Poverty Experiences of Young Children and the Quality of Their Home Environments

This paper assesses the relative contribution of maternal, household, child, and poverty characteristics to the quality of the home environment. The sample consists of 1,887 children birth to 4 years old from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Ordinary least-squares regression is used to explore conceptually distinct aspects of children's poverty experiences. Poverty variables are found to have a statistically significant effect on the quality of the home environment, after controlling for the effects of other variables in the models. Statistically significant interactions among poverty variables are identified. A major finding is that improvements in family income have the strongest effects on the quality of the home environment for children who were born poor or lived much of their lives in poverty. The conclusion emphasizes implications for future research.     

Three cases of hybridity in learning spaces: Towards a design for a Zone of Possibility

The paper contributes to design discourse by drawing on Educational Design Research (EDR) that has been conducted into what we call a Zone of Possibility (ZoP) over the past seven years. We define a ZoP as a place where individuals can overcome the constraints of expectations and power structures to effect desired change. Specifically, this paper presents details of how our initial research question (RQ1) has evolved to the one presented in the conclusions (RQ2); both RQs are summarised below in the section “Research Questions.” To describe this evolution, the paper is presented as 3 cases (Confer, ZoP Stokes Croft and Google Lens in HE) that have provided insights to explore the concept of the ZoP and its implications for EDR. Specifically, one of the main conclusions is the importance of bridging positioning practices as “successful communication” and an understanding of social context in hybrid contexts (ie, the ZoP).     

Class readers: exploring a different View from the bridge

Using evidence from a single lesson, observed and videotaped, this article investigates the ways in which students in an inner London secondary school read Arthur Miller's A view from the bridge. Attention is paid to questions of pedagogy, particularly the teacher's creation of dialogic spaces within the lesson, and to how the students are positioned (and position themselves) as readers. Tensions are explored between the reading(s) that happen in the classroom and the assumptions about students' responses to literature that underpin the requirements of the GCSE examination for which the students are being prepared.     

Self and peer appraisal in higher education

This paper applies the mathematical technique of Data Envelopment Analysis to the problem of appraisal in Higher Education. The technique can be understood as an idealised self and peer appraisal: evaluating others in the same way that we would optimally evaluate ourselves relative to those others. The technique is applied to examples of student and staff appraisal. Although the main focus of this article is on the technique itself (its rationale, the prerequisites for use, and the insights that it yields), we also discuss the wider implications of having and using such a technique to assist appraisal.     

Who Talks to Whom in Malawi's Agricultural Research Information Network?

Purpose: The sector-wide approach currently dominates as the strategy for developing the agricultural sector of many African countries. Although recognised that collaborative agricultural research is vital in ensuring success of sector-wide agricultural development strategies; there have been few efforts to understand the dynamics of national agricultural research/development networks in Africa. This study fills this gap by analysing the dynamics of networking and interactions between institutions in the National Agricultural Research System in Malawi. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study sampled actors in the National Agricultural Research System in Malawi, which included the main public agricultural research department, academic institutions, semi-autonomous research institutions, private companies and international agricultural research institutions. Data was analysed using Social Network Analysis. Findings: Results demonstrate that public agricultural research departments play a central coordinating role in facilitating information sharing; with other actors remaining on the periphery. However, it also shows the important role other actors play to relay information to a wider network of stakeholders. These secondary information pathways can play a very crucial role in ensuring successful implementation of the national agricultural research agenda. Practical implication: Policy-makers are called upon to integrate other research actors into the mainstream national agricultural research information network. This is vital as other research actors are, at the global level, increasingly taking up a greater role in financing and disseminating research and research results. Originality/Value: The study contributes greatly towards knowledge needed for continuing the transformation of African agricultural research; and aligning the African agricultural research vision and practice with the emerging global agricultural research paradigm.     

Cognitive Load Theory and Complex Learning: Recent Developments and Future Directions

Traditionally, Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) has focused on instructional methods to decrease extraneous cognitive load so that available cognitive resources can be fully devoted to learning. This article strengthens the cognitive base of CLT by linking cognitive processes to the processes used by biological evolution. The article discusses recent developments in CLT related to the current view in instructional design that real-life tasks should be the driving force for complex learning. First, the complexity, or intrinsic cognitive load, of such tasks is often high so that new methods are needed to manage cognitive load. Second, complex learning is a lengthy process requiring learners motivational states and levels of expertise development to be taken into account. Third, this perspective requires more advanced methods to measure expertise and cognitive load so that instruction can be flexibly adapted to individual learners needs. Experimental studies are reviewed to illustrate these recent developments. Guidelines for future research are provided.     

Cognitive/information processing psychology and instruction: Reviewing recent theory and practice

With increasing frequency, constructs developed within the field of cognitive/information processing psychology are being employed in the development of instructional theory. This article attempts to organize a broad range of developments in instructional psychology which have this common origin. Particular emphasis is placed on the applicability of constructs such as data structures and procedures. Recent developments in instructional psychology are discussed relative to cognitive task analysis, individual difference variables, and cognitive models of interactive instructional decision-making. Implications for future theory and practice are considered.     

Radical Artists & Art Students versus Management & Bureaucracy during the 1970s

This paper is an account of the impact of Conceptual art and art theory upon art students, studio tutors and managers during the 1970s in certain British art schools. The impact on students resulted in a shift away from the making of physical artefacts to the production of writings and magazines. It also problematised ‘the visual’ and encouraged critiques of art and the art education system. Some tutors responsible for art theory courses were dismissed and some students became politicised and attacked those in charge of art schools and polytechnics. Managers disciplined the students and, in some instances, failed and expelled them. William Furlong and Bruce McLean were two London based artists who responded to the ever‐increasing bureaucracy of art colleges by mounting a parodic performance.