Secondary school transition for children with special educational needs: a literature review

Successful transition from primary to secondary school is important for psychosocial well‐being. Children with special educational needs (SEN) may face additional complexities at transition, although the impact of this process on children's psychosocial adjustment has been underexplored. The article aims to review systematically the literature exploring the impact of transition on the concerns and psychosocial adjustment of children with SEN in comparison to typically developing children. Published studies were identified through a systematic search of six electronic databases. Articles fulfilling inclusion criteria were reviewed and a quality criteria system was developed to rank studies. Children with specific learning difficulties perceive lower levels of social support and more peer victimisation after transition than typically developing children, but methodological limitations and the modest number of studies restricted the conclusions that could be drawn.     

The Malaysian Teacher Standards: a look at the challenges and implications for teacher educators

Talks of education transformation to improve the quality and outcomes of education in Malaysia culminated in the articulation of standards for teachers. The all new Malaysian Teacher Standards (MTS) launched in 2009 is to establish ??high competency?? standards for the teaching profession and to increase the status of teachers in Malaysia. This article briefly describes the standards that concern teachers and teacher educators alike. It is proposed that there are three challenges to the standards system that teacher educators may face. First, on transforming ingrained beliefs, values and biased perceptions of teaching that student teachers bring to the teaching institution. The second centers on the rhetoric-reality gap of the MTS itself, while the third challenge involves the actual training of teachers. Given these three challenges, this article also outlines several avenues for teacher educators to consider as they set out to better understand and re-design teacher education programs in this standards-based era of educational transformation. The discussion of the challenges and the proposed resources to meet the challenges are by no means exhaustive or acts as a conclusion but rather to create awareness for further discussion and analysis of the implications proposed in this article.     

An empirical investigation of the emergent issues around OER adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the past few years, Africa has joined the rest of the world as an active participant in the Open Educational Resource (OER) movement with a number of home-grown and externally driven initiatives. These have the potential to make an immense contribution to teaching and learning in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, certain barriers prevent full participation. This paper reports on qualitative research that sought to investigate SSA's readiness to adopt OERs. This study involves three case studies based in higher education institutions involved in OER projects and located in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. Contrary to the popular belief, findings indicate that low technological levels in Africa do not necessarily impede the adoption of such educational technologies; the real challenges facing the readiness to adopt OERs appear to be related to socio-economic, cultural, institutional and national issues. This paper argues for a complete mind shift in how people perceive OERs. It also proposes raising awareness of OERs at all levels, involving institutions and government, versioning OERs for the African context and conducting more research on OER adoption.     

Digitisation of the WA Welcome Wall collection: a case study

This article is focused on the partnership between the WA Museum Maritime History Department and Curtin University’s Information Studies Department on a retrospective digitisation project in 2012. The aim was to digitise the Welcome Wall project’s paper records and link these records to the museum’s online maritime history collection. The paper outlines and discusses the key business process questions that were considered prior and during the embarkation on the digitisation project. The conclusion shares lessons learnt from the project.     

Cooperative Learning in Science: Follow‐up from primary to high school

This paper reports a two‐year longitudinal study of the effects of cooperative learning on science attainment, attitudes towards science, and social connectedness during transition from primary to high school. A previous project on cooperative learning in primary schools observed gains in science understanding and in social aspects of school life. This project followed 204 children involved in the previous project and 440 comparison children who were not as they undertook transition from 24 primary schools to 16 high schools. Cognitive, affective, and social gains observed in the original project survived transition. The implications improving the effectiveness of school transition by using cooperative learning initiatives are explored. Possibilities for future research and the implications for practice and policy are discussed.     

University-School Connection: A Reading Circle for Teachers

Educators are encouraged to integrate technology into their classrooms because today's student is exposed to all sorts of digital devices in their daily life. Classroom blogging is an excellent way to use the internet for more than just research. Blogging capitalizes on student interest in the internet. When done properly, a blog can serve as an online portfolio to showcase student work. Blogging can give the “silent student” a voice by allowing them the opportunity to write on topics of interest. Finally, blogging provides immediate, “click-to-publish” results. Student work is available immediately for peers to review or for others on the world wide web to comment and post feedback. All of these factors can be motivating for students to learn.     

How Important is Study Mode in Student University Choice?

Conjoint analysis was used to model the importance of study mode in students' choice of university. Study mode was proposed as a key choice attribute as universities have diversified their means of delivering education and increased the use of online delivery. Results are reported for two conjoint experiments. The first investigated how undergraduate students made trade‐offs between study mode, university and tuition fees. The second examined similar trade‐offs made by current and prospective postgraduates. Findings confirmed the importance of study mode to both groups and suggest two main reasons for its influence on university choice: it affects students' experiences of learning and socialising at university, and their time and place flexibility. The most preferred study modes for undergraduates and postgraduates were face‐to‐face study and print‐based study, respectively. Given the trend towards online delivery, the findings have relevance to universities across national systems and reputational markets.     

Discourses and practices of competency-based training: implications for worker and practitioner identities

From the perspective of a social theory of learning, this paper explores discourses and practices associated with competency-based training (CBT) in industry. Drawing on data from a national evaluation of competency-based training in Australia, implications for the formation of identities of workers (or trainees) and vocational education and training (VET) practitioners are discussed, particularly in relation to an increasing recognition of the importance of lifelong learning for workers, and knowledge-making and innovation within enterprises. It is argued that discourses surrounding CBT relate particularly to the importance of developing ‘procedural, technical knowers’ rather than ‘reflective problemsolvers’, and ‘standardized, adaptable workers’ rather than ‘innovators’ or ‘initiators’. Thus CBT often seems to precludes the kind of transformative learning that could potentially lead to social and technological innovation in the workplace and enriching personal and cultural change. Moreover, while some discourses surrounding CBT relate to ‘empowered, committed workers’, it appears that the lived experience of working life may sometimes contradict these claims. In relation to training personnel, some VET practitioners do appear able, using CBT as a springboard, to exercise professional judgement and creativity and instigate transformative and, indeed, critical learning programmes. However, for others, identities as ‘deliverers’ of a standardized curriculum seem to have been formed, potentially an experience of deprofessionalization. Some discourses and practices associated with CBT, then, appear to be neither in the best interests of workers, practitioners and the community, nor of individual enterprises and industry as a whole. A rethinking of arrangements for, and conceptualization of, competency-based training in the workplace is discussed.