An Australian study of graduate outcomes for disadvantaged students

Whether or not disadvantaged students are realising the same benefits from higher education as their peers is of fundamental importance to equity practitioners and policymakers. Despite this, equity policy has focused on access to higher education and little attention has been paid to graduate outcomes. The Australian study reported here used national data to investigate relationships between disadvantage and graduate outcomes. The study provides critical insights into how access to higher education does, or does not, lead to improvements in post-graduation equity. The study reveals that outcomes are not equal for all students and that higher education disadvantage persists for many students after they have completed their studies. Whilst the specific findings relate to the Australian university sector the broader discussion of the article is relevant to higher education policy more generally, especially in terms of how governments align institutional processes to measure and scrutinise achievement in relation to public policy objectives.     

Bagels,schnitzel and McDonald's—‘fuzzy frontiers’ of Jewish identity in an English Jewish secondary school

Using data gathered during a case study of the ‘culture’ of a Jewish secondary school, this article explores the indeterminate boundaries of Jewish identity. By examining the mechanisms that control what and who comes into the school, and what is approved and disapproved of in the school, a picture emerges of what and who is counted as ‘Jewish’. There is detailed consideration of the admissions policy, the rules about kosher food, the explicitly religious symbols in use, the importance of Israel and the contested issue of McDonald's. Sometimes the boundaries are very clear‐cut, but in some cases there is ambiguity and disagreement that make the frontiers of English Jewish student identity decidedly fuzzy.     

Taking research into schools: the West Lothian Action Enquiry model

This paper outlines the efforts of an Educational Psychology Service (EPS) to develop its practice in the area of research. It will argue that the Action Enquiry model of service delivery can empower teaching staff and may allow an effective means of change and improvement to take place in schools. This model steers research towards providing information about what works in context and has given teachers the impetus and ownership to evaluate their practice and the impact of their interventions. The benefits of this approach are outlined along with a few notes of caution that readers are urged to consider when negotiating research within a school.     

The humanities in the primary school – where are we and in which direction should we be heading? A perspective from Scotland

ABSTRACT

In Scotland, although there is no agreed definition of what constitutes the humanities, they have their locus principally within two of eight curricular areas in Curriculum for Excellence (CfE): Social Studies (SS) and Religious and Moral Education (RME). Both SS and RME are contexts for learning where broad principles apply in relation to curricular coverage. These principles are formalised in Experiences and Outcomes for each of these curricular areas which provide broad guidance around topic areas for study while allowing for the use of local contexts for learning and flexibility in pedagogy. Key opportunities in SS include: exciting and engaging learners, enabling personalisation and choice and equipping learners with a range of skills. In RME, opportunities include helping learners to: understand themselves and others; draw upon religious and other beliefs in forming their own views and engaging in positive social change. Key challenges for SS include: ensuring breadth and depth of coverage; reaching agreed standards across the educational community; responding to the requirement for an increased focus on literacy and numeracy. In RME challenges include: ensuring that national expectations are met; ensuring breadth and depth in learning; the nature and role of assessment; practitioner and parental conceptualisations of the curricular area.     

Trace Lines for Testlets: A Use of Multiple-Categorical-Response Models

It is not always convenient or appropriate to construct tests in which individual items are fungible. There are situations in which small clusters of items (testlets) are the units that are assembled to create a test. Using data from a test of reading comprehension constructed of four passages with several questions following each passage, we show that local independence fails at the level of the individual questions. The questions following each passage, however, constitute a testlet. We discuss the application to testlet scoring of some multiple-category models originally developed for individual items, In the example examined, the concurrent validity of the testlet scoring equaled or exceeded that of individual-item-level scoring     

Why does children's generosity increase with age: susceptibility to experimenter influence or altruism?

This study evaluated whether age differences in children's generosity are due to increasing altruistic motivation or increasing susceptibility to experimenter influence strategies. 282 first, third, and fifth graders voted on how to spend a gift of money under 1 of 5 instructional sets--3 levels of experimenter influence, peer influence, or no influence, or no influence. Voting choices (in increasing order of generosity according to experimenter-defined scoring weights) were splitting up the money equally among class members, buying something for their class, buying something for their school, or giving the money to poor children. Voting choices also were scored according to empirically derived weights based on rankings provided by an independent sample of 50 first, third, and fifth graders. Both scoring systems indicated that fifth graders were more generous than younger children, but only under high levels of experimenter demand, and peer influence did not increase children's generosity. Furthermore, first graders appeared more generous when the child-derived rather than the experimenter-derived scoring system was used. Thus generalizations regarding age differences in generosity observed in laboratory experiments may require qualification, specifying the degree and type of experimenter influence involved.     

‘Across the Divide’: Developing Professional Learning Ecosystems in STEM Education

Research in Science Education - This paper reports the findings from a cross-sector research project designed to question how the development of university-school partnerships can influence...     

What's so hard about teaching science?

Early Childhood Education Journal - Do you feel that science is sifficult to understand and hard to teach? Do you designate only a small amount of time for a science period? Are you afraid of the...     

Examining the Process and Outcome of Career Counseling for Different Types of Career Counseling Clients

Using cluster analysis, we identified two types of career counseling clients: (a) Clients with moderate levels of career-related distress, discomfort, and uncertainty and (b) clients with high levels of career concerns, personal distress, and stigma about career counseling. The more distressed group expressed lower evaluations of a career counseling session and perceived their counselors as providing fewer action-oriented counseling skills than the less distressed group. No differences emerged in terms of client's perceptions of the therapeutic relationship. The practical implications and limitations of these results are discussed.