Nudging museums attendance: a field experiment with high school teens

This paper reports results from a field experiment conducted to study the effect of incentives offered to high school teens to motivate them to visit art museums. A vast literature exists on the design of incentives to modify the behavior of firms and consumers, but not much is known about incentives offered to adolescents and young adults to affect their cultural consumption behavior. Students in the first treatment receive a flier with basic information and opening hours of a main museum in Florence, Italy—Palazzo Vecchio. Students in the second treatment receive the flier and a short presentation conducted by an art expert about the exhibit; students in the third treatment, in addition to the flier and the presentation, receive also a non-financial reward in the form of extra-credit points toward their school grade. The analysis yields two main findings. First, non-financial reward is more effective at inducing the students to undertake the encouraged visit than either the simple presentation or the basic information with the flier. Second, over a longer time horizon the non-financial reward does not induce a significant change in behavior with respect to the simple presentation.     

Educating for an Inclusive World: Lessons Learned From A Globally Networked Human Rights and Disability Course for Social Work and Law Students

This article examines an innovative model of online international education regarding disability through a human rights perspective piloted through a collaboration between Universidad LaSalle, Mexico, and University at Buffalo, United States. The course is organized around a pressing global human rights and development issue. Its objective is to promote effective practice with persons with disabilities through cross-national, cross-disciplinary, human-rights based education; strengthen students’ sense of global engagement; and foster cross-cultural expertise and competence with diversity. The implications for effective professional education in law and social work are discussed. The article also examines pedagogical strategies and presents case study materials, identifies key disability rights themes common to both nations and cultures, and explores how distance learning technology is implemented in the course. A preliminary assessment of this newly piloted approach is also presented, based on data from students, as well as the implications for teaching and practice.     

Becoming a tutor: student scaffolding in a game-based classroom

Student interaction in school contexts is a topic that has been researched from many different perspectives. However, the role of students as tutors scaffolding other peers is not normally addressed, since studies are usually focused on the teacher. Moreover, considering the many technologies that can support students’ work nowadays, studies describing specific practices are still needed in order to understand the many possibilities and constraints that can emerge from the use of these tools in the field of education. This exploratory case study aims to extend research on scaffolding between students, presenting data from an ethnographic study where a commercial video game was introduced as part of the curricular activities. Analytically, the scaffolding metaphor is the departing point to describe in detail how the scaffolding process took place, focusing on its purposes and on the role of students as tutors. Our findings reveal how students offered mostly procedural scaffoldings, performing tutor functions such as highlighting relevant features, reducing levels of freedom or controlling the frustration. Results highlight that students can perform scaffolds, and this should be considered as part of the classroom design, making this process visible. Moreover, specific features of the video game enhanced these interactions, which should also be considered when designing game learning environments in the future.     

Evaluating the reflexive practices in a learning experience

Reflexivity is a primary requirement for professional work. Our aim was to describe a methodology suitable for detecting the development of reflexive practice through the analysis of 59 Master’s degree students’ journals. We explore the use and changes of reflexive practice in relation to the settings and activities of the course using analysis of the mental language: We analyse how the reflexive practice is characterized, how it evolves through time and how it can be promoted. Data analysis shows that reflexivity is not monodimensional but multidimensional. Reflexive practice increases during the course: The different dimensions vary over time according to different organizational and educational conditions. This methodology allows us to formulate new hypotheses about which elements of the setting and process are effective in supporting participants’ reflexive practice.     

Further developing the library curriculum: skills for life delivery

This feature discusses how the library curriculum was developed at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust Library Service to aid the delivery of Skills for Life. In particular, the feature describes how, through collaboration with learndirect, literacy and numeracy skills were embedded into the broader library and information skills training programme. The article reports on how the programme resulted in the provision of qualifications and skills development opportunities to NHS staff, and an increase in the NHS library profile.     

Designing Reading Comprehension Assessments for Reading Interventions: How a Theoretically Motivated Assessment Can Serve as an Outcome Measure

When designing a reading intervention, researchers and educators face a number of challenges related to the focus, intensity, and duration of the intervention. In this paper, we argue there is another fundamental challenge—the nature of the reading outcome measures used to evaluate the intervention. Many interventions fail to demonstrate significant improvements on standardized measures of reading comprehension. Although there are a number of reasons to explain this phenomenon, an important one to consider is misalignment between the nature of the outcome assessment and the targets of the intervention. In this study, we present data on three theoretically driven summative reading assessments that were developed in consultation with a research and evaluation team conducting an intervention study. The reading intervention, Reading Apprenticeship, involved instructing teachers to use disciplinary strategies in three domains: literature, history, and science. Factor analyses and other psychometric analyses on data from over 12,000 high school students revealed the assessments had adequate reliability, moderate correlations with state reading test scores and measures of background knowledge, a large general reading factor, and some preliminary evidence for separate, smaller factors specific to each form. In this paper, we describe the empirical work that motivated the assessments, the aims of the intervention, and the process used to develop the new assessments. Implications for intervention and assessment are discussed.     

Morningness–Eveningness and College Advising: A Road to Student Success?

In addressing the challenges faced by E‐type (evening‐type) students, researchers have pointed to the need for school schedules that reflect chronotypic concerns and the recognition of the importance of sleep for academic achievement and well‐being. One approach to dealing with this issue for adolescent students has been to move the start of the school day later. In college, however, schedules become more varied and the social context in which these challenges occur differs requiring more individualized approaches to scheduling. In spite of this, morningness–eveningness is rarely considered by college administrators, advisors, or individuals involved in student services. It is important that faculty and staff who work with students be aware of chronotypical influences on classroom performance and other aspects of student life so that they can help them succeed in college and beyond.