Third graders' use of writing to facilitate learning of engineering concepts

Incorporating engineering instruction into the elementary curriculum is not without challenges. Traditionally, researchers investigated using engineering design to promote students learning science concepts. More recently, researchers have conducted qualitative investigations to measure students' learning of engineering concepts after engaging in engineering design. In this study, we extended work on elementary engineering instruction by implementing an integrated engineering and writing unit with 58 third-grade students. Using stratified random assignment based on pre-intervention engineering vocabulary assessment scores, we assigned students to treatment (n = 28) or comparison (n = 30). During a 10-day unit, all students participated in design challenges, emulated the practices of actual engineers, and used writing to support and document their learning, as they designed and authored their own five-page pop-up books. Students in the treatment condition participated in additional writing during 8 of the 10 unit lessons. During this time, they responded to journal prompts related to lesson objectives. At the same time, students in the comparison condition participated in small-group discussions during which they discussed journal prompts orally. We found that all students made statistically significant gains from pre- to posttest on an engineering vocabulary assessment; total words written, number of different engineering concepts used, and depth of understanding of engineering concepts in a written essay response; and number of different engineering concepts used in an oral interview response, regardless of their incoming writing skills and regardless of whether they participated in additional writing or small-group discussion of lesson objectives. This study is the first to quantitatively document the effectiveness of a combined elementary engineering and writing intervention for promoting students' learning of engineering concepts in multiple ways (rote recall, written representation, and oral representation). We argue that literacy, particularly writing, provides an effective and feasible method for incorporating engineering instruction into the elementary curriculum.     

Between category and experience: constructing autism,constructing critical practice

This article aims to contribute to an emancipatory conceptual framework for EPs to draw upon when called to work with and/or speak of individuals labelled autistic. First, the widespread adherence to medicalised, inherently deficit-based discourses surrounding autism is critiqued, and considered as not uniformly beneficial for “clients” (parents, teachers and, above all, young people). The authors then utilise alternative critical constructions of autism, positioning those identified as autistic at the centre of a more transparent discursive (re)construction. This approach, it is argued, opens up spaces in which celebration of individual difference is as much a possibility as psychopathology, and supports practitioners to remain sensitive to complex forms of lived experience. The authors do not speak for the autistic community (or assume a coherence in viewpoint), but hope this article speaks to those labelled autistic (and to professionals) in a way that more established approaches may not.     

Why are Women Underrepresented in Elite Colleges and Universities? A Non-Linear Decomposition Analysis

The emerging female advantage in education has received considerable attention in the popular media and recent research. We examine a persistent exception to this trend: women’s underrepresentation in America’s most competitive colleges and universities. Using nationally generalizable data spanning four decades, we evaluate evidence for three possible explanations. First, we analyze whether men’s academic profiles more closely match the admissions preferences of elite institutions. Next, we consider organizational preferences for male applicants. Finally, we test whether women self-select out of elite institutions through their application choices. Using Blinder–Oaxaca non-linear decomposition techniques and multinomial logistic regression, we find that men’s advantage in standardized test scores best explains the enrollment gap. Our analyses thus suggest that the gender enrollment gap in elite colleges and universities is a matter of access, not student choice. We discuss the implications of these results for educational equity and college admissions.     

Detection of Invalid Test Scores: The Usefulness of Simple Nonparametric Statistics

In recent guidelines for fair educational testing it is advised to check the validity of individual test scores through the use of person‐fit statistics. For practitioners it is unclear on the basis of the existing literature which statistic to use. An overview of relatively simple existing nonparametric approaches to identify atypical response patterns is provided. A simulation study was conducted to compare the different approaches and on the basis of the literature review and the simulation study guidelines for the use of person‐fit approaches are given.     

Independent learning – what we do when you’re not there

Independent learning is one of the cornerstones of UK higher education yet it is poorly understood by students and is seen by politicians as a poor substitute for face to face teaching. This paper explores students’ understandings, approaches and experiences of independent learning and how they may become more effective independent learners. This large scale qualitative study, funded by the HEA, included students-as-researchers, independent learning diaries, and student-led interviews. Findings suggest that students initially use low level reinforcing and organising skills and in later stages of their courses develop higher level extending and applying skills. Clearer guidance, clearer tasks and in-course support are amongst the students’ recommendations for enhancing independent learning. However the most powerful influence on their independent learning was the support, collaboration and advice of other (more experienced) students in non-assessed scenarios. These findings have implications for staff involved in induction, student support, curriculum design and for staff and officers in Students’ Unions.     

Education,Competence and the Control of Expertise

This paper is concerned with the rise of the ‘competency’ movement in education and beyond. It argues that ‘competency’ should be understood in terms of a change in the social control of expertise in society involving a move from a relatively autonomous form of liberal professional community to more direct State control. This, in turn, is located within a broader analysis of the nature of regulation in late modern societies and draws upon the recent work of Guldens and Bernstein in order to analyse the positioning of expertise between its primary theoretical base in higher education and the social relations of everyday life with which it is concerned. The move by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications into the area of graduate level occupations ('NVQ level 5') is discussed with reference to the role of ‘functional analysis’ as a methodology for translating expertise into ‘competencies’ and controlling professional practice.