News from WCER
Learning in the Making: Leveraging Technologies for Impact
February 24, 2014
Informal learning environments across the U.S., sometimes called “Makerspaces,” are community centers that offer tools and resources empowering people to design and prototype their inventions.
Self-Affirmation Exercises Reduce Gap
February 17, 2014
Self-affirmation writing exercises have been shown to improve achievement of students who are identified as belonging to racial/ethnic groups that may be subject to stereotype threat.
Learning Physics with Hypertext and Design Challenges
February 11, 2014
CoMPASS science materials for middle schools enable students to understand relationships between concepts and principles including work, energy, force, acceleration, and mechanical advantage.
Visiting Scholar Brayboy Calls for Renewed Focus on American Indian Education in WCER
February 6, 2014
Students should be evaluated not just on their test scores or grade-point averages, but also on their capacity to craft a more democratic society, according to Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy.
School Context Shapes Peer Ethnic Discrimination
February 3, 2014
As with other forms of bullying, students who are verbally or physically harassed because of their membership in an ethnic group suffer declines in their psychological, social, and academic health.
Self-affirmation writing as strategy for reducing achievement gaps
January 28, 2014
Students’ grade point average, motivation, academic engagement, and achievement goals appear to decline during middle school.
New CIRTL Network Commons to Promote Teaching and Learning
January 23, 2014
New funding from the Sloan Foundation will help the 22 universities of the CIRTL Network to train 7000 and graduate 2200 future STEM faculty each year.
Finding the Fabulous Teachers
December 30, 2013
For Dave Heistad, evaluating teacher performance is an important way to recognize what he calls the “fabulous teachers.”
Crafting Better Explanations in Science Classes
December 30, 2013
Scientific explanations offer insights into how and why things work.
Money to Ease the Way for Students Pursuing STEM Degrees
December 3, 2013
Hundreds of college students across Wisconsin will receive $1,000 per year for up to five years as part of an experimental study that aims to determine how financial aid affects the academic pathways of undergraduate students, particularly those pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
CIRTL Launches MOOC-Supported Learning Communities to Train Future STEM Faculty
December 3, 2013
The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) has received a National Science Foundation grant to launch two massive open online courses (MOOCs) aimed at the group’s core mission of preparing graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to be future faculty who are both excellent researchers and excellent teacher
Learning English Isn’t Enough
December 2, 2013
For years we’ve heard the debate about whether teachers should use bilingual or English-only instruction when teaching English Language Learners (ELLs).
Developing Innovation Capacity through Virtual Internships
December 2, 2013
Can the use of an immersive learning environment (an epistemic game) help engineering students to develop innovative product designs?
Parents’ Expectations for Children with Disabilities
November 18, 2013
UW–Madison education professor Bonnie Doren finds that parents’ expectations for their children with disabilities varies by family income and by the adolescent’s particular disability.
Parents’ Expectations and Student Achievement
November 11, 2013
UW-Madison education professor Bonnie Doren examines the relationship between parent expectations for their adolescents with disabilities, and the adolescents’ achievement of important school and post-school benchmarks
