Sensing the realities of English middle-class education: James Bryce and the Schools Inquiry Commission, 1865–1868

This paper explores the contribution of James Bryce as an Assistant Commissioner to the Taunton Commission from 1965 to 1868. It highlights his criticisms of the English middle class and of middle-class education represented in the endowed grammar schools of Lancashire, England. These criticisms were based partly on finely detailed observation of the buildings of these schools in their local and geographical settings. They also drew on acutely developed responses of a sensory and emotive nature relating to a broad sensory register of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. The paper therefore helps to develop the potential value of sensory history in the history of education well as to provide a detailed examination of middle-class education in England in the 1860s. It also suggests that the realism characteristic of mid-Victorian writing and art may help to shed further light on the nature and experience of schooling in this period.     

Introducing the use of a semi-structured video diary room to investigate students’ learning experiences during an outdoor adventure education groupwork skills course

Outdoor adventure education courses are used in higher education to develop transferable skills such as groupwork and problem-solving skills. There is a need for exploratory investigation into students’ perceptions of this experience. This study aimed to develop an innovative qualitative data collection method, and to use it to explore students’ perceived learning processes and developmental outcomes when taking part in an outdoor groupwork skills course. Participants (n = 40) were undergraduate engineering students who were taking part in the 3 day residential course as part of their degree course. Students’ experiences were captured whilst immersed in the course, using a semi-structured video diary room. Participants entered the diary room at different time points throughout the course and responded to openended questions. Following a thematic analysis, students were found to arrive on the course with mixed feelings towards groupwork and expected learning outcomes. Activities were enjoyable yet challenging, revealing students’ weaknesses and demanding a range of skills and coping methods. The outdoor environment added novelty, risk and natural consequences. Students reported developing a range of skills in groupwork, adaptability, persistence, planning, problem-solving, time-management, communication, leadership, cooperation, group reflection and team spirit, as well as benefits to physical activity, self-confidence, self-awareness, peer and staff relationships and internationalisation. These findings provide a base for future investigation into the long-term impact on student development and skill transfer. The semi-structured video diary room yielded rich data, contributing to the literature by offering a simple, yet effective, qualitative research method that can be implemented in a variety of contexts.     

Ordinal position in the serial learning of rats

Rats were runway trained on each of two, three-trial series consisting of different varieties of reward (X, Y, and Z) and nonreward (N) serving as trial outcomes. The two series are represented as XNY and ZNN. Distinguishing the two series were different brightness and texture cues on the runway floor. Transfer tests, conducted after the rats had developed faster running for rewarded trials than for nonrewarded trials and slower running on Trial 2 of ZNN than on Trial 2 of XNY, provided evidence that trial position, rather than item memories, was controlling the discriminations. In Experiment 1, reversing the floor cues completely reversed the discriminations. In Experiment 2, transfer to NNN did not change the routine patterns of approach that had been established.     

Acquisition of Complex Systemic Thinking: Mental Models of Evolution

We investigated the impact of introducing college students to complex adaptive systems on their subsequent mental models of evolution compared to those of students taught in the same manner but with no reference to complex systems. The students' mental models (derived from similarity ratings of 12 evolutionary terms using the pathfinder algorithm) were significantly similar to their teachers' mental models and were correlated to their performance on an essay on evolution. Introducing students to complex systems facilitated their understanding of the mechanism of inheritance, the mechanism of evolution, and the role of chance in evolution.     

Auditory perceptual processing in reading disabled children

One hundred and three children attending Learning Assistance Centres due to reading difficulties and one hundred and three matched, average readers were administered a battery of auditory perceptual processing tasks. The battery was composed of auditory analysis and synthesis, auditory sequential memory, auditory discrimination, and phonemic segmentation tasks. A principal components analysis yielded four factors. These were determined to be advanced phonological awareness, sequential memory, discrimination, and simple phonological awareness. Discriminant analyses, using the factor scores, indicated that three of the four factors were able to discriminate between the able and disabled readers. Most notable among these was advanced phonological awareness. Auditory discrimination could not discriminate between the groups. The results suggest that there may not be one underlying phonological ability implicated in successful reading acquisition. Furthermore, it is clear that two levels of phonological awareness exist and that screening and diagnostic instruments should address both in order to have predictive validity.     

Do instant messaging interruptions help or hinder knowledge workers’ task performance?

The modern workplace environment is filled with interruptions due to the necessity of coworkers to communicate with each other. Studies have revealed that interruptions can impact task performance (TP). Communication interruptions are due, in part, to the unavoidable side-effect of using technology to facilitate these interactions. This experimental case study reports about an investigation we conducted on the role of instant messaging interruptions (IMI) and its implications on knowledge workers’ TP in a workplace environment. We have gathered data from knowledge workers engaged in an e-learning activity. The case study included a total of 60 experimental observations and analysis of the 120 records revealed that the time to complete a task (TPtct) for certain types of tasks, was significantly affected by IMI. This case study addressed gaps in IM interruption research and practical knowledge about the role of instant messages in the organization. Previous research has been conducted in a laboratory environment with interruptions generated by means other than actual IM. This case study used IMI with participants working in their normal workplace. Findings were used to provide a set of lessons learned recommendations for managers when it comes to the use of IM in the workplace.     

Structural and convergent validity of the homework performance questionnaire

Homework is a requirement for most school-age children, but research on the benefits and drawbacks of homework is limited by lack of psychometrically sound measurement of homework performance. This study examined the structural and convergent validity of scores from the newly developed Homework Performance Questionnaire – Teacher Scale (HPQ-T). Participants were 112 teachers of 224 students in six Illinois school districts. Common factor analysis with principal axis extraction and promax rotation was used for data analysis. Results revealed three salient factors: Parent support, student competence and homework completion. Subsequently, convergent validity of HPQ-T subscale scores with subscale scores from the Learning Behaviours Scale was examined. Findings suggest that the HPQ-T may potentially be a useful tool for improving research on homework and identifying strengths and weaknesses in student homework performance. However, modifications are recommended to optimise the utility of the scores.     

The Consistency of Detecting Item Bias Across Different Test Administrations: Implications of Another Failure

Several item bias detection methods were applied to the analysis of bias among males and females for items from a curriculum-based mathematics test. The focus of this analysis was the consistency of the methods across different test administrations of the same items. The results indicated that, of the methods studied, the Mantel–Haenszel (M–H) and IRT-based sum-of-squares methods were the most consistent. However, the degree of reliability and agreement for these methods was modest at best. As with most prior research, no reasonable explanation could be found for the most consistently flagged items. A likely reason for this lies in the confusion of visible genetic group characteristics with their instructional backgrounds. A multidimensional perspective of item bias is proposed for future research that will take such confounding into account.