Quality and equity in early childhood care in Peru

The present study examines educational policy documents and programs on early childhood development and education in Peru. The author provides an evaluation of early childhood learning programs and their outcomes in different education centers in Peru. Health, nutrition, development, and participation are identified as key areas of concern. The study concludes with a reference to the importance of monitoring quality and equity in early childhood care.     

Moral judgment development of college students

In recent years, psychologists and educators have shown increased interest in the moral development of college students. Kohlberg and Rest discuss a six-stage model of moral judgment development that has generated considerable research. The findings have raised several issues regarding the relevance of attitudes, traits, and experiences in understanding the moral judgment development of students. This study examines the differential impact of (1) college experiences, (2) attribution beliefs and attitudes about punitiveness, (3) educational and academic characteristics, and (4) freshmen level of moral judgment development on the level of moral development of upper-division students, who as freshmen were classified as having either low or high levels of moral reasoning. For freshmen with low moral reasoning scores, their upper-division level of moral judgment development was significantly related to their causal attribution beliefs regarding personal responsibility. For those freshmen with high moral reasoning scores, their initial level of moral reasoning was the most significant factor related to their upper-division level of moral judgment development. For these students, participation in extracurricular activities was negatively related to upper-division moral reasoning scores. The more they had participated in extracurricular activities, the lower their upper-division moral reasoning scores.     

Education for children with a chronic health condition: an evidence‐informed approach to policy and practice decision making

Children managing chronic health conditions face many obstacles which can impede their learning during periods of hospitalisation. In one particular hospital, a team of educators deemed it necessary to take a personalised learning approach in order to maintain students’ educational progress, namely making use of individual learning plans (ILPs). This team adopted an evidence‐informed practice (EIP) approach to the issue in order to persuade administrators of the need for change. The successful implementation of the EIP approach led to the inclusion of the ILP form in patients’ medical records, which is thought to be a first for Australia. Although EIP is regarded highly by practitioners and policy makers, there can be difficulties when implementing this approach. This study aims to identify the enabling features that permit EIP to be successfully implemented and to examine the ways in which EIP can lead to improved practice.     

Legitimizing subjectivity: Meritorious performance and the professionalization of teacher and principal evaluation

An earlier version of this article was a paper presented at the 1988 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans     

The paradox of trust in online collaborative groups

Open and sustained discussions in heterogeneous collaborative online groups should provide opportunities for adults to reshape their thinking, deeply understand the subject content, and have their voices heard and respected. These opportunities turn on trust. The ability to trust thoughts that are different from their own is influenced by the learners’ ability to be open about their beliefs and to develop healthy self–other relationships within their small groups. These issues are examined through a qualitative phenomenographic perspective of the stories of the students enrolled in two online adult learning classes utilizing a problem‐based and collaborative pedagogy. The findings indicate that group members import trust issues into the group, which then become issues for the group‐as‐a‐whole. To resolve these issues, the groups engage in several evading behaviors to avoid the types of discussion necessary to fully deal with the difference and resolve the trust issues.     

The attitude of civil engineering students towards health and safety risk management: a case study

The highest rate of accidents and injuries in British industries has been reported by the construction industry during the past decade. Since then stakeholders have recognised that a possible solution would be to inculcate a good attitude towards health and safety risk management in undergraduate civil engineering students and construction professionals. Consequently, the four accreditation bodies that accredit construction degrees have improved coverage of health and safety risk management. The key issue has now shifted to ensure that Higher Education Centres deliver these requirements. This paper demonstrates innovative assessment methods that have been used to inculcate a safety conscious attitude into undergraduate civil engineering students, and to improve their knowledge of health and safety risk management. Surveys were administered to the students before and after they were subjected to innovative assessment techniques over two semesters in the construction management units. The analyses of the results of the surveys are provided to demonstrate the degree of improvement in the attitude of the students towards, and their knowledge of, health and safety risk management.     

Negative correlation between tone (S−) and water increases target biting during S− in rats

Eighteen Long-Evans rats were exposed to a MULT VT 30-sec EXT schedule of water presentations. The EXT schedule was signaled by a 2500-Hz, 70-dB tone. Mean number of bites of a plastic target during atone (S?) increased across sessions, whereas the mean number of target bites during the VT component signaled byno tone (S+) decreased across sessions. Changing the multiple schedule to MULT EXT EXT produced a decrease in target bites during the tone. Reinstating the original MULT VT 30-sec EXT schedule produced an increase in number of target bites during the tone (S?). Changing the multiple schedule to VT 30-sec VT 30-sec produced a decrease in target bites during the tone. The results indicate that target biting in rats increases in the presence of the exteroceptive tone (S?) of the MULT VT 30-sec EXT schedule, and that target biting during the tone varies directly with the negative correlation between tone and water presentations.     

‘Unless you are collaborating with a big name successful professor,you are unlikely to receive funding’

Women consistently remain underrepresented in senior academic roles within the academy worldwide. Academics increasingly require research funding to conduct research, leading to publications, both of which can then be used for promotion applications. This article explores fourteen academic women's experiences of the research funding process in New Zealand, to provide insights into one aspect of why this inequity continues. The findings identify institutional, personal, and funding issues that impact on women's application behaviour. Addressing these may assist in developing women's careers as academics and provides us with a more in-depth understanding of the issues than have previously been gleamed from large quantitative studies.     

Patterns of theory use in qualitative research in higher education studies in Latin America: a geopolitical interpretation

The relationship between theory and qualitative research has been extensively examined in the literature and has emerged as a problematic matter. This debate has been driven forward mainly in Anglo-Saxon countries and has done scant justice to an understanding of these issues in regions of the South. This paper addresses this matter by drawing on a geopolitical perspective. The study here provides an analysis of 24 papers by Latin-American researchers in higher education, as included in the Web of Science between 2006 and 2015. Theories in Latin America are mainly produced in the North and exhibit two patterns: (i) critical perspectives are used to address local problems – ‘epistemic problematization’; and (ii) a nuancing of Northern theories so as to contextualize them – ‘epistemic nuancing’. Suggestions are also made for a new configuration of knowledge production in higher education studies – a model of knowledge from and for the South.