Ameliorating Early Reading Failure by Integrating the Teaching of Reading and Phonological Skills: The Phonological Linkage Hypothesis

We present a longitudinal intervention study of children experiencing difficulties in the early stages of learning to read. Our subjects, 7-year-old poor readers, were divided into 4 matched groups and assigned to 1 of 3 experimental teaching conditions: Reading with Phonology, Reading Alone, Phonology Alone, and a Control. Although the Phonology Alone group showed most improvement on phonological tasks, the Reading with Phonology group made most progress in reading. These results show that interventions to boost phonological skills need to be integrated with the teaching of reading if they are to be maximally effective in improving literacy skills.     

Influences of the learning environment of a Regional University Campus on its international graduates

Staff and students at small regional campuses often consider them to be a learning environment with many advantages. Students can benefit from the opportunities for enhanced access to staff provided by factors such as small classes and a compact campus. International students from non-English-speaking backgrounds are one group for whom these factors can be particularly helpful in their adjustment to a new society as well as in their continuing study program. This belief is tested in the study described in this paper. Factors identified by international students as influencing their learning at a small campus situated a considerable distance from the state capital indicate strengths to be built on and celebrated and areas that call for the development of strategies to improve the quality of that learning environment. Former international student graduates were surveyed concerning their perceptions of their regional Australian university experience and the professional preparation it provided. Other Australian higher education institutions, particularly those with regional campuses, can make use of the insights gained through the study: as well as having implications for the provision of a quality learning experience and environment for all students, not only international students, they also have a bearing on international marketing strategies.     

From Vocationalism to Enterprise: social and life skills become personal and transferable

In this paper we address Cohen's (1985) argument in “Against the New Vocationalism” by broadening the debate into an examination of how generic skills have gained a wider application with the emergence of new technology and structural enonomic change. In order to demonstrate the extent of this development, we include examples from training programmes in social and life skills for young people with learning difficulties and examine the Enterprise in Higher Education Initiative (EHEI), which, among other things, aims to give students personal and transferable skills. In this process, we extend Cohen's analysis to illustrate the diverse ways in which a behaviouristic model of skill transfer has been adopted.     

An Exploratory Evaluation of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation to Promote Collaboration Among Family,School, and Pediatric Systems: A Role for Pediatric School Psychologists

Pediatric school psychology is a relatively new subspecialty in the field; however, few specific, prescribed roles have been articulated, and fewer have yielded preliminary efficacy data. In this exploratory study, the acceptability and potential efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) as a model for linking families, schools, and pediatric settings to address concerns for children with medical issues were evaluated. Twenty-nine children, their parents, teachers, and consultants were involved in conjoint consultation, a model of cross-system collaboration to address shared concerns of medically referred children. In this structured indirect service delivery model, parents, teachers, and school psychology pediatric consultants worked collaboratively in interdisciplinary problem solving and joint decision making with extensive input regarding medical issues from a developmental pediatrician. Outcome measures included parent and teacher observations of child functioning across home and school settings as a result of consultation-mediated interventions and social validity indices assessing acceptability and consumer satisfaction. Results suggested that CBC is a socially valid procedure for addressing concerns of medically referred children across home and school systems. Both parents and teachers reported the consultation process to be highly acceptable. Preliminary effect size analyses of child outcomes, derived from uncontrolled case study designs, suggest generally positive effects across home and school, although limitations with the methodology preclude conclusive statements. Research is needed to determine the contexts and conditions under which the model is more or less effective using rigorous controlled trials.     

Recapturing imaginations and the gender agenda: reflections on a progressive challenge from an English perspective

Study careers of minority students in Dutch higher education are still less successful compared with the careers of majority students. Minority students still seem to experience more difficulties than majority students. Vincent Tinto’s twin concepts of academic and social integration are used here to explore the experiences of minority and majority students in Dutch higher engineering education. Based on a small‐scale interview study, it is shown that ethnic background does not seem to be a decisive, unequivocal factor in the extent to which students are integrated in institutions of higher education. Student answers show differences according to ethnic background in both social and academic integration, and these differences vary according to the year in which the students are found. The paper ends with some suggestions for further exploration.     

Scandalous stories and dangerous liaisons: when female pupils and male teachers fall in love

The Sexual Offences Act, 2003 criminalised all sexual activity in England and Wales between teachers and pupils under 18, irrespective of the fact that the general age of consent is 16, and even if the parties concerned were in a consensual relationship. Accounts of pupil–teacher romantic and sexual relationships are usually presented, in the media, through a discourse of scandal and exploitation. This paper draws on accounts of heterosexual attraction and consensual sexual relationships between female secondary school pupils and their male teachers as stories that have been told, by the people involved, in a positive fashion. The paper considers the ways in which sexual activity and identity are controlled and regulated through discursive practices and invites questioning of orthodoxies and norms.     

Vibration and Rebound Velocity Characteristics of Conventional and Oversized Tennis Rackets

Abstract

Stroboscope photography and accelerometry techniques were used to measure rebound velocities of tennis balls from impact locations on the strings and vibration levels at the rotation point on the racket handle for both conventional and oversized tennis rackets. The oversized rackets demonstrated lower vibration levels and higher rebound velocities than their conventional counterparts when balls struck by the racket were compared along a transverse axis drawn perpendicular to the racket shaft and through the geometric center of the strings. These differences were, however, only significantly different (p < .01) at the impact location 6 cm along this axis toward the top edge of the racket. Higher rebound velocities were recorded at all impact points from the oversized rackets along the axis in line with the racket shaft. Significantly lower vibration levels were apparent at locations 4 cm, 6 cm, and 8 cm from the string center away from the racket handle. The lower vibration levels, particularly at the extremes of the racket face, in conjunction with higher rebound velocities, support the concept that this new racket design is of practical benefit to users.     

Student experiences of engaged enquiry in pharmacy education: digital natives or something else?

This article reports on research into the student experience of enquiry in two tasks in a university pharmacy course. Students were required to investigate through a field trip how a community pharmacy operated to meet customer needs and the requirements of the Health System in which it operated. Students were also required to investigate interactions and other properties of particular medicines through an online research task. This study looked at the student experience of enquiry in these contexts and the implications of the findings of that investigation for the debate about how digital literacy might relate to experiences of effective enquiry. The study presents evidence that suggests aspects such as variation in approaches to enquiry are an indicator of the extent of student success rather than the technologies ‘per se’. Analysis of the student population data, interviews and open-ended comments in surveys identified qualitatively different experiences of enquiry in both the community pharmacy context and the online investigation. The outcomes suggest that the way students approach and conceive of enquiry is closely related to the quality of their outcomes, and that this appears to be a more significant factor in the nature of effective enquiry than their classification as digital natives as a result of their age.     

The (Non)Importance of a Programming Language in a Software Engineering Course

Our catchy title is intended to be controversial, provoking thought upon the impact (or lack of any) that a programming language has on the curriculum for a software engineering course. Our view on the subject is from both directions, as indicated by the title. As educators, we argue that the language issues are secondary to the fundamental concern of understanding software engineering concepts, specifically object‐oriented concepts. However, we appreciate that expertise in a widely accepted object‐oriented language may be essential towards the more practical aspect of building a critical mass of software engineers versed in object‐oriented techniques. This reflects upon the maturing nature of computer science and engineering as a science, which is evolving its fundamental principles, while at the same time recognizing its impact as an engineering discipline sensitive to practical applications. The evolution of our primary software engineering course, CS250 Introduction to Software Engineering, has been influenced by our own reflections on the state of software engineering in the 1990s, industrial requirements for expertise by our graduates, and the needs of accreditation. We present the internal and external factors that have guided our course design. This process reflects our own experiences in academia and industry. We present this process as a representative model of a sound approach, but make no claims that it is the optimal approach.