What Constitutes Effective Curricula for Students With Severe Disabilities?

During the last quarter century, the definition of effective curriculum for students with severe disabilities has changed dramatically. This article reviews the development of curriculum practices for students with severe disabilities and examines 3 components of the 1997 Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that have the potential to significantly impact curriculum design. These components include (a) IDEA's emphasis on preparing students for employment and independent living, (b) mandates for student access to the general curriculum, and (c) students with disabilities in state- and district-wide assessments. The benefits and challenges of implementing these changes are explored in relation to the current literature on effective curriculum models. Future research questions for evaluating the impact of IDEA's framework on student outcomes are presented.     

Unravelling Quality in Higher Education: What Say the Students?

Abstract

The extant literature on quality assurance in higher education points to a dearth of empirical studies on students’ conceptions of quality in higher education. This interpretivist article reports on a study that explored the conceptions of quality in higher education by final year undergraduate students in six academic disciplines at Makerere University, Uganda. Data for the article was collected from 50 final year students in eight discipline-specific focus group discussions and was analysed using thematic analysis. Four conceptions of quality in higher education were evident from the participants’ responses, namely: quality as transformation (value-added); quality as fitness for purpose; quality as excellence; and quality as consistency/ perfection (zero-errors). Nevertheless, transformation and fitness for purpose featured as the dominant conceptions of quality in higher education and these conceptions of quality did not take place in a vacuum. The students rationalised transformation and fitness for purpose by what they perceived the purpose of higher education to be. The multiple and yet competing purposes of higher education occasioned the two definitions of quality in higher education. Therefore, consensus on the meaning of quality can be hastened by arriving at a common purpose of higher education in a given society rather than engaging with the notions of quality themselves. This thinking presupposes the idea that the purpose of higher education varies across time and space and the definition of quality in higher education should be responsive to the prevailing purpose(s) of higher education in a given society.     

Problems With Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST): What Do the Textbooks Say?

The first of 3 objectives in this study was to address the major problem with Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) and 2 common misconceptions related to NHST that cause confusion for students and researchers. The misconceptions are (a) a smaller p indicates a stronger relationship and (b) statistical significance indicates practical importance. The second objective was to determine how this problem and the misconceptions were treated in 12 recent textbooks used in education research methods and statistics classes. The third objective was to examine how the textbooks' presentations relate to current best practices and how much help they provide for students. The results show that almost all of the textbooks fail to acknowledge that there is controversy surrounding NHST. Most of the textbooks dealt, at least minimally, with the alleged misconceptions of interest, but they provided relatively little help for students.     

What to Do With Meaning? A Research Conundrum for the 21st Century

It is difficult to know what to do with meaning. Some kinesiologists, particularly those in the humanities, would argue that it should be given due attention—perhaps even priority attention. Others would argue that meaning is unimportant or simply impossible to study in any objective way. This conundrum can be solved by adopting a new research paradigm, one that places meaning on a level playing field with muscles, cells, genes, and other movement-related phenomena. I argue that we might be in the middle of a Kuhnian paradigm shift. This new way of conceptualizing reality has significant implications, not only for how we do research, but also for how we understand our field. I identify five implications of the new paradigm for kinesiology.     

What Do Schools Do after OFSTED School Inspections-or before?

ABSTRACT

The results of research on the effects of OFSTED secondary school inspections in England since 1994 are presented. The reactions of headteachers to the inspections and their progress on the resulting school action plan are given. The results indicate considerable potential for school inspections to contribute to the process of school improvement.     

What Do You Like Doing After School?

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Timed Online Tests: Do Students Perform Better With More Time?

This article focuses on timed tests and specifically on whether increased time enhances test performance. Three courses during the Winter 2015 term (quizzes n = 573) and three courses over the Spring 2015 term (quizzes n = 600) comprised this sample. Students were given the same tests, but the experimental group (Spring 2015) was given 50% more time than the control group. The results indicate that more time on tests did not enhance student performance in terms of higher scores.

Much attention has been given to student assessment of learning in the online classroom. One such method of measurement is online tests, quizzes, and exams. The focus of this research is to determine whether test scores would improve if students were allowed more time on tests.     

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.     

Shaping Students’ Attitudes Toward Diversity: Do Faculty Practices and Interactions With Students Matter?

Research in Higher Education - Scholars have advocated for further investigation of the campus climate for diversity and students’ attitudes and behaviors surrounding diversity, and there...     

Adult Jewish Learning: What Do We Know? What Do We Need to Know?

This article describes the emergence of the field of adult Jewish learning and the need for research in this burgeoning aspect of contemporary Jewish life. The authors describe the context in which the upsurge of adult Jewish learning has occurred, drawing attention to the absence of systematic data collection about programs, funding structures, or long-term impacts. They review existing research about adult Jewish learners, learning experiences, and teachers, and identify three categories (and numerous questions) for future research: (1) the purposes of adult Jewish learning; (2) adult Jewish learning settings, subject matter, and methods of instruction; and (3) underrepresented groups in adult Jewish learning programs.     

The Implementation of School Inclusion Practices for Students with Special Needs in Israel: Teachers’ Perceptions

The research examined how school inclusion practices for students with special needs in Israel are perceived by teachers. Participating in the study were 121 elementary and secondary teachers in 10 schools around the country. The instrument was the 50-item ‘Implementation of inclusion practices in schools for students with special needs’ questionnaire, developed by the author together with seminar students. The findings indicate that inclusion practice as a whole was perceived to be implemented in the schools to a moderate degree. When testing the five components of inclusion separately, moral obligation was perceived to be implemented to a significantly greater degree and the knowledge component to a significantly lesser degree than the others. Inclusion practice was found to be implemented more in schools with medium-high socio-economic-level students than in those with low socio-economic-level students, and to a greater degree in the Jewish sector than in the Arab.     

Does NCLB Improve the Achievement of Students With Disabilities? A Regression Discontinuity Design

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) holds public schools accountable for the academic achievement of student subgroups that are larger than the state minimum-subgroup-size threshold. In 2004, California added students with disabilities to the NCLB subgroup categories. Using a regression discontinuity design, this study compared the academic achievement of students-with-disabilities subgroups that were just above the minimum-subgroup-size threshold to those just below the threshold. The results showed no effects of holding schools and teachers accountable for the achievement of students with disabilities after controlling for student performance and school characteristics of the previous academic year. Policy implications are discussed.     

Who or What is School 'Self'-Evaluation for?

Schools' own capacity and responsibility for reflection and evaluation is now at the forefront of UK policy. This article posits an identifiable 'English model' of school self-evaluation, which can be contrasted with the model derived from a recent CIDREE project on school self-evaluation involving 7 other European countries. The 'English model' has various strengths, which can be characterised as instrumentalist, action-oriented, rationalistic and managerial; what seems to be missing from it are what the article calls 'the ethical, affective, non-rational and democratic modes of thinking'. The article argues that, since these are crucial dimensions in the process of education, they should also figure as key aspects or modes of evaluation. What might be the implications of this for current policy and practice?