Digital culture clash: “massive” education in the E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC

While education has been both open and online, the sizeable enrolment numbers associated with massive open online courses (MOOCs) are somewhat unprecedented. In order to gauge the significance of education at scale, this article analyses specific examples of massive participation derived from E-learning and Digital Cultures, a MOOC from the University of Edinburgh in partnership with Coursera. Student-created content, user statistics, and survey data are illustrated to examine the experiences and repercussions of engaging with educational activity where participants number in the tens of thousands. This activity is shown to mirror established instructionist or constructivist approaches to pedagogy. However, rather than working with “massiveness,” these positions are suggested to oppose large participant numbers. Concluding remarks propose an irreducible diversity of participation, rather than a generalised categorisation of “student,” and call for future considerations of the MOOC to move beyond individualism and self-interest.     

Managing change and embedding innovation in academic libraries and information services

The paper examines the management of change and the embedding of innovation in academic libraries and information services during a period of considerable and continuous change. Detailed examples are given from the author's own institution that adopts a very structured and corporate approach to strategic planning. The internal and external factors driving organisational change in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector are identified using a PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analysis, and a detailed SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is presented which will enable institutions to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of their services being able to deliver the changes required. Examples are given of the kinds of changes library and information services will need to implement in order to respond effectively to the changing external environment. Some of the barriers to the successful implementation of change are identified, with some practical measures to bear in mind to help ensure successful outcomes.     

Police Media: The Governance of Territory,Speed, and Communication

The work of the modern police apparatus is highly dependent upon media technologies. This article traces crucial developments in this history, analyzing the central role that media have played in policing practices since the advent of the modern patrol in the late eighteenth century. We trace how the governmentalized police force has used media to govern efficiently what Foucault calls the three great variables: territory, speed, and communication. In conclusion, we consider the possibilities for resistance in a time when digital police media have given rise to alarming strategies for surveilling populations, stifling dissent, and exerting control over public and private space.     

Curriculum change: a study of the implementation of General National Vocational Qualifications

This article focuses on curriculum change, in particular on course team responses to the introduction of a new curriculum and on the implications of empirical findings for our understanding of curriculum implementation and change. The case discussed is that of the second version of GNVQ. The discussion is based on an analysis of data collected across twenty-two course teams in ten schools and colleges over a two-year period as part of an ESRC-funded project. The model of comprehensive assessment of the second version of the GNVQ is one in which the curriculum reinforcement role of assessment related to the coverage and standards of the qualification but not to the design of courses. Theoretically, significant scope was accorded to course teams to develop and provide courses that responded to local contexts. The article explores how patterns of difference and similarity in course team responses to the introduction of this curriculum might be explained and indicates three broad approaches: implementation, adaptation and assimilation, relating these responses to the existing experience and expertise of members of the various course teams. The article draws on concepts from the field of linguistics to put forward the notions of ‘curricular fields’ and ‘sub-curricular fields’ and suggests that curriculum implementation needs to take greater account of the sub-curricular fields of course teams.     

Uncivil Speech: Invective and the Rhetorics of Democracy in the Early Republic

Robert Owen's “Declaration of Mental Independence,” declaimed on the Fourth of July, 1826, was one of the most ill-received speeches in the early Republic. The attendant controversy provides an opportunity to theorize invective's role in democratic culture. Invective was useful in the early Republic, and continues to be useful today, because it is both constitutive of national identity and a curative rhetoric for managing cultural anxiety. However, there are limits to what invective can achieve, and invective's place in democracy is consequently ambivalent. Rather than curing democratic anxiety, invective tends to perpetuate it, disrupting democracy's emphasis on controlled conflict and pushing it ever closer to violence.     

Using the Staff Sharing Scheme to support school staff in managing challenging behaviour more effectively

This paper explores how educational psychologists working in a training/consultative way can enable teachers to manage challenging pupil behaviour more effectively. It sets out a rationale which encourages schools to embrace a group based teacher peer-support system as part of regular school development. It then explores the usefulness of the Staff Sharing Scheme as an exemplar of such an approach from the perspective of school based participants. Through a case-study approach, the current findings suggest that group based peer-support programmes help teachers reflect on the causes of disruptive behaviour holistically and subsequently to problem solve in a more coherent manner. This leads to changes in teacher behaviour within the classroom. Issues of time and trust were identified as important obstacles to the potential development of such a scheme within the school.     

Exposure to Violence Across the Social Ecosystem and the Development of Aggression: A Test of Ecological Theory in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model proposes that events in higher order social ecosystems should influence human development through their impact on events in lower order social ecosystems. This proposition was tested with respect to ecological violence and the development of children’s aggression via analyses of 3 waves of data (1 wave yearly for 3 years) from 3 age cohorts (starting ages: 8, 11, and 14) representing three populations in the Middle East: Palestinians (N = 600), Israeli Jews (N = 451), and Israeli Arabs (N = 450). Results supported a hypothesized model in which ethnopolitical violence increases community, family, and school violence and children’s aggression. Findings are discussed with respect to ecological and observational learning perspectives on the development of aggressive behavior.     

Randomised controlled trial of incentives to improve attendance at adult literacy classes

Background: Incentives have been proposed as a method to improve attendance in adult literacy classes. In the UK, several areas have piloted the use of incentives to promote attendance at adult literacy classes. To date no rigorous evaluation of this policy has been undertaken. This paper describes (as far as we are aware) the only UK‐based randomised controlled trial to evaluate the use of financial incentives in order to promote attendance in classes for adult learners.

Methods: We used a cluster‐randomised design. Twenty‐nine adult literacy classes were randomised in two groups using minimisation. Intervention group learners received £5 (US$10) for each class attended. The main outcome was class attendance; the secondary outcome was literacy scores.

Results: After allocation, one class was found to be ineligible for the study. In the 28 remaining classes there was a statistically significant reduction of about 1.5 sessions (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.28, 2.79; p = 0.019) attended by the intervention group compared with control, after adjusting for cluster size and baseline scores. The difference in reading scores between the intervention and control group, conditioned on baseline scores, was ?2.38 (with controls scoring higher than the intervention group), but this difference was not statistically significant (95% CI ?7.40 to 2.57, p = 0.33).

Conclusion: Payments to attend adult literacy classes had an adverse effect on attendance. This trial needs urgent replication, ideally with a larger incentive, before this approach is widely used by policy makers.