ICT teacher training: Evidence for multilevel evaluation from a national initiative

This paper is one of a pair that re-examines the evidence from a national initiative to train all teachers in England to bring them up to the level of newly qualified teachers, who are required to know when to use and when not to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in their professional practice. Reanalysis of data gathered for the 2004 evaluation uncovers the complexity of such professional development. The effectiveness of contrasting approaches to ICT-related teacher training was analysed using the national survey of 496 trainees and experts' reports on 11 of the 47 training providers. multilevel evaluation of professional development was shown to be robust for ICT teacher training, including a significant correlation between the views of experts and those of teachers. The presence of the middle level of 'organisational support and change' emerged as a particularly discriminating factor, indicating that higher-quality teacher training supports change in the classroom and in the school. Therefore, we recommend that all five of Guskey's levels be consistently adopted for the evaluation of ICT teacher training, and that research should also adopt a multilevel model. A second paper delves deeper to describe and contrast the highest and lowest-rated approaches to ICT teacher training.     

The relationship between functional potential and field performance in elite female wheelchair basketball players

The functional classification system for wheelchair basketball is based on an analysis of the players' functional resources through field-testing and game observation. Under this system, players are assigned a score of 1 to 4.5. The aim of this study was to determine if the wheelchair basketball player classification system reflects the existing differences in performance of elite female players. During the World Championship for Wheelchair Basketball in Sydney 1998, eight teams were videotaped for three 40-min games for a total of 120 min per team. Fifty-nine female players (Class I [1 and 1.5 points] n=12; Class II [2 and 2.5 points] n=20; Class III [3 and 3.5 points] n=13; Class IV [4 and 4.5 points] n=14) were retained for a detailed performance analysis by means of the Comprehensive Basketball Grading System (CBGS). Two-way analysis of variance showed high point players to perform better compared with low point players for the majority of variables determining the quality of game performance. A lack of significant differences between two adjacent classes was explained on the basis of the methodological approach, the class-position relationship in this sample, and the performance level of women's wheelchair basketball. We conclude that the performance of elite female wheelchair basketball players is dependent on functional ability.     

Time needed to change the isometric force production of a response

This study investigated the time needed to change a motor program that specified the elbow flexor muscles to gradually increase the isometric force production from 15% to 75% of one's maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). A double-stimulation paradigm was used with the restriction that subjects (N = 12) be at 15% of their MVC before the presentation of the first stimulus. Subjects reacted to the first stimulus (randomly presented) by gradually increasing their isometric force from 15% to 75% of their MVC and then reacted to the second stimulus by altering the force production in one of four ways: (a) increasing the force to the 75% level rapidly instead of gradually, (b) discontinuing the increase and maintaining the level of force attained, (c) discontinuing all force production, or (d) reversing the direction of force so that it is produced by the elbow extensors. The data revealed that more time was needed to increase the force rapidly than to perform any of the other three conditions.     

The importance of mature,part-time students to higher education in the U.K.

This paper assesses the contribution made by mature part-time students to the statistics on higher education. It shows that part-time numbers currently account for approximately 40% of total student numbers in the UK, 33% of university students, (mostly in the Open University) and 43% of the total in polytechnics and colleges, (1989–90 figures). The majority are mature people, over 25 years of age, who combine both education and employment. The principal change over the past ten years has been the increasing proportion of women, who now form more than 44% of the total number of students and 42% of the part-time total. A theoretical analysis is carried out, using the Human Capital model, which shows that part-time higher education might produce significant rates of return, both to the individual and society. It is noted that most of the research efforts in the UK, into the benefits of higher education, have concentrated on young, 18–21 year olds, who study full-time, and that current government policy is primarily concerned with improving the participation rate of this age group. This paper concludes that there is sufficient evidence to warrant a more thorough investigation of the costs and benefits of part-time study and suggests that there is considerable potential for expansion in this area.     

Processes of Early Childhood Interventions to Adult Well‐Being

This article describes the contributions of cognitive–scholastic advantage, family support behavior, and school quality and support as processes through which early childhood interventions promote well‐being. Evidence in support of these processes is from longitudinal cohort studies of the Child–Parent Centers and other preventive interventions beginning by age 4. Relatively large effects of participation have been documented for school readiness skills at age 5, parent involvement, K‐12 achievement, remedial education, educational attainment, and crime prevention. The three processes account for up to half of the program impacts on well‐being. They also help to explain the positive economic returns of many effective programs. The generalizability of these processes is supported by a sizable knowledge base, including a scale up of the Child–Parent Centers.     

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.     

Group Behavior and Learning in Electronic Forums: A Sociotechnical Approach

The term community is widely and often uncritically used to characterize groupings of people who meet in electronic forums (e-forums). The research reported here shows how the casual use of the term community to characterize these groups can actually undermine their transformation into forms of social organization that are justifiably characterized as communities. This article examines how transforming a group into a community is a major accomplishment that requires special processes and practices. Primary data come from a particular project, the Inquiry Learning Forum (ILF), that aimed to develop "communities of practice" (CoPs) among high school science and mathematics teachers through an elaborate dedicated web site. We examine participants' behaviors in some of the differently structured forums within the ILF web site. While the project's developers expected CoPs to develop autonomously, there was no evidence of CoP formation in open public online forums. The article contrasts two approaches to building online communities that differ sharply: "IT-led community development" and "IT-supported community development." The experience of the ILF project shows that IT-led strategies community development strategies are much more difficult to make workable than are the "IT-supported" strategies.