Engaging New Faculty in the Scholarship of Teaching

This article describes how scholarly teaching projects were conceived, implemented, and evaluated by junior faculty from a variety of disciplines at a medium-sized midwestern university. The authors explore: considerations in designing scholarly teaching projects, methods used to evaluate teaching effectiveness, and outcomes of the teaching projects. Finally, two of the teaching projects illustrate how junior faculty with diverse courses, class sizes, and teaching concerns approached the task of improving their teaching.     

Health information: an evaluation of the use of touch screen kiosks in two hospitals

An exit questionnaire survey of 150 hospital users of a touch screen health information kiosk was undertaken. It was compiled by Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS to evaluate kiosk use and was reanalysed by researchers at City University to determine whether the information obtained went anyway to meeting patients’ information needs. The study established two effective outcome variables on kiosk use: whether the information found answered the users’ questions and if users intended, after using the kiosk, to find more information elsewhere. Two‐thirds of respondents said that the information found had answered their question, whilst 16% said that after using the kiosk they still had further questions and intended to talk to a health professional to obtain this information. The variables found to have an impact on the information outcome included: gender, navigational ease, object of search, and ease of reading and understanding the information.     

Learning from curriculum materials: Scaffolds for new teachers?

This article explores how beginning teachers use and learn from curriculum materials. As part of a longitudinal study of beginning English teachers who teach in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, the researchers tracked teachers’ responses to and use of materials over time, and how these materials shaped their classroom practice. The authors found that the teachers spent an enormous amount of time searching out curriculum materials for their classes and that the curriculum materials they encountered did, indeed, powerfully shape their ideas about teaching language arts as well as their classroom practice. Based on their findings, the authors propose a trajectory for the teachers’ use of the curriculum materials. New teachers begin by sticking close to the materials they have at hand. Then, over time, as they learn more about both students and curriculum, they adapt and adjust their use of the materials. The authors argue that new and aspiring teachers need opportunities to analyze and critique curriculum materials, beginning during teacher education and continuing in the company of their more experienced colleagues.     

Constructive Copying: Exploring the Vocabulary

Increasingly, concerns are being expressed about the negative effects of digital copying in both industry and higher education. A project was formulated to investigate the use of paper‐based drawing methods for copying from visual source material in varied and structured ways and, thereby, to mitigate the adverse effects of design student dependency on screen‐based copying. A Copying Vocabulary Matrix was formulated based on findings accrued through a practice‐based enquiry where methods of copying were explored and a terminology of copying identified by the authors. A Constructive Copying Workshop was then devised for integration into an existing printed textile design course. Students were asked to respond to the words in the matrix through copying from the same visual source and were limited to pencils and paper. They were also encouraged to keep a reflective journal to record their thoughts as they worked. Their views were monitored during and after the workshop, and the drawings produced were then reviewed and analysed. It was found that a wide variety of images were produced based on either experimentation or strategic rationale by the students and that their visual literacy, analytical skills and understanding of textile design were enhanced, leading to the conclusion that similar teaching interventions into the design drawing curricula could benefit the student learning experience.     

Learning from failed decisions

The consequences and dilemmas posed by learning issues for decision making are discussed. Learning requires both awareness of barriers and a coping strategy. The motives to hold back information essential for learning stem from perverse incentives, obscure outcomes, and the hindsight bias. There is little awareness of perverse incentives that encourage cover‐ups and limit discussion. The article shows how cover‐ups arise, how to root out perverse incentives, and how to encourage disclosures to understand failure. Cases are used to illustrate perverse incentives and how cover‐ups arise. Then actions that encouraged learning as well as ways to deal with obscure outcomes and hindsight biases are offered.     

‘But no one in my family has been to University’ Aiming Higher: School students’ attitudes to Higher Education

In this paper, we present findings from the second stage of a three year longitudinal study involving 3,570 students aged 13–18 in a London Borough looking at the impact of Widening Participation (WP) on the attitudes of students. We outline findings from a previous stage and then focus specifically on two cohorts of Year 10 students (aged 14–15) in two consecutive years. The students completed the specially designed Attitudes to Higher Education Questionnaire (AHEQ) and provided information on WP activities in which they had participated. Data on the students’ academic attainment and social backgrounds were also included. There were significant sex and cohort differences and interactions which were found to be related to WP activities specifically aimed at increasing the participation of socially disadvantaged students in higher education. The implications of findings are discussed in relation to theories of social identity and self concept and the implementation of strategies to increase participation in Higher Education.     

Early identification of special educational needs and the definition of 'at risk': The Early Years Transition and Special Educational Needs (EYTSEN) Project

Education in the early years is a key element in the Government's current strategy. Recently, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) funded a major study of Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE). The Early Years Transition and Special Educational Needs (EYTSEN) Project developed from the EPPE research and was also funded by the DfES. The authors of this article, Brenda Taggart, Pam Sammons, Rebecca Smees, Kathy Sylva, Edward Melhuish, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Karen Elliott and Ingrid Lunt, all worked on the EYTSEN Project, based at the Institute of Education, University of London. In this article, they provide a summary of the findings from the EYTSEN Project, reviewing the impact of pre-school provision on children said to be 'at risk' of developing special educational needs. They suggest that pre-school experience has a positive impact on cognitive attainment and social or behavioural development and that integrated centres (where education and care are fully combined) and nursery schools have the most positive influence among the different f o rms of pre-school provision. This paper also discusses the identification of special educational needs; quality in pre-school centres; parents' perspectives; and future developments. The article closes with a call for improved training for practitioners working in early years settings.     

Whose are the Es in EBDs?

Two related incidents prompted me write this paper. First, I was looking through my files of quotes and came across one from a brief conversation some seven years ago with a 14 year old boy – I will call him John. John was responding to a question about an incident in class in his last year at primary school. He said he believed it was “the thing” that resulted in his exclusion from mainstream school. The second incident, or series of incidents, happened over a period of about three weeks in October 1995 when I had a number of telephone calls – including several from teachers – about EBDs. I recognised a common thread running through these that reflected numerous other conversations over the past few years. They also reminded me that, just as Peter Kingston drew attention in an article in the Guardian to the rising tide of emotion in the debate on ADD and ADHD (Kingston, 1995), emotion is evident in very many discussions of EBDs generally. Two quotes sum up this point. The first, the one I just referred to, from John:     

‘They are out of control’: self‐perceptions,risk‐taking and attributional style of adolescents with SEBDs

Fifty‐six secondary school students with and without social emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBDs) completed self‐report measures of their strengths and difficulties, self‐concept and social identity, cognitive attributional style and participated in computer‐based tests of risk‐taking and impulsivity. Contrary to common understanding, the students with SEBDs made realistic estimations of their difficulties and were as able to make attributions as their peers without SEBDs; though they tended to attribute negative events internally significantly more often than did students without SEBDs. No differences were found between the two groups in terms of risk‐taking as measured on a computer‐based test. Implications of these findings for identification of and working with students with SEBDs are considered.