Cross‐Ethnic Friendships and Intergroup Attitudes Among Asian American Adolescents

This study examined cross‐ethnic friendship choices and intergroup attitudes in a sample of 762 sixth‐grade Asian American students (M_age = 11.5 years) attending 1 of 19 middle schools that varied in ethnic composition. Multiple measures of friendship (quantity and quality) and intergroup attitudes (affective, cognitive, behavioral) toward White, Latino, and Black grademates were assessed. The results showed that Asian American students overnominated White students and undernominated Latino and Black students as their friends when school availability of each ethnic group was accounted for. Cross‐ethnic friendships were related to better intergroup attitudes, especially the behavioral dimension of attitudes. Cross‐ethnic friendships were least likely to change attitudes toward Blacks. Implications for future research, educational practice, and attitude intervention programs were discussed.     

Teaching Neoliberalism,in the Context of Corporate Reform,in the Undergraduate Social Foundations Classroom

This article presents an autoethnographic and theoretical reflection on my justifications for the use of neoliberal deconstruction in the undergraduate social foundations classroom. I engage the reader in a discussion concerning the need to make neoliberal agendas, as they pertain to corporate reform in education, salient to students. Further, I argue that cognitive apprenticeship is necessary to “help students map their own dialectics into thinking about their future practice as educators.” I share the integral elements of the cognitive apprenticeship undertaken in the course: “three prongs of foundational thinking,” four key conceptual frames for neoliberal deconstruction and associated foundational readings, and two representative assignments to illustrate the type of scaffolding offered to help education students move past naïve and complacent interpretations of current corporate reforms. My reflections rely on my teaching experience, in-class observations, assessment of students' work, and overarching themes in how students' have responded to the topic.     

When practice takes precedence: conceptions of inquiry and the link to ethical posture

Using participatory action research (PAR), this paper explores the ethical practice of students engaged in practitioner research in a higher education context. Using narrative enquiry, the paper explores the participants’ experiences of practitioner research, including ethical dilemmas that resulted from a conflict of values between the practitioner and research roles. We postulate a multi-dimensional approach to ethical practice known as ‘ethical posture’ emerging from our consideration of conceptions of inquiry that resulted in contrasting ethical behaviour.     

Unders and Overs: Using a Dice Game to Illustrate Basic Probability Concepts

In this paper, the dice game Unders and Overs is described and presented as an active learning exercise to introduce basic probability concepts. The implementation of the exercise is outlined and the resulting presentation of various probability concepts are described.     

Changing the English Classroom: When Large-scale ‘Common’ Testing Meets Secondary Curriculum and Instruction in the United States

This article explores the intersection of new, large-scale standards-based testing, teacher accountability policy, and secondary curriculum and instruction in the United States. Two federally funded consortia – the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Readiness of College and Careers – prove focal to this paper, as these two organisations are creating new tests that will assess 42–49% of the K–12 student population in the United States in 2014–2015. Because greater teacher accountability for student performance will be given for these tests, there is more reason to pay attention to what these tests measure and what they do not. Our analysis suggests that these new tests will hold secondary English teachers accountable for literacy and disciplinary knowledge outside the field of English and thus raise important questions about what English teachers should, can and will do, especially when their jobs are on the line.     

Learning and Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Development: The Use of the Concepts of Boundary Work and Boundary Objects

Abstract

Purpose: The paper explores the role of boundary work and boundary objects in enhancing learning and innovation processes in hybrid multi-actor networks for sustainable agriculture (LINSA).

Design/Methodology/Approach: Boundary work in LINSA is analysed on the basis of six case studies carried out in SOLINSA project under a common methodology. In developing typologies of boundary work and objects, a grounded approach is used.

Findings: LINSA analysis demonstrates the dynamic character, diverse forms and multiple functions of boundary work and objects in three domains: learning, innovation, and sustainability. Addressing specific types of goals and actors leads to specific types of boundary work and boundary objects. Context-appropriate boundary work allows aligning differing actor attitudes, gaining increased external support, and developing LINSA. The concepts of boundary work and boundary objects are relevant in a broad range of divergent LINSA settings. Boundary work has its limitations, but its facilitation supports reaching LINSA goals.

Practical Implications: The paper proposes recognising context-appropriate forms of boundary work and skilful use of emerging boundary objects to both promote internal consolidation of LINSA and effective external communication to foster learning and innovation for sustainability.

Originality/Value: The paper provides insights into the forms, dynamic and outcomes of boundary work in LINSA in three key domains: developing shared knowledge base, co-producing innovation and negotiating sustainability.     

The role of metacognitive competences in the development of school achievement among gifted adolescents

Gifted underachievers perform worse in school than would be expected based on their high intelligence. Possible causes for underachievement are low motivational dispositions (need for cognition) and metacognitive competences. This study tested the interplay of these variables longitudinally with gifted and non-gifted students from Germany (N = 341, 137 females) in Grades 6 (M = 12.02 years at t1) and 8 (M = 14.07 years). Declarative and procedural metacognitive competences were assessed in the domain of reading comprehension. Path analyses showed incremental effects of procedural metacognition over and above intelligence on the development of school achievement in gifted students (β = .139). Moreover, declarative metacognition and need for cognition interactively predicted procedural metacognition (β = .169), which mediated their effect on school achievement.     

Decolonising curriculum practice: developing the indigenous cultural capability of university graduates

Higher Education - The pedagogical urge to decolonise student thinking has been at the heart of the drive to embed Indigenous knowledge in universities throughout the western world. Despite ongoing...