Teachers Weekly - June 2011 Archives
Norwegian schools must understand that gifted children are a national resource. They are not an elite, but a group that may have problems if they do not get support to realize their potential, researcher Ella Cosmovici Idsøe says.
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Researchers integrated service-learning techniques into a university-level horticulture course and measured the impact on students' perceptions of community involvement, perceptions of social impact, and how they felt they learned the course material. Findings showed participation in service learning improved students' views toward community involvement and increased their understanding of course material, especially as alumni. The study determined that service learning can help horticulture students understand their career purpose, civic obligation, and meaning in life.
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How do you teach math students to speak and write effectively about what they do? Crucially, how do you teach their teachers -- themselves mathematicians -- how to impart and evaluate these skills? A group of instructors in MIT's Department of Mathematics have developed a tool to encourage teacher-to-teacher collaboration, bridging educators with similar challenges in different courses and from semester to semester.
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A seminal article on language testing, co-authored by Dr. Glenn Fulcher, a Reader in Education at the University of Leicester, argues that some agencies are using unsuitable language tests to achieve policy ends.
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 | When preschool children ask questions about science they risk being left in the lurch by their teachers. Learning seems to have less of a focus among preschool teachers, despite what is laid down in the preschool's curriculum. These are the findings of a thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. ...> Full Article |
Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have developed a tool to rapidly assess the risk of aggressive and violent behavior by children and adolescents hospitalized on psychiatric units. Ultimately, they hope to use the questionnaire to improve treatment and prevention of aggressive behavior in schools and in the community.
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Performance by university undergraduates on a microeconomics test after completing an introductory, virtual lecture was preserved after a 12-hour period that included sleep, especially for cognitively-taxing integration problems. In contrast, performance declined after 12 hours of wakefulness and after a longer delay of one week. The study uniquely extends sleep research to a realistic task that students would encounter in a university classroom. The study involved 102 undergraduates who had never taken an economics course.
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 | It's time for the United States to consider establishing higher standards for math teachers if the nation is going to break its "vicious cycle" of mediocrity, a Michigan State University education scholar argues in Science magazine. ...> Full Article |
 | Annika Lindskog, an economics researcher from the University of Gothenburg, studied data from the Amhara region in rural Ethiopia and found that the schooling of older siblings, especially older sisters, has a positive effect on the schooling of younger siblings. ...> Full Article |
Teens develop strategic thinking skills in youth activities that they rarely learn in the classroom, says a new University of Illinois study of 11 high-quality urban and rural arts and leadership programs.
Strategic thinking involves more than logic; it involves learning to anticipate the disorderly ways that events unfold in the real world, said Reed Larson, a U of I professor of human and community development.
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Despite a state requirement of 400 minutes of physical education every 10 days, approximately 1.3 million California public middle and high school students -- more than one-third (38 percent) of all California adolescents enrolled in public schools -- do not participate in any school-based physical education classes, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
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Greig's research is both a refutation of the idea that boys' academic disadvantages can be solved just by removing girls from the equation and a criticism of the present level of discourse.
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The leaders of Canada's university education departments came together today at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Fredericton, New Brunswick, to commit to creating the knowledge, expertise and evidence needed to keep Canada's education system globally competitive.
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A student writing an essay for their teacher may be tempted to plagiarize or leave facts unchecked. A new study shows that if you ask that same student to write something that will be posted on Wikipedia, he or she suddenly becomes determined to make the work as accurate as possible, and may actually do better research.
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Researchers gain greater insight into earthquake cycles
The millennium-old olive trees of the Iberian Peninsula are younger than expected
Science nugget: Lightning signature could help reveal the solar system's origins
Antarctic octopus sheds light on ice-sheet collapse
Power generation technology based on piezoelectric nanocomposite materials developed
Scientists make stunning inner space observations
Molecular spectroscopy tracks living mammalian cells in real time as they differentiate
Mini cargo transporters on a rat run
Women have bigger pupils than men
Novel radiation surveillance technology could help thwart nuclear terrorism
Purple sea urchin metamorphosis controlled by histamine
Scholars to apply facial recognition software to unidentified portrait subjects
World's largest digital camera project passes critical milestone
'Inhabitants of Madrid' ate elephants? meat and bone marrow 80,000 years ago
Robots fighting wars could be blamed for mistakes on the battlefield
X-rays create a window on glass formation
Can sound science guide dispersant use during subsea oil spills?
How Usain Bolt can run faster -- effortlessly
Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot
Growing market for human organs exploits poor
Chimpanzees have policemen, too
Can consuming caffeine while breastfeeding harm your baby?
Discovery of extremely long-lived proteins may provide insight into cell aging
Detailed picture of how myoV 'walks' along actin tracks
Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality
A new artificial intelligence technique to speed the planning of tasks when resources are limited
Film coatings made from whey
If a fat tax is coming, here's how to make it efficient, effective
The teacher is central to successful use of computers in schools
Real science in virtual school labs
Policy language regarding girls education often limiting, not empowering
Countries that best prepare math teachers share similarities