Promoting Inclusive (and Dialogic) Leadership in Higher Education Institutions

Tertiary Education and Management - Higher education institutions are facing major challenges requiring traditional leadership and administrative policies and practices to be rethought and renewed....     

Improving mathematics instruction through lesson study: a theoretical model and North American case

This article presents a theoretical model of lesson study, an approach to instructional improvement that originated in Japan. The theoretical model includes four lesson study features (investigation, planning, research lesson, and reflection) and three pathways through which lesson study improves instruction: changes in teachers’ knowledge and beliefs; changes in professional community; and changes in teaching–learning resources. The model thus suggests that development of teachers’ knowledge and professional community (not just improved lesson plans) are instructional improvement mechanisms within lesson study. The theoretical model is used to examine the “auditable trail” of data from a North American lesson study case, yielding evidence that the lesson study work affected each of the three pathways. We argue that the case provides an “existence proof” of the potential effectiveness of lesson study outside Japan. Limitations of the case are discussed, including (1) the nature of data available from the “auditable trail” and (2) generalizability to other lesson study efforts.

Didactics and professional practice in preservice teacher education: A comparison of the situations in France and Québec

The authors analyze the role and function of didactics in preservice teacher education as presented in official texts from the ministries of education of Québec and France. They identify the conceptions these texts convey about the ties between didactics and professional education and demonstrate the vulnerable and limited position of didactics in teacher education. In concluding, adopting a comparative approach, they highlight several convergent features of the two systems of teacher education as well as marked differences relating to training in didactics.     

Where Theories of Mind Meet Magic: The Development of Children's Beliefs about Wishing

In two studies, we probed children's beliefs about wishing. In Study 1, we gathered initial data on 50 3- to 6-year-old children's concepts of wishing and beliefs about its efficacy, with both a semistructured interview and a variety of tasks. Results revealed considerable knowledge about wishing in young children, along with an age-related decrease in beliefs about its efficacy. Parents were not found to encourage differently the beliefs of children at different ages, nor were they found to begin actively discouraging such beliefs at any particular age. A moderate relation was found between environmental supports for wishing and children's beliefs in its efficacy. In Study 2, we continued to probe these issues and also address the nature of the broader conceptual context in which children situate their beliefs about wishing. Participants were 92 3- to 6-year-old children. Results of this study suggest that children may reconcile beliefs in the efficacy of wishing with knowledge about everyday mental-physical relations by situating these beliefs more within their emerging beliefs about magic than within their theories of mind.     

The use of Wechsler Scales in the assessment of Native Americans of the Columbia River Basin

Native American secondary students from the Columbia Basin were found to have significant Verbal-Performance discrepancies on the WISC-R and WAIS. Mean Verbal scores were significantly below the normative mean, while Performance scores were at, or above, the normative means. These findings substantiated research with other Native American groups. Also, the Verbal and Performance scales correlated so low as to preclude the Full Scale from being an accurate representation of the “g” factor of intelligence. Further, the predictive validity of the WISC-R and the WAIS for reading and math achievement was found to be at variance with the standardization group.     

The Effects of Dimensionality on Equating the Law School Admission Test

Using factor analysis, we conducted an assessment of multidimensionality for 6 forms of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and found 2 subgroups of items or factors for each of the 6 forms. The main conclusion of the factor analysis component of this study was that the LSAT appears to measure 2 different reasoning abilities: inductive and deductive. The technique of N. J. Dorans & N. M. Kingston (1985) was used to examine the effect of dimensionality on equating. We began by calibrating (with item response theory [IRT] methods) all items on a form to obtain Set I of estimated IRT item parameters. Next, the test was divided into 2 homogeneous subgroups of items, each having been determined to represent a different ability (i.e., inductive or deductive reasoning). The items within these subgroups were then recalibrated separately to obtain item parameter estimates, and then combined into Set II. The estimated item parameters and true-score equating tables for Sets I and II corresponded closely.     

Staff Development,Staff Assessment and the Industrial Awards

In 1988 academic unions were signatories to the first industrial award ever negotiated concerning academic salaries in Australia. In return for the 4% Second Tier increase, academics became subject to mandatory supervision and performance assessment. The wording of the award allowed a wide diversity of ways in which institutions could interpret and implement these requirements. One University's response to the award is examined.

In 1991 a subsequent award restructuring decision imposed the trial requirement of routine appraisal of academic staff for development only. This paper discusses the issues arising for academic staff as a result of these requirements, particularly the difficulty for an appraiser of separating the purpose of judgement from that of development, and it analyses the nature of the training needed for developmental appraisers.

It is concluded that as a result of the 1991 decision there is now a chance that academic staff development will be taken seriously if the funding implications of these requirements are honoured.     

“The Sins of Name Calling”: Responses to Paula Deen’s Use of Ethnophaulisms

Although many think, or wish to think, that racism in the United States is part of our peripheral past, contemporary discourses of racial and ethnic relations suggest otherwise. Discussions of ethnicity and race are still at the forefront of public discourse. The recent publication of news articles citing celebrity chef Paula Deen’s use of ethnophaulisms and prejudiced talk resulted in thousands of user-generated comments and responses. This article purports, then, to highlight the current discourses of racial and ethnic relations as revealed through online responses to one particular ethnophaulism used by celebrity chef Paula Deen. Important to this discussion, however, is the interesting finding that comments made by readers spoke to larger “meta” discourses of language use: Users commented about contemporary American race and racial relations and how we use (or do not use) language with specific purposes and power in mind, rather than the specific case of Paula Deen’s utterance.