Gender DIF in Reading and Mathematics Tests With Mixed Item Formats

This was a study of differential item functioning (DIF) for grades 4, 7, and 10 reading and mathematics items from state criterion-referenced tests. The tests were composed of multiple-choice and constructed-response items. Gender DIF was investigated using POLYSIBTEST and a Rasch procedure. The Rasch procedure flagged more items for DIF than did the simultaneous item bias procedure—particularly multiple-choice items. For both reading and mathematics tests, multiple-choice items generally favored males while constructed-response items generally favored females. Content analyses showed that flagged reading items typically measured text interpretations or implied meanings; males tended to benefit from items that asked them to identify reasonable interpretations and analyses of informational text. Most items that favored females asked students to make their own interpretations and analyses, of both literary and informational text, supported by text-based evidence. Content analysis of mathematics items showed that items favoring males measured geometry, probability, and algebra. Mathematics items favoring females measured statistical interpretations, multistep problem solving, and mathematical reasoning.     

Temperature in Science Textbooks: Changes and Trends in Cross-National Perspective (1950–2000)

This study explores the way the concept of temperature was presented in lower-secondary science textbooks in France, Poland and England at the end of the 1950s and in the 2000s. I draw on history of science, history of education and book history to analyze different treatments of an apparently-similar scientific concept with regard to national contexts and diachronic change. Thus I include a presentation of the contexts in which the textbooks I study are published, and I analyse textbooks content revealing different approaches to present the notion of temperature. I argue that these results show that textbooks are valuable sources to investigate public representations of science and their shift over time, and I conclude by stressing the parallel of this evolution with change in everyday relationship with science and scientific instruments.     

EUROPEAN DISSERTATION SUMMARIES

Co‐operative learning means shared leadership where there is not just one leader in a group but where each member of the group is a leader. A leader demonstrates academic as well as collaborative skills in helping the group achieve a goal. Some academic skills are verbal interactions such as initiating ideas, responding by summarizing or suggesting procedures. Collaborative skills that build and maintain a good working relationship within the group include verbal interactions of praising group members and inviting others to get involved. The purpose of this study was to examine the verbal interactions and non‐verbal behaviours within unstructured learning groups. The verbal interactions were classified as positive if they aided the group to accomplish its goal and negative if they inhibited the group accomplishing its goal. Twenty‐eight students from seven intermediate‐grade level classrooms, grouped heterogeneously for sex and race and homogeneously for their ability in science, were selected for observation as they were doing a science activity. In general students’ verbal interactions were positive (i.e., there were more than four times more positive interactions than negative interactions). Further, in reviewing the positive interactions, students presented ideas more than four times as much as any of the other types of interactions. Females encouraged other members to participate in the activity significantly more than the males did. There was a trend in the number of times the equipment (clay) was handled; the males handled it more than the females as a function of race. Qualitative analyses revealed consistent patterns of interactions within groups of black and white males and females.     

Core–periphery structures in national higher education systems. A cross-country analysis using interlinking data

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the structure of national higher education networks in six European countries using interlinking data. We show that national HE systems display a common core–periphery structure, which we explain by the lasting reputational differences in science, as well as the process of expansion and integration of HE systems. Furthermore, we demonstrate that centrality in national networks (coreness) is associated with organizational characteristics, reflecting that interlinking is motivated by access to resources and the status of the organizations concerned, and that national policies impact network structures by influencing the level of inequality in the distribution of resources and status. Finally, we show that, as an outcome of the core–periphery structure, the strength of ties between two HEIs is largely determined by their individual coreness, while the impact of distance is too small-scale to alter the network structure generated by organizational attributes.     

A comparison of verbal output and receptivity in relation to attraction and communication satisfaction in interpersonal relationships

This study tested relationships among verbal output, behavioral receptivity, attraction, and communication satisfaction in a variety of longer and shorter term relationships of differing levels of liking. Two behaviorally referenced reports on others were developed to measure perceived behavioral output and perceived behavioral receptivity. The study tested hypotheses within the attraction paradigm. Results generally supported the notion of an important reinforcement value of high behavioral receptivity and moderate verbal output. Substantial proportions of highly verbal people appeared to be below average in receptivity.     

Building,Sustaining, and Expanding the Education Doctorate at Peabody College: An Administrative View

This article examines the operational and administrative underpinnings of Vanderbilt University's Ed.D. program. It explores the ways in which the admissions process, program orientation, and other academic and support services were reconceived when Peabody College formally launched its redesigned Ed.D. program in the summer of 2004. Further, it situates the mission of Peabody's education doctorate—the training and preparation of practitioner-scholars in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary settings—within the context of program administration.     

The metaphor and reality of contextual transfer

The article reports on the first phase of a large‐scale qualitative research project that explored the perceptions of training practitioners on how they understood the process by which we carry our knowledge and skill across different contexts. Clearly, this is a process of transition, where it is the individual who moves across the contexts and consequentially adapts, reshapes and makes decisions as to the applicability of his/her current competence within the new context of situation. The research has uncovered the complexity of this transition and the decision making involved, and provided participant support for some of the emerging theories of learning which take the concept of learning away from that of bounded learning where the material to be learnt in already known and there are experts who can transmit the necessary knowledge and skill to one of expansive learning where what is to be learned is not stable or well defined or understood ahead of time. The outcomes of the research, which are embedded in the developed model, suggest that we need to use formal learning to prepare our learners for the challenge of expansive learning.     

Rigidity in Gender‐Typed Behaviors in Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study of Ethnic Minority Children

A key prediction of cognitive theories of gender development concerns developmental trajectories in the relative strength or rigidity of gender typing. To examine these trajectories in early childhood, 229 children (African American, Mexican American, and Dominican American) were followed annually from age 3 to 5 years, and gender‐stereotypical appearance, dress‐up play, toy play, and sex segregation were examined. High gender‐typing was found across ethnic groups, and most behaviors increased in rigidity, especially from age 3 to 4 years. In addressing controversy surrounding the stability and structure of gender‐typing it was found that from year to year, most behaviors showed moderately stable individual differences. Behaviors were uncorrelated within age but showed more concordance in change across time, suggesting that aspects of gender‐typing are multidimensional, but still show coherence.     

Budgetary allocation and organizational characteristics of higher education institutions: a review of existing studies and a framework for future research

Budgeting—i.e. the decision on the level of expenditures and on the repartition of resources among organizational subunits—can be conceived as a critical organizational process, which is closely related to key choices concerning strategic priorities and to resources acquisition strategies. Overall, it is increasingly being recognized as one of the central places where steering and governance take place, and where higher education institutions are supposed to take initiative. Accordingly, this paper pursues two aims: first, it provides a review of existing studies about budgeting in higher education, according to the literature on changes in its organizational characteristics, and with a focus on approaches from Organizational Theory and Sociology. Second, it identifies some future directions of research, thus easing the integration of these two bodies of literature. This integration may help in providing researchers with a deeper understanding of the current functioning of budgeting processes, their variations across higher education institutions and countries, as well as their implications for organizational behavior.