Did the Recession Impact Student Success? Relationships of Finances,Staffing and Institutional Type on Retention

Economic recessions impact higher education institutions in complex ways. Several analyses have examined the influence of the 2007–2009 recession on tuition, enrollments, revenues, and expenditures, but the connection of these resource allocation patterns to a student success outcome—namely, retention—is limited. This study examined relationships among institutional expenditures, tuition, and staffing patterns on first-year retention rates at private and public institutions in 2007, 2009 and 2011: before, during, and after the economic recession. Private and public institutions increased tuition during this time period and increased expenditures. Expenditures most directly educating students (i.e. instruction) and institutional selectivity were positively associated with retention. However, public and private institutions differed in how they allocated their expenditures. That the findings correspond with past research investigating relationships between resource allocation and retention illustrate principles of the resource dependency theory (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978): institutions impacted by external economic changes, adjust revenues, staffing, and expenditures during economic changes.     

Learner-generated drawing as a strategy for learning from content area text

Learner-generated drawing is a strategy that can improve learning from expository text. In this paper, a model of drawing construction is proposed and the experimental design tests hypotheses derived from this model. Fourth and sixth grade participants used drawing under three experimental conditions with two conditions including varying degrees of support. On a problem solving posttest, both supported drawing groups scored higher than the non-drawing Control group. Although the grade by condition interaction was not significant, there was a strong trend in this direction. When sixth grade participants were considered independently, participants in the most supported drawing condition also obtained higher problem solving scores than those who drew without support. There were no significant condition effects for fourth grade nor were there any significant effects on a multiple-choice recognition posttest. Results were consistent with hypotheses and are discussed in light of the proposed theoretical framework.     

Useful metaphors for tackling problems in teaching and learning

Textbooks and lectures are typically structured around the belief that students learn the same way they would climb a ladder: straight up, one step at a time. Marc Schwartz and Kurt Fischer propose a pyramid and webs of pyramids as far more appropriate and useful metaphors.     

Supporting Online AP Students: The Rural Facilitator and Considerations for Training

Online courses supplemented by on-site facilitators help many rural students pursue advanced coursework, but research is warranted to better understand facilitator role and training needs. This study examined facilitation experiences, demographic characteristics, and professional development activities of rural on-site facilitators associated with an online Advanced Placement (AP) program. Themes in qualitative data collected aligned with challenges related to facilitator role that have been documented in existing literature. One theme included facilitator engagement in direct AP instruction despite the facilitator role not requiring that responsibility. Self-reported facilitator demographic characteristics and professional development activities were then compared with those of on-site AP teachers in the same state. Results showed that facilitators demographically resembled teachers but lacked similar engagement with AP professional development. The role of facilitator excludes direct instruction, but specialized professional development like that for AP may match the needs and interests of these facilitators.     

Visual and auditory priming influences the production of low-frequency spellings

Three experiments investigated whether production of low-frequency spellings could be influenced by other words containing those spellings. Participants saw visually-presented primes (Experiment 1) or heard primes presented auditorily and produced their spelling (Experiments 2 and 3). Primes either shared both orthography and phonology (e.g., chapl ai n) or only orthography (e.g., ord ai n) with the target word (e.g., porcel ai n). Following the primes, participants attempted to produce the correct spellings of auditorily-presented target words containing low-frequency spellings, such as the ai in porcelain. Participants correctly spelled the targets’ low-frequency spelling more often when preceded by either type of prime, relative to unprimed targets. Furthermore, priming only occurred when the prime’s spelling was produced correctly; primes spelled incorrectly reduced the correct production of target spellings. These results suggest that unlike the priming of nonwords, the basis of lexical priming of real words is orthographic, resulting from the priming of specific graphemes that increases the probability of reactivating the same spelling pattern in the target.

Enhancing self-efficacy for computer technologies through the use of positive classroom experiences

The effects of experience on attitudes toward computers and judgments of confidence, or self-efficacy, for specific computer technologies were investigated. Thirty-two students in a computer applications in physical education course participated in the study. The Computer Technologies Survey was used as a pretest and posttest measure to assess students' attitudes toward computers and perceived self-efficacy for electronic mail (e-mail) and word processing. Treatment conditions required the students to communicate with the instructor via e-mail, a word-processed note, or handwritten note. These conditions manipulated experience with e-mail and word processing while keeping instructor-student interaction constant. Students' judgments of computer capability significantly increased from pretest to posttest across all treatments. A direct relationship between time-on-task and levels of confidence was not found which suggests that quality rather than quantity of computer experience may be most critical.     

The DisHuman child

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we consider the relationship between the human and disability; with specific focus on the lives of disabled children and young people. We begin with an analysis of the close relationship between ‘the disabled’ and ‘the freak’. We demonstrate that the historical markings of disability as object of curiosity and register of fear serve to render disabled children as non-human and monstrous. We then consider how the human has been constituted, particularly in the periods of modernity and the rise of capitalism, reliant upon the naming of disability as antithetical to all that counts as human. In order to find a place for disabled children in a social and cultural context that has historically denied their humanity and cast them as monstrous others, we develop the theoretical notion of the DisHuman: a bifurcated complex that allows us recognise their humanity whilst also celebrating the ways in which disabled children reframe what it means to be human. We suggest that the lives of disabled children and young people demand us to think in ways that affirm the inherent humanness in their lives but also allow us to consider their disruptive potential: this is our DisHuman child. We draw on our research projects to explore three sites where the DisHuman child emerges in moments where sameness and difference, monstrosity/disability and humanity are invoked simultaneously. We explore three locations – (i) DisDevelopment; (ii) DisFamily and (iii) DisSexuality – illuminating the ways in which the DisHuman child seeks nuanced, politicized and complicating forms of humanity.     

An Integrative Review of Parenting Stress in Mothers of Children with Autism in Japan

Abstract

Parents of children with autism experience elevated stress that may be influenced by specific characteristics of the child and parent, including cultural norms and beliefs about parenting. However, there is little research on families of children with autism from cultural perspectives. The purpose of this integrative review is to identify factors influencing parenting stress in mothers of children with autism in Japan. A final sample of 15 primary research articles (2000–2015) on parenting stress in mothers of Japanese children with autism was selected using several databases. The findings suggested that these mothers experience much greater parenting stress than mothers of typically developing children and children with other disabilities. Japanese mothers also demonstrate stress related to attachment difficulties, low parenting efficacy and lack of support, reflecting Japanese parenting styles and gender ideology. Parent-directed and culturally calibrated interventions are needed to support parents of children with autism, especially cultural minority parents.     

Foreign language learning using e-mail in a task-oriented perspective: Interuniversity experiments in communication and collaboration

From 1988 to 1990 several collaborative cross-country intermediate French classes at Harvard and Stanford became one class. Students combined their efforts and insights in the accomplishment of a semester-long task, in most cases the publication of a student newspaper or magazine, using the electronic mail (e-mail) network to contact each other, elaborate their plans, and bring their projects to successful conclusion. Additional experiments of a similar nature took place between Harvard and the University of Pittsburgh (in the spring of 1990) and between Stanford and the University of Pittsburgh during 1991–1993. This paper suggests that this type of task-oriented learning through distance-communication is applicable at many different course levels and has considerable merit as an approach to teaching and learning. The key phases of this task-based model are presented along with technological information regarding computers and networks, as a guide to colleagues interested in pursuing similar lines of experimental teaching. Also included are samples of student messages, with their varied and often highly colorful discourse features, which attest to the motivation of students and reveal the strong personal investment made by the participants as they join hands across the miles in a productive, communication-based enterprise. The language and learning styles generated by technology and computers fully deserve closer investigation by researchers and teaching practitioners alike. The authors summarize the experiments, discuss assessment, and present research issues, concluding that good pedagogy and quality technology must share a vision of what can be accomplished in this rapidly evolving educational work place.The original collaborative project, on which this article is based, was undertaken at the suggestion of Professor Ralph M. Hester, Chair of the Department of French and Italian, Stanford University, and was funded by the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning. The authors would also like to thank Francçoise Herrmann, Garth McCavana, and Louise Wills for their assistance.     

Instructional Activities and the Quality of Language in Chilean Preschool Classrooms

Research Findings: This study examines the association between preschool classroom activity and the quality of the language spoken by teachers and children. Eighteen classrooms serving low-income children between the ages of 3 and 4 in Santiago de Chile were audio-recorded during one morning shift. Recordings were transcribed and segmented into activities (greeting, learning experience, book sharing, book discussion, breakfast, lunch, free play and other noninstructional time). A total of 113 activity segments were identified. Characteristics of teacher and child language were measured in each segment. Differences between the eight activities were examined using analysis of variance. Activities were classified as instructional or noninstructional, and the association between this dimension and language characteristics was examined using multilevel path analysis. Results show that most of the variance in language outcomes occurs within classrooms. Analyses show that a significant portion of the variance in the way teachers and children talk is explained by the instructional/noninstructional dimension. Instructional activities are characterized by more language stimulation, more teaching, fewer directives, and more child talk than noninstructional activities. Practice or Policy Implications: We discuss implications for teacher professional development and early childhood education improvement in general and for Latin-America specifically.