Web 2.0 Technologies and Back Channel Communication in an Online Learning Community

Communication, collaboration and community development are processes that contribute to student satisfaction and learning in online courses. This paper describes a study that investigated how campus and distance graduate students in a library science program communicated with one another outside the official boundaries of their courses. We conducted a survey to answer two research questions: 1) What Web 2.0 technologies do students use to communicate with one another outside of the formal structure of their online courses? and 2) What do they talk about in such communication? The results showed that, while students used a variety of technologies to communicate with one another, those enrolled at a distance made greater use of technology to communicate with one another. Moreover, clear preferences emerged according to age. Younger students preferred mobile technologies while older students experimented with a wider range of web-based technologies. We interpret these results and offer recommendations for practice based on our interpretation.     

Associations between teacher-rated behavioral problems and reading difficulties? Interactions over time and halo effects

Associations between reading difficulties and problem behaviours in the classroom have been discussed controversially since the 1970s. The present paper investigates the influence of reading performance on teacher ratings of behavioural problems while taking into account behavioural autocorrelations and teacher halo effects. Teachers rated reading (in the middle of the school year) and behaviour (at the beginning and end of the school year) for a sample of 171 first-grade students. In addition, the students’ reading performance was objectively assessed via a standardised test at the end of first grade. The results showed that the effect of reading problems on classroom behaviour is heavily affected by autocorrelational and halo effects. After controlling for the interaction between teachers’ ratings of reading and behaviour, objectively measured reading performance had only a marginal direct effect on behaviour (as rated by teachers). Therefore, we argue that findings from the literature on the co-morbidity of behaviour and reading may be affected by similar (halo) effects, causing the effect of reading difficulties on classroom behaviour to be overestimated. Co-morbidities reported in the study should be closely examined with respect to their ‘methodological composition’ in the future.     

Longitudinal Changes in Social Brain Development: Processing Outcomes for Friend and Self

Adolescence is an important time for social development during which friendships become more intimate and complex. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we tested how outcomes for friends are processed on the neural level across adolescence. Participants between 8 and 27 years of age were tested twice with a 2‐year difference between the first (N = 299) and second (N = 254) time points. Participants performed a task in which they could win and lose money for themselves and their best friend. Mixed linear models revealed a linear decrease in activity in social brain regions for friend > self over development. These results confirm changes in the social brain network across adolescent development, we further show that individual differences are related to these neural changes.     

Disrupting the 'boys don't read' discourse: Primary school boys who love reading fiction

This article disrupts dominant discourses around boys and reading that often homogenise young males as reluctant, disengaged and, at times, adversarial readers. Rather than essentialising boys, we argue there is a need for a more sophisticated knowledge base about the influences, constraints and diverse experiences of boys as readers in society today. Drawing on interviews (n = 30) with Year 4 (8 to 9-year-old) boys at six schools, we consider their personal recounts of their enjoyment in reading, their preferred reading choices and narratives related to their experiences as readers at school. Analysis highlights boys' emerging reading interests, sophisticated and specific reading preferences, and changes in reading identities over time. Boys' preferences for particular fiction authors, novel series and genres dispute the common assumption in educational contexts that boys prefer to engage with non-fiction books. This finding is significant, as negative gendered stereotypes can impact on boys' reading self-concepts. It is also critical given Jerrim and Moss's recent research highlighting the importance of fiction in the development of reading skills. We consider implications for pedagogical practices that broaden reading experiences for the diversity of emerging masculine reading identities in nations such as Australia, where there is an absence of reading for pleasure in education policies.     

The impact of a class visit to a participatory science museum exhibit and a classroom science lesson

Cognitive and affective outcomes of a class visit to a participatory science museum were examined by comparing responses of 416 fifth and sixth graders randomly assigned to four conditions (control, exhibit only, lesson only, and exhibit followed by lesson) and two tests (verbal and visual). Students visiting a simple machines exhibit scored higher on a test of science content than the control group, but lower than the group attending a classroom lesson in the museum. The study did not demonstrate conclusively a cognitive advantage of having the exhibit experience prior to the lesson. Scores on the visual test were consistently higher than scores on the verbal test. Study findings indicate that the particular strength of the science museum exhibit lies in the affective domain. Students found the exhibit much more enjoyable, interesting, and motivational than a classroom lesson. Implications of the findings for science education are discussed.     

An Education Action Zone at work: primary teacher perceptions of the efficacy of a creative learning and collaborative leadership project

This article reports on the grouping practices used by a cohort of 10 newly qualified primary teachers for teaching mathematics in different English primary schools. It examines the factors that influence why these teachers group as they do. All the teachers grouped their pupils on the basis of achievement or perceived ability for mathematics. It was found that the factors that influenced the grouping arrangements were complex and not always consistent with the teachers' aims and beliefs.     

Gender and attitudes to work and family roles: the views of young people at the millennium

The last century, in particular the latter half, saw radical shifts in the roles and expectations of women in society. This article investigates the views of 14‐ to 16‐year‐olds in the year 2000 on work and family roles, exploring both their general views on gender roles and their own personal aspirations for the future. In general the young people believed that it was equally important for males and females to get good qualifications at school, to have worthwhile careers and that childcare should be a joint responsibility. They also believed that males and females could do any job they wanted to these days. Their views were tempered, however, by the inequalities that they saw around them in the workplace and in their own families. While young people’s attitudes may have changed, they are still choosing fairly gender‐typical subjects at school and aspiring to different types of occupation. The article concludes that while great strides have been made in changing attitudes towards gender equality, there is still a long way to go before equal opportunities are really achieved.     

Digital approaches to researching learners’ computer interactions using gazes, actions, utterances and sketches

When learners use computers, they typically look at the screen, type, use the mouse, talk, write, sketch and make gestures. This paper identifies technical, practical, ethical and methodological challenges associated with traditional methods for studying such interactions. It examines the potential of recent technologies for identifying learners?? attention, recording real-time writing and sketching, and analyzing multiple data feeds in an integrated way. A study of learners?? interactions with multiple representations is used to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of digital approaches to collecting, coordinating and analyzing observational data. The paper argues that there is a need for research into frameworks for analyzing digital data of learners?? computer interactions in systematic and principled ways.     

Inequality in language achievement growth? An investigation into the impact of pupil socio‐ethnic background and school socio‐ethnic composition

This paper investigates how pupils' growth trajectories in three language domains (reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension) are related to their own socioeconomic and ethnic background and to the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of their primary school. Using multilevel piecewise growth curve analysis, the growth trajectories of approximately 5000 pupils from 170 primary schools were estimated. The results indicate that a pupil's socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds have the largest impact on achievement and growth in reading comprehension and the smallest impact on reading fluency. Furthermore, school ethnic composition—but not socioeconomic composition—was related to pupils' achievement in all three language domains at the first measurement occasion, though none of the types of school composition was related to growth. The research findings therefore imply that to combat the deficits in language proficiency often found in ethnic minority pupils, priority should be given to investments in individual intervention programmes over policy plans to desegregate schools. Moreover, our study identifies the specific points in time during primary school at which intervention programmes are needed the most.     

Curriculum decisions – the challenges of teacher autonomy over knowledge selection for history

This paper explores the challenges for teachers in positioning them as independent curriculum makers. History teachers in New Zealand have recently entered uncharted territory with the abandonment of prescribed topics for history and a new-found authority to determine the selection of historical knowledge taught to their senior secondary students. This paper examines the complex nature of the teacher’s new role and responsibilities and argues that curriculum achievement objectives and national assessment places significant constraints upon teachers’ selections of historical knowledge. There is the potential for substantive historical knowledge to be downplayed in favour of procedural knowledge and the potential for assessment drivers to dominate or distort selection of knowledge for history. Local curriculum making places a heavy burden of responsibility upon teachers with implications for students’ access to powerful historical knowledge.