Anxiety in Science Classrooms: its measurement and relationship to classroom environment

This paper considers the role of a new vocational science qualification in the UK (Intermediate General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) science) and how it relates to science-based employment. Studies into employers' requirements are reviewed and found to indicate that an ability to understand and evaluate scientific evidence is valued highly. This part of science is not currently taught explicitly either in GNVQ or elsewhere in the science curriculum. The authors report the results of a small intervention study in which ideas about evidence were explicitly taught within Intermediate GNVQ science. The findings suggest that it is feasible to incorporate such teaching into the qualification but that, if it is not part of the formal assessment process, the teaching tends to be undervalued by the students. By contrast, the teaching staff involved in the project recognised that these ideas fill a gap in the qualification and valued the teaching materials developed for this purpose. A means of incorporating the assessment of such understanding into the current assessment procedures is put forward. Such a modification to the assessment process would add rigour to the qualification and provide a better preparation for employment in science-based industry.     

The Student Assistance Program: higher education’s Holy Grail

This paper outlines an exploratory study conducted within the Sport & Exercise Sciences department at a higher education institution in Wales. Prior to the study it was identified that personal tutors were spending an increasing amount of time dealing with pastoral issues. This research sought to investigate the implementation of the Student Assistance Program, a peer-support group, to reduce the pastoral burden on staff and improve retention and to assess any changes in student behaviour. At the end of the programme students were asked to evaluate the experience by means of a simple questionnaire that also gave them the opportunity to add some open-ended responses. In addition, the facilitators were also given the opportunity to comment on the programme using a similar open-ended questionnaire. Data were analysed using qualitative analysis. The results were encouraging and changes occurred within the students who participated in the pilot study.     

In/forming education policy

Policy makers in a variety of sites are embracing initiatives that attempt to tighten the links between school and work. A reinvented human capital discourse argues that more highly skilled workers are required to meet the demands of the ‘knowledge economy’. This paper explores the new vocationalism as it is promoted within the Framework for Enhancing Business Involvement, a policy report produced in 1996 in Alberta, Canada. Using a critical policy approach, this paper focuses on the process of developing this document with attention to the policy context, influences on the process, ideological assumptions and the impact of the document since its release. Analysis suggests that questions of representation in policy processes, accountability for outcomes and the role of public interests in multi-stakeholder consultation are critical in this era of new public management practices. Further, despite the impression of unity and consensus suggested by policy documents, there are tensions in vocational education and policy that must be addressed if they are also to promote equity.     

‘Bright lights’ and ‘twinkies’: career pathways in an education market

This article problematises the construction of regulation as an effective manager of risks to children in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. Adopting a Foucaldian, governmentalist approach to regulation and risk, the authors suggest that governments in Australia have ‘risk colonised’ regulation to meet their own interests rather than make effective use of regulation as a mechanism for quality assurance. They propose that the risk colonising of regulation has not effectively addressed societal risks to children in ECEC services, and has generated its own risks to quality standards through a preoccupation with institutional risk. In these ways, ‘the laugh of Foucault’ resounds in the regulation of ECEC services.     

Influence of gender and academic ability in a computer‐based Spanish reading task

In order to determine the effects of gender and scholastic ability on vocabulary retention and reading comprehension in a foreign language, 181 men and women enrolled in a first‐year Spanish course were asked to either read a passage in Spanish on a computer and create annotations for a list of words found in the passage (experimental group), or simply to read the already annotated passage (control group). They were administered vocabulary and reading comprehension tests, and a questionnaire concerning their attitude toward the task. Results showed rather complex interactions between the variables of sex and ability. Although the differences overall failed to achieve statistical significance, an analysis of the attitude questions separately resulted in several significant interactions for gender.     

Beyond Reasonable Doubt? Researching ‘race’ in educational settings

Abstract

This article is intended to highlight some of the main features about race‐related research in education as it is configured in the 1990s. More specifically, it reflects on the status of antiracist research and addresses the thorny issue of the legitimacy of research which is explicitly ‘partisan’. In offering a position statement on partisan research I am particularly concerned with addressing the question: to what extent is the term, ‘partisan research’, an oxymoron? ^{1 1}This article started life as a contribution to the Racial Equality in Initial Teacher Education project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Reference Number F215A.E). I am grateful to Leverhulme and to colleagues on the project for their support in its initial stages. Thanks also to David Halpin, Derek Layder, Sally Tomlinson, Carol Vincent and, in particular, Martyn Denscombe for acting as ‘critical friends’ in the later phases.

     

Training maltreating parents in elaborative and emotion-rich reminiscing with their preschool-aged children

Objective

In the current study, the effects of training maltreating parents and their preschool-aged children in elaborative and emotion-rich reminiscing were examined.

Method

44 Parent-child dyads were randomly assigned to a training (reminiscing) or wait-list (control) condition. All participating parents had substantiated maltreatment and were involved with the Department of Child Services at the time of enrollment. Children were 3–6 years old (M = 4.88, SD = .99) and living in the custody of the participating parent. Dyads in the reminiscing condition received four, weekly, in-home sessions in elaborative and emotion rich reminiscing.

Results

At a follow-up assessment, maltreating parents in the reminiscing condition provided more high-elaborative utterances, references to children's negative emotions, and explanations of children's emotion during reminiscing than did parents in the control condition. Children in the reminiscing condition had richer memory recall and made more emotion references than did children in the control condition during reminiscing with their mothers, but not with an experimenter.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that maltreating parents can be taught elaborative and emotion-rich reminiscing skills, with benefits for child cognitive and emotional development. The potential clinical utility of a reminiscing-based training for maltreating families with young children is discussed.     

Examining the effectiveness of home-based parent aide services to reduce risk for physical child abuse and neglect: Six-month findings from a randomized clinical trial

Objective

This study set out to carry out a feasible, real-world, randomized clinical trial to examine the benefits of home-based paraprofessional parent aide services in reducing physical abuse and neglect risk in high-risk parents.

Methods

Families were randomly assigned to receive either parent aide plus case management services (n = 73) or case management services only (n = 65), collecting in-home data on physical child abuse and neglect and proximal risk and protective factors, just prior to service initiation, and again after six months of services.

Results

Mothers receiving parent aide and case management services reported significant improvements from baseline to six-month follow-up in self-reported indicators of physical child abuse risk, as well as improvements on parental stress, mastery, depression, and anxiety, whereas mothers receiving only case management services did not. The slopes of such observed changes across groups, however, were not found to be statistically significantly different. No discernable improvements were found with regard to indicators of risk for child neglect.

Conclusions

As the first randomized clinical trial examining the effectiveness of parent aide services, this study provides the first controlled evidence examining the potential benefits of this service modality. This study suggests promising trends regarding the benefit of parent aide services with respect to physical child abuse risk reduction and related predictors, but evidence does not appear to suggest that such services, as they are presently delivered, reduce child neglect.

Practice implications

These findings support the continued use of parent aide services in cases of physical child abuse and also suggest careful consideration of the ways such services may be better configured to extend their impact, particularly with respect to child neglect risk.     

Community College Participation in Distance Learning for Career and Technical Education

This article presents the results of a national study of distance learning in postsecondary career and technical education (CTE). The main purpose of this study was to identify the current status and future trends associated with distance learning in postsecondary CTE. The results show that community colleges are (a) actively involved in the delivery of CTE via distance learning for the purpose of meeting the needs of their diverse student body, (b) more likely to provide credit courses via distance than noncredit courses, and (c) offering few CTE programs fully at a distance.     

Readiness to Lead: Perspectives of Graduates and Advanced Doctoral Students on Answering the Call to Lead in Community Colleges

Community colleges are facing a shortage in qualified individuals to fill the projected gaps in leadership roles, as the industry is facing an upcoming wave of vacancies due to the retirement of faculty and administrators. This phenomenological, qualitative study explored leadership readiness perspectives of graduates and advanced doctoral students of a cohort-based educational leadership doctoral program. Five doctoral graduates and five advanced doctoral students constituted the participant group for this study. Five themes emerged from the data analyses which include communication, collaboration, leadership, relationships, and support. The findings from this study indicate that the participants value collaborative action and community relationships, support cohort-based stud,; recognize the value of suppor; hold high confidence levels in their leadership ability to address associated leadership challenges, and consider themselves ready to lead.