Rubrics as a Tool for Learning and Assessment: What Do Baccalaureate Students Think?

Rubrics are increasingly used as tools to evaluate student work. This study examined BSW students' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of using rubrics. Pre- and posttest questionnaires were administered to 35 students in two sections of a diversity course. Students judged the use of rubrics favorably. Rubrics communicated the instructors' expectations, clarified how to write course assignments, explained grade and point deductions and, in general, made course expectations clearer. Students suggested that the rubric design should be self-explanatory and easy to follow. If carefully developed, rubrics may be a useful tool for advancing student learning in social work programs.     

An Action Research Network as a Strategy for Educational Change: The “Learning for a Sustainable Environment” Project

This paper provides a case study of theLearning for a Sustainable EnvironmentProject which illustrates how educationalchange may be fostered at a regional levelthrough the professional development of teachereducators. The purpose of this project was toexpand the range of innovative practices usedin teacher education programmes in theAsia-Pacific region by introducing educators tothe curriculum planning skills and teachingmethodologies of environmental education. Thiswas done through an action research network ofteacher educators who shared in the developmentand evaluation of workshop modules as a vehiclefor collaborative professional development.This paper outlines the details of thisstrategy for change and uses the findings of aparticipatory evaluation of the project toargue that the action research network approachused in this project can provide a relativelyinexpensive and egalitarian approach torethinking professional development andeducational change. This is of particularsignificance in `southern' settings such asAsia and the Pacific where professionaldevelopment, especially in higher education,tends to be dependent upon outside expertisefunded by aid agencies and the multilateralbanks.     

Historical Controversy as an Educational Tool: Evaluating elements of a teaching–learning sequence conducted with the text “Dialogue on the Ways that Vision Operates”

This paper describes the development, use, and analysis, of an educational tool inspired by the history of the optical mechanism of vision. We investigated 12‐year‐old students’ reasoning about vision. Most of them explain it as the result of something coming either from the object or from the eye. Moreover, some of them think that light penetrates the eye only when they are dazzled. Such ideas can be found in the ancient and medieval history of science. In particular, the Ancients disagreed about the direction of vision until Alhazen opened the way to a consensus, arguing in the 11th century that light could be a stimulus for the eye. Our tool, a short drama entitled “Dialogue on the Ways that Vision Operates”, refers to those historical elements, especially to the controversy over the direction of vision and Alhazen’s ideas about light. This text was integrated in a teaching–learning sequence and experimented with six pairs of students aged 12–13. The analysis of this teaching–learning sequence shows that the learning process can take advantage of the opportunity offered to the students to identify themselves with the scientists portrayed in the drama.     

The Effect Teaching Experience Has on Perceived Effectiveness of Interactive Television as a Distance Education Model for Elementary School Science Teacher’s Professional Development: Another Digital Divide?

The first year of a 5 year professional development project for elementary teachers in two mid-western states integrated a bridge of two distinctly different distance education networks (T-1 and fiber optics) to provide science professional development for elementary school teachers in rural communities. Interactive television (ITV), the title given to the distance component, consisted of a series of twenty-four, 2 h presentations by scientists and content specialists. It provided expansion to the science pedagogical content knowledge of the elementary teachers involved. Eighty-five teachers in 38 school districts from the two states completed individual surveys following the final ITV session. Analysis of variance of participants post-session survey scores yielded differences (p < 0.05) on the subscales measuring perceived effectiveness of using distance education for professional development purposes and years of teaching experience. Teachers with over 20 years of classroom experience perceived the use of distance education technologies for science professional development to be more effective than teachers with 16–20 years of classroom experience. These results might suggest another digital divide.     

“Is everybody getting it?”: Sustained support for English as a second language students

The needs of ESL students do not end after the first year. Paulette Henderson describes one community college's approach to supporting ESL students throughout their academic career.     

Becoming a “Model Minority”: Acquisition,Construction and Enactment of American Identity for Korean Immigrant Students

While the “model minority” stereotype of Asian Americans and its negative effects has been documented elsewhere, relatively little attention has been paid to how recent Asian immigrant students begin to embrace the stereotype while in schools. This study explores the identity formation process for a group of recent Korean immigrant students as “model minority” in an urban high school to empirically document the process. Through interviews and observations, I learned that the immigrants acquired an unauthentic American identity as a racial minority, constructed their status as “model minority” in response, and enacted the stereotype as they sanctioned those who couldn’t live up to the stereotype. The aim is to add to the body of knowledge on the school experiences of recent Asian immigrants.     

“I want to speak like the other people”: Second language learning as a virtuous spiral for migrant women?

This article contributes to scholarship on migrant women’s second language (L2) education in North America and Europe. Questioning reductionist understandings of the relationship between female migrants, their receiving communities and L2 education, the authors consider existing literature as well as their own qualitative work to investigate the challenges, opportunities and agency of migrant women. Weaving together and thematically presenting previous scholarship and qualitative data from interviews, participant observations and classroom recordings from a mixed-gender L2 adult migrant classroom in Austria and an all-women L2 migrant classroom in the United States, they trouble conceptualisations which position women primarily as passive recipients of education and in need of emancipation, while simultaneously elevating communities as agentic providers of these. Specifically, the authors emphasise that (1) L2 proficiency is not a guarantee for migrant women’s social inclusion or socioeconomic advancement; (2) migrant women’s complex challenges and agency need to be recognised and addressed; and (3) all involved in L2 education of migrant women do well to become learners of their own experiences of oppression, including their complicity in it.     

“Do I Really Hafta?” WebCal,A Look at the Use of LiveMath Software in Web-based Materials that Provide Interactive Engagement in a Collaborative Learning Environment for Differential Calculus

This paper describes the use of a Web-based Computer Algebra System (CAS) called LiveMath in a computer supported collaborative learning environment for Differential Calculus. The instructional design incorporated a Reform Calculus notion of Calculus and a constructivist philosophy of learning. Based on interviews with students, independent observations in the classroom, and observations by the teacher, this paper provides insight for students, instructional designers and classroom educators into the issues raised in this environment. The study was exploratory in nature, concerning itself with testing and revising both the materials and the setting in which they were used. The intent was to discover interaction between characteristics of students and the environment which warrant future study. For example, the use of LiveMath seemed in some cases to cause cognitive overload. In addition, student epistemological beliefs, prior knowledge of symbolic representations of functions and propensity for self-directed learning interacted with the ability of students to use LiveMath inserts to attain conceptual understanding. While students appear to have learned some concepts more deeply, and others more rapidly than anticipated, they reported that they judged that they were working harder than friends in other sections. Further, being in a student centred learning environment was unsettling for both the students and the instructor.     

Cultivating Fertile Grounds: Enhancing and Extending the Scientific Base of Social and Emotional Learning: A Commentary on “The Scientific Base Linking Social and Emotional Learning to School Success,” a chapter by Joseph E. Zins,Michelle R. Bloodworth,Roger P. Weissberg,and Herbert J. Walberg

Joseph Zins was a forerunner in empirically demonstrating the interrelationship of SEL interventions and school success. This commentary highlights his perspectives on the accumulating body of evidence for the academic gains that have been associated with various SEL interventions and aims to show how new research methodologies can further extend the scientific support as well as enhance the cultural responsiveness of SEL interventions. A partnership approach to research is advocated for addressing three important research directions: defining and measuring social and emotional competencies, co-constructing intervention programs, and achieving system-level program integration.     

“Every time someone comes forward,it makes it easier for the next survivor to be heard”: Sport as a triggering agent to break the silence of child sexual abuse

This research explored cultures of silence around child sexual abuse (CSA). On July 10, 2018, in response to multiple sexual abuse cases occurring in sport, sport news site Deadspin published a reader letter detailing CSA. This article prompted others to comment by sharing their accounts of CSA. Through qualitative analysis of 47 posts, we analyzed CSA victims’ lived experiences, with a focus on how cultural and social forces silenced them. Results indicated that silencing of CSA victims occurred through three overarching mechanisms: (a) patriarchal master narrative; (b) trauma-related shame; and (c) systemic power. The results illuminate the cultural and social factors that CSA victims experience and provide opportunities for parents, family members, and other stakeholders to better understand these constraints. In doing so, victims can be better supported, and needed discourse on CSA can occur more frequently to help identify solutions to this pervasive social problem.     

“Pupils should have respect for you,although I have no idea how to achieve this?”: The ideals and experiences shaping a teacher’s professional identity

The aim of the study was to understand the development of professional identity of prospective teachers, their ideals and experiences during interactions with their surrounding learning environment, including university studies and pedagogical placement during their 5-year studies. We also aimed at understanding how students with different motivational pathways to teacher education may be supported to explore teaching as a possible career choice. The findings reported in this article emerged primarily from interviews with 13 student teachers at the end of their teacher education programme. Survey responses collected during earlier stages of the study were utilised to provide data about the student teachers’ professional development prior to the point of the interviews. The findings of the study point to various concerns and dilemmas, which in turn suggest that student teachers take different identity development routes. The study identified four possible “identity routes” to becoming a teacher. The implications of different identity routes on teacher education are discussed.