This paper reports design experiments on two Japanese elementary science lesson units in a sixth-grade classroom supported by computer support for collaborative learning (CSCL) technology as a collaborative reflection tool. We took different approaches in the experiments depending on their instructional goals. In the unit 'air and how things…

The purpose of this research project was to study how students in the first years of elementary school (children from 7 to 10 years of age) are initiated into the construction of explanations of physical phenomena in the teaching of science. With this purpose in mind, we organized classes based on the proposition of investigative problems, where…

This paper reports design experiments on two Japanese elementary science lesson units in a sixth-grade classroom supported by computer support for collaborative learning (CSCL) technology as a collaborative reflection tool. We took different approaches in the experiments depending on their instructional goals. In the unit 'air and how things…

The purpose of this study was to determine differences, in first-year college academic performance, between home school and traditional high school graduates, measured by grade point average, retention, ACT test scores, and credits. To accomplish the purpose, nine null hypotheses were tested to determine if there were differences between home…

Working from the 1970s to the early 1990s, Walter Alvarez and his research team sought the cause of the mass extinction that claimed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The present paper discusses that research in terms of eight puzzling observations, eight episodes of hypothetico-predictive reasoning, enumerative induction, and Jung's…

This study's purpose was to determine whether science teaching self-efficacy beliefs among new teachers of elementary science interact significantly with teaching environments in their schools. The study hypothesized a mechanism by which environments can interact with self-efficacy and, consequently, affect the quality of science teaching. The…

The present study examined a longitudinal model of state and trait negative affect as predictors of job-search success. Job-search self-efficacy and job-search intensity were also examined as mediators of the negative affect--job-search success relation. Overall the model offered mixed support for Kasl's (1982) Reverse Causation Hypothesis.…

Problem solving and social support, as different styles of coping with intergenerational family conflict, were examined among 86 Hmong American college students. Problem solving and social support were hypothesized to differentially moderate the effects of family conflict on psychological adjustment. Furthermore, the effects of attributions of…

We use a variation of contextual fear conditioning, called the context pre-exposure facilitation effect (CPFE) to study the rat's memory for context. In this paradigm, the rat is pre-exposed to a conditioning context and later returned to that context, where it is immediately shocked. The memory context is revealed by the fact that pre-exposure to…

Two experiments tested predictions from a theory in which processing load depends on relational complexity (RC), the number of variables related in a single decision. Tasks from six domains (transitivity, hierarchical classification, class inclusion, cardinality, relative-clause sentence comprehension, and hypothesis testing) were administered to…

Recent research has come a long way in describing the linguistic features of large samples of written texts, although a satisfactory description of L2 writing remains problematic. Even when variables such as proficiency, language background, topic, and audience have been controlled, straightforward predictive relationships between linguistic…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how the way change implemented effects organizational learning. More specifically, we study the relationships between the use of social accounts, participation and organizational learning in the context of strategic change. The use of social accounts and participation are often promoted during…

Purpose: To deepen the understanding and to encourage further research on leadership best practices for sustaining quality improvement in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). Design/methodology/approach: The literature on leadership provides the theoretical context for the survey of quality managers from 42 UK HEIs. A mix of questionnaires,…

Because of criticisms leveled at statistical hypothesis testing, some researchers have argued that measures of effect size should replace the significance-testing practice. We contend that although effect-size measures have logical appeal, they are also associated with a number of limitations that may result in problematic interpretations of them…

Unless the sample encompasses a substantial portion of the population, the standard error of an estimator depends on the size of the sample, but not the size of the population. This is a crucial statistical insight that students find very counterintuitive. After trying several ways of convincing students of the validity of this principle, I have…