Beyond the Classroom: A Framework for Growing School Capacity in a Digital Age

Abstract

Rapid technological advancements promise unprecedented educational opportunities to foster student-centered and personalized learning, yet many schools are underprepared, lacking comprehensive organizational strategies for technology enhanced learning. This study sought to provide a framework to guide K-12 school leaders to build and evaluate digital-age school capacity by identifying essential criteria for digital learning in schools, resulting in the development of the Digital Learning Implementation Framework for Education (D-LIFE). Geographically dispersed digital learning experts contributed to a six-round Delphi study gaining consensus on 148 essential criteria for school administrators and policymakers to appraise strategic evaluation of technology implementation. When compared to prominent frameworks, D-LIFE confirmed high-level alignment with ISTE Essential Conditions, providing a comprehensive evaluation framework for K–12 schooling not addressed in prominent standards or frameworks.     

Counselor Education and Title IX: Current Perceptions and Questions

This national survey of counselor educator perceptions of the Title IX requirement to report student disclosures of gender‐based discrimination revealed the need for greater clarity about faculty strategies for serving counseling program students while upholding the federal law. The authors describe the recent expansion of the requirements and provide a suggested statement for course syllabi.     

Black Liberation research: qualitative methodological considerations

Abstract

This article provides an overview of critical qualitative considerations for Black Liberation Research. The methodological considerations focus on: (a) resistance research as paradigm, (b) researcher positionality, (c) naming Black deprivation as the problem of study, (d) situating Black Liberation as the aim of analysis, and (e) centering emotions as humanizing methods. Taken together, the articles in this special issue provide an example of how Black Liberation Research can support the #BLM movement and simultaneously seek to disrupt Black deprivation in the academy.     

Performance Management for Teachers: Headteachers' perspectives

For the first time, the performance of teachers in England and Wales is being directly linked to their pay. This article traces the introduction and implementation of one strand of the UK government's performance-related pay strategy, Performance Management, from the perspective of 12 primary and secondary headteachers of schools located in three different regions of England. The empirical data gathered by the Teachers' Incentive Pay Project team, based at the University of Exeter, suggested while heads may not be against performance-related pay in principle, its practical application is seen as fraught with difficulties. The lack of guidance and clarification regarding funding arrangements, the absence of nationally agreed criteria for judging whether post-Threshold teachers should progress up the upper pay scale, and the potential divisiveness, if it is not effectively implemented, of the scheme in a culture that depends on co-operation and collaboration, meant that heads were anticipating the implementation of the link between pay and performance with some trepidation.     

A comparison of learning and motivation among high school students

The academic performance of minority high school students, particularly in urban inner-city settings, is of great interest to educators and individuals concerned with the academic development of these students. It is widely recognized that in order to positively influence academic achievement related factors such as learning and study behavior, motivation, attitudes, self-concept, and other pertinent psychosocial characteristics should also be targeted for positive change. The present study compared 20 sophomore students who participated in a special program and 128 of their nonprogram peers on achievement and related measures. The program at a target high school was structured to positively impact achievement, as well as related student behavior and attributes. Significant differences were found on achievement, attendance, learning and study behavior and skills, self-concept, and other pertinent psychosocial attributes.     

Preliminary comparison of the performance of the National Library of Medicine's systematic review publication type and the sensitive clinical queries filter for systematic reviews in PubMed

Objective:The National Library of Medicine (NLM) inaugurated a “publication type” concept to facilitate searches for systematic reviews (SRs). On the other hand, clinical queries (CQs) are validated search strategies designed to retrieve scientifically sound, clinically relevant original and review articles from biomedical literature databases. We compared the retrieval performance of the SR publication type (SR[pt]) against the most sensitive CQ for systematic review articles (CQrs) in PubMed.Methods:We ran date-limited searches of SR[pt] and CQrs to compare the relative yield of articles and SRs, focusing on the differences in retrieval of SRs by SR[pt] but not CQrs (SR[pt] NOT CQrs) and CQrs NOT SR[pt]. Random samples of articles retrieved in each of these comparisons were examined for SRs until a consistent pattern became evident.Results:For SR[pt] NOT CQrs, the yield was relatively low in quantity but rich in quality, with 79% of the articles being SRs. For CQrs NOT SR[pt], the yield was high in quantity but low in quality, with only 8% being SRs. For CQrs AND SR[pt], the quality was highest, with 92% being SRs.Conclusions:We found that SR[pt] had high precision and specificity for SRs but low recall (sensitivity), whereas CQrs had much higher recall. SR[pt] OR CQrs added valid SRs to the CQrs yield at low cost (i.e., added few non-SRs). For searches that are intended to be exhaustive for SRs, SR[pt] can be added to existing sensitive search filters.     

Online access to MEDLINE in clinical settings: impact of user fees

The effect of introducing user fees on the frequency and quality of MEDLINE searching with GRATEFUL MED by physicians in clinical settings was tested. After training and free use (prior study), consenting participants were randomly allocated to pay searching costs (pay group) or continue without fees (no pay group). Fifty-nine physicians participated. Among the prior study's frequent searchers, the pay group searched at less than one third of the rate of those assigned to no pay. For less frequent searchers in the prior study, only 48% of those assigned to pay did any searches, compared with 85% for the no pay group (P = 0.006), and for those who did search, their frequency was almost half. However, there was no significant difference in the quality of searches; both groups demonstrated about equivalent recall (P = 0.77), but significantly lower precision (P = 0.03) than for the librarian's independent searches. Similarly, there was no difference in the proportion of searches affecting clinical decisions for the two groups. Thus, imposing user charges for online searching in clinical settings after a period of free use adversely affects searching quantity, but not quality. MEDLINE providers should consider whether user fees will undermine its benefits.     

Play in two societies: pervasiveness of process, specificity of structure

The present study compared Argentine (N = 39) and U.S. (N = 43) children and their mothers on exploratory, symbolic, and social play and interaction when children were 20 months of age. Patterns of cultural similarity and difference emerged. In both cultures, boys engaged in more exploratory play than girls, and girls engaged in more symbolic play than boys; mothers of boys engaged in more exploratory play than mothers of girls, and mothers of girls engaged in more symbolic play than mothers of boys. Moreover, in both cultures, individual variation in children's exploratory and symbolic play was specifically associated with individual variation in mothers' exploratory and symbolic play, respectively. Between cultures, U.S. children and their mothers engaged in more exploratory play, whereas Argentine children and their mothers engaged in more symbolic play. Moreover, Argentine mothers exceeded U.S. mothers in social play and verbal praise of their children. During an early period of mental and social growth, general developmental processes in play may be pervasive, but dyadic and cultural structures are apparently specific. Overall, Argentine and U.S. dyads utilized different modes of exploration, representation, and interaction--emphasizing "other-directed" acts of pretense versus "functional" and "combinatorial" exploration, for example--and these individual and dyadic allocentric versus idiocentric stresses accord with larger cultural concerns of collectivism versus individualism in the two societies.