The use of training days: finding time for teachers’ professional development

This study was designed to compare the relative efficiency of three methods of presenting and teaching fractions to slow learners at the secondary stage of education.

Thirty‐six first‐year pupils took part in the experiment and were divided into three groups of 12 for instruction in fractions for 14 periods of 40 minutes. Each group was taught by a different method, viz:

Group A, was taught in a formal, traditional method

Group B, used the Cuisenaire (unimodel) material

Group C, used multi‐model materials specially constructed for teaching fractions to slow learners.

At the beginning of the experiment the groups were equivalent in age, intelligence, arithmetical attainment, attainment in fractions, conceptual understanding of fractions, in adjustment to school, attitudes to learning fractions, and socio‐economic status. On re‐assessment on six of the variables at the end of the experiment it was found that each group had improved in each of the six variables tested.

When considering all the results obtained it was concluded that the multi‐model method was the most effective method of teaching fractions to slow learning children at the secondary stage. This method was found to have particular advantage in creating a favourable attitude to learning fractions and in promoting a sound conceptual understanding of fractions. It also produced the greatest mean gain in fraction computation, and seemed to have some slight advantage in aiding the adjustment of pupils to school.     

Benefits and Challenges of the Passport Broadcast Intervention in Long-Term Care

Creative activities are a challenge for long-term care facilities. The Passport intervention uses web-based video technology to provide long-term care residents with a virtual travel experience. Passport broadcasts were conducted and staff and residents were interviewed about the experience. A thematic analysis of interviews was used to discern benefits and challenges. Reported benefits included experience with technology, interaction with student visitors, reminiscing, and active learning. Challenges involved technical quality concerns related to the audio and visual needs of seniors. The pilot found the Passport intervention as a promising tool for creative activities in a long-term care setting.     

Different pathways towards dropout: the role of engagement in early school leaving

In this study, we examine the development of student engagement in relation to dropout. We focus on different growth trajectories of engagement between groups of students and on whether these trajectories lead to differences in the survival of the student. The development of behavioural and emotional engagement of 4063 graduates and 541 (11.7%) dropouts is examined from Year 7 to Year 12 and this development is linked to the probability of dropping out in each grade by means of a discrete-time survival mixture model. For emotional engagement, results point to a model with two different subgroups: one group starting at a high level of engagement and following a (relatively) stable pattern and the other group starting at a lower level of engagement and following a decreasing trend. For behavioural engagement, the results indicate that a three-class model showed the best fit: a high and (relatively) stable group, a high and decreasing group and a low and stable group. In terms of dropout, the unstable and low groups demonstrate a significantly higher probability of dropping out, as evidenced in the steep, declining survival curves. Different background variables are included to gain more insight into engagement and dropout, and to predict membership in the low and decreasing class.     

IN‐SERVICE TRAINING IN GERONTOLOGY: A CASE STUDY OF STATEWIDE NEEDS ASSESSMENT

This report describes the design and conduct of a statewide training needs assessment based on joint state agency and university planning. Sample findings are presented for both the statewide population (N = 736) and various job function groupings. Differences in expressed training needs across job function groups are examined, and strategies for providing effective and efficient training are discussed.     

Unraveling the Relation Between Reading Comprehension and Print Exposure

The purpose of this study was to test the directionality of influence between reading comprehension (RC) and print exposure (PE), thereby estimating genetic and environmental effects of this relation. The sample consisted of 910 twins in fourth through ninth grades (M_age = 12.33 years, SD = 1.41) from the Florida Twin Project on Reading, Behavior, and Environment. Using direction-of-causation model in a twin design, results supported a direction of influence running from RC to PE. This relation was underpinned by genetic and environmental factors of RC as well as PE. Implications for reading education are discussed.     

Modeling Change in Effort Across a Low-Stakes Testing Session: A Latent Growth Curve Modeling Approach

ABSTRACT

We examined change in test-taking effort over the course of a three-hour, five test, low-stakes testing session. Latent growth modeling results indicated that change in test-taking effort was well-represented by a piecewise growth form, wherein effort increased from test 1 to test 4 and then decreased from test 4 to test 5. There was significant variability in effort for each of the five tests, which could be predicted from examinees’ conscientiousness, agreeableness, mastery approach goal orientation, and whether the examinee “skipped” or attended the initial testing session. The degree to which examinees perceived a particular test as important was related to effort for the difficult, cognitive test but not for less difficult, noncognitive tests. There was significant variability in the rates of change in effort, which could be predicted from examinees’ agreeableness. Interestingly, change in test-taking effort was not related to change in perceived test importance. Implications of these results for assessment practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

Positioned in/by the State: Incorporation,Exclusion, and Appropriation of Women's Gender-Based Claims to Political Asylum in the United States

Extending an important rhetorical tradition of investigating women's positioning/positionalities in the national imaginary, in society, and in the law, this essay examines how non-US citizen women and their experiences are deployed toward objectives of the US state. Specifically, I analyze the rhetorical significance of two precedent-setting gender-based asylum cases, those of Fauziya Kassindja and Rody Alvarado, to understand the different ways non-US women are positioned by the state. These cases reveal that women claimants, depending on the nuances of their claims, are incorporated into the state as “good” women, pushed to the margins because their rhetoric is “threatening,” or appropriated by the state because their “otherness” provides an image that the United States can deploy in demonstrating itself as the “good” state that protects and supports women.     

Investigating science teacher educator identity through the politics of domestication and critical positional praxis

The focus on identity in the field of teaching and learning continues to grow, especially when it concerns equitable outcomes for students. While most attention is placed on students' identities and increasingly those of teachers, lesser addressed are the identities of the teacher educators and researchers broaching the issue of identity. Additionally, identity research is not often linked to relationships between self, others, and transformative action. We recognize these as gaps to be addressed and offer critical positional praxis (CPP) as a response. CPP is the public manifestation of the insights gained through our sense of identity and reflexivity. More specifically, CPP is the actions (or inactions) that express who we are in response to an event in any given social context—especially oppressive ones. In this article, we draw from our own critical autoethnographies, as a context for putting CPP into practice in identity research. Our collective analysis of these critical autoethnographies revealed how our identity development was inseparable from the ways in which we have each resisted the politics of domestication. Our autoethnographies further point to the role of dissent as central to our experiences of becoming critical science teacher educators committed to equity, diversity, and anti-racism in education. We draw from this analysis to offer recommendations for how identity and positionality can move beyond theoretical constructs toward transformative personal and collective change in science education.