Psychological and demographic predictors of undergraduate non-attendance at university lectures and seminars

Absenteeism from university teaching sessions is increasingly becoming a common phenomenon and remains a major concern to universities. Poor attendance has significant and detrimental effects on students themselves, their peers and teaching staff. There is, however, a lack of previous research investigating demographic and psychological predictors of non-attendance alongside salient reasons students offer for their absence; it is this ‘gap’ that the present study attempts to fill. We approached 618 undergraduate university students from a single UK university studying various courses to complete a bespoke questionnaire assessing their estimated percentage attendance at lectures and seminars over the academic year. Students answered demographic questions, completed psychometric tests of perceived confidence (Perceived Confidence for Learning) and university belongingness (Psychological Sense of School Membership), and rated the degree to which possible reasons for non-attendance applied to themselves. Multiple regression analyses were carried out separately for estimated attendance at lectures and seminars. Results demonstrated that significant predictors of poorer attendance for both scenarios were experiencing a lower sense of belongingness to university; working more hours in paid employment; having more social life commitments; facing coursework deadlines; and experiencing mental health issues. Improving a sense of belonging to university and targeting interventions at students working in paid employment may be effective means of increasing attendance. Providing support for students with mental health issues, structuring courses around coursework deadlines and helping students to organise their attendance around social activities could also be advantageous.     

Replication and Pedagogy in the History of Psychology VI: Egon Brunswik on Perception and Explicit Reasoning

Egon Brunswik (1903–1955) first made an interesting distinction between perception and explicit reasoning, arguing that perception included quick estimates of an object’s size, nearly always resulting in good approximations in uncertain environments, whereas explicit reasoning, while better at achieving exact estimates, could often fail by wide margins. An experiment conducted by Brunswik to investigate these ideas was never published and the only available information is a figure of the results presented in a posthumous book in 1956. We replicated and extended his study to gain insight into the procedures Brunswik used in obtaining his results. Explicit reasoning resulted in fewer errors, yet more extreme ones than perception. Brunswik’s graphical analysis of the results led to different conclusions, however, than did a modern statistically-based analysis.

Assertive Discipline in a school for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties

The management of difficult and disruptive behaviour continues to be an issue in many classrooms. In this article, Jeremy Swinson, a senior educational psychologist and honorary lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, and Mike Cording, an education consultant working in Southport, consider the impact of in-service training on the use of Assertive Discipline in a school for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). Swinson and Cording report improved rates of 'on-task' behaviour for pupils across the age range and reduction in numbers of disruptive incidents. These changes in pupil behaviour mirror an increase in teachers' use of positive feedback and praise. Swinson and Cording argue that these techniques are effective even for those pupils who are seen as being disaffected or very discouraged.     

Artificial intelligence and education in China

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the political economy of artificial intelligence (AI) and education in China, through an analysis of government policy and private sector enterprise. While media and policy discourse often portray China’s AI development in terms of a unified national strategy, and a burgeoning geopolitical contestation for future global dominance, this analysis will suggest a more nuanced internal complexity, involving differing regional networks and international corporate activity. The first section considers two key policy documents published by the central Chinese government, which are shown to implicate educational institutions as influential actors in national and regional strategies for AI development, with a significant role in plans to train domestic expertise. The second section outlines three prominent private education companies: New Oriental Group, Tomorrow Advancing Life (TAL), and Squirrel AI. These companies are selected to represent important aspects of China’s development of educational AI applications, including the influence of a well-established private education sector, and a growing interest in international corporate activity. The paper concludes with the suggestion that while central government policy reserves a significant role for education in the national AI strategy, the private sector is utilising favourable political conditions to rapidly develop educational applications and markets.     

The Differential Effects of Teacher Approval and Disapproval in Junior and Infant Classrooms

Ten teachers in infant schools and 10 teachers in junior schools had their teaching recorded while their classes were being observed. Subsequently, an analysis was made of the teachers' use of approval and disapproval in relation to pupil on-task behaviour. For both types of school, there was a positive trend between teacher approval and pupil on-task behaviour. However, only the infant school trend was statistically significant. For both types of school, there was an almost zero correlation between teacher disapproval and pupil on-task behaviour. Scattergram analysis indicated a curvilinear relationship between teacher disapproval and pupil on-task behaviour in both infant and junior schools.     

Revisiting the metaphor of the island: challenging ‘world culture’ from an island misunderstood

This article revisits the newly ‘discovered’ island that world culture theorists have repeatedly utilised to explain their theoretical stance, conceptual preferences and methodological approach. Yet, it seeks to (re)connect world culture with the real world by replacing their imagined atoll with a real one – the island-nation of Japan. In descending to understand social and educational change on the ‘island’ that may appear – from afar – to be consensually convergent on purported world models, this article challenges the ways that world culture theory suggests we read both individual nations and the wider World.     

Hurricane Katrina and the chōric object of rhetorical studies

This essay reads former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin’s infamous radio interview given during the aftermath of Hurricane to rethink both the popular narrative about the federal response to Katrina and, more broadly, the displacement of rhetorical objects both popularly and within rhetorical scholarship. Drawing upon Julia Kristeva’s early work, I advocate for a turn to a particular understanding of chōra, which positions critics in provisional relation objects of rhetorical study. Finally, I tender a reading of Nagin’s post-Katrina radio interview. The essay ultimately argues that: (1) the chōric function of Nagin’s interview simultaneously spurred political change and displaced the appearance of having done so; and (2) if rhetorical studies is to avoid remaining complicit with the politics of such displacement, scholars should attend carefully not only to what counts as rhetorical, but also to those objects that do not count but nevertheless function rhetorically. Reconsidering the object domain of rhetorical studies in this way not only opens up new objects for study but also accounts for how they might function outside of already established narratives.     

A basic recursion concept inventory

Recursion is both an important and a difficult topic for introductory Computer Science students. Students often develop misconceptions about the topic that need to be diagnosed and corrected. In this paper, we report on our initial attempts to develop a concept inventory that measures student misconceptions on basic recursion topics. We present a collection of misconceptions and difficulties encountered by students when learning introductory recursion as presented in a typical CS2 course. Based on this collection, a draft concept inventory in the form of a series of questions was developed and evaluated, with the question rubric tagged to the list of misconceptions and difficulties.