Summer science program at Appalachian State University

Practical problems of the gifted dyslexic are explored through a case study, that of an unusually talented craftsman who is both dyslexic and epileptic, and whose school history is reviewed and evaluated.     

Universitäre Profilbildung im Kontext des österreichischen Hochschulraums und des Universitätsgesetzes 2002

Wettbewerb autonomer Universitäten, universitäre Profilbildung und staatliche Steuerung der Universitäten im Rahmen neuer New-Public-Management-Instrumente standen im Zentrum der Erwartungen an die neue "Universitätsverfassung" des UG 2002. Andere Gestaltungsnotwendigkeiten überlagerten jedoch sowohl auf System- wie auf Universitätsebene in der ersten Dekade des UG 2002 eine bewusste Entwicklung und intensive Nutzung des Management- bzw Positionierungs-Instruments "Profilbildung". Je stärker jedoch die gesamtösterreichische Koordinierung und Steuerung des Hochschulraums ins Zentrum der Hochschulpolitik rückt (Stichworte Hochschulplan und Hochschulkonferenz), desto wichtiger wird "wieder" das Thema Diversifizierung der Hochschultypen sowie die Profilbildung an den einzelnen Hochschulen bzw Universitäten. Dieser Beitrag ruft die funktionalen Erwartungen an "Profilbildung" in Erinnerung und versucht va auch eine kompilierende Übersicht über den Stand der Diskussion zum Thema in den zentralen hochschulpolitischen Dokumenten der letzten Jahre zu geben.     

Intersectionality in higher education research: a systematic literature review

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a systematic structured review of recent research that explicitly adopts intersectionality as a theoretical framework to interrogate how tertiary institutions manage, cater for, include, exclude and are experienced in ways that produce advantage and disadvantage. The analysis addresses the following questions: Within research that uses intersectionality, what aspects of the HE context are the focus? What methodologies are employed and how do these contribute to the production of knowledge? What vectors of identity are included? We find that gender appeared as the primary identity with which other dimensions of difference were combined to produce intersectional positions. Furthermore, case study and auto-ethnographic designs were primary approaches. This systematic literature review of 50 papers demonstrates that, when considering the workings of multiple systems of (dis)advantage, academic participation is intertwined with social and personal aspects of the HE experience. While intersectionality challenges the dominant instrumental view of HE, our review concludes that there is considerable work to be done to actively address the workings of intersecting systems of inequity impacting on participation and outcomes of students and faculty.     

Effects of teacher belief adaptivity on students’ reading skills

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Teachers’ adaptivity of constructivist and direct-transmissive beliefs may be beneficial for students’ learning based on the theoretical...     

Constituting neoliberal subjects? ‘Aspiration’ as technology of government in UK policy discourse

Since the 2000s, successive governments in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have embraced the idea of ‘raising aspiration’ among young people as a solution to persisting educational and socio-economic inequalities. Previous analyses have argued that these policies tend to individualise structural disadvantage and promote a ‘deficit’ view of working-class youth. This paper adopts a novel approach to analysing aspiration discourses combining Michel Foucault’s four dimensions of ‘ethics’ and Mitchell Dean’s notion of ‘formation of identities’. Applying Foucault’s and Dean’s work in this way provides a new lens that enables an examination of how policy encourages particular forms of subjectivation, and, therefore, seeks to govern individuals. The findings presented in the paper complicate previous research by showing that raising aspiration strategies portray disadvantaged youth both in terms of ‘deficit’ and ‘potential’, resulting in a requirement for inner transformation and mobility through attitudinal change. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for the identity formation of young people and for conceptualising contemporary forms of governmentality.     

Formatives Assessment im Leseunterricht der Grundschule – Implementation und Wirksamkeit eines modularen,materialgestützten Konzepts

Definitions of formative assessment include assessment, feedback and differentiated instruction as key components. We investigated the effects of prepared teaching materials designed to support teachers using learning progress assessment (LPA) to give feedback and adapt differentiated instruction. We also examined to what extend this modular approach can be implemented in regular reading lessons in third grade. In a three-group design all teachers (N?=?44, N?=?945 students) employed a computer-based LPA tool, while teachers in two conditions additionally received prepared feedback material (FB) or feedback and reading instruction material (FB+FM), to support the implementation of the different components of formative assessment. Over the course of one schoolyear, we assessed the implementation outcomes using questionnaires as well as students’ reading achievement and further student outcomes. While acceptability is high, teacher ratings of feasibility are low. In comparison to the LPA group, the additional support in form of prepared materials had no effects on student outcomes. Results are discussed regarding the question of how teachers can optimally be supported in using formative assessment.     

Two measures of the quality of group care for infants and toddlers

Two sets of quality measures of group care were used to assess their predictive power for two sets of measures of the development of infant and toddlers in group day care. One of the quality measures we investigated was the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). We replicated the findings of Scarr, Eisenberg, & Dealer-Deckard (1994) which were that the total score of the ECERS represents a global index and that the 37 items making up the scale are redundant and could be shortened considerably without loss of the scale as a quality criterion of group care for young children. Neither Scarr, Eisenberg, and Dealer-Deckard (1994) nor our own Factor Analyses of the 37 items supported the a priori distinction of seven Subscales. However further findings indicate that regardless of the redundancy within ECERS, two Subscales, dealing mainly with adult-child, child-child and adult-adult interactions, predict the development of infants and toddlers, but only when the measures of development were based on participant observations of the children over a longer period of time and in the broad context of the natural daycare environment. None of the Subscales, nor the total ECERS predicted social development when it was based on precise time sampling observations, assessed by non participant observers, in interactions between a child and a specific caregiver. Such measures of development were well predicted in our study by caregiver behaviors assessed through Time Sampling Observations.