Primary schoolchildren's experiences of participatory theatre in a heritage site

There is a growing need for articulation of the theoretical framework underpinning performance as a learning medium in heritage sites and for an in-depth insight into the children's experiences therein. The aim of this paper is to explore some of the themes that emerged from researching participatory theatre in a historic house as experienced by two primary school groups. The methodology drawing upon the principles of participatory research with children and a constructivist theoretical framework employed interviews, observations and drawings as data generation methods to explore the children's individual and collective experiences. The research findings underline the interplay between the events' theatrical and interpretive format and advocate the significance of children's co-authorship of such events.     

Risk and career choice: Evidence from Turkey

In this paper, we examine the college major choice decision in a risk and return framework using university entrance exam data from Turkey. Specifically we focus on the choice between majors with low income risk such as education and health and others with riskier income streams. We use a unique dataset that allows us to control for the choice set of students and parental attitudes towards risk. Our results show that father's income, self-employment status and social security status are important factors influencing an individual in choosing a riskier career such as business over a less risky one such as education or health.     

Motivational aspects of community support for school‐based comprehensive sexuality education

Various surveys have documented widespread support among US parents, students, teachers and health professionals for school‐based comprehensive sexuality education. In many school districts, however, the sexuality education provided is minimal, incomplete or fragmented, and essential topics are often omitted or inaccurately presented. To help explain the discrepancy between support and accomplishment, this study develops a set of theory‐based research hypotheses regarding the potential motivational roles of stakeholders' goals, emotions and personal agency belief patterns in explaining this lack of achievement. A series of exploratory interviews and focus groups with 36 California parents, adolescents and professionals was conducted. A modified grounded‐theory approach was used to guide the collection and analysis of qualitative data, and the development of a theoretical framework anchored in Martin Ford's motivational systems theory. This framework suggests the complexity of the interacting factors involved, and provides a basis for specific hypotheses for further research. Potentially important goals, emotions and personal agency belief patterns are identified and discussed.     

Who Studies Women's Studies?

ABSTRACT This article reports the initial findings of a study of the cohort of students who entered Liverpool John Moores University, England, to study women's studies in the autumn of 1994, basing its focus on the survey carried out as soon as the students entered the University and the in-depth interviews carried out later in that semester. The work proceeded within the tradition of grounded theory research and endeavoured to avoid prepared hypotheses in order to allow the themes to emerge from the students' answers. From the initial findings, the very strong emphasis on the salience of the students' choice of women's studies and the experiential importance of identity as a concept was striking. The article debates the theoretical difficulties in the theorising of identity in relation to the empirical, existential project of the students.     

Teachers' Experiences of Unfair Grading

Grading is often perceived as one of a teacher's most difficult tasks. Despite most teachers endeavoring to grade their students as objectively as possible, many students feel that they are subject to unfair grading. The aim of this study is to describe what it is about a teacher's grading that contributes to the perception of unfairness. This study used the critical incident technique, with 411 practicing teachers in Sweden contributing their own experiences of being assessed in a school context. The main findings from qualitative data analysis indicate that when teachers fail to follow guidelines of the current grading system, use undependable information, allow themselves to be influenced by irrelevant factors, or are ambiguous in their communication, the pupils perceived the grading process as unfair. The findings are analyzed and discussed in relation to a theoretical model of teachers' grading, validity and reliability, and three ethical principles.     

Pedagogising Knowledge: Bernstein's theory of the pedagogic device

This paper explores one component of Basil Bernstein's complex theoretical framework dealing with the conversion or translation of knowledge into pedagogic communication. The pedagogic device is described by Bernstein as the ensemble of rules or procedures via which knowledge is converted into classroom talk, curricula and online communication. It is argued that Bernstein's theory of the pedagogic device provides researchers with explicit criteria/rules to describe the macro and micro structuring of knowledge, and in particular the generative relations of power and control constituting knowledge. The paper elaborates on the components of the pedagogic device and provides examples of empirical studies utilising this theoretical framework.     

Sexuality education for young people: a theoretically integrated approach from Australia

Background: Teachers of sexuality education can often be uncertain about what theoretical basis and pedagogical strategies to use in their teaching. Sexuality educational programmes designed by teachers can often show few evident theoretical principles that have been applied in its construction. Thus, there seems to be a dearth of evidence of ways in which teachers can use appropriate theoretical foundations in their planning and teaching in sexuality education.

Purpose: This paper aims to suggest a way of providing such an appropriate theoretical framework for sexuality education teachers of young people aged 7–15 years of age.

Analysis: Age-appropriate primary and middle school pedagogies based on two integrated educational theories, namely Anderson and Krathwohl's theoretical framework of learning and teaching, with Verbal Linguistic Intelligence from Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, were analysed and evaluated. Key considerations were the earlier maturing of girls and boys, findings from relevant literature about children and young people's cognitive capacities, as well as the relevance of curriculum content for upper primary and middle school students, and the concomitant need for better and earlier sexuality education.

Conclusion: This approach, integrating Anderson and Krathwohl's theoretical framework of learning and teaching, with Gardner's Multiple Verbal Linguistic Intelligence, may be useful to assist health and sexuality education teachers in identifying and anchoring pedagogies in a more theoretically structured manner, thereby enhancing the quality of their sexuality education planning and teaching.     

Teen Perceptions of the Promotion of Safer Sexual Practices: A Focus Group Study

Teens' own thoughts on fostering safe sexual practice are important perspectives in promoting adolescent sexual health yet are relatively absent in the literature. This focus group study explored teens' perceptions about the supports and challenges that exist as teens strive to engage in healthy sexual practices. Seventy-five teens participated in 11 focus groups using a semi-structured interview guide. School-based health centers provided the setting and facilitated sample recruitment. Focus groups were audiorecorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using the focus group guide as a template and typologies, or clusters of concepts, were extracted to establish teen perceptions of the factors that support and challenge their ability to engage in safe sexual practices. The socio-ecological model provided the framework to identify these factors within the individual, family/parent, relational (peer/partner), community, or societal spheres of influence. Results discussed the importance of parents, the value of confidentiality, respect for teen decision-making, relationships skills, developmental aspects of the adolescent years, and social interpretations of gender. These findings revealed important considerations as adults develop policies, messages, and programs designed to promote safe sexual behavior in teens.     

HEALTH PROMOTION AND AGING: EDUCATIONAL AND CLINICAL INITIATIVES BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The federal government has launched several health promotion initiatives that have affected older Americans. The initiatives that are critically reviewed here are the Medicare Prevention Benefits, the Surgeon General's Reports, the Healthy People 2000 and 2010 Initiatives, the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, and the Put Prevention Into Practice campaign and handbook. This review will focus on the positive outcomes that these five influential initiatives have spawned as well as the opportunities that were not taken.     

教师支持如何影响农村留守儿童学习适应——基于县域视角的调查研究

农村留守儿童的学习适应是农村留守儿童教育问题的核心议题。基于文献梳理,设计了农村留守儿童教师支持与学习适应的评价指标并提出研究假设,将问卷调研区域聚焦在县域层面,选择河南省X县为样本采集区域,采集调研数据,并进行数据分析,探寻教师支持对农村留守儿童学习适应的影响机制。研究发现:情绪性支持对工具性支持具有直接的正向影响效应;工具性支持对学习态度、学习成效具有直接的正向影响效应;学习态度对学习成效具有直接的正向影响效应。研究发现,从留守儿童学习适应改善的角度提出相应的教师支持策略:以鼓励、关爱及尊重为教师情绪性支持要点,助推工具性支持改善;以倾听、沟通与指导为工具性支持策略,改善学习态度及成效;以学习认知、表现及体验为关注点,提升留守改善儿童的学习成效。     

Evaluating a method for eliciting children's voice about educational support with children with speech,language and communication needs

This article reports the development and evaluation of a toolkit‐based approach to eliciting children's experiences of educational support, where the children in question experience speech and communication needs. The ‘Your Voice Your Choice’ approach was evaluated using a cross‐case analysis methodology, which represents a novel approach to critical examination of the effectiveness of such resources. We explored seven case studies within a critical realist framework. We found that the toolkit was effective at supporting most (although not all) of the children with speech and communication needs to explore their school learning and support experiences through a scaffolded emotion‐based ‘dialogue’, which was corroborated by observations and other data sources. The toolkit facilitated access to children's voice as they revealed how they felt across a number of relational, learning and support areas, which could be used by services to focus provision and consider how to better support children's social and emotional needs.     

The role of the principal's leadership style in the implementation of ICT policy

This paper presents findings of a study in information communication technology (ICT) implementation, on the principal's leadership style in relation to other factors that influence implementation. The principal's leadership style is perceived—on the basis of the characteristics of the context where the study was conducted—as a personal quality, rather than a change/transformational leadership behaviour or related to the principals' positional authority. The study employed firstly a large‐scale survey based on which case studies of four schools were selected for further research. The findings have implications for practice, more specifically, for principals' training and for the support provided to schools for embedding ICT. The paper draws on an institutionalist implementation approach to describe the principals' role in theorising the concept of ICT in education.     

Predicting Web 2.0 use among US teens—Expanding the power of the skill,will and tool model

There is a need to understand antecedents to US teens’ use of information and communication technology (ICT). Research on the “digital divide” for access to ICT reports conflicting findings based on gender and demographic factors of parent income and education. This study expanded the “tool-will-skill” framework to examine how demographic factors, access to ICT tools, teen will factors and social networking skill explain variation in Internet use among US teens. The study analyzed national data from Pew Research Center’s survey of 1,060 US teens. Principal component analysis (PCA) identified six latent variables for teen will. A pre-diagram depicts a conceptual framework and causal assumption of relationships between demographic factors, tool factors (ie, Internet access, smartphone access and tablet access), will factors (from PCA) and skill factors (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter). Multiple linear path analysis was conducted, and results reported. Recommendations are suggested for instructional practice, educational policy and future research.     

Examining a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game as a Digital Game-Based Learning Platform

A concurrent triangulation mixed-method research design was used to investigate 19 casual gamers’ or non-gamers’ use of a popular massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Everquest 2, as an alternative pedagogical tool to support communicative use of the English language. This study poses that MMORPGs could serve as a virtually rich context for social interactions to aid development of communicative competence. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, surveys, and through gameplay observations in Taiwan and the United States. Analysis of interview recordings, survey data, and observational data focuses on how player-generated perceptions align with Yee's (2006) motivation components and Ryan and Deci's (2000) theoretical assumptions of self-determination theory. Results from quantitative data analysis showed that both male and female participants in this study prioritized the importance of relatedness in playing Everquest 2 to practice using English for communicative purposes. Qualitative data analysis likewise revealed the importance of communication during gameplay. Integrated findings showed that player perceptions could be helpful in illuminating the potential of utilizing MMORPGs for game-assisted language learning and also inform different motivations in gaming to learn.     

Schooling the Mobile Generation: The future for schools in the mobile-networked society

Mobile technologies such as palmtop computers and mobile telephones represent a new breed of technological innovation--offering easier and quicker access to information and communication on an 'anytime, anywhere' basis. These networks are seen to lead to temporal and spatial re-definitions of young people's lives, with notions of time and space centred around the individual rather than shared societal norms or expectations. Such changes are now prompting some educationalists to predict that mobile technologies will radically change students, and therefore the nature of schools and schooling. Set against a lack of considered academic debate, the present paper offers a detailed consideration of the theoretical and practical implications of mobile technologies such as phones and handheld computers on schools and schooling by contrasting the 'fixed' nature of schools against 'mobile' technologies' freeing up of the key symbolic forms of power of information and communication. After considering the strengths and limitations of both these viewpoints, this paper then outlines a framework for future research and discussion in this area.     

Transformational Journey of Educators in Technology: A Study of Tenured Business Faculty

ABSTRACT

Recent statistics show faculty in higher education question the value and legitimacy of online education as a viable educational format and are, therefore, less accepting of online degrees. The focus of this study was on business faculty and online education through the theoretical framework of transformative learning. Specifically, tenured faculty members who were initially resistant to teaching online – changed their perspective – and came to value and teach online business curriculum. To examine this phenomenon, a survey was distributed to business faculty worldwide. Qualified responses were received from 206 survey participants. The findings suggest that while business faculty, including those tenured, are resistant to teaching online and prefer to teach in a face-to-face environment, a perspective change toward teaching online resulted after spending time reflecting on various factors considered key to a successful entry to online teaching.     

Mobile instant messaging for professional learning: Educators' perspectives on and uses of Voxer

Voxer is a messaging tool that allows for voice, text, image, and video communication. To explore Voxer's role in education, we surveyed 240 educators. Heutagogy served as the theoretical framework for the study. Results indicated that participants used Voxer to communicate with educators from diverse roles and from beyond their schools, districts, and regions. Respondents employed Voxer more for professional learning than with students and/or families. The majority of respondents reported that what they learned through Voxer had impacted their practice as educators. We discuss implications of our findings for educators in an era of ubiquitous social media.     

Practitioners' views about effective mental health and well-being support for post-16 students attending special school

Supporting children and young people's mental health and well-being is central to UK Government policy, with statistics suggesting post-16 students and those with learning difficulties are vulnerable. This case study explored how practitioners at a special school for students with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties promote post-16 students' mental health and well-being. Data were drawn from four semi-structured interviews and a follow-up focus group. The thematic analysis identified a whole-team approach to supporting mental health and promoting student well-being, through staff knowledge and interpersonal skills, particularly related to communication and ability to build trusting relationships, providing experiences and preparing students for adulthood. Consideration was also given to facilitators and barriers to promoting such provision for students. The emotional needs audit from the Human Givens Institute (2006) could provide a framework for practitioners in special schools to promote mental health and well-being, enabling practical and tangible strategies for intervention and support.     

Blended e-learning skeleton of conversation: Improving formative assessment in undergraduate dissertation supervision

The supervision of undergraduate student dissertations is an area in need of research. Although some studies have already addressed this, these are primarily based on academic staff responses.
This study contributes to knowledge by gathering the responses of students and focusing on formative electronic assessment. Data was collected using a student focus group and student questionnaire.
Unsurprisingly, the findings suggest that good supervisor–student communication is crucial to the supervision process and a number of students felt unhappy with this aspect. However, to facilitate this communication, the perceived absolute necessity of regular supervisor–student meetings is being questioned and a combination of technology-enabled communication is advocated. It is suggested that to improve the undergraduate student dissertation experience, a combination of face-to-face and electronic formative assessment is used. In addition, the blended e-learning skeleton of conversation model provides a sound theoretical framework that could guide supervisors and students in the supervision process. This model is advocated for use in dissertation module design and in supervisor development.     

The experience of SENCOs in England during the COVID-19 pandemic: the amplification and exposure of pre-existing strengths and challenges and the prioritisation of mental health and wellbeing in schools

A national survey of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) in England was conducted during the summer of 2020 in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The annually conducted survey typically collates demographic data about the SENCO workforce, but given the wider context, this particular survey also included nine questions about SENCOs' experiences during the pandemic. More than 1000 SENCOs participated in the survey and the findings demonstrate the critical contribution of SENCOs in supporting pupils with SEND and maintaining effective communication with their families during the pandemic. The study provides evidence of an amplification effect in relation to the strengths and challenges that SENCOs had been experiencing prior to the pandemic. The study also demonstrates the importance of prioritising mental health and wellbeing in schools for both pupils and staff in the wake of the pandemic, with this being the key priority identified by SENCOs across all types of setting and all phases of education.