Scaling and Sustaining Effective Early Childhood Programs Through School–Family–University Collaboration

We describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a comprehensive preschool to third grade prevention program for the goals of sustaining services at a large scale. The Midwest Child–Parent Center (CPC) Expansion is a multilevel collaborative school reform model designed to improve school achievement and parental involvement from ages 3 to 9. By increasing the dosage, coordination, and comprehensiveness of services, the program is expected to enhance the transition to school and promote more enduring effects on well‐being in multiple domains. We review and evaluate evidence from two longitudinal studies (Midwest CPC, 2012 to present; Chicago Longitudinal Study, 1983 to present) and four implementation examples of how the guiding principles of shared ownership, committed resources, and progress monitoring for improvement can promote effectiveness. The implementation system of partners and further expansion using “Pay for Success” financing shows the feasibility of scaling the program while continuing to improve effectiveness.     

Scaffolding the Appropriation of Self-regulatory Activity: A Socio-cultural Analysis of Changes in Teacher–student Discourse about a Graduate Research Portfolio

This study informs the design and development of pedagogical agents that can flexibly support self-regulation by calibrating guidance to specific phases and facets of self-regulated learning (SRL) as individuals encounter challenges and develop more sophisticated understandings of the task and content. From a socio-cultural perspective of self-regulation, we examine the transition of self-regulatory control from teacher to graduate student during naturalistic instructional conferences. Three goals included (a) examining teacher–student dialogue about a complex task to see if fading actually occurs, (b) examining whether support and fading of support are calibrated to specific phases of the self-regulatory process at a given point in time, and (c) examining techniques used for scaffolding and fading scaffolding directed toward specific phases and facets (behavioral, cognitive, metacognitive and motivational) of the self-regulatory cycle. Findings support a socio-cultural perspective of SRL demonstrating a transition from teacher to student regulation across phases and facets of SRL. The paper concludes with an examination of how our findings can inform the design of computer-based scaffolds that can support SRL.     

Ways of knowing in doctoral examination: How well is the doctoral regime?

The article draws on findings from the PhD Examination Project at the SORTI Research Centre of The University of Newcastle, Australia. It focuses on an analysis of the roles of examiner and supervisor, in relation to the candidate, as seen through the lens of Habermas's ‘Ways of Knowing’ theory. On the basis of this, it has been postulated that the dominant text in the PhD examination process may work to constrain the generation of new knowledge rather than encourage it. The paper explores practical implications for research training and questions the current well being of the doctoral regime.     

Sharing the Stories of Racism in Doctoral Education: The Anti-Racism Project

Racism Project. Through shared journaling and group discussions, participants explored and interrogated experiences of racism related to doctoral education. A thematic analysis of qualitative data surfaced several themes: experiences with racism as a doctoral student, noticing the presence of White privilege, learning to teach as an anti-racist educator, and anticipating the job market. Through critical reflection, participants identified ways that schools of social work can better support doctoral students and prepare leaders committed to promoting racial justice.     

Critical alignment in inquiry-based practice in developing mathematics teaching

This paper reports a case study from a mathematics teaching developmental research project. The theoretical foundation for the research comprises communities of inquiry and critical alignment, with which the developmental methodology has a particular synergy. This synergy is the main focus of the paper. The paper elaborates theoretical and methodological antecedents of the project and traces these through a case study of developments in the practices of one upper secondary school team and a group of university didacticians (mathematics teacher educators and researchers) during the first year of the project. The case study reveals that critical alignment and inquiry (necessarily) bring uncertainty and risk, and foster tensions within the teachers’ practice and between the practices of teachers and didacticians. In exposing these uncertainties, risks and tensions, the paper points to their value for the learning and knowledge gained by participants.     

An analysis of Ph.D. examiners’ reports in engineering

In recent years, there have been increasing calls for an overall transformation of the nature of engineering Ph.D. programs and the way theses are assessed. There exists a need to understand the examination process to ensure the best quality outcome for candidates in engineering. The work we present in this paper uses data collected between 2003 and 2010 for a total of 1220 Australian Ph.D. theses by analysing examiner reports. Our analysis indicates that Ph.D. theses in engineering, N?=?106, differ considerably from those in other fields in areas such as gender of candidates and examiners and the examiners’ geographical location. We also found that assessment areas such as significance and contribution of the thesis, publications arising from the thesis, breadth, depth and recency of the literature review and communication and editorial correctness are areas in which the proportion of text of engineering examiners' comments differs significantly from other fields.     

University Students' Writing: Types of Errors and Some Comparisons Across Disciplines

The purpose of this study was to identify the writing errors made by 310 first year university students in 13 disciplines using a checklist of five writing error categories, each with a number of sub‐categories. The overall median error rate was 3S.0 errors per 1000 words. Punctuation and capitalisation was by far the most common category of error, and sentence structure, word usage, spelling and vocabulary followed in descending order of frequency. Law and Economics students exhibited the highest error rates while Geography, Mechanical Engineering, Philosophy, English, Statistics, Linguistics, Geology, History and Sociology students had error rates near the median value, and French and Psychology students made fewest errors. The major error sub‐categories that best indicated difference between good and poor writers were the use of commas and some aspects of sentence construction.