The Language of Statistics

The discussion of problems associated with the use of language, specifically vocabulary and symbolism, is extended from the teaching and learning of mathematics to the particular area of statistics.     

Building electronic communities: success and failure in computer networking

This paper is about networking failures as well as networking successes. A research strategy for comparing educational activities conducted across electronic networks was employed to examine the critical features of successes as well as failures in designing electronic communities. The analysis provides a set of guidelines for those who plan to use telecommunications as a tool for creating global communities.     

English community school teacher education and English as a second language in Papua New Guinea: a study of a practicum

This article explores community (primary) school teacher education in the subject, English, at a Papua New Guinea (PNG) teachers' college as manifested in end‐of‐year English lessons in practicum rounds of pre‐service community school teachers. English is the official language overlaid on 700 indigenous languages in this country where reconstructionism informs policy decisions. Given this, the importance of success in English in schools is not to be underestimated. The research focuses on the implementation the knowledge, skills, strategies and materials acquired by pre‐service English teachers in a coastal province in PNG in the context of a number of public statements on educational policy and practice. It examines the impact of these as indicated in lesson plans and supervisors' reports.     

Supplemental reading strategy instruction for adolescents: A randomized trial and follow-up study

In this study, the authors examine the impact of a yearlong supplemental reading course involving daily instruction in the learning strategies curriculum on lower achieving adolescent students' reading achievement and motivation. Using a multiple-cohort randomized treatment-control group design over 4 years, they compared achievement and motivation outcomes for 605 sixth-grade students who participated in the intervention with 530 students who did not participate and 593 ninth-grade students who participated in the intervention with 535 students who did not participate. Results indicated significant impacts of the intervention on reading achievement for ninth-grade students but not for sixth-grade students. Significant impacts on reading motivation were found for both sixth- and ninth-grade students. An exploratory follow-up study indicated potential benefits of a second year of intervention for sixth-grade students who are still low achieving after 1 year of intervention.     

Minitab Menus-Do They Help or Hinder?

A comparison of the levels of difficulty experienced by students in the use of Minitab through its menu interface and its command language showed no advantavge in using the menus.     

No ‘self’ left behind? Part-time distance learning university graduates: social class,graduate identity and employability

Higher education (HE) is regarded as a pathway to upward social mobility for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Social mobility is itself seen as important both for individual and national prosperity and is a key driver of government funding for HE. While access to HE has substantially increased over the past number of years, the evidence suggests that social inequalities continue to be reproduced, with working-class students more frequently accessing lower status institutions and courses. This in turn can impact negatively on their labour market outcomes. This paper offers a critical appraisal on the employability discourse. Drawing on a survey of 268 distance graduates from an Irish university, together with 5 individual interviews, findings indicate that distance graduates are likely to be from lower socio-economic backgrounds and have delayed participation in university education for reasons relating to social class. Although mostly in employment, they are motivated to participate in HE by their concerns regarding their long-term employability. The literature identifies that our employability is something we negotiate with others. This paper posits that, for distance graduates, in addition to this process of convincing others, the graduate must also convince themselves of the value of their own achievement. Transitioning to graduate employment, and developing a graduate identity, can therefore be a slow internal and external process of negotiation.     

A Resource for Eliciting Student Alternative Conceptions: Examining the Adaptability of a Concept Inventory for Natural Selection at the Secondary School Level

The Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS) is an example of a research-based instrument that assesses conceptual understanding in an area that contains well-documented alternative conceptions. Much of the CINS’s use and original validation has been relegated to undergraduate settings, but the information learned from student responses on the CINS can also potentially be a useful resource for teachers at the secondary level. Because of its structure, the CINS can have a role in eliciting alternative conceptions and induce deeper conceptual understanding by having student ideas leveraged during instruction. In a first step toward this goal, the present study further investigated the CINS’s internal properties by having it administered to a group (n?=?339) of students among four different biology teachers at a predominantly Latino, economically disadvantaged high school. In addition, incidences of the concept inventory’s use among the teachers’ practices were collected for support of its adaptability at the secondary level. Despite the teachers’ initial enthusiasm for the CINS’s use as an assessment tool in the present study, results from a principal components analysis demonstrate inconsistencies between the original and present validations. Results also reveal how the teachers think CINS items may be revised for future use among secondary student populations.