Mail Surveys of Professional Populations

Because virtually all published research on the effect of a monetary gratuity has been in the context of public opinion polling or market research by sampling nonprofessional populations, a randomized experiment was conducted in a mail survey of 507 professional school and public librarians. A random half (Group E) had $1.00 attached as a small token of appreciation for their cooperation. The conventional questionnaire methodology was employed for Group C. In the initial mailing, the gratuity had a powerful influence on the rate of return—80% vs. 59%. Indeed, the response rate with the gratuity for the first mailing (80%) was higher than that obtained for Group C with two mailings (74%). (No gratuity was included for either group in the second mailing.) The return rate for Group E increased to 86% following the second mailing, an unusually high return rate for a mail survey even among professional populations. Even though professional populations typically have much higher response rates than the general population, a $1.00 gratuity can have a substantial effect on increasing the return rate and, consequently, can strengthen the external validity of survey findings.     

La integración de los niños sordos en el sistema escolar. El caso de Adela G.

Resumen

Este artículo intenta mostrar la integration escolar de los niños sordos desde un enfoque distinto de los cánones corrientes. Nuestro interés no se centra exclusivamente en el rendimiento escolar ni en el rendimiento logopédico, sino que procuramos insertar estos aspectos en una perspectiva etnográfica y diacrónica donde estudiamos a la persona evolucionando en los distintos medios sociales en que se desenvuelve.

A través de este análisis apuntamos a la elaboración de una metodología que permita comprender la integración socioescolar de estos niños, más allá de la sintomatologia del déficit y de los sistemas tradicionales de evaluación del rendimiento escolar.     

Science curricula design: analysis of authors’ ideological and pedagogical principles

The study analyses the extent to which the sociological message transmitted by the Official Pedagogic Discourse of the curriculum for Portuguese middle schools contains the ideological and pedagogical principles of its authors. The research is epistemologically and sociologically grounded, placing particular emphasis on Bernstein theory of pedagogic discourse. The ideological principles underlie broad educational aims and the pedagogical principles underlie characteristics of the pedagogic practice. Data was obtained through a semi‐structured interview with the authors and documental analysis of their publications. The results suggest that the authors were distinct in the ideological and pedagogical principles they valued and that discontinuities were evident between those principles and the curriculum message. These results are discussed and their consequences in terms of scientific learning are explored.     

Students’ interests for personalized learning: an analysis guide

The lack of alignment between, on the one hand, what schools seek to teach and, on the other, the students’ interests and learning objectives is leading to increasing numbers of students who are unable to derive meaning from school activities. Personalized learning strategies represent one of the most powerful ways to help students attribute meaning and personal value to their learning. This paper has two interrelated objectives. The first is to present a guide to the analysis of educational practices that work with and from students’ interests. This tool makes it possible to identify the potential of practices to reinforce and promote the meaning and personal value that students attach to their school learning. The guide is structured around three large blocks (personalization strategies, conceptions of interests, and design and development of practices), which describe the dimensions, subdimensions, questions, and levels for the analysis. The second objective is to illustrate use of the guide by analyzing two practices designed and implemented in primary school classrooms, characterized by a focus on students’ learning interests. The paper concludes by highlighting the main contributions of the guide presented, identifying some limitations, and pointing to future lines of research.

     

Towards an understanding of the shaping of research outcomes by contextual issues: reflections on the contributions of the ReMath project

In this paper, we react to Lagrange and Kynigos’s contribution to this special issue, in which they present some of their experiences from two cross-case studies in the ReMath project (associated respectively with the use of two dynamic digital artefacts, Casyopée and Cruislet). They described how the project, which involved teams from three different countries (France, Italy and Greece), working in different conditions and relying on different theoretical approaches, was structured in order to address the role played by contextual characteristics. We consider how the ReMath approach of using cross-studies, and especially the inclusion of a cross-analysis phase, served to identify particularities associated with designing and implementing mathematics learning scenarios using digital tools. In their discussion of the process of re-contextualising, one of the factors which appears to have been particularly influential in shaping research activities was theoretical framework and they show how this factor both influences and is influenced by institutional and cultural characteristics. To further explore some of the other important contextual factors they pinpoint, such as the role and engagement of teachers, student characteristics and issues related to the empirical settings, we reflect upon the processes of re-contextualisation that we could identify in our own research.     

Painting Hinemihi by numbers: Peoples-based conservation and the paint analysis of Hinemihi's carvings

This study describes the analysis of paint samples from carvings belonging to Hinemihi, the Maori meeting house, Clandon Park, Surrey, UK. The assessment of physical evidence contained within Hinemihi's built fabric (along with historiographic research of archival sources and oral histories) has formed a key part of the information gathering process during the current conservation project. The production of such data provides an opportunity for a dialogue that is essential for effective decision-making within participatory conservation projects. From this, it is evident that the use of paint analysis, in deciding the eventual painted scheme for a restored Hinemihi, is settled within a broader dialogue about the conception, use, and management of Hinemihi as a Maori cultural centre, as built heritage, and as an object of conservation. Therefore, the value of material analysis is considered in relation to the potential that this information has to engage a community of users in designing an effective conservation response that seeks to balance the opportunities and constraints of the cultural and physical landscapes that surround Hinemihi and Clandon Park.     

Extended school non-attenders’ views: developing best practice

Despite the abundance of legislation and research initiatives concerning children’s participation in decision-making, there is less research in this area with regard to extended school non-attenders. Using semi-structured interviews, this research explores how the views of children and their families who have experienced school non-attendance can be incorporated into best practice within an Educational Psychology Service in the UK. Analysis of the interviews revealed the highly complex nature of school non-attendance and how the interrelating factors behind it have been somewhat lost due to the current medical approach. The rhetoric surrounding this use of the label “school refuser” was also examined.