Brian Griffiths (1927–2008) – his pioneering contributions to mathematics and education

Brian Griffiths (1927–2008) was a British mathematician and educator who served as a member of the founding editorial board of Educational Studies in Mathematics. As a mathematician, Griffiths is remembered through his work on what continue to be known as ‘Griffiths-type’ topological spaces. As a mathematics educator, his most profound contribution was, with Geoffrey Howson, in offering a conceptualisation of the relationship between mathematics, society and curricula.     

The chameleon on a tartan rug: adaptations of three academic developers’ professional identities

This paper builds on discussions of academic developers’ identity experienced as a discomfiting, troubled, and often marginal space. Three experienced academic developers, located in research-intensive institutions in three different countries, using auto-ethnographic writing and a shared narrative inquiry, explore moments of congruence and conflict. While there are elements that sustain them in their job, the categorisation of their role can impact on their ability to do their job, undermining their credibility. This can prevent them from engaging in research that could enrich practice in their institutions and inform institutional strategy or change the culture in teaching and learning. Instead they are forced into discomfit: having to defend their right to be involved in the institutional discussions. The most worrying issue is the pervasive trend in the change of academic developers’ status (from tenure-track academic peers to professionals).     

Teaching learning disabled adolescents to think critically using a problem‐solving schema

Abstract

In this study we describe and examine the effectiveness of an instructional program designed to teach learning disabled adolescents to make better personal decisions. We presented problems in short narratives based on the types of problems these students must solve in their own lives. The program, conducted as part of the students' regular resource room curriculum, incorporated schema‐general questions for problem solving coupled with practice in generating problem‐specific questions to reach an appropriate decision. Participants were 70 resource room students in two large, urban high schools. We employed a pretest‐posttest comparison group design. On the posttest, instructed students performed significantly better on (1) identifying a general schema for making a personal decision and (2) applying the schema to reach appropriate decisions concerning novel problem narratives. The results support the view that application of a general schema to specific problems can be an effective instructional method to improve critical thinking and decision making.     

Factors affecting the speed of free writing

Factors affecting the free writing speed of 11‐year‐old students were investigated using the Group and Individual Assessment of Handwriting Speed. Intelligence, gender, legibility and whether the student has special educational needs or speaks English as an additional language were all found to impact on writing speed to a significant extent. In one of the two schools studied, the students wrote significantly faster than the students in the other school. This ‘teacher effect’ was found to be independent of the other significant factors examined in the study and was attributed largely to instructional differences between schools and teachers. The average writing speed was 36% lower than published norms for this test, implying that 70.2% of the students would be eligible for extra time in examinations and raising doubts regarding the validity of these norms. It was concluded that vulnerability to teacher effects and other factors makes free writing an unreliable method of measuring writing speed, especially when group administered, and calls into question its use to justify the provision of examination access arrangements or accommodations.     

Undergraduate Understanding of Climate Change: The Influences of College Major and Environmental Group Membership on Survey Knowledge Scores

A survey covering the scientific and social aspects of climate change was administered to examine U.S. undergraduate student mental models, and compare knowledge between groups based on major and environmental group membership. A Knowledge Score (scale 0–35, mean score = 17.84) was generated for respondents at two, central East Coast, U.S. universities (n = 465). Elements of student mental models examined include environmental issue confusion, skepticism, and self-reported understanding. This study finds that students frequently confuse climate change with other environmental issues, and that a substantial majority of students do not have an understanding of climate change that closely matches the scientific model. These misconceptions extend to their understanding of mitigation actions. Environmental group membership is shown to be a greater determinant of climate change knowledge than enrollment in a science major.     

Adolescents' Goal Orientations and Academic Achievement: Long-Term relations and gender differences

The purpose of this study was to compare the views of Finnish and US preschool teachers, administrators and parents on appropriate educational practices for children aged 3‐5. To obtain a measure of their attitudes toward quality practices with children, a 26‐item instrument was adapted from Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8. Researchers in the USA and Finland were asked to administer the instrument to subjects they considered to be ‘representative’ of teachers, administrators and parents in their respective countries. Analysis‐of‐variance procedures were then used to determine the differences in views to quality programmes among the three groups in both countries. No significant differences were found among the three groups in the Finnish sample (F(2,69) = 1.34, p = ns). Among the US group, the parents were found to score significantly less than administrators (F(2,120) = 7.85, p < 0.0006). Multivariate analyses of variance procedures showed that administrators from the two countries did not differ significantly in any of the areas under study. The two areas where teachers tended to differ significantly were those of ‘teaching strategies’ (t = 3.13, df = 100, p = 0.002) and ‘language development’ (t = 3.98, df = 89, p = 0.000). Teachers in the USA tended to take a more structured approach to instruction in preschool programmes, using teacher‐directed (less appropriate) approaches and providing children with (less appropriate) drill and practice on language skills. Parents in Finland appeared more supportive of developmentally appropriate practices than their US counterparts and their views were more generally congruent with those of teachers and administrators. This study suggests that the construct of ‘appropriateness’ of beliefs/practices for children may be of value in comparative international child‐care studies, and it raises the issue of why a greater congruence in beliefs/practices exists in some countries.     

Building capacity: challenges and opportunities in large class pedagogy (LCP) in Sub-Saharan Africa

Over the past 20 years most countries, particularly developing countries, have seen a large increase in the number of students seeking higher education. A consequence of this growth is increasing pressure on teaching staff and institutions, usually resulting in, among other effects, increased class size. Large classes of between 300 and 1,000, and even more, at the undergraduate level are not uncommon in a number of countries (Mulryan-Kyne in Teach High Educ 15(2):175–185, 2010). Large classes are often perceived as one of the major obstacles to the attainment of quality education. Despite the difficulties associated with teaching and learning in large classes, they remain a reality in many countries affecting learners across all levels of the education system and are often the only perceived option available to meet growing demand for higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa (Mohamedbhai in The effects of massification on higher education in Africa. Report from the Working Group on Higher Education of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, 2008). We contend that the challenges of delivering large classes can be confronted, and in many ways diminished, through the use of current and emerging technologies and enhanced faculty development. In this expository paper, we present findings from project activities focused on higher education faculty development and capacity building. The findings include both formative and summative development activities, as well as data collected in faculty professional development workshops and the results of two surveys. We use these data to lay out issues, challenges (e.g., skills, resources, logistics—including poor campus infrastructure), and opportunities (e.g., mobile capacity, distance tools such as Moodle) of large class pedagogy using a design-based research framework.