The effect of context on student engagement in engineering

The self-belief, motivation, tendency to procrastinate and learning styles of engineering students are discussed. It is proposed that engineering has developed an idiom and a learning approach that favours the dominant client, i.e. men, while simultaneously undermining the self-efficacy and motivation of women. Thematic coherence and teaching within a context that is familiar to students have been shown previously to be effective approaches for engaging students and are extended here to utilise the common experiences of all students to initiate the learning cycle. These approaches are combined with a template for teaching that uses the 5Es (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) in order to render the fundamentals of engineering more accessible to all students. This methodology can be introduced by individual instructors, who will be rewarded by students who are more engaged, more motivated and more likely to give a higher rating to the instructor and the course.     

Spying for the enlightenment

According to Enlightenment ideology, knowledge was shared openly in the international Republic of Letters. In reality, the owners of lucrative new technologies were determined to keep their discoveries hidden from industrial spies.     

Acculturation and psychosocial adjustment of Chinese international students: Examining mediation and moderation effects

This study examined mechanisms through which acculturation influenced psychosocial adjustment of Chinese international students. Specifically, these mechanisms refer to the mediating and moderating effects of social interaction and social connectedness with host nationals upon the acculturation–adjustment linkages. Chinese international students from four universities in Texas responded to a web-based survey (N = 508). Results from regression analyses showed social connectedness with Americans mediated the links between adherence to the host culture (acculturation dimension) and psychosocial adjustment (i.e., depression and sociocultural adjustment difficulties). Social interaction with Americans moderated the association between adherence to the home culture (acculturation dimension) and depression. We discussed implications for theory and health promotion practice, and presented directions for future research.     

The Language and Educational Ideologies of Mixteco-Mexican Mothers

Mixtecos, members of an Indigenous group from Mexico, have settled in large numbers in New York. Their children are found in bilingual classrooms (Spanish–English), but little is known about parent–school interactions. This work describes the educational ideologies that 23 Mixteco mothers shared during 5 focus group interviews distributed across 9 months. The results are presented as structured anecdotes that underline (a) education as a cooperative endeavor between teachers and parents, (b) preference of Spanish over Mixteco as family language, and (c) mothers’ commitment to overcoming their own illiteracy. The educational ideologies of these Mixteco mothers reflect deep commitment to supporting their children's education.     

The persuasiveness of persuasive discourse

This investigation explored why and how persuasion occurs. Toward this end, we examined the processing of two articles under conditions called for in the persuasion and conceptual change literatures. One unique aspect of the current study was the use of topic-specific measures of beliefs, knowledge (i.e., perceived and demonstrated), and interest. The performance of members of three educational communities (i.e., undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty) was compared, as was the knowledge and interest of more or less persuaded readers. One article argued that there are prenatal similarities among humans and other mammals, while the second presented a favorable view of same-sex marriages. Although both articles produced significant changes in readers’ beliefs, knowledge, and interest, there were performance differences by text, educational community, and persuasion group. Results showed that readers’ perceptions of their knowledge played a more significant role in persuasion outcomes than the knowledge they actually demonstrated. Outcomes suggest the need to look more closely at the relationship between knowledge and interest in subsequent studies of persuasion.     

A causal analysis relating previous achievement,attitudes, discourse,and intervention to achievement in biology and chemistry

This study described the relationship of 38 variates to achievement in high school biology and chemistry classes. Forty-four teachers prepared audio tape recordings of discussions throughout a nine-month period. Equal-sized groups received treatment consisting of wait time feedback and/or supportive intervention, a form of peer coaching. Other variables were initial measures, which included the variates of class size and previous science grade, pre- and posttest scores on student attitudes and perceptions, and prediscourse and discourse analyses, which included the variates of wait times, actions, and response durations. While previous research has shown that wait time feedback and supportive intervention are effective means of changing teacher behavior, the results of the present study revealed that previous student achievement and the attitudes of students accounted for 70% of the variation in the final examination scores (New York State Regents) on the basis of only the first three weeks of data collection on the variables assessed. Generally, little emphasis on higher-level thinking, wait time, or problem solving was found at the beginning of the school year, and only minimal changes resulted from the application of the treatment variables. Pressures for content coverage and preparation for externally imposed statewide examinations that emphasize memory-level learning augured against the changes that the independent variables were designed to produce.     

Participation in transition review meetings: a case study of young people with learning disabilities leaving a special school

Transition into adulthood has been identified as a critical period in the lives of young people with learning disabilities, with national guidance and legislation emphasising the role of participation and inclusion as central to the transition process. In this article, Steven Carnaby, a clinical psychologist working with adults with learning disabilities in London and a lecturer in learning disability at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent; Patricia Lewis, head of the sixth form and SENCo; Di Martin, senior teacher and former SENCo; John Naylor, deputy head of the sixth form and head of arts; David Stewart OBE, headteacher, all from the Shepherd School, Nottingham, report the outcomes of a small-scale case study exploring these issues. The project ran for four years and, in Phase 1, evaluated the ways in which students with learning disabilities were involved in their transition review meetings as they entered their final year at school. This first phase found that many students were excluded from meaningful discussion in their planning meetings, highlighting students with more severe disabilities as being more vulnerable to exclusion. After a series of recommendations were made for improving practice in terms of inclusion and participation, Phase 2 of the study assessed ways in which practice in these areas had improved. The school had developed more individualised ways of working using person-centred techniques to enhance meaning for students. At the close of this article, the authors summarise these improvements and propose further strategies for enhancing the participation process.