Early Head Start Teachers’ Perception of Coaching Experiences

Early Childhood Education Journal - A rich literature describes the efficacy of coaching programs for early care and education (ECE) teachers. ECE teachers can provide unique insights into the...     

The anatomy of agency: Improving academic performance in first-year university students

The transition from secondary to tertiary education can be challenging, as students must adapt to independent learning. For students in the allied health and nursing disciplines, this transition may coincide with compulsory first-year courses in anatomy, which are traditionally difficult to master. Students' agency—their capacity to make intentional choices to alter the path of their learning—may play a role in their successful completion of first-year anatomy courses. This study aimed to develop a measure for agency and to determine whether agency is associated with academic achievement. First-year students (n = 131) completed open-ended questions measuring each aspect of agency. Student responses were quantified using rubrics and then combined to create an overall agency score. Three factors of agency were determined: action, metacognition, and self-efficacy. Students with higher agency scores were significantly more likely to have higher academic achievement in anatomy compared to students with lower agency scores. The relationship between agency and academic achievement was strongest for action. These results suggest that encouraging students to be active participants in their learning may help them to achieve at university.     

From Central Guidance Unit to Student Support Services Unit: The Outcome of a Consultation Process in Trinidad and Tobago

In this article, we report on a multiyear consultation project between a consulting team based in the United States and the Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago. The project was initiated with a request for training in counseling for secondary school students but ended with the training of personnel from the Ministry of Education in diagnosis and assessment at the elementary school level. Outcomes included manuals with national norms on phonemic awareness, oral reading fluency, and parent and teacher rating scales for the elementary-age students in Trinidad and Tobago and on a depression screener and an anxiety measure for secondary school students. Details on the consultation process are discussed as are lessons learned.     

School climate: the controllable and the uncontrollable

A positive school climate impacts students by promoting positive relations among students, staff and faculty of the school. The current study used latent class analysis and multinomial regression with R3STEP to analyse patterns of negative behaviours in schools and test the association of these patterns with structural variables like school size, demographics, and location using data from the 2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety, (n = 2560). The results indicated five classes of frequencies of negative behaviours. By using the lowest frequency of behaviour class as a reference, the classes with the highest frequencies of bullying, teacher disrespect, and sexual assault were more likely to be found in high crime areas and have larger campuses serving over 1000 students. Implications include the need to serve subgroups of schools based on measurable variables and the need to educate future teachers, administrators, and school psychologists about school climate and positive behaviour support systems.     

Understanding the Lived Experiences of University Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Phenomenological Study

This study sought to describe factors impacting the success of students with ASD in university programmes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather both the students’ personal perspectives of their university experience and the perspectives of a significant person in their life. An interpretative phenomenological approach was utilised to ascertain common factors that contributed or posed a barrier to students experiencing success in their studies. Findings revealed that students with ASD felt their internal influences of determination, perseverance and passion in their areas of academic interests, greatly impacted on their ability to achieve successful outcomes in university, but these factors were always mitigated by the degree to which they experienced anxiety, depression and isolation. Participants also highlighted the importance of mediating factors in helping them to manage their social–emotional needs so they could pursue their interests and achieve success in university programmes.     

Leading for Change: School Leader Advocacy for Undocumented Immigrant Students

School leaders can ally with other educational stakeholders to encourage undocumented student persistence in Pk-12 schools. We explore (1) how school leaders create systems of support for undocumented and newly arrived immigrant students, and (2) how school leaders interpret and implement policies or school structures that affect student educational access. Border crossing theory guides our examination of how school leaders traverse and transgress borders that can impede students' education. This embedded case study included interviews with nine administrators working on the US-México border. The study finds that leaders expected to make a difference in students' lives by focusing on relationships and programming, committing to equity, and resisting deficit thinking about students and their families.     

Negotiating insider–outsider status in ethnographic sports research

Abstract

When engaging with ethnographic research to understand symbols associated with a club and its fan base, researchers need to reflect on the role of the ethnographer and the extent to which we can or should immerse ourselves in the field, and the importance of the insider–outsider balance. This article details how we came to understand our position as American women studying a hypermasculine English sport, including how we “worked the hyphen” (Fine, 1994). For two years, we conducted research with fans and employees of Barclays Premier League side Aston Villa Football Club. While each of these characteristics (being American and being women) might individually have been a disadvantage, we found that being double outsiders helped us open doors and gain access. This experience allowed us to meaningfully understand the symbols that create, maintain, and mediate fandom within the AVFC community.     

Drivers and barriers to the utilisation of gamification and game-based learning in universities: A systematic review of educators' perspectives

While gamification and game-based learning have both been demonstrated to have a host of educational benefits for university students, many university educators do not routinely use these approaches in their teaching. Therefore, this systematic review, conducted using the PRISMA guidelines, sought to identify the primary drivers and barriers to the use of gamification and game-based learning by university educators. A search of multiple databases (Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCO (Business Source Complete; ERIC; Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts)) identified 1330 articles, with 1096 retained after duplicates were removed. Seventeen articles (11 quantitative, two mixed-methods and four qualitative) were included in the systematic review. The primary drivers described by the educators that positively influenced their gamification and game-based learning usage were their beliefs that it encourages student interactions and collaborative learning; provides fun and improves engagement; and can easily be used by students. Alternatively, the university educators' major barriers included a lack of time to develop gamification approaches, lack of proven benefits and classroom setting issues. Many of these and other less commonly reported drivers and barriers can be categorised as attitudinal, design-related or administrative in nature. Such categorisations may assist university educators, teaching support staff and administrators in better understanding the primary factors influencing the utilisation of gamification and game-based learning and develop more effective strategies to overcome these barriers to its successful implementation.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Gamification and game-based learning may have many benefits for university students.
• The majority of university educators do not routinely use gamification and game-based learning in their teaching.

What this paper adds

• University educators' major drivers that positively influence the use of gamification and game-based learning include their perceptions that it encourages student interactions and collaborative learning, provides fun and improves engagement and can easily be used by students.
• University educators' major barriers that negatively influence the use of gamification and game-based learning include their perceptions of a lack of time to develop gamification approaches, lack of proven benefits and classroom setting issues.
• These drivers and barriers may be classified as attitudinal, design-related and administrative, with these categories providing a useful way for universities to develop strategies to better support educators who wish to use these approaches in their teaching.

Implications for practice and policy

• Attitudinal factors such as university educators' intention to use gamification and game-based learning are influenced by a host of their perceptions including attitude, perceived usefulness and ease of use.
• A range of design-related and administrative barriers may need to be overcome to increase the use of gamification and game-based learning in the university sector.

     

Teaching One-Way ANOVA with engaging NBA data and R Shiny within a flexdashboard

This paper provides introductory statistics instructors with the capacity to use engaging National Basketball Association (NBA) data within a web application to either strengthen students' understanding or introduce the concept of variance and one-way analysis of variance. Using engaging data within the classroom provides context to data that students deem applicable to their lives. This paper not only provides a lesson plan for teaching these concepts but also provides a web application and the engaging NBA dataset if the instructor decides to use the app or the data in another context. The NBA data selected to focus on the debate “Who is the greatest NBA player of all time?”. By using context students are familiar with and interested in, we can get them interested in and further engaged in statistics.     

Inclusion in a multi-academy trust: possibilities and perils

In this article we examine how, despite the understanding that a special school is not an inclusive setting, the senior leadership team (SLT) at Forest Academy Trust perceive their special schools as inclusive. Document reviews, interviews and a culminating focus group appear to indicate that possibilities for inclusive education may be related to a shared ethos of inclusion, resources, accessible opportunities, individualised approaches, and collaborative networks. These data also provide a critical insight into the perils related to inclusive education in multi-academy trusts (MATs). The study of this MAT highlights the need for changes to policies, access to and equitable distribution of resources, curricular freedom balanced with accountability, a shift toward collaborative networking and partnership, and a shared vision for enactment, which may be leveraged in order to provide equitable and sustainable system-wide inclusive practices.