Resistance in the classroom – from dysfunctional to functional: A future necessary skill?

This article reports on resistance in primary schools, more specific grade five learners as perceived by teachers. A qualitative phenomenological interpretative approach was followed utilising focus group discussions and individual interviews. Participants included 14 teachers, purposefully selected from three private and three public schools in Gauteng. Data were thematically analysed. Four main themes were identified: 1) manifestations in the classroom differentiated by active or passive resistance, either positive or negative; 2) a causal model of reasoning; 3) teacher-learner relationships affected by negative and positive perceptions; and 4) constructive suggestions for support holding value for practical application. Findings revealed that resistance in the primary school classroom (the result of the interaction between the learner and contextual factors), is still often assumed as negative and dysfunctional to teaching; however, it can equally be conducive and functional depending on the interaction. Teachers display a more flexible, resilient and positive understanding of contributing factors, and they value resistance if it signifies creativity and independent problem solving, leading to more positive teacherlearner relationships.     

Serious game‐based and nongame‐based online courses: Learning experiences and outcomes

When combining the increasing use of online educational environments, the push to use serious video games and the lack of research on the effectiveness of online learning environments and video games, there is a clear need for further investigation into the use of serious video games in an online format. A mix methods model was used to triangulate statistical and qualitative findings on student performance, completion time, student intrinsic motivation, as well as desirable, undesirable, helpful and hindering aspects of serious game‐based and nongame‐based courses. Students in the game‐based course were found to have performed significantly better and to have taken significantly longer. Students and teachers in the game‐based course provided more reasons for student motivation along with more desirable, more helpful and less hindering aspects compared to students and teachers in the non‐game‐based course. In addition, students and teachers in both courses provided an equal number of undesirable aspects. The results from this study inform instructional designers, teachers, education stakeholders and educational game designers by providing research‐based evidence related to the learning experiences and outcomes of the serious game‐based online course.     

Multiple Child-Care Arrangements and Young Children's Behavioral Outcomes

Nationally, 15% of children younger than 5 years regularly attend more than 1 child-care arrangement. An association between arrangement multiplicity and children's behavior problems has been identified, but previous research may be susceptible to measurement or omitted variable bias. This study used within-child fixed effects models to examine associations between changes in the number of concurrent, nonparental child-care arrangements and changes in mother- and caregiver-reported behavior among 2- and 3-year-old children in the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development ( N = 850). Increases in the number of arrangements were related to increases in children's concurrent behavior problems and decreases in prosocial behaviors, particularly among girls and younger children. Implications for policy and research are discussed.     

Using children's literature to decrease moral disengagement and victimization among elementary school students

Previous research has suggested that moral disengagement is strongly associated with bullying and bystander behavior. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a 5‐week classroom‐wide bullying intervention, The Bullying Literature Project‐Moral Disengagement Version (BLP‐MD), on moral disengagement and bullying among elementary school students. A quasiexperimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the BLP‐MD. A sample of 84 third grade students (M_age = 7.93 years, 53.6% female) from four classrooms and their teachers participated in this study. The results revealed significant time by treatment interactions for decreasing both victimization and moral disengagement in treatment classrooms compared to waitlist control classrooms. The program also resulted in improved perception of peer friendships and was rated as having high social validity for both students and their teachers. How to incorporate the BLP‐MD into the general language arts curriculum to decrease moral disengagement and bullying, and promote positive bystanding is discussed.     

Sequence of child care type and child development: What role does peer exposure play?

Child care arrangements change as children age; in general, hours in home-based child care decrease as hours in center-based settings increase. This sequence of child care type may correspond with children's developmental needs; the small peer groups and low child–adult ratios typical of home-based care may allow for more individual child–adult time for infants and toddlers, whereas the social stimulation found in center-based care during the preschool years may prepare children for kindergarten. This study examined associations between school readiness and the timing of child care type among children in NICHD's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1349). Findings suggest that children who experience home-based care during the infant–toddler period and center care during the preschool period display the improved cognitive outcomes, but not the increased behavioral problems, generally associated with sustained center care attendance. Continuous home-based care was associated with higher social status at school entry partially through smaller peer groups during the preschool period. These patterns did not differ by child or family characteristics. Implications for policy and research are discussed.     

Conflicting logics of online higher education

Abstract

The advent of massive open online courses and online degrees offered via digital platforms has occurred in a climate of austerity. Public universities worldwide face challenges to expand their educational reach, while competing in international rankings, raising fees and generating third-stream income. Online forms of unbundled provision offering smaller flexible low-cost curricular units have promised to disrupt this system. Yet do these forms challenge existing hierarchies in higher education and the market logic that puts pressure on universities and public institutions at large in the neoliberal era? Based on fieldwork in South Africa, this article explores the perceptions of senior managers of public universities and of online programme management companies. Analysing their considerations around unbundled provision, we discuss two conflicting logics of higher education that actors in structurally different positions and in historically divergent institutions use to justify their involvement in public–private partnerships: the logic of capital and the logic of social relevance.     

Use of Social Emotional Learning Skills to Predict Future Academic Success and Progress Toward Graduation

This study evaluated the degree to which a range of social emotional learning skills—academic self-efficacy, academic motivation, social connections, importance of school, and managing psychological and emotional distress and academic stress— could be used as an indicator of future academic outcomes. Using a sample of 4,797 from a large urban school district, we found that high school students classified as performing in the lowest 25% of their grade reported lower social emotional skills than students classified in the top 25% of academic performers by the end of the 8th grade. Two variables, perceived importance of attending college and psychological and physical stress, accounted for nearly 26% of the variance in cumulative high school GPA after controlling for 9th-grade GPA. Finally, the results indicated that a combination of 5 social emotional learning subscales effectively discriminated between students making positive progress towards high school graduation and those identified as having dropped out of or failed more than 14% of their courses.     

An exploratory study of the impacts of an employer-supported child care program

Although employer-sponsored child care programs have become more common, there is little empirical research on whether these programs affect employees’ satisfaction with child care or their work-life balance, and if effects vary across employee characteristics. In this exploratory study, we administered a survey to employees with children at one large university to gather information on their child care arrangements and experience with their employer's child care voucher program (N = 776). Satisfaction with child care varied with employee and child care characteristics, but not with voucher receipt. Families with preschool children, White families, and those using paid home-based care were more satisfied with their child care arrangements than those with school-age children, minority families, and those using center-based or before/afterschool care. Nearly half of voucher recipients (47%) reported benefits in work-life balance as a result of the voucher. Although demand-side vouchers appear to be a promising employer approach to address child care challenges, these results suggest that attention must also be given to the structure of child care supply as satisfaction and work-family stress are affected by more factors than child care cost only.