“Maybe That Helps Folks Feel Better About What They're Doing”: Examining Contradictions Between Educator Presumptions,Student Experiences,and Outcomes at an Alternative School

The use of alternative schools as exclusionary discipline for students found guilty of committing behavioral infractions raises questions about the effectiveness of these schools in producing improved student outcomes. Educators' justifications for alternative placements are highly relevant, because decisions regarding placements are often subjective and based on ill-defined criteria. This mixed-methods study investigates educators' perceptions of one disciplinary alternative school in the Southeast and educators' justifications for its use. The study examines the district's alternative school students' outcome data and analyzes whether these data support educators' explanations for why they assign students to the alternative school. Findings show that educators often hold mixed beliefs about alternative schools, seeing them as both a punishment and as providing needed support and services. Students, however, do not demonstrate dramatically different academic or behavioral performance as a result of their placement, bringing into question educators' justifications for placing students in these schools.     

Do you know what I'm thinking? A comparison of teacher and parent perspectives of underachieving gifted students' attitudes

The Achievement Orientation Model posits students are motivated to do well in school when they believe they have the necessary skills to perform a task (self-efficacy), find the task meaningful (goal valuation), and see their environment as supportive. When these factors are present, students self-regulate and achieve. We examined these factors from underachieving gifted students', their parents', and teachers' perspectives. Results indicated teachers recognize students who are confident and not confident about their abilities to be academically successful; however, they are less able to recognize when students value the work they are encountering in school. Parents' perceptions of students' attitudes more closely correlated with students' perceptions than teachers' perceptions correlated with students' perceptions. Teachers and parents appeared to base their perception of the importance students hold for school on their perception of students' self-regulation. Furthermore, gender differences existed in students' perceptions. Females' self-efficacy scores were statistically lower than males' self-efficacy scores, and males' self-regulation scores were lower than females' self-regulation scores. We provide suggestions for how school psychologists may use these findings to (a) collect important information from students, teachers, and parents, (b) interpret these data to identify underlying influential factors, and (c) guide the development of appropriate interventions to address student underachievement.     

Leaving certificate accounting: Measuring students’ perceptions with the course experience questionnaire

Abstract

This study uses the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) to explore tertiary students’ perceptions of their recently completed Leaving Certificate higher‐level Accounting course. Overall it finds that students hold positive views of the course, consider the workload and assessment were appropriate, and perceive the goals and standards of the course to be clear. Generally, they were happy with the teaching of the course but a significant minority felt their teachers did not provide enough feedback or make the course interesting. While the students believe the course developed some generic skills, disappointingly, they do not feel confident in tackling unfamiliar problems. They also think that the course did not improve their written communication skills or ability to work as a team member. Recommendations about the volume of course material and assessment practices are made to help address these issues.     

Designing Instructional Examples to Reduce Intrinsic Cognitive Load: Molar versus Modular Presentation of Solution Procedures

It is usually assumed that successful problemsolving in knowledge-rich domains depends onthe availability of abstract problem-typeschemas whose acquisition can be supported bypresenting students with worked examples.Conventionally designed worked examples oftenfocus on information that is related to themain components of problem-type schemas, namelyon information related to problem-categorymembership, structural task features, andcategory-specific solution procedures. However,studying these examples might be cognitivelydemanding because it requires learners tosimultaneously hold active a substantial amountof information in working memory. In ourresearch, we try to reduce intrinsic cognitiveload in example-based learning by shifting thelevel of presenting and explaining solutionprocedures from a `molar' view – that focuseson problem categories and their associatedoverall solution procedures – to a more`modular' view where complex solutions arebroken down into smaller meaningful solutionelements that can be conveyed separately. Wereview findings from five of our own studiesthat yield evidence for the fact thatprocessing modular examples is associated witha lower degree of intrinsic cognitive load andthus, improves learning.     

A Theory of Imperfection

In most counseling classes, entering students are very eager to learn techniques and theories of counseling. It is as if the students believe that these techniques will then enable them to be good counselors. If students were to succeed at their initial intention—the mastery of counseling theory and technique—all they would have are tools to distance them from their clients. In essence, the students would have the tools to work on clients and not with them. This article comments on the paradoxical nature of the teaching of counseling theory. The article demonstrates that what is correct are people and not the image people have of themselves. What is correct are the counselor's feelings between his or her clients and him or her. All counselors need do is pay attention to the correctness of their own responses to each client. They can only take a client as far along the road as they have traveled. All counselors really need to know is themselves. At this point their imperfections may be viewed as perfect and they need not depend on theories of counseling.     

Do Differences in Phonological Processing Performance Predict Gains Made by Older Low-progress Readers Following Intensive Literacy Intervention?

The research study examined the gains in single word recognition and oral reading fluency made by a group of low-progress readers following an intensive, systematic skills based reading programme (MULTILIT). Performance on the Phonological Assessment Battery (PhAB) was used to identify 'dyslexic' students (with poor phonological awareness) from 'garden-variety' low-progress readers. It was hypothesised that the identified group of 'dyslexic' students ( N = 16) would make smaller gains in reading outcomes compared to the group of 'garden-variety' low-progress readers ( N = 6). The results did not support the hypothesis since both groups of low-progress readers made substantial gains on both reading measures. Moreover, PhAB sub test scores did not predict size of gains. The results provide evidence for the usefulness of intensive literacy remediation to increase the reading gains of disabled readers despite their status (dyslexic or garden-variety) as a low-progress reader and lend support to those researchers who advocate a non-categorical approach to addressing reading disability. There is tentative evidence to suggest that the inclusion of a short phonological awareness training component for nine students may have impacted favourably on the reading outcomes of the 'dyslexic' group of low-progress readers.     

‘Am I Like a Scientist?’: Primary children's images of doing science in school

A considerable body of evidence highlights how inquiry-based science can enhance students' epistemic and conceptual understanding of scientific concepts, principles, and theories. However, little is known about how students view themselves as learners of science. In this paper, we explore primary children's images of doing science in school and how they compare themselves with ‘real’ scientists. Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire, drawing activity, and interviews from 161 Grade 4 (ages 9–10) students in Singapore. Results indicate that ‘doing science as conducting hands-on investigations’, ‘doing science as learning from the teacher’, ‘doing science as completing the workbook’, and ‘doing science as a social process’ are the images of learning science in school that most of the students held. In addition, students reported that they need to be well behaved first and foremost, while scientists are more likely to work alone and do things that are dangerous. Moreover, students often viewed themselves as ‘acting like a scientist’ in class, especially when they were doing experiments. Nevertheless, some students reported that they were unlike a scientist because they believed that scientists work alone with dangerous experiments and do not need to listen to the teacher and complete the workbook. These research findings further confirm the earlier argument that young children can make distinctions between school science and ‘real’ science. This study suggests that the teaching of science as inquiry and by inquiry will shape how students view their classroom experiences and their attitudes towards science.     

Transactional Presence as a Critical Predictor of Success in Distance Learning

This paper argues that, apart from interactive activities, the perceptions of psychological presence that distance education students hold of their teachers, peer students, and the institution can be significant predictors of their learning. The "perception of presence" in this paper is defined as the degree to which a distance education student senses the availability of, and connectedness with, each party. This form of presence is designated here as "Transactional Presence" (TP). In this study, distance education student learning was assessed in the light of students' perceived learning achievement, satisfaction, and intent-to-persist. An analysis of student survey data indicates that a distance student's sense of institutional TP predicts all the selected measures to do with success in distance learning. While a sense of peer student TP is significantly related to satisfaction and intent-to-persist, the effect of teacher TP is found to relate only to student-perceived learning achievement. Implications of the TP construct are discussed with respect to the theory, research, and practice of distance education, along with recommendations for future research.     

How some college students represent their understandings of the nature of scientific theories

This study explores college students' representations about the nature of theories during their enrollment in a large astronomy course with instruction designed to address a number of nature of science issues. We focus our investigation on how nine students represent their understanding of theory, how they distinguish between scientific theories and non‐scientific theories, and how they reason about specific theories. Students' notions of theory were classified under four main categories: (1) hypothesis, (2) idea with evidence, (3) explanation, and (4) explanation based on evidence. Students' condition for deciding whether a given idea is a scientific theory or not were classified under six criteria: content domain, convention, evidence, mathematical content, methodology, and tentativeness. Students expressed slight levels of variation between their reasoning about scientific theories in general and specific theories they learned in the course. Despite increased sophistication in some students' representations, this study affirms the complex dimensions involved in teaching and assessing student understanding about theories. The implications of this study underscore the need to explicitly address the nature of proof in science and issues of tentativeness and certainty students associate with scientific theories, and provide students with more opportunities to utilize the language of science.     

Homeschooling Associated with Beneficial Learner and Societal Outcomes but Educators Do Not Promote It

This article reviews research on homeschool learner outcomes and evaluates opposition to homeschooling. It synthesizes research on learner outcomes related to homeschooling in areas of students’ academic achievement and children's social, emotional, and psychological development and the success of adults who were home educated and finds generally positive outcomes on a variety of variables are associated with homeschooling. The author identifies four classes of negativity expressed toward home-based education by the education profession, such as the claims homeschooling is bad for the collective good and that without much state regulation significant numbers of homeschooling (home schooling) parents will harm their children. The evaluation reveals that proactive opposition to homeschooling and calls for significant state control over homeschooling do not offer any empirical research evidence that homeschooling is bad for individual children, families, neighborhoods, or the collective good. The alleged harms of homeschooling or arguments for more control of it are fundamentally philosophical and push for the state, rather than parents, to be in primary and ultimate control over the education and upbringing of children so they will come to hold worldviews more aligned with the state and opponents of state-free homeschooling than with the children's parents and freely chosen relationships.     

The Diversity of Value Meanings among University Students

The aim of the current study was to tap implicit theories of a set of values selected from Schwartz's value model. The associations to seven value items (helpful, broad‐minded, social justice, unity with nature, authority, ambitious and successful) were examined by a sample of 130 university students from three different fields of study (social science, business and technology). The findings suggest that the value items in Schwartz's value survey have relatively consistent meanings. The results mainly support Schwartz's theory by showing that most of the associations given to the value items could be located on the same value domain to which the item belonged or on the adjacent values. The influence of respondents' own value priorities and professional orientation on the associations was also evident in the results. From the standpoint of Holland's taxonomy of work environments, especially social science students' conceptions of Schwartz's value items are explainable to a large extent by their social interest, but business students do not exclusively represent the enterprising type and preferences to enhance selfish interest.     

Chemistry teaching objectives in Italian secondary schools

Responses to a written beliefs test for 178 eighth grade students and interviews with a subset of the students are analysed to investigate students' beliefs about the tentativeness of scientific knowledge and about the autonomy and strategies appropriate for science learning. These three dimensions of beliefs are salient because they align with the image of science teaching promoted by current reform movements. Analyses focus on change in beliefs and relationships among dimensions of beliefs and between those beliefs and students' understandings of science concepts. Results show that students' beliefs do not change much during the one-semester course. Students who view scientific knowledge as tentative also try to understand science. Autonomous students do not hold the most productive learning strategies, though students with low autonomy develop significantly less coherent understandings of science concepts. Instructional implications focus on potential roles of teachers and technology in promoting productive beliefs about scientific knowledge and science learning. Implications for individualized instruction follow classroom-level implications.     

General and Specific Factors in Reading Comprehension

One explanation for why many students routinely choose to do their homework with a radio or TV operating is that this distraction facilitates studying. To investigate the validity of this explanation, the authors carried out two experiments with sixth-grade students who worked on two difficulty levels of individualized mathematics assignments (N = 12) and reading assignments (N = 9) under three distraction conditions: quiet; self-selected, self-regulated radio; and self-selected, self-regulated TV. The data yielded no evidence of sizable distractor effects on students' time spent studying, computational accuracy, reading comprehension, or reading rate. These results generally are consistent with the theoretical conceptualization of attention as flexible and adaptable.     

Changing the Agenda for Research into Students' Views about University Teaching: Four shortcomings of SRT research

The conceptions of learning that students hold and how these change are dependent on several factors, including their schooling, personal traits of students and the academic environment of the tertiary institute (e.g. departmental policies, attitudes and behaviour of staff). This document discusses whether the conceptions of learning students (in this case, second year medical students) hold can be related to their academic ability. From a phenomenographic perspective (Marton et al., 1993), it would appear that students who were selected in the present study for their good academic record expressed more transformative conceptions of learning than did their less academically achieving peers, who appeared to rely on memorisation and recall. Based on the results of this study, 'academic ability' might then be a reflection of the conceptions of learning students hold. It would be interesting to extend this study to include students in other disciplines, experiencing other curricula and at different year levels.     

Relationship between Students' Perceptions of School Environment,Their Satisfaction with School and Perceived Academic Achievement: An International Study

During the last decades numerous studies have been conducted with the aim of finding predictors of an effective school measured in terms of the average level of the students' academic achievement. Few of these studies have examined how the students' perception of their work environment at school influences their academic achievement. The present article applies theory and findings from research on the adult work environment to the daily school life of children and adolescents. The analyses are based on self-reported data from the "Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey" (the HBSC study), using data from countries in both Eastern and Western Europe. Data from 11, 13 and 15 year old students in Finland, Latvia, Norway and Slovakia are used. The findings suggest that the most important psychosocial school setting predictors of students' perception of their academic achievement are that they feel satisfied with school, that they feel the teachers do not expect too much of them, and that they have a good relationship with their fellow students. The findings imply that interventions which enhance the students' satisfaction with school are likely to improve their achievement as well.     

Editorial

The first article in this issue raises some fascinating issues that relate to my own background in research into student learning and experience of courses in conventional higher education. Richardson, Long and Woodley have administered the Academic Engagement Form', used widely in colleges in the USA, and the 'Course Experience Questionnaire', used widely in universities in Australia, to distance learning students. John Richardson and various colleagues have previously shown that these questionnaires, separately, work as well in distance learning contexts as they do in conventional contexts: that is, they identify the same factors as components of students' experience, and the same factors relating to overall perceptions of quality of experience, as in conventional contexts. Of the many findings reported in the study reported in this issue of Open Learning, two stand out for me. First, academic engagement is shown to play a key role in students' perceptions of academic quality: engaged students perceive their course to be of higher quality. This does not tell us if students who are happy with their courses become more engaged or if those who are engaged become happier with their courses, however, merely that they are related. 'Engagement' here encompasses both social and academic engagement as defined in Tinto's model of student retention. Second, students' overall perceptions of academic quality are mediated by their perceptions of their tutors. The authors conclude: '... the attitudes and behaviours of tutors are crucial to students' perceptions of the academic quality of courses in distance education'. In conventional contexts the item on the Course Experience Questionnaire that relates most closely to student performance concerns the quality of teacher feedback, not teaching, and this is easy to understand in a distance context. The methodology of this paper (relying on factor analysis of questionnaires and multivariate analysis of the relationship between questionnaire scale scores and background variables such as age, gender, educational qualifications, workload and hearing status) may be relatively unfamiliar to readers of Open Learning. What is perhaps more familiar is that such an analysis adds to similar conclusions about the centrality of the tutorial role in ODL students' learning from very different kinds of study (such as of the relationship between tutorial attendance and student performance). There is a growing body of evidence that the same variables are involved in student perceptions of courses and of academic quality in distance learning contexts as in conventional contexts.     

The predictive power of intuitive rules: A critical analysis of the impact of `more A–more B' and `same A–same B'

In the international community of mathematics and science educators the intuitive rules theory developed by the Israeli researchers Tirosh and Stavy receives much attention. According to this theory, students' responses to a variety of mathematical and scientific tasks can be explained in terms of their application of some common intuitive rules. Two major intuitive rules are manifested in comparison tasks: ‘More A—more B’ and ‘Same A—same B’. In this paper, we address two important questions for which the existing literature on intuitive rules does not provide a convincing research-based answer: (1) are the reasoning processes of students who respond in line with a given intuitive rule actually affected by that rule or by essentially other misconceptions (leading to the same answer), and (2) are individual students consistent in their choice of one of the intuitive rules when confronted with different, conceptually unrelated tasks? A test consisting of five comparison problems from different mathematical subdomains was administered collectively to 172 Flemish students from Grades 10 to 12. An analysis of students' written calculations and justifications suggested that the students were considerably less affected by the intuitive rules than their multiple-choice answers actually suggested. Instead, essentially different misconceptions and errors were found. With respect to the issue of individual consistency, we found that students who made many errors did not answer systematically in line with one of the two intuitive rules.     

Is the Whole Worth More than the Sum of the Parts? Studies of Examiners' Grading of Individual Papers and Candidates' Whole A-level Examination Performances

Typically, students are assessed on elements of their performance, and it is assumed that the sum of marks for these elements will be just as impressive as the students' whole performances. Examiners might expect more for a particular grade if they only see parts of the students' work separately. Two experiments were carried out comparing examiners' judgements of the grade-worthiness of candidates' A-level examination work at question paper level and at subject level. The results of both studies suggested that examiners may have compensated to some extent for the different aspects of the subject tested in different question papers when they made holistic judgements, but did not make this compensation when they made question paper judgements. Tunnel vision effects are likely to be greater in the AS/A2 examinations than those found here, because the examinations will be broken into smaller parts.     

Multidimensional perfectionism in middle school age gifted students: A comparison to peers from the general cohort

The researchers designed this study to investigate levels of multidimensional perfectionism in identified gifted middle school students and a group of their peers from the general cohort. Gifted students (N = 83) were compared with the general cohort (N = 112) from a Southeastern rural middle school (grades 6 through 8). One‐way analyses of variance were used to determine whether gifted and general cohort students differed on measures of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism. Results revealed that gifted students had significantly higher standards scores, a measure of adaptive perfectionism, and significantly lower discrepancy scores, a measure of maladaptive perfectionism. These results suggest that gifted students are more perfectionistic (i.e., hold higher personal standards) than general cohort students. However, the results do not support the contention that gifted students experience distress or maladjustment from their higher levels of perfectionism (e.g., Maxwell, 1995).     

Disrupting deficit notions of difference: Counter-narratives of teachers and community in urban education

The author reports on research conducted of teachers and their instruction in a US urban public school, with narrative and counter-narrative employed as analytic tools. Central questions guiding the study included: How do teachers’ counter-narratives and experiences influence them in their urban school classrooms? How do teachers’ multiple and varied identities, especially their racial and cultural backgrounds, emerge in their counter-narratives and in their conceptions of and representations of their teaching? And how do teachers’ stories “counter” ways of knowing urban education in the US and influence their interactions with their students and the learning opportunities available in their classrooms? The evidence in the study suggests that although teachers in urban schools may employ pedagogical and curricular tools that differ from many mainstream classrooms, different does not necessarily mean deficit or deficient. The study does not present a romanticized version of the school or those in it; the teachers and students in the study experience adversity and difficulty as is the case with teachers and students in other contexts. However, implications are drawn from the teachers’ successful practices in urban schools to counter, disrupt, and interrupt pervasive discourses that only focus on the negative characteristics of teachers and students in urban schools.