A labour of love: mothers,emotional capital and homework

This paper develops a new analysis of homework by building on feminist scholarship which documents the invisible labour done by women in support of their children's education. While numerous studies have examined the relationship between homework and achievement, little attention has been paid to the largely gendered and potentially stressful nature of ‘parental involvement’. The analytic focus in this paper is on the complex emotional and pedagogical dimensions of homework and the ways it is shaped by socio-cultural contexts. Videotaped homework interactions between one working-class and two middle-class mothers and their children are examined using Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and capital. The analysis distinguishes between productive pedagogical relationships and those that promote extensive anxiety and are counterproductive to learning. The paper argues that the reserves of cultural and emotional capital required for homework completion are significant and that class position does not necessarily guarantee the ways in which these capitals are mobilised.     

Children with motor coordination problems and learning disabilities in reading,spelling, writing and arithmetic

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted to investigate the incidence of motor coordination problems (clumsiness) among 10‐year‐old learning disabled children and to examine the characteristics of children with motor coordination problems. It was found that the strongest relationship between motor and learning problems seemed to exist in handwriting and arithmetic and the weakest in reading. With regard to the assignment to different subgroups based on deficient reading and spelling strategies, more clumsy children with dyslexic problems were classified in the ‘phonological’ and ‘mixed’ groups than in the ‘morphemic’ group. Our study also supports the heterogeneity of children labelled ‘clumsy’. The clumsy children varied widely in their characteristics and concomitant disabilities. No significant difference between the children with motor problems and a control group of ‘normal’ children was found when intelligence was accounted for.     

Postponement in the completion of the final dissertation: an underexplored dimension of achievement in higher education

Research on academic achievement at a university has mainly focused on success and persistence among first year students. Very few studies have looked at delay or failure in the completion of a final dissertation. However, this phenomenon could affect a substantial proportion of students and has considerable costs. The purpose of the present study is to identify factors which predict postponement in the completion of the final dissertation. Several potential predictors (e.g., background, personality, social support, motivational beliefs, and engagement) were selected through an integrative review of the literature on achievement in higher education. A questionnaire assessing these variables was administered to 341 students a few months before the deadline for their final dissertation. Results indicate that perceived peer support, perceived relatives support, role conflict, and age have an independent and significant effect on whether or not the final dissertation is completed on time. In addition, self-efficacy and behavioral engagement appeared to be mediators of the relationship between the social support and the final dissertation completion.     

Students' Knowledge About Environmental Matters and Their Belief in Their Own Action Possibilities–A Danish Study

Abstract

Drawing chiefly from Paul Shepard's (1982) Nature and Madness and David Abram's (1996) The Spell of the Sensuous, this essay draws attention to two underlying foundations of educational thought: the process of human social development and the emergence of language and literacy. A reading of Shepard and Abram implies that the meaning of human social development and the meaning of literacy must be recovered from our shared human heritage in which human beings developed a sense of interconnection with nonhuman others. This perspective suggests many challenges to environmental educators including (a) the need to take a more philosophical (and less instrumental) approach to our work, (b) the need for a working theory of development and literacy in education that takes nonhuman otherness seriously, (c) the need to advocate for more regular and extended experiences in the natural world in order to nurture relationship with otherness, (d) the need to reinvent “accountability” in education, (e) and the need to develop in all learners, including ourselves, a sense of at-homeness.     

Assisting self-explanation prompts are more effective than open prompts when learning with multiple representations

Learning with multiple representations is usually employed in order to foster understanding. However, it also imposes high demands on the learners and often does not lead to the expected results, especially because the learners do not integrate the different representations. Thus, it is necessary to support the learners’ self-explanation activity, which concerns the integration and understanding of multiple representations. In the present experiment, we employed multi-representational worked-out examples and tested the effects of two types of self-explanation prompts as help procedures for integrating and understanding multiple representations. The participants (N = 62) learned about probability theory under three conditions: (a) open self-explanation prompts, (b) self-explanation prompts in an assistance-giving-assistance-withholding procedure (assisting self-explanation prompts), or (c) no prompts (control group). Both types of self-explanation prompts fostered procedural knowledge. This effect was mediated by self-explanations directed to domain principles. Conceptual knowledge was particularly fostered by assisting self-explanation prompts which was mediated by self-explanations on the rationale of a principle. Thus, for enhancing high-quality self-explanations and both procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding, we conclude that assisting self-explanation prompts should be provided. We call this the assisting self-explanation prompt effect which refers to the elicitation of high-quality self-explanations and the acquisition of deep understanding.     

Ergebnisse nationaler und internationaler Forschung zu schulischen Innovationsnetzwerken

Accompanied by the increasing relevance of school networks, there are a lot of reports available in national and international research regarding this topic. However, a compact summary of those studies and their findings is missing by now. Therefore, this article synthesizes the current research on school networks. Starting with the introduction of theoretical concepts for a better understanding of academic innovation networks, the article examines the empirical findings concerning those networks. This examination is conducted separately for German language and English language research. According to the presented findings, a consistent positive effect of school networks can be traced. The article concludes with a discussion of future research potentials concerning networks. Concrete suggestions for methodical and theoretical designs regarding network research are submitted.     

When in Doubt,Go to the Library: The Effect of a Library-Intensive Freshman Research and Writing Seminar on Academic Success

The paper is an extension of a previous study, which examined student perceptions of a unique freshman seminar offered to Criminology and Criminal Justice students at Florida State University. The seminar is characterized by a heavy focus on interactive library sessions in which students learn how to conduct research and write a scholarly paper. The previous article reported on student perceptions of research and writing skills developed in the seminar. This report, using Multivariate Regression and Propensity Score Matching reveals that compared to a carefully constructed comparison group, first time in college students enrolled in the seminar have statistically significantly higher cumulative grade point averages and percentages of graduation within four years. The seminar’s emphasis on the library as a research tool is thought to have contributed to the differences seen on academic outcomes between students who took the seminar and a matched comparison group.     

Prompting undergraduate students’ metacognition of learning: implementing ‘meta-learning’ assessment tasks in the biomedical sciences

To succeed at post-secondary education, it’s essential that students develop an understanding of their own knowledge and learning processes. This metacognition of learning, or ‘meta-learning’, helps students to become more effective learners, as they become more aware of their self-regulatory processes and recognise the effectiveness of their study strategies. To increase biomedical science students’ self-awareness, we have designed and implemented meta-learning assessment tasks across our biomedical science courses. Most students reported that meta-learning tasks had a positive impact on their learning, as they prompted self-regulatory processes of forethought and self-reflection. We found that students were equally likely to change or not change their study strategies across subsequent semesters. Those students that did not change were generally high achievers, believing their study approaches were most effective, but their performance did not improve across semesters. In contrast, students who adapted, mostly by modifying how they appraised and rearranged records or improved planning and time management, performed less well overall but significantly improved their performance across semesters. Meta-learning tasks may prompt students to become more self-reflective and independent learners by affecting their approach to learning, enabling them to reflect on their study strategies, adapt and improve performance, and may enable the development of lifelong learning skills.     

Polymorphisms within the COL5A1 gene and regulators of the extracellular matrix modify the risk of Achilles tendon pathology in a British case-control study

Several genetic loci have been associated with risk of Achilles tendon pathology (ATP) within South African and Australian populations. The aim of this study was, therefore, to evaluate eight previously implicated genetic variants in an independent British population. A total of 130 asymptomatic controls (CON) and 112 participants clinically diagnosed with ATP comprising 87 individuals with chronic Achilles tendinopathy (TEN) and 25 with Achilles tendon ruptures (RUP) were included. All participants were genotyped for variants within the COL5A1, MIR608, IL-1β, IL-6 and CASP8 genes. Primary findings implicated COL5A1 and CASP8. Three inferred allele combinations constructed from COL5A1 rs12722, rs3196378 and rs71746744 were identified as risk modifiers. The T–C–D combination was associated with increased risk of ATP (P = 0.023) and RUP (P < 0.001), the C–A–I combination was associated with increased risk of ATP (P = 0.011), TEN (P = 0.011) and RUP (P = 0.011) and the C–C–D combination was associated with decreased risk of ATP (P = 0.011) and RUP (P = 0.004). The CASP8 rs3834129 DD genotype was associated with decreased risk of TEN (P = 0.020, odds ratio: 0.45, 95% confidence interval: 0.22–0.90) and the CASP8 I–G (rs3834129–rs1045485) inferred allele combination was associated with increased risk of TEN (P = 0.031). This study further highlights the importance of polymorphisms within COL5A1 and CASP8 in the aetiology of ATP.