Challenging ESP teacher beliefs about active learning in a Vietnamese university

This article provides insights into how participating in an action research study challenged traditional beliefs about teaching practices and led to more active learning strategies being included in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Science classes at a Vietnamese university. Recent reforms in higher education teaching and learning by the Vietnamese government have placed increased demands on universities to employ more active learning approaches to meet future global needs. In Vietnam, university teaching has generally been based upon traditional lecturing, whereas active learning requires a more student-centred approach whereby students engage cognitively in learning through increased participation and take greater responsibility for inquiring into new knowledge in meaningful and critical ways. Using a participatory action research approach, interviews, observations and planning meetings were undertaken with eight Science lecturers who were currently teaching ESP. The findings revealed how the lecturers underwent positive pedagogical shifts from traditional lecturing to more constructivist approaches to teaching and learning over the time of the study.     

Role of adjunct questions and reading ability levels on rote and conceptual learning from prose

This research evaluated the effect of question type (rote, conceptual) and adjunct question response mode (multiple choice, short answer) on rote and conceptual learning outcomes of high and low ability readers. Subjects were 98 freshman students of a small, historically black, undergraduate institution. Students studied a passage containing either rote- or conceptual-level adjunct questions or no questions. They were then administered a rote and a conceptual post-test over the presented concepts. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was used. The results indicated, contrary to most other research, that rote adjunct questions were more helpful to readers than conceptual adjunct questions on both rote and conceptual post-tests. As expected, high reading ability students performed better than low reading ability students within treatments. There were no significant aptitude-treatment interactions.     

The Social Construction of the ‘At‐risk’ Child

The ‘at‐risk’ child has become a topic of increasing concern to American educators. It has been estimated that fully one‐third of all school‐age children are currently at risk for academic failure, and a recent report on pre‐school‐age children suggests that all are at risk to some degree. This article explores contemporary constructions and constructions over time in an effort to deconstruct the notion of the ‘at‐risk’ child and to examine how meaning is produced and to what end. The theoretical and historical material provide a framework in which data from a statewide survey of school administrators, regarding their preferences for pre‐kindergarten programs, are interpreted.     

Managing the state and the market: 'new' education management in five countries

Within the field of education management studies, recent reforms promoting devolution and choice are often seen to provide exciting new opportunities. It is claimed that the 'new'education management, with its emphasis on site-based decision-making and consumer accountability, will enable headteachers and principals to 'take control' of their schools and make them more productive environments in which to work and study. However, our review of research findings from five different countries that are putting in place devolution and choice policies suggests that these new opportunities are more illusory than real. Positioned between the competing demands of the state and the market, school managers are becoming increasingly isolated from colleagues and classrooms — leading to a growing divergence between the managers and the managed. The paper considers the implication of recent developments for managers in general and for women managers in particular and concludes by discussing the relationship between the personalisation of responsibility and the legitimation of crises within the state and public education.     

Engineering persistence: Past,present, and future factors and gender differences

This research examined past, present, and future factors that might be related to persistence in engineering for women and men. Students currently or formerly enrolled in an undergraduate engineering program completed the Engineering Carrer Survey which assessed factors included in general models of college student change (e.g., background characteristics, interactions with socializing agents). Results indicated that: (1) present factors were more important than past or future factors in distinguishing between engineering persisters and nonpersisters, (2) few factors distinguished between women and men who persisted, or between women and men who did not, and (3) the best predictor of engineering persistence for both sexes was grade point average, although subsequent predictors depended on gender. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.     

‘More than boy,girl, male,female’: exploring young people’s views on gender diversity within and beyond school contexts

Abstract

This paper explores the views of young people aged 12–14 on gender diversity, drawing upon school-based qualitative data from a study conducted in England in 2015–2016. Although earlier feminist and queer research in schools often found evidence of variable local gender cultures and gender non-conformity, we argue that the contemporary context, with its increasing global awareness of gender diversity, offers young people significant new ways of learning about and doing gender. Findings reveal that many young people have expanded vocabularies of gender identity/expression; critical reflexivity about their own positions; and principled commitments to gender equality, gender diversity and the rights of gender and sexual minorities. We also show how young people are negotiating wider cultures of gendered and sexual violence. Schools are providing some spaces and learning opportunities to support gender and sexual diversity. However, overall, it appears that young people’s immediate social cultural worlds are constructed in such a way that gender binary choices are frequently inevitable, from school uniforms and toilets to sports cultures and friendships. Our conclusion touches on the implications of these findings for how educational practitioners, external agencies and young people can address gender rights, equality and justice in schools and beyond.     

A Qualitative Metasynthesis of Consultation Process Research: What We Know and Where to Go

ABSTRACT

Qualitative metasynthesis (QM) is a research methodology that permits the meaningful integration and interpretation of qualitative research. This study applies a QM approach combined with constructivist grounded theory methods, bolstered by several features of research credibility, to examine the state of consultee-centered consultation (CCC) and related relational, process-oriented school consultation research. A systematic search and retrieval process including two rounds of appraisal resulted in a final sample of 38 relevant studies from 1995 to 2014. Data analyses included two stages of coding/theme development. Integrated themes suggest a number of considerations regarding consultation implementation including: system-level factors; consultation structure; consultee voice, social-emotional support, and learning; ecological orientation and cultural responsiveness; and consultation training. Future research priorities stemming from these themes are identified and elaborated upon, as are future applications for QM in educational research.     

‘Heroes’ and ‘villains’ in the lives of children and young people

This paper explores the responses of nearly 1200 children and young people in Wales who were asked to identify which three famous people they most admired and which three they most disliked. Analysis of these young people's responses reveals a number of sociological and educational issues. Their selections confirm other research which has highlighted the importance of celebrities in the lives of young people. Their ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ are drawn mostly from the worlds of popular music and sport. Their choices are also highly gendered and ‘raced’. Of particular interest is the finding that someone's ‘villain’ is more than likely to be someone else's ‘hero’. Our young people's selection of heroes and villains reflects the broader landscape of celebrity culture, where female fame is as much about appearance as talent and Black and minority ethnic celebrities are to be found largely in the fields of sport or popular music. The paper concludes by discussing the chasm between our young people's ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ and those which are ‘officially sanctioned’ within the school curriculum and considers what schools and teachers might do about it.     

Implementing “real science” through microcomputers and telecommunications in project-based elementary classrooms

This is a study of an ongoing collaborative project in which science education faculty and upper elementary school teachers investigate the potential of a project-based, technologyrich, environmentally oriented approach to science education in an urban school serving a racially diverse population. Major conclusions based on the experience of participants in this study include: (1) teachers describe their instructional roles in terms highly consistent with student-centered, project-based, experiential learning; (2) teachers believe that what makes science real for students is the feeling that they are working on a truly current problem that is also being investigated by others outside their classroom. This is achieved by KidsNet, a microcomputer- and telecommunications-mediated curriculum, in a way that would not be possible without this technology; (3) teachers describe the actual and possible role of computer technology in terms which, while insightful and generally positive, are not clearly related to its flexible use in project-based learning; and (4) while teachers recognize meaningful connections between off-line science activities and the use of computer and telecommunications technologies, their students often do not.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April 16, 1993, Atlanta, Georgia.This work was partially supported by a Higher Education Grant from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Improvement Program.