The impact of institutional culture,policy and process on student engagement in university decision-making

There is a strong focus on the importance of student engagement in higher education, with increasing attention on how students can participate in their university’s decision-making processes. Yet, although the concept appears to be almost universally accepted, it is rarely problematised. This has led some commentators to conclude that student engagement lacks theoretical clarity. Consequently, an increasing number of authors have sought to address this. This paper adds to those efforts by proposing a model for student engagement that recognises the importance of institutional action in facilitating different types of participation. These are aligned with expectations for student activity, but the key message is that the university shapes its students’ engagement. This reinforces arguments that engagement needs to be cognisant of the power dynamics of higher education. In line with this, the paper borrows from debates around public participation to enhance understanding of student engagement in institutional governance.     

Continuity between school curriculum and vocation: Manual labour's ineffective role

The author's thesis is that, in the foreseeable future, the school is incapable of successfully promoting favourable changes in values, attitudes and behaviour towards manual labour among the majority of pupils in any society, but particularly in low-income countries or areas of the world.The focus of this article is on the integration of manual productive work into the teaching-learning processes of school education. The relationship of formal education to other institutions in pre-literate, minimally literate and mostly literate societies is very briefly sketched. Attempts to introduce manual labour in the school curriculum in Canada, India and China are discussed. The reasons, internal to the educational system, for the failure of these attempts are listed. The article concludes by discussing the reasons external to the educational system which determine the fate of reforms if the reforms do not take account of political, cultural and international economic forces.

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Zusammenfassung Der Verfasser vertritt die These, daß die Schule in absehbarer Zeit nicht in der Lage sein wird, bei der Mehrheit der Schüler in jeder Gesellschaft, aber besonders in den Niedriglohnländern und-gebieten, begünstigende Veränderungen der Wertvorstellungen, Haltungen und Verhaltensweisen gegenüber manueller Arbeit zu fördern.Schwerpunktmäßig behandelt der Verfasser die Integration manueller produktiver Arbeit in die Lehr- und Lernprozesse der Schulerziehung. Die Beziehung von formalen Bildungseinrichtungen zu anderen Institutionen in prä-alphabetisierten und vorwiegend alphabetisierten Gesellschaften wird kurz umrissen. Ansätze zur Einführung manueller Arbeit in das Schulcurriculum in Kanada, Indien und China werden angeführt und die dem Erziehungssystem inhärenten Gründe für das Scheitern dieser Ansätze aufgezählt. Abschließend werden die außerhalb des Erziehungs-systems zu suchenden Gründe besprochen, die den Verlauf der Reformen bestimmen, wenn diese die politischen, kulturellen und internationalen Wirtschaftsfaktoren nicht berücksichtigen.

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Résumé L'auteur de cet article pense que, dans un futur proche, l'école sera incapable de promouvoir avec succès des changements favorables de valeurs, d'attitudes et de comportement à l'égard du travail manuel chez la plupart des élèves de toute société, mais en particulier des pays ou des régions du monde à bas revenus.Cet article place un accent sur l'intégration du travail manuel productif dans les processus d'enseignement-apprentissage de l'éducation scolaire. On expose très brièvement le rapport entre l'éducation formelle et les autres institutions des sociétés en situation de préalphabétisation, d'alphabétisation rudimentaire ou d'alphabétisation presque complète. On analyse les tentatives qui ont été faites pour introduire le travail manuel dans le curriculum scolaire au Canada, en Inde et en Chine. On énumère les raisons, inhérentes au système éducatif, de l'échec de ces tentatives. L'auteur conclut en examinant les raisons externes au système éducatif qui déterminent l'échec des réformes, si ces réformes ne prennent pas en compte les forces politiques, culturelles et économiques internationales.

     

Baby boomers engagement as traditional university students: benefits and costs

This study draws from interviews of baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) enrolled in a traditional university programme. Interviews focussed on the mental, social and physical benefits of university education, exploring the aspirations of baby boomers as well as the social and academic barriers and costs they encountered. This qualitative phenomenological study investigated the perceptions, understandings and beliefs of 15 baby boomers from South-East Queensland who were returning to or commencing university level education. Informal semi-structured interviews were conducted and thematically analysed to provide a detailed account of the baby boomer students’ university experience. Using an adapted health action process approach, with the health goal being replaced by a learning goal, the results confirm that university study in later life can be beneficial to the individual as well as to the wider community. This research can inform policy-making by emphasising the importance of lifelong learning and healthy ageing for the baby boomer generation. The results highlight the value of higher education creating a supportive environment for baby boomer students which, in addition to educational achievements, can assist participants in maintaining good health and making informed health care decisions in the future.     

Mathematics education as sociopolitical: prospective teachers’ views of the What,Who, and How

In this article, I introduce a framework—the What, Who, and How of mathematics—that emerged from studying my teaching of prospective teachers and their views of the social and political dimensions of mathematics teaching and learning. The What, Who, How framework asks us to consider What messages we send about mathematics and the world, Whose perspectives are represented in mathematics, and How mathematical concepts and our world are related. I situate each aspect of the framework in the literature on social justice and critical mathematics and provide examples of prospective teachers’ views. The What, Who, How serves as a tool to understand prospective teachers’ views, to navigate a broad range of literature on social justice mathematics, and a means of informing the practice of teachers and teacher educators.     

Behavioral Precursors to Accidents and Resulting Physical Impairment

The main goal of the study was to determine, within a model of emotional and behavioral regulation, if there are developmental precursors to accidents and resulting physical impairment. Data collected at ages 8 and 14 with 147 males and 142 females using peer nomination and teacher rating were related to the number of types of accidents the subjects had been in and impairment as a result of an accident by the age of 27 when the subjects were interviewed on their health. The results showed that 44% of the men and 14% of the women had been in an accident. Severe effects on health were obtained for 19% of the men and 5% of the women. Accidents and impairment were most frequent among individuals whose behavior had been characterized by low emotional and behavioral control. The most generalized predictor of accidents and impairment was noncompliance in childhood. In adult-hood, heavy drinking increased the risk of accidents. Aggression and conduct problems were the most significant precursors to male impairment, although several subgroups of men who were impaired were found. For females, the predictions of accidents and impairment were less accurate than for males.     

Optimizing Word Learning via Links to Perceptual and Motoric Experience

The aim of this review is to consider how current vocabulary training methods could be optimized by considering recent scientific insights in how the brain represents conceptual knowledge. We outline the findings from several methods of vocabulary training. In each case, we consider how taking an embodied cognition perspective could impact word learning. The evidence we review suggests that vocabulary training methods can be optimized by making a congruent link between the words to learn and one’s own perceptual and motoric experiences. In particular, we suggest that motoric information about the meaning of a word could be incorporated into more standard vocabulary training methods. Finally, we consider the impact an embodied cognitive perspective may have on other characteristics of word learning, such as individual differences in learning and variations in learning different types of words, for example words from different word classes and words in different contexts.     

Updating the School Counseling Research Agenda: A Delphi Study

The authors updated an earlier Delphi study identifying the research priorities for school counseling (Dimmitt et al., 2005 ). A 29‐member expert panel selected research questions from the prior study, generated new questions, and rank ordered the combined set. The results provide guidance for prioritizing dissertation topics, targeting future research, and focusing the scholarly efforts of counselor educators.