Can media literacy education increase digital engagement in politics?

ABSTRACT

Online environments are now central to political life, especially for young people. They are prominent contexts for activities that include: fundraising, political debate, sharing political perspectives, mobilizing individuals and groups to act, and applying pressure to governments, corporations, and nonprofits. Much of this online politically focused activity occurs within a broader media ecology that can be characterized as a participatory culture (Jenkins, H., R. Purushotma, K. Clinton, M. Weigel, and A. J. Robison. [2009]. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Occasional Paper on Digital Media and Learning. Chicago: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation). Many have argued that media literacy efforts are needed for youth to fully leverage these digital opportunities, but rigorous studies of such educational efforts are just beginning to emerge. Drawing on an original panel survey, this paper examines whether efforts to promote digital engagement literacies increase youth online engagement in politics. We find that they do. Educators’ efforts to foster digital engagement literacies increase youth engagement in participatory politics and in applying targeted political pressure to government, corporations, and nonprofits.     

Raising standards in American schools? Problems with improving teacher quality

The quality of the teacher workforce is a subject of perennial concern in many developed countries. In the United States, through the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the federal government has a mandate for reform of teacher education that is unprecedented in its scale. Essentially the Act demands that every teacher of core academic subjects must be deemed to be highly qualified in every subject they teach by the end of the 2005–2006 academic year. This paper considers the impact that NCLB's teacher quality mandate is having in US schools. By drawing upon school-level data for the state of California, we examine the progress that this state is making towards meeting NCLB's mandate and also the role that teacher quality can play as a determinant of school success. The findings suggest that overall California has a well-qualified and highly experienced teacher workforce which is relatively equitably distributed among the states’ institutions. On the other hand, the distribution of California's students appears to be less fair, with students from poorer homes and certain ethnic backgrounds being disproportionately represented in the state's least wealthy and least successful schools. In addition, the finding that it is student background factors rather than teacher quality characteristics that are the key determinants of school success, also brings into question the extent to which requiring teachers to improve their subject content skills will really help close the achievement gaps in California's schools.     

Examining student teachers’ engagement with the theory-practice link in initial teacher education

The theory-practice debate has been a perennial issue in initial teacher education (ITE). By reporting a mixed-methods study in an ITE programme characterized by a university-based ‘theory-first’ approach in Hong Kong, this study offers useful empirical evidence to analyse the theory-practice issue. 346 student teachers of a BEd Programme participated in the quantitative survey, 15 of whom were interviewed. The quantitative findings showed significant positive correlations between three types of perceived professional competence and two aspects of student teachers’ engagement with the theory-practice link. The qualitative findings offered an in-depth understanding of the ways in which student teachers connected theoretical knowledge learned in ITE coursework and practical experience in ITE fieldwork in developing their professional competence: (1) theoretical knowledge as a guide for professional decisions and a tool for reflection on practice; (2) practicalizing theoretical knowledge: adapting theoretical knowledge to practice situations. In the process of engagement, theoretical knowledge was transformed and adapted to practice situations when student teachers coped with the challenges of the teaching contexts in their ITE fieldwork. While affirming the value of student teachers’ engagement with the theory-practice link, the findings of the study shed light on ITE practices for preparing student teachers for such engagement.     

What are the problems with teacher supply?

This paper is based on our studies of teacher recruitment and retention. Using official statistics from a variety of secondary sources, it builds on our previous work on the changing demand for teachers by exploring issues of teacher supply in the UK. Our findings suggest there is no overall shortage of applicants to initial teacher education and training (ITET), and the number of applicants and places are now higher than at any time since 1982. There were, however, almost as many unsuccessful as successful applicants to ITET courses, despite some recruitment targets not being met. Furthermore, it was not clear how these targets were set and whether they included an estimate of trainee attrition and/or the number of successful trainees expected to enter the teaching profession. There were imbalances in the supply of teachers, with many more female than male trainees. The majority of trainees were in their twenties, with the chances of being offered a training place decreasing with age, despite the uneven age profile of the contemporary teaching profession. There are important structural limitations to teacher supply, particularly in relation to the number of graduates in maths and science subjects. Improving teacher recruitment in these areas is, thus, dependent on increasing the number of students continuing to study these subjects in post-sixteen and higher education.     

Unit 10 Can you play the guitar?

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Can you feel the Olympics

I will never forget that morning when I wokeup to find my Dad sitting in front of thetelevision. To my surprise, I saw tears shining inhis eyes. Then I was told that China had beenchosen to be the host of 2008 Olympic Games.Before that day, Olympic was ju…     

How to activate teachers through teacher evaluation?

There is a general doubt on whether teacher evaluation can contribute to teachers’ professional development. Recently, standards-based teacher evaluation has been introduced in many countries to improve teaching practice. This study wants to investigate which teacher evaluation procedural, leadership, and teacher characteristics can stimulate teachers’ feedback utility perceptions and professional learning activities in the context of teacher evaluation. Data were collected in 32 secondary schools from 298 teachers and 32 school leaders, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We put forward a research model which is investigated through path analysis. Results nurture optimism about teacher evaluation indicating that teacher evaluation can stimulate teachers to undertake professional learning activities when they perceive feedback as useful. The important role of the school leader (through both instructional and transformational leadership) is stressed. Teacher participation and teacher collaboration also have a positive influence on teacher evaluation and its outcomes.     

Validating “value added” in the primary grades: one district’s attempts to increase fairness and inclusivity in its teacher evaluation system

One urban district in the state of Arizona sought to use an alternative achievement test (i.e., the Northwest Evaluation Association’s (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress for Primary Grades (MAP)) to include more value-added ineligible teachers in the districts’ growth and merit pay system. The goal was to allow for its K-2 teachers to be more fairly and inclusively eligible for individual, teacher-level value-added scores and the differential merit pay bonuses that were to come along with growth. At the request of district administrators, researchers examined whether the different tests to be used, along with their growth estimates, yielded similar output (i.e., concurrent-related evidence of validity). Researchers found results to be (disappointingly for the district) chaotic, without underlying trend or order. Using the K-2 test for increased fairness and inclusivity was therefore deemed inappropriate. Research findings might be used to inform other districts’ examinations, particularly in terms of this early childhood test.     

Can a self-efficacy-based intervention decrease burnout,increase engagement,and enhance performance? A quasi-experimental study

Using the Social Cognitive Theory as a theoretical framework, this study evaluated a 4-month, individual cognitive-behavioral intervention program to decrease burnout and increase self-efficacy, engagement, and performance among university students. The main objective of the intervention was to decrease the anxiety the students coped with before exams in order to increase their beliefs of self-efficacy. Besides the study group intervened, two control groups were involved (i.e., a “stressed” control group and a “healthy” control group). All 3 groups filled out a questionnaire before the intervention and then again 6 months later (2 months after the intervention was completed). The results show that self-efficacy, engagement and performance increased in the intervened group when compared to both control groups. Regarding burnout, decreases were noted in both the intervened and stressed control groups but not in the healthy control group. The implications of the study are discussed, together with its limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Breaking down buy-in: Can lessons from social psychology increase teacher use of proactive behavior management?

Disruptive student behavior poses significant challenges for teachers and is associated with negative student outcomes. Research shows that teacher use of empirically-based proactive behavior management (PBM) can improve student outcomes; however, research also indicates that teacher use of PBM is low. One prominent factor in teacher use of PBM is “buy-in,” or personal interest, agreement, and investment in the implementation of a practice. When teachers buy in to an intervention, they may be more likely to implement and maintain the intervention with fidelity. Yet, there is little empirically-based understanding of buy-in or strategies known to increase the buy-in of school staff. The purpose of this paper is to describe research from social psychology that may be useful in developing a theoretical framework for buy-in, as well as approaches to increasing teacher buy-in and use of PBM. Implications for incorporating strategies from social psychology into teacher professional development to increase buy-in and use of PBM are discussed.     

Can the simple view deal with the complexities of reading?

We review the Simple View of Reading (SVR) model and examine its nature, applicability and validity. We describe the SVR as an abstract framework for understanding the relationship between global linguistic comprehension and word‐reading abilities in reading comprehension (RC). We argue that the SVR is neither a full theory of reading nor a blueprint for instruction. Nevertheless we argue that the model is helpful in conceptualising these broad skills and thus in planning for teaching and learning. We review empirical evidence concerning the SVR, suggesting that it provides a good fit to much scientific data on typical and atypical development, and variation among students across the school age range. We also indicate several areas in which we think the SVR is incomplete or in need of further empirical support. These include the way in which word decoding is conceptualised, the ways in which RC is measured, RC strategies, the role of reading fluency, reading with illustrations and second‐language reading.     

Who killed the woman teacher?

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Mapping a complex system: what influences teacher learning during initial teacher education?

Despite a growing body of knowledge about what content, processes and arrangements for learning may result in more effective initial teacher education, there remains a problem with the variability of outcomes from teacher education programmes. This paper reports on a multi-perspective exploration of what influences learning to teach in valued ways during initial teacher education. Framed by complexity theory, which emphasises the non-linear nature of social phenomena, the paper presents an analysis of 76 maps of influences on learning to teach (made by teacher candidates, teacher educators, mentor teachers and policy makers), looking for differences and patterns that might point the way to explanations about teacher candidates’ varying ability to enact practice that improves outcomes for all learners.     

Stimulating professional learning through teacher evaluation: An impossible task for the school leader?

Providing effective feedback through teacher evaluation is a complex task for the school leader. Many authors state that teacher evaluation does not contribute to teachers’ professional learning. Few studies focus on the specific leadership variables that contribute to effective teacher evaluation. This study explores the importance of transformational and instructional leadership for the feedback utility and teachers’ professional learning. The results of regression and path analyses showed that leadership directly influences the feedback utility and indirectly influences teachers’ professional learning. This study demonstrates the importance of school leadership for effective teacher evaluation and highlights its usefulness for teachers’ professional learning.