Pedagogy and Diversity: Enrichment and Support for Social Work Instructors Engaged in Social Justice Education

The primary purpose of faculty development is to create and sustain a culture of teaching excellence. For social work faculty, an important part of teaching excellence involves incorporating core social work values such as social justice and diversity across the curriculum and developing pedagogical skills and strategies to teach these issues effectively. In this article, we present a model of a faculty development seminar that offers a facilitated space for instructors to discuss how issues of diversity, social identity, and oppression influence their teaching, the classroom environment, student interactions, and the overall campus climate.     

Socioeconomic and Gender Effects on Science Achievement: An Australian Perspective

The purpose of this study is to investigate science achievement of Australian students and how this achievement can vary from school to school. The proposition that gender and socioeconomic inequities in Australia are the result of school systems designed to reproduce an unequal social order was examined with reference both to current sociological literature and methodological techniques which account for the hierarchical nature of students nested in schools. Additionally, student‐level and school‐level variables are investigated for their ability to explain gender and socioeconomic differences in science achievement, as well as general student variability. Even after adjusting for the students’ individual characteristics and home backgrounds, as well as the context of the school, there were significant gender and socioeconomic differences in science achievement across Australian schools. The importance of variability in science achievement between schools is shown in this study, with specific reference to how this variability can be attributed to the school system.     

Effects of classroom environment on science attitudes: A cross‐cultural replication in Indonesia‡

A three‐phase study, with a different sample for each phase, involved a total of 1125 secondary school students in Indonesia. The first phase involving 373 grade 8 and 9 students was used to develop and validate an Indonesian classroom environment instrument with eight scales based on the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire and the Classroom Environment Scale. In the second phase of the study, 502 Indonesian science students in grades 11 and 12 were involved in a translation, adaptation and validation of a four‐scale Indonesian version of the Test of Science‐Related Attitudes. In the third phase, these new Indonesian attitude and environment scales were used with another sample of 250 Indonesian biology students in an investigation of the effects of classroom psychosocial environment on students’ science‐related attitudes. The finding of statistically significant associations between environment and attitudes replicated much prior work in science classrooms in developed countries. For example, more favourable science‐related attitudes on several scales were found in classes perceived as having more personalization, participation, investigation and order and organization.

     

Time in the arts and physical education and school achievement

With the increase in state‐mandated high‐stakes testing across the USA, schools and school districts are considering ways of increasing instructional time for core curricular subjects such as mathematics, science, English, and social studies. One seemingly logical approach to improving test scores is to reduce the time spent in subjects that are not tested, most notably art, music, and physical education, thus increasing time for the tested subjects. In this study, data was collected from 547 Virginia elementary school principals who completed a survey indicating the time specialists taught art, music, and physical education in their schools. After controlling for socio‐cultural opportunities associated with the school community, partial correlations between time allocation and school‐level passing rates on the Virginia Standards of Learning tests indicated no meaningful relationship between time allocation to art, music, and physical education and school achievement. The findings from the study do not support the notion that a reduced time allocation to art, music, and physical education is related to higher test scores.     

Book reviews

The Fiscal Administration of City School Systems. By J. R. Mcgaughy. A report reviewed and presented by the Educational Finance Inquiry Commission under the auspices of the American Council on Education, Washington, D. C. New York: Macmillan Co., 1924.

Child Accounting. By A. B. Moehlman (University of Michigan). Detroit: Courtis Standard Tests, 1924. Pp. 205. Price, $1.85.

Principles of Teaching Practically Applied. By Ruby Minor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924. Pp. xiii + 281. Price, $1.90.

Sex, for Parents and Teachers. By William Leland Stowell. New York: Macmillan Co., 1924. Pp. xx + 204. Price, $1.50.

The Child, His Nature and His Needs. Edited by M. V. O'Shea. Valparaiso, Ind.: The Children's Foundation, 1924. Pp. xi + 516.

Measuring Intelligence. By H. C. Hines (University of Washington). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924. Pp. xii + 146. Price, $1.20.     

Book reviews

Psychology of the Junior High‐School Pupil. By L. A. Peckstein (University of Cincinnati) and A. Laura McGregor (Rochester, N. Y., Public Schools). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924. Pp. xxii + 280. Price, $2.

Modern Methods in Teaching. By H. B. Wilson, George C. Kyte, and H. G. Lull. New York: Silver, Burdett & Co., 1924. Pp. vi + 286. Price, $1.64.

Elementary School Costs in the State of New York. By R. O. Stoops. A report reviewed and presented by the Educational Finance Inquiry Commission under the auspices of the American Council on Education, Washington, D. C. New York: Macmillan Co., 1924.

The Cost and Support of Secondary Schools in the State of New York. By Charles W. Hunt. A report reviewed and presented by the Educational Finance Inquiry Commission under the auspices of the American Council on Education, Washington, D. C. New York: Macmillan Co., 1924.

Interesting Neighbors. By Oliver P. Jenkins. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Sons & Co., 1922. Pp. xi + 248.

The Humanizing of Knowledge. By J. H. Robinson. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1923. Pp. ix + 117. Price, $1.50.

Education of Gifted Children. By Lula M. Stedman (University of California, Southern Branch). Yonkers‐on‐Hudson: World Book Co., 1924. Pp. viii+ 192. Price, $1.80.     

Teaching and learning by videoconferencing at the University of Ulster

The Open University has developed an array of tutorial and advisory services for its students over 16 years. These have been reviewed regularly for their academic appropriateness and effectiveness. More recently, urgent reductions in services have taken place, in response to financial restraints. During 1985, Mary Thorpe and colleagues in the Student Research Centre, the Institute of Educational Technology conducted in‐depth interviews with students and staff to explore their perceptions of studying with the Open University.     

Children's views of Teaching Assistants in primary schools

This study reports primary children's perceptions of the role of the Teaching Assistant (TA) in three state primary schools in South West England. Through the use of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, an exploration was made of how children view TAs, who are commonly found delivering the curriculum alongside the teacher in the classroom. A simple questionnaire was completed by 419 junior children and 86 infant and junior pupils were interviewed, giving children a ‘voice’ about an environment which they inhabit for a substantial proportion of their lives. The results show that children between the ages of 5–11 perceive the role of the TA to be of value and their work to be useful and helpful. Their accounts of the TAs' work in general and in relation to themselves, in particular, were clear and insightful. They distinguish between teacher and TA in terms of training, vocation and responsibility. Most children consider themselves to be confident and willing to ask for help but a significant minority reported that they preferred not to ask for help. The implications of the findings for further research on children's views and for educational practice are discussed.     

Motivation in the Junior Years: International perspectives on children's attitudes,expectations and behaviour and their relationship to educational achievement

This paper reports findings from a large-scale international investigation of a number of factors that are considered to impact upon educational motivation and achievement. Following on from an earlier investigation of adolescent attitudes, the present study involved a detailed survey of nearly 3,000 children, aged 9-10 from districts in England, Russia and the USA, together with teacher reports and the employment of a test of basic mathematical computation. The Russian sample scored significantly more highly on the computation test and showed no large tail of underachievers, as was the case with the other groups. Findings from the survey indicate that many of the differences found in the earlier adolescent study are equally true for younger children. The Russian children were less likely to express satisfaction with their abilities or workrates, were more positive towards school, more likely to see education as intrinsically valuable and tended to spend significantly more time on homework tasks. Data obtained also suggest that the Russian sample experienced classrooms with far less disruption and stronger prosocial peer influences than did the English and American children. Teacher understandings of what is considered to be acceptable behaviour appeared to differ, however. The paper notes that the Western samples overestimated their teachers' views of their ability while the Russian children provided underestimates. Possible reasons for, and implications of, these differential teacher messages are discussed. The paper concludes by examining the implications of the findings from the study for increasing motivation and achievement in countries with very different sociocultural contexts.     

Ethical dilemmas and practical problems for the practitioner researcher

This paper explores the ethical dilemmas and problems encountered when undertaking an action research study in my own school. The study was designed to evaluate a contentious part of a new midwifery programme as it was being implemented. A range of potentially problematic issues are discussed from the practitioner researcher perspective. Some of these problems were anticipated but others had not been addressed and had to be responded to as they arose, More careful thought at the planning stage about the potential effects on others, as well as action-in-reflection are presented as important considerations for other practitioners contemplating action research in their own place of work.