Developing social and emotional fluency: an evaluation of a therapeutic group for girls who attend a school for students with complex needs

Beverley Flitton is a PhD student a the University of Hertfordshire, where Julia Buckroyd is Professor of Counselling, and Maria Vassiliou is employed at Durants School, Enfield, as a nursery nurse. In this article, they describe the process of setting up and running a therapeutic group for girls in a school for students with learning difficulties and complex needs in London, England. Six girls, from years 9 and 10, aged 14 to 15, participated in the group. They were offered 23 weeks of group work. The six girls, their teachers and their teaching assistants were interviewed before and after the series of sessions using a semi-structured schedule. These interviews formed a core part of an evaluation of the impact of the therapeutic group and data were also gathered from notes taken in the group sessions. This article describes the issues presented by the girls and their development in the group. Staff reported significant changes in two of the students and noticeable changes in the remaining four. The girls reported an awareness of changes in themselves and Beverley Flitton, Julia Buckroyd and Maria Vassiliou, reflecting on the girls' emotional problems and social development, suggest that they were able to transfer skills gained in the group into other situations.     

eVALUate: an evaluation instrument for measuring students’ perceptions of their engagement and learning outcomes

In the current climate in Australian higher education, quality assurance in university teaching is a priority. In particular, the introduction of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF) has refocused attention on universities’ internal student evaluation survey instruments. This paper reports the development, validation and implementation of a new unit survey instrument which prompts students to reflect on what helps their achievement of unit learning outcomes, and to report their levels of motivation, engagement and overall satisfaction with a semester‐long course or unit of study. The instrument (eVALUate) was created from precepts reported in the research literature, current practices in evaluating teaching, and sound quality assurance practices appropriate to a university outcomes‐focused education paradigm.     

School-Level Environment and Student Outcomes in Mathematics

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a relationship exists between school-level environment and student outcomes. The study involved 620 teachers and 4645 students from 57 Australian secondary schools. Student outcome measures included mathematics achievement, career aspirations and students' attitudes and beliefs about success in mathematics. Teachers' perceptions of their school environment were measured using the School-Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ). Because previous research has shown that factors at the school level, such as environment, influence education at the classroom level, data regarding the instructional practices of teachers were included in the analysis in order to investigate this further. The results of these analyses show that various factors of the school-level environment were linked to improved student outcomes. Relationships were also found between teaching practices and student outcomes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

How graphic novels support reading comprehension strategy development in children

This qualitative case study explored the relationship between comprehension strategies and graphic novels in one Grade 4 classroom, utilising children as informants. The primary research questions related to children's applications of metacognitive reading comprehension strategies as well as the potential for graphic novels to support the students’ development as readers. Findings demonstrated that the children were able to apply two types of strategies to their reading of graphic novels: ‘keys’ that supported form‐specific comprehension strategies and ‘master keys’ that supported more general comprehension strategies that could be applied to other types of texts. Student preferences for graphic novels aligned with their preferences for reading narrative novels and non‐fiction, and did not align with preferences regarding comics or cartoons. Student preferences for reading graphic novels increased throughout the study. Fluent student responses to graphic novels through process drama were identified. Implications of the study involve the employment of graphic novels to support metacognitive strategies for reading and writing as well as to facilitate process drama.     

Validating a teaching survey which drives increased response rates in a unit survey

At Curtin University, student perceptions of teaching and learning are gathered and reported online through eVALUate, a system that includes separate unit and teaching surveys. This article reports the development and validation of one of those surveys, the eVALUate teaching survey, which was developed based on the research literature on excellent teaching and evaluation. Since its development in 2006, repeated statistical testing using progressively larger samples has shown that the survey is valid and reliable. Moreover, the way in which the teaching survey is deployed within eVALUate, appended to the unit survey, which provides crucial institutional data, has significantly increased university response rates. This validated instrument is used for self-reflection, professional development, and rewarding staff.     

Educational Broadcasting

Bernard Rubin's Media, Politics &;amp; Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977- $8.00/4.00)

Forrest P. Chisman's Attitude Psychology and the Study of Public Opinion (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977—$13.50)

Sidney Kraus, ed. The Great Debates: Kennedy vs. Nixon, 1960 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977—$17.50/5.95)

Jean Schwoebel, Newsroom Democracy: The Case for Independence of the Press (Monograph Series No. 2, Iowa Center for Communication Study, School of Journalism, Yniversity of Iowa, Iowa City 52242—$2.50, paper)

Rex Winsbury, New Technology and the Journalist (Thomson Foundation Editorial Study Centre, Thomson House, Cardiff, CF1 1WR, Great Britain-75p or about $1.25, paper)

Laura Longley Babb, ed. The Editorial Page (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1977 &;ndash;price not given, paper)

Bob Roberts, for telling us about Magazine Studies Quarterly (MSQ Ltd., Box 2054, Muncie, Indiana 47302—about $5.00 per year for four issues)

Morgan Harris and Patti Karp's How to Make News and Influence People (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, 1976—$7.95, with a paperback edition available, for which no price given)

Alice Payne Hackett and James Henry Burke's 80 Years of Best Sellers: 1895-1975 (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1977—$14.95)

Mort Walker's Backstage at the Strips (New York: A&;amp;W Publishers, Inc., 95 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016—$6.95, paper)

Peter Haining's Terror: A History of Horror Illustrations from Pulp Magazines (New York: A&;amp;W Publishers, 1977—$12.50/6.95)     

Compounding Confusion? When Illustrative Practical Work Falls Short of its Purpose—A Case Study

Illustrative practical work is commonly used in chemistry education to enrich students?? understandings of chemical phenomena. However, it is possible that such practical work may not serve to foster understanding but rather cause further confusion. This paper reports the struggles experienced by a group of senior (Year 12) secondary chemistry students as they sought to understand redox chemical concepts involved in the reactions occurring when steel wool is added to copper sulfate solution. The results showed that the students lacked the skills required to make accurate observations during the practical work. Nor were they able to link the observed phenomena with previously taught redox concepts. The paper also presents possible ways to overcome the difficulties encountered by students as they move between macroscopic and submicroscopic levels of representation of redox reactions.     

Graduate attributes for 2020 and beyond: recommendations for Australian higher education providers

Given global uncertainty related to rapid technological developments and the world of work, alongside other equally (if not more) concerning social and political disruptions – the assurance of graduate attributes of importance to employability and citizenship are arguably more important than ever. In this paper, we investigate three areas of practice by Australian universities, and non-university higher education providers who have been omitted from past analyses of this kind. First, we examine the graduate attributes most frequently published by institutions and discipline groups and whether emphasis has changed over time. Second, we investigate how graduate attributes are assured, including a scan of the inputs put in practice by higher education providers, and comparison of graduate and employer perceptions of achievement gathered through recent national surveys. Third, we connect our findings in the first two areas and make recommendations for the attributes needed to equip 2020+ graduates for citizenship and employability. Based on these analyses, we recommend that all providers, university and non-university, and the discipline groups within them: make graduate attributes more visible to the public and especially to students; continue embedding them in the assessed curricula, but also ensure that assessment is explicit and that attributes are communicated and explained repeatedly throughout the course; continue to use stakeholder perception measures, but more consistently align skills in data collection instruments to allow a more constructive comparison, and also draw on more objective measures such as actual assessment of achievement; continue to emphasise attributes associated with global citizenship, teamwork and communication; give more emphasis to independence, critical thinking and problem-solving, and the fundamental foundational skills of written and spoken communication. Most importantly, continue to revise the attributes regularly to ensure fitness for purpose in the rapidly changing environment within which we and our graduates operate.     

Learning in science project (teacher development): The framework

The Centre for Science and Mathematics Education Research at the University of Waikato is now undertaking the fourth Learning in Science Project, LISP(Teacher Development). The project builds on the findings of the previous three projects on the nature of learning and how to improve learning of science in classrooms. This two-year project is investigating the process of teacher development (as change in behaviour and beliefs) in the context of two kinds of teacher courses that acknowledge and take into account teachers’ existing ideas. This paper summarises the planning done for the first phase of the project as detailed in Bell, Kirkwood and Pearson (1990). Specializations: learning theories, curriculum development, equity issues. Specializations: science education, teacher professional development.