Exploring the relationship between school discipline referrals and delinquency

There is a growing concern about violent and destructive behaviors of youth that require intervention by juvenile justice and youth‐serving agencies. This concern has led many to conclude that schools and community agencies must increase efforts to prevent juvenile delinquency and to provide programs that will facilitate rehabilitation, education, and vocational training for youth already involved. A clear understanding of the nature and range of behaviors that result in juvenile crime is needed in order to develop programs and interventions that can be expected to lead to beneficial changes for youth and for society as a whole. The purpose of this article is to describe the relationship between school behaviors and youth characteristics in school (e.g., discipline referrals, teacher nominations, nomothetic ratings) and referrals to juvenile authorities (e.g., illegal behaviors). We describe a strategy of using teacher nominations, school discipline referrals, and community arrest data to predict delinquent and violent behavior in youth. We outline data from a group of socially maladjusted middle school youth to illustrate the relationship between the two data sources and recommendations for identification and treatment of youth at risk for delinquency and antisocial behavior. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Stereotype Threat,Identification with Academics,and Withdrawal from School: Why the most successful students of colour might be most likely to withdraw

Claude Steele’s stereotype threat hypothesis posits that when there are negative stereotypes about the intellectual capacity of certain (stigmatised) groups, members of that group suffer aversive consequences; group members who are most strongly identified with the stigmatised domain in question (e.g., intellectual or academic ability) are those most likely to suffer the effects of stereotype threat. In education, it is widely held that personal investment in schooling should lead to more positive outcomes. However, highly‐invested individuals will most keenly experience the negative effects of stigma. Thus those most at risk for withdrawing from school among students of colour (who suffer a stigma of intellectual inferiority) could be those most invested in schooling. This hypothesis was tested by measuring identification with academics among a group of incoming students at a racially diverse inner‐city high school in the Midwest USA. Regardless of race, the students who most strongly identified with academics (they valued and considered academics central to the self) had higher GPAs, lower levels of absenteeism, and fewer behavioural referrals. However, among students of colour the most strongly identified were more likely to withdraw, while identification with academics did not significantly influence the withdrawal of Caucasian students. These results highlight the importance of providing a supportive environment that diffuses stereotype threat for all students, even those who appear to be academically successful.     

Positing Organizational Effectiveness as a Second-Order Construct in Hong Kong Higher Education Institutions

The study examines the relative importance of the various organizational effectiveness dimensions in higher education institutions by positing organizational effectiveness as a second-order construct. Based on the findings of a survey administered to university academics in Hong Kong universities, the second-order structure of organizational effectiveness was supported. The findings reflected that the student-related dimensions were not considered as important as the dimensions related to faculty employment and satisfaction and suggested the disproportionate influence of the governing body on universities in Hong Kong.     

International fieldschool reciprocity: using a whole-of-university approach to create positive change in Northern Uganda

ABSTRACT

International fieldschools to developing countries have become an important component of the university curriculum because they provide experiential learning and research skills, while also contributing a range of soft skills such as resilience, empathy, resourcefulness, critical thinking, and cross-cultural communication. Yet, with the increasing popularity of ‘developing world’ fieldschools, an ever-more pertinent question to ask is, cui bono? Who benefits when relatively ‘privileged’ students from wealthy countries travel to visit ‘underprivileged’ communities in poorer parts of the world? In this article, we contribute to the discussion about fieldschool reciprocity using data from a newly established program in Northern Uganda, established as part of the University of New South Wales’ UNSW2025 strategy. We show that a whole-of-university approach has significant benefits for staff and students from both institutions, more diffuse benefits for the wider Ugandan host community, as well as the potential to create synergies to leverage community transformation. We also look at challenges that include: power differentials, uncertainty in the field environment, sustainability, and the ability to maintain collaborative equity between institutions over the long term.     

A Delicate Balance: Integrating Active Learning into a Large Lecture Course

A lecture section of introductory biology that historically enrolled more than 500 students was split into two smaller sections of approximately 250 students each. A traditional lecture format was followed in the “traditional” section; lecture time in the “active” section was drastically reduced in favor of a variety of in-class student-centered activities. Students in both sections took unannounced quizzes and multiple-choice exams. Evaluation consisted of comparisons of student survey responses, scores on standardized teaching evaluation forms, section averages and attendance, and open-ended student comments on end-of-term surveys. Results demonstrate that students perform as well, if not better, in an active versus traditional environment. However, student concerns about instructor expectations indicate that a judicious balance of student-centered activities and presentation-style instruction may be the best approach.     

Comparing technology-related teacher professional development designs: a multilevel study of teacher and student impacts

This article presents a quasi-experimental study comparing the impact of two technology-related teacher professional development (TTPD) designs, aimed at helping junior high school science and mathematics teachers design online activities using the rapidly growing set of online learning resources available on the Internet. The first TTPD design (tech-only) focused exclusively on enhancing technology knowledge and skills for finding, selecting, and designing classroom activities with online resources, while the second (tech?+?pbl) coupled technology knowledge with learning to design problem-based learning (PBL) activities for students. Both designs showed large pre-post gains for teacher participants (N?=?36) in terms of self-reported knowledge, skills, and technology integration. Significant interaction effects show that teachers in the tech?+?pbl group had larger gains for self-reported knowledge and externally rated use of PBL. Three generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were fit to study the impact on students?? (N?=?1,247) self reported gains in behavior, knowledge, and attitudes. In the resulting models, students of tech?+?pbl teachers showed significant increases in gain scores for all three outcomes. By contrast, students of tech-only teachers showed improved gains only in attitudes.     

Implications of academic literacies research for knowledge making and curriculum design

This article explores the issue of what academic literacies research can bring to the study of knowledge and curriculum in higher education from a theoretical perspective and by means of illustrations from a work in progress academic literacies research project in the natural sciences. It argues that reading and writing are central to the process of learning in any discipline and that discipline specialists need to take this into consideration when planning their curricula. It also considers what knowledge means in the context of academic literacies research and how this conception of knowledge may differ from the knowledge structures researchers’ concern with knowledge as an object with its own properties. It comes to the conclusion that academic literacies research with its ethnographic-type exploration of social practice and theorisations of knowledge in the knowledge structures research can complement one another because each field of enquiry brings a lens that the other lacks.     

Social science doctoral students’ needs and preferences for written feedback

The purpose of this study was to investigate social science doctoral students’ preferences and needs with regard to written feedback on academic writing and to develop a written feedback categorization. In an exploratory mixed methods approach, qualitative data collected during interviews were used to form a questionnaire to collect quantitative data in two research-intensive universities. The results based on 276 doctoral students’ responses provided a clear list of feedback types needed by doctoral students, including comments addressing their main idea, argumentation, clarity, and information coverage. Their preferences varied on issues of autonomy, criticism, and ambiguity, all critical factors in the transition to independence expected during their doctoral education. The resulting written feedback categorization encompasses three aspects: function, focus, and presentation. The findings of this study have the potential to guide supervisors, feedback providers, and doctoral students as well as inform further research, including instrument development and written feedback content analyses.