Writing in Mathematics: An Alternative Form of Communication for Academically Low‐Achieving Students

Abstract. Classroom communication figures prominently in current math reform efforts. In this study, we analyze how one teacher used writing to support communication in a seventh‐grade, low‐track mathematics class. For one school year, we studied four low‐achieving students in the class. Students wrote in journals on a weekly basis. Using classroom observations and interviews with the teacher, we developed profiles of the four students, capturing their participation in class discussions. The profiles highlighted an important similarity among the four students: marginal participation in both small‐group and whole‐class discussions. However, our analysis of the students' journals identified multiple instances where the students were able to explain their mathematical reasoning, revealing their conceptual understanding, ability to explain, and skill at representing a problem. In this respect, journals potentially facilitate another important form of classroom communication. The promise of writing is that it offers an alternative to the visions of classroom communication that are strictly oral in nature.     

Academic Science as a System of Markets

It is instructive to think of UK academic science as in interlocking system of 'markets', where 'vendors' offer 'commodities' to 'customers' in return for 'currencies'. In the institutional market, higher education institutions compete commercially as research contractors. Money is also the effective currency in the markets in projects, academic jobs and intellectual property rights. But these are linked with the metaphorical reputational and research claims markets where academics compete fiercely for intangible 'recognition'.
Some typical market imperfections, such as research customer monopsony, arbitrary variations of project pricing, inadequate information on quality, and rigidities of staffing, could be reduced by systematic reform. But some current structural problems are deep-seated. For example, damaging conflict between institutional and individual interests is being generated by the introduction of commercial 'market forces' into the traditional academic marketplace, where competition was always by quality, not by price, and where individuals could enter and leave at minimal personal cost.     

“Home Is Where the Shaykh Is”: The Concept of Exile in the Hagiography of İbrahim-i Gülşeni

The hagiographical narrative of the Halveti shaykh ?brahim-i Gül?eni, spanning a critical period in Islamic history when the shaykhs of Sunni mystical orders were pushed out of Iran and Azerbaijan to take up residence elsewhere, initially seems to be an excellent source for understanding how medieval thinkers reacted to the concept of exile. However, upon closer examination of the hagiographer and his work, we realize that it was not just the existence of a physical exile from one's homeland that was critical to the work. This article takes a closer look at how Muhyi-yi Gül?eni, the author and compiler of the hagiography of ?brahim-i Gül?eni and his followers, constructs the concept of exile in both its physical and metaphorical senses. In the world of a vastly expanded Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the reign of Sultan Süleyman that required its literate elites to take up posts far from home, Muhyi reconfigures the idea of exile to reflect a separation or estrangement from one's mystical guide. This narrative strategy both reinforced the audience's devotion to the order and offered a source of comfort to groups who were forced to travel to distant parts of the realm.     

Recruiting Principals to Lead Low-performing Schools: Effects on Job Attractiveness

This study addressed recruiting principals into low performing schools. A sample (N = 619) of principals, assistant principals, central office administrators, school counselors, and teacher-leaders from the 29th largest school district in the United States role-played as applicants for principal vacancies at schools classified as low-performing based on results of standardized student achievement tests. The study had an experimental design and involved use of a recruitment simulation. Rating jobs depicted on simulated principal recruitment announcements, principals and assistant principals rated the job highest while school counselors rated the jobs lowest. Among the teacher-leaders, teacher-administrative interns rated the job higher than did highly skilled educators or resource teachers. Implications for recruitment practice and future evaluation research are discussed.     

Demand for and productivity analysis of Turkish public theater

We estimate a demand function for live theater provided by the General Directorate of State Theaters in Turkey. We show that demand is more elastic in less developed cities, that attendance is not significantly affected by various qualitative variables, and that the government's practice of offering free passes to government officials is an ineffective way of increasing paid attendance. Comedies and musicals both show significantly higher attendance. Having a Turkish author does not significantly affect attendance. Having a known author significantly increases attendance for more developed cities but not for less developed cities. Being the opening season significantly reduces attendance in less developed cities but has no effect in more developed cities. We also present evidence of inefficiency in state theaters in Turkey through a performance of plays equation in which we evaluate the determinants of the number of performances per play.