SIDE-VIEW: Evaluation of a system to develop team players and improve productivity in Internet collaborative learning groups

This paper briefly summarizes the initial development of a computer-supported collaborative learning environment and evaluates its effects in relation to the productivity of CSCL groups. The design of the SIDE-VIEW system is driven by the social identity approach to understanding group behaviour and is premised upon the need to establish congruity between the self-definition of group members and their collaborative learning tasks. We begin by outlining the rationale for the system in relation to productivity and the emergence of team players within collaborative learning groups. We then describe aspects of the design that are intended to enhance both, and report on a field trial of the initial prototype on international groups of higher education students. The preliminary results of the field study indicate that aspects of the design encourage the emergence and influence of team players within groups, with consequential improvements to the quality of the group output. The role of team players in CSCL groups is contrasted with that of group leaders.     

The impact of culture contact and desegregation on the whites of an urban high school

Conclusion Desegregation has generally been presented as an outgrowth of the civil rights movement and as an attempt to redress the educational disadvantages blacks have suffered as the result of a racial imbalance. Given the general theoretical considerations of resource allocation, the assumption has been that reallocations of resources to blacks would necessarily mean reallocation of these resources to blacks from whites. This view is also part of the popular culture where the process of desegregation has caused turmoil and disturbance among whites based, manifestedly at least, on the notion that improving educational benefits for blacks necessarily means a reduction in the same benefits for whites.Based on an analysis of the experiences of teachers and students at one polyethnic inner-city high school, we suggest that not only have whites at this school not been disadvantaged by the desegregation process but that there is evidence indicating that there have been more advantages for whites than for blacks. What, then, are the advantages of desegregation for whites, both students and teachers? In this school it was found that the advantages differed for white students and for white teachers, with white students experiencing more positive outcomes than white teachers experienced.     

What Schools Need to Know About Fostering School Belonging: a Meta-analysis

Belonging is an essential aspect of psychological functioning. Schools offer unique opportunities to improve belonging for school-aged children. Research on school belonging, however, has been fragmented and diluted by inconsistency in the use of terminology. To resolve some of these inconsistencies, the current study uses meta-analysis of individual and social level factors that influence school belonging. These findings aim to provide guidance on the factors schools should emphasise to best support students. First, a systematic review identified 10 themes that influence school belonging at the student level during adolescence in educational settings (academic motivation, emotional stability, personal characteristics, parent support, peer support, teacher support, gender, race and ethnicity, extracurricular activities and environmental/school safety). Second, the average association between each of these themes and school belonging was meta-analytically examined across 51 studies (N?=?67,378). Teacher support and positive personal characteristics were the strongest predictors of school belonging. Results varied by geographic location, with effects generally stronger in rural than in urban locations. The findings may be useful in improving perceptions of school belonging for secondary students through the design of policy, pedagogy and teacher training, by encouraging school leaders and educators to build qualities within the students and change school systems and processes.     

Building an evolving method and materials for teaching legal writing in large classes

In South Africa and in other parts of the world, many professions are bemoaning the poor ability of many graduates to communicate their skills and knowledge effectively once they enter the workplace. Increasingly, pressure is placed on higher education to do more in terms of equipping future professionals with the necessary critical reading, research, thinking and writing skills the workplace demands. However, in South Africa especially, the demand for access to higher education is resulting in increased admissions, and in many lecturers standing in front of larger classes filled with students from a wide range of home and educational backgrounds with ‘variable’ commands of English as a medium of instruction and communication (Greenbaum and Mbali in S Afr Linguist Appl Lang Stud 20:233–244, 2002). This makes the task of equipping these students with disciplinary knowledge and skills a challenge. In responding to this challenge, the Law Faculty at the University of the Western Cape, in collaboration with a writing specialist, initiated a project aimed at transforming the way in which legal writing was taught at first year level. The overall aim was to start training students, from first year, to adapt their thinking and writing to the kinds of knowledge and practice required by academic study as well as the legal profession. The project was successful in achieving its modest aims, but certain challenges remain. This paper reflects critically on the development and evolution of the model for teaching legal writing in large classes. It argues that teaching legal writing in large classes requires creative and sustainable approaches so that students can become active and critical writers, readers and thinkers over time in this, or any, field.     

Using Young Adult Literature to Develop Content Knowledge of Autism for Preservice Teachers

This promising practice explores the use of young adult literature as a supplement to texts in an undergraduate introduction to a special education course. Literature portraying adolescent characters with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were used to build schema of preservice teachers. Participants' knowledge and attitudes about ASD were examined before and after reading a young adult novel of their choice. Results indicated that students in the literature group out-performed peers in the control group on measures of ASD content. Exemplars of students' responses suggested students who read the novel expressed increased knowledge and interest, recognition of commonalities, and complex and nuanced views of ASD. Participant satisfaction with reading the novels outside of class was also high, suggesting students found the authentic literacy experience enjoyable.     

Becoming an Architect: The Role of Work-Based Learning in Architect Training

This article examines the work-based placements of trainee architects in the United Kingdom to examine how trainees become architects. The trainee architects in this study experienced varying levels of participation and responsibility during their yearlong placements. Despite this diversity, developing the trainees on placement was found to be integral to the professional role of the architect. The university-based element of architecture training focused almost exclusively on abstract design while their placements involved practical problem-solving. However, the apparent tension between these elements encouraged the trainees to integrate architectural theory and practice while on placement so they developed both aesthetically and technically. Moreover, the trainees’ presence in the studios helped to nurture fresh design and so helped to feed the central design core of architectural practice. Nevertheless, the trainees’ experience of working in an architectural studio on placement often confounded their expectations of architects’ practice. Yet, becoming an architect retained its personal significance. Issues remain, though, around the unequal access to opportunities on placement and how this inequality might affect trainee architects’ learning.     

What do Our Faculty Use? An Interdisciplinary Citation Analysis Study

During the fall of 2012 and spring of 2013, two librarians from the University of Kansas Libraries conducted a citation analysis of faculty publications in three broad disciplinary areas: humanities, social sciences, and science. The main purpose of research was to find out if the library provides adequate support to faculty researchers. The authors confirmed that KU Libraries provide access to the majority of items used by campus researchers. In addition, the findings will be used in collection management decisions, such as demand driven acquisition. Finally, the authors analyzed additional citation analysis studies in order to establish external benchmarks for their results.     

Pedagogy in practice: the pedagogy of a learning setting as students experience it

This paper opens a theoretical discussion regarding the pedagogy of a learning setting as students experience it. Students’ experience of learning deserves particular attention because it may differ from the pedagogy that is designed and campaigned for by the school, or even from the one that is ‘experienced’ by the teacher in the same situation. In order to open up such a discussion, we introduce the term ‘pedagogy in practice’ (PiP). This new term describes the pedagogy that actually acts on students’ thought and affects; it relates to the interaction between the school’s pedagogy and students’ experience of it. In this paper, we define the concept of PiP and examine its implications and differentiation from related pedagogic concepts. By doing so, we question educators’ and policy makers’ ability to understand, evaluate, make sense of, and eventually improve pedagogies or curricula in general without looking at PiP in particular.     

Conceptions and Beliefs About “Good Teaching”: An integration of contrasting research areas

Previous research on conceptions of teaching comes from three distinct areas. The first is based on interviews with students and staff in higher education, the second involves the investigation of the conceptions and beliefs of schoolteachers, while the third derives from more general consideration of the nature of conceptions themselves. The empirical study reported here drew on these differing research areas to distinguish between beliefs and conceptions about good teaching and to explore their possible origins. The data came from student teachers, but the findings contribute to current thinking about conceptions of teaching in higher education. Bringing the empirical findings together with the three areas of previous research enables a more complete concept map to be drawn to summarise what may underlie the notion of “good teaching”.     

Using Academic Journals to Help Students Learn Subject Matter Content, Develop and Practice Critical Reasoning Skills, and Reflect on Personal Values in Food Science and Human Nutrition Classes

ABSTRACT:  It has been reported that students learn best when they use a wide variety of techniques to understand the information of the discipline, be it visual, auditory, discussion with others, metacognition, hands-on activities, or writing about the subject. We report in this article the use of academic journals not only as an aid for students to learn about content knowledge needed in an Experimental Foods course, but also as a way to have students think about and reflect on their own personal values. The topics of these journal entries cover several of the core competencies in the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Undergraduate Education Standards for Degrees in Food Science. These are basic principles of food science, as well as address several "Success Skills" (written communication, critical thinking, professionalism, life-long learning, interaction skills, and organizational skills). While there are no quantitative "measurements" of gains in learning, comments from the students indicate that learning took place, critical reasoning occurred, and personal values were analyzed. A guideline for writing and grading academic journals and a simple rubric for scoring the quality of the writing are included.