Situated assessment: Limitations and promise

We present some key findings of a four-year, two-phase writing assessment project at Central Michigan University: Phase One (2002), a survey of faculty members (n = 115) and subsequent focus groups (n = 14) and Phase Two (2005), an evaluation of two samples of student writing (n = 635 and 632). Major findings of Phase One reported here include the amounts and types of writing assigned by faculty members and their perceptions about the quality of their students’ writing. Phase Two revealed some surprising results about our students’ critical reading and writing abilities, confirmed the limitations of a timed-writing assessment methodology, and exposed an intriguing artifact of the data set. We reflect on the process of developing and conducting the assessment project, examine its strengths and weaknesses, and share our thoughts about the next phase of our assessment odyssey.     

Motivators and Inhibitors for University Faculty in Distance and e-learning

This article reports on four United States studies of how rewards systems, extrinsic and intrinsic, could play an important role in providing incentives for university faculty to teach (or remain teaching) electronic and distance education courses. The first three studies conducted prior to 2003 reported faculty were inherently motivated to teach e-learning and distance education. The fourth study in 2003 reported key findings that differed from the earlier studies. Using a principal components analysis, the researchers found nine indicators of motivation to participate or not participate in electronic or distance education. The implications from the fourth study indicated that, while faculty members were inherently committed to helping students, faculty members wanted their basic physiological needs met by university administration through extrinsic motivators, such as salary increases and course releases.     

Social and Environmental Factors Associated With Preschoolers' Nonsedentary Physical Activity

The twofold purposes of the investigation were (a) to describe with direct observation data the physical activity behaviors and the accompanying social and environmental events of those behaviors for children in preschools and (b) to determine which contextual conditions were predictors of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and nonsedentary physical activity (i.e., light activity + MVPA) for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children during their outdoor play. The results indicate that preschoolers' physical activity is characterized as sedentary in nature throughout their preschool day (i.e., 89% sedentary, 8% light activity, and 3% MVPA). During outdoor play periods, when children are most likely to be physically active, some contextual and social circumstances better predict their physical activity. Implications for policy makers, practitioners, and researchers are discussed.     

Conceptions of mathematics and how it is learned: The perspectives of students entering university

This paper reports results from an investigation to identify the conceptions of mathematics held by beginning university students and their approaches to the study of mathematics. Phenomenographic techniques were used to analyze responses to a questionnaire administered to approximately 300 students. An analysis of the results identified a structural relationship between students' conceptions of mathematics and their approaches to learning it, with the majority of students viewing mathematics as a necessary set of rules and procedures to be learned by rote. The results of this research have implications for the ways in which teaching and learning are constituted within universities.     

Language and Mathematical Performance: a Comparison of Lower Secondary School Students with Different Level of Mathematical Skills

This study investigated the connection between language (i.e., word comprehension, reading comprehension and spelling skills) and mathematical performance. The sample consisted of grade nine students (N?=?810) in 14 lower secondary schools in the Swedish speaking areas of Finland. Standardized tests for reading and writing skills, and mathematical performance were used. Based on the mathematics test the students were categorized into eight performance groups. Many students had problems in both mathematics and language performance. On the whole data level reading skills were a powerful predictor for math performance, the reading factor explained 52% of the variance in the model. Hence, the reading skills focusing on understanding of the text are important in solving mathematical tasks at the end of compulsory school.     

A Mere Footnote? An American Dilemma and Supreme Court School Desegregation Jurisprudence

This article provides historical and legal context for recent U.S. Supreme Court school desegregation decisions. The Supreme Court's race-based and race-neutral arguments from Brown (1954) to Parents Involved (2007) are examined within their broader context. Policy implications and potential support for diversity goal arguments given the Obama administration's appointments of Sonia Sotomayor and Elana Kagan as the 111th and 112th Supreme Court Justices are considered in light of enduring issues and guiding ideals delineated over half a century ago in Gunnar Myrdal's landmark study of race in the United States, An American Dilemma.     

Transforming causal logics in Finnish adult education: historical and moral transitions rewritten

The aim of this paper is to explore the historical representations of adulthood, citizenship and the ideal social bonds of an individual and the society in the transforming moral orders of Finnish adult education. The research is based on a thematic reading of data, which consist of texts written during the past 150 years by theorists of adult education. In regard to the outcome of the analysis, it can be claimed that the definitions and relations, which define adult education / lifelong learning, adult individuals, citizenship and the society, are in perpetual motion transforming from spiritual determination to material determination and back. As a conclusion, we claim that adult education / lifelong learning is a morally regulated field of study, where morality is adapted to any social changes at any given time, marginalising social groups on moral grounds; from lack of spiritual aspirations to lack of employability skills and with a wrong attitude towards the ideals of neo-liberal economics in present-day society. The main result of our analysis is to address the importance of understanding the main logics of historical change in adult education.     

Relational Uncertainty as a Consequence of Partner Jealousy Expressions

The present study examines how the relational-uncertainty levels of individuals whose partners are jealous (i.e., “jealousy targets”) are predicted by how partners express jealousy. Students and community members completed a questionnaire where they recalled an instance when they were the recipients of their romantic partners' expression of jealousy. In general, jealousy-target relational uncertainty was positively predicted by a majority of negative and general behavioral partner jealousy expressions. However, positive partner jealousy expressions were not generally associated with jealousy-target relational uncertainty. Implications for the theoretical understanding of relational uncertainty and consequences of partner jealousy expression are discussed.