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Background: The use of analogies as reasoning tools that play a key role in human cognition at all ages has been of interest to educators, scientists, and philosophers ever since Aristotle. Indeed, research has consistently found that analogies provided by teachers can, and do, play an important role in facilitating student understanding of scientific ideas. Despite the effectiveness of teacher provided analogies little research has been undertaken on the use, and effectiveness, of student self-generated analogies in helping them to understand novel situations. Purpose: This article reports on a cross-age study of student prediction-making in novel situations that investigated the basis and justification that students provided when asked to make predictions about novel situations. The study investigated whether they self-generated analogies (SGAs) in order to make their predictions and, in particular, whether such predictions and justifications were based on their use of SGAs. Sample: A total number of 166 students were recruited from ten, opportunistically selected, schools in Greece. The sample consisted of 37 primary students in Year 4 (9-10 years), 31 primary students in Year 6 (11-12 years), 29 secondary students in Year 7 (12-13 years), 35 secondary students in Year 9 (14-15 years) and 34 secondary students in Year 11 (16-17 years). Design and methods: A mixed method approach was used with data being collected through the administration of a paper and pencil survey followed by group discussions. In the former, students were presented with six novel situations in a pictorial form and were asked to make a prediction about the outcome of a future event--effectively what would happen in the event depicted in the novel situation--in this way solving the novel situation. Students were then asked to provide written explanations about what led them to their predictions. The focus of the group discussions was the predictions and the explanations provided. Results: The study found that students, when faced with making predictions about novel situations, regularly used SGAs and that such SGAs were predominantly based on their everyday experiences. It emerged that the use of inappropriate SGAs was the predominant reason that predictions, and subsequent justifications for those predications, were at odds with the scientific account. The study also found, by analysing the SGAs used across a range of student ages, that predictions in novel situations were generally the same and that this similarity was based on the use of the same, or very similar, SGAs that were, in turn, based on the same, or very similar, everyday life experiences. Conclusions: These results suggest that it might help teachers to be better aware of the common SGAs students are likely to use and the predictable implications of their use in developing misconceptions when learning science.

Children's opportunities for outdoor play have declined (Nash, D. 2018. "The Construction of the Decline of Children's Outdoor Play as a Social Problem in the UK." Canterbury: Canterbury Christ Church University) whilst opportunities for online play are increasing (Berrett, B., J. Murphy, and J. Sullivan. 2012. "Administrator Insights and Reflections: Technology Integration in Schools." "The Qualitative Report" 17 (1): 200-221). This study investigated early years/key stage 1 teachers' attitudes towards outdoor and online play utilising (Rosenberg, M. J., and C. I. Hovland. 1960. "Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioural Components of Attitudes." In "Attitude Organization and Change," edited by M. Rosenberg, C. Hovland, W. McGuire, R. Abelson, and J. Brehm, 1-14. Connecticut: Yale University Press) tripartite model of attitudes. An online survey was employed with 30 early years/key stage 1 teachers, gaining an understanding of teachers' attitudes towards outdoor and online play. In summary, results show there is significant variation in teachers' attitudes towards outdoor and online play, whilst children's opportunities for outdoor and online play within UK early education also remain infrequent and varied.

The world is currently living through an unsettling and strange time as it is subjected to the COVID-19 pandemic; a new infectious disease for which, at the time of writing, there is neither vaccine nor cure available. This article discusses the need to promote biology and health literacy from childhood to elderhood to address the challenges related to COVID-19. Such a literacy would imply the achievement of a level of knowledge and development of skills that, when applied, would help in decision-making and enable the individual to take actions that would improve both their personal and public health.

Research in physics teaching has supported the use of analogies as an effective instructional tool that can be used to facilitate students' understanding of physics concepts. The effectiveness of analogies lies in that they allow students to form cognitive links between what they already know and what they are learning, harmoniously integrating, in this way, the new physics concepts into their existing knowledge. In this paper, it is suggested that analogies could be extended to provide physics teachers with a diagnostic form of assessment that can reveal both the misconceptions their students may hold, the prior knowledge upon which such misconceptions are based, as well as knowledge sources that can be productively used in the teaching process. This suggestion arises from the findings of a cross-age study in which students, from five different age groups, were asked to make predictions about a range of situations they had not previously encountered (novel situations) and explain the reasons that led them to make those predictions.

In England, there is a growing need to improve the attainment in, and attitudes towards, science among disadvantaged secondary school pupils. This project was designed to support disadvantaged year 11 pupils (age 15-16) by pairing them with an undergraduate STEM student mentor throughout the final year of their compulsory science General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations course. The project found that mentored pupils did statistically significantly better in terms of attainment in both mock and actual GCSE examinations and also showed a statistically significantly greater improvement in their attitudes to science than un-mentored pupils.

Background: In England, there is a growing need to improve the lives of secondary school students who are defined as disadvantaged and to support these students in their attainment and attitudes to secondary school science. Purpose: This paper reports on a project designed to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds by pairing them with undergraduate mentors from a university throughout the final year of their compulsory science education in England (Year 11--aged 15-16) at the end of which students take their public General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations. Sample: The study, set up as a randomised control trial, involved 86 disadvantaged students--students from low-income families who are eligible for free school meals, or had been looked after for more than six months, or whose parent(s) are currently in the Armed Forces. Four schools were recruited. The schools were similar in terms of the proportion of free school meals, GCSE 5A*-C measures and value-added performance to reduce the likelihood of any effect being attributable to factors other than mentoring. Design and methods: Students were recruited from four schools and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups--half in each group. Experimental group students were mentored for one hour per week for 23 weeks up until their GCSE examinations with an intensive six-hour mentoring session just prior to those examinations. Data were collected from the Year 11's mock and actual GCSE examination results as well as questionnaires from Year 11 and undergraduate mentors. Results: It was found that mentored students did statistically better in terms of attainment in both mock and actual GCSEs examinations and also showed a statistically significantly greater improvement in their attitudes to science than un-mentored students. Conclusions: These findings indicate the value of academically asymmetrical paired mentoring for disadvantaged students within science.

This article questions the need for relatively shallow, widespread, scientific literacy across a broad range of topics if it lacks the conceptual depth, and/or intellectual rigour, to provide any basis for rational, scientifically informed choices. We suggest that "functional," widespread scientific literacy should only be taught in key stage 3 (age 11-14) and should focus in greater depth on those areas of science relating to human health and some basic chemistry and physics. We also suggest that, in a "black box" technological world, individuals can be effective users of technology, and the underlying science, without the need for scientific literacy.

This paper reports on classroom observations of senior high school mathematics lessons with a focus on the use of digital technology. The observations were of teachers enrolled in an in-service course, Teaching Advanced Mathematics. The paper reports selected results and comments on: software that was observed to have been used; the use (or not) of software for specific topics; who used the software and for what purpose; and implications for teacher development programmes.

The use of analogies as reasoning tools that play a key role in human cognition at all ages has been of interest to educators, scientists, and philosophers ever since Aristotle. Indeed, research has consistently found that analogies provided by teachers can, and do, play an important role in facilitating student understanding of scientific ideas. Despite the effectiveness of teacher provided analogies little research has been undertaken on the use, and effectiveness, of student self-generated analogies in helping them to understand novel situations. This article reports on a cross-age study of student prediction-making in novel situations that investigated the basis and justification that students provided when asked to make predictions about novel situations. The study investigated whether they self-generated analogies (SGAs) in order to make their predictions and, in particular, whether such predictions and justifications were based on their use of SGAs. A total number of 166 students were recruited from ten, opportunistically selected, schools in Greece. The sample consisted of 37 primary students in Year 4 (9–10 years), 31 primary students in Year 6 (11–12 years), 29 secondary students in Year 7 (12–13 years), 35 secondary students in Year 9 (14–15 years) and 34 secondary students in Year 11 (16–17 years). A mixed method approach was used with data being collected through the administration of a paper and pencil survey followed by group discussions. In the former, students were presented with six novel situations in a pictorial form and were asked to make a prediction about the outcome of a future event – effectively what would happen in the event depicted in the novel situation -, in this way solving the novel situation. Students were then asked to provide written explanations about what led them to their predictions. The focus of the group discussions was the predictions and the explanations provided. The study found that students, when faced with making predictions about novel situations, regularly used SGAs and that such SGAs were predominantly based on their everyday experiences. It emerged that the use of inappropriate SGAs was the predominant reason that predictions, and subsequent justifications for those predications, were at odds with the scientific account. The study also found, by analysing the SGAs used across a range of student ages, that predictions in novel situations were generally the same and that this similarity was based on the use of the same, or very similar, SGAs that were, in turn, based on the same, or very similar, everyday life experiences. These results suggest that it might help teachers to be better aware of the common SGAs students are likely to use and the predictable implications of their use in developing misconceptions when learning science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's opportunities for outdoor play have declined (Nash, D. 2018. The Construction of the Decline of Children's Outdoor Play as a Social Problem in the UK. Canterbury: Canterbury Christ Church University) whilst opportunities for online play are increasing (Berrett, B., J. Murphy, and J. Sullivan. 2012. "Administrator Insights and Reflections: Technology Integration in Schools." The Qualitative Report 17 (1): 200–221). This study investigated early years/key stage 1 teachers' attitudes towards outdoor and online play utilising (Rosenberg, M. J., and C. I. Hovland. 1960. "Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioural Components of Attitudes." In Attitude Organization and Change, edited by M. Rosenberg, C. Hovland, W. McGuire, R. Abelson, and J. Brehm, 1–14. Connecticut: Yale University Press) tripartite model of attitudes. An online survey was employed with 30 early years/key stage 1 teachers, gaining an understanding of teachers' attitudes towards outdoor and online play. In summary, results show there is significant variation in teachers' attitudes towards outdoor and online play, whilst children's opportunities for outdoor and online play within UK early education also remain infrequent and varied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Purpose To evaluate the cardiac toxicity of radiotherapy (RT) in breast cancer (BC) patients employing myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) with Tc-99 m Tetrofosmin - single photon emission computer tomography (T-SPECT). Materials and methods We studied 46 BC female patients (28 patients with left and 18 patients with right BC) treated with postoperative RT compared to a control group of 85 age-matched females. The median time of RT to SPECT was 40 months (6-263). Results Abnormalities in the summed stress score (SSS) were found in 54% of left BC patients, 44.4% of right BC patients, and 32.9% of controls. In left BC patients there were significantly more SSS abnormalities compared to controls (4.0 ± 3.5 vs 2.6 ± 2.0, p = 0.05) and possible trend of increased abnormalities of right BC patients (3.7 ± 3.0 vs 2.6 ± 2.0, p = 0.14). Multiple regression analysis showed more abnormalities in the MPI of left BC patients compared to controls (SSS, p = 0.0001); Marginal toxicity was also noted in right BC patients (SSS, p = 0.045). No additional toxicity was found in patients that received adjuvant cardiotoxic chemotherapy. All T-SPECT abnormalities were clinically silent. Conclusion The study suggests that radiation therapy to BC patients result in MPI abnormalities but without apparent clinical consequences.

In England, there is a growing need to improve the attainment in, and attitudes towards, science among disadvantaged secondary school pupils. This project was designed to support disadvantaged year 11 pupils (age 15-16) by pairing them with an undergraduate STEM student mentor throughout the final year of their compulsory science General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations course. The project found that mentored pupils did statistically significantly better in terms of attainment in both mock and actual GCSE examinations and also showed a statistically significantly greater improvement in their attitudes to science than un-mentored pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In England, there is a growing need to improve the lives of secondary school students who are defined as disadvantaged and to support these students in their attainment and attitudes to secondary school science. Purpose: This paper reports on a project designed to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds by pairing them with undergraduate mentors from a university throughout the final year of their compulsory science education in England (Year 11 - aged 15-16) at the end of which students take their public General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations. Sample: The study, set up as a randomised control trial, involved 86 disadvantaged students - students from low-income families who are eligible for free school meals, or had been looked after for more than six months, or whose parent(s) are currently in the Armed Forces. Four schools were recruited. The schools were similar in terms of the proportion of free school meals, GCSE 5A*-C measures and value-added performance to reduce the likelihood of any effect being attributable to factors other than mentoring. Design and methods: Students were recruited from four schools and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups - half in each group. Experimental group students were mentored for one hour per week for 23 weeks up until their GCSE examinations with an intensive six-hour mentoring session just prior to those examinations. Data were collected from the Year 11’s mock and actual GCSE examination results as well as questionnaires from Year 11 and undergraduate mentors. Results: It was found that mentored students did statistically better in terms of attainment in both mock and actual GCSEs examinations and also showed a statistically significantly greater improvement in their attitudes to science than un-mentored students. Conclusions: These findings indicate the value of academically asymmetrical paired mentoring for disadvantaged students within science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]