Diffractive pedagogies: dancing across new materialist imaginaries

ABSTRACT

We theorise an interdisciplinary arts practice university course and consider the forms of educational imaginary challenged by our curriculum. We argue for the disruptive and generative potential of what we call diffractive pedagogy as an example of the type of learning that can take place when materiality and entanglement are considered as vital constituents. Through self-expression and interweaving across disciplinary boundaries, the potential to produce, embody and theorise simultaneously can be realised. Student bodies do not exist in isolation from one another, or from the environment. It is indeed impossible to separate the dancer from the dance, the teacher from the student, and the bodies from the environments and objects to which they relate. This being true, our student body reproduced our teaching bodies as abject, as messy and peripheral to their imaginings of university education. Materially, student bodies remade the limits to which their consciousness was imaginatively drawn. Through our embodied work, unconscious change began the processes of affecting students’ imaginaries of university education.     

THE IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL CHOICE AND ENVIRONMENTS ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE STUDENTS' DEGREE EXPECTATIONS

This study examines the effects of individualcharacteristics, institutional characteristics andexperiences, and financial aid measures onAfrican-American and white college students' degreeaspirations. The main theoretical foundations for this studyare the status attainment models developed in the early1970s and Weidman's (1989) model of undergraduatesocialization. The study used the BeginningPostsecondary Students (BPS:90/92) data set, and the findingsshow that regression models between the two groups havemany similarities: Students' aspirations are mostly theresult of socioeconomic factors, initial degree aspirations, and institutional characteristics.Financial aid measures are not significant predictors ofaspirations for African-American students, although workstudy awards and fewer hours per week spent working significantly affect white students'aspirations. There are quite a few differences betweenthe groups' regression models. For instance,intellectual selfconfidence has opposite effects onaspirations for African-American and white students.African-American enrollment and faculty contactpositively affect AfricanAmerican students' aspirations,while tuition cost and peer contact have positiveeffects on white students' aspirations.     

360° Folio Networking: Enhancing Advising Interactions and Expanding Mentoring Opportunities with ePortfolios

This article examines how students can use the ePortfolio tool and platform to facilitate and foster increased opportunities for interactions with formal academic advisors and informal mentors. The learning documented within an ePortfolio can be especially useful as a resource for advisors and mentors who are looking not only to connect with their students in meaningful and relevant ways, but who also seek to understand their advisees' backgrounds and interests in order to better guide and support them along their academic journey. Drawing on theories from advising, mentoring, social networking, and communities of practice, the 360° folio networking framework proposed explains the enhanced advising interactions and expanded mentoring opportunities that result when applied to ePortfolios. Examples from several institutions illustrating how ePortfolios have been integrated into advising and mentoring programs are explored.     

Performance Versus Objective Testing and Gender: An Exploratory Study of an Advanced Placement History Examination

To explore a phenomenon of gender differences in Advanced Placement examinations, random samples of free-response test booklets were taken from the 1986 examination in U.S. History. These examinations were chosen because they consistently show significant gender differences in objective scores but no gender differences in free-response scores. A rescoring of the free responses was conducted that focused on their historical content. This rescoring was conducted by readers other than those who conducted the original scoring and involved tallies of specific historical points made, supporting evidence given, and factual errors. Ratings were also made of handwriting quality, neatness, and English composition quality of the free responses. Analyses conducted indicate that free-response tasks of the type examined may have inherent characteristics that reward English composition abilities, and that some females may compensate for inferior historical knowledge with superior English composition abilities.     

The case of the leaving certificate applied

This paper deals with the topic of child protection in Irish primary schools, and reports on a recently completed survey of newly qualified teachers’ knowledge of and familiarity with their school's child protection policies and procedures. The study was undertaken by means of a questionnaire survey, and conducted with 103 teachers from different schools. The child protection roles and responsibilities of schools are clearly spelt out in national guidelines. However, the findings from this research indicate that compliance with the requirement to inform new staff about the guidelines and ensure that they have read them is weak. This is evidenced by the data concerning the teachers’ reported knowledge of, and familiarity with, their school's child protection policies. Half of the respondents did not know if their school had a child protection policy or not. Of those who were aware of their school's child protection policy, only just over half had read it. Well under half of the respondents knew if there was a Designated Liaison Person (DLP) with responsibility for child protection in their school. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of respondents reported uncertainty or lack of confidence in being able to identify suspected child abuse. The paper draws on international research on child protection in education to provide the context for a discussion on the factors that influence schools’ motivation and willingness to collaborate as key protectors of children's safety and welfare, and makes recommendations for policy makers, school managers and frontline staff.     

Putting Students First: How Colleges Develop Students Purposefully

What environmental conditions have a significant effect on community college student‐transfer activity? What are the interrelationships between the external and institutional conditions affecting community college student‐transfer activity? These questions were examined using a sample of 78 public community colleges across the country that participated in the 1990 Transfer Assembly (Center for the Study of Community Colleges). Analyses involved semi‐stepwise regressions and two‐tailed t‐ tests. The dependent variables based on first‐time freshmen of the Fall 1985 cohort were credits accumulated and transfer rates of students completing 12 or more credits. Findings suggest that institutions with larger percentages of students completing 12 or more credits have greater proportions of full‐time and younger students and are located in areas with high unemployment. Institutions with larger percentages of students transferring with 12 or more credits have are located in high income areas in states with formalized articulation and transfer agreements.     

Teachers designing curriculum as professional development: A model for transformational science teaching

We have designed a model for transformational science teaching focused on linking theory and practice through curriculum decision making that has been the framework for professional development sessions for middle-grade science teachers during the past 5 years. Interviews with teachers revealed that their experiences with curriculum development were of significant value in making decisions concerning the design of classroom environments. As teachers reflected on current research about teaching and learning, in collaboration with university scientists and science educators, they were informed by theoretical perspectives which held implications for their practice. Curriculum development became a vehicle for professional development and school reform; however, it was vital that the teachers were in clear communication with their administrators and communities concerning reform issues. Students and teachers from schools implementing the model and from control sites were interviewed to determine the model's influence on instructional practices and student attitude and achievement in science. The five-phase model for transformational science teaching is discussed here, accompanied by teacher comments about tensions experienced at each phase. This discussion is followed by an analysis of teacher and student interview data that reveals teachers' use of instructional strategies and students' attitudes toward science. Results and analysis of student performance on a mandated end-of-grade science test are also included. From this evidence, we recommend a new design for professional development opportunities for teachers that engages them in decision making as they reflect about the connections between theory and practice and the value of continually testing, revising, and reevaluating curriculum and instructional issues. J Res Sci Teach 34: 773–789, 1997.     

The role of background knowledge in text comprehension for children learning English as an additional language

Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) often experience difficulties with reading comprehension relative to their monolingual peers. While low levels of vocabulary appear to be one factor underlying these difficulties, other factors such as a relative lack of appropriate background knowledge may also contribute. Sixteen children learning EAL and 16 of their monolingual peers, matched for word reading accuracy, were assessed using a standard measure of reading comprehension and an experimental measure of reading comprehension for which relevant background knowledge was taught before assessing understanding. Tests of receptive and expressive vocabulary were also completed. Results confirmed lower levels of reading comprehension for children learning EAL for both standard and ‘background’ controlled measures. Analysis of comprehension by question type on the experimental measure showed that while both groups made use of taught knowledge to answer inferential questions, children learning EAL had specific difficulties with both literal questions and questions requiring the interpretation of a simile. It is suggested that relevant background information should be used to facilitate children's text comprehension. Furthermore, several factors, especially vocabulary differences, but also text search strategies, context use and comprehension monitoring skills, may contribute to the comprehension difficulties experienced by children learning EAL.