Pub Date : 2024-07-17DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1374664
Sharmin Söderström, Torulf Palm, Carina Granberg
Research has shown that students’ learning gains in mathematics are greater when they work with problems rather than routine tasks. These learning gains from problem-solving activities may be enhanced by providing feedback that does not give away the solutions to the problems, but helps students construct their solution methods themselves and anchor their reasoning in intrinsic properties of the mathematical components involved in the reasoning. However, in order to use feedback, students would need to perceive it as useful, and not all students may find such feedback useful. In this study, we investigate how students’ ability and motivational beliefs affect how useful they perceive feedback aimed at supporting mathematical reasoning to be. In the study, students worked with mathematical problems and received metacognitive and heuristic feedback when they needed help. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the effects. The results show that students’ mastery goals had a direct effect on the perceived usefulness of the feedback, but no such effects were found for students’ national test grades, self-efficacy beliefs, performance goals, or intrinsic or extrinsic forms of motivation. The proportion of successful use of feedback did not mediate the effects.
{"title":"The effects of mathematical ability and motivational beliefs on students’ perceptions of feedback usefulness","authors":"Sharmin Söderström, Torulf Palm, Carina Granberg","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1374664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1374664","url":null,"abstract":"Research has shown that students’ learning gains in mathematics are greater when they work with problems rather than routine tasks. These learning gains from problem-solving activities may be enhanced by providing feedback that does not give away the solutions to the problems, but helps students construct their solution methods themselves and anchor their reasoning in intrinsic properties of the mathematical components involved in the reasoning. However, in order to use feedback, students would need to perceive it as useful, and not all students may find such feedback useful. In this study, we investigate how students’ ability and motivational beliefs affect how useful they perceive feedback aimed at supporting mathematical reasoning to be. In the study, students worked with mathematical problems and received metacognitive and heuristic feedback when they needed help. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the effects. The results show that students’ mastery goals had a direct effect on the perceived usefulness of the feedback, but no such effects were found for students’ national test grades, self-efficacy beliefs, performance goals, or intrinsic or extrinsic forms of motivation. The proportion of successful use of feedback did not mediate the effects.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":" 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141830503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-14DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1215522
K. Zourou, Anthippi Potolia, Stefania Oikonomou
Activism, as a manifestation of citizen engagement for social purposes, can be practiced by individuals and communities alike, such as communities of professionals and, in this case, professionals in academia. Academic activism is a novel form of socio-political engagement in scholarly communities. Recently, communities engaged in academic activism have multiplied, mostly due to the climate emergency and increased awareness on human-induced climate change. This paper focuses on the learning elements and self-transformative potential of becoming an academic activist. This is done by analyzing three key areas: (a) the perceptions of self, (b) the learning component, and (c) the educational component, namely teaching the very activities that activists carry out at their universities. To serve these objectives, we conducted eight semi-directive interviews during the summer of 2022 in which participants drew upon their personal experience and life trajectories in their journey to becoming academic activists. Using a Discourse Analytical framework, we scrutinized the semantic fields summoned and the discursive spaces mobilized by the interviewees. The findings of this study highlight the participants' determination for activism, depicting it as a conscious act, a duty. Moreover, three types of learning have been depicted, demonstrating the wealth of learning trajectories experienced. The potential impact of academic activism on teaching practices (societal role of education) has also been depicted.
{"title":"Academic activism: learning and self-transformation through collective action taking","authors":"K. Zourou, Anthippi Potolia, Stefania Oikonomou","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1215522","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1215522","url":null,"abstract":"Activism, as a manifestation of citizen engagement for social purposes, can be practiced by individuals and communities alike, such as communities of professionals and, in this case, professionals in academia. Academic activism is a novel form of socio-political engagement in scholarly communities. Recently, communities engaged in academic activism have multiplied, mostly due to the climate emergency and increased awareness on human-induced climate change. This paper focuses on the learning elements and self-transformative potential of becoming an academic activist. This is done by analyzing three key areas: (a) the perceptions of self, (b) the learning component, and (c) the educational component, namely teaching the very activities that activists carry out at their universities. To serve these objectives, we conducted eight semi-directive interviews during the summer of 2022 in which participants drew upon their personal experience and life trajectories in their journey to becoming academic activists. Using a Discourse Analytical framework, we scrutinized the semantic fields summoned and the discursive spaces mobilized by the interviewees. The findings of this study highlight the participants' determination for activism, depicting it as a conscious act, a duty. Moreover, three types of learning have been depicted, demonstrating the wealth of learning trajectories experienced. The potential impact of academic activism on teaching practices (societal role of education) has also been depicted.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":"76 13","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141338017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-14DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1371627
F. Polychroni, Alexandros-Stamatios Antoniou, Olga Kofa, Garyfalia Charitaki
The association between the cognitive and the affective domain in reading is well documented in research, especially when difficulties are manifested. The aim of this study was (a) to investigate levels of reading self-concept, trait emotional intelligence, and anxiety of students with dyslexia and compare them to students with no previous assessment and (b) explore the hypothesis that reading self-concept and trait emotional intelligence are negative predictors of state and trait anxiety taking into account students’ individual characteristics such as gender, school year, and school performance.A total of 794, fifth- and sixth-grade Greek primary school children aged 10 to 12 years old participated in the study. Of them, 50 children had a statement of dyslexia. The State and Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, the Reading Self-Concept Scale, and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire—Short Form were administered to the participants.The results showed that children with dyslexia were more vulnerable in terms of their perceptions of reading self-concept and emotional intelligence as compared to typical peers. Moreover, students’ characteristics, i.e., grades in math and language and dyslexia, had a direct positive path to trait emotional intelligence and reading self-concept while trait emotional intelligence and reading self-concept predicted negative anxiety.The implications of the results in terms of the possible protective role of reading self-concept and emotional intelligence on anxiety for children with dyslexia are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented.
{"title":"Reading self-concept, trait emotional intelligence and anxiety of primary school children with dyslexia","authors":"F. Polychroni, Alexandros-Stamatios Antoniou, Olga Kofa, Garyfalia Charitaki","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1371627","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1371627","url":null,"abstract":"The association between the cognitive and the affective domain in reading is well documented in research, especially when difficulties are manifested. The aim of this study was (a) to investigate levels of reading self-concept, trait emotional intelligence, and anxiety of students with dyslexia and compare them to students with no previous assessment and (b) explore the hypothesis that reading self-concept and trait emotional intelligence are negative predictors of state and trait anxiety taking into account students’ individual characteristics such as gender, school year, and school performance.A total of 794, fifth- and sixth-grade Greek primary school children aged 10 to 12 years old participated in the study. Of them, 50 children had a statement of dyslexia. The State and Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, the Reading Self-Concept Scale, and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire—Short Form were administered to the participants.The results showed that children with dyslexia were more vulnerable in terms of their perceptions of reading self-concept and emotional intelligence as compared to typical peers. Moreover, students’ characteristics, i.e., grades in math and language and dyslexia, had a direct positive path to trait emotional intelligence and reading self-concept while trait emotional intelligence and reading self-concept predicted negative anxiety.The implications of the results in terms of the possible protective role of reading self-concept and emotional intelligence on anxiety for children with dyslexia are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":"14 14","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141340860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-14DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1400002
Emily A. Iovino, Sandra M. Chafouleas, Rabbecca C. Torres, Michael A. Weiner
Feel Your Best Self (FYBS) is an online toolkit developed to facilitate teaching emotion-focused coping skills to elementary-aged children. This study presents findings from a mixed methods evaluation of FYBS usability. Survey participants (n = 29) and interview participants (n = 12) shared their perceptions of FYBS, including strengths and areas for growth along with adaptations made relevant to their unique contexts. Results indicated that participants found FYBS to be highly usable, and that both children and implementers responded well to FYBS. FYBS was easy to use, and implementers were able to personalize materials and indicated a desire for additional features to enhance usability. Findings provide considerations for the iteration of FYBS materials along with directions for features to explore in future research.
{"title":"A mixed methods evaluation of the usability of Feel Your Best Self","authors":"Emily A. Iovino, Sandra M. Chafouleas, Rabbecca C. Torres, Michael A. Weiner","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1400002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1400002","url":null,"abstract":"Feel Your Best Self (FYBS) is an online toolkit developed to facilitate teaching emotion-focused coping skills to elementary-aged children. This study presents findings from a mixed methods evaluation of FYBS usability. Survey participants (n = 29) and interview participants (n = 12) shared their perceptions of FYBS, including strengths and areas for growth along with adaptations made relevant to their unique contexts. Results indicated that participants found FYBS to be highly usable, and that both children and implementers responded well to FYBS. FYBS was easy to use, and implementers were able to personalize materials and indicated a desire for additional features to enhance usability. Findings provide considerations for the iteration of FYBS materials along with directions for features to explore in future research.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":"53 47","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141345236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-14DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1397027
Chantal Soyka, N. Schaper
Regarding competency-oriented teaching in higher education, lecturers face the challenge of employing aligned task material to develop the intended competencies. What is lacking in many disciplines are well-founded guidelines on what competencies to develop and what tasks to use to purposefully promote and assess competency development. Our work aims to create an empirically validated framework for competency-oriented assessment in the area of graphical modeling in computer science. This article reports on the use of the think-aloud method to validate a competency model and a competency-oriented task classification. For this purpose, the response processes of 15 students during the processing of different task types were evaluated with qualitative content analysis. The analysis shed light on the construct of graphical modeling competency and the cognitive demand of the task types. Evidence was found for the content and substantive aspect of construct validity but also for the need to refine the competency model and task classification.
{"title":"Analyzing student response processes to refine and validate a competency model and competency-based assessment task types","authors":"Chantal Soyka, N. Schaper","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1397027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1397027","url":null,"abstract":"Regarding competency-oriented teaching in higher education, lecturers face the challenge of employing aligned task material to develop the intended competencies. What is lacking in many disciplines are well-founded guidelines on what competencies to develop and what tasks to use to purposefully promote and assess competency development. Our work aims to create an empirically validated framework for competency-oriented assessment in the area of graphical modeling in computer science. This article reports on the use of the think-aloud method to validate a competency model and a competency-oriented task classification. For this purpose, the response processes of 15 students during the processing of different task types were evaluated with qualitative content analysis. The analysis shed light on the construct of graphical modeling competency and the cognitive demand of the task types. Evidence was found for the content and substantive aspect of construct validity but also for the need to refine the competency model and task classification.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":"30 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141342928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-13DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1327516
W. Beamish, Stephen Hay, Mantak Yuen
This paper draws on a comparative study of seven jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region to examine current challenges to progressing inclusive education for students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools. The study used a qualitative approach to collect data from each jurisdiction through a purposive sampling of knowledgeable, university-associated informants. Content analysis was used to identify and quantify specific challenges reported in the data. Subsequently, these items were coded as themes to form a matrix of challenges within and across jurisdictions. Findings revealed that challenges were broadly consistent with recent global trends and shared many commonalities, despite occurring in diverse societal, political and education systems. These challenges are: lack of adequate initial teacher education and ongoing professional development for practicing teachers; lack of resources and support to meet the needs of students with SEN; inconsistent policy guidelines and implementation action plans; restricted stakeholder engagement and collaboration across all levels of education; and limited local inclusion research to inform practice in schools. The findings underscore the need for government and institutional commitment and oversight to bridge the policy-to-practice gap, and an urgent need for local research to identify and disseminate successful approaches for including students with SEN throughout the region.
{"title":"Moving inclusion forward for students with special educational needs in the Asia-Pacific region","authors":"W. Beamish, Stephen Hay, Mantak Yuen","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1327516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1327516","url":null,"abstract":"This paper draws on a comparative study of seven jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region to examine current challenges to progressing inclusive education for students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools. The study used a qualitative approach to collect data from each jurisdiction through a purposive sampling of knowledgeable, university-associated informants. Content analysis was used to identify and quantify specific challenges reported in the data. Subsequently, these items were coded as themes to form a matrix of challenges within and across jurisdictions. Findings revealed that challenges were broadly consistent with recent global trends and shared many commonalities, despite occurring in diverse societal, political and education systems. These challenges are: lack of adequate initial teacher education and ongoing professional development for practicing teachers; lack of resources and support to meet the needs of students with SEN; inconsistent policy guidelines and implementation action plans; restricted stakeholder engagement and collaboration across all levels of education; and limited local inclusion research to inform practice in schools. The findings underscore the need for government and institutional commitment and oversight to bridge the policy-to-practice gap, and an urgent need for local research to identify and disseminate successful approaches for including students with SEN throughout the region.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":"33 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141346231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-13DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1376521
Mehmet Ali Kandemir, Nurullah Eryilmaz, Mack Shelley
The present study endeavors to uncover the intricate nexus among pertinent variables, including self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, parental education levels, and gender, and their relationship with mathematics performance. To achieve this objective, several hypotheses were tested, and a path model was estimated. The study cohort comprised 117 8th-grade students (64 females, 53 males) enrolled in a secondary school in Turkey. Results, in general, supported research hypotheses and the path model. Males' mathematics self-efficacy was found to be higher than females. No significant gender difference was found in the mathematics performance score in the initial analysis. Nevertheless, gender made a significant contribution to the prediction of mathematics performance beyond the effects of other variables in the hierarchical regression analysis. Consistent with theoretical predictions, females' mathematics self-efficacy expectations were unrealistically low compared to males. However, the effect of self-efficacy on performance was found to be invariant across gender. Perceived usefulness was found to be moderately correlated with performance but made little contribution to the prediction of performance above and beyond the effects of other variables.
{"title":"A study of factors and their influence on mathematics-related beliefs and performance in Turkey","authors":"Mehmet Ali Kandemir, Nurullah Eryilmaz, Mack Shelley","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1376521","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1376521","url":null,"abstract":"The present study endeavors to uncover the intricate nexus among pertinent variables, including self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, parental education levels, and gender, and their relationship with mathematics performance. To achieve this objective, several hypotheses were tested, and a path model was estimated. The study cohort comprised 117 8th-grade students (64 females, 53 males) enrolled in a secondary school in Turkey. Results, in general, supported research hypotheses and the path model. Males' mathematics self-efficacy was found to be higher than females. No significant gender difference was found in the mathematics performance score in the initial analysis. Nevertheless, gender made a significant contribution to the prediction of mathematics performance beyond the effects of other variables in the hierarchical regression analysis. Consistent with theoretical predictions, females' mathematics self-efficacy expectations were unrealistically low compared to males. However, the effect of self-efficacy on performance was found to be invariant across gender. Perceived usefulness was found to be moderately correlated with performance but made little contribution to the prediction of performance above and beyond the effects of other variables.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":"35 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141349833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-12DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1297267
Carla Ferreira, B. Gabriel, Robertt Valente, Cláudia Figueiredo
We live in a society in constant scientific and technological change, where engineering education is required to develop the competences needed for future engineers to be able to respond to the complex and interdisciplinary problems that arise from this. It is no longer enough just to provide updated scientific and technological training to students, but it is also required to articulate the needs of society with the design of the curriculum and the expectations of the different stakeholders. The present paper's goal is to present the perceptions about engineering education through the lens of different institutional stakeholders, following a qualitative design study, through semi-structured interviews with seven key-stakeholders representing different scientific and professional institutions. These interviewees play an important role in the definition of guidelines for the engineering profession and in (re)thinking curricula reflecting the interaction with society, training and research. In this sense, it aims to explore the following objectives: (i) to know the perception about the profession, the profile of engineers and the engineering curricula; (ii) to identify the challenges posed to engineers in the job market and in society, today and in the future; and (iii) to reflect on a desirable profile to be attained by engineering students at the end of their Higher Education path. From the interviewees' perspective, competences development effectively involves learning approaches that realize which problem-solving strategies, concepts and capacities for social action should be developed in students, which are not restricted to disciplinary or specific content, but which allow (de)constructing curricula that reflect the different needs of society. In fact, as well as including the point of view of renowned international associations, this article reinforces the idea that the integration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) into curricula is not only a challenge, but also a growing and inevitable phenomenon in response to society's needs. The curriculum, the competences to be privileged, the importance of interdisciplinarity, and the contribution of STEM and STEAM approaches from an integrated engineering perspective are interpreted as difficulties but also the target opportunities.
{"title":"Engineering education challenges and strengths: reflecting on key-stakeholder's perspectives","authors":"Carla Ferreira, B. Gabriel, Robertt Valente, Cláudia Figueiredo","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1297267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1297267","url":null,"abstract":"We live in a society in constant scientific and technological change, where engineering education is required to develop the competences needed for future engineers to be able to respond to the complex and interdisciplinary problems that arise from this. It is no longer enough just to provide updated scientific and technological training to students, but it is also required to articulate the needs of society with the design of the curriculum and the expectations of the different stakeholders. The present paper's goal is to present the perceptions about engineering education through the lens of different institutional stakeholders, following a qualitative design study, through semi-structured interviews with seven key-stakeholders representing different scientific and professional institutions. These interviewees play an important role in the definition of guidelines for the engineering profession and in (re)thinking curricula reflecting the interaction with society, training and research. In this sense, it aims to explore the following objectives: (i) to know the perception about the profession, the profile of engineers and the engineering curricula; (ii) to identify the challenges posed to engineers in the job market and in society, today and in the future; and (iii) to reflect on a desirable profile to be attained by engineering students at the end of their Higher Education path. From the interviewees' perspective, competences development effectively involves learning approaches that realize which problem-solving strategies, concepts and capacities for social action should be developed in students, which are not restricted to disciplinary or specific content, but which allow (de)constructing curricula that reflect the different needs of society. In fact, as well as including the point of view of renowned international associations, this article reinforces the idea that the integration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) into curricula is not only a challenge, but also a growing and inevitable phenomenon in response to society's needs. The curriculum, the competences to be privileged, the importance of interdisciplinarity, and the contribution of STEM and STEAM approaches from an integrated engineering perspective are interpreted as difficulties but also the target opportunities.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":"22 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141354533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-12DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1384614
Duncan P. McLaren, Christine Anderson, John Barry, Vanesa Castán Broto, Suzanne de Cheveigné, Jason Chilvers, Alison Crowther, J. Hupé, Liz Kalaugher, Olivier Labussière, Tina L. Rothery, Alain Nadai, Nathalie Ortar, Jordan Raine, Graham Smith, Grégoire Wallenborn, Gordon Walker
Justice-oriented climate activism is proliferating. Many scholars aspire to deliver research that supports activism. However, measures of impact for research evaluation and funding purposes place little weight on the use of research by activists. Here we consider how academics and academia might effectively support and enable climate activism. We report outcomes from a series of online deliberative workshops involving both activists and academics from several European countries. The workshops were facilitated to create space for discussion, sharing of experiences and the development of proposals for the future. The outcomes take the form of a set of principles (a “minifesta”) for academic-activist engagement generated by the group. In discussing the process and outputs, we argue that a focus on inclusion can support politically transformative change of the scale and urgency required. We suggest that this also demands a shift in attitudes toward the role of activism and activists in collaborative processes. We further discuss the inevitable incompleteness of this process, arguing that incompleteness is, itself, a feature of inclusive engagement. We conclude that scholars working on climate issues in any discipline could benefit from increasing mutually supportive collaboration with activists; and that such collaboration and inclusion could help liberate democracy from authoritarian tendencies and market influences. Collaborative engagements generate legitimate, rich, and impactful outcomes even with the limitations posed by COVID19. We, therefore, commend both the model of engagement and the principles it generated for our colleagues and peers.
{"title":"Developing a minifesta for effective academic-activist collaboration in the context of the climate emergency","authors":"Duncan P. McLaren, Christine Anderson, John Barry, Vanesa Castán Broto, Suzanne de Cheveigné, Jason Chilvers, Alison Crowther, J. Hupé, Liz Kalaugher, Olivier Labussière, Tina L. Rothery, Alain Nadai, Nathalie Ortar, Jordan Raine, Graham Smith, Grégoire Wallenborn, Gordon Walker","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1384614","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1384614","url":null,"abstract":"Justice-oriented climate activism is proliferating. Many scholars aspire to deliver research that supports activism. However, measures of impact for research evaluation and funding purposes place little weight on the use of research by activists. Here we consider how academics and academia might effectively support and enable climate activism. We report outcomes from a series of online deliberative workshops involving both activists and academics from several European countries. The workshops were facilitated to create space for discussion, sharing of experiences and the development of proposals for the future. The outcomes take the form of a set of principles (a “minifesta”) for academic-activist engagement generated by the group. In discussing the process and outputs, we argue that a focus on inclusion can support politically transformative change of the scale and urgency required. We suggest that this also demands a shift in attitudes toward the role of activism and activists in collaborative processes. We further discuss the inevitable incompleteness of this process, arguing that incompleteness is, itself, a feature of inclusive engagement. We conclude that scholars working on climate issues in any discipline could benefit from increasing mutually supportive collaboration with activists; and that such collaboration and inclusion could help liberate democracy from authoritarian tendencies and market influences. Collaborative engagements generate legitimate, rich, and impactful outcomes even with the limitations posed by COVID19. We, therefore, commend both the model of engagement and the principles it generated for our colleagues and peers.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":"130 18","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141351428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-12DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1346474
Gavin Duffy, S. Sorby, Brian Bowe
Problem solving is important to many activities, both in a learning context and in everyday tasks. We can be challenged to solve what later turn out to be very simple problems. By understanding more about these challenges and what occurs at a cognitive level during the problem-solving process, we can better support the development of problem-solving skills. Spatial ability has been shown to be related to the ability to develop accurate and schematic mental representations of problems during the problem-solving process. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of spatial ability in solving word problems in mathematics among a cognitively diverse sample of engineering students. A set of five word problems, a test of mental rotation and set of five questions testing the core mathematical competencies needed to solve the word problems were administered to 115 first year engineering students. Using a knowledge framework for problem solving, key aspects of representation were extracted from solutions to the word problems and combined to create a mental representation scale. A large and significant correlation was measured between mental rotation and problem representation, larger than the correlation between spatial ability and problem-solving. Mental representation was found to mediate the relation between spatial ability and word problem-solving. This relation was not found to be significantly moderated by core competency in mathematics. For high levels of core competency only, there was an interaction between spatial ability and core competency.
{"title":"Exploring the role of spatial ability in the mental representation of word problems in mathematics","authors":"Gavin Duffy, S. Sorby, Brian Bowe","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1346474","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1346474","url":null,"abstract":"Problem solving is important to many activities, both in a learning context and in everyday tasks. We can be challenged to solve what later turn out to be very simple problems. By understanding more about these challenges and what occurs at a cognitive level during the problem-solving process, we can better support the development of problem-solving skills. Spatial ability has been shown to be related to the ability to develop accurate and schematic mental representations of problems during the problem-solving process. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of spatial ability in solving word problems in mathematics among a cognitively diverse sample of engineering students. A set of five word problems, a test of mental rotation and set of five questions testing the core mathematical competencies needed to solve the word problems were administered to 115 first year engineering students. Using a knowledge framework for problem solving, key aspects of representation were extracted from solutions to the word problems and combined to create a mental representation scale. A large and significant correlation was measured between mental rotation and problem representation, larger than the correlation between spatial ability and problem-solving. Mental representation was found to mediate the relation between spatial ability and word problem-solving. This relation was not found to be significantly moderated by core competency in mathematics. For high levels of core competency only, there was an interaction between spatial ability and core competency.","PeriodicalId":508739,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":"136 45","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141351277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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