Maintaining Inequality Despite Expansion: Evidence of the Link between Parents' Education and Qualitative Differences in Educational Attainment

The restructuring of the Australian labour market decreased demand for low‐skilled workers and increased demand for highly skilled workers and professionals further strengthening the relationship between educational and occupational attainment. To satisfy the demand for highly educated workers, the government reorganised the higher education sector increasing the number of universities and trebling the number of places for domestic undergraduate students. Analysing data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, this paper examines the association between parents' education and the likelihood of graduating from university for six birth cohorts of Australians. Overall, the findings suggest that although the expansion of the higher education sector in Australia provided alternative pathways into university, differences in educational attainment, on both quantitative and qualitative dimensions, persist.     

Oral versus written assessments: a test of student performance and attitudes

Student performance in and attitudes towards oral and written assessments were compared using quantitative and qualitative methods. Two separate cohorts of students were examined. The first larger cohort of students (n = 99) was randomly divided into ‘oral’ and ‘written’ groups, and the marks that they achieved in the same biology questions were compared. Students in the second smaller cohort (n = 29) were all examined using both written and oral questions concerning both ‘scientific’ and ‘personal development’ topics. Both cohorts showed highly significant differences in the mean marks achieved, with better performance in the oral assessment. There was no evidence of particular groups of students being disadvantaged in the oral tests. These students and also an additional cohort were asked about their attitudes to the two different assessment approaches. Although they tended to be more nervous in the face of oral assessments, many students thought oral assessments were more useful than written assessments. An important theme involved the perceived authenticity or ‘professionalism’ of an oral examination. This study suggests that oral assessments may be more inclusive than written ones and that they can act as powerful tools in helping students establish a ‘professional identity’.     

MEETING THE NEEDS OF MATURE STUDENTS — AN EVALUATION OF THE DIP H.E. AT HUMBERSIDE COLLEGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Since its inception in 1977 the Dip H.E. at Humberside College has attracted increasing numbers of mature applicants. This paper seeks to identify the reasons for the popularity of the course and its appropriateness for mature students. It goes on to consider two further questions: how the Dip H.E. affects the way students learn and how successful mature students are on the course.     

Ontology matters: a commentary on <Emphasis Type="Italic">contribution</Emphasis> to cultural historical activity

This commentary promotes discussion on the imaginary provided by Sanaz Farhangi in her article entitled, Contribution to activity: a lens for understanding students’ potential and agency in physics education. The commentary is concerned with aligning ontological assumptions in research accounts of learning and development with transformative aims. A broad definition of ontology as the theory of existence is preferred. Sociocultural approaches share relational ontology as a common foundation. I agree with scholars elaborating Vygotsky’s Transformative Activist Stance that a relational ontology does not imply activism. However, I argue that relational ontology provides a necessary and sufficient theoretical grounding for intentional transformation. I draw upon positioning theory to elaborate the moral aspects of language use and to illustrate that a theory of being as relational already eliminates the transcendental position. I draw on Farhangi’s article to further the discussion on the necessity and sufficiency of relational ontology and associated grammars in accounting for activism.     

The silence about oral presentation skills in distance and online education: new perspectives from an Australian university preparatory programme

Oral presentation skills are considered essential workplace skills and are therefore highly valued in higher education. However, research into this aspect of adult learning is limited, especially in the context of distance and online education. This paper reports on an innovative approach used in a university preparatory program in Australia. Distance students were responsible for choosing a topic, setting and audience, and assessment was based on their self-reflections on the experience. Such an approach represents a radical departure from the usual methods used to practise and assess oral presentations. In this qualitative case study, we draw on students’ responses via portfolio reflections and interviews, using principles of adult learning as a framework for thematic analysis. Findings suggest that this activity fulfilled the needs of adult learners in a number of significant ways, and for some of these students, this oral presentation was a meaningful, even transformative experience.     

‘I think autism is like running on Windows while everyone else is a Mac’: using a participatory action research approach with students on the autistic spectrum to rearticulate autism and the lived experience of university

This co-authored article outlines the research process and key findings from the Stratus Writers Project, a participatory action research project with a group of seven students on the autistic spectrum at a university in the North of England. The project explores their experiences of university through critical autobiographies and offers unique insider perspectives into some of the key issues, challenges and successes. Building on a participatory action research approach, the data were collected by the participants themselves; however, this study departs from traditional research in that the participants also analysed the data, thus offering rich and potentially overlooked theoretical knowledge. The article concludes by demonstrating the strength of participatory action research approaches by identifying the impact that our project and its findings have had so far.     

It's Not What You Know,It's Who You Know: Older siblings facilitate imitation during infancy

In this study, we investigated the effect of older siblings on imitation by infants under naturalistic conditions. To do this, 300 parents provided diary records of imitation by their 12-, 15-, and 18-month-old infants. Half of the infants were only children and half had older siblings. Infants of all ages acquired one to two new behaviours per day through imitation. There were also age-related and sibling-related changes in the quality of behaviours acquired through imitation. Older infants imitated more multi-step sequences and substituted more objects during re-enactment than younger infants. In addition, infants with siblings imitated more behaviour without explicit instruction than did infants without siblings. Furthermore, imitation by infants with siblings was characterised by a higher level of pretence and rough-and-tumble play. These findings converge with both observational and laboratory-based research confirming that imitation is a powerful mechanism by which infants acquire new behaviours in the course of their everyday lives. Dans cette e´tude, nous avons examine´ l'effet des fre ¤ res et des s m urs aine´s sur l'imitation par des enfants en bas age dans des conditions naturalistes. Pour faire ceci, 300 parents ont fourni des dossiers de journal sur des exemples d'imitation par leurs petits enfants de 12, 15 et 18 mois. La moitie´ des petits enfants e´taient des enfants uniques et l'autre moitie´ avait des fre ¤ res et des s m urs aine´s. Les enfants de tous les ages ont acquis 1 a ¤ 2 nouveaux comportements par jour par l'imitation. Il y avait aussi des changements relatifs a ¤ l'age et a ¤ la pre´sence des fre ¤ res et des s m urs dans la qualite´ de comportements acquis par l'imitation. Les enfants plus age´s tendaient a ¤ imiter les se´quences de plus d'e´tapes et tendaient a ¤ substituer plus d'objets pendant la re´petitition que les enfants plus jeunes. En outre, les enfants avec des fre ¤ res et des s m urs aine´s tendaient a ¤ imiter plus le comportement sans instruction explicite que les enfants sans fre ¤ res et des s m urs aine´s. En plus, l'imitation par des petits enfants avec des fre ¤ res et des s m urs aine´s a e´te´ caracte´rise´e par un niveau plus e´leve´ de faire semblant et de jeu de de´gringolade. Ces de´couvertes convergent avec la recherche d'observation et de laboratoire confirmant que l'imitation est un me´canisme puissant par lequel les enfants en bas age acquie ¤ rent des nouveaux comportements au cours de leurs vies de tous les jours. En este estudio, investigamos el efecto que tienen los hermanos mayores sobre la imitacio´n por los nin ¨ os menores en condiciones natural ´sticas. Para llevar a cargo esto, 300 padres suministraron apuntes de sus agendas diarias de sus infantes de 12, 15 y 18 meses. La mitad de estos nin ¨ os eran nin ¨ os u´nicos y la otra mitad teni´an hermanos mayores. Los infantes de todas las edades adquirieron 1 o 2 nuevos comportamientos por di´a a trave´s de la imitacio´n. Hubieron presentes tambie´n cambios relacionados a la edad y al hecho de tener hermanos en el tipo de comportamientos adquiridos a trave´s de la imitacio´n. Los nin ¨ os mayores tendieron a imitar ma´s las secuencias de pasos mu´ltiples y tendieron a sustituir ma´s objetos durante la reconstruccio´n que los infantes menores. Adema´s, los nin ¨ os con hermanos imitaron el comportamiento sin instruccio´n expli´cita ma´s que los nin ¨ os sin hermanos. La imitacio´n de parte de los nin ¨ os tuvo como caracteri´stica un alto nivel de simulacio´n y de juego frene´tico. Estos hallazgos convergen con las investigaciones de observacio´n y de laboratorio, confirmando que la imitacio´n es un mecanismo potente por el cual los nin ¨ os adquieren nuevos comportamientos durante sus vidas cotidianas.     

The social dynamics of changing practice

In this paper we develop a socio‐dynamic account for the impact of continuing professional development (CPD) on practice. The model we propose for changing practice challenges the essentially individualised explanation of practical learning offered by a number of writers and researchers in the field of CPD such as Joyce and Showers (1988 Joyce B Showers J (1988) Student achievement through staff development (London, Longman)  [Google Scholar]), Eraut (1994 Eraut M (1994) Developing professional knowledge and competence (London, Falmer Press)  [Google Scholar]), and Schön (1983 Schön DA (1983) The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action (London, Temple Books)  [Google Scholar]). It also offers a basis for exploring the micro‐political realities of changing practice and the links between individual and group learning that are largely absent in the socio‐cultural accounts of organisational and situated learning (Senge, 1990 Senge P (1990) The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organisation (New York, Doubleday Currency)  [Google Scholar]; Lave & Wenger, 1991 Lave J Wenger E (1991) Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press) [Crossref] [Google Scholar]; Weick, 1995 Weick K (1995) Sensemaking in organisations (Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications)  [Google Scholar]). It proposes a model that allows for tracking the influence of discourses in relation to teacher re‐professionalism from the level of policy to the point of enactment in the school and re‐examines the connections between individual and group learning to arrive at a dynamic framework for understanding changing practice.