University Choice: What Influences the Decisions of Academically Successful Post‐16 Students?

The questionnaire survey reported in this paper is part of an ongoing evaluation of the effect of a bursary scheme on recruitment to Cambridge University. It sought to identify factors that encouraged or discouraged highly successful A Level students from applying to Cambridge. Findings reveal three main dimensions associated with the decision to apply to Cambridge, the nature of the courses, the prestige of the university and anxiety about the application process combined with fear of failure. Further analyses showed that there were complex interactions between these three dimensions which governed the decision to apply to Cambridge. These findings are relevant to other prestigious universities. The availability of a bursary did appear to influence the decisions of those who were eligible, but its influence was not as great as some of the other factors.     

CONFLICTS IN CREATIVITY

Creative thinking involves both emotion and personality, including enough confidence and courage to consider new approaches to problems, rather than hiding in the security of familiar and accepted ways of thinking. The conflict is between the need for emotional control for academic excellence and the need for a more free and open minded approach. Youngsters who were extremely successful academically were found to be creatively inhibited because of the narrow focus and pressure of their school education. The problem for teachers is to enable intellectually gifted pupils, who have the ability to achieve top grades in examinations, to keep a playful, creative approach to their work and general outlook. An environment in which the exceptionally able child can prosper all round must be balanced This implies enough time with other people to make good social relationships and develop interests outside study areas.     

Parent-teacher conference communication: a guide to integrating family engagement through simulated conversations about student academic progress

Abstract

Teachers regularly communicate with families, yet few candidates are well-prepared for this professional activity. This gap can hinder family–school partnership and pupils’ success. Given that candidates’ opportunities to learn about family engagement (FE) depends on the decisions and values of individual teacher educators, we illustrate how FE can be integrated into an existing educator preparation programme. Specifically, we describe how to design and use simulated parent–teacher conferences (PTCs) to: foster candidates’ conference communication skills; assess their understanding of content knowledge and their ability to plan instruction. Specifically, we designed two simulation tasks that required candidates’ to analyse and respond to a given student assessment profile and then share their interpretation of the information in ways that developed parent–teacher partnership. Modelled after simulation-based medical education, we describe three steps teacher educators can take to integrate simulated PTCs into their existing curriculum. To illustrate how and why simulations impact professional readiness, we also describe the advantages, sequence and psychological processes of simulation training. A sample of candidate profiles across the two tasks are shared to illustrate what candidates take away from their experiences and the kinds of findings faculty may encounter when integrating simulation pedagogy.     

T. rex,the Crater of Doom,and the Nature of Scientific Discovery

Working from the 1970s to the early 1990s, Walter Alvarez and his research teamsought the cause of the mass extinction that claimed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The present paper discusses thatresearch in terms of eight puzzling observations, eight episodes of hypothetico-predictive reasoning, enumerative induction,and Jung's interrogative theory of scientific discovery. The Alvarez case history paints scientific discovery as a process in whichcausal questions are raised and answered through the creative use of analogical reasoning followed by an equally creative process ofhypothesis testing in which predicted and observed results are compared. According to this account, puzzling observations, causalhypotheses, and imagined tests drive investigations and the search for evidence. Two implications follow. The firstconcerns the education of new scientists and science education researchers and the need to more clearlydifferentiate hypotheses from predictions in the research process. The second concerns standard science classroom instruction that shouldmore frequently engage students in open inquiries that raise causal questions and encourage the generation of alternative causalhypotheses, which can then be explicitly tested in ahypothetico-predictive fashion.     

Experiencing and evidencing learning through self-study: New ways of working with mentors and trainees in a training school partnership

This paper uses self-study to analyse the development of a generative, research-based approach to mentoring initial teacher training students in a Training School/university partnership and its contribution to redefining teacher education practice. It focuses on the ontological values and co-learning of the authors as they work collaboratively with mentors to develop a democratic form of social practice and relations. The use of video to record the teaching and situated learning of mentors and trainees is explored as are the qualities and conditions which helped foster the shift in power relations between participants as they engaged in reflective dialogue and inquiry. Issues of sustainability and embedding such practices are addressed as is the contribution of practitioner-research accounts to the professional knowledge of other teacher educators, teachers and trainees.