Making R&D More Than Research Plus Development

Much criticism of educational research has focussed on the problem of its effective dissemination to practitioners. This paper explores an alternative model, in which research, in some of its modes at least, is linked with development rather than dissemination. This argument is made in the context of further education. Most further education colleges have a tradition of involvement in development work, and many have a senior member of staff responsible for it. An examination of this has led to the conclusion that a two-way link needs to exist between researchers and those who have the role of development manager in colleges. It is argued that a well developed model embracing both research and development could be very powerful, and could establish a new and more productive relationship between colleges and universities. However, it is also argued that this relationship cannot be fully effective without some form of mediation. This requires the creation of a new kind of professional to undertake this function. The model proposed is one in which research and development remain distinct activities, each with their own disciplines and expertise, but where R&D as an integrated concept becomes more than the sum of its parts.     

On the Practical Interpretability of Cross‐Lagged Panel Models: Rethinking a Developmental Workhorse

Reciprocal feedback processes between experience and development are central to contemporary developmental theory. Autoregressive cross‐lagged panel (ARCL) models represent a common analytic approach intended to test such dynamics. The authors demonstrate that—despite the ARCL model's intuitive appeal—it typically (a) fails to align with the theoretical processes that it is intended to test and (b) yields estimates that are difficult to interpret meaningfully. Specifically, using a Monte Carlo simulation and two empirical examples concerning the reciprocal relation between spanking and child aggression, it is shown that the cross‐lagged estimates derived from the ARCL model reflect a weighted—and typically uninterpretable—amalgam of between‐ and within‐person associations. The authors highlight one readily implemented respecification that better addresses these multiple levels of inference.     

How student beliefs about knowledge and knowing influence their satisfaction with assessment and feedback

Students’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing frame how they interpret their educational experience and their approaches to, and perspectives on, learning, teaching and assessment. This paper draws on previous research identifying the ways of knowing of undergraduates on entry to a UK post-92 university, findings from which confirm the prevalence of absolute beliefs in which knowledge is viewed as certain, uncontested and students are largely authority-dependent. Student perspectives on assessment and feedback are explored based on thematic analysis of student responses within two main categories of beliefs, absolute/dualist versus contextual/pluralist. The paper teases out the implications of these perspectives for students’ satisfaction with their assessment and feedback experience in the context of today’s increasingly market-orientated higher education environment. Findings demonstrate that student perspectives on, and satisfaction with, assessment and feedback are strongly intertwined with their beliefs on knowledge and teaching. Students holding absolute/dualist beliefs considered ‘good’ assessment and feedback practice to entail clear and unambiguous assessment tasks, criteria and standards along with the receipt of unequivocal and corrective feedback. The paper concludes that faced with assessment tasks that move beyond established facts and demonstrable theories it may only be students who view knowledge as relative and mutable that will likely be satisfied with their assessment and feedback experience.     

Constructing CoRes—a Strategy for Building PCK in Pre-service Science Teacher Education

This paper presents findings from an exploratory study into a science teacher education initiative that seeks to build the foundations on which novice teachers can begin developing their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The initiative involved the use of Content Representations (CoRes), which were originally developed as part of a strategy for exploring and gaining insights into the PCK of expert science teachers. As the student teachers explored existing CoRes the course lecturer saw potential for more effectively developing their PCK through engaging them in constructing their own CoRes for new topics. When given the opportunity, student teachers found the task challenging and their lack of classroom experience and experimentation proved to be a limiting factor. However, the contribution such a task could make to their future PCK development remained a distinct possibility in the lecturer’s view. In the following year she carefully scaffolded the learning prior to CoRe construction such that the student teachers could more readily access relevant knowledge when attempting such a task. Their resultant CoRes and comments indicate that with appropriate and timely scaffolding the process of CoRe construction does have the potential for PCK development for novice teachers.     

Understanding user needs for citation management program support

Abstract

Citation management programs are tools used to organize references and to create citations and bibliographies. Libraries are often the central point for providing training and support in using these tools. To determine how we could improve our support and training services, we surveyed users to determine what software in being used, why they chose that particular program, what features are important, and how they use citation management programs to collaborate. Results indicate that users chose a particular program because it was freely available or recommended to them by others and that they thought that importing references and creating citations were important features. We also found a majority of respondents used citation management programs to collaborate and turned to the library for training and support.     

Developing a ‘leading identity’: the relationship between students’ mathematical identities and their career and higher education aspirations

The construct of identity has been used widely in mathematics education in order to understand how students (and teachers) relate to and engage with the subject (Kaasila, 2007; Sfard & Prusak, 2005; Boaler, 2002). Drawing on cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), this paper adopts Leont’ev’s notion of leading activity in order to explore the key ‘significant’ activities that are implicated in the development of students’ reflexive understanding of self and how this may offer differing relations with mathematics. According to Leont’ev (1981), leading activities are those which are significant to the development of the individual’s psyche through the emergence of new motives for engagement. We suggest that alongside new motives for engagement comes a new understanding of self—a leading identity—which reflects a hierarchy of our motives. Narrative analysis of interviews with two students (aged 16–17 years old) in post-compulsory education, Mary and Lee, are presented. Mary holds a stable ‘vocational’ leading identity throughout her narrative and, thus, her motive for studying mathematics is defined by its ‘use value’ in terms of pursuing this vocation. In contrast, Lee develops a leading identity which is focused on the activity of studying and becoming a university student. As such, his motive for study is framed in terms of the exchange value of the qualifications he hopes to obtain. We argue that this empirical grounding of leading activity and leading identity offers new insights into students’ identity development.     

Cascadia rising: soccer,region, and identity

In this article we examine the relationship between soccer culture and the vernacular region of Cascadia. Specifically, we consider how supporters of the Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps mobilize the bioregional narrative of Cascadia. This Cascadian narrative helps to solidify supporter culture and identity by fostering a connection between supporters and place. As a result, soccer has also become one conduit through which ideas about Cascadia are constructed, experienced and communicated. In this way, ideas about Cascadia help to construct regional and local soccer cultures in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver and in turn, those soccer cultures help to construct and promote Cascadia. We examine three aspects of this situation: the formation of the Cascadia Football Federation, the Cascadia Cup Controversy and the use of Cascadian iconography by supporters of the aforementioned clubs.