Program portfolios: documenting teachers’ growth in reflection‐based inquiry

Meeting the challenge of program accountability is a goal for teacher education programs across the USA. In this context, achieving effective assessment practices that provide concrete evidence of program participants’ knowledge and skills has become both an increasingly significant issue and a challenge to teacher education programs seeking to document the attainment of their program learning outcomes. This qualitative study examined the portfolio reflections of 51 teachers enrolled in an advanced master’s degree program whose learning outcomes are aligned with the core propositions of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Using the four levels of reflection and a fifth level that emerged from data analysis, we examined the levels of development and change in teachers’ reflections across the program. This analysis helped the researchers to determine to what degree teachers developed a reflection‐based inquiry stance in their classrooms during the program. The study contributes new findings to the body of literature on the role and function of portfolios in teacher education programs seeking to document teachers’ understanding and application of specific program goals and professional standards as a result of professional development coursework. As an authentic assessment tool, portfolio data (i.e., evidence such as the reflections contained therein) can provide an important lens for capturing teachers’ approach to teaching and learning and provides insight into the complexity of professional development for practicing teachers.     

Responding to Change on TV: How Viewer-Controlled Changes in Content Differ From Programmed Changes in Content

Two experiments explored differences in television viewers' responses to viewer-controlled and producer-controlled content changes. Viewers in both studies could change channels among 4 different newscasts. Orienting, sympathetic activation, cognitive effort, and recognition were compared in the moments following both channel changes (viewer control) and cuts (producer control). Neither channel changes nor cuts elicited orienting. Sympathetic activation was higher following channel changes, while cognitive effort was higher following cuts. In 1 experiment, recognition accuracy was higher after a cut than it was after a channel change. These results inform how the exertion of control over media content alters psychological processing.     

Curriculum development for professional ethics in Australian human service university programmes

Australian academics and practitioners in the human services are particularly susceptible to social, political and economic influences in respect of their relevance, viability and operations. In fact, it can be argued that the impact of these influences has placed human service practitioners and academics in a perpetual state of vulnerability. Australian universities have been challenged to make their programmes more relevant and viable to the community at large, and practitioners face increasing workloads with limited resources based on restricted fiscal allocation, and the changing relationship between government and service providers. Drawing on interview data from twenty-one (n = 21) practitioners, this article highlights their identified problems regarding the notion of professionalism in the human services with a particular focus on ethical dilemmas in human service practice. Gleaning these details will be a basis for recommending necessary professionalethics curricula content in human services programmes offered in Australian universities. Moreover, while the research data is Australian based, the authors contend that the universal theories and principles underpinning human service practice justify the significance and value of the data as an important source for international consideration in curriculum development of human service academic programmes.     

Enrollment of Education Majors at Public,Not-For-Profit,and For-Profit Postsecondary Institutions: An Empirical Analysis

This article offers a quantitative analysis of the growth of for-profit provision of teacher education in the United States. Data from all Title-IV-aid-participating institutions from 1996 to 2008 is analyzed to provide a comprehensive overview of the relative changes in enrollments of education majors at public, not-for-profit, and for-profit 4-year-and-above institutions. For-profits enroll a small, but rapidly expanding share of the education majors. Several possible reasons for the large increase in for-profit enrollments are explored and potential implications for teacher preparation are discussed. Concerns about the for-profit provision of teacher education are reviewed in light of this new data.     

Every school a school of choice: school choice in Ireland as viewed through American eyes

‘Choice’ and ‘freedom’ as measured by the ability of parents to select their children's schools are deeply embedded in the national ethos of the United States of America. Wealthy American parents have always exercised school choice but minority and lowincome students are often trapped in failing schools. This paper is based on research conducted in a purposive sample of Irish primary schools into the nature of school choice. The authors examine five aspects of the Irish national primary school system that could provide models for American educators, whose vision often stops at the boundaries of the United States: education law, school choice for all, a national curriculum framework, the role of assessment, and the role of parents and educators in the creation of new schools. While arguably the five relate directly to school choice of different degrees, they collectively weave a web whereby school systems in the Republic of Ireland and the USA may productively be compared to the benefit of both.     

Best Practices for an Interdisciplinary Team-Taught Course

In the interdisciplinary course, Aging to Infancy: A Life Course Retrospective, the Institute of Medicine's recommendations for education were embraced through the role modeling provided by faculty both across and between disciplines. Over the five years since its creation, the course has introduced students to aging in a positive manner, establishing the foundation for higher level courses within each program's curriculum. The course also introduces students to the interdisciplinary healthcare team and reinforces the need for practitioners who value the interdisciplinary approach and expect it in their place of work. These are best practices for an interdisciplinary course.     

Getting In (and Staying In) When Everyone Else Wants to Get Out: 10 Lessons Learned from Conducting Research with Inmates

The current study aims to provide researchers interested in conducting research using inmates with information and recommendations based on our experiences studying jail inmates. While prior research has begun to identify lessons learned about obtaining access to criminal justice agencies and lessons about establishing positive researcher–practitioner relationships during the process, little is known about the specific challenges associated with data collection efforts after obtaining access to facilities. Therefore, this article aims to provide researchers with information and recommendations primarily on the issues and challenges of studying inmates after gaining entry to correctional facilities. Ten lessons are offered that highlight a variety of challenges that arise from conducting research with inmate populations.