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.     

Dis(en)abled: legitimating discriminatory practice in the name of inclusion?

This article explores tensions between the policies and practice of inclusion and the lived experiences of disabled young people in education. Drawing on the narratives of two young men who participated in a small pilot study, it utilises theoretical concepts related to disability, structure and agency, and power and control, as it explores the ways in which inclusion can create subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) forms of exclusion. Focusing on the young men's experiences of further and higher education, it is argued that inclusive practices and policies, however well intentioned, can create new and subtle forms of marginalisation through the structures and discourse intended to address exclusion. I conclude by questioning whether, in a diverse and disparate society, in which all our lives are defined by the extent to which we are more or less equal than others, inclusion can ever be anything other than an illusory concept.