (1997) eleven years later. Since that time interest in the social nature of motivation has grown as a small number of book chapters and journal articles have been published and conference papers have been presented on the topic. Although some motivational theorists remain sceptical (e.g. Winne, 2004) of this theoretical development, the inclusion of a section on sociocultural approaches to motivation in Perry, Turner, and Meyer's (2006) chapter on classrooms as contexts for motivating learning in the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Educational Psychology suggests that this perspective is being seriously considered by motivational researchers. Similarly, the inclusion of a chapter (Walker, in press-b) on the sociocultural approach to motivation in the 3rd edition of the International Encyclopedia of Education indicates that this approach has achieved some recognition.

Educational psychology has a tradition of considering learning and motivation in terms of the individual and individual functioning. Short-term intervention studies have been common and quantitative measurement of the causes and effects of variables has been the aim of much research, When a sociocultural approach forms the basis of research into psychological constructs, a reappraisal of the research aims and the ways in which data are gathered and analysed is necessary. If the underlying assumption is that learning and motivation are socially and culturally situated, the design of research studies needs to encompass participation in authentic and purposeful activities. In order to develop a rich sociocultural understanding of these constructs, qualitative research designs become increasingly important. In this article, we consider two current research projects, one focusing upon conceptual change amongst students in a first year university class, and the other a classroom-based qualitative study exploring primary (elementary) students' Interest in learning. In each project, data have been collected overtime in relation to both social interaction and individual functioning in specific sociocultural contexts. Our frameworks for data collection and approaches to data analysis are discussed in this article, together with some of the issues which we have identified as problematic. In particular we are conscious of the difficulties associated with articulating and describing the nature of social and cultural contexts, especially those with which we are familiar, and of distinguishing their most salient features. We are also critically aware that because our research is situated within very familiar environments, we need to Identify and explore our Implicit assumptions about those environments and the ways In which our roles as teachers and researchers both coincide and occasionally conflict.

AbstractContemporary schools seek to employ teachers who are curious learners, who can employ practitioner inquiry skills to investigate, inform and grow their own classroom practice, responsive to their circumstances. As a profession, the question we must ask is how do we best prepare and continue to equip teachers with the necessary research skills to investigate and inform their own practice? In this study, we share our pedagogical stance and features of our approach in a new core undergraduate subject for pre-service teachers (PSTs). We discuss professional learning groups (PLGs) for initial teacher education students as the main intervention in the subject, and, more specifically, we elaborate how regular participation in PLGs formed in an on-campus subject can help PSTs to become researchers. We draw on 183 student exit tickets and student feedback surveys to consider broader implications for how to engage teachers in research. This study poses questions about the nature of practitioner research and investigates the role that PLGs play in disrupting the challenges universities face in preparing teachers to engage in and with research.

AbstractContemporary schools seek to employ teachers who are curious learners, who can employ practitioner inquiry skills to investigate, inform and grow their own classroom practice, responsive to their circumstances. As a profession, the question we must ask is how do we best prepare and continue to equip teachers with the necessary research skills to investigate and inform their own practice? In this study, we share our pedagogical stance and features of our approach in a new core undergraduate subject for pre-service teachers (PSTs). We discuss professional learning groups (PLGs) for initial teacher education students as the main intervention in the subject, and, more specifically, we elaborate how regular participation in PLGs formed in an on-campus subject can help PSTs to become researchers. We draw on 183 student exit tickets and student feedback surveys to consider broader implications for how to engage teachers in research. This study poses questions about the nature of practitioner research and investigates the role that PLGs play in disrupting the challenges universities face in preparing teachers to engage in and with research.