Evaluating an Inquiry-based Bioinformatics Course Using Q Methodology

Faculty at a Midwestern metropolitan public university recently developed a course on bioinformatics that emphasized collaboration and inquiry. Bioinformatics, essentially the application of computational tools to biological data, is inherently interdisciplinary. Thus part of the challenge of creating this course was serving the needs and backgrounds of a diverse set of students, predominantly computer science and biology undergraduate and graduate students. Although the researchers desired to investigate student views of the course, they were interested in the potentially different perspectives. Q methodology, a measure of subjectivity, allowed the researchers to determine the various student perspectives in the bioinformatics course.     

Evaluation of an Innovative Interest-Based Post-School Transition Programme for Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorder

After leaving school, young people with autism spectrum disorder often struggle with social, educational and employment participation. A post-school transition programme underpinned by individualised case management, where mentees are guided to complete self-selected projects by mentors with multimedia skills, was evaluated using a qualitative approach. The programme’s impact on mentees’ social participation, emotional well-being, project skills and awareness of and transition to post-school options was examined. Eleven mentees (17–21 years), 12 family members and 7 mentors participated in semi-structured interviews. Mentors completed fortnightly records. Findings included positive impacts on mentees’ motivation and enjoyment, social participation, emotional well-being and skill development; and an appreciation of the programme flexibility and the high-quality mentor–mentee relationships. Some mentees developed their awareness of future options, while others struggled to articulate their goals. Two of 11 mentees transitioned to further education. Overall, the programme appeared to fulfil a critical need for nurturing, post-school transition programmes.     

Making it REAL: Using Informational Picture Books in Preschool Classrooms

This article addresses the importance and benefits of integrating informational texts into read alouds in preschool classrooms through an instructional approach entitled REAL Time. Teachers use the REAL Time framework to pair complex storybooks with one or more informational texts in order to develop children’s understanding of key vocabulary and important real world concepts. Teachers are then encouraged to plan curricular experiences for children that deepen and extend their understanding. Such experiences help the teacher link children’s content knowledge across texts and learning experiences. While implementing REAL Time, teachers draw attention to text features and functions of informational texts in ways that build children’s understanding of print.     

The role of post-visit action resources in facilitating meaningful free-choice learning after a zoo visit

Places like zoos, where free-choice learning is encouraged, are important for conveying climate change and sustainability issues to the public. Free-choice learning that targets environmentally focused sustainable behavior changes must be meaningful in order to encourage actual behavior change post-visit. However, visitors often fail to translate their learning into behavior change after a visit. This research explores the role of post-visit action resources (PVARs) in facilitating long-term learning for individual environmental sustainability after a visit to the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo in Manitoba, Canada. An embedded mixed-methods research design used personal meaning maps and follow-up interviews to measure free-choice learning; data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings revealed that the PVARs positively affected free-choice learning after an on-site visit to the zoo. Recommendations and implications are discussed in relation to practical applications and implications for future research in environmental education.     

A focus group study of African American students’ experiences with classroom discussions about race at a predominantly White university

Past research has drawn attention to the unique challenges for students of color attending predominantly white colleges and universities, yet few have focused on the classroom as a micro-context in which race-related discussions often occur. Using a focus group methodology, 22 African American undergraduate students from a variety of academic programs shared their past experiences with classroom discussions about race. Thematic analyses revealed that African American students’ cognitive and emotional responses to race-focused discussions in the classroom were uniquely shaped by the broader context of attending a predominantly White university situated in a Midwestern region of the United States. Students’ responses gave insights into the strategies that minority students use to navigate race-focused discussions in class and the impact that those strategies have on their class participation. The implications of our results for students and faculty, particularly those situated on predominantly White campuses, are discussed.     

Educators’ perceptions of learners with intellectual disabilities’ sexual knowledge and behaviour in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

Over the past two decades, comprehensive sexuality education has increasingly been recognised as a measure that positively impacts on the sexual behaviour of young people in Africa. Despite this, and a political call to scale-up the use of comprehensive sexuality education in schools in South Africa, learners with disabilities continue to be left behind. Besides contending with negative hegemonic constructs of disabled sexualities, educators of learners with disabilities lack skills and resources to teach sexuality in accessible formats. Based on this premise, a comprehensive sexuality education approach – Breaking the Silence – was developed and piloted to assist educators of learners with disabilities to provide access to comprehensive sexuality education in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This article presents results from the formative evaluation of this pilot work and discusses educators’ perceptions of their learners with intellectual disabilities’ sexual knowledge, agency and behaviour after implementing the approach. Although educators appeared to situate learners with intellectual disabilities as sexual agents, their implementation of the approach was dependent on the cognitive ability of learners, and discourses of culture, gender and protection from violence.     

School Climate: Measuring,Improving and Sustaining Healthy Learning Environments. H. Jerome Freiberg (Ed.)

Learning Environments Research -     

Beyond Student Evaluation of Teaching: Identifying and addressing academic staff development needs

Student evaluation of teaching is a commonly accepted means of obtaining feedback on the quality of university teaching. However, its usefulness in contributing to improved teaching performance is dependent on the extent to which staff respond to and apply the information obtained in this way. This paper reports the results of a project designed to extend the application of student evaluations by using them as the basis for staff development. Survey findings from 87 staff and 127 students indicate the priorities for academic and course development perceived by each group. Booklets based on these perceived needs were developed by collaborative staff-student groups and made available to enable staff to improve their teaching in response to student evaluations.     

Educational Outcomes,Modern and Postmodern Interpretations: Response to Smyth and Dow

Drawing on research in Canada as well as studies in Australia and elsewhere, this paper challenges the arguments of Smyth and Dow (British Journal of Sociology in Education, 19(3), pp. 291-303) that outcomes-based education necessarily embodies a form of technical rationality which routinizes, proletarianizes and deskills teachers and their work. This paper criticizes Smyth and Dow for applying a universalistic and monolithic labour process theory to outcomes issues, for paying little or no attention to published evidence and argument on outcomes, and for being insensitive to the variable geometries of the outcomes phenomenon across different contexts. This paper, by contrast, identifies how investigating outcomes in a context of socialist policy-making, where equity goals are explicit and high discretion is granted to teachers, can contribute to clearer understanding of the variable postmodern geometries and educational possibilities of outcomes technology. These possibilities include fostering stronger collegiality among teachers, and democratic inclusion of pupils and parents in the teaching and learning process.     

The Effect of Father's Presence on Postsecondary Educational Attainment Among Whites and Blacks

Previous studies (e.g., Wolfle, 1985) that have examined black-white differences in models of educational attainment have in general only looked at intact families, with fathers present. But such family configurations are less characteristic of blacks than of whites. The analysis reported here compares a model of educational attainment for whites and blacks that explicitly measures the presence of the father in the household. The results indicate that no substantial differences are to be found in the process of educational attainment for whites and blacks when father's presence is controlled.