Evaluating the impact of an academic teacher development program: practical realities of an evidence-based study

This study aimed to assess the impact of an entire academic teacher development programme at a Midwestern masters comprehensive university in the United States over a period of five years by examining changes in teaching and student outcomes of nine randomly selected programme participants. Researchers analysed syllabi, course evaluations, grade distributions, programme activity reports, interviews and vita, and concluded that the centre’s impact was greatest on tenure-track faculty who struggled with their teaching. Far more useful to future improvement, however, were the insights gained from reflection on study methods, the researchers’ emotional responses to their findings, their struggle to make sense of the data and grappling with the definition of ‘impact’. In this paper, the researchers share useful lessons learned and illustrate the difficulties inherent in evaluating academic development programmes, with a view to qualifying recommendations currently prevailing in the literature.     

Planting Poetry: Sowing Seeds of Creativity in a Year 5 Class

This article offers a case study account of a garden-themed poetry writing project run by a creative writing organisation in partnership with a class of 9–10-year-old children from a London primary school. I explore the concept of creativity which framed the five-week project and analyse the different ways in which the creative practitioner worked collaboratively with the class teacher to develop children’s writing, not least by adopting an open, inclusive pedagogy. Despite the obvious successes of this project, I raise questions about the role of creative practitioners working in schools and the ways in which special projects locate creativity on the margins of the mainstream curriculum.     

High Possibility Classrooms as a pedagogical framework for technology integration in classrooms: an inquiry in two Australian secondary schools*

Understanding how well teachers integrate digital technology in learning is the subject of considerable debate in education. High Possibility Classrooms (HPC) is a pedagogical framework drawn from research on exemplary teachers’ knowledge of technology integration in Australian school classrooms. The framework is being used to support teachers who teach various stages of schooling to take ‘pedagogical steps’ in their practice with technology. This article focuses on the use of the HPC conceptual framework in a study of seven teachers and their students at two secondary schools in New South Wales, Australia. Analysis confirms the practicality of this conceptual framework for technology integration in secondary school classrooms. This inquiry has implications for addressing the reluctance of teachers to integrate technology in curriculum. The article concludes by suggesting that more schools might consider using conceptual frameworks like HPC to support secondary school teachers to enhance student learning with technology.     

Researching Internet Communities: Proposed Ethical Guidelines for the Reporting of Results

Communication researchers and social scientists are quickly discovering the value of data that exists in the postings of members of Internet e-mail, Usenet, and real-time groups. The ability to communicate with one's peers, no matter how esoteric the interests, is causing an explosion in the number of new virtual communities. The interpersonal dynamics of these groups are increasingly coming under the scrutiny of academic research. The publicly available archived records of Internet virtual communities are being analyzed for a wide variety of research interests. The ability to do naturalistic observations of group dynamics, as they are exhibited in these exchanges of text, has captured the attention of many researchers. The institutional review boards of major universities are granting researchers exempt or expedited (exempt from full review) status for this work, due to the public nature of the notes being analyzed. These studies often involve the lack of informed consent, where the group members under study are unaware they are being monitored. There is a potential for psychological harm to the members of these groups, depending on the way results are reported. This article explores the ethical considerations that must be taken into account to protect cyberspace participants. The guidelines proposed are based on the American Psychological Association ethical guidelines for use of human subjects in research. An explanation is offered as to how such guidelines can best be applied to the study of Internet communities. The constructs of Group Accessibility (the public/private nature of the actual cyberspace occupied by a group) and Perceived Privacy (the level of privacy that group members assume they have) are defined and proposed as two dimensions by which individual Internet communities may be evaluated in order to assure the ethical reporting of research findings.     

Boys and machines: gendered computer identities,regulation and resistance

Students negotiate their masculine and feminine identities as students of information and communication technology (ICT) and computer users as they participate in specialist ICT courses and in other areas of their lives. As they negotiate these roles, they are established in relations of power and authority with the technology and with each other. Case study research relating to students’ experiences in specialist computer courses in a New Zealand secondary school reveals a complex and dynamic picture of identity construction and subjectivity. In constructing their personal identities as computer users, males and females experience the regulatory forces of gender relations while at the same time resisting stereotypes. Students make conscious and pragmatic decisions to pursue particular computing courses and paths as they balance their options in the realisation of their possible selves as computer users and adults in the world of work. These decisions signify regulation by and resistance to gendered power relations.     

Developmental change in the ERP responses to familiar faces in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders versus typical development

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show differences in face processing abilities from early in development. To examine whether these differences reflect an atypical versus delayed developmental trajectory, neural responses to familiar and unfamiliar faces in twenty-four 18- to 47-month-old children with ASD were compared with responses of thirty-two 12- to 30-month-old typically developing children. Results of 2 experiments revealed that neural responses to faces in children with ASD resembled those observed in younger typically developing children, suggesting delayed development. Electrophysiological responses to faces were also related to parent report of adaptive social behaviors for both children with ASD and typical development. Slower development of the face processing system in ASD may be related to reduced self-directed "expected" experience with faces in early development.     

Trait anxiety and final degree performance at the University of Oxford

A questionnaire was administered to 1,929 applicants to Oxford University, including measures of trait anxiety, behavioural response to examinations and to breakdown in relationships. 635 of these applicants were admitted to the university and of these, 383 also responded to a questionnaire administered 4 years later, just before their final examinations. The classification (first, upper and lower second, third class) and marks in the final examinations were obtained and the relationship between the personality measures and academic performance were calculated. Women showed higher anxiety scores than men at both times of testing. Women who obtained the best (first class) degrees scored significantly higher on anxiety than those who performed less well. In contrast, there was no such difference in men. Explanations for anxiety having a facilitatory effect on academic performance of women at Oxford University are proposed.     

Predicting First Grade Reading Performance from Kindergarten Response to Tier 1 Instruction

Many schools are beginning to implement multi-tier response to intervention (RTI) models for the prevention of reading difficulties and to assist in the identification of students with learning disabilities (LD). The present study was part of our larger ongoing longitudinal RTI investigation within the Florida Learning Disabilities Center grant. This study used a longitudinal correlational design, conducted in 7 ethnically and socio-economically diverse schools. We observed reading instruction in 20 classrooms, examined response rates to kindergarten Tier 1 instruction, and predicted students' first grade reading performance based upon kindergarten growth and end of year reading performance (n = 203). Teachers followed an explicit core reading program and overall, classroom instruction was rated as effective. Results indicate that controlling for students' end of kindergarten reading, their growth across kindergarten on a variety of language and literacy measures suppressed predictions of first grade performance. Specifically, the steeper the students' trajectory to a satisfactory outcome, the less likely they were to demonstrate good performance in first grade. Implications for future research and RTI implementation are discussed.     

The complexities and challenges of regional education hubs: focus on Malaysia

The race to establish regional education hubs is a recent development in cross-border higher education. This article briefly examines the rationales and strategies used by three countries in the Middle East and three in South East Asia which are working towards positioning themselves as regional education hubs. The different approaches and purposes among the six countries highlight the need for a typology of education hubs. Three types are proposed: the student hub, the training and skilled workforce hub, and the knowledge/innovation hub. The final section of the paper takes a closer look at Malaysia??s cross-border education initiatives and its actions to establish itself as a competitive education hub in a region where Singapore and Hong Kong have similar intentions. Whether Malaysia has the ability to make a quantum leap from being a student hub to becoming a knowledge/innovation hub remains to be seen and appears to be an optimistic outlook.