From early career researcher to research leader: survival of the fittest?

The higher education sector is a dynamic environment where universities compete on a global basis for resources, students, and high-quality staff. The impending retirement of the baby boomer generation will create increased competition for research leaders. One way to address this is to develop research leaders from existing researchers. However, little is known about what it takes to transition from a leading researcher to a research leader, so there is much to be learned from the experiences of those who have successfully navigated those transitions. To explore the transition from early career researcher to leading researcher to research leader, we undertook a mixed methods study involving 30 senior research leaders and administrators from a range of organisations across Australia. In this paper, we describe how the career paths of these research leaders developed in a highly competitive research environment and discuss how universities can attract, retain, develop, and promote their researchers.     

Elementary School Teachers’ Use of Technology During Mathematics Teaching

Various educational technologies have been advanced as potential vehicles to transform teaching and learning. Still, research studies have documented that primary school teachers struggle to integrate technology in meaningful ways. This article presents the findings of a year-long study in which the author frequently observed three primary school teachers’ enactments of technology into their mathematics teaching. Each teacher was observed between 25 and 30 times during the school year. The types of technologies used as well as the types of mathematical tasks and problems that participants posed while teaching with technology were inductively analyzed. Inductive qualitative analyses indicated that participants’ technology use focused on presentation technologies such as the document camera or interactive whiteboard more than computer-based technologies or interactive activities. Further, teachers varied widely in their enacted pedagogies while integrating technology, and two participants demonstrated more frequent enactments of learner-centered pedagogies toward the end of the school year. Implications for researching teachers’ use of technology in the future are also shared.     

Practical issues in field based testing of oral reading fluency at upper elementary grades

In this series of studies, we explore the ideal frequency, duration, and relative effectiveness of measuring oral reading fluency. In study one, a sample of 389 fifth graders read out loud for 1 min and then took a traditional state-level standardized reading test. Results suggest administering three passages and using the median yields the highest predictive validity. Study two compared oral reading fluency rates at 30 and 60 s for 815 elementary and middle school students on the same passage. Results indicate that the 30 s measures yield a comparable score. Study three found relatively similar predictive validity of oral reading fluency for 67 fourth- and 125 sixth-grade students on Aimsweb, EasyCBM, and DIBELS. Implications for practice are discussed.     

How Does Ongoing Task-Focused Mathematics Professional Development Influence Elementary School Teachers’ Knowledge, Beliefs and Enacted Pedagogies?

This study examined how a task-focused, year-long mathematics professional development program influenced elementary school teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices. Participants completed 84 h of professional development over 13 months that were focused on exploring, modifying and implementing cognitively-demanding mathematical tasks. Using a multi-methods approach, teacher-participants completed pre- and post-measures of mathematical knowledge for teaching, teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics, and teachers’ self-reports of enacted instructional practices. Further, three teacher-participants were randomly selected to be observed 3 times over the course of the school year. Data analyses indicated that the professional development had a statistically significant positive impact on participants’ mathematical knowledge for teaching, use of student-centered instructional practices, and beliefs towards mathematics as a subject area. Further, the observed teachers enacted some high-level mathematical tasks and questions, but these were more visible at the end of the study compared to the beginning of the study. Implications for future work are also shared.     

Education on the rails: a textual ethnography of university advertising in mobile contexts

ABSTRACT

As universities have succumbed to market discourses, they have adopted advertising strategies. It is not uncommon to see advertisements for them displayed in such mobile spaces as railway stations and alongside highways. Whilst it is true that such environments have always sought to take advantage of populations in transit, the fact that higher education institutions have turned to them as promotional sites, reflects the fact that the ‘transit’ demographic now includes large numbers of young people and high school students. In this paper, a sample of higher education advertisements found in Sydney’s transit spaces is analysed along with the ‘rationale’ provided by advertising companies responsible for their design. It is argued their existence reflects the fact that universities compete against one another for students and need to develop a persuasive ‘brand’. Thus in line with neo-liberalist constructions of subjectivity, they individualise the educational experience, and translate that experience into an economic asset, as a value-adding process. It is of note then that much of the imagery and copy of the advertising ‘visualises’ education as a journey and underpins the fact that mobility is an inescapable predicate of quotidian life.     

A Participatory Outcome Evaluation on the Impact of BSW Interns on Agencies

This article reviews the findings of an exploratory study investigating the perceived benefits and costs of BSW interns for host agencies. The qualitative study included surveys from over 100 agency student supervisors, colleagues, and administrative personnel assessing the perceived effects students had on a range of categories. It also included a quantitative assessment of financial savings derived through student contributions. Benefits of using student work included increased quality and quantity of services available to clients as well as generic positive effects on the outlook and attitudes of supervisors and agency staff. Minimal negative effects included student turnover and occasional instances of unprofessional attitudes.     

Digital Games, Gender and Learning in Engineering: Do Females Benefit as Much as Males?

The aim of this paper was to explore whether there is a gender difference in the beneficial effects of Racing Academy, which is a video game used to support undergraduate students learning of Mechanical Engineering. One hundred and thirty-eight undergraduate students (15 females and 123 males) participated in the study. The students completed a pre-test a week before they started using Racing Academy. The pre-test consisted of a test of students’ knowledge of engineering, and a measure of students’ motivation towards studying engineering. A week after using Racing Academy the students completed a post-test which was identical to the pre-test, except it also included a measure of how frequently they used Racing Academy and how motivating the students found playing Racing Academy. We found that after playing Racing Academy the students learnt more about engineering and there was no gender difference in the beneficial effect of Racing Academy, however there is some evidence that, female students found Racing Academy more motivating than male students. The implications for the use and design of video games for supporting learning for both males and females are discussed.     

T4 MAP™: A Scholar‐Practitioner Model for Performance Improvement

The world of work is changing and we must adapt how we apply human performance technology (HPT) expertise to address our 21st century challenges. This is a formidable challenge. The scholar‐practitioner model seems ideally suited to this high‐speed world by combining the ability to apply theory and rigorous processes to solve practical problems. The T⁴ MAP (T⁴) models a new action research process grounded in human and organizational development (HOD) theory. It incorporates quantitative and qualitative data and so equips scholar‐practitioners and practitioners to address workplace problems and advance theory by enabling a deeper contextual understanding of people in the organization. A T⁴ pilot demonstrated the ability to generate salient data that helped teams identify performance improvement opportunities and enabled participants to take accountability for implementation. It offered a basis for grounded theory and presented opportunities for future research.     

Key Skills Computerised Assessments. Guiding Principles

The paper is based on research and evaluation carried out in relation to the development of online Key Skills resources (Key Skills Online). Initial research identified guiding principles on which to base the design of computerised self assessments, and the evaluation findings supported these principles. The principles have relevance for the design of computerised diagnostic assessments more generally.     

Presidential Communication

PRESIDENTIAL PRESS CONFERENCES: A CRITICAL APPROACH by Carolyn Smith (New York: Praeger, 1990—$45.00/16.95, ISBN 0-275-93574-4 hard, 0-275-93575-2 paper, 280 pp.)

THE SIX O'CLOCK PRESIDENCY: A THEORY OF PRESIDENTIAL PRESS RELATIONS IN THE AGE OF TELEVISION by Fredrik T. Smoller (New York: Praeger, 1990—$39.95, ISBN 0-275-93598-1, 176 pp.)

THE I'RESS & THE CARTER PRESIDENCY by Mark J. Rozell (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989—$32.50, ISBN 0-8133-0765-7, 235 pp.)

POLLING AND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION COVERAGE edited by Paul J. Lavrakas and Jack K. Holley (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991—$36.00/17.95, ISBN 0-8039-4073-4 hard, 0-8039-4074-2 paper, 244 pp.)

LISTENING FOR A PRESIDENT: A CITIZEN'S CAMPAIGN METHODOLOGY by Ruth M. Gonchar Brennan and Dan F. Hahn (New York: Praeger, 1990—$42.95, ISBN 0-275-93245-1, 217 pp.)