Cooperative-competitive social orientation and school achievement among Anglo-American and Mexican-American children

Researchers have suggested that the relatively poor academic performance of Mexican-American compared to Anglo-American children may result from cultural differences in cooperative-competitive social orientation. To test the relative contribution of cooperative-competitive social orientation as a personality predictor of school achievement, the cooperativeness-competitiveness, field independence, locus of control, self-esteem, and school achievement of 45 Anglo-American and 125 Mexican-American fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children were assessed. The results indicate (1) competitiveness is positively related to school achievement among the Anglo-American children but not the Mexican-American children; (2) among the Anglo-American children competitiveness is a better predictor of school achievement than field independence, locus of control, and self-esteem; (3) the personality variables are moderately but not independently related to school achievement within both cultural groups; and (4) the between-culture variance in the personality variables does not account for the between-culture variance in school achievement. Implications of the present results for understanding within- and between-group differences in school achievement are discussed.     

Designing Higher Education Curriculum to Increase Graduate Outcomes and Work Readiness: The Assessment and Mentoring Program (AMP)

Pre-service teacher programs have a responsibility to equip graduating students with more than the minimum skill sets required by governing bodies. The Assessment and Mentoring Program (AMP) is a four-way collaborative mentoring learning community underpinned by social constructivism. Conducted in Victoria, Australia during the 2014–2016 academic years, 25 final year physical education pre-service teacher mentors aged 19–23 years (M = 13; F = 12) participated in focus groups to discuss the perceived benefits of the program prior to commencing their mentoring role. The mentors considered AMP as a pathway to develop experience in assessment, engage in appropriate professional relationships through mentoring and further their professional learning experiences. Through the involvement in mentoring and developing and implementing assessment, mentors perceived they would have an opportunity to develop valuable work ready skills, immediately transferable to their future professional role as a teacher in a school.     

Collaborative and Competitive Video Games for Teaching Computing in Higher Education

This study measures the success of using a collaborative and competitive video game, named Space Race, to teach computing to first year engineering students. Space Race is played by teams of four, each with their own tablet, collaborating to compete against the other teams in the class. The impact of the game on student learning was studied through measurements using 485 students, over one term. Surveys were used to gauge student reception of the game. Pre and post-tests, and in-course examinations were used to quantify student performance. The game was well received with at least 82% of the students that played it recommending it to others. In some cases, game participants outperformed non-participants on course exams. On the final course exam, all of the statistically significant (p<0.05) comparisons (42% of the relevant questions) showed a performance improvement of game participants on the questions, with a maximum grade improvement of 41%. The findings also suggest that some students retain the knowledge obtained from Space Race for at least 7 weeks. The results of this study provide strong evidence that a collaborative and competitive video game can be an effective tool for teaching computing in post-secondary education.     

Cyber Safe Curricula and Online Harassment

In this article, Heather Greenhalgh‐Spencer analyzes three examples of curricula aimed at cultivating good cyber behavior and countering online harassment. These curricula are branded as addressing civic needs, cultivating civic duty, and developing skills to help students understand and react to online threats. Here, Greenhalgh‐Spencer offers two critiques of these, and other similar, cyber safe curricula. First, current cyber safe curricula do not adequately address the ways that identity — particularly gender and sexuality — shape one's experience of online spaces and exposure to online threats. Second, current cyber safe curricula do not adequately consider nuances of how to “react” to online threats. The preponderance of cyber curricula teach students that all forms of offensive speech online should be abolished or pushed against. These curricula miss the opportunity to cultivate conversations around the tensions between the need to feel safe and the need to protect freedoms of speech.