Providing Effective Support: Investigating feedback to distance language learners

Interaction and feedback on performance are essential elements of the language learning process. On a distance-learning course, since opportunities for interaction may be limited, feedback plays a crucial role in opening and maintaining a dialogue between tutors and students. Using text analysis, questionnaire and interview data, this study explores both tutor and student perspectives on the feedback offered on a distance language course. It finds that there are considerable individual differences in the feedback offered by tutors and there is also variation in the type of feedback the students want and their reported uses of it. The article suggests that more training for both tutors and students is necessary to adequately exploit feedback's potential in a distance-learning context.     

Who says you need to teach reading to 11–13-year-olds?

Research indicates that as students move through the school system, many begin to experience difficulties with reading. With this mind, this study explored current practices and perceptions about reading programmes for 11–13-year-old students in New Zealand schools. The study employed an online survey designed to investigate current reading literacy practices in a sample of New Zealand primary in years 7 and 8. Observations of practice and interviews with literacy leaders, teachers, principals and students were also carried out at five case study schools. The survey indicated that teachers may underestimate the importance of learner engagement and direct teaching strategies. The case studies exemplify the need for good professional development, supportive leadership, effective class management strategies, a positive and engaging learning environment, teachers with a passion for literacy and exemplary and sustained guided reading.     

The important role of mothers during displacement: Direct and indirect effects of the refugee context on Syrian refugee children's mental health

Refugee children are at increased risk for mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress, depression, and externalizing problems. The refugee environment, maternal mental health, and parenting may reduce or exacerbate that risk. This study investigated their direct and indirect associations with child mental health cross-sectionally in a sample of Syrian refugee child–mother dyads in Lebanon in 2017–19. Mediating pathways were tested using structural equation modeling with 1446 dyads (child: M_age = 11.39, 52.1% females) and again 1 year later with 872 (child: M_age = 12.17, 53.1% females) of the original sample. Mediating pathways from the refugee environment through maternal mental health and parenting to child outcomes were detected, emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach to refugee mental health.     

Acculturation orientations and religious identity as predictors of Anglo-Australians’ attitudes towards Australian Muslims

Poll studies have shown an increase in Anglo-Australians’ negative attitudes towards Australian Muslims. Such studies, however, by their nature present Anglo-Australians as a relatively unified group, making a limited scientific contribution to the understanding of intergroup relations. The present study aimed at revealing differences within Anglo-Australians by examining the extent to which their acculturation orientations and religious identity play a role in differentiating the levels of positive and negative attitudes they hold towards Australian Muslims. A total of 170 second year University students (116 females and 54 males) with a mean age of 22.09 (SD = 5.98) participated in the study. Generally, findings revealed that while Integrationist and Individualist were the most endorsed acculturation orientations, Assimilationist and Segregationist emerged the least, and participants recorded more positive attitudes towards Muslims than negative attitudes. Additionally, Integrationist and Individualist orientations were positively related to positive attitudes and negatively related to negative attitudes; the reverse was the case for Assimilationist and Segregationist orientations. Religious identity of Anglo-Australians predicted positive attitudes towards Australian Muslims but did not predict negative attitudes.     

Visitors and Residents: mapping student attitudes to academic use of social networks

The Visitors and Residents model of internet use suggests a continuum of modes of engagement with the online world, ranging from tool use to social spaces. In this paper, we examine evidence derived from a large cohort of students to assess whether this idea can be validated by experimental evidence. We find statistically significant differences between individuals displaying ‘Visitor’ or ‘Resident’ attitudes, suggesting that the Visitors and Residents model is a useful typology for approaching and understanding online behaviour. From our limited sample, we have been able to produce evidence that the Visitors and Residents labels are statistically robust. This demonstrates that the Visitors and Residents approach provides a valuable framework for those considering the use of social tools in educational contexts.     

Armenian teachers’ dichotomous perspectives on children with high‐functioning autism

This article uses the views of student teachers and serving teachers from a post‐Soviet context in order to better understand current thinking around teachers’ perceptions of children with what might be termed ‘hidden’ disabilities. Drawing on social comparison theory, and adopting a phenomenographical approach, the study explores teachers’ perspectives of autism in the Republic of Armenia, offering an insight into the impact of its social, cultural and political history. Whilst serving teachers demonstrated contrastive and downward comparisons when presented with a vignette of a young person with Asperger's Syndrome, student teachers expressed more connective comparisons. The data suggest, then, that Armenian student teachers represent progressive attitudinal change towards individuals with disabilities. These results also shed light on how social comparison theory might be used to tease out assumptions and taken‐for‐granted attitudes in the global West.     

Of Mermen and Monsters: A Slippery Story of Drama in Education and Related Classroom Practices

The account of the evolution of a classroom teacher (me) that follows is suggestive of a degree of agency and creativity that is rarely acknowledged. Teachers are currently positioned in ways that underline their instrumental role – their duty to students, parents, school and government to ensure that students achieve. A lack of faith in teachers’ capacity to innovate on their own terms means that creative practice in schools is routinely overlooked or mistrusted. My own history serves to illustrate the complex ways in which teachers develop their practice, and the cultural and political influences that play their part in the process. This article ends with some comparison between my own experience and that of my student teachers as they embark on their teaching careers nearly 30 years later.     

Teacher professional development to support teacher professional learning: Systemic Factors from Irish case studies

Teacher professional learning is widely accepted as a mediating factor for enhancing student outcomes. While many teachers across the world engage in professional development (PD) to enhance their professional learning, what is less evident is how to support that learning to result in change following teacher PD. Acknowledging that not all teacher PD needs to result in new practices and change, this paper focuses on a transformative model of PD, focused on implementing and sustaining change. This paper offers evidence of successful implementation and sustainability of practices by drawing from in-depth semi-structured interviews with teachers and principals in five Irish case study schools. It reports on the Systemic Factors to support implementation and sustainability of change: Support, Initiative design and Impact and Teacher Agency. Implications are drawn for bridging the gap between knowledge and practice or teacher PD and change within schools.     

FE and skills in Scotland: the implications of a policy led and ‘managed’ approach?

ABSTRACT

This article considers the implications of a ‘managed’ approach to skills policy in Scotland, in which Government policy and the role of national institutional frameworks can be seen to be influential, and which contrasts with the more marketised approach which has been a central aspect of policy in England. A number of themes within these national policies are discussed, and the continuing importance of balancing the skills agenda with social inclusion is noted. The ways in which these national policies and frameworks have shaped provision in a number of key areas including apprenticeship programmes, changing patterns of participation and relationships with employers are then examined. The strengths and limitations of the distinctive approaches taken in Scotland will be analysed in terms of their contribution to meeting the changing educational training needs of the workforce in the twenty-first century. This consideration of the distinctive policy led and ‘managed’ approach to the skills agenda will provide the context in which to consider the opportunities for policy learning within the UK.     

Research Collaboration Among University Scientists

Despite the growing importance of collaboration in research there have been very few investigations of the practice of research collaboration itself. The study we report investigated this practice by analysing 444 collaborative projects undertaken by staff in the Science Faculty of a New Zealand university. While the results support the sociology of science model of vertical collaboration up and down the academic hierarchy, we also show that significant collaboration now takes place across levels in the hierarchy, that is among peers, in what we call horizontal collaboration. This shift from vertical to horizontal collaboration has not been readily apparent in bibliographic studies of co-authored papers in top journals. One of the questions this study raises is the often assumed positive association between collaboration, research output and research quality, and the implications such assumptions have on the institutionalisation of research within the university. We end by suggesting that the shift that is occurring in the location of research from conventional departments to research centres within the university may signal an attempt to resurrect the practice of vertical collaboration.