Heterogeneity in children at risk of math learning difficulties

This study recruited 428 Singaporean children at risk of math learning difficulties (MLD; M_age = 83.9 months, SD_age = 4.35 months; 41% female). Using a factor mixture model that considered both quantitative and qualitative differences in math ability, two qualitatively different groups were identified: one with generalized difficulties across different math skills and the other with more focal difficulties in arithmetic fluency. Reading, working memory capacity, and numeracy (number line estimation skills and numerical discrimination) uniquely explained group membership. Children within each group differed in the extent of difficulties they exhibited, with numeracy variables differentially contributing to math ability in each group. Findings speak against a dimensional view of MLD and underscore the conceptual limitations of using basic numeracy performance to profile learning difficulties.     

Evaluation of Short-Term Impact of a High School Summer Science Program on Students' Perceived Knowledge and Skills

Summer science programs held in university research facilities provide ideal opportunities for pre-college students to master new skills and renew, refresh, and enrich their interest in science. These types of programs have a positive impact on a student's understanding of the nature of science and scientific inquiry and can open a youngster's eyes to the many possible career opportunities in science. This paper describes a study of high school students enrolled in the Summer Science Academy program at the University of Rochester that investigates the program's impact on students' knowledge of laboratory skills, as well as the impact on student interest in pursuing a career in science. Students' exposure to advanced laboratory techniques and their interaction with professional scientists provided them with a very positive hands-on experience. Students who attended the program felt more confident in their ability to use sophisticated laboratory skills and that the Summer Science Academy program provided a positive influence on their performance in advanced science courses, as well as their desire to pursue a career in science.     

The role of gratitude in enhancing the relationship between doctoral research students and their supervisors

While increasing attention is being placed on the crucial importance of a positive supervisor–student relationship, few studies have investigated how to enhance this. Our paper investigates the effect of gratitude practices, proposing it brings both focus and intentionality to the student–supervisor relationship resulting in better research outcomes and, by implication, a positive impact on attrition rates. Recent research has demonstrated that increased attention to gratitude can enhance relational well-being, but only a few studies investigate the role of gratitude in the higher education context. This qualitative case study explores the impact of gratitude as an intervention, following eight Ph.D. students and their two supervisors, in the schools of physical sciences, and medicine over a six-week period of focused attention on practices of gratitude. Findings revealed that all participants noted a positive impact in the areas of communication, social and emotional well-being, as well as on the research process itself.     

Building civic capacity for a new century: Engaging young people in civic institutions and civil society

In a democratic society, citizens will be confronted with decision-making options that require them to be discerning about the changes that are proposed, to evaluate alternative courses of action, to develop strategies that will advance their cause and to take appropriate action. These processes are the basis for developing civic capacity. This paper explores drivers of civic capacity, including civic virtues and civic values, in order to see how civic capacity can best be developed in the nations of the Asia-Pacific region. Of particular interest is whether ”Asian values” are necessarily at odds with the underlying values of liberal democracy. Civic capacity is needed at a time of great change throughout the region, because change, and possibly even turbulence, will in all likelihood characterize the region in the future. Our future will depend on creating a civic capacity that will enable active and informed citizens to exercise agency over their social, political and economic lives. Editor’s note Address presented at the First International Conference of the Institute for Asian-Pacific Educational Development,Reflections and Explorations for Educational Development in the 21st Century: The Search for Asian Identities and Perspectives,Seoul National University, 9–10 November 2000.     

Critical thinking and the Spock Fallacy

Conventional instruction in critical thinking technique tends to conflate logical thinking with rational or good thinking. But in doing so, it ignores the creative and intuitive functions of rationality, thereby encouraging a mechanically rote approach to textual analysis, problem solving and problem construction. This overemphasis upon straightforwardly logical calculus of justification functions, and its concomitant deemphasis of intuitive pattern of discovery ones, constitute the Spock Fallacy. Its epistemological weakness and pedagogical hazards are explored.The author of two books and numerous articles, one of his specialties is philosophy of education and critical thinking.     

A tentative return to experience in researching learning at work

This paper explores possibilities for more democratic approaches to researching learning in and through everyday workplace practices. This links with a concern with who is able to speak in representations of learning at work, what is able to be spoken about and how knowing, learning and experience are inscribed in theories of workplace learning. I propose that Rancière’s notion of ‘the distribution of the sensible’, which draws attention to an aesthetic dimension of experience, knowledge and politics, provides a useful way of exploring learning in and through everyday workplace practices. The approach points to the possibility of knowledge without hierarchies and a shift from a knowledge – ignorance binary. An understanding of experience as aesthetic enables accounts of learning which counter the story of destiny in literature on learning in and through everyday practice. It also points to a very different way of doing academic research. The presupposition of equality is the point of departure in this approach and the purpose of research is the verification of equality (rather than the verification of oppression). The paper makes a significant contribution to literature on learning in and through everyday workplace practices by disrupting a prevailing view that knowledge is necessarily tied to identity.     

Outsourcing academic development in higher education: staff perceptions of an international program

Increasingly, higher education support services are being outsourced. Our case study was of a program from a global, USA-based, non-profit organisation. From in-depth interviews, we investigated staff perceptions of academic development workshops and the efficacy of outsourcing to a transnational tertiary-support program. We found that interviewees valued the academic development. They believed greater consideration should be given to cultural differences between exporting and importing countries; to evidence-based assessment of, and institutional leadership support for, the program; and to discipline-based and tertiary-level skills. Our preliminary findings may inform university management about improved approaches to outsourcing academic development to international commercial providers.     

Spelling Mastery and Spelling through Morphographs: Direct Instruction programs for beginning and low-progress spellers

There has been concern about student literacy expressed in the community in recent years, following the results of national and international assessment. In spelling, there are insufficient hard data, but the perception is that our students are not receiving the exemplary spelling education they require. A number of possible reasons have been canvassed, including suboptimal teacher literacy and literacy knowledge, the inadequacy of teacher education, and a lack of attention to spelling instruction in the classroom. There is increasing evidence about the components of instruction that best aid students to become skilled spellers, though fewer well-designed evaluation studies to help consumers choose which programs are optimal. The three components that have received much research attention are: the phonemic, whole word, and morphological techniques. Spelling Mastery and Spelling through Morphographs are two programs that specifically emphasise these components and hence are worthy of investigation.