An Oral Proof in a Geometry Class: How Linguistic Tools Can Help Map the Content of a Proof

Recommendations that teachers promote argument and discourse in their mathematics classrooms anticipate researchers' needs for methods for examining and analyzing such talk. One form of discourse is oral arguments, including proofs. We ask: How can we track the development of an oral argument by a teacher and her/his students? We illustrate a method that combines Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Toulmin's argumentation scheme to examine how speakers logically connect different parts of an argument. We suggest that conjunction analysis can aid a researcher to map the content of a proof that has been constructed in class discussion. Using data from a discussion of a geometry proof, we show that different types of conjunctions enabled the teacher and the students to connect various components of an argument and, also, different arguments. The article illustrates how conjunction analysis can support and deepen what Toulmin's scheme for arguments can reveal about oral discussions.     

Planned missing data designs in psychological research

The authors describe 2 efficiency (planned missing data) designs for measurement: the 3-form design and the 2-method measurement design. The 3-form design, a kind of matrix sampling, allows researchers to leverage limited resources to collect data for 33% more survey questions than can be answered by any 1 respondent. Power tables for estimating correlation effects illustrate the benefit of this design. The 2-method measurement design involves a relatively cheap, less valid measure of a construct and an expensive, more valid measure of the same construct. The cost effectiveness of this design stems from the fact that few cases have both measures, and many cases have just the cheap measure. With 3 brief simulations involving structural equation models, the authors show that compared with the same-cost complete cases design, a 2-method measurement design yields lower standard errors and a higher effective sample size for testing important study parameters. With a large cost differential between cheap and expensive measures and small effect sizes, the benefits of the design can be enormous. Strategies for using these 2 designs are suggested.     

Momentary task-values and expectations predict engagement in science among Finnish and Chilean secondary school students

While expectancy-value-cost theory predicts that students' task values play an important part in academic engagement, these associations have rarely been tested in science education and are even less studied in authentic classroom situations. The present study examined to what extent momentary task-values, expectations and costs are associated with students' momentary academic engagement in science classes. Momentary academic engagement was operationalised as energy (give up), dedication (grit) and absorption (flow) components of engagement. Finnish (N = 5891 beeps, 307 students) and Chilean (N = 1931 beeps, 157 students) secondary school students participated in the study using Experience Sampling Method via smartphones. When signalled, students responded to questions via smartphones concerning their momentary task values, expectations, costs and components of engagement in the current activity. The research questions were analysed with multilevel path modelling. The results showed that, for both samples task-values, expectations and costs were related to energy, dedication and absorption components of engagement in science classes. High momentary task-values were positively associated with momentary flow and grit; high momentary expectations were positively associated with high grit and low giving up in both samples; and high momentary challenge showed as increases in feelings of giving up.     

A Critical Taxonomy of the Theories About the Paths into the Reduction

The paths or ways to the transcendental reduction are a pivotal phenomenological notion in Husserl’s philosophy. The metaphor of path, in fact, alludes to the demonstrative proofs of transcendental phenomenology. Nonetheless, Husserlian scholarship has not yet been able to end the disputes surrounding this topic, and as a result, competing interpretations continue to prevail. Since existing theories about the paths have not yet been cataloged or analyzed in their global context, I intend to classify the main existing theories about the paths and evaluate the trend established by Iso Kern. Thus, this paper answers the following questions: how many kinds of theories about the paths are there? And, how plausible is the trend and approach initiated by Kern? In order to evaluate each theory, I will compare the interpretation with its exemplary cases. The key contribution of this investigation is therefore twofold: to distinguish with unequivocal concepts the two main trends of hermeneutical theories in play and to evaluate the plausibility of the aforementioned Kernian one. The paper also attempts to show that the hermeneutical approach initiated by Kern has no contextual examples for its conceptual scheme and should consequently be abandoned in favor of an alternative solution.     

Cross-national evidences of a school-based universal programme for promoting prosocial behaviours in peer interactions: Main theoretical communalities and local unicity

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of prosocial behaviour against aggression in a school-based universal intervention adapted in two different (non-Western) countries, Colombia and Chile. Using a randomised pretest–post-test design (and controlling for participants' gender and parents' level of education), current results highlighted different effects of a similar programme in both sites. First, the school-based universal programme designed for promoting prosocial behaviours in the peer context obtained a positive cross-national effect on prosocial behaviour rated by three informants (i.e. self, peer and teacher reports). In Colombia, this effect was moderated by the initial level of prosociality of the participants and their level of education. Mediational two-wave model corroborated that the improvement on prosocial behaviours in both countries (moderated in the case of Colombia) predicted significantly lower level of physical aggression. Characteristics of the implementation considering different cultural and historical backgrounds were discussed.     

Youth civic development: theorizing a domain with evidence from different cultural contexts

The authors use examples of youth civic engagement from Chile, South Africa, Central/Eastern Europe, and the United States--and also emphasize diversities among youth from different subgroups within countries--to illustrate common elements of the civic domain of youth development. These include the primacy of collective activity for forming political identities and ideas and the greater heterogeneity of civic compared to other discretionary activities, the groupways or accumulated opportunities for acting due to the groups (social class, gender, ethnic, caste, etc.) to which a young person belongs, and the role of mediating institutions (schools, community-based organizations, etc.) as spaces where youths' actions contribute to political stability and change.