‘Invisible’ teachers of literacy: collusion between siblings and teachers in creating classroom cultures

The promise to raise literacy standards significantly at age 11 in economically disadvantaged areas has been an important part of the present British Government's educational policy. Integral to this promise has been the introduction of official home/school ‘contracts’ or ‘agreements’, which oblige parents to engage in specific literacy activities with their children. However, evidence from a longitudinal study of family literacy practices in East London suggests that family and community members other than parents might play a crucial role in initiating young children into literacy. Siblings particularly have been found to be efficient ‘teachers’ of school literacy practices. In this paper, I investigate particularly ways in which an unspoken collusion takes place between teacher and older sibling revealed during ‘play school’ sessions in Bangladeshi British households in East London.     

Identification of Alcohol by Smell among Preschoolers: Evidence for Early Socialization about Drugs Occurring in the Home

This study tested preschoolers' ability to provide accurate verbal associations to alcoholic beverage odors and whether this ability was related to parental drinking patterns and motivations. Older preschoolers performed better than younger preschoolers; photographic cues improved performance; children who correctly identified a substance by smell had socially appropriate knowledge of the culturally appropriate users of the substance; children reported liking substances that are used mainly by children and adults, and generally reported disliking substances whose use is legally limited to adults only; children were better at identifying substances they commonly use, but success at recognition of alcoholic beverages was related to heavier parental drinking and use of alcohol for escape reasons. Findings have implications for theories of socialization to drug use and for models of prevention.     

Reconsidering Standards and Criteria

An early debate about the nature of setting standards on educational achievement tests centered on the extent to which resulting standards were arbitrary. Subsequent research in the area has advanced solutions to many practical standard setting problems, but the more fundamental issue regarding the empirical grounding of judgmental standard setting procedures has remained unresolved and largely unaddressed. This article reviews some of the salient elements of the debate about the nature of standard setting on educational assessments and suggests that the dispute can never be satisfactorily resolved within the current paradigm. A reconcep-tualization of the nature of standard setting is proposed, and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Student,home, and school socio-demographic factors: links to school,home, and community arts participation

This study explored the role of student (e.g., age, language background, gender), home (e.g., parent/caregiver education), and school (e.g., school type, size) socio-demographic factors in students’ school (e.g., in-school arts tuition, arts engagement), home (e.g., parent/caregiver–child arts interaction), and community (e.g., arts attendance, arts tuition) arts participation. The sample comprised 1172 elementary and secondary school students from 15 schools. Findings revealed that student and home socio-demographic factors were the most salient in predicting arts participation across school, home, and community contexts. Age, gender, and prior achievement were the key student socio-demographic factors, while parent/caregiver education and occupation were also associated with students’ arts participation. Implications for practice and intervention pertinent to young people’s arts participation are discussed.     

Exploring Division-I Student-Athletes’ Memorable Messages From Their Anticipatory Socialization

This study explored the socialization of 118 Division-I student-athletes via the topics of memorable messages that they received prior to their arrival on campus. Ten topics were identified (i.e., desirable attitudes, hard work, physical skill or ability, opportunities, pride, inclusion, challenges, athletes as symbols, the importance of education, and the duration of college athletics) using first cycle coding and were subsequently categorized as either addressing the characteristics or experiences of collegiate student-athletes using second cycle coding. These findings continue to demonstrate that characteristics and experiences associated with roles are prevalent within athletes’ memorable messages but also highlight the inherent ambiguity and the contradictions regarding how to use these messages and balance the dual roles of being a student-athlete. This study provides a novel communicative lens for understanding athlete socialization but underscores the need to recognize receivers’ processing and application of memorable messages.     

Communication Between Early Educators and Parents who Speak English as a Second Language A Semantic and Pragmatic Perspective

In this article, we discuss communication between early educators speaking their native language and parents who speak English as a second language. Parents who may have a limited proficiency in the second language face challenges to understanding semantic and pragmatic aspects of English. Actual early childhood conference talk in which parents were speaking English as a second language will illustrate potential difficulties to listening comprehension and communication. Additionally, semantics and pragmatics will be used as a framework for recommending strategies to facilitate these parents?? ability to comprehend and communicate during discussions with early educators.     

Teaching and Learning about Language Change (Part One)

With particular reference to recent developments (including some in communication‐technology), this first of two papers explores the nature of ‘language change’ – its kinds, mechanisms and effects – and some attitudes towards it. It then suggests a case for teaching and learning about language change (bearing in mind, particularly, students in the 11–16 age range). The second paper, which will appear in Changing English 18:2, suggests approaches of two broad kinds and contexts: (1) as opportunities arise in undertaking other work; and (2) within planned, ‘set‐piece’ activities. Extensive notes/references are offered as support to teachers.     

Correlation between academic and skills-based tests in computer networks

Computing‐related programmes and modules have many problems, especially related to large class sizes, large‐scale plagiarism, module franchising, and an increased requirement from students for increased amounts of hands‐on, practical work. This paper presents a practical computer networks module which uses a mixture of online examinations and a practical skills‐based test to assess student performance. For widespread adoption of practical assessments, there must be a level of checking that the practical assessments are set at a level that examinations are set at. This paper shows that it is possible to set practical tests so that there can be a strong correlation between practical skills‐based tests and examination‐type assessments, but only if the practical assessment are set at a challenging level. This tends to go against the proposition that students who are good academically are not so good in a practice test, and vice versa. The paper shows results which bands students in A, B, C, and FAIL groups based on two online, multiple‐choice tests, and then analyses the average time these students took to complete a practical online test. It shows that there is an increasing average time to complete the test for weaker students. Along with this, the paper shows that female students in the practical test outperform male students by a factor of 25%.     

Can a systematic assessment moderation process assure the quality and integrity of assessment practice while supporting the professional development of casual academics?

There has been a threefold increase in the employment of casual academics in Australian universities within the last 20 years, to the extent that most teaching and marking is now undertaken by casual academics, also known as sessional staff. Yet, casualised teaching and assessment has been considered a risk to student engagement and success, and casual academics report a lack of professional development and increased feelings of marginalisation within the academy. Concurrently, the quality assurance of teaching and assessment in higher education has become a central focus of the government-funded regulatory organisation, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). Situated within this context, we report on an assessment moderation process that could support casual academics’ contextualised professional development, generate a sense of connectedness and collegiality and fulfil the requirements of TEQSA. Such processes may ensure that workforce growth in the higher education system supports a robust quality assurance and regulatory framework.