What's Training Got to Do With It?

With the current, pervasive mindset in schools of deficit thinking, which affects students of all ages and abilities, educator preparation programs have an opportunity to make a change. This chapter will explore educator preparation programs and what is being taught in introductory courses on special education, as well as mindset leading to deficit thinking. An exploratory survey of university instructors was conducted to discover what could lead to deficit thinking in preschool to Grade 12 (P-12) schools. Findings show that instructors are using supplemental materials to cover models of disability, and further study of how instructor mindset influences course content is warranted. Discussion will include adding growth mindset, self-efficacy strategies, and unconscious bias training in educator preparation programs to further challenge deficit thinking. Additional areas for future research will also be discussed.

Introduction to Computer Programming Through a System of Tasks

Computer programming is a fundamental discipline in many academic programs, especially in the fields of informatics, applied mathematics, physics, and engineering. Despite its popularity, computer programming courses does not possess a widely-accepted methodology for its structure, and because of this reason, even introductory courses highly differ in their curriculum, approach, complexity, and even technical background. In this paper we propose a methodology for introductory computer programming course structure definition that is based on the concept of notion formation through a system of tasks. The approach is intended to be applied in the context of academic education, but it is also applicable in the last years of high-school courses.

ATTITUDES RELATED TO STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN STATISTICS IN UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS IN ARGENTINA

Students from non-statistics degree programs often perceive statistics as a burden, underestimating its usefulness and encountering difficulties that cause them anxiety and stress, among others, which leads many of them to fail the course. Students’ attitudes can hinder their learning and development of useful skills associated with statistical thinking, which should be later applied outside the classroom. The aim of this study was to analyze students’ attitudes towards statistics in introductory courses in three schools of Argentina, grouped in Agricultural Sciences and Biological Sciences. We analyzed students’ attitudes at the beginning and at the end of the course, the differences between pre- and post-course attitudes and the relationship between these changes and students’ performances. The sample consisted of 436 students and their attitudes were measured using the Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS-28), considering four components: Affect, Cognitive Competence, Value and Difficulty. Students’ performances were classified as: passed (and exempt from final exam), intermediate (but not exempt from final exam), and failed. Difficulty was not related to students’ performance, as opposed to what was detected with the other components. Cognitive competence was the only component that classified students’ performance in the correct order. Students who failed the course differed from the rest in that they developed more negative feelings towards statistics at the end of the course; in contrast, students with good performance showed an increase in the value given to statistics. Biological Sciences students presented higher average in the four components studied. Abstract: Spanish Los estudiantes de carreras universitarias no estadísticas a menudo perciben a estadística como una imposición, subestimando su utilidad, encontrando dificultades que les causan, entre otros, ansiedad y estrés y muchos desaprueban la materia. Las actitudes de los estudiantes pueden dificultar su aprendizaje y el desarrollo de habilidades útiles asociadas al pensamiento estadístico que deberían aplicarse posteriormente fuera del aula. El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia la estadística en cursos introductorios en tres facultades de Argentina, agrupadas en Ciencias Agrícolas y Ciencias Biológicas. Analizamos sus actitudes al principio y al final del curso, las diferencias entre las actitudes posteriores y previas al curso y la relación entre estos cambios y el rendimiento del alumno. La muestra estaba compuesta por 436 estudiantes y sus actitudes se midieron utilizando la Encuesta de Actitudes Hacia la Estadística (SATS-28), considerando cuatro componentes: Afecto, Competencia Cognitiva, Valor y Dificultad. El rendimiento de los estudiantes se clasificó en promoción, intermedio y reprobación. Dificultad no se relacionó con el rendimiento del estudiante a diferencia con lo detectado con las otras componentes. La Competencia Cognitiva fue la única componente que clasificó el rendimiento en el orden correcto. Los estudiantes que reprobaron el curso se diferenciaron del resto en que desarrollaron más sentimientos negativos hacia la estadística al final del curso; en contraposición los que tuvieron un buen rendimiento, mostraron un aumento en el valor dado a la estadística. Los estudiantes de Ciencias Biológicas presentaron un promedio más alto en las cuatro componentes.

Bringing (inter)national history into ‘Introduction to International Relations’

Many introductory courses in International Relations (IR) dedicate some portion of the class to international history. Such class segments often focus on great-power politics of the twentieth century and related academic debates. In this essay, I argue that these international history segments can better engage students by broadening the histories instructors present and by drawing on especially salient histories such as those of the country in which the course is being taught. To elaborate on how one might do this, I discuss how US-based courses could productively examine the country’s rise to great-power status. I outline three reasons to bring this topic into US-based introductory IR courses, and I draw on personal experience to provide a detailed description of the ways one can do so.

HOW DO SOCIOLOGISTS KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW? AN EXAMINATION OF SOCIOLOGY TEXTBOOKS FOR EVIDENCE OF SOCIOLOGICAL AND SCIENTIFIC THINKING

I use qualitative content analysis to uncover how textbooks illuminate the process by which sociologists know what they know. I use the Sociology Literacy Framework (SLF) (Ferguson and Carbonaro 2016) to guide analysis, looking at how textbooks report on the research process and present research findings. Using a sample of 27 textbooks for introductory courses (N = 19) and intermediate elective courses (N = 8) from 12 publishers (copyright dated: 2015-2020), I found weak support for developing the research-focused SLF skills. Textbooks fail to explain and describe how sociologists know what they know. Instead, texts use false equivalence arguments and shortcuts to scientific credibility, among other means. Textbooks do an adequate job describing society using basic descriptive statistical data from think tanks or government sources but provide almost no instruction on how scholars gather or analyze data or draw conclusions about their data.

A Comparison of Academic Outcomes in Courses Taught With Open Educational Resources and Publisher Content

What difference do open educational resources (OER) make compared with publisher content (non-OER) when costs and instructors remain constant? A total of 215 community college students enrolled in online, introductory courses were randomly assigned to OER or non-OER sections and compared on retention at the tuition drop date, completion with a C or better, course completion, and mean final exam scores. Students in the OER sections were retained and persisted at a statistically significant higher rate, lending credibility to the findings of former studies regarding retention and persistence rates in courses taught with OER materials. No statistically significant differences were found on completion rates or final exam scores. OER course materials should be considered in broader initiatives for student success in community colleges.

Game Theory Basics

Game theory is the science of interaction. This textbook, derived from courses taught by the author and developed over several years, is a comprehensive, straightforward introduction to the mathematics of non-cooperative games. It teaches what every game theorist should know: the important ideas and results on strategies, game trees, utility theory, imperfect information, and Nash equilibrium. The proofs of these results, in particular existence of an equilibrium via fixed points, and an elegant direct proof of the minimax theorem for zero-sum games, are presented in a self-contained, accessible way. This is complemented by chapters on combinatorial games like Go; and, it has introductions to algorithmic game theory, traffic games, and the geometry of two-player games. This detailed and lively text requires minimal mathematical background and includes many examples, exercises, and pictures. It is suitable for self-study or introductory courses in mathematics, computer science, or economics departments.

Aerodynamics for Engineers

Now reissued by Cambridge University Press, this sixth edition covers the fundamentals of aerodynamics using clear explanations and real-world examples. Aerodynamics concept boxes throughout showcase real-world applications, chapter objectives provide readers with a better understanding of the goal of each chapter and highlight the key 'take-home' concepts, and example problems aid understanding of how to apply core concepts. Coverage also includes the importance of aerodynamics to aircraft performance, applications of potential flow theory to aerodynamics, high-lift military airfoils, subsonic compressible transformations, and the distinguishing characteristics of hypersonic flow. Supported online by a solutions manual for instructors, MATLAB® files for example problems, and lecture slides for most chapters, this is an ideal textbook for undergraduates taking introductory courses in aerodynamics, and for graduates taking preparatory courses in aerodynamics before progressing to more advanced study.