Shopping :Men’s and Women’s

“M en say they hate to shop,”says Zhukin,C ity U niversity of N ewY ork Sociology (社会学) professor. “Y et w hen you ask them deeperquestions,it turns out that they like to shop.M en generally like to shopfor books, m usic and hardw are. But ifyou ask them aboutthe shoppingthey do for books or m usic, they ll say, ‘W ell, thats not shopping.Thats research.’”In other words,what m en and w om en call “buying things”and howthey com plete thattask are different.W om en will wander thr…     

’Always knowing’ and ‘never being sure’: familial and institutional habituses and higher education choice

In 2008, the UK Labour government unveiled plans to abolish the Learning and Skills Council and transfer funding for the education and training of 16–19‐year‐olds in England to local authorities (LAs). The transfer of 16–19 funding complements the responsibilities that LAs have already acquired in relation to the raising of the education and training ‘participation age’ and ensuring that all young people have access to a full 14–19 curriculum entitlement in their area. Such a move might be read as part of the ‘new localism’ that has gained currency under the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, as well as an opportunity to rein back from an English education and training system that has become increasingly centralised and ‘top‐down’. Indeed, some commentators have argued for a new model of governance based on ‘devolved social partnership’, with input from a wider range of stakeholders and the space for policy levers to be shaped more at local level. Drawing upon interviews with key personnel in LAs and other stakeholders, this paper examines the opportunities and challenges that LAs face in their new role, whether this amounts to a genuine devolution of power, and the prospects for ‘devolved social partnership’.     

Understanding: ‘Knowledge’, ‘Belief’ and ‘Understanding’

The following paper is intended as an exercise in friendly criticism of one of Harvey Siegel's and Mike Smith's (Knowing, Believing and Understanding, this volume). I'm in substantial sympathy with the general thrust of their paper and my remarks merely provide some criticism of their discussion's conceptual coherence and clarity and a correspondingly slightly adjusted version of what they have to say. My focus is limited to the conceptions of knowledge, belief and understanding and their inter-relationships in terms of which they offer suggestions to science educators.     

Social and Emotional Learning and Teacher–Student Relationships: Preschool Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions

The study aimed to investigate how teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence, and social and emotional learning (SEL) relate to teacher–student relationships. Teachers’ perceptions of teacher–student relationships and the degree of agreement with students’ perceptions was also investigated. Preschool teachers from 92 public schools in central Greece completed the Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Teacher SEL Beliefs Scale, and the Student–Teacher Relationships Scale-Short Form for 238 students aged 5–6 years old. 170 students were interviewed using the Young Children’s Appraisal of Teacher Support. Regression analysis revealed that both teachers and students emphasized the role of teachers’ perceptions of SEL in positive teacher–student relationships. However, there was no agreement between teachers and students regarding teacher–student relationships. These findings and their implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Patriotism in British schools: teachers’ and students’ perspectives

Because there are good arguments both for and against loving one’s country, patriotism should be taught as a controversial issue in schools. But is this pedagogical approach practically viable in the British educational context? Here we report on a small‐scale survey of teachers and students in secondary schools and show that their perspectives and practices are highly compatible with our recommended approach.     

Teaching Electric Circuits: Teachers’ Perceptions and Learners’ Misconceptions

Research in Science Education - An exploratory case study involving six grade 9 science teachers was undertaken to probe how teachers’ understanding of learners’ misconceptions relate...     

Mexican parents’ and teachers’ literacy perspectives and practices: construction of cultural capital

This article examines the relationships among the literacy practices engaged in by first-grade children and parents at home and the ways in which these practices are communicated, shaped, and fostered by teachers and administrators in two different sociocultural environments in urban Mexico. The differences observed between the home literacy experiences of children in a working-class and a middle-class community included transgenerational communication of assumptions regarding literacy and schooling, as well as attitudes associated with the parents’ own school experiences. Class-based expectations on the part of teachers not only shaped interactions with parents, but were also reflected in the way the national curriculum was delivered, with a greater emphasis on rote skills and traditional reading instruction in the working-class community. The authors argue that the school plays a role in the co-production of cultural capital in the home through its shaping of some of the literacy practices that children and families undertake.     

Congruence between students’ and teachers’ goals: implications for social and academic motivation

This study examined student–teacher goal congruence and its relation to social and academic motivation. Based on a sample of 97 ninth-graders, high levels of goal congruence for each of the four goals measured (prosocial, responsibility, learning, performance) was positively related to student interest in class and perceived social support from teachers. In addition, learning goal congruence was related to adaptive control beliefs (i.e., higher levels of internal control beliefs and lower levels of powerful others control beliefs). The implications of goal congruence for understanding student social and academic motivation are discussed.     

Kindergarten students’ and parents’ perceptions of science classroom environments: Achievement and attitudes

This study, involving the modification, validation and use of a learning environment questionnaire for both kindergarten students and their parents, is significant because prior learning environment research has normally involved neither parents nor such young students. A questionnaire, which was based on the What Is Happening In this Class? and assessed actual and preferred teacher support, involvement, cooperation and equity, exhibited sound factorial validity, internal consistency reliability and the ability to differentiate between classrooms. Parents perceived a more favourable actual classroom environment than students, but students preferred a more favourable environment than parents. Associations were found between kindergarten students’ achievement and attitudes and the nature of the learning environment.     

Mothers’ and Fathers’ Autonomy-Supportive and Controlling Behaviors: An Analysis of Interparental Contributions

Objective. The goal of this study was to examine how mothers and fathers contribute to each other’s autonomy supportive and controlling behaviors toward their child. Design. The participants were heterosexual parental dyads from two prospective studies (Study 1, n = 289; Study 2, n = 202). Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires assessing their autonomy supportive and controlling behaviors toward their adolescent child. Results. In both studies, results from structural equation modeling revealed reciprocal partner effects where mothers’ autonomy support at Time 1 predicted fathers’ autonomy support at Time 2, and fathers’ autonomy support at Time 1 predicted mothers’ autonomy support at Time 2. Reciprocal partner effects were also observed for controlling behaviors. These reciprocal relations were not statistically different across mothers and fathers. Conclusions. These results provide support for interparental contributions regarding autonomy supportive and controlling parenting behaviors. Mothers and fathers should thus be aware that their parenting behaviors can be influenced by each other, including both positive and negative parenting behaviors.     

‘Teacher leadership’: values and voice

This article focuses on teacher leadership, an important dimension of the work of the Leadership for Learning network which is the focus of this special issue. More specifically, the article focuses on the launch of a journal – Teacher Leadership – as a strategy for promoting key values: shared leadership, teachers’ leadership of development work, teachers’ knowledge building and teachers’ voice. Material published in the first two issues of this new journal is used to illustrate how these values are realised in action enabling teachers to lead innovation and contribute to the development of professional knowledge. The article begins with an exploration of the place of teacher leadership within the wider context of shared or distributed leadership.     

Adolescents’ sleep and adjustment: Reciprocal effects

Reciprocal relations between sleep and adjustment were investigated. Participants included 246 adolescents (M = 15.80 years; 67.5% White, 32.5% Black/African American; 53% female, 47% male) at Time 1 (data collected 2012–2013), 227 at Time 2 (M = 16.78 years) and 215 at Time 3 (M = 17.70 years). Sleep–wake variables were measured with self-reports (sleepiness) and actigraphy (average sleep minutes and efficiency, variability in sleep minutes and efficiency). Adolescents reported on depression and anxiety symptoms, and parents reported on externalizing problems. Greater variability in sleep duration and efficiency as well as sleepiness predicted adjustment problems (range of R²: 36%–60%). Reciprocal relations were supported mostly for sleepiness (range of R²: 16%–32%). Results help understand bidirectional relations between sleep and adjustment.     

Psychological assessment and dyslexia: parents’ perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to explore parents’ perceptions of the process of having their child assessed for dyslexia by an independent Educational Psychologist and the affective impact on the child or young person. The research was carried out as part of an evaluation of the services offered by the Northern Ireland Dyslexia Centre (NIDC). The methodology involved the use of a postal survey questionnaire with both qualitative and quantitative outcomes. Findings are discussed in the context of strategies for promoting partnerships with parents and affective-academic pathways for learners with dyslexia.     

Teachers’ and teacher educators’ lives: the role of emotion

This paper reports research which focuses on ways of enhancing understandings by teachers of the key role that emotions play in their personal professional growth. It combines the narrative, autobiographical accounts of teachers attending part-time masters degree programmes in England (Continuing Professional Development and School Improvement) and Northern Ireland (Personal and Social Development) with an interrogation of the underlying values which affect the practices of their tutors. It reveals the effects of powerful and often unacknowledged interaction between personal biography and professional and social contexts upon teachers in schools and higher education.     

Tutors’ assessment practices and students’ situated learning in higher education: chalk and cheese

This article uses situated learning theory to consider current tutor assessment and feedback practices in relation to learning practices employed by students outside the overt curriculum. The case is made that an emphasis on constructive alignment and explicitly articulating assessment requirements within curricula may be misplaced. Outside of the overt curriculum students appear to be interdependent learners, participating in communities of practice and learning networks, where sense-making occurs through negotiation and there is identity development. Such negotiation may translate curriculum requirements articulated by tutors into unexpected meanings. Hence, tutors’ efforts might be better placed on developing students’ ability to self-assess and to effectively evaluate and negotiate information, rather than primarily on their own delivery of the curriculum content and feedback. Tutors cannot be fully effective if they fail to consider students’ learning outside the overt curriculum, and ways to facilitate such learning processes are suggested together with future research directions.     

‘The Treasure Within’ and ‘Learning Through Life’: A Review and Prospectus

In this article, Tom Schuller and David Watson, who were responsible for a major review of lifelong learning in the UK published in 2009, describe the main proposals from that review and compare them with the 1996 UNESCO report, The Treasure Within. They find many points of similarity, as well as clear differences. Apart from specific differences of analysis or emphasis, their 2009 ‘Learning Through Life’ (LTL) report focused particularly on adults and dealt prominently with workplace and community-based opportunities compared with the full life-cycle but largely formal education focus of the Delors report. They discuss the LTL 4-lifestage model, the lifecycle distribution of resources, and entitlements to learning. They draw out key issues related to ‘learning to be’. They provide a stocktake of the progress that has been made in the UK since the publication of their report in 2009 and find little grounds for encouragement that their suggested directions for change have been put into practice. They reflect on rationales and developments to offer a prospectus for lifelong learning that has general application, not only in the UK.     

Summer’s End and Sad Goodbyes: Children’s Picturebooks About Death and Dying

This article explores children’s picturebooks about death and grieving by considering both psychological and literary aspects. Two questions frame this analysis: How can picturebooks, particularly written for young children, support children’s grief when someone dies? How do the illustrations and text of picture books express and convey the aesthetic and emotional experience of loss? Using both psychological research on children’s grief reactions and literary analysis of picturebooks, this paper reviews picturebooks that have been published on the topic of death from 2001 to 2011 and then closely analyzes three books that span a range of topics and approaches to death. Findings indicate that children’s picturebooks convey important psychological and cultural issues through text and illustrations. Furthermore, understanding some of the psychological and literary features of children’s picturebooks that address death and grieving can help educators to provide support and understanding for children when they experience loss.     

‘Hardworking,determined and happy’: first-year students’ understanding and experience of success

While all agree student success in higher education is important, there is less agreement on what it means to be a successful student. Student success is often measured by institutional reports of grades, student retention and qualification completion. More recently, broader definitions have emerged; however, these do not incorporate student perceptions of success. The current study addresses this gap by exploring how first-year students talk about their success. Drawing from weekly interviews of students at an Australian regional university, the data are analysed through the lens of a conceptual framework of student engagement. The findings demonstrate that success is inextricably linked with student engagement as well as other dimensions of the student experience. As expected, students assess their success extrinsically with institutional measures such as grades and feedback. In addition, their behavioural engagement was seen as a more immediate measure of their success, while happiness and satisfaction were necessary for some students to feel successful. Perceptions of success have important consequences for students in terms of increased positive emotions, self-efficacy and course belonging. Success for these students has multiple dimensions. These findings give rise to suggestions for a staged approach to supporting first-year student success. However, the student experience is complex and multifaceted and further research is needed with different student cohorts who may define and experience success in other ways.     

Teachers’ Emotional and Behavioral Support and Preschoolers’ Self-Regulation: Relations With Social and Emotional Skills During Play

Research Findings: Drawing from a Dutch sample of 113 Dutch children (M age = 37 months, SD = 3.5) from 37 early care and education classrooms (19 child care centers and 18 preschools), this study examined whether the relation between classroom emotional and behavioral support and children’s observed social integration and positive mood in a play situation depends on children’s observed behavioral self-regulation. Multilevel analyses revealed a positive association between emotional and behavioral support and children’s social integration for children low on behavioral self-regulation, but there was no such association for children high on behavioral self-regulation. Contrary to our expectations, children low on behavioral self-regulation showed more integration in the case of relatively highly supportive classrooms but not less integration in classrooms that were low in support. For children’s positive mood, a positive association with emotional and behavioral support was found, and no association was found with behavioral self-regulation. Practice or Policy: This study’s findings highlight the importance of emotionally and behaviorally supportive classroom experiences for young children’s social and emotional skills. Moreover, results hint that experts should perhaps not see children low in behavioral self-regulation as always at risk for poorer social outcomes.     

Classroom discipline and student responsibility:: The students’ view

There is, internationally, increasing interest in the quality of children's character. This paper examines, in 21 elementary and 21 secondary schools, the role of classroom discipline in promoting student responsibility for the protection of learning and safety rights in the classroom. The results indicate that teachers are seen by students to react to classroom misbehavior by increasing their use of coercive discipline, which inhibits the development of responsibility in students and distracts them from their schoolwork. Unfortunately, teachers fail to increase their use of more productive techniques, such as discussions, rewards for good behavior and involvement in decision-making. Implications of these findings are discussed.