Laptops and lipsticks: feminising technology

This paper brings learning, mass media and technology together in a critical analysis of advertising and its gendered implications in terms of women’s desires and investments in technology. It uses two advertisements for laptop computers that appeared in the same weekend news magazine as an analytical opportunity to examine collisions and collusion between discourses of femininity and discourses of technology. Each advertisement depicts women as users of computer technology yet rather than aiming for a gender‐neutral image, they enact a hyperfeminity in their representation of women and in their appeals to consumers. In these advertisements language, images, ideas and desires associated with cosmetics, designer fashion and maternity are mobilised by advertisers to sell computers to women. They provide an ideal space in which to survey some key ideas in the literature and to interrogate how familiar stereotypes about women and technology are being perpetuated and challenged. The implications of these readings for a larger project on girls and technology are examined in the final section of the paper.     

Bolstering graduates’ success through working as student ambassadors in university widening participation programs

Since 2010, the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) has provided funding for Australian universities to ‘raise aspiration’ among under-represented groups. Underpinned by utilitarian discourses of human capital and individual capacitation, these resources have transformed the ways that universities seek to engage prospective students. This paper turns to an overlooked cohort that is integral to widening participation initiatives, but has rarely been the focus of research. These are the student ambassadors – university students who work within HEPPP programs. This paper reports findings from the alumni component of a mixed-method study which examines how widening participation programs, which are ostensibly directed at future university enrolments, might also help university students who work as student ambassadors to become successful professionals and citizens once they graduate from university. Alumni accounts of their experiences and self-reported impact of their ambassador work advocate a more holistic view of graduate success and how activities beyond mandatory coursework can contribute to success beyond university graduation. Evidence from student ambassador alumni suggests that these positive impacts are broad and long-lasting, contributing to students’ professional successes and personal lives.     

Families with Gifted Adolescents

Studies of families with gifted adolescents have revealed conflicting results. Adolescents, mothers, and fathers of 84 families with a gifted adolescent and of 95 families with a non‐gifted adolescent evaluated their family system independently. Dependent variables were cohesion, democratic family style (adaptability), organisation, achievement orientation, communication, and intellectual‐cultural orientation. Neither statistically nor practically significant relationships between giftedness and family system variables could be observed from the perspectives of the adolescents, the mothers, or the fathers. Contradictory results from other studies can be primarily attributed to their methodological shortcomings, labelling effects, or both. The mean inter‐rater agreement was r = .46 for mothers and fathers, r = .38 for adolescents and mothers, and r = .35 for adolescents and fathers.     

Generalizing in the context of an early algebra intervention (La generalización en el contexto de una intervención algebraica temprana)

ABSTRACT

This study aims to understand the instructional interactions that foster students’ generalizing. By analysing video-recorded lessons from 13 different Grade 3 classrooms in which an early algebra intervention was implemented, activities related to generalizing and students’ generalizing activities were identified, and the nature of the relationships between these activities were explored. Namely, I consider the activities that potentially encourage students’ generalizing and the generalizing that students themselves do, and describe ways in which these activities interact. The findings have both practical and theoretical implications; in the former case, they provide insight into the design of instruction to foster generalizing, and in the latter case, they contribute to an ongoing conversation about students’ mathematics learning.     

Student Preschool Teachers’ Experiences of Science and Its Role in Preschool

This article reports on student preschool teachers’ views of science and its role in preschool. Three cohorts of students have been given a written questionnaire with open-ended questions before and after a one-semester course including science (specifically Chemistry and Physics) in a 3.5-year preschool teacher programme in Sweden. The science content in the course is integrated with other subjects and lecturers with different subject backgrounds work together in forming an integrated and meaningful context. A phenomenographic qualitative analysis of responses to the questionnaires before and after the course is presented. The analysis indicated that many students equate science with biology (nature studies), and several did not adjust this view even though chemistry and physics were explicitly taught. Surprisingly few students were negative towards science, none after the course. However, several remain hesitantly positive. Most students described ‘what’ and ‘how’ perspectives of science, but few developed a synthesised view of science activities. However, there was a shift towards a more integrated perspective after the course. Also the quality and eloquence of the students’ responses were noticeably improved in responses given after the course. Prior expectations and implications of the results for preschool teacher education are discussed.     

Comparing digital to print assessment of receptive vocabulary with GraWo-KiGa in Austrian kindergarten

The current study digitalised an assessment instrument of receptive vocabulary knowledge, GraWo-KiGa, for use in Austrian kindergartens. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study looks at 85 kindergarteners in their last year (age M = 5.79 years, 51.8% male, 71.8% L1 German), to find out (a) whether the form of digital assessment employed meets the required quality criteria and is comparable to the print version and (b) how instructors and children perceive its practicality and comprehensibility, as well as which version kindergarteners prefer. The results reveal that the digital assessment tool is both reliable (α = 0.85) and valid (convergent validity: r = 0.43; discriminant validity: r = 0.31). Results of the digital and print version were comparable (r = 0.83). Although children found both versions easy to use, most of them reported the digital version to be easier and also preferred. In light of the numerous benefits that digital assessments offer in terms of administration, evaluation, feedback and motivation, the digital version of GraWo-KiGa has great potential in easing kindergarten teachers' assessment procedures. However, due to the limited availability of digital resources, the print version will remain highly relevant in the future.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Proper assessment is the basis of individualised support.
• Digital assessment procedures can ease the assessment process and motivate children, even in kindergarten.
• In German-speaking countries, digitalisation has barely reached kindergarten.
• The print version of GraWo-KiGa reliably and validly assesses receptive vocabulary in kindergarteners in their last year.

What this paper adds

• GraWo-KiGa digital meets the necessary quality criteria in terms of reliability and validity and is comparable to its print version.
• GraWo-KiGa is practical in use for both children and kindergarten teachers.
• Most kindergarteners preferred the digital version over the print version. Teachers benefit from easy administration and evaluation, quick results, and a pleasant screening procedure for the kids.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Digital assessment tools in kindergarten have the potential to support kindergarten teachers in their regular assessment processes.
• In kindergarten, the use of GraWo-KiGa digital allows children at risk of developing reading comprehension difficulties to be identified quickly and economically.
• Digital assessments enable rapid and targeted allocation of children to support programmes.

     

Adult development and disciplinary content: A guide to effective teaching of adults

Most of the literature dealing with effective teaching of adult students deals with particular teaching methods. As important as suchprocess suggestions are, it may be even more important to help adults find connections between thecontent of the disciplines and the issues they experience personally as they move through the life cycle. A discussion of ways to do this is provided by an interdisciplinary team. These ideas are then integrated into a view of the disciplines as a tool for helping students mediate course content as well as their life experiences in the service of learning and individual development.Dr. Charles S. Claxton is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Center for the Study of Higher Education. His major research interests include effective teaching of adults, student learning styles, and use of adult development theory to enhance the college curriculum. Dr. Susanne B. Darnell is Associate Dean of University College, a unit in which students design individualized baccalaureate degrees in professional or liberal studies. She was formerly a member of the Department of Sociology. Dr. Geneva B. Reid is an Instructor in the Department of English and has extensive teaching experience with traditional age and adult students. Dr. Cecil G. Shugart is Professor in the Department of Physics and has long been active in the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society.