Urban education in the 1970's

Having, in the past decade, spent billions of dollars on compensatory education, initiated thousands of projects, completed hundreds of studies, entered numerous judicial decisions and rulings, experienced dozens of riots and disorders, and generated whole new agencies and educational institutions, the nation's urban schools continue to operate in a vortex of segregation, alienation, and declining achievement. Various strategies and programs have been proposed for achieving equality of educational opportunity. The crisis in urban education has stimulated total rethinking about the educative process-the goals, the means, the resources, the strategies, the relationships-for all individuals, the advantaged and the disadvantaged, the majority and the minority. No panaceas exist but comprehensive planning based on the reservoir of experience, research, and theory can provide for effective learning in which the entire community becomes the site for education of urban populations.

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Résumé Dans la décennie passée, ayant dépensé des milliards de dollars pour l'éducation compensatoire, inauguré des milliers de projets, terminé des centaines d'études, participé à de nombreuses décisions juridiques, subi des douzaines d'émeutes et de désordres, et engendré des établissements entièrement nouveaux et des institutions pédagogiques, les écoles urbaines du pays continuent à fonctionner dans un tourbillon de ségrégation, d'aliénation, et de déclin dans les résultats. Des stratégies et des programmes variés ont été proposés pour atteindre l'égalité dans l'éducation. La crise de l'éducation urbaine nécessite qu'on repense totalement nos idées du processus éducatif-les buts, les moyens, les ressources, les stratégies, les relations-pour tous les individus, avantagés et désavantagés, la majorité et la minorité. Il n'existe pas de panacées mais une planification intelligente, basée sur l'expérience, la recherche, et la théorie, pourra mener à une meilleure compréhension dans laquelle la communauté entière devient le site pour l'éducation de populations urbaines.

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A longer version of this paper will appear inUrban Education in the 1970's, a collection of ten lectures to be published by Teachers College Press in January 1971.     

The documentation of distance education: a personal view

Following a brief account of the work of the Open University International Documentation Centre on Distance Learning, different forms of documentation in distance education: books, materials produced in connection with distance teaching programmes, journals and journal articles, and report literature, are identified and described. The central focus of the article is a critique of the treatment of the literature of distance education by two ERIC international bibliographical services. Proposals are made to survey existing bibliographical provision worldwide.     

On the analysis of discontinuous systems

An effective procedure, employing an operational approach, is demonstrated for the analysis of constant parameter continuous systems with multiple lumped parameter attachments and concentrated forces. Convenience of the method and of the form in which the results are obtained are evaluated in comparison with other applicable methods. Systems with piecewise constant parameters are also investigated. The desirability of obtaining a complete closed-form steady-state solution and various methods of obtaining it are examined. Finally, an example is treated which illustrates the application of the operational method to system with jump discontinuities in deflection and slope.     

Aging,personality, and teaching effectiveness in academic psychologists

Previous research suggests that university teaching effectiveness varies with the age and personality traits of the instructor. The present study examined the extent to which personality traits associated with teaching effectiveness change concomitantly with age, and thus mediate the relationship between age and teaching. Using a cross-sectional design, peer ratings of 29 personality traits and archival student evaluations of teaching were obtained for 33 full-time psychology professors varying in age from 33 to 64. Teaching effectiveness was found to be inversely related to age and to correlate significantly with several personality traits. Consistent with the mediation hypothesis, personality traits were identified that correlated positively with teaching and declined significantly with age (e.g., approval-seeking); or correlated negatively with teaching and increased with age (e.g., independent).This paper is based on a senior honors thesis completed by the first author and supervised by the second author in the Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario.     

Impact of the social construction of LD on culturally diverse families: a response to Reid and Valle

This response focuses on the effects of the current construction of learning disabilities (LD) on families of children from devalued racial/ethnic groups. Agreeing with the arguments of Reid and Valle, we add that parents from such groups are further disenfranchised because they are not participants in the critical discourse surrounding LD and because of the persistent belief that their parenting skills are deficient. We also suggest that the expectation of parental advocacy may be alien to parents whose cultures do not embrace an individualist perspective. Professionals can improve their responses to such parents by an understanding of the principle of cultural reciprocity.     

The effects of classroom-based dynamic seating interventions on academic outcomes in youth: a systematic review

The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesise and evaluate the literature on the effects of classroom-based dynamic seating interventions on academic-related outcomes, among school-aged children and adolescents. A secondary aim was to examine the effects of interventions on students’ sedentary behaviour and physical activity levels. In September 2017, four electronic databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science) were searched and a total of 5138 titles and abstracts were reviewed. Studies that examined associations between a classroom-based dynamic seating intervention and at least one academic-related outcome in school-aged children or adolescents were included. A best-evidence synthesis and narrative approach was implemented to synthesise the evidence. Thirteen studies published between 2003 and 2017 were identified that met the inclusion criteria for the review. There is some evidence that classroom-based dynamic seating interventions could have positive effects on the in-seat behaviour, academic engagement and attention of school aged-children and adolescents, predominantly those with attention difficulties. It is currently unclear whether dynamic seating has positive effects on students’ on-task behaviour, disruptive behaviour, memory, concentration or academic achievement. No intervention was found to have a detrimental effect on academic-related outcomes. The findings come from low-quality to moderate-quality studies (M?=?60.62%; SD?=?10.44). Classroom-based dynamic seating could be a simple, effective health strategy to reduce students’ static sitting time without compromising student learning and academic performance. The current interventions need to be replicated with larger, adequately-powered RCT designs, valid and reliable outcome measures, and assessment of intervention fidelity.

     

FACULTY ATTITUDES TOWARD EVALUATION OF TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO

This report summarizes the results of a survey of faculty member attitudes towards the evaluation of teaching at the University of Western Ontario. Although the existing system of evaluation is perceived as narrow in focus, ineffective in improving teaching and inflexible, faculty members still optimistically expect that a satisfactory system is possible.     

Variables affecting alternation behavior in the cockroach,Blatta orientalis

To investigate alternation behavior in the cockroach as an invertebrate, three T-maze experiments were conducted assessing the effects of (a) intratrial (exposure) and intertrial (exposure to test) interval, (b) brightness similarity of the alternatives and response-direction factors, and (c) an initial free-choice vs. a varying number of forced-choice exposures. Alternation was enhanced with a long exposure on Trial 1, a short interval between Trial 1 and Trial 2 (test), greater dissimilarity (or discriminability) of the arm brightnesses and more frequent forced-choice exposures to an arm prior to test. These results highlight the role of intramaze brightness cues as controlling alternation in the cockroach and accord well with a response-to-change interpretation of the phenomenon. In addition, they suggest that the alternation paradigm can be used effectively to assay short-term memory storage in neurologically simple organisms.     

A Collective Self-Study to Improve Program Coherence of Clinical Experiences

Student feedback collected through program evaluation of secondary education licensure and Master’s program clinical experiences prompted us to conduct a collective self-study. We used a reflective framework for analysis and discussion of the shifts students in our courses made as they progressed from observers to practicing teachers. Along with our graduate students, we collected and shared data and analysis from two courses – an introductory mathematics course for pre-service teachers and a capstone self-study teacher research course for in-service teachers. Data included students’ reflective accounts of their clinical experiences, dialogue with peers in response memos and focus groups, and our meta-conversation about and interpretations of data captured in meeting notes, audio recordings of meetings, email exchanges, and video conferencing over a two-month period. Analysis resulted in reframed thinking about our teaching and implications for program coherence, including provision of meaningful participant observations in diverse settings, design of dialogic platforms for students to make connections, and support of a critical level of reflection to inform teacher professional practice. The results are informative to teacher educators and programs seeking to better understand their roles in designing dialogic spaces for students to think deeply about the connections of their courses to clinical experiences and in supporting ongoing teacher professional development. The study highlights the benefits of faculty collective self-studies and contributes to the literature on self-study for program development.