Assessing Paraprofessionals’ Perceived Educational Needs and Skill Level with Function-based Behavioral Intervention

The purpose of this survey study was to assess the perceived skill level and educational needs of special education paraprofessionals in the area of function-based intervention and to identify paraprofessionals’ preferred training delivery method(s) and any variables that affect paraprofessionals’ preference for these methods. Special education paraprofessionals working during the 2012–2013 school year in the state of Virginia were asked to complete an anonymous online survey. A total of 487 special education paraprofessionals responded to some or all survey items. Findings suggest that a large number of paraprofessionals reported low skill level and high educational needs across 10 domains of function-based intervention. Overall, paraprofessionals preferred training that is delivered within school settings, involves experiential learning, and requires minimal time. Implications for practice, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Tactical behaviour of winning athletes in major championship 1500-m and 5000-m track finals

This article analyses the tactics employed by middle-distance (1500-m) and long-distance (5000-m) runners from an observational methodology perspective. The subject of investigation has received little attention from specialists in the field of athletics, with most research focusing on physiological studies of athlete performance. Using an ad hoc observation tool and a database containing systematically recorded data we detected time patterns (T-patterns) within the data recorded using the Theme software program (version 5.0), and analysed the tactics employed by winners of the men's 1500-m and 5000-m finals of the World Championships in Athletics [Edmonton 2001, Paris 2003, Helsinki 2005 (1500-m final only), Osaka 2007 (1500-m final only), Berlin 2009 and Daegu 2011], the European Athletics Championships (Munich 2002, Göteborg 2006, and Barcelona 2010) and the Olympic Games (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012). T-pattern detection and investigation of the relationship between category systems corresponding to the criteria comprising the observation tool revealed both similarities (starting lane and lane used during race, runner's position during race and sprint zone and lane) and differences (variations in pace, zones in which changes of pace occur, sprint initiation zone and winner's position at the start of the sprint) between the two disciplines.     

Aspirations and equality in higher education: gender in a South African university

This paper considers ways to theorise aspirations in terms of capabilities and agency to function as human beings, as well as our resources to act and participate in this world using a South African case of women students’ aspirations. In this analysis higher education should foster women’s freedom as critical agents to make genuine choices about their lives and futures, including being able to engage critically with gender norms. The paper thus explores critical agency, together with aspirations – the goals one wants to reach in the future – that indicate which capabilities are valued and which could unlock critical agency. However, the paper also considers the ambiguities generated by the persistence of gender norms and the way these may work in higher education cultures to constrain what women have reason to value and hence their capabilities and achievements.     

Search behavior in cats and dogs: Interspecific differences in working memory and spatial cognition

Cats’ and dogs’ search behavior was compared in different problems where an object was visibly moved behind a screen that was then visibly moved to a new position. In Experiments 1 (cats) and 2 (dogs), one group was tested with identical screens and the other group was tested with dissimilar screens. Results showed that in both species, search behavior was based on processing of spatial information rather than on recognition of the visual features of the target screen. Cats and dogs were unable to find the object by inferring its invisible movement. They reached a high level of success only if there was direct perceptual evidence that the object could not be at its initial position. When the position change was indicated by an indirect cue, cats searched more at the object’s initial than final position, whereas dogs searched equally at both positions. Interspecific similarities and differences are interpreted in terms of the requirements for resetting working memory.     

Contract cheating in Australian higher education: a comparison of non-university higher education providers and universities

Abstract

This article reports on one aspect of a nationally funded research project on contract cheating in Australian higher education. The project explored students' and educators’ experiences of contract cheating, and the contextual factors that may influence it. This article reports the key findings from non-university higher education providers (NUHEPs). It compares survey responses from 961 students and 91 educators at four NUHEPs with previously reported findings from eight universities (14,086 students and 1,147 staff). NUHEP and university students report engaging in contract cheating in similar ways. However, while NUHEP educators spend more time teaching academic literacies and discussing contract cheating, NUHEP students are 12 times more likely than university students to report use of a professional academic writing service. Both NUHEP and university educators require systematic professional development regarding the relationship between the teaching and learning environment and students’ contract cheating behaviour. NUHEPs need to be cognisant of students’ vulnerability to commercial contract cheating services, and ensure they have access to timely academic and social support.     

Theory,politics, and experiment in educational research methodology

In laboratory experiments and all other research situations the testing of any one hypothesis entails the simultaneous testing of a whole network of auxiliary hypotheses. These will include hypotheses about the stability of statistical structure, the viability of methods, and the social relations between researcher and subject. In the absence of a rigorously theorized naturalistic framework, traditional experimental designs entail professional domination of knowledge and epistemically privileged researchers; as a consequence, their use is open to serious epistemological and political questioning.An alternative account of experiment and scientificity is proposed which recognizes the need to incorporate an understanding of subjects' epistemologies into research programmes, a need which requires greater power for subjects in the development of research, and thus undermines professional domination and epistemic privilege. The account also implies that laboratory experimental inquiry will lapse in rigour unless it is designed and conducted within an explicitly and precisely theorized naturalistic context. Whereas other accounts make scientificity contingent upon professional control and epistemic privilege, the present account suggests that scientificity in social and educational research is contingent upon a deprofessionalized set of social and epistemic relations.

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Zusammenfassung Die Überprüfung einer beliebigen Hypothese in Laborexperimenten und in allen anderen Forschungssituationen, zieht die Gleichzeitigkeit eines ganzen Netzwerkes von Hilfshypothesen nach sich. Diese werden Hypothesen über die Stabilität der statistischen Struktur, die Durchführbarkeit der Methoden, und über das soziale Geflecht zwischen Forscher und Versuchsperson einschließen. Da kein streng-theoretisch naturwissenschaftlicher Rahmen vorhanden ist, zeitigen traditionelle experimentelle Versuchsanordnungen professionelles Herrschaftswissen und erkenntnistheoretisch-privilegierte Forscher; konsequenterweise steht ihre Anwendung für ernsthaft-erkenntnistheoretische und politische Fragen offen.Eine alternative Darstellung des Experimentierens und der Wissenschaftlichkeit wird vorgeschlagen, indem die Notwendigkeit erkannt wird, ein Verständnis des erkenntnistheoretischen Vermögens der Versuchsperson in Forschungsprogrammen mit einzubeziehen und in der Notwendigkeit ihm erweiterte Machtbefugnisse in der Forschungsentwicklung einzuräumen, um auf diese Weise Herrschaftswissen und erkenntnistheoretisches Privileg zu unterminieren. Die Darstellung beinhaltet auch, daß die Laborexperimenten resultierenden Ermittlungen an Strenge verlieren werden, bis sie innerhalb eines deutlichen und präzis-theoretisierten naturwissenschaftlichen Kontextes aufgegriffen und ausgeführt werden. Während in anderen Darstellungen Wissenschaftlichkeit vom Zufall der professionellen Kontrolle und dem erkenntnistheoretischen Privileg abhängig gemacht werden, schlägt der vorliegende Bericht vor, Wissenschaftlichkeit in der Gesellschafts- und Bildungsforschung sei von einer deprofessionalisierten Reihe gesellschaftlicher und erkenntnistheoretischer Zusammenhänge abhängig.

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Résumé Lors des expériences faites en laboratoire et de toutes autres situations de recherche, l'examen de toute hypothèse entraîne l'analyse simultanée d'un réseau entier de variables auxiliaires. Celles-ci comprennent les hypothèses relatives à la stabilité de la structure statistique, la viabilité des méthodes et les relations sociales entre le chercheur et le sujet. En l'absence d'un cadre naturaliste rigoureusement théorisé, les concepts expérimentaux traditionnels amènent une domination du savoir des experts et des chercheurs épistémologiquement priviligiés: en conséquence, leur usage prête à une interrogation épistémologique et politique sérieuse.On propose un second examen de l'expérience et de la scientificité qui reconnaît la nécessité d'incorporer la compréhension des épistémologies des sujets dans les programmes de recherche, nécessité qui requiert une plus grande puissance des sujets dans le développement de la recherche, et sape ainsi la domination des connaissances des experts et le privilège épistémologique. Cet exposé implique également que la recherche expérimentale en laboratoire tombera dans la rigueur si elle n'est pas conçue et réalisée au sein d'un contexte naturaliste théorisé explicitement et précisément. Tandis que d'autres études font dépendre la scientificité du contrôle expert et du privilège épistémologique, l'article présent énonce que la scientificité de la recherche en matière d'éducation et sociale dépend d'une série de relations sociales et épistémologiques dénuées de tout professionnalisme.

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This paper is a revised version of a paper presented to the Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Australian National University, Canberra, November 1983.     

Perceived ability and success: which self-efficacy measures matter? A distance learning perspective

This paper sought to determine the effects of three self-efficacy measures on the academic attainment of students who were enrolled for the first time at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in 2015. The measures of interest were self-regulated learning efficacy, distance learning self-efficacy and computer and online technologies self-efficacy. Overall, only DLSE was found to have a significant effect on academic attainment albeit with a low effect (r = ?.13), explaining only 1.7% of the variation in the academic achievement between successful and unsuccessful students. DLSE also explained 10% of the variation in academic achievement between successful and unsuccessful students who, although new to Unisa, were not new to higher education.     

Efforts to Address the Aging Academic Workforce: Assessing Progress Through a Three-Stage Model of Institutional Change

The aging of the academic workforce is becoming more relevant to policy discussions in higher education. Yet there has been no formal, large-scale analysis of institutional efforts to develop policies and programs for aging employees. We fielded a representative survey of human resource specialists at 187 colleges and universities across the United States and found that most institutions did not identify the aging workforce as a primary concern. Still, three out of every eight campuses had made some effort to implement age-targeted policies and programs; and these efforts were more likely to occur at institutions with a greater number of employees and with human resources staff who had training in issues related to an aging workforce.     

Theoretical Foundations for Website Design Courses

Theoretical foundations in website design courses can facilitate students learning the genres of Internet communication. Genre theory and activity theory provide opportunities for emphasizing the social context of websites in ways that emphasize for students the identity-laden nature of sites that can often appear to be anonymous and addressed to multiple audiences. After proposing ways that these theories can be integrated into website design courses, the article focuses on two students' website portfolios and ways they utilize theories discussed in class to produce websites in two different fields.