‘Becoming and being writers’: the experiences of doctoral students in writing groups

The use of writing groups to support students undertaking post-graduate research within universities has begun to receive attention from academic supervisors and doctoral researchers. Very little has been written by doctoral students themselves on the benefits of working within such writing groups. In this article, the experiences of working within a doctoral writing group at an Australian University are presented, primarily from the perspective of students. The authors identify two main benefits they have experienced through participating in a writing group using a ‘multi-voiced’ approach. First, they discuss the kind of learning that they achieved through working in a writing group. They do this with reference to key principles of peer learning and of peer review. Second, they focus on the ways the group worked as a community of discursive social practice. An overarching message for them in participating in the group and now writing this article is the shift in their thinking and experience of writing from seeing writing as an essentially private and implicit process to writing becoming a matter of public and shared work. These two notions are bound by the concept of identity building, drawing from the literature on communities of practice.     

Experiences of young (minor) asylum seekers in further education in Malta

This study appraises the particular challenges that minor asylum-seeking migrants who are in the 16–18 age category confront when pursuing their studies in a vocational college in Malta, a central Mediterranean island which is the smallest EU member state. The study explores how they exercise resilience in their desire to forge a future for themselves and traces their passage from Africa to Malta and their prospective aspirations to eventually settle elsewhere. It also explores how they integrate their lives as college students with these aspirations and how they see this as contributing to their lifelong education and ongoing processes of personal growth.     

The role and impact of the Regional Curriculum Support Service in Irish primary education

The Regional Curriculum Support Service (RCSS) was established to provide locally based advice and support to principals and teachers in relation to the implementation of the Primary School Curriculum (1999). Drawing on data from a large-scale national evaluation, this article traces the purpose, structure and operation of the RCSS and provides commentary on the achievements and challenges associated with this initiative.     

Introducing school-based assessment as part of junior cycle reform in Ireland: a bridge too far?

Assessments and examinations play a critical role in certifying student achievement in secondary education. Prompted by concerns about the negative effects of examinations on curriculum, teaching and learning, elements of School-Based Assessment (SBA) have been introduced into certification systems, sometimes modelled on practice in other jurisdictions. This case study investigates factors influencing efforts to introduce SBA in lower secondary education in the Republic of Ireland and reactions from the main stakeholders. Policymakers’ perspectives were informed by national consultations, results of international assessments, trends towards skills-based curricula and practices in relation to SBA as part of high-stakes assessment internationally. Despite broad enthusiasm for the reforms from most stakeholders, teachers remained opposed. A series of compromise proposals shifted the reforms far from their intended nature, leaving in place a dual system of assessment that incorporates continued centralised examining by the state along with some non-certified SBA by teachers. The efficacy of this solution in relation to the original aims of the reform remains to be seen. The analysis explores relevant substantive and methodological issues. The complex interplay between international, national and very local influences on policy implementation is highlighted, suggesting the need for due diligence in anticipating and managing stakeholder responses to reform initiatives. Readers’ attention is also drawn to the intricacy of undertaking qualitative case study inquiry and the need for awareness in relation to possible alternative interpretations of data.     

Understanding the nature of school partnerships with business in delivery of vocational programmes in schools in Australia

This article seeks to provide a school perspective on the nature and quality of the partnerships which schools form with businesses in order to deliver work placements and workplace learning in Australia. It found that the ability of schools to engage with external partners depended on the ability of school leaders to define and communicate the role of VET within the school and its broader community. This dependence on individuals and leadership is vulnerable to changes in key personnel and the informality of some of the processes and relationships can lead to problems in monitoring, evaluating and replicating programmes. Our study shows that a balance is required between carefully documented processes and the flexibility required to operate programmes successfully. The study also noted the tension between the perceived needs of the school and those of industry. A successful partnership necessarily requires school flexibility – in the decisions as to what programmes should be offered and how work placements and timetabling should be organised.     

The effects of caffeine ingestion on performance time, speed and power during a laboratory-based 1 km cycling time-trial

There is little published data in relation to the effects of caffeine upon cycling performance, speed and power in trained cyclists, especially during cycling of approximately 60 s duration. To address this, eight trained cyclists performed a 1 km time-trial on an electronically braked cycle ergometer under three conditions: after ingestion of 5 mg x kg-1 caffeine, after ingestion of a placebo, or a control condition. The three time-trials were performed in a randomized order and performance time, mean speed, mean power and peak power were determined. Caffeine ingestion resulted in improved performance time (caffeine vs. placebo vs. control: 71.1 +/- 2.0 vs. 73.4 +/- 2.3 vs. 73.3 +/- 2.7 s; P = 0.02; mean +/- s). This change represented a 3.1% (95% confidence interval: 0.7-5.6) improvement compared with the placebo condition. Mean speed was also higher in the caffeine than placebo and control conditions (caffeine vs. placebo vs. control: 50.7 +/- 1.4 vs. 49.1 +/- 1.5 vs. 49.2 +/- 1.7 km x h-1; P = 0.0005). Mean power increased after caffeine ingestion (caffeine vs. placebo vs. control: 523 +/- 43 vs. 505 +/- 46 vs. 504 +/- 38 W; P = 0.007). Peak power also increased from 864 +/- 107 W (placebo) and 830 +/- 87 W (control) to 940 +/- 83 W after caffeine ingestion (P = 0.027). These results provide support for previous research that found improved performance after caffeine ingestion during short-duration high-intensity exercise. The magnitude of the improvements observed in our study could be due to our use of sport-specific ergometry, a tablet form and trained participants.     

The self-evaluating school — a case study of a special school

School self-evaluation allows staff to review the quality of their work in relation to local contexts. In this article, Peter Neil, senior lecturer in education, Alex McEwen, professor of education, and Karen Carlisle and Damian Knipe, both research assistants in the Graduate School of Education at Queen's University, Belfast, discuss a research project focusing on the process of self-evaluation carried out by staff at a special school in Northern Ireland. The project involved the participants in the completion of a research journal over a four-week period. The authors describe the ways in which the outcomes of the project were fed back to staff and the impact the project had on a range of issues, including teaching and learning and the school's professional development agenda.     

Hierarchical Logistic Regression in Course Placement

Whether hierarchical logistic regression can reduce the sample size requirement for estimating optimal cutoff scores in a course placement service where predictive validity is measured by a threshold utility function is explored. Data from courses with varying class size were randomly partitioned into two halves per course. Non-hierarchical and hierarchical analyses were performed on each half. Compared to their nonhierarchical counterparts, hierarchically estimated cutoff scores from different halves were more stable and predicted course outcomes in the other half more accurately. These differences were most pronounced with small samples. Sample size requirements for developing cutoff scores for course placement can be substantially reduced if hierarchical logistic regression is used.     

The role of personality traits and online academic self-efficacy in acceptance,actual use and achievement in Moodle

Education and Information Technologies - Informed by the educational conditions shaped by the novel coronavirus pandemic and an increased reliance upon online learning solutions and technologies,...     

The Impact of Performance Level Misclassification on the Accuracy and Precision of Percent at Performance Level Measures

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) performance mandates, embedded within state accountability systems, focus school AYP (adequate yearly progress) compliance squarely on the percentage of students at or above proficient. The singular importance of this quantity for decision-making purposes has initiated extensive research into percent proficient as a measure of school quality. In particular, technical discussions have scrutinized the impact of sampling, measurement, and other sources of error on percent proficient statistics. In this article, we challenge the received orthodoxy that measurement error associated with individual students' scores is inconsequential for aggregate percent proficient statistics. Synthesizing current classification accuracy research with techniques from randomized response designs, we establish results which specify the extent to which measurement error—manifest as performance level misclassifications—produces bias and increases error variability for percent at performance level statistics. The results have direct relevance for the design of coherent and fair accountability systems based upon assessment outcomes.