Investigating the impact of flexible furniture in the elementary classroom

Learning Environments Research - Educators are beginning to consider the physical learning environment as an additional resource in meeting learning outcomes in modern classrooms. In order to...     

To Freire or not to Freire: Educational freedom and the populist right-wing ‘Escola sem Partido’ movement in Brazil

This article addresses key topics of academic freedom and critical pedagogy during a time of right-wing populist politics. The rise of the far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro to Brazil’s presidency in 2019 was accompanied by a vow to eradicate any vestige of the ideas of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire from the country’s schools. Bolsonaro’s campaign was supported by ultra-conservative groups that have as their core mission a traditional Christian and anti-Communist educational agenda. At the forefront of these groups is the influential and conspicuous ‘Escola sem Partido’ (ESP) movement that has forcefully campaigned against Freire’s critical pedagogy across the country and promoted physical and online abuse of teachers since 2014. This article asks how Freire’s philosophies can be an ally in the struggle for democratic education in the current political climate in Brazil. It employs a method of dialogical narrative to bring Freire’s theories and critical methodology to life and test their potency against the ESP educational philosophies. It initially employs Freire’s core ideas to examine the ESP policies and parliamentary bills. In the second part, it analyses documents and online content produced by civil society resistance to ESP pressures. The findings show the vitality of Freire’s pedagogical philosophy to empower oppressed communities in their demands for quality education. The narrative concludes by demonstrating the vital role of the critical consciousness process and of Freire’s pedagogy of freedom to support ongoing struggles by teachers and communities to block ESP attempts to abolish critical thinking in Brazilian public education.     

A Systematic Approach to Designing,Implementing, and Evaluating Learner-Generated Digital Media (LGDM) Assignments and Its Effect on Self-regulation in Tertiary Science Education

Research in Science Education - This study explored the self-regulation strategies and learning experiences of undergraduate science students completing Learner-Generated Digital Media (LGDM)...     

Student satisfaction in higher education: a meta-analytic study

This paper discusses the results of a meta-analysis performed to identify key antecedent and consequent constructs of satisfaction in higher education. We offer an integrated model to achieve a better understanding of satisfaction in the context of higher education. To accomplish this objective, we identified 83 studies that were valid and relevant to the research objective of the current study, generating a total of 469 observations. We identified studies published from 1986 to 2016 and analyzed six antecedent dimensions (perceived value of educational services, resources provided to the student, service quality perception, marketing orientation, identity of the higher education institution, university environment) and one consequent dimension related to satisfaction. The 7 dimensions exhibited a total of 51 relationships. We believe that the originality of the findings clearly contributes to future academic research in higher education.     

Going virtual and going wide: comparing Team-Based Learning in-class versus online and across disciplines

Education and Information Technologies - Team-based learning (TBL) is an active learning pedagogy developed for in-class sessions and based on the collaborative work of small groups of students....     

Detection of Invalid Test Scores: The Usefulness of Simple Nonparametric Statistics

In recent guidelines for fair educational testing it is advised to check the validity of individual test scores through the use of person‐fit statistics. For practitioners it is unclear on the basis of the existing literature which statistic to use. An overview of relatively simple existing nonparametric approaches to identify atypical response patterns is provided. A simulation study was conducted to compare the different approaches and on the basis of the literature review and the simulation study guidelines for the use of person‐fit approaches are given.     

Using playing cards to differentiate probability interpretations

The aprioristic (classical, naïve and symmetric) and frequentist interpretations of probability are commonly known. Bayesian or subjective interpretation of probability is receiving increasing attention. This paper describes an activity to help students differentiate between the three types of probability interpretations.     

Latino Maternal Literacy Beliefs and Practices Mediating Socioeconomic Status and Maternal Education Effects in Predicting Child Receptive Vocabulary

Research Findings: This study investigated the association between Mexican American maternal education and socioeconomic status (SES) and child vocabulary as mediated by parental reading beliefs, home literacy environment (HLE), and parent–child shared reading frequency. As part of a larger study, maternal reports of education level, SES, HLE, and reading beliefs along with child expressive and receptive vocabulary were collected for 252 mothers and their preschool children from 2 demographically similar school districts in 1 county. Correlations were moderate and positive, with higher levels of maternal education related to family income, HLE, book availability, and children’s expressive and receptive vocabulary. Consistent with long-standing evidence, maternal education and SES were predictors of children’s vocabulary, albeit indirectly through maternal reading beliefs, HLE, and reading frequency. Practice or Policy: Findings extend current knowledge about specific pathways through which social class variables impact children’s language. Policy implications, directions for future research, and study limitations are noted.     

Combination of logical conditions and arithmetic operations to assign a mark to a course based on multidimensional learning outcomes

Assessment is a notorious source of preoccupation for faculty and university governing bodies, especially when an institution initiates curricular reforms which shift the programme learning outcomes for knowledge to competencies. One obstacle to acceptance arises from a culture of quantitative assessment (often represented by a single mark), which is at odds with the concept of outcome assessment which is by essence subjective, qualitative and multidimensional. The method presented here is specifically concerned with learning activities where students need to demonstrate competency in learning outcomes of different natures. It describes a methodological framework that can be used in any programme that aims at developing multidimensional learners, but operates in a context where the final assessment product is a single quantitative grade. This method follows a classical approach to the evaluation of each learning outcome. It then proposes an innovative way of ranking students by categorising their overall performance based on conditions that reflect the integral nature of the learning process, to allow teaching staff to assign a range of marks for each student. Finally, a last step allows a quantitative ranking of students within each category, yielding a single quantitative mark for the course while remaining coherent with the learning goals.     

Native Mexican Parents’ Beliefs About Children’s Literacy and Language Development: A Mixed-Methods Study

Research Findings. This study examined Mexican caretaker roles, beliefs, and practices around their child’s language and literacy development. Twenty-six parents in three preschools representing three socioeconomic strata located in Querétaro City, México completed questionnaires and participated in focus groups. We used convergent parallel mixed methods to analyze and compare parent questionnaire quantitative data and qualitative focus group data with a grounded theory approach to identify focus group discussion themes. Four themes were emerged: (a) Goals and expectations regarding reading and socioemotional development, (b) Perceptions and beliefs about children’s oral and written language, (c) Caretaker’s perceived role in children’s language and literacy development, and (d) Home and community learning-related resources and practices. Findings highlighted that Mexican parents highly value supporting their children’s education both socioemotionally and through engagement in literacy routines—evidence of duality in the educacíón value among native Mexican families. These literacy routines were complementary and responsive to teacher classroom instruction. Practice or Policy. Understanding how Latino families instantiate literacy practices to respond to American schooling expectations may be a way to address home-school discontinuities that often reflect lack of familiarity with the U.S. educational system.