Leveraging conflict to achieve advances in civil rights: community leadership — an unfinished work for educators

The purpose of this research was to identify community leadership praxis of an activist for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender civil rights in community housing, employment and public accommodations. The qualitative single-case study included data from city council meetings, interviews with Tony Stewart, the community leader/activist, other leaders, documents, archival records and newspaper articles. Community leadership praxis involved: (1) framing the issue by understanding the opposition’s viewpoint to leverage conflict for civil rights and social change, (2) building social capital and assessment of organized resistance, which resulted in capacity to counter the argument and (3) mobilizing through actions that addressed resistance and engaged resources to advance civil rights. Contributions to community leadership theory and implications for educators are discussed.     

Developing Effective Transition Reports for Secondary Students: A Nationwide Survey of College and University Disability Support Personnel

This exploratory study analyzes the perceptions of Disability Support Services (DSS) personnel regarding the transition process and documentation requirements to receive services for students with invisible disabilities in postsecondary settings. Invisible disabilities include attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, and traumatic brain injury. DSS personnel from 408 postsecondary institutions across the United States completed the researcher-generated survey online. Results indicated a lack of consistent collaboration with secondary institutions and use of transition plans to determine eligibility for disability services. Participants reported a lackluster view of their usefulness, and analyses of their free responses revealed specific themes for what DSS personnel reported would make transition reports more useful. Results regarding currency requirements, qualified conductors of, responsible parties for, and location of assessments are presented. Applications of the findings of this research are discussed for the preparation of effective transition reports and transition goals.     

Embedding engaged learning in high enrollmentlecture-based classes

Engaged learning opportunities have become powerful foundations upon which students build lifelong skills and organizational capacities. Research has empirically validated the long-term positive learning impacts of active and experiential learning opportunities for students. As such, institutional administrators and external stakeholders have encouraged and, in some cases, required that faculty use engaged teaching methods. At the same time, difficult economic circumstances continue to batter higher education, with class sizes increasing to improve efficiencies and reduce instructional costs. The confluence of those two trends has resulted in calls to integrate engaged learning opportunities in large higher education classes, engendering special challenges for educators. It is within this particular gap—practical guidance for transforming passive course designs to active ones—that our article contributes to the international higher education literature. We share our experiences implementing engaged learning practices into large university classes over a 4-year period, guided by an experiential learning theoretical framework. By analyzing text from our individual teaching journals and collaborative post-mortems, we are able to introduce an integrative model highlighting important contextual and logistical issues that must be considered: pre-class planning, in-class facilitation, assessments and feedback, training and renorming student expectations, and institutional context. We end the article with caveats and ethical considerations when introducing engaged learning into large classes.     

Listening to teachers: teacher and student roles in the New South Wales Sustainable Schools Programme

This paper reports on an interview study of eight teachers engaged in the Sustainable Schools Programme (SSP) in New South Wales, Australia. Teacher views on key components of education for sustainability are compared with the underlying socially critical approach of the SSP and the NSW policy on environmental education. Their views on active student engagement in the SSP are also revealed. The findings, which indicate that some teachers hold a view of education for sustainability consistent with key assumptions inherent in the SSP, are encouraging. However, remarks by most of the teachers suggest that wider professional support is needed if the SSP, and indeed the NSW policy on environmental education more broadly, are to be implemented as intended.     

Young children's partitioning strategies

Taxonomies for classifying children's partitioning strategies have generally focused on the contexts in which the strategies occur and whether the strategies generate fair shares. Therefore, the overall aim of this study was to increase our knowledge about young children's partitioning strategies by setting out not only to identify new partitioning strategies but also to develop a taxonomy for classifying young children's partitioning strategies in terms of their ability to facilitate the abstraction of the partitive quotient fraction construct from the concrete activity of partitioning objects and/or sets of objects. Clinical interviews were conducted with twelve purposely-selected Year Three students. Each student was presented with a unique set of realistic partitioning tasks. The paper concludes with a taxonomy for: (i) qualitatively evaluating a child's progress towards the abstraction of the partitive quotient fraction construct, and (ii) planning and implementing teaching interventions commensurate with the child's level of progress towards the abstraction of the partitive quotient fraction construct. This taxonomy provides researchers and teachers with means of better utilising children's informal partitioning strategies as the foundation upon which to further develop their understandings of the partitive quotient fraction construct. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

When the going gets tough: Direct,buffering and indirect effects of social support on turnover intention

We examined the role of social support in turnover intention among new teachers. First, we tested and found evidence for a direct negative relationship between social support and turnover intention. Second, we tested the social support buffer hypothesis, and found that teachers with higher social support had lower turnover intention in the face of higher workload, compared to teachers with lower support. Third, we examined a mediational hypothesis, and found that social support acts indirectly, through job satisfaction in relation to turnover intention. These findings suggest that social support can be a valuable resource for new teachers.     

“Relocating the Personal” to engender critically reflective practice in pre-service literacy teachers

This case study mapped candidates' responses to a pre-service literacy course designed to relocate teacher candidates' literacy histories and beliefs from a personal to political frame with the intent of promoting critical reflection and complex understandings of literacy, teaching, and learning. As part of a broader qualitative case study including 71 participants over 8 months, this paper focuses on data gathered from 7 candidates. Through a modified constant comparative method, the analysis confirmed the effectiveness of certain conditions created in the course while pointing to a need for further attention to issues of power and the unconscious in learning to teach literacy.     

Using a Planetarium Software Program to Promote Conceptual Change with Young Children

This study explored young children’s understandings of targeted lunar concepts, including when the moon can be observed, observable lunar phase shapes, predictable lunar patterns, and the cause of lunar phases. Twenty-one children (ages 7–9 years) from a multi-aged, self-contained classroom participated in this study. The instructional intervention included lunar data gathering, recording, and sharing, which integrated Starry Night planetarium software and an inquiry-based instruction on moon phases. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews, student drawings, and a card sorting activity before and after instruction. Students’ lunar calendars and written responses, participant observer field notes, and videotaped class sessions also provided data throughout the study. Data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis. Nonparametric statistical analyses were also performed to support the qualitative findings. Results reflected a positive change in children’s conceptual understanding of all targeted concepts including the cause of moon phases, which is remarkable considering the complexity and abstractness of this spatial task. Results provided evidence that computer simulations may reduce the burden on children’s cognitive capacity and facilitate their learning of complex scientific concepts that would not be possible to learn on their own.