The development of scientific reasoning skills in conjunction with collaborative writing assignments: An interpretive study of six ninth-grade students

In this investigation, three classes of ninth-grade general science students participated in a collaborative report-writing intervention. The purpose of this portion of the study was to evaluate students' collaboratively written laboratory reports for evidence of the use of scientific reasoning skills and to document qualitative changes in reasoning skill use over time. The participants in the study were 6 ninth-grade students, representing three collaborative writing pairs. During the intervention, students wrote 10 laboratory reports over a 4.5-month period. The author and classroom teacher designed report guideline prompts to scaffold students in the use of relevant scientific reasoning skills. The results indicated that students used reasoning skills to assess their current models of scientific understanding, make observations, interpret the meaning of results, and generate new models based on their data and relevant information. Participants showed the most improvement in writing that reflected the reasoning skills of (a) selecting and processing textbook passages, (b) drawing conclusions and formulating models, and (c) comparing/contrasting. Over time, participants improved their ability to compose explanations that represented a synthesis of prior knowledge, activity observations, and other sources of information. Collaborative writing encouraged students to construct their own understandings of science concepts by creating an environment in which thinking, reasoning, and discussion were valued.     

Student Orientations to Independent Learning

Sixty‐six students completed two questionnaires to describe their approaches to study and the relationship to their personal preference for either the conventional lecture (CL) or self‐learning package (SLP) as methods of instruction. The students were randomly assigned to either an SLP and a CL group and received instruction on the same topic. Then, six weeks after the lecture all students were given a 30‐minute test to examine their level of understanding. Ten students, chosen at random, were interviewed further to assess their attitude towards learning. The inference drawn from the results is that more students preferred CL to SLP, however there was no correlation between students’ study approach and their preference for different teaching methods, nor did the study demonstrate that either method of instruction was superior when measured by test performance, suggesting a need to review independent study packages to better match student needs. Interview analysis showed that the students were highly dependent on reassurance from their lecturers, emphasising the negotiated nature of learning.     

Liberal arts student learning outcomes: An integrated approach

Researchers completing a study of liberal arts education sought to identify learning outcomes associated with both wisdom and citizenship. They have synthesized these themes into seven outcomes that facilitate effective student learning and development.     

Translating strategy,values and identities in higher education: the case of multi-campus systems

Tertiary Education and Management -     

Confronting gender inequality in a business school

This study, set in a New Zealand Business School, takes an integrative view of the university as an ‘inequality regime’ Acker, J. (2006b Acker, J. (2006a). The gender regime of Swedish banks. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 22 (2), 195–209. doi: 10.1016/j.scaman.2006.10.004[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Inequality regimes: Gender, class and race in organizations. Gender and Society, 20(4), 441–464 including all types of women staff: academic women in permanent positions, academics on casual contracts and administrative staff. This approach contrasts with most studies of gender in higher education, which focus on academics, and often on the most senior academic roles. The business school, too, is under-researched in the literature of gender and higher education and we argue that these institutions constitute a particularly ‘chilly climate’ for women. The project discussed here was designed as participatory action research, but we found both participation and action difficult to accomplish. We reflect on how these difficulties resonate with the wider problem of confronting gender inequality in a ‘chilly climate’, and ask why further change is hard. We collected primary data from focus group interviews and a survey, and critically reflected on the process of data collection. Secondary data, including university reports and policies and national legislation, were also collected as part of the context of the School inequality regime. We analysed our data using Acker's categories: the ‘visibility of inequality’, the ‘legitimacy of inequality’ and ‘mechanisms of control and compliance’. We found barriers to change both within and beyond the Business School itself. These included the low organisational priority given to gender equality, which in turn reflected a weak external regulatory environment. At the same time we found a lack of solidarity between women within the School, which we attributed partly to class-based differences. Organisational activism is difficult in this context, where gender inequality is both invisible and legitimated, reflecting a post-feminist mood of ‘gender fatigue’.     

Mr. Chips Meets Capitalism:ProfScam's Attack on the Professoriate

The author argues that whileProfscam, by Charles Sykes, is seriously flawed, the book presents a forceful attack on the professoriate. Sykes is successful in raising questions about the modern university that are difficult to answer.     

The Efficacy of Repeated Reading and Wide Reading Practice for High School Students with Severe Reading Disabilities

This experimental study was conducted to examine the efficacy of repeated reading and wide reading practice interventions for high school students with severe reading disabilities. Effects on comprehension, fluency, and word reading were evaluated. Participants were 96 students with reading disabilities in grades 9–12. Students were paired within classes and pairs were randomly assigned to one of three groups: repeated reading ( N  = 33), wide reading ( N  = 34), or typical instruction ( N  = 29). Intervention was provided daily for approximately 15–20 minutes for 10 weeks. Results indicated no overall statistically significant differences for any condition, with effect sizes ranging from −.31 to .27. Findings do not support either approach for severely impaired readers at the high school level. We hypothesize that these students require more intensive interventions that include direct and explicit instruction in word- and text-level skills as well as engaged reading practice with effective feedback.     

Teachers’ pedagogical decision‐making and influences on this when teaching students with severe intellectual disabilities

This article focuses on teachers' pedagogical decision‐making and influences on this decision‐making when teaching students with severe intellectual disabilities. The research reported and discussed forms part of an international collaborative research project in the south west of England and Florida, US. The study is set within the broader socio‐political context of inclusion, contributing a pedagogical dimension to other aspects of inclusion, such as placement, curriculum and accountability. Houssaye's (2000) pedagogical interaction model is examined and adapted to situate and analyse teachers’ pedagogical decision‐making, and influences on this, when teaching students with severe intellectual disabilities. The study shows a prominence and privileging of pedagogical decisions and influences around teacher‐student pedagogical interactions over curriculum‐teacher or curriculum‐student pedagogical interactions. The implications of this emphasis are considered in the historical context of teaching and learning models and approaches for this group of learners.     

Prediction of elementary school children's externalizing problem behaviors from attentional and behavioral regulation and negative emotionality

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating role of individual differences in negative emotionality in the relations of behavioral and attentional (emotional) regulation to externalizing problem behaviors. Teachers' and one parent's reports of children's regulation (attentional and behavioral), emotionality, and problem behavior were obtained when children were in kindergarten to grade 3 and two years later (N = 169; 146 in major analyses); children's behavioral regulation also was assessed with a measure of persistence. According to the best fitting structural equation model, at two ages behavioral dysregulation predicted externalizing behavior problems for children both high and low in negative emotionality, whereas prediction of problem behavior from attentional control was significant only for children prone to negative emotionality. There were unique, additive effects of behavioral and attentional regulation for predicting problem behavior as well as moderating effects of negative emotionality for attentional regulation.