Rupture and repair: Episodes of resistance and resilience in teachers’ learning

This action inquiry article examines veteran teachers’ learning in a week-long professional development seminar. We describe moments of disconnection in key learning relationships (teacher, learner, text) and analyze relational–cultural dynamics that contributed to the disconnections. We investigate the dynamics that facilitate repair within the relationships. We argue that disconnections were often acts of resistance which preserve teachers’ sense of self as learner. We aver that moments of reconnection were acts of resilience. This study’s significance demonstrates the inherent links between resistance and resilience. Implications point to the centrality of taking an inquiry stance in the study of professional development experiences.     

A comparison of class‐wide taped problems and cover,copy, and compare for enhancing mathematics fluency

An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of class‐wide applications of Taped Problems (TP) and Cover, Copy, and Compare (CCC) procedures designed to enhance subtraction fact fluency in an intact third‐grade classroom. During the TP procedure, a tape provided an auditory prompt (i.e., the problem), followed by a 2‐second delay and then the correct answer. Students attempted to supply the correct answer before the answer was provided by the tape. During the CCC procedure, students would cover a math‐fact family triangle, attempt to write one of two possible problems and answer, write the reciprocal fact and answer, and evaluate their responses. Results show that TP caused greater increases in subtraction fact fluency than CCC or a control condition. Discussion focuses on preventing student math deficits, issues regarding alternating treatments designs, and future directions for research. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Vertical Ground Reaction Forces of Children during One- and Two-Leg Rope Jumping

Abstract

Sport offers opportunities for children to identify and resolve moral issues. Moral issues in sport have primarily been studied from the researcher's perspective, with the child's perspective relatively ignored. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the nature and content of the issues children experienced in sport. Interview participants consisted of 7 boys and 8 girls ranging in age from 10 to 12 years (M = 11.6 years, SD = 1.7) who had competitive youth sport experience. An inductive content analysis revealed that children identified issues surrounding three overall dimensions concerning fairness of adult's actions, negative game behaviors, and negative team behaviors. Specific examples of issues included unfair actions by coaches, disrespecting opponents, and selfish behavior in practice. The self-identified issues both confirmed and expanded upon the content found in hypothetical moral dilemmas in sport.     

Implementing RFID in a hospital library: a scoping study

This article discusses a scoping study on implementing radio frequency identification device (RFID) in a hospital library context, conducted by Joseph Norwood for his MA dissertation at the University of Brighton. The study was carried out during the summer of 2011 to support possible RFID implementation at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH) Trust, and the library staff were able to use the findings to good effect to create a business plan. This article also acts as the template for the new Dissertations into Practice feature, which was introduced in the March issue (Marshall, A. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2012, 29, 72). The dissertation highlighted here is very practical in nature and had immediate and quantifiable benefits for the Trust library. Future feature articles are likely to reflect the range of health-related dissertation topics which students choose and will include studies on user information behaviour, information services related to mental health and well-being, as well as the impact of technology on health-related library or information services.AM.     

Drawing a computer scientist: stereotypical representations or lack of awareness?

ABSTRACT

Stereotypes people hold about computer scientists contribute to underrepresentation in computer science. Perceptions of computer scientists have historically been linked to males and a “nerd” culture, which can lead to lack of interest, particularly for girls. This article presents two studies conducted with two groups of middle schoolers: those who attended our programming camp (Study One) and those who did not (Study Two). After analyzing participants’ drawings and two survey questions we found that perceptions youth holds about computer scientists may be improving. Additionally, we found that males (versus females) and those youth who did not attend our camp (versus those who did) tended to have more stereotypical perceptions of computer scientists. With this article, we contribute to the literature on CS stereotypes by examining both positive and negative representations youth had about computer scientists. We also cast light on the lack of awareness about this profession among the youth of this age.     

A motivational account of the undergraduate experience in science: brief measures of students’ self-system appraisals,engagement in coursework,and identity as a scientist

ABSTRACT

As part of long-standing efforts to promote undergraduates’ success in science, researchers have investigated the instructional strategies and motivational factors that promote student learning and persistence in science coursework and majors. This study aimed to create a set of brief measures that educators and researchers can use as tools to examine the undergraduate motivational experience in science classes. To identify key motivational processes, we drew on self-determination theory (SDT), which holds that students have fundamental needs – to feel competent, related, and autonomous – that fuel their intrinsic motivation. When educational experiences meet these needs, students engage more energetically and learn more, cumulatively contributing to a positive identity as a scientist. Based on information provided by 1013 students from 8 classes in biology, chemistry, and physics, we constructed conceptually focused and psychometrically sound survey measures of three sets of motivational factors: (1) students’ appraisals of their own competence, autonomy, and relatedness; (2) the quality of students’ behavioural and emotional engagement in academic work; and (3) students’ emerging identities as scientists, including their science identity, purpose in science, and science career plans. Using an iterative confirmatory process, we tested short item sets for unidimensionality and internal consistency, and then cross-validated them. Tests of measurement invariance showed that scales were generally comparable across disciplines. Most importantly, scales and final course grades showed correlations consistent with predictions from SDT. These measures may provide a window on the student motivational experience for educators, researchers, and interventionists who aim to improve the quality of undergraduate science teaching and learning.     

Managing the Process: The Intradepartmental Networks of Early-Career Academics

This article relies on data from surveys and interviews to explore the networking behaviors and strategies of early-career faculty members within the contexts of their academic departments. Findings suggest that faculty members’ approaches to interactions and relationships with colleagues may be conceptualized according to a continuum of behavior, based on their political awareness of interactions and their strategic engagement in them, interactions as a means of impression management, the cultivation of relationships for symbolic inclusion in networks, and the presence of functional patterns in network. The article concludes with recommendations for future research.     

Diversity in collaborative research communities: a multicultural,multidisciplinary thesis writing group in public health

Writing groups for doctoral students are generally agreed to provide valuable learning spaces for Ph.D. candidates. Here an academic developer and the eight members of a writing group formed in a Discipline of Public Health provide an account of their experiences of collaborating in a multicultural, multidisciplinary thesis writing group. We consider the benefits of belonging to such a group for Ph.D. students who are operating in a research climate in which disciplinary boundaries are blurring and where an increasing number of doctoral projects are interdisciplinary in nature; in which both academic staff and students come from enormously diverse cultural and language backgrounds; and in which teamwork, networking and collaboration are prized but not always proactively facilitated. We argue that doctoral writing groups comprising students from diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds can be of significant value for postgraduates who wish to collaborate on their own academic development to improve their research writing and communication skills; at the same time, such collaborative work effectively builds an inclusive, dynamic research community.