Exploring the relationship between homework task difficulty,student engagement and performance

This article considers the relationship between differential homework task difficulty, student engagement and performance across four Irish post-primary school sites. A total of 236 participants completed all elements of this study. All participants were junior cycle students, aged between 12 and 16 years. The study employed a standardised test–retest approach, with a one week interval between tests. Between testing, participants were randomly subdivided into three cohorts. Each cohort received homework questions of different difficulty levels to complete for one week. The results of this study found that Cohort A, who received the least difficult homework tasks, completed the most non-compulsory questions. Although Cohort A demonstrated higher levels of engagement, no statistically significant difference was found in the change in performance scores of the three cohorts. The results highlight the negative impact of increased task difficulty on student engagement with independent homework tasks. The findings suggest that in order to support student engagement it is important that teachers afford ample opportunity for student success when designing self-directed tasks such as homework.     

On the fruitful compatibility of religious education and science

In this response the logical positivist approach of the authors is challenged, as is their propagation of the myth of an historical, endemic conflict between science and religion. The authors' one dimensional approach to the world is shown to produce a limited world view, eliminating so much of human experience, of art, beauty, and music as well as religion. In contrast an awareness of different types of knowledge, with different criteria for truth, enables a fuller perspective in which science and religion, and art and music and human values, are all compatible. In conclusion, some ways in which Science Education and Religious Education can be taught to their mutual benefit are indicated.     

Reintegrating Janus: Eclectics and dialectics in counselling and psychotherapy

The history of science reveals a number of significant shifts in the conception of the universe. Recently, 20th century physics with its new discoveries has broken away from the traditional view of the universe to seeing it as interrelated, holistic, and emergent. This version of reality is complementary with the concept of dialectics. Dialectics is defined accordingly and its flexibility is suited to guide the present eclectic stance in counselling psychology and psychotherapy. Counselling psychology and psychotherapy are discussed within Kuhn's (1970) framework of normal science, crisis, and revolution. The normal science phase demonstrates variations of the subject/object dichotomy, and active/passive therapeutic orientations. Eclecticism reflects the crisis stage. Eclecticism is a multiple perspective that does not usually guide metatheory. The revolution and resolution phase for therapeutic psychology is manifested in a new paradigm based on dialectics. Dialectics makes eclecticism legitimate and comments towards that end are presented.     

Who mentors undergraduate student researchers? An analysis of faculty involvement at a four-year university

ABSTRACT

In this study, we investigated a profile of faculty who mentor undergraduate researchers at a four-year Hispanic-serving, public research university. Six variables were investigated: ethnicity, gender, age, tenure status, teaching evaluations, and research productivity. Data were compiled from institutional databases. Findings showed a greater percentage of tenured faculty mentoring undergraduate researchers while the percent of minority UR faculty mentors was consistent with institutional percentages. Additionally, findings included a higher percentage of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Undergraduate Research (UR) underrepresented minority faculty mentors compared to STEM Institution (INST) underrepresented minority faculty. For research productivity, UR faculty mentor funding comprised 28.0% of all external grant awards and 36.0% of all external funding during the sampling period. The majority funding for INST and UR faculty were found to be in the STEM disciplines. These findings provide evidence of potential predictors to describe UR faculty mentor profiles and can be considered important information for determining future educational policies and practices.     

The Gifted/Handicapped: Some Basic Issues

This article reviews current literature on the gifted/handicapped, tracing reasons behind the neglect suffered by this population and identifying difficulties still to be resolved in the provision of appropriate educational services. A multidisciplinary approach which emphasizes the significant roles played by teachers andparents of the G/H is seen as necessary to identify, diagnose and plan appropriately for their special educational needs. Up‐to‐date use of technological advances is advocated in the education of these children.     

Schooling,School Improvement and the Relevance of Alasdair MacIntyre

In recent years schools have come under increasing pressure to raise levels of achievement and educational standards generally. In their attempts to respond to government expectations schools have mounted a number of specific initiatives which have much in common from school to school. Together they embody a largely unexamined notion of the nature of schooling and ‘school improvement’ in particular. This article draws on the views of the moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre to provide a constructive critique of the ‘improvement’ initiatives currently underway in many secondary schools. It is suggested that such initiatives represent an unresolved tension between pursuing the ‘goods of effectiveness’ and the ‘goods of excellence’, which in turn reflect the more general dilemma of reconciling the traditions of modernity and pre‐modernity apparent in the existing practices of schools.     

A Meta-Analysis of Approaches to Engage Social Work Students Online

ABSTRACT

With an increase in social work courses being offered in online and hybrid formats, it is imperative that social work programs understand the new teaching tenets and engagement mediums employed to meet the new Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. This meta-analysis explores best-practices pedagogy for student engagement using the delivery of content through both asynchronous and synchronous methods.     

Supporting Communication of Girls with Rett Syndrome and their Mothers in Storybook Reading

In this study mother-child storybook reading was explored as a context within which to support early symbolic communication of girls with Rett syndrome. Baseline measures of mother-daughter interaction were gathered as mothers read familiar and unfamiliar storybooks with their daughters. Then three experimental interventions were studied in the homes of four girls: (a) resting hand splints, (b) light tech augmentative communication systems such as voice-output devices and symbols, and (c) very basic parent training. Access to devices, symbols, and training increased the frequency of each of the four girls, labeling and symbolic communication during storybook reading. Parent training was particularly useful in increasing the percentage of appropriate switch use by three of the four girls. The study suggests that parents can provide substantial support to early communication development in girls with Rett syndrome, if they are provided with basic information and materials.