Learner-centered Leadership: An Agenda for Action

Institutions are attempting to revitalize undergraduate education through the shift of the dominant pedagogy to a learner-centered focus. While this is encouraging, it is crucial to acknowledge that most of the efforts and literature on the learner-centered paradigm have necessarily focused on strategies for faculty. It is, however, equally important for administrators to consider the impact of the paradigm shift on their roles. Professional development and leadership training that takes into account the need for both a technical shift and shift in perception is key to the success of the transition to a new paradigm. Roxanne Cullen holds a Ph.D in English from Bowling Green State University with a specialization in Rhetoric, and she is a professor of English at Ferris State University. She has held various leadership positions at the University, including serving as the first director of the University Writing Center, the Academic Head of the Department of Languages and Literature, Interim Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs and most recently Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Michael Harris received his Ph.D. in public policy from Indiana University, his master’s degree from Tel-Aviv University, and his undergraduate degree in economics and business administration from Bar-Ilan University. He is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Institute For Educational Management (IEM) and the Management Development Program (MDP). Dr. Harris serves as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Kettering University. Dr. Harris specializes in public policy and political economy, and he serves as a political commentator to a variety of broadcast and print media in the United States and Israel.     

Facilitating participation in assessments and the general curriculum: level of symbolic communication classification for students with significant cognitive disabilities

This study empirically evaluated a classification schema based on symbolic communication level use with students with significant cognitive disabilities. Ninety‐five teachers of students with significant disabilities rated students’ level of performance on 10 academic tasks. Cluster analysis suggested a range of two to four clusters solutions. Support was found for three clusters: symbolic (abstract), early symbolic (concrete), and pre‐symbolic/awareness. The potential application of the classification system to planning general curriculum access and setting achievement expectations are discussed.     

Writing in the Secondary-Level Disciplines: a Systematic Review of Context,Cognition, and Content

Situated within the historical and current state of writing and adolescent literacy research, this systematic literature review screened 3504 articles to determine the prevalent themes in current research on writing tasks in content-area classrooms. Each of the 3504 studies was evaluated and coded using seven methodological quality indicators. The qualitative synthesis of studies is organized by the overarching categories of context, cognition, and content. The studies are further grouped by relevant themes to explore how the incorporation of writing tasks into content-area instruction benefits the secondary students’ content-area learning and knowledge acquisition. Primary themes include the elements of explicit strategy and inquiry-based instruction, the impact of prewriting models, the role of metacognition and journaling, and the writing-related implications for content-area assessment. Recommendations for future research are offered. Additionally, practical implications for secondary content-area teachers are presented.     

Mobile learning and student cognition: A systematic review of PK-12 research using Bloom’s Taxonomy

The rise of mobile learning in schools during the past decade has led to promises about the power of mobile learning to extend and enhance student cognitive engagement. The purpose of this study was to examine trends to determine the cognitive level students are involved in within mobile learning activities. This systematic review involved an aggregated and configurative synthesis of PK-12 mobile learning studies from 2010 to 16 and used Bloom’s Taxonomy as a theoretical framework for categorizing the cognitive level of student activities. Major new findings include that students are involved in activities at all six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This study shows that over 60% of researchers are developing activities that require high levels of cognitive processing, a large increase from past studies. Nonetheless, 40% are integrating mobile devices in ways that keep students working with minimal cognitive processing. In both elementary and secondary studies, there was a 40/60% split in the use of lower versus high level thinking opportunities. New findings show that mobile devices were integrated into science, mathematics, social studies, literacy, art and special education. Studies in science settings were the majority of the studies (40%), followed by literacy (24%).     

The roles of writing knowledge,motivation, strategic behaviors,and skills in predicting elementary students’ persuasive writing from source material

Reading and Writing - A core tenet of the model of domain learning is that learning is shaped by cognitive and motivational forces. In writing, these catalysts include learners’ knowledge,...     

Educating global citizens: a good ‘idea’ or an organisational practice?

Higher education emphasises training and skills for employment, yet while the ‘idea’ of educating global citizens appears in university discourse, there is limited evidence demonstrating how the ‘idea’ of the global citizen translates into practice. Recent research emphasises a desire for graduates to be local and global citizens with ethical and critical capacities for global workforce preparedness. The purpose of this paper is to explore the university responsibility for translating the ‘idea’ of the ethical thinking global citizen into practice. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with higher education experts (n?=?26). The interpretive research is discussed through the themes: Constructing the global citizen, Enacting the global citizen, Legitimating the global citizen and The sidelining context (italics used to distinguish research themes in text). The paper contributes to higher education discourse on a contested and topical issue.     

Habitus and the psychosocial: Bourdieu with feelings

This paper explores the potential of habitus to provide a window on the psychosocial. The paper works with a notion of psychosocial study as inquiry into the mutual constitution of the individual and the social relations within which they are enmeshed. At the same time it attempts to deepen and enrich notions of habitus. Although the strong focus on agency and structure has overshadowed the role of emotions and the emotional life of individuals within conceptualisations of habitus in Bourdieu’s work, the paper argue that there are strong links between the psychosocial and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. Drawing on empirical data on the affective aspects of living in an unequal society, the paper seeks to develop a psychosocial understanding of habitus that allows for a better and richer understanding of how the exterior – wider social structures – is experienced and mediated by the interior, the psyche.     

‘I can sort of slot into many different roles’: examining teacher aide roles and their implications for practice

This study utilised role theory to investigate teacher aide roles within regional schools in Queensland, Australia. Twenty primary schoolteacher aides were interviewed; data were triangulated with 27 teacher aides' responses to a follow-up questionnaire and interviews with 6 administrative staff. Data suggest that classroom instructional support roles and small group instruction dominate teacher aide work; they also perform many non-instructional roles and work individually with students with diverse needs. School leaders must reconsider the roles expected of these professionals given their position, professional training and remuneration, better supporting teacher aides through improved communication, collaboration and sustained professional learning opportunities.