Less than Equal: A Former Urban Schoolteacher Examines the Causes of Educational Disadvantagement

After reviewing competing explanations for the disproportionate rates of school failure experienced by poor and nonwhite populations advanced in recent decades, the author, a former urban alternative high school teacher, advances what he calls a culture-centered interactionist framework. This framework blames neither the impoverishment of students nor the ethnocentricity of middle-class educators alone for educational disadvantagement, but rather locates the problem in a more complex interaction between nonmainstream students and mainstream schools. Many poor children arrive at school well behind their more fortunate peers academically, but chronic school-based inequities such as low teacher expectations and unexamined ability-grouping practices clearly exacerbate these differences. The minority view that racial differences in academic performance are hereditary in nature is also addressed and critiqued.     

A written,reflective and dialogic strategy for assessment feedback that can enhance student/teacher relationships

In response to the shortcomings of current assessment feedback practice, this paper presents the results of a study designed to examine students’ and teachers’ experience of engaging in a written, reflective and dialogic feedback (WRDF) strategy. The strategy was designed to enhance the learning experience of students undertaking a large first-year core course at a regional Australian university in semester 2, 2012. The evaluation consisted of three components: student surveys pre- and post-WRDF; a student focus group post-WRDF; and a teacher survey post-WRDF. Participating students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the WRDF assessment feedback suggested that students value feedback highly, and show a preference for feedback combining written, reflective and dialogic processes. The research findings suggest that the WRDF framework can be utilised to address the immediate, practical problem of students’ and teachers’ dissatisfaction with the practice of assessment feedback. Thus, WRDF may be used to nurture teacher/student relationships and enhance the learning process. Although a relatively intensive process, the WRDF strategy can serve an integral role in enhancing feedback practices and supporting students.     

Implicit beliefs of ability and maladaptive learning: does self-efficacy matter?

This study investigated the interaction between self-efficacy and implicit beliefs of ability in their association with maladaptive learning in mathematics. The analysis was based on a large sample of 2538 Singapore Secondary 2 students (M_age = 13.75), who took measures of entity beliefs of ability, self-efficacy, and three maladaptive learning variables in mathematics: novelty avoidance, cheating, and anxiety. We conducted latent interaction analysis with gender and previous mathematics achievement controlled and found that higher self-efficacy did not buffer, but enhanced the positive association between entity beliefs of ability and the three maladaptive learning variables. When entity beliefs of ability were higher, the increase in the three maladaptive learning was larger for those with higher self-efficacy than those with lower self-efficacy. Findings suggest a revision of the moderation hypothesis in the literature: higher self-efficacy is more helpful in preventing maladaptive learning for incremental theorists than for entity theorists.     

New Dimensions to Psychosocial Development in Traditionally Aged College Students

Why do so many traditionally aged college students engage in inappropriate behaviors, even when they are smart enough to know better? To answer this question, Gregory S. Blimling looks at some of the latest neuroscience research and, in doing so, introduces a new dimension to understanding psychosocial development in college students—developing the capacity for self‐regulatory cognitive control.     

Delivering Effective Instruction Via the Web

Abstract

In view of the phenomenal growth of the World Wide Web, web‐based instruction has gained a great deal of popularity in many educational discussions. Creating effective instruction via the web requires that faculty spend a great deal of time planning and developing strategies to address this new environment with new instructional techniques. Web‐based instruction is comprised of three stages: design, development and delivery. The purpose of this article is to describe the steps necessary successfully to take a traditionally taught graduate course to an effectively taught web‐based course. This article describes the web‐based experiences of faculty that learned first hand the opportunities and challenges associated with web‐based instruction.     

Using metaphor to probe students' conceptions of chemistry learning

Changing students' views of themselves as learners and the learning strategies they use requires methods to make their views regarding teaching, learning and their roles as learners explicit to themselves and to teachers. This was an interpretive study that investigated students' metaphors for themselves as learners within a Year 11 chemistry classroom. Students' metaphors were found to be congruent with their views of learning and their learning processes as evidenced from multiple data sources. In making students' views explicit, metaphors can provide valuable information for practicing teachers and researchers who aim to investigate and enhance students' learning processes and encourage metacognition.     

Value of the Geobased Information Systems to State Information and Education Departments

Abstract

The responses of 544 10th grade students to a questionnaire indicated that informal/nonformal science activities (discussions, watching TV, listening to the radio, reading, and other activities, such as visits to museums and field trips) were positively correlated with the following: the extent to which school science is conceived to be related to everyday life, attitudes toward science and science learning, parents' occupation, school environment, intentions for further study, and career aspirations. After-school discussion of what was learned in school was rated the most popular science activity, followed by watching TV, reading, engaging in science-related activities, and listening to the radio, respectively. Informal/nonformal science activities were found to be associated with a strong commitment to science and science learning.