Engagement in self-regulated deep learning of successful immigrant and non-immigrant students in inner city schools

In order to examine and explain differences in self-regulated (SR) deep learning of successful immigrant and non-immigrant students we investigated a population of 650 high track 10th grade students in Amsterdam, of which 39% had an immigrant background. By means of a questionnaire based on the MSLQ of Pintrich and De Groot (1990) the students reported their use of learning and resource management strategies, and their motivational values and attitudes. Two tests measured vocabulary and mathematical reasoning. Background characteristics, grades, track position and school composition (i.e., proportions of immigrant students) were registered as well. A factor analysis yielded two learning patterns: self-regulated deep learning and self-regulated surface learning. Subsequent analyses of variance showed that, compared to boys, girls prefer SR surface learning. However, immigrant girls fit best in the SR deep learning pattem. The contrast between immigrant and non-immigrant girls is substantial. Explanations for this particular group difference, and for variance in SR deep learning in general, were explored. Of the achievement measures, only average grade explains variance in SR deep learning. Motivational values and resource management strategies do so as well. Track position does not, but school composition does affect the way immigrant students learn. Schools with more than 60% immigrant students enhance more SR deep learning than schools with less than 20% immigrant students. As the difference in SR deep learning between immigrant and non-immigrant girls is not explained by any of the covariates, we suggest alternative explanations in the discussion section.     

Professionalisierung und Schulentwicklung

In diesem Beitrag wird dargestellt, dass in Schulentwicklungsprozessen Potentiale für eine weitere Professionalisierung des Lehrerberufs liegen. Schulentwicklung generiert einen bestimmten Handlungstyp im Sinne einer Disposition für die kooperative L?sung unvorhersehbare Problem-und Krisenlagen auf der Ebene der einzelnen Schule. Die Autoren beschreiben auf der Grundlage mehrerer von ihnen durchgeführter hermeneutischfallrekonstruktiv vorgehender Begleitforschungsprojekte zur Schulentwicklung, welche Ver?nderungen sich in Schulentwicklungs-als Unterrichtsentwicklungsprozessen für die T?tigkeit der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer ergeben, um zukunftsoffen mit Unsicherheit umgehen zu k?nnen: 1. Es findet mehr Arbeit in sogenannten Praxisgemeinschaften und Entwicklungsgruppen statt. Dieses ist eine Verst?rkung der Kommunikation über Unterricht und Lernprozesse. 2. Die prozessorientierte ziel-und inhaltsbezogene Differenzierung und Variation von Unterrichtsformen wird gesteigert. 3. Schülerrückmeldungen über eigenes Lernen und den Unterricht werden in diesen integriert. Hier bilden sich neue Kompetenzen zur Diagnose heterogener Lernst?nde und zur Differenzierung von Lernformen und Lernwegen heraus, und es kommt dabei zu einer Ausdifferenzierung von Funktionsbereichen in der Lehrert?tigkeit.     

The (im)materiality of literacy: the significance of subjectivity to new literacies research

This article deconstructs the online and offline experience to show its complexities and idiosyncratic nature. It proposes a theoretical framework designed to conceptualise aspects of meaning-making across on- and offline contexts. In arguing for the ‘(im)materiality’ of literacy, it makes four propositions which highlight the complex and diverse relationships between the immaterial and material associated with meaning-making. Complementing existing sociocultural perspectives on literacy, the article draws attention to the significance of relationships between space, mediation, materiality and embodiment to literacy practices. This in turn emphasises the importance of the subjective in understanding how different locations, experiences and so forth inflect literacy practice. The article concludes by drawing on the Deleuzian concept of the ‘baroque’ to suggest that this focus on articulations between the material and immaterial helps us to see literacy as multiply and flexibly situated.     

Teacher expectations concerning students with immigrant backgrounds or special educational needs

ABSTRACT

Male students with immigrant backgrounds are disproportionally referred for special educational support outside regular classrooms or schools, which may reflect differential teachers’ expectations concerning the academic achievement of students based on sociodemographic characteristics. Although research has indicated differential teachers’ expectations for students based on immigrant background or special educational needs (SEN), less is known about a possible double vulnerability associated with combined stereotypes. Therefore, in the current study, both SEN and immigrant background were systematically varied and teachers were asked to rate the students’ academic achievement. Results showed that teachers’ expectations of students with SEN and immigrant background were lower than for students without immigrant background, especially in regards to language proficiency. These results may help to explain the overrepresentation of students with immigrant background in special education programmes. The educational and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Gender differences in learning styles: A narrative review and quantitative meta-analysis

This article reviews research on gender and learning styles of students, 18 and older, conducted after 1980. Curry's onion model (1983) is used to classify definitions of learning styles and to reconstruct the theoretical frameworks used. The extent to which learning style is considered stable or variable in different learning contexts determines its position in the model. Most studies used theoretical frameworks that belonged in the middle or outer layers of the model. This location indicates the strong influence of learning context on women's and men's learning styles. While there were differences between learning styles, research designs rarely included learning contexts.In addition to the narrative review, we performed a quantitative meta-analysis on two instruments (Kolb's Learning Style Inventory and Entwistle's Approaches to Studying Inventory) to determine the direction and magnitude of gender differences in various samples. A search for these two instruments resulted in 26 studies for which the necessary statistics were available. On Kolb's instrument, the results showed that men were more likely than women to prefer the abstract conceptualisation mode of learning. On Entwistle's ASI a difference was found on the affective components of approaches to studying.     

Schooling in times of acceleration

Abstract

Modern societies are characterised by forms of acceleration, which influence social processes. Sociologist Hartmut Rosa has systematised temporal structures by focusing on three categories of social acceleration: technical acceleration, acceleration of social change, and acceleration of the pace of life. All three processes of acceleration are closely linked to processes of internationalisation and globalisation. Given this background, developments in the context of school education are analysed in this article, paying special attention to the question of which areas of academic learning the categories of social acceleration affect and whether internationalisation and globalisation speed up these processes. The analyses show that effects of globalisation in the fields of management, market, and performance on education are closely linked to social acceleration.     

In amongst the glitter and the squashed blueberries: crafting a collaborative lens for children’s literacy pedagogy in a community setting

ABSTRACT

In this article, we bring together relational arts practice (Kester, 2004) with collaborative ethnography (Campbell and Lassiter, 2015) in order to propose art not as a way of teaching children literacy, but as a lens to enable researchers and practitioners to view children’s literacies differently. Both relational arts practice and collaborative ethnography decentre researcher/artist expertise, providing an understanding that “knowing” is embodied, material and tacit (Ingold, 2013). This has led us to extend understandings of multimodal literacy to stress the embodied and situated nature of meaning making, viewed through a collaborative lens (Hackett, 2014a; Heydon and Rowsell, 2015; Kuby et al, 2015; Pahl and Pool, 2011). We illustrate this approach to researching literacy pedagogy by offering a series of “little” (Olsson, 2013) moments of place/body memory (Somerville, 2013), which emerged from our collaborative dialogic research at a series of den building events for families and their young children. Within our study, an arts practice lens offered a more situated, and entwined way of working that led to joint and blurred outcomes in relation to literacy pedagogy.