Forum: dialogue about dialogue—cogeneration, research and science education

This forum discussion focuses on seven themes drawn from Sonya’s fascinating paper: the terminology of “cogenerative dialogues,” the roles of participants and their power relations within such dialogues, the use of metaphor and analogy in the paper, science and science education for all students, the ways in which students’ expectations about learning change in innovative classrooms, teacher research and the “theory-practice gap,” and the tension between conducting cogenerative dialogues with individual students or with whole classes. These themes by no means exhaust the ideas in Sonya’s paper, but we feel that they have allowed us to explore the classroom research she reports, and to extend our discussion beyond the paper to explore some of these themes more broadly.     

Once a nurse always a nurse — Unless you are a patient

The problems which arise between a disabled or chronically ill nurse and her nursing colleagues are explored. Ways of recognising and resolving some of the difficulties are suggested. Recommendations are made that the findings should be incorporated into the future training of nurses, and that sufficient staff Counsellors should be appointed to Hospitals to enable the nurses, both disabled and nondisabled to deal creatively with the stress which affects their professional and personal relationships.     

The Effects of the Number of Scale Points and Non-Normality on the Generalizability Coefficient: A Monte Carlo Study

Increasingly, assessment practitioners use generalizability coefficients to estimate the reliability of scores from performance tasks. Little research, however, examines the relation between the estimation of generalizability coefficients and the number of rubric scale points and score distributions. The purpose of the present research is to inform assessment practitioners of (a) the optimum number of scale points necessary to achieve the best estimates of generalizability coefficients and (b) the possible biases of generalizability coefficients when the distribution of scores is non-normal. Results from this study indicate that the number of scale points substantially affects the generalizability estimates. Generalizability estimates increase as scale points increase, with little bias after scales reach 12 points. Score distributions had little effect on generalizability estimates.     

Redesigning Services for the Net-Gen and Beyond: A Holistic Review of Pedagogy,Resource, and Learning Space

Oblinger and Oblinger (2005) described the Net Generation or Net Gen, who have never known life without the Internet. They note the incremental nature of change: “One generation's technology is taken for granted by the next” (p. 2.1). In a world increasingly dominated by technology, the academic library has become a place to learn that is constantly adapting and changing, reflecting “what the student does” (Biggs, 2007 Biggs, J. 2007. Teaching for quality learning at university: what the student does, , 3rd ed, Maidenhead: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]). Pathfinder funding from the Higher Education Academy has enabled Bournemouth University (BU) to explore the pedagogies of learning in a hybrid environment and consider how Web 2.0 technologies within a virtual learning environment contribute to the acquisition and development of academic literacy skills. Good library design demonstrates agility and adaptability in the use of space (Heppel et al., 2004 Heppel, S., Chapman, C., Millwood, R., Constable, M. and Furness, J. 2004. Building learning futures. A research project at Ultralab within the CABE/RIBA “Building Futures” programme 〈http://rubble.heppell.net/cabe/final_report.pdf〉 (accessed 24 July 2008) [Google Scholar]). Virtual environments enable integration of resources within the unit of study. Subject librarians, academics, and learning technologists are developing new ways of working together to deliver resources. The rate of change is exponential but is full of opportunity (“Libraries Unleashed,” 2008). In 2009 Bournemouth University will open a new library for postgraduate business students without any books, but with each student equipped with an e-book reader. This article will discuss the academic skills and learning spaces students will need to read for a degree in an environment that is predominantly electronic.     

Using Rating Augmentation to Expand the Scale of an Analytic Rubric

A method of expanding a rating scale 3-fold without the expense of defining additional benchmarks was studied. The authors used an analytic rubric representing 4 domains of writing and composed of 4-point scales to score 120 writing samples from Georgia's 11th-grade Writing Assessment. The raters augmented the scores of papers on which the proficiency levels appeared slightly higher or lower than the benchmark papers at the selected proficiency level by adding a “+” or a “?” to the score. The results of the study indicate that the use of this method of rating augmentation tends to improve most indices of interrater reliability, although the percentage of exact and adjacent agreement decreases because of the increased number of rating possibilities. In addition, there was evidence to suggest that the use of augmentation may produce domain-level scores with sufficient reliability for use with diagnostic feedback to teachers about the performance of students.     

Reviews

Abstract

This paper explores the connections between physical education (PE), sport, nationalism and citizenship in Wales, focusing upon how recent education policies relating to PE and sport are implicated in the cultural production of ideational differences between and among the peoples of Wales and England. The analysis suggests that tendencies towards narrow, conservative, cultural restorationist ideals, as evident in Wales as they are in England, may obstruct progress towards more innovative and progressive ideals in the curriculum of PE.     

Exploring coaching actions based on developed values: a case study of a female hockey coach

There are few empirical studies that demonstrate how values are developed and how they are linked to coaching actions. There can be a discrepancy between the statement of coaches’ values and their actual coaching actions. In order to examine how coaching actions are influenced by values that are developed over a lifetime, the purpose of this article is to first describe a female hockey coach’s approach to coaching using five key coaching actions, then identify the underlying values that influenced those actions, and then explore how these values were developed in different experiences throughout her life. A time-oriented network analysis was conducted based on four semi-structured, in-depth interviews with the coach. The results present five key coaching actions: (a) organizing coach education programmes for athletes, (b) creating groups to help athletes bond, (c) bringing in experts from various domains, (d) asking athletes to reflect on attitudes and goals, and (e) giving athletes playing time based on hard work and effort. We identify the core values guiding these actions as: (a) equity, (b) connectedness, (c) holistic development, (d) respect, and (e) effort. Finally, we present a number of the coach’s experiences that demonstrate the complexity of developing these values throughout her life. The importance of reflecting on and discussing coaching actions, experiences, and the underlying learned values may help coaches develop coaching actions that are guided more explicitly by those values.