Learning logs in introductory literature courses

This article explores the beneficial and sometimes unpredictable implications of a daily reflective writing exercise for introductory literature courses: the learning log. Pseudonymous samples of student writing, coupled with instructor commentary, gesture toward ways in which the learning log's continual implementation and modification foster a learning and teaching environment in which students and teachers can experience a greater degree of equality and engagement. The article draws upon in-class experiences, and student data collected between 2001 and 2006, in order to illustrate the learning log's potential to instill introductory literature courses with a sense of participatory innovation and creative democriticization.     

Does an Early College Readiness Signal Discourage College Application and Enrollment?

States are currently seeking ways to improve alignment between K–12 and postsecondary education and better prepare students for postsecondary schooling. Some states have begun implementing policies that inform high school students that they are not ready for college-level courses well before they graduate, in order to give both notice and time to prepare. However, if the early information from these tests suggests that a student may require remedial coursework upon entry to college, the student may be discouraged from attending college. This article focuses on one state's effort to increase students’ information about college readiness. Regression discontinuity design is used to determine whether a student receiving a signal that he/she needs remediation lowers the probability of that student applying to or enrolling in participating universities. Results indicate that the policy has had little to no impact on application and no impact on enrollment.     

The case for individualizing behavior management approaches in inclusive classrooms

Abstract

In today's heterogeneous classrooms, one-method-fitsall- students behavior management approaches are ineffective and often harmful. To succeed with all of their students, teachers should determine whether students have emotional disorders, conduct/behavior disorders, robust male-typical behavior patterns, culturally influenced behavior, learning problems or disabilities and so on, and select and implement behavior management techniques that are particularly appropriate for each group.     

The Effects of Busing and School Desegregation on Majority and Minority Student Dropout Rates

Abstract

This study evaluates the effects of school desegregation by court-ordered busing on the subsequent dropout rate of majority and minority students. Using before and after busing measures of dropout rates, school records and personal interviews, this research finds majority dropout rates are not affected by desegregation procedures. While the dropout rates of bused minority students appear to be identical to those of non-bused minority students, large disparities between minority rates in various bused sectors indicate highly uneven educational experiences of bused minority students. School socio-economic composition and the expectations of teachers concerning student behavior are used to analyze the disparities, with the conclusion reached that the more favorable expectations of teachers at higher socio-economic climate schools produce lower minority student dropout rates. Desegregation produces a positive benefit for this most crucial dimension of minority student educational accomplishment, when the school to which the minority student is bused is one where teachers' expectations are positive and supportive.     

Teaching Holistically to Achieve Deep Learning

Abstract

The article examines students' perceptions of student evaluations of teaching and compares them to faculty perceptions on several dimensions. Findings indicate students were much less likely to agree that SET encourage faculty to grade more leniently, that they have an influence on a faculty member's career, or that they lead to changes in courses and/or teaching styles. Faculty members believed that students rate easy, entertaining instructors more highly. Includes suggestions for change and future research directions.     

The Grade W: Why Students Drop Their Classes

Abstract

This study reports reasons given by community college students as to why they drop their classes and totally withdraw from college. In addition, the report gives findings as to whether or not students have a propensity for adding another class after they drop a class, and relates students' reasons for dropping a class to several student characteristics. Analysis of the data reveals that a majority of students drop classes for reasons not related to the college's instructional program.     

A Study of Pupil Failures and Subject Failures in Chicago

Abstract

This study investigated teachers' sense of efficacy and biases in their decisions to refer students to special education. Teachers (N = 240) read a case study about a student with academic difficulties and judged the appropriateness of the student's regular class placement and whether they would refer the student. Teachers were randomly assigned to one of six conditions, in which student socioeconomic status (SES) and etiology of the learning problem were varied. Findings revealed that teachers who perceive themselves as ineffectual consider regular education inappropriate for underachieving students from low-SES families; teachers who believe that they are effective do not differentiate students by SES. Further, teachers referred students whose learning problems had an unspecified etiology more than those whose problems were medically or environmentally based. Thus, teachers' referral decisions appear to be biased by variables unrelated to the specific academic difficulties of the student.     

A comparative study of the impact of integrated learning systems on students' time-on-task

Time-on-task has long been thought to be an important predictor of student learning and achievement. Thus, it is important to understand the extent to which computer-based instruction (CBI), in general, and more specifically, computerized integrated learning systems (ILSs) affect students' time-on-task behavior. This study reports data from a year-long, 14-school national study in which rigorous time-on-task measures were used to compare students' engaged time in three primary situations: (1) an ILS used in a computer laboratory configuration; (2) an ILS used in a distributed configuration (work stations distributed throughout a school's classrooms); and (3) regular classroom instruction in which no ILS was used. The results indicate that students using the ILS spend more time actively engaged in the learning tasks than students in the non-ILS classroom. This appears to be a very robust finding, occurring regardless of whether or not there is an adult present. It appears that the ILS provides a highly motivating learning environment that engages and maintains student attention. The level of on-task behavior is significantly higher than that found in more typical classroom settings. Further, the ILS showed a significant advantage in increasing time-on-task with at-risk students. Implications of this study for further research are also discussed.     

Teacher behavior as a mediator of the relationship between teacher judgment and students' motivation and emotion

The study examines whether teacher behavior is a mediator of the relationship between teacher judgment and students' motivation and emotion. Two hundred forty-six sixth grade students completed a standardized English test and answered a questionnaire on motivation, emotion, and perception of differential teacher behavior. Thirteen English teachers assessed students' test performance. Students underestimated in test performance showed lower motivation and emotion than students overestimated in test performance. The two student groups perceived differential teacher behavior. Teacher behavior mediated the relationship between performance judgments and students' motivation and emotion. A rethinking of teacher's behavior towards students might counter these undesirable tendencies.     

Age as a Predictor of Student Success in Community College Technical Certificate Programs

ABSTRACT

This study was initiated to help determine if there was an associated probability between a student’s age relative to persistence and retention leading to the completion of a Technical Certificate at the community college level. The research model used in this study is based on a quantitative binary logistic regression model, whereby the dependent variable was completion versus non-completion of a Technical Certificate program. The study’s findings showed that there were statistically significant relationships between the various student’s age groups and completion of a Technical Certificate program. The baseline age group for this study was traditional age students as defined by those students who were between 16 and 21 years old. The age groups of 22 to 27, 28 to 34, 35 to 39, and students over the age of 39 were compared to the baseline group to determine if there was statistical significance between the graduation rates accordingly.     

Students choosing colleges: Understanding the matriculation decision at a highly selective private institution

This paper provides an econometric analysis of the matriculation decisions made by students accepted to Williams College, one of the nation's most highly selective colleges and universities. Using data for the Williams classes of 2008 through 2012 to estimate a yield model, we find that—conditional on the student applying to and being accepted by Williams—applicant quality as measured by standardized tests, high school GPA and the like, the net price a particular student faces (the sticker price minus institutional financial aid), the applicant's race and geographic origin, plus the student's artistic, athletic and academic interests, are strong predictors of whether or not the student will matriculate.     

School Goals,Principals, and Achievement

ABSTRACT

Much has been written about the need for schools to engage in activities which promote the academic achievement of students. Two major factors which appear to influence student achievement are an organization's goals and the instructional leadership of the principal. The focus of this study was to investigate whether differences exist between schools which were successful in promoting student achievement and schools which were not successful in promoting student achievement in each of these areas. This paper is based upon a study conducted in an urban school district with a diverse student population. It identified 10 High Achieving Schools and 10 Low Achieving Schools (based upon student gain scores calculated from standardized achievement tests). Data regarding school goals and the instructional leadership of the principal were based upon responses to questionnaires designed to measure staff perceptions of these factors. The findings suggest that no clear differences are evident in the “official” goals selected by schools but differences do appear when the “operative” goals are analyzed. Specifically, the evidence suggests that High Achieving Schools emphasize goals stressing academic excellence to a greater degree than Low Achieving Schools. More important, the evidence from this study also suggests that principals in High Achieving Schools emphasize and engage in activities related to instruction to a much greater degree than principals in Low Achieving Schools. Those activities, which are identified and discussed at length, reinforce the view that a principal's behaviors rather than style are the primary factor in being an instructional leader.     

Stakes Matter: Student Motivation and the Validity of Student Assessments for Teacher Evaluation

In 2011, Indiana lawmakers established a system to evaluate teachers using existing standardized assessments as an indicator of student learning. In this study we examined one component of Indiana's evaluation system to determine whether student knowledge of the test's consequences is predictive of test performance. Using an experimental design, we found that the type of consequences associated with an administered reading assessment were associated with achievement differences. In particular, comparisons among group means show that when students were told that either their grades or their teacher's employment status were at stake, achievement was statistically significantly higher than when students were told that there were low proximal consequences associated with the test. Given the current policy climate in the United States of using student assessments for policy formation, teacher evaluations, and state and national rankings, our findings point to the need to clearly inform students about the consequences associated with their performance.     

'Everything Must Go!' Clearing and first-year performance

Although the connection between clearing and student performance has not been extensively researched, some academic staff have been concerned that clearing students might be less well qualified and less committed to their programme of study than those who applied earlier in the year. Taking a cohort of 425 students who entered a social science programme at a new university, this article investigates the nature of student and institutional decision-taking during the 'clearing' period and considers the impact of late decision-taking upon student performance during the first year of their studies. Interviews with admissions staff investigated whether the pressures of the clearing period left sufficient time for careful decision-taking by the students and by the institution since it has been suggested that successful performance comes from students whose expectations match those of the programme of study. Whilst clearing students were similar to earlier applicants in terms of gender, age and 'A' level scores, their reasons for entering through clearing differed considerably and these different categories of clearing students experienced wide variations in their progression rates. Some clearing students achieved high progression rates, indicating that they were able to make effective choices even under pressure, and the article suggests that the policy implications of this finding should be carefully evaluated.     

Assessment in Educational Practice: Forming Pedagogised Identities in the Art Curriculum

This paper draws on the work of Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida in order to present a discussion of how students and teachers in the field of art and design education achieve their pedagogised identities. My purpose is to offer some thoughts on assessment by advocating a project of difference which attempts to embrace children's and student's ontological orientations of practice. Assessment discourses which assume universal and essentialist ideas of ability are criticised and shown to presuppose objective or naturalist fantasies. A valuing of difference and the singularity of practice is proposed by describing five drawings produced by Year 7 students in a London secondary school, and then by referring to the Lacanian Real in order to extricate the art object from normative assessment discourses.     

An Administrative Voice:

The "administrative voice" of the psychotherapist referred to in Dr. May's article is only one of the administrative voices heard in the institution when a student is in crisis. Deans often become involved in a student's departure from the institution or in articulating the terms under which a student may remain or return. The extent of a dean's collaboration with the counseling center and his or her ability to respond independent of the counseling center, depend in large measure, on how the institution has defined the role and authority of the dean. In this commentary article I have generally concurred with Dr. May's view that deans can and should respond independent of the counseling center to a student's disruptive or alarming behavior, but I have also attempted to illuminate the constraints which often exist on our ability to act. In addition, I have attempted to give voice to the need for regular conversation between deans and psychotherapists on matters of general policy.     

Changes in Rapid-Guessing Behavior Over a Series of Assessments

Abstract

A series of 8 tests was administered to university students over 4 weeks for program assessment purposes. The stakes of these tests were low for students; they received course points based on test completion, not test performance. Tests were administered in a counterbalanced order across 2 administrations. Response time effort, a measure of the proportion of items on which solution behavior rather than rapid-guessing behavior was used, was higher when a test was administered in the 1st week. Test scores were also higher. Differences between Week 1 and Week 4 test scores decreased when the test was scored with an effort-moderated model that took into account whether the student used solution or rapid-guessing behavior. Differences further decreased when students who used rapid-guessing on 5 or more of the 30 items were filtered from the data set.     

A correlational study on attachment dimensions,academic performance and self-regulated learning of university students in South Africa

ABSTRACT

An association between attachment and academic performance appears to be consistently found in children; however, reports on such an association in adolescents are contradictory. This study aimed to determine whether the attachment dimensions of anxiety or avoidance significantly correlate with a student’s academic performance at university. Moreover, since individual differences in attachment index distinct self-regulatory capacities, this study aimed to determine whether any correlation exists between a student’s attachment dimensions and measures of self-regulated learning. Attachment dimensions were determined by the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised questionnaire, while self-regulated learning was determined by the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, in a sample of university students (n = 185). Neither attachment dimensions correlated significantly with measures of academic performance. However, attachment dimensions did significantly correlate with measures of self-regulated learning in this study.     

Going to War with the 3 Rs

This article describes the experiences of a mature dyslexic university art student in a predominantly word-based education system. An autobiographical form is used, placing the writer's personal experience into broader contexts where commentary is made on typical as opposed to good practice. The paper concludes by offering some recommendations which would be beneficial for all art students, but are absolutely vital for dyslexic students.     

Aristoscientists,academic proletariat and reassembling the mega-machine: 21st century survival strategies of the estonian academia

The move in the United Kingdom to recruit more men into primary teaching is to tackle boys under-achievement. One explanation that has been offered as to why boys' are under-achieving is the 'feminisation of primary schooling'. This article begins by exploring the findings of a national survey of student primary teachers towards gender roles and schooling. The views of the students indicated accordance with the idea that primary schools are feminised and feminising environments. The discussion here critiques these notions and argues that current educational policy is not moving forward in a direction that will actively challenge conventional stereotyping. Rather, the move is towards one where notions of masculinity and femininity will be reinforced through a 're-masculinisation' of primary schooling.[1] The research drawn upon in this article was undertaken collaboratively with Bruce Carrington and Ian Hall (University of Newcastle), and Becky Francis (University of North London). I would like to record my thanks to them all, particularly Bruce for his contribution to this article. He provided the analysis of the quantitative data and commentary on the outline of the research project. His analysis of the qualitative data on men student teachers can be found in Carrington (forthcoming). I would also like to thank colleagues at the International Sociology of Education Conference for their comments and observations, in particular Meg Maguire, and two anonymous referees of this article.