CONTACT QUALITY AND ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ELDERLY

The contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954) states that cooperative contact with individual members of an out-group can lead to a general more positive attitude toward the out-group as a whole. The research reported in this article investigated the validity of the contact hypothesis within the context of interage interactions. Specifically, the study examined the relationship between young adults' contact with older adults and their attitudes toward the elderly in general. Previous research has emphasized that various factors related to contact quality strongly influence the formation of positive attitudes. In accordance with this assertion, we hypothesized that a single factor, participants' self-reported quality of contact with older individuals, would be related to their attitudes toward the elderly as measured by an implicit attitude scale. Participants' self-reported frequency of contact with older adults was expected to have no effect on their attitudes. College-aged participants were given a single questionnaire that assessed (a) the frequency and quality of their contact with elderly men and women and (b) their implicit attitudes toward the elderly. The results confirmed that self-reported favorable quality, but not frequency, of contact was significantly related to more positive attitudes toward the elderly.     

Move over Nelly: lessons from 30 years of employment-based initial teacher education in England

Recruiting, preparing and retaining high-quality teachers are recurrent themes of local, national and international education agendas. Traditional university-led forms of teacher education continue to be challenged, and defended, as nations strive to secure a teaching force equipped to achieve high-quality learning outcomes for all students. One commonly adopted policy solution has been the diversification of teacher preparation routes: the alternative certification agenda. In this article, we examine the entire history of one alternative route in place in England from 1997 to 2012, the Graduate Teacher Programme. Using one example of an employment-based programme, we argue that opportunities to engineer innovative and creative spaces in the face of the current teacher preparation reform agenda need to be seized. This case study, which is contextualised in both the international debates about alternative teacher certification routes and the current policy agenda in England, demonstrates the extent to which successive administrations have failed to learn from the lessons of the past in the rush to recycle policies and claim them as their own.     

The dynamics and stability of lubricating oil films during droplet transport by electrowetting in microfluidic devices

The operation of digital microfluidic devices with water droplets manipulated by electrowetting is critically dependent on the static and dynamic stability and lubrication properties of the oil films that separate the droplets from the solid surfaces. The factors determining the stability of the films and preventing surface fouling in such systems are not yet thoroughly understood and were experimentally investigated in this study. The experiments were performed using a standard digital microfluidic cartridge in which water droplets enclosed in a thin, oil-filled gap were transported over an array of electrodes. Stable, continuous oil films separated the droplets from the surfaces when the droplets were stationary. During droplet transport, capillary waves formed in the films on the electrode surfaces as the oil menisci receded. The waves evolved into dome-shaped oil lenses. Droplet deformation and oil displacement caused the films at the surface opposite the electrode array to transform into dimples of oil trapped over the centers of the droplets. Lower actuation voltages were associated with slower film thinning and formation of fewer, but larger, oil lenses. Lower ac frequencies induced oscillations in the droplets that caused the films to rupture. Films were also destabilized by addition of surfactants to the oil or droplet phases. Such a comprehensive understanding of the oil film behavior will enable more robust electrowetting-actuated lab-on-a-chip devices through prevention of loss of species from droplets and contamination of surfaces at points where films may break.     

Navigating the ambiguous policy landscape of student participation

ABSTRACT

Student participation at school is receiving heightened attention through international evidence connecting it to a range of benefits including student learning, engagement, citizenship and wellbeing, as well as to overall school improvement. Yet the notion of student participation remains an ambiguous concept, and one that challenges many deeply entrenched norms of traditional schooling.

Informed by understandings of ‘participation’ linked to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, this article takes the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) as a case study to explore how student participation is currently articulated in educational policy. It reports the findings of an analysis of 142 state and federal government policy-related documents, along with qualitative interview data from nine policy personnel. The findings suggest that students are conceptualised within these policies in contradictory ways, interpretations of participation are diverse yet frequently instrumentalist, and there is little conceptual coherence across the educational policy landscape in NSW in relation to ‘student participation’. The findings are discussed in light of international interest around student participation. The analytical framework used in this analysis is proposed as a possible tool for critically examining the place and purpose of student participation at school, regardless of jurisdiction.

Abbrevations: NSW = the Australian state of New South Wales; UNCRC = United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; SRC = Student Representative Council     

Organising primary grade literacy environments in Mozambique

Learning Environments Research - Print-rich environments are critical to early literacy development. This study profiled how teachers organise literacy environments in 21 early-primary classrooms...