How gender fair are German schoolbooks in the twenty-first century? An analysis of language and illustrations in schoolbooks for mathematics and German

Schoolbooks convey not only school-relevant knowledge; they also influence the development of stereotypes about different social groups. Particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, many studies analysed schoolbooks and criticised the overall predominance of male persons and of traditional role allocations. Since that time, women’s and men’s occupations and social functions have changed considerably. The present research investigated gender portrayals in schoolbooks for German and mathematics that were recently published in Germany. We examined the proportions of female and male persons in pictures and texts and categorized their activities, occupational and parental roles. Going beyond previous studies, we added two criteria: the use of gender-fair language and the spatial arrangements of persons in pictures. Our results show that schoolbooks for German contained almost balanced depictions of girls and boys, whereas women were less frequently shown than men. In mathematics books, males outnumbered females in general. Across both types of books, female and male persons were engaged in many different activities, not only gendertyped ones; however, male persons were more often described via their profession than females. Use of gender-fair language has found its way into schoolbooks but is not used consistently. Books for German were more gender fair in terms of linguistic forms than books for mathematics. For spatial arrangements, we found no indication for gender biases. The results are discussed with a focus on how schoolbooks can be optimized to contribute to gender equality.

How Plankton Swim: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Using Mathematics & Physics to Understand the Biology of the Natural World

The authors have developed and field-tested high school-level curricular materials that guide students to use biology, mathematics, and physics to understand plankton and how these tiny organisms move in a world where their intuition does not apply. The authors chose plankton as the focus of their materials primarily because the challenges faced by plankton are novel problems to most students, forcing adoption of new perspectives and making the study of plankton exciting. Additional reasons that they chose plankton to focus on include their ecological importance, their availability to most teachers and students, the ease with which they can be collected and observed, and the current focus of some scientific researchers on their movement and behavior. These curricular materials include a series of inquiry-based, hands-on exercises designed to be accessible to students with a range of backgrounds. Many of these materials could be adapted for use by middle-school, and/or college-level students. In this article, the authors describe sample lessons, summarize what worked well, and flag obstacles they encountered while integrating mathematics and physics into the biology classroom.

Introductory Mathematics for Quantum Chemistry

An elementary discussion of some of the mathematics employed in studying Quantum Chemistry in a style appropriate for persons who have not taken advanced mathematical instruction.

Supporting Whole-Class Collaborative Inquiry in a Secondary Mathematics Classroom

Recent mathematics education reform efforts call for the instantiation of mathematics classroom environments where students have opportunities to reason and construct their understandings as part of a community of learners. Despite some successes, traditional models of instruction still dominate the educational landscape. This limited success can be attributed, in part, to an underdeveloped understanding of the roles teachers must enact to successfully organize and participate in collaborative classroom practices. Towards this end, an in-depth longitudinal case study of a collaborative high school mathematics classroom was undertaken guided by the following two questions: What roles do these collaborative practices require of teacher and students? How does the community’s capacity to engage in collaborative practices develop over time? The analyses produced two conceptual models: one of the teacher’s role, along with specific instructional strategies the teacher used to organize a collaborative learning environment, and the second of the process by which the class’s capacity to participate in collaborative inquiry practices developed over time.

A case study of teachers' mathematics content knowledge and attitudes toward mathematics and teaching

This study intended to measure teacher mathematical content knowledge both before and after the first year of teaching and taking graduate teacher education courses in the Teach for America (TFA) program, as well as measure attitudes toward mathematics and teaching both before and after TFA teachers’ first year. There was a significant increase in both mathematical content knowledge and attitudes toward mathematics over the TFA teachers’ first year teaching. Additionally, several significant correlations were found between attitudes toward mathematics and content knowledge. Finally, after a year of teaching, TFA teachers had significantly better attitudes toward mathematics and teaching than neutral.

Motivation and Learning in Mathematics Pre-service Teachers

Based on a review of literature of conceptual and procedural knowledge in relation to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the purpose of this study was to test the relationship between conceptual and procedural knowledge and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Thirty-eight education students with a mathematics focus (elementary or secondary) in their junior, senior, or fifth year completed a survey with a Likert scale measuring their preference to learning (conceptual or procedural) and their motivation type (intrinsic or extrinsic). Findings showed that secondary mathematics focused students were more likely to prefer learning mathematics conceptually than elementary mathematics focused students. However, secondary and elementary mathematics focused students showed an equal preference for learning mathematics procedurally and sequentially. Elementary and secondary students reported similar intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Extrinsically motivated students preferred procedural learning more than conceptual learning. While there was no statistically significant preference with intrinsically motivated students, there was a trend favoring preference of conceptual learning over procedural learning. These results tend to support the hypothesis that mathematics focused students who prefer conceptual learning are more intrinsically motivated, and mathematics focused students who prefer procedural learning are more extrinsically motivated.

Contraceptive use in women by body mass index categories

The prevalence of obesity has increased sharply in the United States since the mid 1970's. Obese women who become pregnant are at increased risk of pregnancy complications for both mother and fetus. This study assessed whether women in higher body mass index (BMI) categories engage in the preventive behaviors of contraception more frequently than normal weight women. It also evaluated the type of contraception used by both obese and normal weight women. The study used cross-sectional data from 7 states participating in the Family Planning Module of the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey is an annual random digit dialed telephone survey of the non-institutionalized civilian population aged 18 years and older. The Family Planning Module was administered by Arizona, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Of the 4,757 women who participated in the Family Planning Module, 2,244 (53.2%) were normal weight, 1,202 (25.6%) were overweight, and 1,072 (21.2%) were obese. The majority of these women 4,115 (86.2%) reported using some type of contraception to prevent pregnancy. Six hundred forty two women (13.8%) stated they did not use any type of contraception to prevent pregnancy. Within body mass index categories, 14% of normal weight women, 13% of overweight women, and 13.4% of obese women did not use any type of contraception. Neither the bivariate analysis nor the logistic regressions found body mass index categories to be statistically associated with contraceptive use. The relationship between body mass index categories and contraceptive method was found to be statistically significant. The predictive probability graph found that women at all levels of BMI have a lower probability of using barrier contraception methods as compared to procedural and hormonal methods. Hormonal contraception methods have the highest probability of use for women with a BMI of 15 to 25. In contrast, the probability of using procedural contraception methods is relatively flat and less than hormonal methods for BMI between 15 and 25. However, the probability of using procedural contraception increases dramatically with a BMI greater than 25. At a BMI greater than 42, women have a greater than 50% probability of using procedural contraception. Although a relationship between body mass index and contraception use was not found, contraception method was found to be associated with body mass index. The reasons why normal weight women prefer hormonal contraception while overweight/obese women are more likely to use procedural methods needs to be explored. By understanding the relationship between obesity and contraception, we can hopefully decrease unintended pregnancies and overall improve pregnancy related health outcomes. To determine if relationships between contraception use/type and body mass index exist, further research needs to be conducted on a national level. ^

Differences in performance for quality of care indicators for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) across various hospital categories in Texas

The study analyzed Hospital Compare data for Medicare Fee-for-service patients at least 65 years of age to determine whether hospital performance for AMI outcome and processes of care measures differ amongst Texas hospitals with respect to ownership status (for profit vs. not-for-profit), academic status (teaching vs. non-teaching) and geographical setting (rural vs. urban). ^ The study found a statistically significant difference between for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals in four process-of-care measures (aspirin at discharge, P=0.028; ACE or ARB inhibitor for LSVD, P=0.048; Smoking cessation advice: P=0.034; outpatients who got aspirin with 24 hours of arrival in the ED, P=0.044). No significant difference in performance was found between COTH-member teaching and non-teaching hospitals for any of the eight process-of-care measures or the two outcome measures for AMI. The study was unable to compare performance based on geographic setting of hospitals due to lack of sufficient data for rural hospitals. ^ The results of the study suggest that for-profit Texas hospitals might be slightly better than not-for –profit hospitals at providing possible heart attack patients with certain processes of care.^

Macroinvertebrate abundance and proportion of trait categories in river biotopes across England and Wales

There is a long tradition of river monitoring using macroinvertebrate communities to assess environmental quality in Europe. A promising alternative is the use of species life-history traits. Both methods, however, have relied on the time-consuming identification of taxa. River biotopes, 1-100 m**2 'habitats' with associated species assemblages, have long been seen as a useful and meaningful way of linking the ecology of macroinvertebrates and river hydro-morphology and can be used to assess hydro-morphological degradation in rivers. Taxonomic differences, however, between different rivers had prevented a general test of this concept until now. The species trait approach may overcome this obstacle across broad geographical areas, using biotopes as the hydro-morphological units which have characteristic species trait assemblages. We collected macroinvertebrate data from 512 discrete patches, comprising 13 river biotopes, from seven rivers in England and Wales. The aim was to test whether river biotopes were better predictors of macroinvertebrate trait profiles than taxonomic composition (genera, families, orders) in rivers, independently of the phylogenetic effects and catchment scale characteristics (i.e. hydrology, geography and land cover). We also tested whether species richness and diversity were better related to biotopes than to rivers. River biotopes explained 40% of the variance in macroinvertebrate trait profiles across the rivers, largely independently of catchment characteristics. There was a strong phylogenetic signature, however. River biotopes were about 50% better at predicting macroinvertebrate trait profiles than taxonomic composition across rivers, no matter which taxonomic resolution was used. River biotopes were better than river identity at explaining the variability in taxonomic richness and diversity (40% and <=10%, respectively). Detailed trait-biotope associations agreed with independent a priori predictions relating trait categories to near river bed flows. Hence, species traits provided a much needed mechanistic understanding and predictive ability across a broad geographical area. We show that integration of the multiple biological trait approach with river biotopes at the interface between ecology and hydro-morphology provides a wealth of new information and potential applications for river science and management.