Using appreciative inquiry to explore the professional practice of a midwife lecturer

This paper reports on an exploration into the professional practice of a lecturer using the appreciative inquiry (AI) approach. This facilitated inquiry intentionally sought to apply the AI approach to the practice of an individual, an application that is different to its predominant usage with groups. The context for this research was the professional practice of a lecturer within an innovative narrative curriculum for midwifery. Evidence was gathered through the re-telling of moments of peak performance. The AI process starts from actual practice and returns to the implications for practice. In the process, the inquiry explores questions such as, when am I at my ‘best’ as a lecturer? What patterns and themes exist across the stories of peak performance? How can my future practice be influenced by these themes. An important aspect of this research was the facilitation of the process which supported the movement of the research process and the critical reflection that is integral to such an inquiry. Such facilitation is particularly critical to the development of provocative propositions and an action plan for future practice. The experience and findings of this research suggest that the AI approach is well suited to a holistic consideration of an individual's professional practice.     

Reviews

Pupils aged 9 to 11 years from four urban schools were shown contrasting photographs of fluvial landscapes. Their reactions showed that children bring to the classroom their own stereotypical images of rivers, typicaily with clean water, banks surrounded by vegetation, and located in the countryside. Stereotypical images can prevent the recognition of other examples in different settings and it is recommended that in teaching about rivers a wide range of examples in various settings should be used.     

Environmental‐Scale Map Use in Middle Childhood: Links to Spatial Skills,Strategies, and Gender

Researchers have shown that young children solve mapping tasks in small spaces, but have rarely tested children's performance in large, unfamiliar environments. In the current research, children (9–10 years; N = 40) explored an unfamiliar campus and marked flags' locations on a map. As hypothesized, better performance was predicted by higher spatial‐test scores, greater spontaneous use of map–space coordinating strategies, and participant sex (favoring boys). Data supported some but not all hypotheses about the roles of specific spatial skills for mapping performance. Data patterns were similar on a computer mapping task that displayed environmental‐scale videos of walks through a park. Patterns of children's mapping errors suggested both idiosyncratic and common mapping strategies that should be addressed in future research and educational interventions.     

One School, Many Differences: An Assessment Tool for School Counselors and Multicultural Counseling

Multicultural counseling competencies (MCCs) have typically been measured with instruments designed for and normed on mental health professionals – for example, MCCTS-R; Holcomb-McCoy (Professional School Counseling 4:195–208, 2001); MCI; Sodowsky et al. (Journal of Counseling and Development 41:137–148, 1994); D’Andrea et al. (Journal of Counseling & Development 70:143–150, 1991). One published instrument specifically assesses school counselor MCCs – MCCTS-R; Holcomb-McCoy (Professional School Counseling 4:195–208, 2001) – but it does not conform to ASCA standards (2010, E.2). Following a set of validation procedures, an instrument designed to specifically assess school counselors’ multicultural counseling competencies was created that conforms to American School Counselor Association and Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development standards. Its creation is detailed here and the resulting instrument is presented for examination and consideration.     

Associations between teacher–child relationships and children's writing in kindergarten and first grade

When children experience conflict in relationships with their teachers during early education, they perform more poorly on measures of language development and overall academic competence. Whereas children who have close relationships with teachers, often perform better on these measures. A close teacher–child relationship may be important for children learning to write, given the complex and personal nature of writing. Yet, scholars have not examined associations between teacher–child relationship quality and children's early success in writing. The current study examined associations between quality of the teacher–child relationship (defined as teachers’ perceptions of closeness and conflict and children's feelings about teachers) and children's writing quality in kindergarten and first grade. Children's receptive language was also investigated as a moderator of these associations. Results indicated teacher–child conflict was significantly associated with children's writing quality, after accounting for grade level, initial reading status, and type of instruction. Findings of the study have important implications for future research and practice. Attention to the importance of conflict in teacher–child relationships and its’ influence on children's literacy learning and development should be included in future research studies.     

Understanding variation in classroom quality within early childhood centers: Evidence from Colorado's quality rating and improvement system

This study examines variability in quality across classrooms within early childhood centers and its implications for how quality rating systems (QRSs) capture center-level quality. We used data collected for administrative purposes by Qualistar Colorado which includes the environmental rating scale (ERS) collected in all classrooms in the 433 centers participating in Colorado's QRS between 2008 and 2010. We conducted variance components analysis for the ERS and found that between 26% and 28% of the variation in quality captured by the ERS occurred across classrooms within the same center serving children in the same age range. This finding reveals that capturing center-level quality based on average ERS will often miss important within-center quality differences and points to the merits of using “no score below” rules along with rating tier cutpoints in determining center-level ERS. Most QRSs assess center-level quality for a randomly selected subset of classrooms. To test the implications of cross-classroom quality variation for this practice, we simulated four classroom selection strategies in current use: selecting 50% of the rooms, 33% of the rooms, two rooms, or one room. In general, the larger the share of classrooms measured under a selection rule, the lower the chance that a center's rating tier will be misclassified. The error rates under each selection rule also depend on the extent of cross-classroom quality variability, how centers are distributed by size, and the QRS structure. QRS designers, therefore, need to consider the tradeoff between the costs of measuring more classrooms in each center versus the costs of misclassifying centers. The paper quantifies the magnitude of these tradeoffs using the Colorado data and two illustrative QRSs. The implications of our findings for QRS designers, parents, and other stakeholders are discussed.     

Interpreting Primary Children's Representations of Mountains and Mountainous Landscapes and Environments

This paper reports research into children's understanding of mountainous landscapes and mountain genesis as revealed in their drawing and modelling representations and in subsequent interviews. A sample of 444 children aged 7‐11 years was drawn from five UK inner-city schools. Comparisons between the younger (7‐9 years) and older (9‐11 years) children showed significant differences in perception, conception and priorities. The naive interpretation of children's drawings and models is questioned: interview data indicated that children use sophisticated techniques to represent mountains and mountain environments. Children are able to interpret stereotypical representations of mountain landscape features they encounter in books and elsewhere. They make use of a range of conventions in their own drawings that are revealed only in subsequent interviews. Research based solely on the interpretation of children's pictures is shown to be problematic and somewhat unreliable. Children perceive the differences between reality and pictorial representation and make full and conscious use of the range of conventions, including stereotypical forms.     

Site‐Based Management and School Success: Untangling the Variables

Site‐based management (SBM) has received decidedly mixed reviews as a reform strategy. Although most scholars who have studied it note that this form of governance can be linked to some positive changes in culture or parent or teacher satisfaction, only a few have observed clear changes in student achievement that can be tied to site‐level autonomy and shared decision‐making within the school. The absence of learning effects may be due to problems in theories undergirding SBM, to weak or uneven implementation, or to methodological problems in evaluative studies. In this study, researchers set out, not to evaluate SBM, but rather to understand how it worked in a school that, by many criteria, could be considered a success. After engaging in a year long, intensive case study at one urban elementary school, the authors concluded that four commitments, deeply embedded in the minds of educators and, to a lesser extent, parents, drove successful reform at this site. The central and organizing commitment was a kind of “learning imperative.” Administrators and teachers were passionate and knowledgeable about learning and determined to do whatever it took to see that students and their families had optimal educational experiences. This imperative was buttressed and supported by three other “imperatives.” Educators viewed themselves as members of a community and felt an imperative to interact in supportive and respectful ways. Most teachers, all administrators, and a number of parents, responding to a leadership imperative, willingly and actively took responsibility for life at the school, and administrators and teachers were determined to be guided by a capacity‐building imperative which required that resources be aimed at promoting learning. Site‐based management facilitated the ability of persons at this site to act on these imperatives. It did not, however, influence the quality of decisions to any great degree.     

What Undergraduates Misunderstand about Stem Cell Research

As biotechnology‐related scientific advances, such as stem cell research (SCR), are increasingly permeating the popular media, it has become ever more important to understand students’ ideas about this issue. Very few studies have investigated learners’ ideas about biotechnology. Our study was designed to understand the types of alternative conceptions students hold concerning SCR. The qualitative research design allowed us to examine college students’ understandings about stem cells and SCR. More specifically, we addressed the following questions: How can alternative conceptions about stem cell topics be categorized? What types of alternative conceptions are most common? Participants included 132 students enrolled in a biotechnology course that focused on the scientific background of biotechnology applications relevant to citizens. In this study, we used an inductive approach to develop a taxonomy of alternative ideas about SCR by analyzing student responses to multiple open‐ended data sources. We identified five categories of conceptions: alternative conceptions about what, alternative conceptions about how, alternative conceptions about medical potential, terminology confusion, and political and legal alternative conceptions. In order to improve instruction, it is important to understand students’ ideas when entering the classroom. Our findings highlight a need to teach how science can be applied to societal issues and improve science literacy and citizenship.