Information-Seeking From Organizational Communication Sources During Healthcare Technology Change

This study collects survey data (n = 345) from a healthcare organization in the early stages of electronic health record (EHR) implementation to understand how a series of organizational communication sources—managers, coworkers, IT personnel, and online organizational sources—impact healthcare employees’ (a) EHR resistance and (b) perceptions of EHR’s relative advantage. Regression results reveal that the levels of EHR information employees sought from coworkers did not predict EHR resistance or perceived relative advantage. Seeking information from managerial sources enhances EHR’s perceived relative advantage and decreases affective EHR resistance but is not related to behavioral or cognitive EHR resistance. Seeking information from IT staff decreased all types of EHR resistance and increased EHR’s perceived relative advantage. Finally, seeking information from online organizational sources increased EHR’s perceived relative advantage and decreased behavioral and cognitive resistance but is not related to affective EHR resistance. Study implications and limitations are offered.     

The early academic progress of children with special educational needs

Children with special educational needs (SEN) are known to experience lower average educational attainment than other children during their school years. But we have less insight into how far their poorer educational outcomes stem from their original starting points or from failure to progress during school. The extent to which early identification with SEN delivers support that enables children who are struggling academically to make appropriate progress is subject to debate. This is complicated by the fact that children with SEN are more likely to be growing up in disadvantaged families and face greater levels of behavioural and peer problems, factors which themselves impact attainment and progress through school. In this paper, we evaluate the academic progress of children with SEN in England, drawing on a large‐scale nationally representative longitudinal UK study, the Millennium Cohort Study, linked to administrative records of pupil attainment. Controlling for key child, family and environmental factors, and using the SEN categories employed at the time of data collection, we first establish that children identified with SEN in 2008, when they were age 7, had been assessed with lower academic competence when they started school. We evaluate their progress between ages 5–7 and 7–11. We found that children identified with SEN at age 7 tended to be those who had made less progress between ages 5 and 7 than their comparable peers. However, children with SEN continued to make less progress than their similarly able peers between ages 7 and 11. Implications are discussed.     

Scaffolding students: suggestions on how to equip students with the necessary study skills for studying in a blended learning environment

In this paper we consider the implications of moving from a paper‐based delivery of study support materials to electronic delivery. The paper is based on telephone interviews with 60 students who had received a range of study support materials from a series of ‘student toolkits’, which are printed resource booklets for students of the UK Open University. McLoughlin (2002) sees the integration of electronic delivery at the primary, secondary and tertiary education levels as requiring an extension to current concepts of scaffolding. The extension we propose in this paper is the need to establish study skills plus the ways and means to seek support in a resource‐based environment. However, there is a delicate balance between increased provision and overloaded provision in resource‐based learning.     

Beyond the polarization of pedagogy: models of classroom practice in Tanzanian primary schools

Debate on teaching in low‐income countries has tended to assume an over‐simplified conceptualization of pedagogy as either teacher‐centred or learner‐centred. If theory is to address itself to the complex challenge of improving the quality of teaching within under‐resourced education systems then it will have to move beyond this polarized view of pedagogy. This paper applies Basil Bernstein’s performance and competence modes to the findings of fieldwork in Tanzania. It thereby arrives at a more nuanced understanding of primary school teachers’ classroom practice, which allows for teachers working with a mixed palette of techniques and ideas. Bernstein’s pedagogic modes were constructed from his studies of education in Britain. Their application to the Tanzanian setting, however, highlights the limitations of analytical frameworks developed in western contexts. It is argued that appreciation and critique of pedagogy in low‐income countries could be deepened through linking with comparative literature that compares across English and non‐English‐speaking countries.     

Capturing the différance: Primary school teacher identity in Tanzania

Research into teacher identity can generate insights into how teachers contribute and respond to change. Researchers face the challenge of representing findings that are useful at the policy level but do not essentialise the collective identity of a diverse occupational group. This article represents the findings of a study of primary school teachers in Tanzania in a way that recognises continuity over time. The relationship between practice and identity is explored and implications are drawn for the introduction of educational innovation.     

Mature age unmatriculated students and the justification of a more liberal admissions policy

In 1974 the University of New South Wales established a procedure for the admission of unmatriculated applicants of over 25 years old. The novel selection procedure employed is described and its effectiveness evaluated. Extensive interview and questionnaire data are reported relating to student motivation, expectations, adjustment problems and responses to the experience of advanced study. The academic performance of successive entry cohorts is shown to be consistently superior to that of students entering direct from school. The implications of the data for more liberal admission policies are then considered.     

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE FRIENDS FOR LIFE PROGRAM IN PORTUGUESE SCHOOLS: STUDY WITH A SAMPLE OF HIGHLY ANXIOUS CHILDREN

The FRIENDS for Life program is a cognitive–behavioral group program that targets anxiety in children. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of the Portuguese version of the FRIENDS for Life Program, which was implemented in schools to reduce anxiety problems in a group of highly anxious children. The study used a quasi‐experimental research design with two groups of children, an intervention (n = 17) and a wait‐list control group (n = 21), aged 8 to 12 years old. The impact of the program in reducing anxiety symptoms as assessed by children and mothers was analyzed through the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders‐Revised (SCARED‐R). The results show a statistically significant post intervention effect on anxiety symptoms evaluated by the child, but not by the mother. The implications of these results for the prevention of anxiety disorders in Portuguese schools are discussed.     

A comparison of strategic development for multiplication problem solving in low-, average-, and high-achieving students

The present study investigated the differences of strategy use between low-, average-, and high-achieving students when solving different multiplication problems. Nineteen high-, 48 average-, and 17 low-achieving students participated in this study. All participants were asked to complete three different multiplication tests and to explain how they solved these problems. Results suggested that low achievers used incorrect operation strategies more frequently, indicating a lack of conceptual understanding of multiplication. High-achieving students demonstrated greater flexibility in problem-solving and were more accurate in performing direct retrieval or math algorithm strategies. Results were discussed about improving low achievers’ use of advanced strategies, enhancing their flexibility in choosing strategies and improving students’ accuracy in using direct retrieval or math algorithms.     

Emotion Displays in Two-Year-Olds during Mishaps

Although it has been shown that toddlers express distress when personal or physical events violate their expectations, there has been little detailed examination of their emotional reactions to such events. In this study, 45 2-year-olds were observed during 2 mishaps: a doll breaking and juice spilling. Their emotional reactions and their attempts to fix the mishap were coded. 2 components to their reactions to mishaps were found: one of tension and frustration, and another of concerned reparation. Mishaps elicited more negative emotions in toddlers than free play, and most toddlers attempted to correct the mishap. Children's styles of emotional response to mishaps may be related to maternal mental health. Symptoms of depression and anxiety in mothers were related to a suppression of tension and frustration in their offspring. Maternal acting out symptoms were not related to toddlers' reactions to mishaps. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of emotion in the formation of individual differences in sociomoral functioning and factors contributing to early differences.