Reducing Troublesome Behaviour in Three Secondary Pupils through Correspondence Training

This exploratory study applied Risley & Hart's correspondence training paradigm to reducing the troublesome behaviour of three 12 to 14 year‐old boys in an inner city high school in the West Midlands. Correspondence training involves negotiating individual reductions in levels of two classes of troublesome behaviour, talking out of turn (TOOT) and hindering other children (HOC). The boys were also assisted to collect data on their own behaviour in specific lessons. The school's existing system of rewards was utilised to reinforce the boys for reducing their levels of troublesome behaviour to match each target level negotiated. Results indicate that all three boys successfully reduced their levels of troublesome behaviour and that all three completed an increased amount of homework when correspondence training was introduced. Anecdotal evidence from teachers corroborated the behaviour changes apparent in the boys’ self‐report data. Correspondence training is seen as a viable and worthwhile procedure for improving social behaviour in secondary pupils.     

Global pressures on education research: quality,utility, and infrastructure

This article provides an overview of issues likely to drive educational research globally over the next decade, and it examines the Asia Pacific Education Review (APER)’s role in responding to these issues, shaping research agendas, and delivering high-quality research. We also look at the implications of these pressures, along with changes in the academic infrastructure, regarding the form, distribution, quality, and utility of education research. We focus on three pressures in particular: a new demography of education, the changing technology of education, and the expansion of higher education and the research university. Demographic pressures create demand for new and different types of institutional responses and have created a new set of issues in education. Technological innovations promise to challenge current systems. MOOCs, web-based professional development for adults, mobile learning, and web-based performance supports for younger students will alter the physical, intellectual, and learning environments of higher education. How might these developments affect the infrastructure of academic research? Quality control will become even more central. It is a strength of academe, something which research institutions are particularly well designed to conduct. Growth in the higher education sector has been accompanied by equally unprecedented growth in research programs, research-trained faculty, and research-oriented universities. This, in turn, has produced pressure for more publications and journals. We conclude with a discussion of how the educational research community will likely respond to these challenges and the role of APER in this process.     

Jean Vigo’s Zéro de conduite and the spaces of revolt

In this article we will contribute to the contemporary theoretical debate about film by considering, from a history-of-education perspective, the film Zéro de conduite by Jean Vigo (1905–1934). This film is classified under the umbrella of “poetic realism”: a product of cinéma de gauche and an avant-gardist, surrealist and anarchist-catalogued film by a film-maker described by many as very talented and creative. The paper is divided into five parts. In the first part we sketch Vigo’s own biography and the social biography of the film. The second section documents the response to the film both at the time of its release and subsequently. In the third section we explore anarchist ideas about education both in theory and practice. In the fourth section we use this understanding to analyse the film. The final section returns to the question of film as an underused resource and the possibilities of bringing new elements into historical practice.     

Getting immersed in teacher and student perspectives? Facilitating analytical competence using video cases in teacher education

The ability to analyze and understand classroom situations through the eyes of not only teachers but also students can be seen as a crucial aspect of teachers’ professional competence. Even though video case-based learning is considered to have great potential for the promotion of analytical competence of teachers (i.e., becoming immersed in student and teacher perspectives as well as applying conceptual knowledge to better understand classroom situations), only a few studies have investigated the effects of corresponding instructional support. This empirical field study examines the effects on analytical competence of two types of instructional support—hyperlinks to multiple perspectives and hyperlinks to conceptual knowledge—by using a 2 × 2 factorial design in a computer-supported video case-based learning environment inspired by cognitive flexibility theory and participatory design. The study examines collaborative learning processes to discover what specific kind of instruction may help to counteract some of the known deficits of case-based learning and teacher thinking, such as limited perspective-taking. From a participatory design point of view, training novices to become immersed in teacher and student perspectives can be considered as an alternative for direct involvement of teachers and students in the design process. The study was realized as a four-day university course for pre-service teachers (N = 100). ANCOVAs of learning processes (small-group discussions) and outcomes (written case analyses) provide evidence that both types of instructional support (i.e., hyperlinks to multiple perspectives and conceptual knowledge) are beneficial. In particular, hyperlinks to multiple perspectives affected small-group case discussions and written post-tests as they led to increased immersion (i.e., perspective-taking). Hyperlinks to conceptual knowledge furthered the application of this knowledge, especially in the written post-tests. Implications for teacher education, participatory design, and further research are discussed.     

Characteristics of the research supervision of postgraduate teachers’ action research

Today, many institutions of higher education support students in conducting practice-oriented research. This research refers to a broad array of approaches geared toward practitioners’ practice. The supervision of such research is of crucial importance, but little is known about its nature and characteristics. This study examined what research supervisors and postgraduate, in-service teacher students perceive are key elements of successful action research supervision. Four action research supervisors and eight postgraduate students were interviewed. Data were analysed by using theory and empirical data. Findings reveal 24 key elements of action research supervision, which refer to supervisors’ (1) skills in supporting knowledge development through and about action research and creating a supportive environment for developing knowledge, (2) knowledge and expertise in supervising action research, (3) attitude in the supervision of action research and (4) the motives driving supervisors’ actions in the student-supervisor relationship.     

Seriously Entertained: Antecedents and Consequences of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Entertainment Experiences With Political Talk Shows on TV

This study's purpose is twofold: to introduce a new format into existing political entertainment research (“serious” political talk shows) and to establish a more specific definition of entertainment in a political context. To do so, the authors rely on a two-process-model of entertainment experiences. A telephone survey (N = 230) was conducted to analyze the antecedents and consequences of eudaimonic and hedonic entertainment experiences and to look into politically relevant variables and their distribution among viewers and nonviewers of such talk shows. The results highlight the importance of introducing new entertainment concepts and their relations to other relevant political and motivational variables into the research of political entertainment. More specifically, the findings demonstrate how entertainment experiences contribute to viewers' feeling of being informed and point out several differences between viewers and nonviewers concerning their internal political efficacy and political interest. Finally, looking at political talk shows from an audience perspective extends previous content-based taxonomies.