Who succeeds? II. Perceptions of graduates and inactive students of a nontraditional bachelor of arts degree program

A questionnaire was returned by 241 (79%) graduates and 75 (31%) of the inactive students of a nontraditional BA degree program. A profile of each type of adult learner was presented and differences between the profiles in age and ethnic affiliation are discussed. The two groups did not differ in primary reason for seeking a degree or a nontraditional program, but graduates gave more reasons in each case. Graduates were more likely to perceive dispositional, communication, and program variables as assets. Inactive students were more likely to perceive time to study and cost of courses as problems. Results are compared to the concept of educational barriers.Dr. Losty is Associate Dean of the Faculty at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri. She has served as Associate Director and Director of Stephens College Without Walls. Ms. Kreilick is a graduate of Stephens College.     

Analysis of the K‐12 component of the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long‐Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) project 1998 to 2002

The Central Arizona–Phoenix Long‐Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) project includes training elementary and secondary teachers. This training component, Ecology Explorers (EE), prepares teachers in grades 4 through 12 to teach about ecological principles and processes. The EE pedagogy employs scientific inquiry and data collection protocols. This study attempted to capture the impact of the EE training on how teachers were integrating their training knowledge and what support systems influenced the pedagogy. The research‐evaluation design used cohort panels to address questions regarding immediate and long‐term impacts. Inquiry methods were based on survey questionnaires with ordinal and reflective questions. Some of the key findings were: (1) it takes less than a year to integrate the use of scientific protocols into teaching practices, (2) current scientific methodologies appear to support student use of the Internet for research purposes, and (3) both internal and external school support are necessary to ensure protocol integration and Internet use.     

Interanimation: repositioning possibilities in educational contexts

Changing discursive practices is necessary for educational social justice and is made possible through the interanimation of diverse ways of knowing that create dynamic tensions and challenge reliance on narrow views of what counts as legitimate knowledge. In this article, we accept the challenge that Reid and Valle put forth in creating new discourses of possibility through the animation of sociocultural and critical theory as they might apply to the interrogation of two aspects of the meaning-making process: (a) the interanimation of voices across systems as a condition of reculturing institutions and communities of practice, and (b) instructional activity settings in educational contexts (e.g., disciplinary apprenticeships). We conclude this article by examining possibilities for collaborative research activity.     

Best practices for preschool programs: an update on inclusive settings

The trend in the curriculum design of programs for young children with developmental disabilities has been toward an approach which emphasizes everyday skills taught in regular routine activities. With the enactment of Public Law 99-457, the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), states were mandated to provide services for three-to five-year-old preschoolers with developmental disabilities.     

Making all the flashy stuff work: the role of the principal in ICT integration

The pervasiveness of new technologies and their rapid spread around the globe belie the fact that educational leaders still struggle with how to integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) in schools. This article describes the form of these struggles for a small group of Australian principals. Their stories emerged from a set of five longitudinal case studies of ICT integration in a range of Government schools in the state of New South Wales. During the three years over which the study was conducted, the difficulties associated with leading the integration of educational technologies in schools were common and recurring themes that emerged in interviews with principals. These cases reveal the local variations and specificities of ICT integration through a range of issues including infrastructure development, human resource development, curriculum design, pedagogical practices and futures oriented planning. In describing these issues, many of the effects of ICT integration in schools are discussed. One such effect is the requirement for principals to develop the skills of new knowledge workers, in particular they require access to knowledge and support that is sufficiently flexible to deal with immediate and practical problems.     

Excluded from school: getting a second chance at a ‘meaningful’ education

In this paper, we draw upon the experiences of a group of young people who have been excluded from mainstream schools in two Australian states to provide an account of the ways in which they have found their way to education in educational sites that are variously referred to as ‘flexible learning centres', ‘second chance schools' and ‘alternative schools'. Whilst often clashing with school authorities in their original schools, these young people described how, when given the opportunity, they were able to engage in more meaningful learning in environments that recognised and accommodated their personal circumstances, and avoided authoritarian rule. A question we address is: What kinds of educational experiences facilitate ‘meaningful learning’ for these students?     

Difficult Conversations

It takes more than diversity of campus populations for individuals to interact in meaningful ways with others of different backgrounds. Debra Miretzky and Sharon Stevens share their experience launching a series of campus conversations focused on raising personal awareness and building relationships across difference.     

Reformed undergraduate instruction and its subsequent impact on secondary school teaching practice and student achievement

The Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT) Program is one of several reform efforts supported by the National Science Foundation. The primary ACEPT reform mechanism has been month‐long summer workshops in which university and community college science and mathematics faculty learn about instructional reforms and then attempt to apply them in their courses. Previous ACEPT evaluation efforts suggest that, when implemented, the reforms boost undergraduate student achievement. The initial purpose of the present study was to discover whether enrollment of preservice teachers in one or more of these reformed undergraduate courses is linked to the way they teach after they graduate and become in‐service teachers. Assuming that a link is found, a second purpose was to discover whether the presumed positive effect is in turn linked to their students' achievement. In short, the answer appears to be yes, at least among the biology teachers and students surveyed. Compared with controls, the biology teachers who had enrolled in one or more ACEPT reformed course during their teacher preparation program demonstrated significantly higher scores on the measure of reformed instruction and their students demonstrated significantly higher achievement in terms of scientific reasoning, nature of science, and biology concepts. These results support the hypothesis that teachers teach as they have been taught. Furthermore, it appears that instructional reform in teacher preparation programs including both methods and major's courses can improve secondary school student achievement. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 939–957, 2003     

Student Perceptions of a Mathematics Major for Prospective Elementary Teachers with an Inquiry‐Based Philosophy

Abstract

In this paper we present data from one-on-one interviews conducted with students who have taken intermediate and advanced inquiry-based mathematics courses in a program that prepares future preK-8 teachers. Many of these students entered college with a fear of math, but then gained confidence from a required introductory math course and chose to pursue a major in Mathematics for Teaching. These interviews help explain their choice to pursue this major and their general experiences in IBL math classes. These insights were used to improve our program and may also help other mathematics instructors and programs that hope to implement an inquiry-based approach in their departments.     

A shorter cricket pitch improves decision-making by junior batters

ABSTRACT

This study sought to determine whether playing on a shorter cricket pitch would lead batters to make more appropriate decisions about whether to play front foot or back foot shots. Based on an analysis of the shots played by top order batters against seam bowling in county under-10 matches, an age-specific “good length” region between 5.0 yards and 6.5 yards (4.57 to 5.94 m) from the batters’ stumps was derived. This was where batters were uncertain whether to play on the front or back foot. It was then possible to define deliveries as “short” or “full” depending upon whether they bounced further from or nearer to the batter than the good length region. Club under-11 and county under-10 match data revealed that when playing on a 16-yard pitch batters played more back foot shots to short balls, and county batters also played more front foot shots to full balls compared with matches on the currently recommended 20- or 19-yard pitches. For batters, a shorter pitch should strengthen the coupling between the perception of delivery length and appropriate shot selection, and the increased task demand should lead to improved anticipation, both key features of skilled batting.