The Effectiveness of Direct-Instruction and Student-Centered Teaching Methods on Students' Functional Understanding of Plagiarism

ABSTRACT

To improve students' functional understanding of plagiarism, a variety of approaches was tried within a comprehensive information literacy program. Sessions were taught as a “module” inside a required communications skills class at a private university. Approaches taken included control, direct-instruction, and student-centered sessions. Students were taught content and definitions regarding plagiarism, what circumstances or instances constitute plagiarism, where to go for help in avoiding plagiarism, and what constitutes appropriate paraphrasing. Pretest and posttest scores indicated that no approach performed significantly better than the others; however, even though students improved across all methods, they nonetheless showed the need for more hands-on practice.     

Extending Validity Evidence for Multidimensional Measures of Coaching Competency

This study extended validity evidence for multidimensional measures of coaching competency derived from the Coaching Competency Scale (CCS; Myers, Feltz, Maier, Wolfe, & Reckase, 2006) by examining use of the original rating scale structure and testing how measures related to satisfaction with the head coach within teams and between teams. Motivation, game strategy, technique, and character building comprised the dimensions of coaching competency. Data were collected from athletes (N = 585) nested within intercollegiate men's (g = 8) and women's (g = 13) soccer and women's ice hockey (g = 11) teams (G = 32). Validity concerns were observed for the original rating scale structure and the predicted positive relationship between motivation competency and satisfaction with the coach between teams. Validity evidence was offered for a condensed post hoc rating scale and the predicted relationship between motivation competency and satisfaction with the coach within teams.     

Discipline and rules in four Hong Kong kindergarten classrooms: a qualitative case study

Classroom discipline is a topic of international interest and teachers are bombarded with advice regarding how to and why they should manage children’s behaviour in their classrooms. This paper draws on data related to classroom discipline gathered from a detailed classroom observation schedule, teacher interviews, and field notes with four purposively selected kindergarten teachers working in Hong Kong with children aged 5–6 years. The findings of this qualitative case study show that the teachers were concerned about disciplining children to ensure good behaviour. They expected all children to follow the rules and used characteristic discipline strategies such as stating expectations and ‘praising the opposite’ to maintain good behaviour. The paper discusses these findings in light of the Westernisation of kindergarten teaching practices in Hong Kong.     

Uncomfortable curricula? A survey of academic practices and attitudes to delivering Indigenous content in health professional degrees

Unacceptable inequity in health status between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remains despite much work in the area. The imperative for graduating health professionals capable and ready to work with urban and rural Indigenous communities has led to a focus on curriculum development, but less focus has thus far been applied to academic staff capability to deliver the content. We surveyed academic staff at a large multi-campus Australian university on their practices and attitudes towards teaching Indigenous content in health professional programs. Indigenous and non-Indigenous academic staff were surveyed online about whether Indigenous content was included in the curricula they taught; whether they felt confident and capable of delivering curricula related to Indigenous issues; what challenges they found in including Indigenous content; and what, if any, supports and resources they felt were needed. Sixty-three per cent of respondents said that they included Indigenous content in their curricula, but 43% said that they did not access Indigenous resources; 60% reported feeling awkward, unsure or avoided teaching Indigenous content; most (74%) were comfortable teaching discipline-specific content to Indigenous students but only 26% felt comfortable teaching Indigenous content to Indigenous students. The findings reflect a level of discomfort experienced by some academic staff when teaching Indigenous content in health professional degrees. Reasons for this include being worried they would make mistakes, not knowing what to teach and finding it ‘too hard’. We suggest that three levels of action are required within universities to address this discomfort in academic staff: (i) provide a rationale (‘why’ teach Indigenous content); (ii) develop a plan (‘where’ and ‘what’ Indigenous content to teach) and (iii) develop capability in academic staff regarding ‘how’ to teach Indigenous content.     

Inclusive education in the Netherlands: how funding arrangements and demographic trends relate to dropout and participation rates

There is a global trend towards including children with special needs in mainstream schools instead of placing them in special schools. However, the numbers of students in special schools varies greatly among regions due to variations in educational systems, funding arrangements – and the incentives that are associated with these arrangements – and demographic trends. In the Netherlands, a new policy aimed at inclusive education was introduced in 2014, together with financial measures to equalise funding for students with special needs across the country. The present study explored the effects of this equalisation policy, as well as the demographic trend of population decline, on dropout rates and participation rates in special education (namely, special schools for mainstream education and schools for special education). The data were retrieved from nation-wide registration systems. The results showed that population decline did not affect participation rates in special education, whereas decreases in funding did result in greater declines in participation rates in special education. Moreover, decreases in funding also resulted in higher dropout rates in areas with growing student populations. Although the reform of funding arrangements resulted in lower participation in special education, higher dropout rates might be a cost of this shift towards inclusive education.     

On rhizomes,lines of flight,mangles, and other assemblages

This article describes the discourses working‐class students at a university in Britain have about learning. The discourses include ideas about who is a good student, education as an investment, and marking. Students incorporate, in part, both neo‐liberal and neo‐conservative economic and political views into their perceptions of who should succeed or fail in higher education, but these notions sit contradictorily alongside their more social democratic principles of social justice.     

Shameful interest in educational research

ABSTRACT

This article considers ontological conceptualizations of shame-interest as experienced in educational research. Shame has frequently been reported in research as a property of the autonomous individual: the shame of the participant to share with the researcher, and the shame of the researcher to reflexively eliminate. Shame-interest is re-theorized here as a generative research event, as intra-action, as one simultaneous movement in the ongoing present. We attempt an ethical shift from a reflexive stance to fluxing movements of response-ability and co-consequence in order to encourage socially responsive educational research, informed through the conceptual resources of psychologist Silvan Tomkins, and feminist philosopher and physicist Karen Barad. Theory is threaded through a series of personal research vignettes to illustrate our thinking through ways shame-interest materialized within research events. Shame is re/conceptualized as a contestable composite feeling entangled with interest that allows an alternate non-reductive and ethical approach to educational research. We amplify our researcher responsibility, and our shame, by placing ourselves as entangled with the research ‘problem’ under investigation.