Curriculum Materials for Vocational Youth Organizations

Middle and Secondary teachers often find it difficult to help their students read textbooks and other instructional materials. In order to ensure they read the text, teachers may rely on “round robin reading” and other ineffective strategies. In this article, the authors explain why this strategy hinders comprehension, fluency and development of independent reading skills and provide alternative, research-based reading instructional strategies for adolescents.     

Ripples from a Passing Ship: Memories; and a legacy of Richard Peters

Abstract

This paper outlines aspects and dimensions of my ‘relationship’ with Richard Peters from 1966 onward. The underlying suggestion is that, while Peters’ contribution to philosophy of education was undeniably of major proportions, both that contribution and his legacy are institutional rather than substantive.     

Social justice and its renewals: A sociological comment

Education Action Zones (EAZs) were launched in the United Kingdom in 1998 as 'the standard bearers in a new crusade … to modernize education in areas of social deprivation, and hailed as a third way in education.' In the light of the authors ' ongoing evaluation of a single EAZ, the article examines the extent to which the ambitious claims made by government have been realised. It assesses the extent to which EAZs can be viewed as part of the British twentieth-century theme in education of tackling inequality. It demonstrates that EAZ policy was riddled with tensions and paradoxes arising out of the eccentric mix of neo-liberal, social democratic and Third Way approaches to addressing educational inequality. The article concludes that EAZs suffered from three types of error: concept, process and outcomes, and hence were a mission impossible. The authors argue that EAZs may, hopefully, be a lesson in making the vision of resolving education inequality possible.     

Illustrations of the analytic memo as reflexivity for preservice teachers

This study illustrates the use of analytic memos during the action research process as a space to support preservice teachers’ emerging teacher identity and construction of practice through critical reflexivity. The authors reviewed 34 sets of analytic memos written by graduate preservice teachers by asking, ‘How are preservice teachers using the space of the analytic memo during the action research process as critical reflexivity?’. Reflexivity is understood in this work as a method of self‐inquiry, and positions teacher identity as fluid and subject to multiple and often competing discourses. The outcome of this analysis demonstrates how emerging action research questions reflect emerging teacher identity; the power of dialogue within the memos to act as a ‘corrective moment’; and the elliptical nature of action research as preservice teachers confront contradictions and paradoxes in learning to teach. The authors suggest that the analytic memo can act as a vehicle of agency and transformation, a space where preservice teachers may practice reflexivity as they begin to critically construct their practice, create and re‐create their teacher identity, and confront assumptions about teaching and learning.     

Science Engagement and Literacy: A Retrospective Analysis for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Students in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia

Previous research has underlined the importance of school students’ engagement in science (including students’ attitudes, interests and self beliefs). Engagement in science is important as a correlate of scientific literacy and attainment, and as an educational outcome in its own right. Students positively engaged with science are more likely to pursue science related careers, and to support science related policies and initiatives. This retrospective, secondary analysis of PISA 2006 national data for Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia examines and compares the factors associated with science literacy and with science engagement for indigenous and non-indigenous 15 year old students. Using a four step hierarchical regression model, our secondary analyses showed consistent patterns of influence on engagement in science for both indigenous and non-indigenous students in Aotearoa and Australia. Variations in students’ interest, enjoyment, personal and general valuing, self-efficacy, and self concept in science were most strongly associated with the extent to which students engaged in science activities outside of school. In contrast, socioeconomic status, time spent on science lessons and study, and the character of science teaching experienced by students in their schools were the factors most explanatory of variations in science literacy. Yet, the factors that explained variation in science literacy had only quite weak associations with the suite of variables comprising engagement in science. We discuss the implications of these findings for science educators and researchers interested in enhancing students’ engagement with science, and committed to contributing positively to closing the persistent gap in educational outcomes between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.     

Lifelong education and the workplace: a critical analysis

This paper contains an analysis of policy formulations which underlie the work of the ‘Leeds Adult Learners at Work’ project (1991‐93). The overall aim of the project was to assess the contribution that broadly based Employee Development training schemes organized through the workplace can make towards achieving the internationally recognized goal of ‘lifelong learning’. The paper follows Ball (1990) in seeing policy as a contested arena in which different actors struggle to impose their views. This involves an analysis of competing discourses. However, the discourse interfaces with a socio‐economic system in which individual adults find their day‐today lives increasingly constrained. First, an analysis is made of the economic context of education and training policy in terms of the international division of labour, the apparently contradictory processes of deskilling and reskilling, and mass unemployment. A critical analysis follows of the rhetoric which identifies education and training as a panacea for economic crisis, extending into the field of adult education and training for employed people some of the insights gained by policy analysts in the school and further education arenas. It is argued that there are indeed a number of significant interventions in the field (e.g. by educational institutions, employers, trades unions, TECs) but that there is a distinct lack of overarching policy direction. It is concluded that there is a need to develop a policy discourse which locates paid work as an important arena in which lifelong learning can be developed, while recognizing the complex divisions of labour within society and the learning needs of people largely excluded from paid work.     

A Model for Assessing Higher Order Thinking in Statistics

ABSTRACT

As in other areas of the school curriculum, the teaching, learning and assessment of higher order thinking in statistics has become an issue for educators following the appearance of recent curriculum documents in many countries. These documents have included probability and statistics across all years of schooling and have stressed the importance of higher order thinking across all areas of the mathematics curriculum. This paper reports on a pilot project which applied the theoretical framework for cognitive development devised by Biggs and Collis to a higher order task in data handling in order to provide a model of student levels of response. The model will assist teachers, curriculum planners and other researchers interested in increasing levels of performance on more complex tasks. An interview protocol based on a set of 16 data cards was developed, trialed with Grade 6 and 9 students, and adapted for group work with two classes of Grade 6 students. The levels and types of cognitive functioning associated with the outcomes achieved by students completing the task in the two contexts will be discussed, as will the implications for classroom teaching and for further research.     

Managing Dualities in Planned Change Initiatives

Dualities play an important role in creating the conditions for change and managing planned change initiatives. Building on Seo, Putnam, and Bartunek's (2003) work, this study focuses on the dualities associated with managing change processes. A case study of a planned change process called the Circle of Prosperity Initiative, a multi-stakeholder dialogue designed to bring information technology to Indian country, was analyzed. Three dualities emerged regarding the structuring and management of the change initiative: (1) inclusion–exclusion, (2) preservation–change, and (3) centrality–parity. The findings suggested that these dualities were managed using Seo et al.'s (2003) strategy of connection. Notably, the strategy of connection relied heavily on the ability of change agents to set context within and between the different phases of the initiative and involved three specific practices for setting context setting: (1) commonplacing, (2) bounded mutuality, and (3) reflexive positioning.     

Exploring barriers for psychiatrists in discussing substance abuse with child and adolescent patients: a multiple goals approach

Patients suffering from psychiatric illnesses, however, are often at increased risk for substance use disorders; therefore, it is important for practitioners to have effective conversations about substance use with these patients. Child and adolescent psychiatrists (CAPs), in particular, are in a unique position to identify early substance use and affect the trajectory of adolescents who are at increased risk for substance abuse. To better understand such communication between psychiatrists and their patients, we conducted 21 in-depth interviews with CAPs to explore what barriers exist to prevent or dissuade CAPs from discussing substance abuse with their patients. We found barriers to effective communication at the micro, meso, and macro levels within the ecology of the field of psychiatry. A multiple goals perspective allowed us to determine how these barriers affect communication choices. Findings from the study highlight the significant communication challenges faced by psychiatrists in this context.     

Detection of selfish behavior in wireless <Emphasis Type="Italic">ad hoc</Emphasis> networks based on CUSUM algorithm

The cumulative sum （CUSUM） algorithm is proposed to detect the selfish behavior of a node in a wireless ad hoc network. By tracing the statistics characteristic of the backoff time between successful transmissions, a wireless node can distinguish if there is a selfish behavior in the wireless network. The detection efficiency is validated using a Qualnet simulator. An IEEE 802.11 wireless ad hoc network with 20 senders and 20 receivers spreading out randomly in a given area is evaluated. The well-behaved senders use minimum contention window size of 32 and maximum con- tention window size of I 024, and the selfish nodes are assumed not to use the binary exponential strategy for which the contention window sizes are both fixed as 16. The transmission radius of all nodes is 250 m. Two scenarios are investigated： a single-hop network with nodes spreading out in 100 m~100 m, and all the nodes are in the range of each other; and a multi-hop network with nodes spreading out in 1 000 m~ 1 000 m. The node can monitor the backoff time from all the other nodes and run the detection algorithms over those samples. It is noted that the threshold can significantly affect the detection time and the detection accuracy. For a given threshold of 0.3 s, the false alarm rates and the missed alarm rates are less than 5%. The detection delay is less than 1.0 s. The simulation results show that the algorithm has short detection time and high detection accuracy.