A University–School Partnership to Examine the Adoption and Implementation of the Ohio Community Collaboration Model in One Urban School District: A Mixed-Method Case Study

School improvement models are expanding to incorporate priorities around positive youth development, safe and supportive school climates, school mental health, and school–family community partnerships. A partnership was formed between researchers and district/school leaders to examine the 3-year adoption and implementation of 1 such exemplary model, the Ohio Community Collaboration Model for School Improvement, in a Midwest urban district serving a large number of students at-risk. Researchers and district/school leaders examined what types of system-level capacities developed, and explored student- and school-level outcomes that occurred over the course of implementation. Multiple innovations resulted, such as strengthened policies, improved partnerships and collaborations, and enhanced funding streams. Students' perceptions of academic press, school climate, and academic motivation improved over the 3 years. Academic report cards show progress toward districtwide improvement. Implications are drawn for researchers and school leaders, especially in relation to the design, implementation, and evaluation of collaborative models of school improvement.     

The participation of Australian Indigenous students in higher education: a scoping review of empirical research, 2000–2016

While access to higher education has increased for Indigenous Australians, participation and completion rates remain lower than those of non-Indigenous Australians. A sound evidence base is needed to ground equity initiatives if they are to address the specific needs of Indigenous students. This paper presents the results of a scoping review of empirical research focusing on the participation of Indigenous students in higher education. The purpose of the scoping review was to synthesise empirical research on aspirations for, and barriers and enablers to, higher education that were published between 2000 and 2016 (n = 57), and identify areas where further research is needed. Despite a recent increase in research on this topic, relatively little attention has been paid to Indigenous students’ aspirations while they are at school. We argue that future research should take account of school students’ aspirations for higher education, including primary school students; the similitude of barriers and enablers across the student life cycle; differences within Indigenous community and among Indigenous students; and, the insights emerging from Indigenous methodologies and scholarship.     

Psychological foundations of instructional design for emerging computer-based instructional technologies: Part II

Although considerable research has been published concerning learning and cognition in general, little impact has been reported on the design of computer-based instruction (CBI). In addition, CBI designs have been influenced negatively by technocentric perspectives, where technological capabilities dictate lesson activities, rather than a more reflective view on the relationship among learner, learning task and performance requirements, and the selective use of media capabilities. Attempts to extrapolate the relevance of non-CBI research and theory to advance a comprehensive and integrated view of the design of CBI have been rare. An integrated meta-model derived from both CBI and non-CBI research and theory is presented in this article.     

Assessment moderation in an Australian context: processes,practices, and challenges

Moderation is a quality assurance process that plays a central role in the teaching, learning, and assessment cycle in higher education. While there is a growing body of research globally on teaching, learning, and, to a lesser degree, assessment in higher education, the process of moderation of assessment has received even less attention. In a context of heightened accountability and greater transparency in the tertiary sector, the formalising of moderation processes has not been a part of established practice. In light of these changes, the purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and investigate current marking and moderation processes and practices operating within one faculty in a large urban university in eastern Australia to gain insight into the challenges to effective moderation. The findings suggest the need for moderation to be considered holistically as an inherent part of teaching and learning, and the need for ongoing staff development.     

A comparison of reading and listening performance: computer-controlled speech and printed text presentations

Print-handicapped people enrolled at any level of the education system are expected to acquire the same information as their peers who are readers of printed text. Research which compares performance rates of reading print with auding of materials read onto tape generally reports substantially higher performance by readers of print. The different strategies employed by readers and listeners are said to be responsible for the variation in performance.
This article describes the development of one method and the associated instrumentation which permits a more exact comparison of reading and listening performance. It ensures that important factors such as word rate, timing, inter-word pauses, and overall presentation duration are identical for visual or audio presentations. The inclusion of these factors enables a more direct comparison of reading performance with listening performance at a range of presentation speeds, including accelerated presentations from time-compressed tapes. An investigation which employed this technique for comparing reading and listening performance has provided new findings on how readers and listeners operate. This should provide a more complete understanding of the benefits and limitations of accelerated reading and listening techniques in the educational context.     

Must computer courseware evaluation be totally subjective?

In today's complex computer training market, flashy presentations frequently prove the most important purchasing element while instructional design and content take a back seat to form. Courseware purchasers obviously require an objective and generic measure of computer assisted learning (CAL) courseware. Since any such measure must include a human evaluator this is a difficult objective to attain. Funded by a grant from the Westinghouse Corporation, the Center for Interactive Technologies, Applications and Research (CITAR) at the University of South Florida attempted to break complex concepts such as instruction, management and user interface into component pieces small enough for objective evaluation. A study involving ten CAL packages produced agreements among an average of seven of eight raters and reliabilities around. 70, while an investigation of traditional perceptual evaluation procedures by the same raters on the same courseware produced far lower estimates for both agreement and reliability. Seeking reasons for these differences, a detailed investigation of courseware summaries showed that evaluators tend to pay more attention to the presentation than to the instructional aspects of the courseware. This phenomenon apparently has less influence on the low inference CITAR evaluation model which produces relatively consistent evaluations of CAL courseware.     

Psychological foundations of instructional design for emerging computer-based instructional technologies: Part I

Computer-based instruction (CBI) has strong historical roots in behavioral psychology. In many cases, behavioral CBI is very effective in meeting instructional needs. Criticisms of CBI, centering around inadequate attention to higher-level learning, underline some of the shortcomings of rigid adherence to behavioral design paradigms. Recent advances in cognitive psychology have revealed alternatives rarely applied outside of experimental settings. Whereas both behavioral and cognitive influences are potentially important, few attempts have been made to extrapolate the contributions of both to the design of CBI. In this article, the contributions of behavioral and cognitive psychology to the design of CBI are reviewed and analyzed.     

Expressing social gender identities in the first year of school

Tests and spot observations were undertaken in first year classes in four primary schools to study children’s knowledge of and employment of social representations of gender. The use of these resources in children’s expression of social gender identities was re-assessed at the end of the first year in two classes. Analysis of spot observations identified distinct masculine and feminine styles in patterns of association, the masculine style emphasising gender exclusivity. Children also used group size to express social gender identities. Analyses showed that at the beginning of the school year girls interact in smaller groups, but by the end of the year they associate in groups as large as those of boys. Despite differences in group behaviour test data revealed that girls and boys share a similar knowledge of the interrelationship between the gender marking of social category membership and material culture.     

Serum Lp(a) in diabetics with and without evidence of clinical nephropathy—A preliminary study

Type 2 diabetes is associated with a marked increase in the risk of coronary artery disease. Dyslipidaemia is believed to be a major cause of this increased risk. Recently, elevated levels of lipoprotein (a), Lp(a), have been reported to be associated with an increased risk. However there is very little data regarding Lp(a) concentrations and type 2 diabetes from India. The objective of the study was to assess serum Lp(a) levels in type 2 diabetics with and with out evidence of clinical nephropathy. We estimated serum Lp(a) levels in 30 control subjects, 30 diabetics without evidence of clinical nephropathy and 30 diabetics with evidence of clinical nephropathy. Statistical analysis showed that Lp(a) levels were increased in diabetic patients with nephropathy (mean 46.3±17.6 mg/dl). The Lp(a) levels however did not differ significantly between control (mean 20.2±15.9 mg/dl) and diabetics without nephropathy (mean 22.6±13.1mg/dl). Thus diabetes per se seems to have little or no influence on serum Lp(a) levels, however elevated levels were seen in patients with nephropathy.