Designing your web site for instructional effectiveness and completeness: First steps

TechTrends - Developing and publishing Web sites is becoming almost trivially easy today, and there are many sites on the Web nowadays that purport to be instructional in one way or another. In...     

Crossing borders: Learning to count

For over a decade I have been involved in state and national Level curriculum and professional development projects that have required of me that I ‘act’. During the same period my research has focused on educational reforms within a social justice framework and on the development of informed numeracy in children and adolescents. In this paper I consider how children, different children learn and understand counting. In doing so, I reflect upon my experiences as a curriculum developer who is constantly uneasy, often frustrated and occasionally made anxious by the disjunction between what she understands and what she does and perhaps more importantly what she doesn't understand but nevertheless does.     

Library services for persons with disabilities: twentieth anniversary update

In recognition of the twentieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), this survey updates the progress and reflects on the status of academic health sciences library services for people with disabilities since the Nelson study in 1996. The results of this survey extend beyond academic libraries to hospital libraries and include areas where all libraries can improve disability access. Based on a 24% response rate, libraries have addressed accessibility of technology in cost-effective and relatively easy ways. Libraries are reactively rather than proactively making changes to services for persons with disabilities.     

Supporting student teachers in developing and applying professional knowledge with videoed events

Student teachers often struggle with handling events in the complex environment that is a classroom. This article reports on a study that investigates the potential of using video-based materials to support mathematics student teachers in developing and applying professional knowledge. Student teachers viewed videos of classroom events with possible teacher reactions to each event. This article reports on the discourse that occurred before and after the viewing of the four possible responses in terms of the content and the nature of the discussions. Results show that when the event focused on mathematics, the focus of the responses shifted from themselves as teachers to the learners. However, the converse was true when the event focused on generic classroom management issues. Additionally, the nature of both sets of responses became more evaluative and interpretive following the video clips of possible responses.     

Flip This Classroom: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to compare the beliefs and attitudes of teachers using the flipped versus the traditional class model. Survey and interview data were collected from a matched sample of in-service teachers representing both models from a large suburban southeastern Texas school district. The Attitude Towards Technology Scale, the Frequency of Involvement in Technology Scale, the Technology Comfort Scale, and the Technology and Teaching Efficacy Scale were administered to compare the beliefs and attitudes of teachers. Additionally, one-on-one interviews further explored the teacher beliefs and attitudes associated with the impact of technology on student engagement. Findings suggest that flipped classroom teachers have higher technology and teaching efficacy, greater comfort levels using technology, higher frequency of involvement in technology, more positive attitudes toward technology, and greater levels of student engagement.     

Teaching for well-being? Introducing mindfulness in an undergraduate course

Student mental health and well-being are increasing concerns in higher education. This exploratory study examined students’ learning in a mindfulness programme incorporated into an undergraduate class. Six brief mindfulness-based practices were introduced: mindfulness meditation, walking meditation, body scan, mindful eating, loving-kindness and Tonglen meditation. Fourteen students were interviewed after completion of the course to explore their conceptions and use of mindfulness and other self-care practices. Results of thematic analyses suggest that there were variations in students’ adoption of mindfulness-based practices and students’ preferred mindfulness techniques. Most participants reported that mindfulness instruction and practice were beneficial but this was not universal; some students reported that mindfulness was ‘not for them’. Findings suggest that mindfulness fostered self-reflection, self-awareness and relaxation for many students and incorporating mindfulness at the beginning of class improved the overall quality of discussion and facilitated students’ learning. Findings further suggest that students incorporated mindfulness into existing self-care practices that included a variety of other preferred techniques to enhance self-reflection, self-awareness and relaxation. Overall, our findings suggest that students should be helped, through explicit instruction, to develop a ‘toolbox’ of self-care approaches that may include, but are not necessarily limited to, mindfulness techniques.     

Differences between residential and non-residential fathers on sexual socialisation of African American youth

This study investigated differences between residential and non-residential fathers on topics discussed during father–child sex communication and factors associated with child sexual socialisation. Young people (N = 159, 53% female) provided self-reports using computer surveys on the role of their fathers on father–child sex communication, general communication, parental monitoring, father social support and topics discussed during father–child sex communication. The analysis revealed differences in topics discussed between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. Independent group t-tests revealed significant differences between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers on social support and parental monitoring for sons and parental monitoring for daughters. Sons and daughters with residential fathers had higher scores on these variables. Discriminant function analyses, chi-square tests and hierarchical linear regression analyses were carried out to determine whether there were meaningful distinctions between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. The analysis revealed social support and parental monitoring provided the most meaningful distinction between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. These results highlight the importance of non-residential fathers in the sexual socialisation of their young people through parent–child sex communication. Discussion focuses on the need for development of interventions to promote the inclusion of non-residential fathers in the sexual socialisation of African American youth.     

The Four Directions

This article presents the Native American cultural symbol, the Four Directions, as a sign that is culturally evident and inter‐tribally significant. Through understanding the significance of the symbol, a deeper understanding is possible for non‐Natives, especially an understanding of the Native Americans' relationship between their artwork and their culture. It will be argued that through a deeper understanding and cultural saturation by non‐Natives that cultural misinformation can be reduced. Even though the article makes no attempt to define a culture, community, or person, cultural groups are presented through image and story.     

Making ‘Hope Practical’ Rather than ‘Despair Convincing’: feminist post‐structuralism,gender reform and educational change

This paper explores the work and effects of gender reform in schools through the use of feminist post‐structuralist theory. Focusing on the discourses designed to enhance girls’ post‐school options, it examines the ways in which teachers and students, particularly girls, write, read and rewrite these discourses and on the basis of this suggests some new directions for researching, theorising and practicing gender reform in schools. In particular, it raises questions about the ways in which feminist pedagogies in schools deal with the female body, difference, pleasure and pain.