What really happens in cohorts

Togetherness, academic help, peer support—all good things for a college student, right? Mostly. Michelle Maher followed several students co‐enrolled in a cohort around for almost a year to discover what's good, what's not so good, and what we can do with both.     

What happens when accountability meets technology integration

Conclusion This discussion posited that the language of accountability at the federal and state levels has established the goal of schools as the raising of test scores and that this goal has trumped technology integration efforts. After outlining the basic tenets of both standards-based education and professional development efforts focused on technology integration, we highlighted three tensions that impact the relationship between standards-based education and professional development for technology integration. These tensions are traditional vs. progressive pedagogy; standardized tests vs. authentic assessment; and technology as central vs. technology as peripheral to pedagogy. We concluded with a few suggested strategies for addressing these tensions and provided suggestions for research. We believe that the most promising possibility for transcending the tension between standards-based education and professional development for technology integration is to refocus schools on excellent pedagogy. When excellent pedagogy becomes the cornerstone of school vision and the central focus of all professional development, standards and technology integration will also find their rightful places. His primary research interest involves professional development of K-12 teachers. He has also worked with the Teacher Institute for Curriculum Knowledge about Integration of Technology which promotes the thoughtful use of technology in rural Indiana Schools. she is engaged in research concerned with the relationships between learner engagement and web-based learning environments.     

What happens when students do simulation-role-play in science?

This article outlines some of the findings based on a study by three teachers and a university academic of role play in the teachers' classes. The study focuses on the results of role plays undertaken with students in mixed ability classes from three high schools in New South Wales. Role plays, where students play parts in scientific phenomena such as the electrons in an electric circuit or molecules from food in digestion, are not new to science education. But, what happens when students participate in role plays in science? In this report it is suggested that simulation-role-play may allow students to demonstrate their understanding, explore their views and develop deeper understanding of phenomena. A strategy for using analogical analysis in simulation-role play is suggested but concerns are raised about the students' capacity to distinguish role play from the subject matter being studied.     

A computer in the preschool: What happens?

Joyce Killian, an Associate Professor, is a specialist in teacher education and suppervision and also teaches computer education courses. JoAnn Nelson, an Assistant Professor, is affiliated with the Child Development Laboratories and teaches child development and early childhood courses, with a special interest in cognitive development. David Byrd, an Associate Professor, is a specialist in instructional design. The authors are all in the curriculum and Instruction Department at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.     

The first day: it happens only once

Research findings on optimum use of the first day of class are mixed. Past data gathered from students from various disciplines support a first day designed to distribute the course syllabus and explain class expectations, rules, and policies. Additional literature supports a different approach to the first day; one designed to immediately engage students in the course through activities designed intentionally to accomplish more than introducing students to the scholarly objectives of the class. The purpose of this paper is threefold – to identify feasible goals for the first day of class, to present an overview of the limited research related to first-day goals and expectations, and to provide an example of a Recreation and Leisure Studies discipline-related activity to address first-day goals.     

What happens when econometrics and psychometrics collide? An example using the PISA data

International large-scale assessments such as PISA are increasingly being used to benchmark the academic performance of young people across the world. Yet many of the technicalities underpinning these datasets are misunderstood by applied researchers, who sometimes fail to take their complex sample and test designs into account. The aim of this paper is to generate a better understanding among economists about how such databases are created, and what this implies for the empirical methodologies one should (or should not) apply. We explain how some of the modeling strategies preferred by economists seem to be at odds with the complex test design, and provide clear advice on the types of robustness tests that are therefore needed when analyzing these datasets. In doing so, we hope to generate a better understanding of international large-scale education databases, and promote better practice in their use.     

Learning at any time: Supporting student learning wherever it happens

A new residential college and a faculty-in-residence program demonstrate how student affairs educators and academic faculty at one institution have collaborated to create transformational learning experiences for their students.     

’Equal Opportunities’ and Local Management of Schools — what happens now?

The introduction of the 1988 Education Reform Act in Britain marks the beginning of the most substantial changes to the system of State education since the 1944 Education Act. Many have argued that the rationale for these changes rests on the introduction of the principles of ‘market forces’ and represents an attempt to create an internal and external educational market. Already some research has begun to examine the ideology behind some of the measures introduced by the Act such as the National Curriculum and the likely effects of the testing and assessment which accompanies it on issues of ‘race’, gender and class. However, as yet, little work has focused on another measure introduced by the Act which threatens ‘equal opportunities’, that is local management of schools (LMS). It is my argument that central to all these measures is an ideology that sees education as performing a certain function, State schools as certain types of institutions and teachers and pupils as certain types of people. Indeed, just as it is often argued that the National Curriculum rests on an assumption of a specific type of educational knowledge and a certain type of educational practice, so it is my contention that local management assumes a specific model of pupil, school, governor, teacher and parent. Both the ideology behind the 1988 Education Reform Act and the measures flowing from it seek to create a market in education. It is this tenet in the recent reforms which theatens the continuance of ‘equal opportunities’. The creation of this educational market aims to replace the notions of quality of opportunity which in one form or another have represented the British post‐war educational consensus with the rhetoric of choice, standards and differentiation which have been the hallmark of British domestic social policy since 1979.     

What happens to precocious readers' performance by the age of eleven?

This paper reports on the progress made by a small group of fourteen 11‐year‐old children who had been originally identified as being precocious readers before they started primary school at the age of five. The data enable comparisons to be made with the performance of the children when they were younger so that a six‐year longitudinal analysis can be made. The children who began school as precocious readers continued to make progress in reading accuracy, rate and comprehension, thereby maintaining their superior performance relative to a comparison group. However, their progress appeared to follow the same developmental trajectory as that of the comparison group. Measures of phonological awareness showed that there are long‐term, stable individual differences that correlated with all measures of reading. The children who were reading precociously early showed significantly higher levels of phonological awareness than the comparison children. In addition, they showed the same levels of performance on this task as a further group of high achieving young adults. A positive effect of being able to read at precociously early age was identified in the significantly higher levels of receptive vocabulary found amongst these children. The analyses indicated that rises in receptive vocabulary resulted from reading performance rather than the other way round.     

Shift happens; moving from the ivory tower to the mushroom factory

ABSTRACT

The values of higher education (HE) are undergoing a disruptive shift. How the rising cost of higher education is being shared between the student and society is driving many of the changes within HE. External pressures on institutions of higher education include reduced public funding, wider student participation and increased competition. These external pressures are influencing the current environment within HE. Academic capitalism encourages institutions to focus on efficiencies and outcomes. Administrators are increasing in numbers and in influence. Students in HE have more choice and are viewed as customers instead of apprentice learners. These collective changes are influencing faculty employment, working conditions, and teaching practices. Institutions are turning to a tiered faculty system. Academic work is being unbundled as paraprofessionals develop and deliver classes. Tenure’s influence is dwindling and an increasing number of faculty are hired as contingent employees. This article will address the external pressures and changing expectations of universities in Australia, the UK and US, and how changing values are influencing faculty, staff utilization and teaching practices.     

It happens all the time,you just don't take any notice

This article discusses research undertaken with a group of ten adolescent school girls about their understandings and perceptions of sexual harassment. The research took place 2 years after the Department of Education, Queensland, had developed and disseminated its Sexual Harassment Policy and Grievance Procedures (1994). In a series of interviews, the research participants revealed their understandings of sexual harassment and the factors they considered when making the decision to report sexual harassment and/or to utilize existing grievance procedures. The research indicates that the elimination of sexual harassment must take into account the complexities and ambiguities at work in the school lives of adolescent girls. At present it would appear that schools are driven by the legal imperative to implement policy, and have yet to focus on the educative responsibility attending the policy. Schools’ educative responsibility for the effective implementation of sexual harassment policy requires that students have opportunities to examine in the formal curriculum a range of discourses that expose the contradictory ways in which gender, power, sexuality and desire are constructed in education and schooling. The findings of this research therefore have significant implications for school communities, curriculum developers and policy makers     

What happens after the care and protection petition? Reabuse in a court sample.

Of 206 cases of serious child mistreatment brought before a metropolitan juvenile court on Care and Protection Petitions (C & P), 63 (31%) were dismissed (returning the child to the parent(s]. During a 2-year follow-up period, 18 (29%) of these dismissed cases had substantiated reports of further mistreatment, and 10 (16%) subsequently returned to court on another C & P. Families that had previously been to court for a C & P, and those in which the parent was diagnosed psychotic or character disordered, were significantly more likely to return to court. In addition, we were surprised to find that 8 (6%) of the 130 children ordered permanently removed from parental custody also returned to court. This study documents the continuing mistreatment of children, even after the state's most serious interventions. The study also highlights the necessity of incorporating clinical research in the form of ongoing follow-up of individual cases into the court process, and suggests that it may be possible to identify cases with a very high probability of reinjury and return to court.