The growing (but still limited) importance of evidence in education policy and practice

The last decade of education change has been characterized by the rise of evidence-based policy and practice agendas. Internationally, we are witnessing efforts to increase and incorporate research use in public services. This article examines efforts in education to address the research–practice gap through an emerging field we term knowledge mobilization (KM). We explore some of the controversy surrounding the use of ‘evidence’, outline national and international KM initiatives and consider some of the issues and challenges that arise from the increased interest in evidence and research use in education. We also assess the current state and desirable future directions of efforts to strengthen the role of research and evidence in education.     

Curriculum Focal Points： A framework for pre-k-8 teachers＇ professional development

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study raised the concern that the United States （US） mathematics teachers place less emphasis on topics and teach a variety of content strands （Goldsmith, Mark ＆ Kantrov, 2000; Kerachsky, 2008）. The overall pattern in the US mathematics classrooms today is that primary and upper elementary teachers cover numerous topics before students achieve mastery （Cogan ＆ Schmidt, 1999; National Center for Education Statistics, 1997）. To solve this problem, US teachers need to find ways to focus fewer curriculum and study topics with a more in-depth agenda. Curriculum Focal Points for pre-kindergarten through grade 8 mathematics： a quest for coherence （National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2006） provides a strong framework that may assist teachers in creating a more coherent and focused mathematics program for students. In this article, the authors discuss example lessons that were implemented and observed in pre-kindergarten, fourth grade and sixth grade classrooms during a year-long professional development program. The overarching goal of this program was to provide appropriate instruction for teachers to organize mathematics standards-based curriculum in geometry, algebra and measurement, using a curriculum that emphasizes a strong conceptual framework. As an outcome of this exploratory research agenda, the authors＇ intentions were to circulate ＂best practices＂ and encourage international connections and discussion when using Curriculum Focal Points （CFP） in global classrooms.     

Promoting global citizenship through ICT： Ukrainian high school students

Information is one of the important assets in today＇s society. Information and communication technologies （ICT） may be particularly important for students as one of the tools shaping global citizens. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of ICT by high school students （n=122） from a developing country, like Ukraine. The Global Citizenship Survey was used and modified for the purpose of this study （Lima, 2006）. Initial analyses indicated that the majority of the students use computers at school at least once per week. However, most of the students do not use the Intemet at school on a weekly basis. At the same time, the majority of students from Ukraine have computers at home and more than half of students have the Internet access at home. A chi-square analysis revealed statistically significant gender differences in the use of computers and the lnternet.     

Synthetic hybrid indicators based on scientific collaboration to quantify and evaluate individual research results

Governmental initiatives around scientific policy have progressively raised collaboration to priority status. In this context, a need has arisen to broaden the traditional approach to the analysis and study of research results by descending to the group or even the individual scale and supplementing the output-, productivity-, visibility- and impact-based focus with new measures that emphasize collaboration from the vantage of structural analysis. To this end, the present paper proposes new hybrid indicators for the analysis and evaluation of individual research results, popularity and prestige, that combine bibliometric and structural aspects. A case study was conducted of the nine most productive departments in Carlos III University of Madrid. The findings showed hybridization to be a tool sensitive to traditional indicators, but also to the new demands of modern science as a self-organized system of interaction among individuals, furnishing information on researchers’ environments and the behaviour and attitudes adopted within those environments.     

Variations in article seeking and reading patterns of academics: What makes a difference?

Although scholarly articles play an important role in the work life of academics, specific patterns of seeking and reading scholarly articles vary. Subject discipline of the reader influences many patterns, including amount of reading, format of reading, and average time spent per reading. Faculty members in different disciplines exhibit quite distinct patterns of reading. Medical/health faculty read more than others and mainly for current awareness purposes, while engineering faculty spend more time on average per article reading, and they also read more for research. Other factors that influence some reading patterns include work responsibilities (weighted towards more teaching or more research), age (young faculty are more likely to read on-screen from the open Web) and productivity of the reader, and purpose of the reading (readings for research and writing are more likely to be from a library collection). The ability to predict scholarly article seeking and reading patterns will assist journal editors, publishers, and librarians design better, more targeted journal systems and services.     

The experiences of deaf and hard of hearing students at a Queensland University: 1985–2005

This article reports on the experiences of deaf and hard of hearing students at a Queensland university, which offers an extensive deaf student support program. Seventy‐two current students and graduates since the program’s inception twenty years ago completed a survey about their experiences, highlights, challenges and use of communication tools and support services at university. Findings indicate, both quantitatively and qualitatively, that students valued the specialised support services they received, although challenges in accessing the academic curriculum remained for many students. In the important area of social factors, many students reported enjoying satisfying friendships and a sense of belonging with other deaf people, often for the first time, while others experienced feelings of social isolation in a largely hearing peer group. Overall, deaf and hard of hearing students who had attended Griffith over the 20 years had a high rate of graduation, comparing favourably with other university students.     

The syllable frequency effect in visual recognition of French words: a study in skilled and beginning readers

The present study addressed the issue of syllable activation during visual recognition of French words. In addition, it was investigated whether word orthographic information underlies syllable effects. To do so, words were selected according to the frequency of their first syllable (high versus low) and the frequency of the orthographic correspondence of this syllable (high versus low). For example, the high-frequency syllable /ã/ is frequently transcribed by the orthographic cluster an, but infrequently transcribed by han in French. A lexical decision task was performed by skilled readers (Experiment 1) and beginning readers in Grade 5 (Experiment 2). Results yielded an inhibitory effect of syllable frequency in both experiments. Moreover, the reliable interaction between syllable frequency and orthographic correspondence frequency indicated that the syllable frequency effect was influenced by orthographic characteristics of syllables. Finally, data showed that the interaction between phonological and orthographic variables was modified with reading experience. The results are discussed in current models of visual word recognition.     

How Adolescents Come to See Themselves as More Responsible Through Participation in Youth Programs

This qualitative study was aimed at developing theory about the process underlying the development of responsibility grounded in accounts of youth who reported experiencing this change. A total of 108 high-school-aged ( M = 16.5) youth from 11 programs were interviewed about their experiences within the program, and 24 reported becoming more responsible through their participation. The youth's accounts suggested that this process was driven largely by successfully fulfilling program expectations. This process was driven by youth's adherence to their commitments and their consideration of the consequences of their actions on others. Youth mentioned changes in responsibility most frequently in three programs, which appeared to differ from the remaining programs in having more structure and placing greater ownership and accountability on youth.