Are there differences in ethnic majority and minority adolescents’ friendships preferences and social influence with regard to their academic achievement?

Research has established that adolescents both befriend peers based on their academic achievement and adjust their own achievement to that of their friends’ over time. However, these processes may be different for ethnic minority students, because some of them may adhere to an oppositional culture that rejects striving for academic success. We examine respective differences between self-identified ethnic minority and majority students using longitudinal social network analysis (stochastic actor-oriented models) in a sample of 1175 students (aged 13) from 12 grade-level networks in Germany secondary schools. Among the students, we find that academically successful students in particular prefer friends with high grades, but that students with poor grades exert more social influence on their friends to adjust their performance. Moreover, while minority students are indeed less inclined to select friends with higher grades, both ethnic majority and minority youth prefer friends with similar academic achievement and are similarly influenced by their friends’ achievement. However, social influence is stronger from same-ethnic than from inter-ethnic friends. In sum, there is mixed evidence for an oppositional culture among ethnic minority students in our sample.     

Bourdieu’s habitus and field: implications on the practice and theory of critical action learning

This paper considers the logic of practice of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in relation to critical action learning: in particular habitus which is co-created with field and the interplay amongst the two in the form of misrecognition and risk. We draw on interviews with participants who have experienced action learning as part of an NHS leadership programme. We argue that Bourdieu provides helpful ways of understanding and explaining the complex processes of social interactions which are centre stage in action learning – especially the ‘social friction’ through which action learners gain new insights and new prompts to action in their workplace from learning set members. These insights can support action learning practitioners keen to explore their own practice.     

Attitudes Toward Spanish and Code-Switching in Belize: Stigmatization and Innovation in the Spanish Classroom

Through the analysis of survey and interview data, we investigated the attitudes and perceptions of 32 multilingual teachers of Spanish in Belize, a code-switching (CS) context where Spanish is in intense contact with English and Belizean Kriol. More specifically, we examined teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward Spanish and CS and teachers’ perceptions vis-à-vis students’ attitudes toward Spanish instruction. The study revealed that whereas some teachers held negative views of Northern Belizean Spanish, they did not markedly perceive standard Spanish as “better” than the local variety of Belizean Spanish. The analysis also showed that most teachers had a positive predisposition to the use of CS as a pedagogical tool in their classrooms, a finding that suggests that ultra-normative attitudes toward Spanish varieties are not prevalent among these educators. In view of students’ attitudes, teachers concurred that students had overwhelmingly negative attitudes toward standard Spanish, in line with previous findings. We argue that educational reforms and status-planning efforts are vital to destigmatize Spanish and to promote its maintenance alongside Belizean Kriol and English.     

Learning to play: A review and theoretical investigation of the developmental mechanisms and functions of cetacean play

Play is a behavioral phenomenon most commonly observed in the young of both solitary and social species. Documentation of play in cetaceans varies across species and settings. Cetacean play behavioral repertoires include a broad range of actions, such as the manipulation of diverse objects, blowing bubbles, chasing conspecifics, and swimming in spirals through the water. As is common in research on animal play, cetacean play has been grouped into categories by its form, including locomotor play, object play, and different variations of social play, such as affiliative games, play fighting, and socio-sexual play. Research has primarily focused on recording the topography of cetacean play and the demographics of the individuals engaging in play. However, these classifications are insufficient to address the possible developmental and societal functions of cetacean play behaviors, or the mechanisms with which play behaviors are spread between conspecifics and acquired by young members of cetacean populations. This article applies several developmental and social learning theories in order to organize current knowledge and guide future research.     

Patterns of participation in year 9 academic testing and factors predicting absence on the day of test

Policies aiming to improve educational outcomes are typically based on academic testing data. However, such data only reflect the performance of students who completed the tests. It is possible that students who were absent have shared characteristics. The proportion of students absent out of all eligible school students and whether they have shared characteristics has not been investigated, as this is only possible through the use of linked administrative data. Participants were born in Western Australia in 1994 and 1995, and their birth records were linked to participation status in the Year 9 academic tests to determine the proportion of students who were absent. Logistic regression was conducted to investigate characteristics which predicted absence on test day. A proportion of non-Aboriginal (3.2 %) and Aboriginal students (21.9 %) were absent on test day. Risk factors which predicted the absence included contact with Child Protection and Family Services, history of maternal mental health problems, and fathers aged below 20 years at the time of their child’s birth. A significant proportion of students was absent and therefore not represented in academic achievement information. These students were more likely to have experienced adverse events and therefore are not randomly absent. As these data are typically used to inform policies which aim to improve educational outcomes, they may lack the necessary information to adequately address the complex needs of students who are absent on test day. However, findings suggest that service providers, as well as schools may play an important role in encouraging participation in school.     

Curriculum Interventions for Area Measurement Instruction to Enhance Children’s Conceptual Understanding

This study examined the effectiveness of 3 curriculum interventions focused on strengthening children’s ability to solve area measurement problems and explored the instructional perspectives of the instructor who implemented the interventions. The interventions involved various degrees of emphasis on area measurement and knowledge of 2-dimensional geometry. Participants were 131 fourth graders, recruited from a city in northern Taiwan, and 1 instructor. The results confirmed the effectiveness of an enriched curriculum integrating knowledge of 2-dimensional geometry in enhancing children’s conceptual understanding of area measurement. The group that received the enriched curriculum outperformed the other groups that received the curricula stressing only 2-dimensional geometry or numerical calculations for area measurement in solving the area problems requiring mathematical judgments and explanations. The curriculum also facilitated children’s reasoning in distinguishing between the perimeter and area of a rectangle, which required higher-order mathematical thinking. Interview data revealed that approximately all children from the 3 intervention groups could identify the mathematical subject-matter components highlighted in the curricula. Interviewees tended to consider the use of formulae to solve area measurement problems to be important, despite some differences in learning gains among the 3 groups. In interviews, the participating instructor revealed a change of perspective regarding the importance of offering students opportunities for manipulation and geometric operations when teaching area measurement, prompted by curriculum enactment.     

Approaching Knowledge Management Through the Lens of the Knowledge Life Cycle: a Case Study Investigation

More organizational leaders are recognizing that their greatest competitive advantage is the knowledge base of their employees and for organizations to thrive knowledge management (KM) systems need to be in place that encourage the natural interplay and flow of tacit and explicit knowledge. Approaching KM through the lens of the knowledge life cycle allows for the design and development of KM solutions that are systemic and address the dynamic nature of organizational knowledge. In this paper we provide a review of the literature regarding how organizational knowledge may be studied and propose a methodological framework for investigating the knowledge life cycle. To illustrate the framework we present a recent case study in which it was successfully used. This framework is intended to be useful to learning and performance improvement professionals who work in organizational KM as well as to researchers who wish to conduct further research in this area.