“I ‘feel’ like I am at university even though I am online.” Exploring how students narrate their engagement with higher education institutions in an online learning environment

This article outlines a collaborative study between higher education institutions in Australia, which qualitatively explored the online learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The project adopted a narrative inquiry approach and encouraged students to story their experiences of this virtual environment, providing a snapshot of how learning is experienced by those undertaking online studies. The study explores what impacted upon students’ engagement in this environment and how different facets of their learning experience made a qualitative difference to how individuals enacted engagement. Drawing upon Sharon Pittaway’s engagement framework, the article seeks to foreground student voice as the learners define their engagement in learning, the strategies they employed to assist this process and how engagement was enacted at an individual level. The students’ reflections presented in this article can be used to inform teaching and learning strategies designed to improve engagement in the online environment within the higher education sector.     

Developing a competency framework for the initial training of educational psychologists working with young people aged 16–25

The Children and Families Act (2014) extends statutory protections for young people with special educational needs and disabilities until age 25. Consequently the core curriculum for trainee educational psychologists (TEPs) needs to be developed beyond the current focus of work with early years and school-age children. In order to define requisite professional competencies for working with young people aged 16–25 with learning difficulties and disabilities, and mental health needs, the Delphi Technique was employed to obtain consensus amongst an expert reference group. Two rounds of an online questionnaire and a face-to-face meeting with educational psychologists (EPs) reporting expertise in working with post-16 learners enabled the identification of areas to be added to, or extended within, existing training curricula. A competency framework for EPs working with young people aged 16–25 is proposed and implications for both TEPs and practitioner EPs explored.     

Embedding interactive whiteboards in teaching and learning: The process of change in pedagogic practice

This paper draws on research carried out for the UK government during 2004–2006 to evaluate the impact of interactive whiteboards for teaching and learning in primary schools in England. Multilevel modelling showed positive gains in literacy, mathematics and science for children aged 7 and 11, directly related to the length of time they had been taught with an interactive whiteboard (IWB). These gains were particularly strong for children of average and above average prior attainment. Classroom observations, together with teacher and pupil interviews, were used to develop a detailed account of how pedagogic practice changed. Results from the multilevel modelling enabled the researchers to visit the classrooms of teachers whose pupils had made exceptional progress and seek to identify what features of pedagogy might have helped to achieve these gains. It was also possible to examine possible reasons for the lack of impact of IWBs on the progress of low prior attainment pupils, despite their enthusiasm for the IWB and improved attention in class. The IWB is an ideal resource to support whole class teaching. Where teachers had been teaching with an IWB for 2 years and there was evidence that all children, had made exceptional progress in attainment in national tests, a key factor was the use of the IWB for skilled teaching of numeracy and literacy to pairs or threesomes of children. Young children with limited writing skills, and older pupils with special educational needs are highly motivated by being able to demonstrate their skills and knowledge with the tapping and dragging facilities of the IWB. These effects are greatest when they have the opportunity, individually or in small groups, for extended use of the IWB rather than as part of whole class teaching. The IWB is in effect a mediating artefact in interactions between teacher and pupils, and when teachers use an IWB for a considerable period of time (at least 2 years), teachers learn how to mediate the greatly increased number of possible interactions to best aid pupils’ learning. The IWB’s use becomes embedded in their pedagogy as a mediating artefact for their interactions with their pupils, and pupils’ interactions with one another, and this is when changes in pedagogic practice become apparent.     

Primary teachers’ self-assessment of their confidence in implementing digital technologies curriculum

Educational technology research and development - Technology has significantly impacted our work and leisure spaces, but education is still working to build a bridge between the technological...     

Perception of nonverbal social cues by regular education,ADHD, and ADHD/LD students

The current study examined the ability of children diagnosed as having Attention‐Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) with and without a learning disability to perceive nonverbal social cues in comparison to their non‐ADHD peers. In addition, teacher ratings of students' social perceptions were obtained. Participants in the study were 45 students between the ages of seven and ten years who were identified as 1) ADHD only, 2) ADHD with a learning disability (ADHD/LD), and 3) a control group with no diagnosis. The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy(DANVA) and the Social Perception Behavior Rating Scale(SPBRS) were used to measure social perceptions. The DANVA was administered twice to each child in the ADHD and ADHD/LD groups: once while the ADHD and ADHD/LD participants were on medication and once off medication. The ADHD/LD group demonstrated significant difficulty in comparison to their peers in perceiving paralanguage cues effectively. The ADHD/LD group also showed significant improvement on the Postures and Paralanguage subtests during on‐medication conditions. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The impact of engineering curriculum design principles on elementary students’ engineering and science learning

The Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards propose that students learn core ideas and practices related to engineering as well as science. To do so, students will need high-quality curricular materials designed to meet these goals. We report an efficacy study of an elementary engineering curriculum, Engineering is Elementary (EiE) that includes a set of hypothesized critical components designed to encourage student engagement in practices, connect engineering and science learning, and reach diverse students. To measure the impact of the curriculum, we conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial in 604 classrooms in 152 schools in three states. Schools were randomly assigned to either the treatment curriculum or to a comparison curriculum that addressed the same learning goals but did not include several critical components. Results show that students who used the treatment curriculum (EiE) regardless of demographic characteristics outperformed students in the comparison group on outcome measures of both engineering and science content learning. The results show that curriculum design affects student-learning outcomes.     

Divorce: Implications for services

An increasing number of school-age children are dealing with the emotional ramifications of parental divorce. Past studies have shown that the adjustment of these children to the divorce has a direct impact on many facets of their lives, including school performance. The current study assessed the depressive symptomatology of school-age children of divorce (third and sixth graders) using the Children's Depression Inventory. The current study also focused on research regarding actual teacher and parent knowledge concerning the impact of divorce on children. The parental knowledge of the effects of divorce on children prior to and after a court-ordered workshop was assessed. In addition, teacher knowledge of the effects of divorce on children was addressed. Implications for schools in helping students deal with divorce are discussed.     

Designer Thinking: How Novices and Experts Think About Instructional Design

Instructional design can be characterized as a complex problem-solving task, yet little is known about what cognitive processes it requires. This research sought to identify differences in the thinking of expert and novice instructional designers given the same design task. A talk-aloud procedure was used to capture their problem-solving procedures and representations while designing instruction for a computer simulation. A coding scheme based on design principles, strategies, and subtasks was applied to the verbal protocols. Quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that expert and novice instructional designers do appear to use divergent design paths. These design paths were further analyzed using design trees.     

Exploring TPACK among pre-service teachers in Australia and Israel

The ubiquitous nature of technology in the world has not yet translated into the ubiquitous use of technology to transform learning and teaching. Teachers lack the confidence and competence to integrate technology across a broad range of tools within a range of contexts. Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) has become a common framework to explore technology within teaching and teacher education. However, little research exists to explore the similarities and differences of TPACK between different teacher education programmes, within different countries or even different disciplines, especially in a secondary context. Using a self-report online survey, this study sought to compare and contrast TPACK results from pre-service teachers studying in secondary teacher education programmes in Australia and Israel. Findings suggest that TPACK is higher in Australia, and in both countries for those students who were aged over 26. There were no significant differences between gender and disciplines reported. The paper also discusses broad-scale implications for the future of research in TPACK.