First-Grade Classroom Behavior: Its Short- and Long-Term Consequences for School Performance

Effects of children's classroom behavior on school performance over a 4-year period are examined for a large, representative panel of beginning first graders. Scales developed from homeroom teachers' ratings of children in the spring of their first, second, and fourth years of school are used to predict spring marks in reading and math and spring scores on verbal and quantitative subtests from the CAT battery. The teachers' ratings cluster in three domains: Interest-Participation (I-P), Cooperation-Compliance (C-C), and Attention Span–Restlessness (A-R). The I-P and A-R ratings, but not C-C ratings, affect test score gains in first grade and marks in all 3 years. Behavior ratings from Year I also affect Year 2 and Year 4 performance, with indications that effects are understated over single-year periods. The importance of assessing classroom behavior in a longitudinal framework that allows for lagged and cumulative effects is discussed.     

Geographies of elite higher education participation: An urban ‘escalator’ effect

Based on analysis of an administrative dataset, which includes granular detail on 800,000 English students over a 10-year period, this article identifies an urban ‘escalator’ effect in entry to elite universities, with disadvantaged youth in the urban centres of England having higher rates of entry than similarly disadvantaged youth located rurally. Using multilevel modelling, as well as Geographic Information System (GIS) methods, the analyses show that while place in itself is not a major contributory factor in entry to elite universities overall, there is a distinct urban–rural patterning to progression. When raw progression rates by area alone are observed, rural areas typically have higher progression rates to elite universities. However, when the full range of individual differences are accounted for, including attainment, socio-economic status, ethnicity and accessibility to elite universities, the converse is true—localities within and surrounding major urban centres are those with the highest progression rates. A ‘vortex of influences’ is likely to favour urban disadvantaged youth, including the geography of social class and ethnic identities, a legacy of concerted policy interventions within urban areas, as well as the proliferation of widening participation activity in urban centres.     

Educating and Measuring Choice: A Test of the Transfer of Design Thinking in Problem Solving and Learning

Educators aim to equip students with learning strategies they can apply when approaching new problems on their own. Teaching design-thinking strategies may support this goal. A first test would show that the strategies are good for learning and that students spontaneously transfer them beyond classroom instruction. To examine this, we introduce choice-based assessments (CBAs). CBAs measure how people learn when there is minimal guidance and they must make decisions as independent learners. Here, sixth-grade students completed multiple design activities that emphasized either seeking constructive criticism or exploring a space of alternatives. Afterward, they completed the CBAs, which measured strategy transfer. Results showed that lower-achieving students benefitted most from instruction, exhibiting a relative increase in their use of design-thinking strategies. In addition, strategy choices correlated with prior achievement measures and appeared to mediate performance in and learning from the CBAs. The choices to use the two strategies themselves were not correlated, which indicates that they are not subsets of a larger construct, such as growth mindset. In sum, CBAs enabled a double demonstration: design-thinking strategies may improve learning and problem solving, and design-thinking instruction may improve the likelihood of lower-achieving students choosing to use effective strategies in novel settings that require new learning.     

Teachers’ Willingness to Adopt Nature of Science Activities Following a Physical Science Professional Development

The major science education reform documents emphasize the need for K-12 students to have a robust understanding of nature of science (NOS), and inservice teachers consequently need to develop their NOS teaching repertoires. This study investigated the extent to which science teachers were willing to adopt new strategies and activities for teaching NOS in their classrooms. The participants were 36 elementary, middle, and high school teachers who were completing a year-long physical science professional development (PD) that included NOS instruction. Data sources consisted of surveys (teachers’ NOS views, teaching practices), collected work, and responses to post-PD follow-up questions. The professional development course was successful in that teachers incorporated many of these strategies and activities into their own practice. This study also endeavored to identify factors that facilitated the adoption of these new approaches to teaching NOS. While personal characteristics such as pre- or post-PD NOS understandings, NOS gains, and grade level taught were not related to the number of NOS activities incorporated, teachers from suburban and rural schools were significantly more likely to implement NOS activities.     

Towards understanding international graduate student isolation in traditional and online environments

A mixed-methodology approach was employed to gain a better understanding of international graduate students’ perceptions of academic and social isolation, both in traditional and online environments, to see if these differ, and to explore suggestions for improving their sense of engagement within their learning communities. A survey was completed by 54 respondents and ten individuals participated in focus group sessions or individual interviews. The results show that international students, both in traditional and online programs, experience/perceive high levels of isolation, academically and socially. However, online international students may feel even more isolated than their traditional counterparts. The independent variables gender, type of degree, and family presence appear to also have some influence on some of the respondents’ answers. Participants suggested several types of potential interventions they would find useful.     

Beginning teachers’ perceptions of their levels of pedagogical knowledge and skills: did they change since their graduation from initial teacher preparation?

This study investigated changes in beginning teachers’ self-perceptions of their pedagogical knowledge and skills after their first year of teaching. Surveys were administered to 322 graduating student teachers at the end of the initial teacher preparation programme and at the end of their first year of teaching to compare if there were any differences in their self-perceptions. The results of the study showed significant increases in beginning teachers’ perceptions of their pedagogical knowledge and skills in three factors: Instructional Support, Accommodating Diversity and Classroom Management. Results established the development of teachers to be an ongoing process that is initiated but not completed in initial teacher preparation. Implications of findings for induction and mentoring of beginning teachers are discussed.     

Integrated schools and intergroup relations in Northern Ireland: the importance of parents

Background: Integrated schools were established in Northern Ireland in the early 1980s. With an explicit intention to build better relations between Catholics and Protestants, it has an intuitive appeal in a society which has long experienced sectarian division. Whilst the sector has attracted considerable research, less is understood about how parents’ perceive the approach adopted by schools to build intergroup relations.

Purpose: The present article seeks to address the gap in the literature by exploring parents’ views of integrated education. Drawing on theories of intergroup contact, the paper seeks specifically to explore how parents and head teachers perceive and negotiate the approach that the schools adopt to build intergroup relations.

Method: In an attempt to probe the deeper meanings that participants attach to integrated education, a qualitative research approach was adopted; semi-structured interviews were carried out with 17 parents and 2 head teachers in two integrated primary schools.

Findings: Through the data analyses, three main aspects were evident. Firstly, the study reveals something of the relational dynamic between head teachers and parents and the significance of this relationship for determining how intergroup relations are pursued in integrated schools. Secondly, it highlights the nebulous nature of identity salience and the practical challenges of making identity salient within mixed identity contexts. Finally, the study suggests the value of qualitative approaches for exploring intergroup contact initiatives.

Conclusions: Overall, the paper demonstrates the inherent challenges of establishing an integrated school where good relations will be developed when multiple interpretations of what constitutes an appropriate response to difference and diversity prevails.     

The effects of learning style on grades of first-year college students

This study compared the grade point averages of 796 first-year students in five institutions of higher education in a southern state with learning typologies set forth in theLearning Styles Inventory by Canfield. Results of the analysis of variance reflected an effect of learning style, sex, and race. Grades of students with social, conceptual, and social/applied styles differed significantly from those of students having the neutral preference. Whites tended to have better grades than blacks had. Females learned best with social and independent/applied styles; however, males learned best with social/applied and social/conceptual styles. Although there were no race differences in the proportions of students in the various learning styles, there were sex differences. Except for mathematics, the effect of major on the association of sex and learning style was moderate to none. Findings from the study suggest a need for administrative and instructional changes.     

Changing the Learning Environment to Enhance Students' Metacognition in Hong Kong Primary School Classrooms

This study reports on the impact of a 2-month classroom intervention that sought to alter the learning environment of two Hong Kong Primary Year 3 general studies classrooms. Mixed methodology, employing quantitative and qualitative data-gathering strategies, was used to investigate changes to the learning environments, including changes to the teachers' language and ultimately the students' metacognition. The quantitative facet of the research involved the development of a 15-item learning environments instrument, the General Studies Metacognitive Orientation Scale (GSMOS), that evaluated elements of the metacognitive orientation of the classrooms' learning environments. While the data from the administration of the GSMOS suggested no statistical differences between the pre- and post-intervention environments of the classrooms, student interviews and classroom observations provided supportive data for some changes, which resulted in students developing metacognitive knowledge of teacher-selected thinking and learning strategies, as well as some awareness and limited control of their use of such strategies in their classrooms.     

Using electronic meeting system support in the design of the graduate core curriculum

This article focuses on the use of an electronic meeting system (EMS) to facilitate the selection and refinement of a set of common graduate core courses for all master's degrees within the school of education in an upper-division university. The EMS was used at selected intervals within a seven months' process and provided an opportunity for broad-based group involvement in selection of the core competencies to be included. The seven-member task force generated ideas, discussed highly charged issues, prioritized competencies, and came to consensus through a combination of traditional and electronic meeting environments. The process followed, as well as the advantages, disadvantages, and insights gained, are reported here.Dennis W. Spuck is dean of the School of Education and professor of educational leadership and foundations. Doris L. Prater is associate dean and professor of educational foundations; she also chaired the task force whose work is described in this study. David B. Palumbo is an associate professor of instructional technology and was instrumental in the establishment of the electronic meeting system environment.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference of the University Council for Educational Administration, Philadelphia, PA, October 28, 1994.