The writer is at the center of the scholarship: Partnering me‐search and research

Ever suffer from writer's blahs? Read on to learn from Robert J. Nash and DeMethra LaSha Bradley how to inject the vigor of personal narrative into the rigor of traditional research.     

Is the School Composition Effect Real?: A Discussion With Evidence From the UK PISA Data

The school composition effect has attracted attention from researchers who believe that progress towards equality of educational opportunity is compromised by the existence of schools with “unbalanced” social rolls. Evidence for 2 central hypotheses in the “mix” theory is tested by an analysis of UK PISA data. It is suggested that the school composition effect is sometimes an artefact of statistical procedures and caused by “unmeasured” within-SES school selection for noncognitive dispositions and variable family resources within social classes. Some implications for the debate into the origins of social differences in education and the limits of “effective schooling” are discussed.     

PERSPECTIVES ON THE INSTRUCTION OF BIOLOGICAL AGING COURSES

Courses in biological aging are becoming increasingly common and necessary in college curricula for several reasons. At the same time, there is a lack of guidance for instructors regarding necessary content in such a course, which is in part perpetuated by uncertainty about the background of students who need this instruction and a lack of consistency in the content and style of human aging textbooks. In this article, the authors, as instructors who have taught undergraduate level human biological aging courses for many years, describe the areas of study and needs of students likely to enroll in such a course and also detail strategies and organizational methods found to be advantagous in teaching this material in a coherent and understandable manner to a largely nonscience major student cohort. Strategies discussed include alteration of course content, decompartmentalization of topics, relation of biological topics to social science reference points, and contrasting “universal” and pathological age‐related changes. Also included is an outline of the content and order of subjects that the authors have found through experience to be successful in the instruction of a biological aging course.     

Rubrics as a Tool for Learning and Assessment: What Do Baccalaureate Students Think?

Rubrics are increasingly used as tools to evaluate student work. This study examined BSW students' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of using rubrics. Pre- and posttest questionnaires were administered to 35 students in two sections of a diversity course. Students judged the use of rubrics favorably. Rubrics communicated the instructors' expectations, clarified how to write course assignments, explained grade and point deductions and, in general, made course expectations clearer. Students suggested that the rubric design should be self-explanatory and easy to follow. If carefully developed, rubrics may be a useful tool for advancing student learning in social work programs.     

What trainees in England learn about teaching pupils with special educational needs/disabilities in their school-based work: the contribution of planned activities in one-year initial training courses☆

The project reported in this paper addresses the issue of trainee teacher learning with regard to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) during the school placement element of one-year postgraduate teacher training programmes in England. Through a focus on the university/school partnership, school organisational and classroom pedagogic processes, the project aimed to improve knowledge and understanding about teacher education relevant to the special educational needs and inclusive education fields. Specifically, the project examined and compared the school-based learning and outcomes of postgraduate teacher trainees in primary and secondary programmes that used different approaches to preparing teachers for the special needs aspects of their future teaching. Three kinds of school-based approaches are examined: one that involved a practical teaching task; a second which involved a pupil-focused task (but not practical teaching); and a third where there was no specific pupil-focused SEND task other than class teaching practice.

The paper reports on what and how trainees learned about teaching pupils with SEND and on differences related to the use of SEND tasks. Findings indicate that what trainees learn about teaching pupils with SEND is strongly interlinked with what they learn about teaching in general. The pedagogic knowledge learned from undertaking planned pupil-focused SEND tasks, however, centres on pupils’ personal learning needs, something that was less likely to be learned from only whole-class teaching experience. Implications for schools, initial teacher education (ITE) providers, national and international policy are presented as evidence-informed questions with possible options.     

春天

SPring，the swe以SPring，15 the卯ar’5 Pleasant king; Then blooms eaeh thing，then maids danee in a ring，Cokl doth not sting，the Pre询birds do sing，Cuekoo，iug一姐，Pu-昵，to一诚tta胡00!春天，甜蜜的春天，一年中欢乐的国王;春光中万物昌盛，春光中少女们团团起舞寒冷不再贬骨，美丽的鸟儿处处啼唱，咕咕，喳一喳，卜一威，嘟一威嗒一握! The Palm and ma夕make eountw houses ga夕，Lambs frisk and PI即，the shePherds PIPe alld即，And we hear即e birds tune this mer即la夕，Cuekoo，iug一ug，Pu一e，to一幼tta一woo!棕搁树和山碴花把乡村房舍点缀得喜气洋洋小羔羊活蹦乱跳，牧羊人整日借笛声袅袅，我们时时听到鸟儿唱起快乐的曲调，咕咕，喳一喳，卜一威，嘟一威嗒一呢! The fields breathe绷e以，the daisies kiss our f...     

A Review of: “Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians. Spatz,Michele.”

No abstract available for this article.