Silencing and freedom of speech in UK higher education

Freedom of speech in universities is currently an issue of widespread concern and debate. Recent empirical findings in the UK shed some light on whether speech is unduly restricted in the university, but it suffers from two limitations. First, the results appear contradictory. Some studies show that the issue of free speech is overblown by media reportage, whilst others track serious concerns about free speech arising from certain university policies. Second, the findings exclude important issues concerning restrictions to speech on campus that fall outside the traditional debate around violations to free speech rights. This is particularly the case when certain voices are excluded from important policy conversations, and in issues around diversifying the curriculum. This article overcomes these two limitations by developing a novel conceptual framework within which to situate current debates concerning speech-related matters in universities. It does so by developing a taxonomy around the concept of ‘silencing’. It then considers the current issue of speech matters in universities within this framework to determine whether, and to what extent, speech is indeed unduly restricted, and where this is a concern for free speech violations, and where it falls outside this issue.     

Differential adoption of study approaches within individual students

It has been claimed that the study approach adopted by a student will vary dependent, in part, upon the nature of the learning task at hand. The same student will change approaches from one task to another. The prime evidence for this claim seems to derive from two sources; reports from interview studies, and questionnaire studies comparing separate groups of students enrolled in different courses. In the present study questionnaire responses were collected from students asked to report comparatively on their learning approaches in two course units taken concurrently, and on their perceptions of how those same two units had been presented. The general support which was indeed found for the approach versus learning context claim was thus qualitatively different to, and genuinely strengthened, that from interview studies and that from between-groups studies. Moreover, relationships found between marks and both approach and learning context, within each compared course unit, provided support for a context to approach to performance model of influence.The research reported in this paper was supported from the recurrent funds of the Higher Education Advisory and Research Unit, Monash University.     

Conceptions of literacy in primary and secondary school teachers

Recently, teachers have been described as lacking an organised and consistent understanding of how children acquire literacy. Arguments about falling standards have been aired in the media, and links drawn between methods currently in favour in UK schools, and an apparent failure of children to acquire ‘basic skills'. Proposals have now been made by the Department for Education which give greater prominence to more structured, skill-based primary teaching which, it is claimed, will raise standards and better prepare children to meet the demands they face as they move into secondary school. This study analyses teachers’ conceptual maps of literacy teaching as the preliminary phase of a research programme aimed at describing and enhancing pupils’ functional use of literacy across the curriculum. The analysis is based on a four-quadrant model of adult-child proximation. Using a questionnaire format, important similarities and contrasts were found between the views of primary and secondary teachers. However, the study does reveal that teachers have complex models of literacy which underpin their work and do not adhere to simplistic, uni-dimensional methods.     

The Riddle of Sustainable Development and the Role of Environmental Education

This paper is largely concerned with exploring the meaning of sustainable development from two perspectives, the economic and the ethical. The economic perspective raises questions such as: what kind of development is to be sustained? Is it economic growth? Quality of life? Ecosystem integrity? The ethical perspective considers questions such as: what should be the criteria for ‘progress'? What is our moral obligation to future generations? The paper argues that education for sustainability programmes ought to acknowledge and address these questions. If they do not, then, given the complexity and volatility of late 20th century global society, the current stress on education playing a major role in achieving sustainability (IUCN, UNEP & WWF, 1991) may be unduly naïve and under‐theorised. Finally, I contend that the goals of environmental education need to be reconceptualised, continually and reflexively, in response to the globalisation of industrial risks.     

Sharing Stories: Parents' Involvement in Reading with Inner-City Nursery Children

Recent research has underlined both the benefits of parents reading stories to their children before they start school and of parental involvement in the early reading stages. A one-year project was carried out in the nursery class of an inner-city primary school to set up a regular book borrowing service to enable and encourage parents to read regularly to their pre-reception class children. The level of parental and child interest was monitored throughout. An attempt to measure the effect of the input was made by testing the children involved in the project at the end of their reception class year. Although the results do not show any significant difference in the level of achievement between the experimental school and the two control schools, the project did reveal an unexpectedly high level of parental interest in orienting children towards literacy.     

Fragile knowledge of angle in turtle geometry

This paper describes an investigation into how the use of Logo affects children's basic knowledge of angle. It shows that teachers should not assume that unstructured use of Logo with a minimum of teacher intervention will have a beneficial effect on children's knowledge of angle and how it is measured. It appears to be the case that children make erroneous adjustments to their conceptual knowledge of angle in order to accommodate the results of an acquired procedural interaction with the computer.     

A comparative study of students' and their teacher's perceptions of laboratory work in secondary schools

This article reports on a study of student and teacher perceptions of the purpose and effectiveness of laboratory work in science at the Year 10 level of secondary school. The main focus of the study was a comparison between the perceptions of one class of students and their teacher at each of six different schools with regard to the aims, regularity, conduct and assessment of laboratory work. The study identified a number of areas of mismatch between students and their teachers. The findings of the study will be of use to teachers in developing and improving their science curriculum, particularly with regard to laboratory work.     

Childcare Educators’ Perceptions of and Solutions to Reducing Sitting Time in Young Children: A Qualitative Study

Young children spend a high proportion of their time at childcare sitting. Reducing sitting time or breaking up prolonged periods of sitting may be positively associated with health outcomes among children. The purpose of this study was to identify childcare educators’ perceptions of what environmental and policy modifications could be made within early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings to reduce sitting time among children during childcare. Eighty-seven educators from 11 ECEC centres participated in 11 focus groups between September 2013 and November 2013. Each focus group was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A semi-structured schedule was developed to investigate the educators’ perceptions of the influences on children’s sitting time at childcare. A problem–solution tree was developed to determine potential solutions for reducing total and prolonged sitting time in young children at childcare. Most educators were unaware of the high levels of sitting time among young children. Educators identified that childcare practices, the physical environment and the weather were factors that influenced children’s sitting time. Potential solutions to reduce sitting time were to break-up prolonged sitting time by using movement breaks, standing desks, movement transitions between activities, relocating key facilities around the space to promote movement, and integrating movement during learning activities. Also, educators suggested that posters could be used to increase awareness among educators about the benefits of reducing sitting time. Educators identified key practices that could be modified to reduce young children’s sitting time in childcare. These potential solutions should be evaluated to understand their effectiveness.     

A validation framework for science learning progression research

This article provides a validation framework for research on the development and use of science Learning Progressions (LPs). The framework describes how evidence from various sources can be used to establish an interpretive argument and a validity argument at five stages of LP research—development, scoring, generalisation, extrapolation, and use. The interpretation argument contains the interpretation (i.e. the LP and conclusions about students’ proficiency generated based on the LP) and the use of the LP. The validity argument specifies how the evidence from various sources supports the interpretation and the use of the LP. Examples from our prior and current research are used to illustrate the validation activities and analyses that can be conducted at each of the five stages. When conducting an LP study, researchers may use one or more validation activities or analyses that are theoretically necessary and practically applicable in their specific research contexts.