The influence of context on identity formation amongst young adolescent females and their subsequent participation in physics as a subject at Advanced Level (A level) is the central focus of this study. A qualitative approach grounded in an interpretivist paradigm was used for the purpose of this study. Verbal descriptions of the scientist they…

Dialogic talk, in which different ideas are considered, promotes conceptual understanding in science, and is in line with South Africa's school curriculum. The problem is that dialogic talk is difficult to facilitate and may run counter to cultural norms. As a result, classroom talk is often not dialogic. This paper reports on the nature of…

This article builds on our ongoing work in conceptualising an "evaluative stance" framework to assist in understanding how leaders in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) make decisions about the selection of professional development options for themselves and their staff. It introduces the notion that evaluative…

As community gardens expand across the U.S., Extension professionals can support them not only in horticultural education but also in planning and organization. Knowledge of community garden management is helpful in this regard. Existing research focuses on outcomes and criteria for successful gardens, but is less clear about how community gardens…

When face-to-face lecture sessions and classroom seminars are conducted during hours and days that are not convenient to students, the level of student active engagement and participation is considerably reduced. In this situation, the use of Social Networking Sites can be an alternative to get students much more engaged by taking the…

This paper represents some suggestions towards discourse-analytic approaches for ESL/EFL education, with the focus on identifying the textual forms which can contribute to the textual difficulty. Textual difficulty/comprehensibility, rather than being purely text-based or reader-dependent, is certainly a matter of interaction between text and…

This multiple narrative case study examines the experiences of six science doctoral students from a workplace learning perspective. For each participant, the following were gathered over 2.5 years: biographic questionnaires, 6-10 activity logs of a week's experiences, 2 pre-interview questionnaires, and 2 semi-structured interviews. Amongst the…

Gender differences in mathematical performance have received considerable scrutiny in the fields of sociology, economics and psychology. We analyse a large data-set of high school graduates who took a standardised mathematical test in Russia in 2011 (n = 738,456) and find no substantial difference in mean test scores across boys and girls.…

Background: The current global cohort of youth has been called "a generation at-risk", marked by a dramatic rise in youth who are not in employment, education or training programmes. In 2010, youth were three times as likely as adults to be unemployed, with youth unemployment worsening in 2012 and 2013. Accordingly, there is an urgent…

This study examined contextually inappropriate (CI) anger in relation to emotion recognition and situation knowledge, negative social experiences, and externalizing behavior among low-income 4-year-olds attending Head Start (n = 134). Approximately 23% showed anger when presented with positive/neutral slides and videos (valence-incongruent CI…

Australian teacher standards have effects on what is thought about teachers' work. Just as teacher standards give expression to some characteristics of quality teaching, so too do students' views if solicited and made public, yet the archive of teaching standards pays little attention to learners' perspectives. This paper uses a theoretical…

Research Findings: The importance of self-regulation for children's successful academic performance has led to greatly increased interest in this topic in recent years. However, less is known about the interrelations among self-regulatory processes across different contexts. The present study investigated the structure of self-regulation in young…

Male and female focus groups at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) discussed mentoring of Hispanic graduate students. Using Thematic Analysis, investigators identified three main themes: Relationship Initiation and Development, Valued Relationship Qualities, and Context and Barriers. Relationship themes included mentor openness, trust,…

Professional development is vital to the success of afterschool programs. Effective professional development enhances afterschool program quality by facilitating staff performance and knowledge; in addition, professional development is vital for improving student learning outcomes (Bouffard & Little, 2004; Hall & Surr, 2005; Joyce &…

Enacting college and career readiness policy in secondary schools requires systemic involvement of all school professionals, but identifying the specific roles that should be played by teachers and counselors remains a challenge. The study reported in this article used qualitative interviews with counselors and teachers to describe this challenge…