Interventions for reading difficulties: a comparison of response to intervention by ELL and EFL struggling readers

This article explores whether struggling readers from different primary language backgrounds differ in response to phonologically based remediation. Following random assignment to one of three reading interventions or to a special education reading control program, reading and reading-related outcomes of 166 struggling readers were assessed before, during, and following 105 intervention hours. Struggling readers met criteria for reading disability, were below average in oral language and verbal skills, and varied in English as a first language (EFL) versus English-language learner (ELL) status. The research-based interventions proved superior to the special education control on both reading outcomes and rate of growth. No differences were revealed for children of EFL or ELL status in intervention outcomes or growth during intervention. Oral language abilities at entry were highly predictive of final outcomes and of reading growth during intervention, with greater language impairment being associated with greater growth.     

Online Teacher Training in a Context of Forced Immobility: The Case of Gaza,Palestine

This article discusses an action research study that involved the design and delivery of an online training course for teachers of Arabic to speakers of other languages in the Gaza Strip (Palestine). Grounded in Freirean pedagogy, the course aimed to respond to the employment needs of university graduates by creating opportunities for online language teaching. The action research study explored the dynamics at play within the online educational environment, to evidence elements that challenged and/or facilitated effective collaboration between trainers and trainees. This article retraces and discusses the processes through which the course moved from didacticism to engaged critical pedagogy.     

Positive beliefs about errors as an important element of adaptive individual dealing with errors during academic learning

Research on learning from errors gives reason to assume that errors provide a high potential to facilitate deep learning if students are willing and able to take these learning opportunities. The first aim of this study was to analyse whether beliefs about errors as learning opportunities can be theoretically and empirically distinguished from adaptive reactions to errors in an affective-motivational sense (including the maintenance of motivation and activating emotions), and in terms of learning behaviour and metacognitive activities specifically adjusted in response to a specific error. The second aim was to validate the proposed distinction across different domains. The third aim was to investigate the added value of beliefs about errors besides domain-specific self-concept and mastery goal orientation for understanding the preconditions for adaptive reactions to errors at school. We assessed all variables in three different school subjects (N = 614 students, Grades 5–7). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated distinctness and a moderate domain specificity of error-related reactions. Positive error-related beliefs predicted students’ affective-motivational and action adaptivity of error reactions, above and beyond self-concepts and goal orientations. Taken together, the current findings provide a more complete understanding of the intra-personal mechanisms of adaptive responses to errors in different school subjects.     

Student employment: social differentials and field-specific developments in higher education

In this article, we examine social origin differences in employment patterns across different stages of higher education and compare these differences between vocational and academic fields of study. Using data from a large-scale German student survey, we study the development of inequality, according to social origins, in student employment from first-year to graduating students. We show that inequality in job quality exists and is partly attributable to the need for students from lower social origins to work in order to finance their studies. We hypothesise that initial inequalities decrease as students progress through higher education. While we find evidence for this hypothesis, we also show in multivariate models that the reduction of inequality in the student labour market is explained by prior differences between social origin groups.     

Using blogs to be aware of the development and adoption of professional skills

In view of the challenges facing universities in our days and in accordance with the guidelines of the EHEA, the present article presents the results of a project which aims to unite the use of blogs and a competency approach. Specifically, the project is structured around two basic, complementary aims: 1. The design and implementation of a teaching innovation project which through the use of blogs promotes the development of certain professional competencies and 2. To assess the experiences and comments of students regarding the use of blogs in a university context, in order to appraise how students assess the use of this new learning tool. To achieve the latter aim, we used a methodology that combines a questionnaire with content analysis, using a sample of 82 subjects. The article shows that university students consider the blog as a tool that enables the acquisition of professional competencies, boosts the teaching-learning process, and foments the development of reflection. Based on these results, several proposals are made concerning the use of blogs, including activities related to reflection, provision of training-focused feedback, and the use of labels as an exercise of metareflection, amongst others.     

DiaspoRican Art as a Space for Identity Building,Cultural Reclamation,and Political Reimagining

The lives of Puerto Ricans in the neighborhood of Humboldt Park, Chicago, are often situated in a complex social field shaped by transnational cultural and political border crossing. We argue that artistic practices in this neighborhood are integral to building community and individual identities grounded in local meanings of the Puerto Rican diaspora experience. Interviews with three adolescent community residents and a high school art teacher indexed themes that exemplify community residents’ purposes for artistic practice: (1) self-expression within practices of collective identity building; (2) cultural reclamation; and (3) political reimagining. We also discuss how such work invites new tensions for identity making, including who can participate, who is represented, and what forms those representations take. These tensions point backward in time, forward to the future, and across geopolitical space. Finally, we suggest implications for learning in schools.     

Continuing professional development in the Greek early childhood education system

Over the past years, Greece has been undergoing a severe financial crisis. The main purpose of this study was to examine how early childhood teachers perceive continuing professional development (CPD) under such societal turmoil. More specifically, this study examined the perceptions of 45 in-service kindergarten teachers attending the ‘Didaskaleio’ training institute. Results showed that although Greek early educators express a positive attitude towards CPD, there are certain contradictions in their views regarding the way they perceive CPD and their expectations regarding CPD activities. Results indirectly reflect the changing context, the systemic weaknesses and the antinomies of Greek early childhood education.     

Communicating comparative findings from meta-analysis in educational research: some examples and suggestions

ABSTRACT

This article reviews some of the strengths and limitations of the comparative use of meta-analysis findings, using examples from the Sutton Trust-Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning ‘Toolkit’ which summarizes a range of educational approaches to improve pupil attainment in schools. This comparative use of quantitative findings has similar characteristics to umbrella reviews which provide a succinct but applicable summary of the current state of evidence to inform practice or policy. Meta-analysis helps to identify which approaches have, on average, made the most difference to tested learning outcomes, in terms of effect size. We suggest that any comparative inferences made between meta-analyses should be treated cautiously, but taken seriously. Additionally, we present alternative ways of interpreting effect sizes, security ratings and cost-estimates to make research findings accessible, whilst retaining appropriate accuracy which is discussed using the ‘Toolkit’ as an example. We conclude by arguing that we should consider the available information not as ‘what works’, but ‘what has worked’ to understand its value and limits in terms of supporting the development of research-based practice.