The effect of time‐on‐task on student grades and grade expectations

The effects of students’ attitudes on time devoted to a course (i.e. time‐on‐task), and the subsequent effects of this time‐on‐task on their performance in the course and their overall grade point average (GPA) were studied. Over a three‐year period, engineering students (N = 231) were surveyed in weeks one, three, seven (after midterms) and 10 (before finals) of a 10‐week quarter in six sophomore and junior engineering classes (eight different sections). Results of this study show that most students are optimistic about their future performance in a new course, regardless of their previous overall GPA. All students appear to devote a relatively high and equal amount of time‐on‐task during the first week of the term. The students who earned grades between ‘B+’ and ‘A’ appear to optimise this time by the third week. Students who earned a final grade of ‘B’ study similar to ‘A’ students before midterms but significantly increase their efforts after midterms while the ‘C’ students decrease their time devoted to the course. This study finds that ‘A’ students know they will earn an ‘A’ as long as they do the work. In contrast, ‘C’ students are resigned to the fact that they will earn a ‘C’ and, thus, devote far less time to a course. The ‘B’ students want better grades and will devote the most effort towards achieving these grades.     

Pedagogy in the multimodal classroom: an analysis of the challenges and opportunities for teachers

Contemporary commentary notes that students are frequently ahead of their teachers in their ability to manipulate and be creative with the internet, digital programs, and mobile technology. In this context it is important to ask, ‘What knowledge do teachers need to teach in the contemporary context where texts are elaborately multimodal, constructed not just of print but of image, sound, and movement?’ This paper proposes some signposts to assist teachers with navigating in this environment. Using teachers’ and researchers’ reflections on practices in a diverse range of settings, both primary and secondary, the analysis explicates the challenges that teachers face in this multimodal context and elucidates some ways they can effectively operate within it. In particular, it argues that it is teachers’ expertise as analysts and critics of texts that needs to guide their planning and teaching in this ‘new’ text world.     

Learning to label: socialisation,gender, and the hidden curriculum of high‐stakes testing

Although high‐stakes tests play an increasing role in students’ schooling experiences, scholars have not examined these tests as sites for socialisation. Drawing on qualitative data collected at an American urban primary school, this study explores what educators teach students about motivation and effort through high‐stakes testing, how students interpret and internalise these messages, and how student hierarchies develop as a result. I found that teachers located boys’ failure in their poor behavior and attitudes, while arguing that girls simply needed more self‐esteem to pass the test. Most boys accepted their teachers’ diagnosis of the problem. However, the boys who felt that they were already ‘doing their best’ and ‘working hard’ began to doubt that educational success is a function of merit and effort. I conclude that students learn about much more than the three Rs through their experiences with high‐stakes testing, and argue that future research should attend to the social dimensions of these experiences.     

Sumak kawsay: Social Empowerment through Participatory User‐Centred Design in Ecuador

The aim of this article is to direct the social design debate to constructivist approaches to design education in the Global South. This article provides insight into the process of participatory user‐centred design involving Ecuadorian third year graphic design students and cocoa cultivators of limited resources in Ecuador. The students and cacaoteros become codesigners of a brand identity for the farmers’ association by means of an extensive review of literature on cocoa cultivation and commercialisation in Latin America, in‐depth interviews with community members on the traditional farming practices of cocoa growing communities in Northern Ecuador and the data collected from the students’ participation in and observation of the lifestyle within the community. This article illustrates the ‘wicked’ problems faced by these design students and the relevance of their experience to the study of social design practices and design education in developing countries.     

Life on Mars: headteachers before the National College

In the hit BBC TV drama Life on Mars Sam Tyler had an accident and woke up in 1973. Is he mad, in a coma or actually back in time? As the drama unfolds he experiences a world without performance audits but also one without the safeguards for arrest, detention and the interviewing of suspects mandated by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984). The acclaimed series has led to flights of nostalgia, not least for a world in which police could get on with ‘real policing’ without ‘unnecessary’ paperwork. In this article, we will metaphorically go back in time to contemporary and historical practices of headship in English schools. If a headteacher from 2009 were to wake up in 1973 what would they understand about their work, what would be the same, what would be different? What taken‐for‐granted current practices might get them into trouble, what might frustrate them – and what might delight them that they would bring back to the current job if they could? Mobilising Bourdieu’s thinking tools, we will examine these questions through an analysis of published and unpublished texts produced by heads about their work.     

Socialisation for learning at a distance in a 3-D multi-user virtual environment

This paper reports findings of a pilot study that examined the pedagogical potential of Second Life (SL), a popular three‐dimensional multi‐user virtual environment (3‐D MUVE) developed by the Linden Lab. The study is part of a 1‐year research and development project titled ‘Modelling of Secondlife Environments’ ( http://www.le.ac.uk/moose ) funded by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee. The research question addressed in this paper is: how can learning activities that facilitate social presence and foster socialisation among distance learners for collaborative learning be developed in SL, a 3‐D MUVE? The study was carried out at the University of Leicester (UoL) within an undergraduate module on Archaeological Theory, where two tutors and four students took part in four learning activities designed to take place in SL within the UoL Media Zoo island. The learning activities and training in SL were based on Salmon's five‐stage model of online learning. Students’ engagement in SL was studied through interviews, observations and records of chat logs. The data analysis offers four key findings in relation to the nature and pattern of in‐world ‘socialisation’ and its impact on real‐world network building; the pattern of in‐world ‘socialisation’ stage in Salmon's 5‐stage model; perspectives on students’ progress in‐world through the first stage of the model—‘access and motivation’—and perspectives on their entry into, and progress through, the second stage of the model—‘socialisation’—and the role of identity presented through avatars in the process of socialisation. The paper offers implications for research and practice in the light of these findings.     

Student ideas about weathering and erosion

Abstract

This paper provides an overview and discussion of a study concerning student ideas about the terms ‘weathering’ and ‘erosion’. It describes the results of a survey conducted on 236 students, aged 16‐19, to ascertain details of their ideas about these two terms. The main factor students use to discriminate between weathering and erosion is movement. A majority of students appreciate that weathering occurs in situ, whereas erosion involves transport. Many students regard weathering as solely related to atmospheric elements, which results in some erosional and weathering processes being incorrectly classified. Human actions are perceived as types of accelerated erosion, but uncertainty surrounds whether animal activities are bio‐erosion or biological weathering. This uncertainty is also reflected in the literature. Taken collectively the results have a number of implications for teachers addressing these concepts and for the students they teach.     

An examination of the role of values in working‐class students' career decision‐making

The literature suggests that members of the working class value informal (‘hot’) information rather than formal (‘cold’) information. They are also said to lack a future orientation; have a fatalistic (and pessimistic) attitude to life; and have low aspirations. These values should influence the way students from working‐class backgrounds approach career decision‐making. Thirty in‐depth interviews with full‐time undergraduates in their final year of study were carried out to find out if this was the case. The research found that students from working‐class backgrounds did not possess many of the values indicated in the literature. They did, however, show a reluctance to make use of formal sources of information from places like the university careers service. Their failure to utilise such sources appears to be a key factor contributing to significant gaps in the students' knowledge and understanding of the graduate labour market. It also means they are inadequately prepared for making the transition into graduate employment. The article concludes by suggesting that the provision of better careers information is not enough. There is a need to make university careers services more welcoming so that they become a source of ‘hot’ information. The article also suggests that students should be encouraged to reflect critically on how they undertake career decision‐making and planning. By getting students to engage in activities that challenge their taken‐for‐granted assumptions and biases, they are more likely to develop alternative approaches to career decision‐making.     

‘Who's this Tong‐il?’: English,culture and ambivalence in South Korea

Many supporters and critics of a ‘global English’ assume that English is (initially) ‘outside’ of cultures in what Braj Kachru calls the ‘Expanding Circle’. But this ignores the ways English has been culturally and historically constituted in countries where it is still a ‘foreign’ language. In South Korea, English education—as an institution—has been part of Korean life since the 1880s. During that time, English has acquired a variety of contradictory cultural meanings related to the colonial and postcolonial experiences of South Korean people. For example, although introduced as part of the late‐nineteenth century ‘enlightenment’ of Korean society, English became associated during the Korean War with conservatism and the US military government. More recent beliefs surrounding English suggest a combination of liberatory possibility and imperialism. Through an examination of historical sources, literature and ethnographic interviews undertaken from 1999 to 2001, I describe some of these shifting meanings as relevant not only for our understanding of English in South Korea but for world Englishes as a whole. ‘Global English’, I suggest, must be understood as both global and local.     

New methods for life course analysis of lifelong education

Studies of the impact of education on adults’ lives must go beyond the background details of students, the course and the immediate learning outcomes, and be grounded in the changing lives of learners in a changing world. Life histories provide a rich source of data to assess the significance of education but are difficult to analyse. New approaches based on life course analysis show at what stage in students’ various ‘careers’ they participate, what else is going on at the time, and how education affects areas of their lives. The paper begins with a brief review of the literature on collecting life histories and a justification for the method adopted which provides the starting point for life course analysis. A case study of a student living in an area of multiple deprivation who took an Open University community education course is presented to show how life course analysis can be carried out and the place and influence of education evaluated.     

Working for change in higher education: the possibilities for collaborative research

This paper explores the potential for conducting collaborative and critical research in higher education which problematises the role and practices of the academy in maintaining exclusion. It begins with a brief discussion of UK government discourse on widening participation, and contrasts this with the research literature which indicates the persistence of exclusionary practices in higher education, particularly in relation to social class. It then utilises a retrospective account of a small‐scale participatory research study undertaken between 1996 and 2003 with a group of adult students from working class and minority ethnic backgrounds, to explore the possibilities for research which seeks the collaboration of those who, in other traditions, are constituted as research ‘objects’. The paper discusses some of the lessons from the research process and explores the challenges for academics conducting research within the academy – challenges arising from their social positioning and their location in the academic field, but also from the ‘scholarly gaze’ which they ‘cast upon the social world’. The paper advocates research which shifts the focus from deficit discourses around students, turns a critical and reflexive gaze towards academia and academics, and directs its efforts towards challenging existing power structures within higher education.     

Problematizing the construct of ‘the Chinese learner’: insights from ethnographic research

Large numbers of students from the Chinese‐speaking world are nowadays enrolled in Western universities, prompting the need for awareness of their educational beliefs and practices. Although an established literature seeks to characterize ‘the Chinese learner’, much of this research results in stereotypical representations of a ‘reduced Other’: passive, uncritical and over‐reliant on the instructor. This paper, which is based on ethnographic research conducted in universities in the People’s Republic of China, aims to illuminate some of the common misperceptions of Chinese educational cultures.     

Bringing back sweet (and not so sweet) memories: the cultural politics of memory,hip‐hop,and generational identities

This article examines the salience of collective ‘memory’ and ‘remembering’ among a group of students in Hip‐Hop Lit, a hip‐hop centered English literature course that I co‐taught at ‘Howard High School,’ an urban high school in the Northeastern United States. Specifically, this article examines the memory work that occurred within Hip‐Hop Lit in response to the students’ interactions with one of the course texts, Things Done Changed by rapper Notorious B.I.G. From this and other classroom texts, students were able to construct, contest, and reinscribe memories about the past. Through these memories, students were able to reaffirm and challenge particular social identities that informed and reflected their lived experiences.     

Franz Kafka in the Design Studio: A Hermeneutic‐Phenomenological Approach to Architectural Design Education

This article demonstrates the outcomes of taking a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to architectural design and discusses the potentials for imaginative reasoning in design education. This study tests the use of literature as a verbal form of art and design and the contribution it can make to imaginative design processes – which are all too often limited by physical constraints. It has been observed that a person reading a novel can choose to suspend their disbelief and become entangled in the events of the book – where they become involved with the art not only subjectively, but also as a form of play. In the words of Hans‐Georg Gadamer: ‘understanding occurs in interpreting’. This study asked design students to read three of Franz Kafka's books –The Metamorphosis, The Trial and The Castle– prior to designing a Franz Kafka museum. The students found themselves drawn into numerous worlds that they were compelled to play along with; and demonstrating the productive role that literature can play in studio design, the students were observed to reconstruct the text and authorial context as a spatio‐temporal frame of reference, in this case a museum, and thus provide museum visitors with a Kafkaesque spatial experience of the narrative world in terms of design.     

Reading the Local and Global: Teaching Literature in Secondary Schools in Australia

Recently Australia has witnessed a revival of concern about the place of Australian literature within the school curriculum. This has occurred within a policy environment where there is increasing emphasis on Australia’s place in a world economy, and on the need to encourage young people to think of themselves in a global context. These dimensions are reflected in the recently published Australian Curriculum: English, which requires students to read texts of ‘enduring artistic and cultural value’ that are drawn from ‘world and Australian literature’. No indication, however, is given as to how the reading and literary interpretation that students do might meaningfully be framed by such categories. This essay asks: what saliences do the categories of the ‘local’, the ‘national’ and the ‘global’ have when young people engage with literary texts? How does this impact on teachers’ and students’ interpretative approaches to literature? What place does a ‘literary’ education, whether conceived in ‘local’, ‘national’ or ‘global’ terms, have in the twenty-first century?     

Learning to Be: The Modelling of Art and Design Practice in University Art and Design Teaching

Learning to be an artist or designer is a complex process of becoming. Much of the early phase of ‘learning to be’ occurs during the time emerging artists and designers are students in university art/design programmes, both undergraduate and postgraduate. Recent research reveals that a critical role in assisting students in their maturing identities as artists and designers is played by artist/designer‐academics teaching in university art and design programmes. By maintaining active art/design practices and drawing from these in their teaching, artist/designer‐academics model professional practice to students. Witnessing and interacting with such modelling is part of the process of students learning the shared discourses, views and practices of the art or design worlds to which they aspire to belong. The modelling of professional practice is critical to an artist or designer's ‘learning to be’ experience because it enables students to access the tacit and nuanced behaviours, languages and cultures that constitute contemporary art or design practice. This article outlines findings from a recent Australian study revealing the role of professional practice modelling in university art/design teaching. It highlights the centrality of professional practice modelling to artist/designer‐academics in their beliefs and approaches to teaching their academic disciplines. In critically exploring the research data and findings this article describes the role that modelling of practice plays and how it comprises a core part of the value that artist/designer‐academic participants contribute to the teaching of art/design education.     

Building Scientific Literacy in HIV/AIDS Education: A case study of Uganda

The term scientific literacy is defined differently in different contexts. The term literacy simply refers to the ability for one to read and write, but recent studies in language literacy have extended this definition. New literacy research seeks a redefinition in terms of how skills are used rather than how they are learned. Contemporary perspectives on literacy as a transfer of learned skills into daily life practises capture the understanding of what it means to be scientifically literate. Scientific literacy requires students to be able to use their scientific knowledge independently in the everyday world. Some models for teaching towards scientific literacy have been suggested including inquiry‐based learning embedded in constructivist epistemologies. The inquiry‐based model is posited to be effective at bringing about in‐depth understanding of scientific concepts through engaging students’ preconceptions. In order to establish whether directly engaging students’ preconceptions can lead to in‐depth understanding of the science of HIV/AIDS, a case study was designed to elucidate students’ prior knowledge. From questionnaires and classroom observations, Ugandan Grade 11 students’ persistent preconceptions were explored in follow‐up focus group discussions. The inquiry process was used to engage students with their own perceptions of HIV/AIDS during the focus group discussions. Findings suggest that students need to dialogue with each other as they reflect on their beliefs about HIV/AIDS. Dialogue enabled students to challenge their beliefs while making connections between ‘school’ and ‘home’ knowledge.     

Accidental achievers? International higher education,class reproduction and privilege in the experiences of UK students overseas

To date, scholarship on international students has generally focused on flows from non‐western economies to the main English‐speaking destination countries (such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia). In contrast, we draw on a qualitative study of 85 UK students who have either completed or are considering undertaking a degree programme overseas. We found that, in opposition to a common image of ‘international students’, UK students are not overtly motivated by ‘strategic’ concerns. Instead, they are seeking ‘excitement’ and ‘adventure’ from overseas study and often use the opportunity to delay the onset of a career and prolong a relatively carefree student lifestyle. Despite these ostensibly ‘disinterested’ objectives, however, UK students remain a highly privileged group and their experiences serve only to facilitate the reproduction of their privilege. The paper calls for a more critical analysis of the spatially uneven and socially exclusive nature of international higher education.