Different for women? The challenges of doctoral studies

This exploratory study investigates gender-specific differences in the challenges of the doctoral experience through the observations of a counsellor working with doctoral students. The article first contextualises the study within the literature investigating doctoral attrition and gender equity, showing that identity transformation over the doctorate is problematic in particular aspects for women. We confirm that cultural expectations regarding women passivity, family nurturance and (at least symbolic) subordination to male authority can cause tensions between women's social relationships and academic performance which values assertiveness, clear communication and confident management of power relationships. We identify various conflicts between the female roles of the social sphere and the academic arena that problematise the identity transition of the doctorate from student to independent researcher.     

Learning technology and disability—Overcoming barriers to inclusion: Evidence from a multicountry study

The paper uses data from a 15-country study to discuss the factors which affect the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and learning technologies by disabled people and consequently their access to education. Significant differences were found both between and within countries: income and language were the main factors affecting availability. Thus, the greatest availability was in the higher income English-speaking countries and the richer European countries. The main barriers to technology use included cost, lack of funding and lack of information. A particular disparity in technology access was found between the English-speaking European population and Aboriginal speakers of indigenous languages in Australia, with considerably greater access by the former than the latter group. A number of recommendations are presented to increase access to learning and assistive technologies by disabled people. They include encouragement for developers to produce free of charge (minority language) technologies, research on more effective provision of technologies and personal assistance, assistive technology centres in all learning institutions, simple funding mechanisms and a fund to support technology provision in poorer countries.     

Responsible anger management: The long bumpy road

Julia, Darryl, and Shantal are all learning very different ways to deal with angry feelings.Unpleasant feelings are like weeds. They don't go away when we ignore them; they grow wild and take over. (Beattie, 144).Marian Marion is Professor of Human Development and Early Childhood Education, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, WI.     

Combining Economic and Conjoint Analysis to Determine Optimal Academic Services

In today's era of global competition, organizations must manage their functions and activities in a manner such that they are responsive to customers' needs and can provide excellence in service to the customer while also being efficient and cost conscious. These issues are extremely common in corporate organizations, but such concerns are equally relevant in service industries, including institutions of higher education. This study is conducted at a private, undergraduate institution of higher education. We utilize focus group evaluation and conjoint analysis combined with economic analysis in the form of a newly designed preferred utility economic cost diagram to pick the ideal services that should be provided to enrolled students at the institution. The package of ideal services accounts for preferred utility expressed by students and a new methodology (preferred utility function) to balance these against financial considerations to optimize services and financial gains for a college adult education program. This combination of focus groups and mathematical techniques can be easily employed by educational institutes.     

The classroom practices inventory: An observation instrument based on NAEYC's guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices for 4- and 5-year-old children

The controversy over what is an appropriate early childhood curriculum has created a need for research instruments designed to measure classroom practices. This article reports on the development of a new observational measure based on the Guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate Practices of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The Classroom Practices Inventory (CPI) is a 26-item rating scale tapping the curricular emphasis and emotional climate of programs for 4- and 5-year-old children. The scale demonstrated a high degree of internal consistency. Over half the measure's variance was accounted for by a factor tapping encouragement of curiosity, creativity, and provision of concrete materials. In a study of 10 preschool programs, CPI scores correlated significantly with teachers' and parents' educational attitudes. Modest relationships were found between the CPI scores of children's preschools and measures of academic skills, creativity, and anxiety. The CPI appears to be a promising measure for critically examining the concept of developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood education.     

Teacher Research Experiences, Partnerships With Scientists, and Teacher Networks Sustaining Factors From Professional Development

This study examined some long-term impacts of a professional development program, Teachers in the Woods. Several outcomes of the program were acknowledged by participants as having been valuable: a network of like-minded teachers, a network of scientists and teachers, and an increase in teachers' ecological knowledge and field skills. The authors made 3 observations with regard to professional development. First, engaging teachers in real-world field science research is an effective way for them to gain ecological knowledge and skills. Second, the collegiality among teachers and scientists developed during the period of field work can enhance science learning. Third, collegiality among teachers provides opportunities to discuss pedagogy-related issues. Both aspects of collegiality provide support mechanisms that sustain teachers' efforts to modify their teaching practices.     

Bumble Boosters: Students Doing Real Science

Bumble Boosters was a lottery grant funded cooperative project between the University of Nebraska – Lincoln Department of Entomology, the Lincoln Public Schools Science Focus Program, and the Lincoln Folsom Children's Zoo. The primary education goal of the project was to create a community of learners to conduct authentic research on bumble bees in Nebraska. Participants were actively engaged in collecting bumble bees and placing nesting domiciles. Internet technology was employed to facilitate networking between project participants. Systematic evaluation was conducted during and after the project.     

Academic Expectations in Mothers of Preschool Children: A Psychometric Study of the Educational Attitude Scale

This study reports psychometric data on the Educational Attitude Scale, a new instrument designed to tap parental opinions about early academic, artistic, athletic, and social experiences. Mothers of 371 middle class prekindergarten children in 22 different schools completed the 32-item Likert-style survey. Mothers were highly similar in their views about the importance of social experiences, but differed widely in their opinions about early academic instruction for preschoolers. The scale proved to have excellent split-half and test-retest reliability. Correlational analysis and factor analysis supported the general domain structure along which the instrument was designed. Scores on the Educational Attitude Scale were significantly correlated with scores on a Developmental Expectations Card Sort. Highly significant differences were found in parent attitudes on the scale when schools were grouped into those High versus Low in academic emphasis by community reputation and observed classroom practices. Parents had significantly higher academic expectations than their children's teachers, particularly in schools with “Low Academic” emphasis.     

What do second-order judgments tell us about low-performing students’ metacognitive awareness?

According to the unskilled and unaware effect (Kruger and Dunning 1999), low-performing students tend to overestimate their performance. Differentiating the assessment of metacognitive judgments into performance judgments (PJs) and second-order judgments (SOJs), PJs of low-performing students tend to be inflated, while their SOJs are usually lower than those of high-performing students (Händel and Fritzsche 2016; Miller and Geraci 2011). This suggests some level of awareness. The present study investigated whether low-performers’ lower SOJs actually indicate metacognitive awareness. We studied SOJs after adequate and inadequate PJs, and investigated whether low-performers’ lower SOJs are made by default or whether their lower SOJs differ in a similar magnitude compared to those of high-performers (indicating metacognitive awareness). We address this issue by disentangling student and item effects via generalized linear mixed models. Reanalyzing the data of Händel and Fritzsche (2016) from N?=?116 students, we found that SOJs depended on the students who provided the SOJ and on the items on which the SOJ was made. Overall, SOJs depended on the PJs and on the interaction of performance and PJs, but not on the performance itself. Separate analyses for students of different performance levels revealed that low-performing students showed less awareness, indicated by a non-significant interaction effect of performance and PJs. Thus, it takes mixed models to tell the whole story of low-performing students’ lower SOJs.     

Touch,taste, smell-feeding nutrition into your program

Conclusion Activities along the lines of those suggested above can be planned for any food about which the children have little or no knowledge or for any food that is needed but not chosen by the group, such as green peppers. The number of activities planned for a food will, of course, reflect the interest of the children as well as that of the teacher or caregiver. The goal should be to foster positive attitudes about nutritious foods by helping children to acquire knowledge about foods through sensory experiences.