Toward Practical Procedures for Predicting and Promoting Success in Virtual School Students

Abstract

Two lines of research have emerged to study the causes and prevention of student failure in virtual (K–12) schools: studies of learner characteristics and studies of learning environment characteristics. To develop a useful model for predicting failure and promoting success in virtual school environments, a study was designed to measure the relation between a combination of student and environmental factors derived from previous research and successful course completion during one semester at a large (N =?4,100) virtual school. Study findings yielded a model that can discriminate between successful and unsuccessful online school students and is especially effective at identifying those likely to succeed.     

Stress and anxiety surrounding forthcoming Standard Assessment Tests in English schoolchildren

The Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) taken by pupils in their final year of primary schooling in England have been widely criticised for placing children under too pressure and contributing to an increase in test-related stress and anxiety. In this exploratory study we set out to explore the experiences of forthcoming SATs in a small sample of children using an appraisal model of stress and to reflect on whether these criticisms are justified. Results from focus groups with pupils and interviews with class and head teachers suggested that there was diversity in pupils’ experiences their tests. The pressures associated with SATs did not necessarily lead to negative outcomes and some children described SATs in more positive ways, as challenging rather than threatening. Self-worth judgements played a central role in individual-level appraisal and may also provide a useful link to discourses surrounding the value of academic credentials.     

Challenges to the Global Concept of Student-Centered Learning with Special Reference to the United Arab Emirates: ‘Never fail a Nahayan’

Student-centered learning has been conceived as a Western export to the East and the developing world in the last few decades. Philosophers of education often associate student-centered learning with frameworks related to meeting the needs of individual pupils: from Deweyan experiential learning, to the ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’ and other social justice orientations. Yet student-centered learning has also become, in the era of neoliberal education, a jingoistic advertisement for practices and ideologies which can be seen to lead to a global devaluation of the educational profession, and the bolstering of the view of the student as a customer. In this article, I want to disentangle these views and explore some limitations of either model of student-centered learning. To add context, I consider education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today, which provides an extreme example of the risks involved with prioritizing student’s self-identified needs and interests above all else, as in an idealized or exaggerated student-centered concept. I conclude with brief comments on amending the philosophical concept of student-centered learning to be useful in diverse contexts today.     

The mathematics problem: the construction of a market-led education discourse in the Republic of Ireland

Educational change in the neoliberal state is permeated by the effects of forces from outside the field of education itself. The process of governmentality welcomes, indeed demands, the participation of those non-state actors valorised by neoliberalism as well as government agencies dedicated to the advancement of such groups. Inevitably, the concerns of such organisations become central to how the state sees education. This article traces the assembly of national and international agents from industry, business and special interest groups around the concept of ‘knowledge economy’. It treats this assemblage as an apparatus (dispositif), examining how the construction of an economic problem is brought to bear on the demand for educational change, and how this construction of the problem is used to shape public opinion in order to prepare the public for a radical change of direction. Confining itself to the reform of mathematics education introduced in the Republic of Ireland in 2010, this article traces the emergence of a mathematics discourse focused on market-led education. It interrogates the construction of ‘the mathematics problem’ or ‘crisis in maths’ and argues that the discourse of the present construction is economic in nature, centring as it does on human capital production and market-led reform.     

Are academic outcomes of higher education provision relevant to and deliverable in the workplace setting?

Current developments in higher education strongly indicate that the way ahead in many disciplines is much closer co-operation between academia and industry. There is growing demand that recognition should be given to learning, irrespective of the environment in which it occurs.This article reflects on what are deemed to be essential components of a degree, and considers how they might be transformed into forms suitable for demonstration in the work environment. The discussion is supported by findings of a survey carried out in conjunction with a development - Structured Industrial Practice Studies - which integrates academic learning and learning in the work environment for full-time students. The findings, however, are of relevance beyond the particular model of learning and mode of attendance. There appears to be potential for achieving in the workplace aspects of courses which, in recent times, have been the prerogative of higher education establishments. However, such potential is variable between working environments and is dependent on higher education providers adapting to different structures in delivery.     

The Way They See It: An Evaluation of the Arts Across the Curriculum Project

This article reports on an evaluation to interrogate the efficacy of a Scottish Government sponsored initiative to introduce an arts‐infused education model to primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools called Arts Across the Curriculum. Between April 2005 and December 2007 the evaluation team gathered data about this three‐year pilot project, using a variety of instruments including surveys, structured observations, interviews and video diaries. This article presents some of the findings from the evaluation and in particular it focuses on the artists' views of the efficacy of the project; in short we wanted to know how they ‘saw it’. It should be noted that the research team that evaluated the initiative had no say in the design of the project.     

Why should I be grateful? The morality of gratitude in contexts marked by injustice

In philosophical and psychological literature, gratitude has normally been promoted as beneficial to oneself and others and as morally good. Being grateful for what you have is conceived as virtuous, while acts expressing gratefulness to those who have benefited you is often regarded as morally praiseworthy, if not morally expected. However, critical interrogations of the moral status of gratitude should also frame the possible cultivation of gratitude in moral education. This article focuses on whether gratitude should be regarded as morally ideal, praiseworthy or expected in contexts marked by social inequity and injustice. It considers competing articulations of gratitude in philosophical and psychological research and how gratitude can be conceived in some cases as praiseworthy and in others as potentially problematic. Finally, it considers the implications of a multipronged view of gratitude for teaching for and about gratitude in social justice education.