A Peer‐tutoring Scheme to Support Independent Learning and Group Project Work in Mathematics

A peer‐tutoring scheme was introduced to an undergraduate mathematics module. This was to provide a learning support for an independent learning programme. These student support groups also functioned as task groups for group project work. In the independent learning programme, students were directed to read selected passages of text, to attempt certain exercises and to devise peer assessment tasks. For some of the sessions senior students were present and functioned as additional peer tutors. To assess the students’ attitudes to the peer‐supported independent learning programme, an Attitudes to Peer‐tutoring Questionnaire was constructed. The results show that the students readily accepted the need to work in groups and to support one another. Overall, 78% felt that they could work easily without pressure and that the sessions were not a complete waste of time. However, 65% of the students did not appear to enjoy the independent learning sessions and felt that they preferred to be responsible only for their own learning.     

Teaching and Learning of Citizenship Education at the Junior Secondary Level in Botswana

This article explores some evidence about tutoring as an effective strategy to support young people’s learning. It is argued that the central goal of the tutor is to provide support for students’ learning. How the activities, relationships and skills of the tutor contribute to the achievement of this goal is then explored. The author emphasizes the tutor’s unique position in the school and how it can contribute to learning for students as individuals and in groups.     

The Emotionally Affected University Student: support from the university community

The study measured the general attitudes towards disability of academics, administrative staff, and students in a small rural University. Respondents were also asked to comment on the nature of support that might be provided for a student with an emotional disability. There were some significant differences in level and nature of support for students with an emotional disability among academics, administrative staff, and students. These differences were related to the levels of comfort with, and sympathy felt towards, students with an emotional disability. However, overall the results suggest that university students with expressed emotional difficulties are liable to be relatively negatively regarded and are not liable to receive much concrete assistance for the difficulties they face. It is proposed that the data supports the notion that academics, of all the groups measured, are best placed to decide types of support for students with an emotional disability on a case by case basis.     

学习小组的作用、类型及其学习支持服务体系

开放教育组建学习小组具有十分重要意义，它是对个人自学、面授辅导的有益补充，学生可以取长补短、互相学习、共同提高，可以有效监督学生平时自学情况，可以充分利用有限的教学资源，可以密切学生之间的人际关系。编排学习小组的方式多种多样，各种方式有利弊，值得认真研究。学习小组要想充分发挥作用，必须有强有力的学习支持服务体 系作支撑。     

Tutors' and Students' Learning or Why do Schools have Tutors?

This article explores some evidence about tutoring as an effective strategy to support young people's learning. It is argued that the central goal of the tutor is to provide support for students' learning. How the activities, relationships and skills of the tutor contribute to the achievement of this goal is then explored. The author emphasizes the tutor's unique position in the school and how it can contribute to learning for students as individuals and in groups.     

Trends in the Educational Placement of Students with Disabilities in New South Wales

This paper reports the results of an analysis of trends in the placement of students with intellectual, physical, sensory, or behavioural disabilities in New South Wales for the period 1986 to 1994. Although there was a general trend of movement of students from special schools to support classes, there were some major differences across disability groups. The results are discussed in relation to current special education policy in New South Wales and the philosophy of including students with a disability in regular schools and classes.     

Supporting Online PBL: Design Considerations for Supporting Distributed Problem Solving

This study considers how four groups of education graduate students worked in a distributed problem-based learning (PBL) environment using an asynchronous threaded discussion tool. The analyses consider how the students were able to interact with each other using the tool and how they worked together to define the problem and identify key issues to explore. The outcomes include some design considerations for tools to support these activities as well as insight about how students may work together to solve a problem in a distributed environment.     

Group characteristics and profiles of shared regulation in collaborative environments involving asynchronous communication / Características y perfiles grupales de regulación compartida en entornos colaborativos de comunicación asíncrona

The processes of socially shared regulation in small groups of students who perform collaborative tasks through forums involving asynchronous communication are explored in this article. The specific aim of the study is to identify profiles of shared regulation in groups of students who have different performance levels on the task, depending on the regulatory activities exercised by the groups and their distribution over time. For that purpose, a case study was developed; six small groups of university students collaboratively performed a complex task (for 29 days) in a virtual environment based on asynchronous discussion forums. The results revealed three different profiles: (i) a profile with stable and high regulation; (ii) a profile with partially stable and medium regulation; and (iii) a profile with unstable and low regulation. The first two profiles were observed in the groups with high performance levels on the task, while the third profile was observed in the low-performing groups. Therefore, some recommendations are suggested to support processes of shared regulation in asynchronous collaborative learning situations.     

Religion as a Support Factor for Women of Color Pursuing Science Degrees: Implications for Science Teacher Educators

This study explores the influence of religion as a support factor for a group of Latina and African-American women majoring in science. The current project is a part of a larger study that investigated persistence factors of underrepresented woman who were enrolled as science majors at United States colleges and universities. This paper focuses on one theme that emerged among six participants who disclosed how religion was a significant influence on their persistence in science fields. The strength and support offered by religious values is certainly not specific to science content; however, the support received from their beliefs highlights a potential area for further exploration. Given the importance of increasing participation by students from diverse backgrounds into science fields, it is critical to recognize how some of these differences may be the key factors influencing the way these students look at the world. This study offers evidence that science educators need to consider what role religious beliefs have for students who may be considering science or science education as a future career, particularly for those students from underrepresented groups.     

印度弱势群体学生教育资助体系探析及启示

印度生活在贫困线下的人口约占全国总人口的1/3,而占全国人口1/4的表列种姓与表列部落是其中最贫困、最落后的群体。尽管印度GDP只有我国的1/5,但为提高弱势群体学生的受教育水平,印度联邦和地方政府制定了弱势群体学生奖助学金、弱势群体学生助学贷款、弱势群体学生公寓与寄宿学校等资助计划,使他们上得起学、上好学,有机会、有能力分享社会经济发展的成果。印度弱势群体学生资助计划对我国弱势群体的教育普及、优质教育资源的获得、社会地位的提升等方面都有一定的启示意义。     

高校贫困生弱势群体社会支持的实现路径

高校贫困生目前已成为有着一定数量和规模的社会群体。这个群体中有相当一部分学生具有明显的弱势群体特征。通过对高校贫困生弱势群体特征的考量,＂能力贫困＂是他们之所以归属弱势群体的内源性因素。他们不仅需要经济上的资助而且需要精神层面的扶助。其实现路径为：优化社会扶助体系结构,完善有偿支持保障;拓展社会扶助渠道,加大精神关怀力度;理性运用社会扶助,主动拓展能力素质。     

Catching sight of talk: Glimpses into discourse groups

This article reports on a study conducted in a graduate teacher research class with elementary and secondary classroom teachers. Wanting to create a collaborative environment in which their students could use language to support each other's learning, the instructors formed discourse groups. The article introduces a theoretical framework for discourse groups and using examples from the groups, presents a methodology for analyzing the social practices reflected in the teachers’ talk. It concludes with a discussion of the nature of the discourse that supported (and in some cases did not support) the re-storying of teachers’ knowledge.     

Primary teachers’ perceptions of multi-grade classroom grouping practices to support inclusive education

ABSTRACT

Previous research has focused on inclusive classroom practices in mainstream primary schools but little is documented regarding practices in multi-grade classrooms. The purpose of this paper was to report mainstream primary teachers’ perceptions of multi-grade classroom grouping practices to support inclusive education specifically for students with special educational needs (SEN). The findings indicated that despite the difficulty of covering the curricula of the various grades, multi-grade teachers reported the implementation of flexible grouping practices (ability, mixed ability, social) for academic or social reasons. However, the tension between meeting the needs of the grade groups and the individual student with SEN were apparent, with some practices documented not necessarily inclusive. The importance of using appropriate grouping practices to enable teachers to include all students, thereby avoiding potentially negative effects of treating some students differently was emphasised.     

Supporting online,non-traditional students through the introduction of effective e-learning tools in a pre-university tertiary enabling programme

The increasing number of external students enrolling at Charles Darwin University has led to the university investing in new technologies to provide better support for students studying online. Many students, however, come from non-traditional backgrounds and lack some of the skills and confidence to participate successfully in an e-learning environment at university. This article discusses the findings of a pilot study conducted in a pre-university tertiary enabling programme. Three e-learning tools were developed for external students to enhance their understanding of the learning materials and create a greater sense of connectedness between students, staff and the learning materials. Academic staff implemented the use of video clips and synchronous online tutorials and also refined their use of discussion groups to facilitate interactive engagement with learning materials.     

Does the repetitive use of the same test in consecutive examination sessions facilitate cheating?

This paper introduces an empirical study testing three kinds of bias in higher education student assessment. All of them are connected to the repetitive use of the same test questions which may facilitate academic cheating. The ‘same tests effect’ may appear if two or more groups of students are writing the same test one after the other and, as a result, a statistically significant improvement is detectable in the test scores of the second student group. The ‘revealed sameness effect’ is the impact of informing the students in some way that the test questions will be repeated. The ‘self selection effect’ arises when the students choose their examination turn themselves and this boosts their measured performance. The present study examines the three effects with independent t-tests and linear regression models on samples of 1221, 235, and 201 students (in this order), from four business courses in six academic semesters. The results do not support the ‘same test effect’, but support the ‘revealed sameness effect’ and the ‘self selection effect’.     

贫困大学生的社会支持网研究

个体的社会支持网可以为人们提供情感、经济、信息等多方面的支持。运用提名法对贫困大学生的社会支持网研究发现,贫困生的社会支持网与非贫困生的社会支持网存在一些共性,如经济支持网与信息支持网规模小于情感支持网和交往支持网。当前,同伴和亲属是社会支持网的主要构成。但与非贫困生比较,贫困生的社会支持网又有不同之处,如密度更小。在趋同性方面,农村籍大学生的支持网中农村籍成员比例显著大于城市籍大学生支持网中农村籍成员比例,贫困生的支持网中贫困者的比例也大于非贫困生支持网中贫困者的比例。各类贫困生在户籍与经济状况方面的异质性都大于其相对应的非贫困生。因而贫困生的社会支持网所能提供的支持也更为不足。应该鼓励师生更主动地为贫困生提供社会支持。     

Scaffolding Student Understanding in Small-Group Work: Students’ Uptake of Teacher Support in Subsequent Small-Group Interaction

Providing contingent or adaptive support (i.e., scaffolding) is effective. Yet it is unclear how it promotes students’ learning. In this mixed-methods study, we investigated to what extent the effect of contingent support for students’ learning is mediated by the extent to which students take up teachers’ support in subsequent small-group work. We define contingent support as support that contains adapted levels of teacher control or regulation based on the learner’s level of understanding. To explore the research question, we analyzed all interactions from 35 lessons of 7 secondary social studies teachers and 7 small groups of students. Logistic multilevel mediation analyses showed that the likelihood of students formulating accurate answers during small-group work was higher when students applied the teacher’s support in subsequent small-group work (as opposed to ignoring that support). However, the contingency of a teacher’s support did not affect students’ uptake or the accuracy of their answers. Additional qualitative analyses showed that students’ uptake of contingent support was sometimes hampered by untimely fading of the support. Moreover, we found that contingent support that was then gradually faded was the most effective in fostering students’ uptake of a teacher’s support.     

Using Workflow for Projects in Higher Education

The WWW is increasingly used as a medium to support education and training. A course at the University of Twente in which groups of students collaborate in the design and production of multimedia instructional materials has now been supported by a website since 1995. Workflow was integrated with other components in the website to investigate whether workflow can help instructors and students to have a better overview of group progress. Our evaluation shows that the introduction of workflow does provide added value. Another outcome of the experiment is that the transfer of a business application (workflow) into the educational domain has highlighted some differences and similarities between educational and business processes. This article explores some of these issues as highlighted by the application of workflow in education.     

The role of collectivism among Latino American college students

In an attempt to explain the lower Latino college graduation rate, the current study focuses on collectivism in kin and nonkin helping situations. The sample comprised 60 students at a 4-year college in the southwestern United States. Results revealed significance between ethnicity and nonkin collectivism: Latino American college students were significantly more collectivistic toward nonkin groups compared to their non–Latino American counterparts. The use of various support systems may shed some light on the necessary remedy for Latinos’ lower college graduation rate. Implications are discussed for cultural sensitivity training and program development to foster the experience and success of Latino American college students.     

International students in the higher education classroom: initial findings from staff at two post‐92 universities in the UK

A significant body of work has emerged over the last 10 years investigating the experiences of international university students. These studies have covered various challenges faced by some groups of international students relating to culture, language and integration and have been prompted by the increase in international students studying in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. A smaller strand of research has also begun to focus on the experiences, perspectives and reactions of academic staff who have seen the composition of their cohorts change substantially over recent years in terms of numbers of international participants. This article reviews relevant literature in this field, reporting on a questionnaire study based at two UK post‐92 universities. Respondents associated a range of traits with international students and suggested that the increasing number of international students enhanced the environment, but also required a higher level of support. This study also found that staff resorted to informal methods when developing means of adapting their practices to the increasing number of international students, preferring discussion with colleagues and students themselves to formal development programmes or advice from specialist departments such as student support. The article concludes that in order to encourage diversity in a meaningful way, universities need to recognise the challenge of increased numbers of international students and support staff accordingly.