Worthwhile work? Childcare,feminist ethics and cooperative research practices

Interdisciplinary research collaborations are often encouraged within higher education while the practicalities of such collaborations are glossed over. This project specifically addresses the praxis of research collaborations, exploring how feminist academics within different countries and disciplines came together to explore their mutual concern about the perceived worth and well-being of early childhood practitioners. Engaging in a formal methodological dialogue over eight months, seven academics discussed, analysed and dissected their different investments in research methods and intents, with the aim of agreeing to a common methodological framework. Unexpectedly, what emerged was not a product, but a process. We argue that this process offers much to those seeking deep collaboration in and through shared research. Building on a collective research interest, we found ourselves in a process of becoming, germinating the seed of a transnational research cooperative, based on trust and mutual respect, rather than the arid methodological contract originally envisioned.     

Validity and reliability of the classroom participation questionnaire with deaf and hard of hearing students in public schools

The Classroom Participation Questionnaire (CPQ) was administered to 136 deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) students attending general education classrooms in Grades 4-10. The CPQ is a student-rated measure that yields scores for Understanding Teachers, Understanding Students, Positive Affect, and Negative Affect. Validity and reliability of a long (28-item) and a short (16-item) form are reported. We provide evidence of (a) internal structure validity through an examination of the relationships between the subscales and an analysis of interitem reliability within each scale, (b) reliability over time by examining the scores of students over a 3-year period, and (c) external structure validity through an examination of the relationships of the CPQ with measures of teacher-rated academic competence and Stanford achievement scores. The results suggest that both the long and short form of the CPQ can be used to assess participation of D/HH students in general education classrooms.     

The effect of time‐on‐task on student grades and grade expectations

The effects of students’ attitudes on time devoted to a course (i.e. time‐on‐task), and the subsequent effects of this time‐on‐task on their performance in the course and their overall grade point average (GPA) were studied. Over a three‐year period, engineering students (N = 231) were surveyed in weeks one, three, seven (after midterms) and 10 (before finals) of a 10‐week quarter in six sophomore and junior engineering classes (eight different sections). Results of this study show that most students are optimistic about their future performance in a new course, regardless of their previous overall GPA. All students appear to devote a relatively high and equal amount of time‐on‐task during the first week of the term. The students who earned grades between ‘B+’ and ‘A’ appear to optimise this time by the third week. Students who earned a final grade of ‘B’ study similar to ‘A’ students before midterms but significantly increase their efforts after midterms while the ‘C’ students decrease their time devoted to the course. This study finds that ‘A’ students know they will earn an ‘A’ as long as they do the work. In contrast, ‘C’ students are resigned to the fact that they will earn a ‘C’ and, thus, devote far less time to a course. The ‘B’ students want better grades and will devote the most effort towards achieving these grades.     

Engaging Students in Autobiographical Critiqueas a Social Justice Tool: Narratives of Deconstructingand Reconstructing Meritocracy and PrivilegeWith Preservice Teachers

This self-study involves instructors of a Social Justice in Education course at a large university who engaged preservice teacher education students with assignments intended to solicit their critical self-reflection and to facilitate an awareness of themselves as sociocultural beings. Our work responds to the continued need to involve preservice teachers in experiences that foster critical consciousness and cognizance of their own socialization. For the assignments, students were first asked to describe key moments in their educational experience in the form of a multimedia submission and reflection. After a semester of critical discussions and readings, students were then asked to revisit their initial projects and critique those using course concepts. In addition, they were prompted to include plans for themselves as future social justice educators. In this article, we analyze those student submissions, and we find that many reached new conclusions about social justice topics such as race and gender, critiqued personal and social artifacts, and recognized the connections between privilege and meritocracy. Despite the limitations in class size and structure, we affirm the potential value of a multistage autobiography assignment. We also explore instances of student resistance, wherein students avoided the assigned task and our requirement for self-reflection. We conclude by offering implications for teacher education and posit considerations for future adaptions of the assignment, including the necessity to engage students in opportunities to take social action and to move beyond critique.     

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: PART 3, NONQUANTITATIVE INQUIRY

This is the final part of a trilogy of papers treating the two forms of dissertation, viz., the quantitative and the nonquantitative. In this part, nonquantitative research is presented as thought research (the Gedankenexperiment). Special attention is upon the differences between the two types of dissertation in terms of their formats, procedures, and results.     

充分利用工作中的空闲时间

不论你是从事何种工作的，都会有一些无事可做的空闲时期。本期工作职场，我们为您提供一些建议，以充分利用工作中的这段空暇。