Predicting second language writing proficiency: the roles of cohesion and linguistic sophistication

This study addresses research gaps in predicting second language (L2) writing proficiency using linguistic features. Key to this analysis is the inclusion of linguistic measures at the surface, textbase and situation model level that assess text cohesion and linguistic sophistication. The results of this study demonstrate that five variables (lexical diversity, word frequency, word meaningfulness, aspect repetition and word familiarity) can be used to significantly predict L2 writing proficiency. The results demonstrate that L2 writers categorised as highly proficient do not produce essays that are more cohesive, but instead produce texts that are more linguistically sophisticated. These findings have important implications for L2 writing development and L2 writing pedagogy.     

Longer-Term Economic Effects of College Selectivity and Control

This study uses a nationally representative sample of baccalaureate recipients—4 years after graduation—to assess the effects of college selectivity and control on earnings and indebtedness related to undergraduate education. After controlling for salient background, education, and labor market characteristics there is strong evidence of a substantial earnings return to college selectivity and control, which is consistent with the bulk of earlier work in this area. The impact of these factors on education-related debt is varied, with graduates from more selective private institutions continuing to bear the largest debt burden. Findings also suggest, however, that the enhanced earnings for graduates from selective private colleges are quickly offsetting the associated debt burden. Potentially problematic issues include a mix of high debt loads and sub-par labor market experiences for graduates from low selectivity private institutions—those that also serve a disproportionate number of nontraditional students.     

“Communicate Through the Roof”: A Case Study Analysis of the Communicative Rules and Resources of an Effective Global Virtual Team

Challenges to effective collaboration are magnified when work teams are composed of geographically distributed members. Team members separated by time, distance, and culture often struggle with issues of trust, conflict, and potentially divisive subgroups. With global virtual teams becoming increasingly common in organizations, it is important to understand how to minimize such interactional difficulties. This study examines rules and resources that members of a corporate global team draw on to structure their interactions. In this case study, team members draw on highly ritualized actions prescribed by their software development process and their enacted values to mitigate their communication challenges.     

How a Deweyan science education further enables ethics education

This paper questions the perceived divide between ‘science’ subject matter and ‘moral’ or ‘ethical’ subject matter. A difficulty that this assumed divide produces is that science teachers often feel that there needs to be ‘special treatment’ given to certain issues which are of an ethical or moral nature and which are ‘brought into’ the science class. The case is made in this article that dealing with ethical issues in the science class should not call for a sensitivity that is beyond the expertise of the science teacher. Indeed it is argued here that science teachers in particular have a great deal to offer in enabling ethics education. To overcome this perceived divide between science and values it needs to be recognised that the educative development of learners is both scientific and moral. I shall be using a Deweyan perspective to make the case that we as science teachers can overcome this apparent divide and significantly contribute to an ethics education of our students.     

How Accurate Is Peer Grading?

Previously we showed that weekly, written, timed, and peer-graded practice exams help increase student performance on written exams and decrease failure rates in an introductory biology course. Here we analyze the accuracy of peer grading, based on a comparison of student scores to those assigned by a professional grader. When students graded practice exams by themselves, they were significantly easier graders than a professional; overall, students awarded ≈25% more points than the professional did. This difference represented ≈1.33 points on a 10-point exercise, or 0.27 points on each of the five 2-point questions posed. When students graded practice exams as a group of four, the same student-expert difference occurred. The student-professional gap was wider for questions that demanded higher-order versus lower-order cognitive skills. Thus, students not only have a harder time answering questions on the upper levels of Bloom's taxonomy, they have a harder time grading them. Our results suggest that peer grading may be accurate enough for low-risk assessments in introductory biology. Peer grading can help relieve the burden on instructional staff posed by grading written answers-making it possible to add practice opportunities that increase student performance on actual exams.     

Teaching Poor Ethnic Minority Students: A Critical Realist Interpretation of Disempowerment

This article aims to supplement the literature on the role of school context with regards to the disempowerment of teachers in their work with poor ethnic minority students. We use a critical realist framework to analyse the empirical data collected for an in-depth school case study and we suggest the existence of real, interrelated, emergent and localised disempowering contextual factors.     

The relationship between GEAR UP program involvement and Latina/o students’ performance on high-stakes tests

To assess the impact of a college preparation program, district-wide changes in high-stakes test pass rates are examined, followed by an examination of specific program elements that are associated with students’ score changes. Changes in pass rates for districts with and without services are compared for the Latina/o and overall student populations. This study also examines the relationship between hours of participation in various elements of the college preparation program and changes in test scores of low-income Latina/o students. Results indicate that key program elements related to improvements in test scores include participation in mentoring and summer programs.     

‘Out of the loop’: early childhood educators gaining confidence with unfamiliar policy discourse

It has been seven years since the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) was introduced in Australia and four years since the National Quality Standard (NQS) was implemented. To gain insight into how educators are understanding practice in the Australian early childhood and care context, the study draws on a praxeological frame where educators have the opportunity to inquire and critically reflect on practice in a supported research environment. Data were analysed using critical discourse analysis, enabling a close examination of participant reflections and understandings about practice. Findings reveal that educators are confident when describing their teaching using familiar educational discourse, whereas educators were apprehensive when confronted with new and unfamiliar concepts. The third finding illustrates the ways educators gain confidence with unfamiliar policy discourse. The study’s findings add to limited empirical evidence about how early childhood educators understand key concepts introduced by the EYLF and NQS.