What are students doing during lecture? Evidence from new technologies to capture student activity

Engaging students in class is paramount if they are to gain a deep understanding of class content. Student engagement is manifested by attention to the various components of instruction. However, there is little research at the tertiary level focusing on what aspects of instruction are related to changes in student attention during class. To address this gap, we collected multiple streams of data that provide a measure of student attention during instruction. We had students in an organic chemistry course who wear hats with a camera mounted on the brim, to provide a record of student gaze (i.e. looking at the board, notes, and friends). We also had students who use electronic pens that allowed us to record what information students transferred into their notes (pencasts). Based on our initial results, we believe the data provided by the point-of-view cameras and electronic pens hold great promise for using these technologies as viable research tools in educational settings to address various research questions.     

School-age child care: A review of five common arguments

During the past decade, parents and educators have increasingly expressed concern over the potential safety and developmental risks associated with children in self-care, or the care of another child (Garbarino, 1984; Harris, Kagay, & Ross, 1987; Robinson, Rowland, & Coleman, 1986; 1989; Zigler & Ennis, 1988). One result has been a growing interest in school-age child care (SACC) programs.Mick Coleman is Assistant Professor, Child and Family Development, and Extension Human Development Specialist, University of Georgia, Hoke Smith Annex, Athens, Ga. Bryan E. Robinson and Bobbie H. Rowland are both Professor of Human Services, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC     

Education Management Organisations and the Privatisation of Public Education: A cross-national comparison of the USA and Britain

Education Management Organisations (EMOs), for-profit and non-profit management companies engaged in take-over and operation of public education, are becoming big business in the USA and the UK. It is estimated that in the US, EMOs were projected to generate up to $123 billion dollars in revenue in 2000. In the smaller UK system it is estimated that about 5 billion of services in public education could be contracted out to private organisations per annum. This paper examines the policy frameworks that have enabled EMOs to take-over and progressively contribute to the privatisation of public education in two national settings, the USA and England and Wales. The British scene is distinctive because government policies that have sought to expand the role of the private sector, via public-private partnerships, in the provision of public sector services and its strong accountability system, have provided opportunities for EMOs to be engaged in, or take-over, schools and educational administrative services formerly provided by LEAs. In the US, in the mid-1990s, EMOs were invited to take over school districts and specific schools. However, this practice has been succeeded by a new focus on taking over the management of charter schools. A large capital market that is able to finance enterprises involved in educational services supports the development of EMOs in the US. Our research findings, however, point to halting progress by EMOs in public education in the US. There have been well-publicised failures to deliver the promised better education at a lower cost and also well-documented failure to raise student performance levels in school and school districts. The paper concludes with reflections on the extent to which EMOs have taken forward privatisation and its implications for the governance of education.     

Contexts for Remedial Reading: Practice Reading and Pause,Prompt and Praise tutoring

Abstract Fourteen residential childcare workers were trained to implement both a Practice Reading and the Pause, Prompt and Praise remedial reading procedures in school and cottage settings with 18 low‐progress readers of primary school age. Pause, Prompt and Praise procedures were introduced in each setting only if readers made insufficient progress with Practice Reading alone. Childcare workers displayed major change in their tutoring behaviour between baseline (untrained tutoring) conditions and trained tutoring conditions (Practice Reading or Pause, Prompt and Praise). Readers who received a six week programme of individual reading assistance made significant gains on standardised tests of reading accuracy and comprehension and made accelerated progress through graded book levels, while children in the comparison group did not. Results are discussed in terms of the interactive social contexts provided by the two procedures and of the opportunities for reciprocal gains in skill between readers and tutors with the Pause, Prompt and Praise procedures.     

Toward a Tribal Critical Race Theory in Education

In this article, I outline the central tenets of an emerging theory that I call Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) to more completely address the issues of Indigenous Peoples in the United States. TribalCrit has it roots in Critical Race Theory, Anthropology, Political/Legal Theory, Political Science, American Indian Literatures, Education, and American Indian Studies. This theoretical framework provides a way to address the complicated relationship between American Indians and the United States federal government and begin to make sense of American Indians’ liminality as both racial and legal/political groups and individuals. Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy is an Assistant Professor in the University of Utah.     

Students' expectations about peer pressure to engage in misconduct.

Previous research suggests that students with learning disabilities may differ from other students in their expectations of how peers are likely to propose engaging in misconduct. This study followed up on these findings using a methodology that did not require the participants to produce their responses verbally. Participants were 74 students with learning disabilities (53 male, 21 female) and 85 students without disabilities (40 male, 45 female) from high schools in three types of communities (urban, primarily black; urban, primarily Hispanic; suburban, primarily white). The students were presented with a series of pairs of statements that might be made by a teenager trying to entice a peer into misconduct and were asked to indicate which statement in each pair was the more persuasive. The results partially replicated the earlier research. The methodological and social implications of these results are discussed.     

Career Guidance and Counselling for Youth: What Adolescents and Young Adults are Telling Us

The area of career guidance and counselling for youth is undergoing rapid change in light of evolving expectations of young people as members of society and rapidly changing educational and career opportunities. This article summarizes previous research describing the perspectives of adolescents and young adults, and concludes that there is a need to re-examine the assumptions underlying career advising, guidance, and counselling programs offered to young people; and also to re-develop these services to better reflect current economic, career, and social realities.     

Learning style,sense of community and learning effectiveness in hybrid learning environment

The purpose of this study is to investigate how hybrid learning instruction affects undergraduate students' learning outcome, satisfaction and sense of community. The other aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between students' learning style and learning conditions in mixed online and face-to-face courses. A quasi-experimental design was used and 140 sophomores were recruited in this study. Students' learning outcomes, satisfaction, sense of community and learning styles were measured. Results showed that students in a hybrid course had significantly higher learning scores and satisfaction than did students of the face-to-face courses. The result also indicated that students of hybrid learning classrooms felt a stronger sense of community than did students in a traditional classroom setting. Analysis of learning style indicated that learning style had significant effect on learning outcome in the study group. Accommodator learners had higher e-learning effectiveness than other style learners. Possible reasons of results were discussed.     

An analysis of the different patterns of 1:1 interactions between educational professionals and their students with varying abilities in inclusive classrooms

The purpose of this study was to examine the different types and patterns of 1:1 interactions provided by general educators, special educators and paraprofessionals to children with mild disabilities (n?=?13), severe disabilities (n?=?13), and children without disabilities (n?=?13) in inclusive classrooms. General educators, special educators, and paraprofessionals' 1:1 interactions with students in three comparison groups were recorded in 17 elementary and middle school classrooms using a partial interval observation system. We found significant differences with respect to interaction frequency and content. Teachers and paraprofessionals had consistently more 1:1 interactions with students with severe disabilities, followed by children with mild disabilities, and then students without disabilities. In comparison to special education teachers and paraprofessionals, general educators interacted significantly more frequently with children without disabilities and children with mild disabilities. In contrast, paraprofessionals interacted significantly more often with students with severe disabilities and less frequently with children with mild disabilities and students without disabilities. Instructional interactions in social, behavioural, and functional domains were infrequent in these classrooms. We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of these findings for future research and practice.