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We compare the effect of experimenting with physical or virtual manipulatives on undergraduate students’ conceptual understanding of heat and temperature. A pre–post comparison study design was used to replicate all aspects of a guided inquiry classroom except the mode in which students performed their experiments. This study is the first on physical and virtual manipulative experimentation in physics in which the curriculum, method of instruction, and resource capabilities were explicitly controlled. The participants were 68 undergraduates in an introductory course and were randomly assigned to an experimental or a control group. Conceptual tests were administered to both groups to assess students’ understanding before, during, and after instruction. The result indicates that both modes of experimentation are equally effective in enhancing students’ conceptual understanding. This result is discussed in the context of an ongoing debate on the relative importance of virtual and real laboratory work in physics education.

The aim of this study was to examine how students used evidence in argumentation while they engaged in argumentive and reflective activities in the context of a designed learning environment. A web-based learning environment, SOCRATES, was developed, which included a rich data base on the topic of Climate Change. Sixteen 11 th graders, working with a partner, engaged in electronic argumentive dialogs with classmates who held an opposing view on the topic and in some evidence-focused reflective activities, based on transcriptions of their dialogs.Another sixteen 11 th graders, who studied the data base in the learning environment for the same amount of time as experimental-condition students but did not engage in an argumentive discourse activity, served as a comparison condition. Students who engaged in an evidencefocused dialogic intervention increased the use of evidence in their dialogs, used more evidence that functioned to weaken opponents' claims and used more accurate evidence. Significant gains in evidence use and in meta-level communication about evidence were observed after students engaged in reflective activities. We frame our discussion of these findings in terms of their implications for promoting use of evidence in argumentation, and in relation to the development of epistemological understanding in science.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whole classroom discourse during modeling‐based learning in science, seeking to describe the discourse's characteristics, its relation to the micro‐context in which it took place and to the student‐constructed models, and to ascertain when it becomes productive. Additionally, we aimed to describe how whole classroom modeling discourse in science may be better supported by the teacher as well as the role of the modeling tool. In doing so, we analyzed student conversations and student‐constructed models from two groups of 11‐ to 12‐year‐old students. All students used a computer programming environment, namely Stagecast Creator, as a modeling tool. Findings revealed three distinct discourse types (modeling frames): (a) (initial) phenomenological description, (b) operationalization of the physical system's story, and (c) construction of algorithms. Finally, we discuss what we consider productive modeling discourse, as well as the contributions of the software and the teacher in this respect. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 919–951, 2011

Social exclusion is complex and dynamic, and it leads to the non-realization of social, economic, political or cultural rights or participation within a society. This critical review takes stock of the literature on exclusion of social relations. Social relations are defined as comprising social resources, social connections and social networks. An evidence review group undertook a critical review which integrates, interprets and synthesizes information across studies to develop a conceptual model of exclusion from social relations. The resulting model is a subjective interpretation of the literature and is intended to be the starting point for further evaluations. The conceptual model identifies individual risks for exclusion from social relations (personal attributes, biological and neurological risk, retirement, socio-economic status, exclusion from material resources and migration). It incorporates the evaluation of social relations, and the influence of psychosocial resources and socioemotional processes, sociocultural, social-structural, environmental and policy contextual influences on exclusion from social relations. It includes distal outcomes of exclusion from social relations, that is, individual well-being, health and functioning, social opportunities and social cohesion. The dynamic relationships between elements of the model are also reported. We conclude that the model provides a subjective interpretation of the data and an excellent starting point for further phases of conceptual development and systematic evaluation(s). Future research needs to consider the use of sophisticated analytical tools and an interdisciplinary approach in order to understand the underlying biological and ecopsychosocial associations that contribute to individual and dynamic differences in the experience of exclusion from social relations.

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We report on a study of the effect of meta-level awareness on the use of evidence in discourse. The participants were 66 pre-service teachers who were engaged in a dialogic activity. Meta-level awareness regarding the use of evidence in discourse was heightened by having same-side peers collaborating in arguing on the computer against successive pairs of peers on the opposing side of an issue on the topic of Climate Change and by engaging in explicit reflective activities on the use of evidence. Participants showed significant advances both in their skill of producing evidence-based arguments and counterarguments and regarding the accuracy of the evidence used. Advances were also observed at the meta-level, reflecting at least implicit understanding that using evidence is an important goal of argumentation. Another group of pre-service teachers, who studied about the role of evidence in science in the context of regular curriculum and served as a control condition, did not exhibit comparable advances in the use of evidence in argumentation. Educational implications are discussed.