Enabling development through governance and mobile technology

The impact of mobile technology on governance and development has attracted significant interest in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Development and Electronic Governance communities. There is growing consensus that governance mechanisms must complement access to technology to achieve greater impact on development. However, few or no rigorous research exists to show how such mechanisms can support the delivery of mobile services to vulnerable groups. This study fills this important gap by first providing a conceptual framework, based on the Choice Framework and the Structuration Theory, to elaborate on the relationship between ICT, governance and citizen capabilities. Second, the framework is applied to analyze livelihood needs of 45 women head porters interviewed in Accra. Third, as all women under study have access to mobile phones, we determine which governance mechanisms are needed to support the delivery of mobile services to them. Results show that three governance mechanisms enable the contribution of mobile technology to meeting the livelihood needs of this group: 1) updating financial and telecommunication regulations to enable the provision of mobile-based services e.g. mobile microfinance, to vulnerable groups; 2) mobilizing local communities in the production of local contents; and 3) engaging non-governmental organizations in building capacity of government agencies in mobile service delivery and in training vulnerable communities in effective use of mobile technology to access information and services critical to their needs. We conclude by discussing the use of the Structuration Theory along with the Choice Framework to shape development processes based on citizen needs and by discussing the applicability of our framework to similar vulnerable groups.     

ABD or EdD? A Model of Library Training for Distance Doctoral Students

ABSTRACT

Libraries have been struggling for years to move beyond 1-shot library training. In spite of efforts in the last decade to promote information literacy for undergraduate and graduate students alike, libraries more often than not are still not reaching the goals articulated in the Association of College & Research Libraries's information literacy standards. The problems are compounded when institutions serve students who also happen to be taking part or all of their classes online or at field-based sites. The model for providing a library training program for students in the Doctor of Education (EdD) program in a distance program focuses on providing students with training that builds sequentially and developmentally at the points of need for students in the 1st year of classes and provides additional support for students once they have completed their course work. This multistepped approach is designed to help doctoral students throughout the doctoral process.     

Maximizing Learning From Engaging Across Difference: The Role of Anxiety and Meaning Making

This study explores college students’ reactions to engaging in experiences with diverse others that students found uncomfortable, interactions that disrupted students’ current beliefs or values. Our examination of these experiences was grounded in theory and research on intergroup contact and anxiety and developmental models of self-authorship leading to intercultural maturity. We found three types of reactions to these experiences: Some students were “stuck,” unsure of how to respond; some were prone to continue exploring; and some reframed their perspectives to reflect capacities associated with advanced intercultural maturity. We offer recommendations for managing intergroup anxiety and scaffolding learning to support reframing one's perspectives to maximize learning from engaging in difference.     

A Unified Latent Growth Curve Model

Applying item response theory models to repeated observations has demonstrated great promise in developmental research. By allowing the researcher to take account of the characteristics of both item response and measurement error in longitudinal trajectory analysis, it improves the reliability and validity of latent growth curve analysis. This has enabled the study, to differentially weigh individual items and examine developmental stability and change over time, to propose a comprehensive modeling framework, combining a measurement model with a structural model. Despite a large number of components requiring attention, this study focuses on model formulation, evaluates the performance of the estimators of model parameters, incorporates prior knowledge from Bayesian analysis, and applies the model using an illustrative example. It is hoped that this fundamental study can demonstrate the breadth of this unified latent growth curve model.     

The Effect of Na?ve Ideas on Students’ Reasoning About Electricity and Magnetism

Traditional multiple-choice concept inventories measure students?? critical conceptual understanding and are designed to reveal students?? na?ve or alternate ideas. The overall scores, however, give little information about the state of students?? knowledge and the consistency of reasoning. This study investigates whether students have consistent alternate models when reasoning about Newton??s third law principle in the context of electromagnetics (EM), and whether these possible models are related to conceptual change and overall performance. Students?? conceptual understanding is evaluated with The Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM) multiple-choice test. The data (N?=?118) are collected from an undergraduate static field theory course at the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. The data are analysed using frequency distributions, Fisher??s exact test, and One-Way ANOVA analysis. The study shows that every fifth student has a consistent or partially consistent alternate model of Newton??s third law principle in the context of EM prior to instruction. Students with this alternate model perform significantly (p?=?0.01) better on the overall concept test and are more likely to change conceptual understanding towards a correct model compared to students in an inconsistent mixed model state.     

International education and the employability of UK students

A common theme within the literature on higher education is the congested nature of the graduate labour market. Researchers have highlighted the lengths to which many students now go, in response to this congestion, to ‘distinguish themselves’ from other graduates: paying increased attention to university status; engaging in a range of extra‐curricular activities; and pursuing postgraduate qualifications. Studies that have focused on the strategies of Asian students, specifically, have pointed to the important place of studying abroad as a further strategy in this pursuit of distinction. Given that there is now some evidence that the number of UK students enrolling on a degree programme overseas is increasing, this article explores the extent to which an overseas education can be seen as part of a broader strategy on the part of British students to seek distinction within the labour market and whether such an education does indeed offer tangible employment benefits.     

Development and validation of a preschool teachers’ attitudes and beliefs toward science teaching questionnaire

Little is known about preschool teachers’ attitudes and beliefs toward science teaching, in part, because the field lacks valid and reliable measures of these teacher-related factors. To address this need, the current study developed and validated a rating scale (P-TABS) using a statewide sample of Head Start teachers (N = 507). A series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Generalizability and invariance of the final factor solution was examined across important subgroups of the standardization sample (i.e., teacher ethnicity, education level, and years of teaching experience). Three distinct factors were identified (Teacher Comfort, Child Benefit, and Challenges), with strong evidence for validity found for the first two factors. The P-TABS expands the availability of reliable and valid assessment tools for measuring preschool teachers’ attitudes and beliefs toward science teaching and for examining how these teacher-related factors affect classroom practices and student outcomes.     

Values and Needs of Children With and Without Special Educational Needs in Early School Years: A Study of Young Children’s Views on What Matters to Them

Understanding how children experience life in educational settings should be an imperative for educational practitioners, evaluators, and researchers. Listening to children’s points of views would facilitate the development of educational settings that meet the needs of children and contribute to their wellbeing and development so that their experiences are both joyful and meaningful. A total of 56 children between the ages of 5 and 7 in 65 educational settings located in central Sweden were included in the study. Amongst the 56 participating children, 29 were identified as having special educational needs. The children’s views were collected from 2012 to 2015 using drawings and interviews, and these were analysed using a thematic analysis. Nine themes that reflected matters of importance for the children, both those with and without special educational needs, are described. These themes are discussed and linked to previous research, educational evaluation models, and theories of values and needs.     

The Dorothy Doctrine of Engaged Scholarship: The Rhetorical Discipline “Had It All Along”

Jerzy Grotowski's dramatic theory is characterized, first by the concept of poor theatre, which reduced basic components of theatre to the interaction of the actor and the audience, and, second, by performance as an act of transgression in which the performer rids himself of his unique personal behavior and is reborn a character. When Grotowski's theory is applied to Readers Theatre, we have a poor Readers Theatre, composed of the literary text, the holy interpreter, and the audience.     

Review Essay: Sustainable Scholarship and the Rhetoric of Medicine

The Preface to Confessions of an English Opium‐Eater constitutes a fine example of what Thomas De Quincey called style in its “ministerial” capacity. He achieved the ends of this style in two ways: first, he adopted a strategy of accommodation and challenge, whereby he accepted the reader's viewpoint only to undermine and replace it with another; second, his “licentious” style rehearsed the reader in the activity requisite to understand the difficult, involved text which followed.