Characteristics of Successful Collaborations to Produce Educated Software Engineering Professionals

Currently, a large gap exists between the number of open software engineering positions and the number of qualified software engineers to fill those positions. The Industry/University (I/U) subgroup of the Working Group on Software Engineering Education and Training (WGSEET) is investigating active collaborations between companies and universities in which non-software professionals and practitioners without formal software education are reeducated to become software engineers. This paper describes the current status of work performed by the I/U subgroup in the investigation of reeducation collaborations. It is our goal to identify the common characteristics of successful collaborations in order to provide guidance to universities and companies when constructing a collaborative program, as well as to promote future collaborations. In this paper, we report on the current activity of the I/U subgroup, describe the features of successful collaborations identified so far in our research, and provide some conclusions as to the usefulness of such collaborations.     

An analysis of the changing shape of initial teacher education and training in Wales since devolution

After a sustained period of relative calm, initial teacher education and training (ITET) in Wales has seen much change in recent times since devolution and all the indications are that this change agenda is likely to escalate in both the short and long term. In order to understand what has been happening in the ITET field in Wales, our paper sets out to achieve three things: first, it has contextualised the changing ITET, political, social and economic climate within Wales. Second, it has presented ITET data for Wales from the onset of devolution to the present time. Thereafter, these data have been compared and contrasted. Third, we have attempted to project our findings forward, albeit in an era which is increasingly difficult to predict given both the financial climate and “cuts” agenda. These latter aspects may result in the longer term, at best, to ITET in Wales becoming even further fragmented or reduced in numbers to, at worst, being decimated or changed forever from the more traditional scene which was apparent in both Wales and the rest of the UK since the Robbins Report aftermath in the late 1960s.     

Assessing the Life Science Knowledge of Students and Teachers Represented by the K–8 National Science Standards

We report on the development of an item test bank and associated instruments based on the National Research Council (NRC) K–8 life sciences content standards. Utilizing hundreds of studies in the science education research literature on student misconceptions, we constructed 476 unique multiple-choice items that measure the degree to which test takers hold either a misconception or an accepted scientific view. Tested nationally with 30,594 students, following their study of life science, and their 353 teachers, these items reveal a range of interesting results, particularly student difficulties in mastering the NRC standards. Teachers also answered test items and demonstrated a high level of subject matter knowledge reflecting the standards of the grade level at which they teach, but exhibiting few misconceptions of their own. In addition, teachers predicted the difficulty of each item for their students and which of the wrong answers would be the most popular. Teachers were found to generally overestimate their own students’ performance and to have a high level of awareness of the particular misconceptions that their students hold on the K–4 standards, but a low level of awareness of misconceptions related to the 5–8 standards.     

In between self-knowledge and school demands: policy enacted in the Swedish middle-year classroom

In this article, we focus on the interaction in a Year 5 classroom where students fill in a ‘self-evaluation form’ as a preparation for a forthcoming discussion on progress aiming at the production of an Individual Developmental Plan. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of fabrications and performativity, we understand this as an enactment of policy where both teacher and students become actors and subjects. From using document analysis together with conversation analysis as a methodological approach, we show how the ‘self-evaluation’ in interaction becomes a successful exercise in fabrications as teacher and student negotiate conceptions of the ideal student in relation to self-knowledge and school demands. The article is an empirically grounded contribution to the understanding of how policies are interpreted and made into being by local actors in everyday practices, in this case teachers and students in schools.     

Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently)

The authors explore a history of grading and review the literature regarding the purposes and impacts of grading. They then suggest strategies for making grading more supportive of learning, including balancing accuracy-based and effort-based grading, using self/peer evaluation, curtailing curved grading, and exercising skepticism about the meaning of grades.     

Environmental Sensitivity and the Mass Media

Abstract

The traditional methods of interpretation have placed most of the emphasis on presentation, form, and accuracy of content. These points remain important, but if the audience to whom the program is directed is not understood, the program will be a failure. There is a diversity of people found in recreation areas. Recent efforts in interpretive research have emphasized the need to include the audience as a factor in interpretive planning. This paper has been concerned with one such audience, the handicapped, and its purpose is to provide interpretive suggestions based on knowledge of their individual requirements.

One cannot conclude that because people have some physical or mental impairment, their needs for outdoor recreation, or abilities to benefit from it, are impaired. Rather, variations in interpretive approaches are required to match these unique visitors with a message. In many cases very little modification will be required.

Blind: As only five to ten percent of blind people read Braille, information can be best presented by way of sound, such as by use of cassette tape players. No special guiding apparatus is necessary; they move throughout the rest of the world without guide ropes or kickrails, and the interpretive setting is no different.

Deaf: If interpreters would use fingerspelling or some sign language, they could make some of their programs available to deaf persons.

Deaf-Blind: Because deaf-blind visitors would usually be accompanied by someone who is not handicapped, no special accommodations are necessary.

Mentally Retarded: Interpretation that is geared to their particular level of comprehension and which allows total personal involvement is the most satisfactory.

Ambulatory Limitations: Facilities made accessible and navigable is all that is necessary.