The Comprehensive Counseling Center Model

The authors outline a four-factor model and philosophy for college mental health services that addresses the loss of comprehensiveness in some centers due to changes in organizational structure. Given research on demand for services and retention of those seen in centers, emphasis is placed in particular upon the value of consultation, outreach, and training work across the entire campus community. The model challenges some assumptions made by proponents of integrated care, including its definition, and illustrates the benefits of establishing and maintaining a fully comprehensive college counseling service.     

Student understanding and application of science concepts in the context of an integrated curriculum setting

The integration of science with other disciplines is a popular curriculum reform strategy. However, there is an absence of empirical research into how students understand and apply science concepts in integrated curricula settings. This case study focuses on three pairs of Year 9 students and their understanding and application of the concepts of electrical circuit and current in the construction of a solar-powered boat. Our results revealed some limited evidence of students applying formal science knowledge to complete their projects and bridge the discipline boundaries. However, students did not always hold and use the accepted scientific view of electrical current as they undertook their projects. We conclude that integrated approaches to teaching science may be appropriate to engage students in using scientific knowledge as a tool to solve real-world problems, but raise some questions as to whether they improve conceptual understanding.     

Study procrastination, achievement, and academic motivation in web-based and blended distance learning

Growth in distance education is increasing the need to examine students' learning strategies in distance and blended learning environments. Students' cramming or spaced-review behaviors were measured and compared across delivery formats as well as examined related to course achievement and attitudes across a term. Although theory would predict that spaced study rather than last minute cramming would yield higher achievement, researchers report mixed findings in both areas. One hundred fifty-seven students in distance and blended course formats were blocked into 5 groups based on their cramming/spaced-review patterns a week prior to each of 3 posttests. Significant differences were observed in cramming/spaced-review behaviors between delivery formats and for achievement and attitudes.     

Using Piwik Instead of Google Analytics at the Cornell University Library

Like many other libraries, Cornell University Library uses Google Analytics (GA) to track website usage. GA, designed to support Google’s primary revenue stream, advertising, has many strengths, including cost (free). Given our tradition in libraries to protect reader privacy, a compelling argument can be made that Google Analytics is inappropriate for libraries. After a review of alternatives to GA following Edward Snowden's revelations, we selected Piwik (piwik.org) as a replacement for GA. Piwik is a free, open source, and most importantly, supports local data collection. We summarize what some of the library literature says about web analytics tools, explain why we selected Piwik, and describe what is involved when migrating from GA to Piwik.     

Showtime: the biopolitical performance of ‘effective beginning science teacher’

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Over the past decade, neoliberal practices for ensuring teacher effectiveness have shaped the landscape of education. In the midst of policy mandates for...     

Decision Making and Sources of Knowledge: How Students Tackle Integrated Tasks in Science,Technology and Mathematics

This article reports on students' decision making processes and sources of knowledge in an integrated teaching and learning setting. The study was conducted in a Year 9 classroom as students undertook a 10-week solar-powered boat project and were exposed to related concepts from science, technology and mathematics. Data collection involved detailed case studies of three pairs of students, interviews, classroom observation and analysis of the artefacts and portfolios produced by the students. Students were found to access knowledge from a variety of sources, including teacher's notes from formal instruction, informal interactions with the teacher, observation of and interaction with other students, as well as sources outside the classroom. However, the utility of the knowledge sources was influenced by the nature of the task. When students were performing open-ended tasks, they drew on a wider variety of knowledge sources than when they were performing less open tasks. Moreover, subject discipline-based sources often were not as helpful in solving open tasks. The study leads to several important implications for designing teaching and learning in integrated curriculum settings.     

Effects of stimulus alternations on extinguishing a discrimination

Rats were trained in a light ON vs light OFF discrimination in operant chambers with food reinforcement. Following acquisition, extinction under conditions of no alternations between S+ and S? and under conditions of numerous alternations between S+ and S? were examined. In Experiment I, extinction in S+ or S? alone produced less responding to S+ and more responding to S? than extinction with regular alternations between S+ and S?. In Experiment II, 9, 39, or 79 alternations in extinction between S+ and S? produced no differences in responding. These results indicate that during extinction of a discrimination there is (a) sharpening of differential performance, (b) a difference between multiple- and single-stimulus procedures, and (c) little effect of different numbers of alternations.     

The Western Australian School Leadership Programme: towards a new paradigm for leadership development

The changes confronting the workplace, such as the process of decentralisation currently transforming the structure of school systems, have given rise to new relationships within organisations, particularly new models of leadership. These changes reflect a wider and more comprehensive set of forces shaping human social existence in the latter part of the twentieth century, often referred to as post‐modernism. It is argued that the post‐modern world requires a different kind of education for school leaders in terms of both the content and the manner in which it is delivered. This paper describes the design, structure and delivery of one such programme in the state of Western Australia—the School Leadership Programme. It is argued that features of this programme represent the shape of things to come in professional development for school personnel as the education sector responds to the move from modernity to post‐modemity.     

Introduction: Science Teaching Cases as Learning Opportunities

Research in Science Education -     

CONCEPT GROWTH AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD

The growing numbers of analytical or literary studies demand a careful evaluation of objectives, procedures and the analysis of the results. The author presents a check‐list of criteria for assessing the value of such studies. His check‐list for evaluating empirical and experimental studies in educational research appeared in Educational Research, 11, 1.