The effects of individual and group contingencies on reading performance of special education students

The effects of individual and group contingencies on the reading performance of 10 special education students were examined in a counterbalanced multiple-baseline design with experimental manipulations introduced at random. During the Baseline condition no consequences for accuracy in programmed reading were in effect. With the Group Contingency, pupils earned points based on accuracy and exchanged them for activity backup reinforcers based on the average performance of the group. During the Individual Contingency arrangement, the same point totals were awarded by yoking pupils to the group behavioral criteria. The results indicated superior accuracy (from 2 to 25%) with the Group Contingency by all 10 pupils. Student preferences as to the two contingency arrangements indicated a slight preference for the Group Contingency phase. A lack of negative peer comments was noted over the duration of the experiment. Results were also discussed in terms of ease of implementation of the group contingencies within an ongoing token economy in a classroom setting. Tentative reasons for the differing results of the present study and others were presented.     

BASIC UBRARY SKILLS: A CHOICE OF LEARNING MEDIA

The paper describes an attempt to provide students with a choice of learning media with which to absorb basic library skills. We were interested in seeing whether students particularly favoured one medium rather than another, and also, from the point of view of our Media Services section, we were concerned with comparing the various formats with regard to their effectiveness in communicating this particular information     

‘It is the research of self experience’: feeling the value in action research

This article tells the story of an attempt to bring about major educational reform of the curriculum and educational values in Kazakhstan, using action research as part of that process. The article begins with a brief and selective review of the literature on aspects of emotion and moves to an account of the context and history of the reforms, before focusing on the ‘self experience’ of the participants and the authors. Emotion, its centrality and the interrelationship of three areas – the nature of teaching and teacher learning, the process of change and the experience of research – are explored in relation to reform and action research. The paper concludes with a reflection on the implications for the use of action research as a strategy for reform.     

Good jobs – but places for women?

This article is concerned with men and women's experience of elite positions and with the extent to which such positions are seen as places for women, so as to provide an insight into their commitment to continuing in them. Senior management in universities are elite positions in terms of income; those who occupy them are relatively powerful internally, although relatively powerless in relation to the state and the market. Drawing on a purposive study of those at the top three levels (i.e. presidential, vice-presidential, and dean) in public universities, it finds little difference between men and women's perceptions of the advantages/disadvantages of these positions. However, in a context where roughly four-fifths of those in university senior management are men [O'Connor, P. 2014. Management and Gender in Higher Education. Manchester: Manchester University Press.], at the level of organisational narratives and at the interactional level, gender differences persist. These differences are reflected in variation in commitment to continuing in senior management positions.     

Gender Gaps in Achievement and Participation in Multiple Introductory Biology Classrooms

Although gender gaps have been a major concern in male-dominated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines such as physics and engineering, the numerical dominance of female students in biology has supported the assumption that gender disparities do not exist at the undergraduate level in life sciences. Using data from 23 large introductory biology classes for majors, we examine two measures of gender disparity in biology: academic achievement and participation in whole-class discussions. We found that females consistently underperform on exams compared with males with similar overall college grade point averages. In addition, although females on average represent 60% of the students in these courses, their voices make up less than 40% of those heard responding to instructor-posed questions to the class, one of the most common ways of engaging students in large lectures. Based on these data, we propose that, despite numerical dominance of females, gender disparities remain an issue in introductory biology classrooms. For student retention and achievement in biology to be truly merit based, we need to develop strategies to equalize the opportunities for students of different genders to practice the skills they need to excel.     

Investigating trait emotional intelligence among school leaders: demonstrating a useful self-assessment approach

An exploratory study of two grammar schools in the South East of England is used to justify and demonstrate a self-assessed approach that investigates trait emotional intelligence (EI) among school leaders. First, the theoretical underpinnings of ability and trait EI approaches are critically compared based on recent relevant literature. Then the results from TEIQue-SF, a self-evaluation questionnaire, are presented and discussed. Finally, notwithstanding limitations of the study and the approach taken, we suggest that with further empirical research, a refined and usable self-assessed approach could be a useful way for practitioners to evaluate trait EI among school leaders in the future.