Setting Aside the Course Reader: The Legal, Economic, and Pedagogical Reasons

In this article we examine the changing status of the course reader as an instructional technology in higher education. We assess the advantages of simply providing students bibliographic entries for assigned readings instead of readers, and we evaluate this alternative in regards to intellectual property and fair use issues focusing on Cambridge University Press v. Becker (2012). A study of 110 course readers showed that 45 % of the readings are freely available either through the university library or open access sources. Finally, we review a number of pedagogical benefits to having students work directly with scholarship within a dynamically hyperlinked environment.     

Aspirations of adult learners in Aboriginal family service agencies

There is a gap in the literature on the experiences of Aboriginal adults who have made the transition into education and employment after moving to an urban community. Staff of three Aboriginal inner-city family services agencies participated in an interview that included the question: What changes do you see in your employment and education? Forty-four participants made a total of 70 unique responses. Participants grouped the responses into nine concepts including: advancement in their work, formal education, gaining new skills, teaching others, learning more about themselves, professional development, work experience, helping the youth and working for their own community. Results are compared to the available literature and implications for future research are presented.     

Rhythms of knowing: toward an ecological theory of learning in action research

This article describes the culmination of a 2-year research study, where the researchers used writing practices with participants to structure interpretations of gay, lesbian and transgendered teachers' experiences. The researchers were interested in learning how such work might help the teachers interpret the ways in which they negotiated minority identities within public school teaching. For the final aspect of the study, the researchers decided to move the group from an urban setting to a seaside location, and chose to move more definitively into a participatory role by inviting a colleague to lead the group in interpretive research activities through the use of writing techniques and practices. The three-day writing workshop yielded new insights about the nature of writing and human cognition and, more specifically, revealed how events of collaborative research reflect an ecological complexity, where the outcomes of such work co-emerge and are co-specified by a particular group of individuals working in a particular place and time. As such, these research events develop their own patterns and rhythms of insight.     

Industrial relations techniques

A study (involving 466 high school and college students) comparing women's and men's ratings of their own and ideal speech showed that a greater number of speech characteristics of males differed from the speech characteristics of the ideal speaker. The results of the study combined with material from the writings of women who have made a conscious effort to change their language indicate that before women continue to try to alter their speech by such means as assertiveness training they should consider the desirable characteristics associated with female speech.     

The longitudinal relationship between generalized self-efficacy and physical activity in school-aged children

Our understanding of the longitudinal relationship between generalized self-efficacy (GSE) and physical activity in children and youth is limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of GSE towards physical activity on sedentary behaviours and physical activity in school-aged children over time. A total of 2278 nine-year-old children (1120 girls and 1158 boys) were recruited at baseline and followed for seven waves of data collection from 2005 to 2008. All children completed questionnaires at each wave assessing their GSE (adequacy, predilection, and enjoyment), sedentary behaviours, free play, and organized activity. Mixed-effects models were used to estimate changes in physical activity and GSE within individuals over time, controlling for gender and motor ability. The results showed that participation in free play significantly increased over time, whereas organized activity significantly decreased over the same period. Children with high perceived adequacy and predilection had higher free play and organized activity participation relative to other children over time. However, the effect of perceived adequacy diminished over time, while the gaps between groups with different levels of predilection widened over time. While sedentary behaviours were lower over time in children with high predilection, these behaviours were consistently higher in children with high enjoyment. The differences in sedentary behaviours between groups increased over time for both predilection and enjoyment. This study highlights the importance of different components of GSE on physical activity participation. In addition, interventions targeting the enhancement of predilection may facilitate physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviours.     

Relationships Among Multiple–Choice and Open–Ended Analytical Questions

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to explore relationships among existing item types and three new computer–administered item types for the analytical scale of the Graduate Record Examination General Test. One new item type was an open–ended version of the current multiple–choice analytical reasoning item type. The other new item types had no counterparts on the existing test. The computer tests were administered at four sites to a sample of students who had previously taken the GRE General Test. Scores from the regular GRE and the special computer administration were matched for a sample of 349 students. Factor analyses suggested that the new item types with no counterparts in the existing GRE were reliably assessing unique constructs but the open–ended analytical reasoning items were not measuring anything beyond what is measured by the current multiple–choice version of these items.     

School Governors—an effective management force or another bureaucratic layer of school management?

This paper reviews the pattern and organisation of governors' meetings and their effectiveness for managing the new environment established by the 1988 Education Reform Act. It suggests that the move towards a sub‐committee structure may be counter‐productive in educational terms. A different approach is put forward which may be more appropriate for primary and most secondary governing bodies. The paper goes on to suggest a training strategy which facilitates the team approach that it is necessary for the partners in the process, i.e. governors, head and officers/advisers, to adopt. This draws heavily on the training approach adopted in Leicestershire.     

Essays and multiple-choice tests as predictors of college freshman GPA

The incremental validity of a short holistically scored expository essay for predicting freshman grade point average was explored in two samples. In one of the samples the essay was administered to incoming freshmen at state colleges as part of a basic skills assessment battery. In the second sample the essay was part of an achievement test that is one of the admissions tests used by highly selective colleges. In both samples, the essay added essentially nothing to what could be predicted from high school grade point average, Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, and a multiple-choice test of writing-related skills.This research was funded in part by the College Board. The conclusions and opinions expressed are those of the author. A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, April 1990.     

Support for Students' Learning: What the Form Tutor Can Do

This article is written for new and experienced tutors to review the ways in which they are supporting their students' learning. It considers the purposes of tutoring, drawing on the voices of students themselves. The article then considers the ways in which the tutor can support the learning of young people, including academic tutoring. It concludes with some guidance for the tutor to develop their own learning about tutoring.