A methodology for the analysis of patterns of participation within computer mediated communication courses

In this study we propose a methodology for the analysis of text based interchanges on computer mediated conferences which is based on Speech Act theory and which takes the illocutionary act as its unit of analysis. This methodology is used to compare messages from two different conferences — one based on methods for fostering learner independence and one based around a guest speaker seminar — and to show the differing patterns of interaction provoked by the differing task designs.     

Learning through Leading: A Self-Study in District Administration

There is little research in the area of understanding educational leaders’ psychological processes. This lack of understanding leaves educational leaders to develop their own sense-making practices while in the complex and stressful act of leading. This self-study, conducted over more than half a school year in 2014–2015, was my own effort to do just that: to understand myself as a leader by examining various influences on my role using a four-quadrant framework for leadership. The findings highlight two significant areas influencing my leadership practices: the internal-entity quadrant, defined as the leader’s personal values and beliefs, and the internal-context quadrant, defined as the leader’s perception of the various contextual influences surrounding her role. Adopting this framework for my thinking allowed a more objective view of my practice and the beliefs and assumptions operating within my practice. While this work is, at a personal level, my own struggle to understand the complexities of leading, it is also examines one way in which district leaders might begin to think about their own sense-making practices using self-study methods.     

Students' Perceptions of Literacy Assessment

Students' perceptions of literacy assessment processes and practices were investigated in two year long case studies undertaken in two English classrooms in two state high schools in Queensland, Australia. A range of qualitative data techniques was used to collect information related to students' previous experiences of assessment in primary school, students' responses to the first and last literacy assessment task of the school year, and their perceptions of assessment at the end of the year. The study showed that students' attitudes, beliefs, practices and understandings about assessment varied both within and across student groups and differences in students' accounts were evident both at the start and end of the school year. The findings highlight the role that students play in actively constructing knowledge about literacy assessment through their prior and current experiences with assessment tasks, and in their interactions with each other.     

Successful components of school improvement in culturally diverse schools

Contemporary phenomena, including modernization, globalization, and migration, have altered the sociopolitical and cultural conditions of schooling. Schools are called upon to respond to such change through improvement efforts fostering intercultural education. To this end, this research examines school actors’ perceptions of the successful components of school improvement in culturally diverse schools. For the purposes of this research, we used the Cypriot education system as our case study to carry out observations and interviews with head teachers, teachers, immigrant and native students, and their parents. In identifying the inputs for the improvement of culturally diverse schools, as perceived by school actors, various components emerged, including listening to student voice, socioemotional and culturally responsive teaching, and increased parental involvement. Arguably, these contributing factors bear implications for school-based leadership, building successful professional communities, and enhancing intercultural competence in schools.     

Evaluation systems and the pace of change – The example of Swedish higher education1

Abstract

The aim of¹ this article is to illuminate and discuss evaluation and evaluation systems in relation to the pace of change. It is argued that evaluation promotes and accelerates change. The article will thus contribute to a critical scrutiny of evaluation as a societal phenomenon and as a widespread practice in education. To accomplish this aim, the inherent purpose of evaluation and evaluation systems is brought forward. National evaluation systems for Swedish higher education are used as an empirical example. An analysis using Rosa’s three aspects of social acceleration (technical acceleration, acceleration of social change, and acceleration of the pace of life) is offered to demonstrate how the evaluation systems are related to, sustain, and promote an increase of the pace of change (acceleration) in educational practice in higher education.     

Mothers of children with externalizing behavior problems: cognitive risk factors for abuse potential and discipline style and practices

OBJECTIVE: Utilizing the conceptual framework of the Social Information Processing (SIP) model (Milner, 1993, 2000), associations between cognitive risk factors and child physical abuse risk and maladaptive discipline style and practices were examined in an at-risk population. METHODS: Seventy-three mothers of 5-12-year-old children, who were identified by their therapist as having an externalizing behavior problem, responded to self-report measures pertaining to cognitive risk factors (empathic perspective taking, frustration tolerance, developmental expectations, parenting locus of control), abuse risk, and discipline style and practices. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) provided a confirmation of the child's externalizing behaviors independent of the therapist's assessment. RESULTS: The results of this study suggest several cognitive risk factors significantly predict risk of parental aggression toward children. A parent's ability to empathize and take the perspective of their child, parental locus of control, and parental level of frustration tolerance were significant predictors of abuse potential (accounting for 63% of the variance) and inappropriate discipline practices (accounting for 55% of the variance). CONCLUSIONS: Findings of the present study provide support for processes theorized in the SIP model. Specifically, results underscore the potential role of parents' frustration tolerance, developmental expectations, locus of control, and empathy as predictive of abuse potential and disciplinary style in an at-risk sample.     

A Step-by-Step Design and Development of an Integrated Educational Software to Deal with Students' Empirical Ideas about Mechanical Interaction

We present the educational software Interactions between Objects, which we designed and developed to assist constructive teaching of Newton's 3rd law and Newtonian Dynamics in general. The software was designed on the basis of students' empirical ideas and conceptual difficulties, identified from previous research with Greek students (11–16 years old), the main findings of which are presented. We describe the step-by step design of this software, which aims to help students reconstruct their knowledge in the action–reaction thematic field through a number of experiments, by simulating real everyday life situations of interaction between bodies, modeling those situations by the help of an appropriate didactic method, applying cognitive conflict processes and supporting run my model features to promote students' conceptual change in this physics area.     

Prospective relations among victimization, rejection, friendlessness, and children's self- and peer-perceptions

This study investigated the prospective links between three forms of peer adversities (i.e., victimization, rejection, and lack of reciprocated friendships) and children's perceptions of themselves and of their peers. The sample consisted of 212 children (107 boys and 105 girls, 11-13 years) recruited from four primary schools and followed up for a period of one year. The results showed that a negative self-perception was a risk factor for the development of all forms of peer adversities. Of the three forms of peer adversities assessed, victimization and rejection had an influence on children's peer perceptions. None of the peer adversities predicted changes in self-perceptions. The results partially support a transactional model between children and their environments.     

Nurturing Nature: How Brain Development Is Inherently Social and Emotional,and What This Means for Education

New advances in neurobiology are revealing that brain development and the learning it enables are directly dependent on social-emotional experience. Growing bodies of research reveal the importance of socially triggered epigenetic contributions to brain development and brain network configuration, with implications for social-emotional functioning, cognition, motivation, and learning. Brain development is also impacted by health-related and physical developmental factors, such as sleep, toxin exposure, and puberty, which in turn influence social-emotional functioning and cognition. An appreciation of the dynamic interdependencies of social-emotional experience, health-related factors, brain development and learning underscores the importance of a “whole child” approach to education reform and leads to important insights for research on social-emotional learning. To facilitate these interdisciplinary conversations, here we conceptualize within a developmental framework current evidence on the fundamental and ubiquitous biological constraints and affordances undergirding social-emotional learning–related constructs and learning more broadly. Learning indeed depends on how nature is nurtured.     

Back to Africa: Tracing Dyslexia Genes in East Africa

A sample of Swahili-speaking probands with reading difficulties was identified from a large representative sample of 1,500 school children in the rural areas of Tanzania. Families of these probands (n = 88) were invited to participate in the study. The proband and his/her siblings received a battery of reading-related tasks and performance on these tasks was recorded and treated as phenotypic data. Molecular-genetic analyses were carried out with 47 highly polymorphic markers spanning three previously identified regions of interest harboring susceptibility loci for reading difficulties: 2p, 6p, and 15q (DYX1–DYX3). The analyses revealed the involvement of these regions in the development of reading difficulties in Swahili. The linkage signals are especially pronounced for time (compared with error) indicators of reading difficulties. These findings are easily interpretable because in transparent languages such as Swahili deficits in reading are more related to the rate/speed of reading and reading-related processes than to the number of errors made. In short, the study incrementally advances the field by adding an understudied language and an understudied population to the variety of languages and populations in the field of molecular-genetic studies of reading difficulties.