Doing a Jigsaw Without the Picture

This paper is one teacher's account of an attempt to confront his own professional concerns through a process of critical reflection and classroom‐based self‐evaluation. The writer examines his own motives, as well as the pedagogical issues he faces teaching English to a low‐ability class. The account chronicles the writer's exploration of these issues through an experimental all day workshop on Romeo and Juliet, and concludes with some insights Into the process of curriculum change and the culture of the Institutions within which it takes place.     

The how and why of academic collaboration: disciplinary differences and policy implications

This paper examines how and why academics in different parts of the academy collaborate. In this paper we argue that: (1) There is a useful analytical distinction to be made between collaboration (fluid and expressive) and Collaboration (concrete and instrumental); (2) These two are not mutually exclusive and their use varies between disciplines; and (3) This distinction is an informative one for policy making that aims to encourage collaboration. Two interview based studies were used to explore the differences in collaborative practices across disciplines. The first was small and confined to a single university (n = 36) and the second was a larger study conducted in three countries (n = 274). Cross tabulations and analysis of open ended questions demonstrated many differences across the humanities, sciences and social sciences in collaboration. The C/collaboration distinction proves useful in understanding different disciplinary approaches to research, and in pointing to implications for research policy and funding. Attempts to increase collaborative research through Collaboration only, may well have deleterious effects on both collaboration and Collaboration. Research policy and funding should bear these differences in mind when seeking to stimulate collaborative research, so as to gain better outcomes across a range of disciplines.     

Future issues of computer-mediated communication: The results of a delphi study

Although applications of computer-mediated communications (CMC) continue to evolve, most colleges and universities have no plan to prepare for future development. In order to develop such a plan, a vision of the future of CMC needs to be formed. This study attempted to create such a vision by predicting which CMC applications will become prevalent, the resources required to support these applications, and the major obstacles that will need to be overcome. To address these issues, faculty around the world who extensively use CMC in instruction participated in an electronic Delphi study. Findings indicated that future CMC applications will be those that support common classroom activities such as sending and receiving assignments and distributing electronic handouts. Network access, new teaching skills, and additional time to integrate CMC into the classroom were identified as the resources required to support these applications. Faculty resistance to CMC was identified as the major obstacle.     

Recruitment of men and women as academics by Australian universities

Entry of men and women to an academic career was studied through a survey of 230 men and women who in 1991 held a full-time appointment at lecturer level or above in Arts and Science disciplines in an Australian university. The women more often than the men had learned about the position they obtained from a source inside the department in which the job was being filled, had been encouraged by senior members of the department to apply, and had gained a position that was filled without advertisement. However, these differences arose because more of the women than the men had been a tutor in the department where they gained a lectureship. There were no differences in terms of how men and women had been recruited when allowance was made for this factor and whether a person had been residing within Australia immediately prior to appointment. The results are discussed with reference to why men have in the past and now do substantially outnumber women among academics in Australian universities. Although the survey suggests men and women who gained positions were recruited on similar bases, successful applicants need to be compared with unsuccessful applicants to obtain comprehensive understanding whether selection practices have disadvantaged women.The survey reported in this article was undertaken while Ray Over held an appointment as Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Education at Griffith University.     

Community cohesion and children's play: a new conceptual framework

This article poses the question: Can children's play help to create cohesive communities in segregated towns and cities? The growing body of literature on community cohesion provides a useful backdrop to this issue. The discussion contains data from an empirical investigation carried out between 2009 and 2010 in Blackburn – a cotton mill town in Lancashire in the north west of England. The research was both qualitative – including 21 observations of children's play in a range of social settings – and quantitative – a questionnaire survey of 303 parents living in the Blackburn with Darwen borough. The research yielded results that both support and refute the suggestion that children's play can be used as a cohesive strategy in segregated towns and cities. The analysis of the data lends itself to a new conceptual framework in which community cohesion is presented as an important social and political objective in an increasingly diverse society.     

Development of a Questionnaire Assessing School Physical Activity Environment

This study was designed to develop the Questionnaire Assessing School Physical Activity Environment (Q--SPACE) based on student perceptions. Twenty-eight items rated on 4-point Likert scales were administered to 244 middle school students in 9 schools. Exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate the underlying structure of the items and 2 factors were extracted: physical environment (PE) and social environment (SE). Twelve and 8 items loaded saliently on PE (e.g., gym classes available) and SE (e.g., teacher encouragement), respectively. Factor scales had alpha coefficients of .86 (PE) and .81 (SE). One-week test–retest reliabilities for the factor scales of PE and SE were .78 and .72, respectively. Differences in PE scale scores across schools and PE and SE scale scores across student school physical activity behavior (e.g., participation on school teams) provided some evidence of scale construct validity. Overall, Q–SPACE demonstrates acceptable reliability for capturing middle school students' perceptions of school physical activity environment. The factorial validity needs to be assessed with confirmatory factor analysis and invariance testing procedures.     

Exploring the Future: a missing dimension in environmental education

There is considerable current interest in the need for a more ecologically sustainable future. If environmental educators wish to make a significant contribution to this debate, two prior and interrelated areas of concern need addressing. The first is recognition that teaching about global issues can sometimes be counterproductive and lead to feelings of despair. The second, explored in more detail here, is the need to know how young people conceptualise the future in the first place. A recent study of pupils’ views of the future is described which provides important information about their attitudes to the local and global environment.