Attitudes to reading at ages nine and eleven

A survey was conducted with the aim of identifying attitudes towards reading amongst upper primary pupils, and establishing whether these attitudes had changed over the five‐year period from 1998 to 2003. A sample of 5076 pupils in Years 4 and 6 completed questionnaires. Attitudes were generally positive, but declined somewhat between the younger and older of these age groups. A sub‐sample of 2364 of these pupils were in the same schools where the same questionnaire had been completed in 1998. Enjoyment of reading had significantly fallen over the five years, whilst confidence as readers had significantly increased over the same period. The changes may be related to the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy, but other explanations are also possible.     

The Effects of Special Education Support on Young Australian School Students

Determining the effectiveness of many special education interventions is most difficult because of the practical and ethical limitations associated with assigning participants to a control or non-treated group. Using Longitudinal Study of Australian Children data, this article utilised eight different propensity score analysis methods to determine if a cohort of young primary school children receiving special education services significantly improved their literacy and numeracy skills, social skills and their behaviour, two years after the commencement of the special service, in comparison to a “matched” group of students who did not receive special education support. The children receiving special education support performed statistically significantly less well than the different matched groups across all outcome measures. This result is consistent with the findings from two similar studies in the US and calls into question the effectiveness of special education services for the majority of Australian students with additional needs.     

A comparison of pregnant women presenting for alcohol and other drug treatment by CPS status

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to describe the demographic, substance use, and treatment variables of alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment seeking pregnant women. This study also compared women on these variables based on Child Protective Service (CPS) status. METHOD: Secondary data of all pregnant women with at least one child entering all publicly funded AOD treatment programs (N=678), in a southwest county, over a 3-year period were analyzed to examine the differences between pregnant women also involved with CPS and those not involved with CPS. RESULTS: Pregnant women reporting CPS involvement were similar to non-CPS women on demographic variables but differed on drug use and treatment variables. CPS women were more likely to report marijuana use as their primary problem drug, be mandated to treatment, attend day treatment and be released from treatment unsatisfactorily compared to the non-CPS pregnant women. Those without CPS involvement were more likely to report cocaine or crack as their primary drug, attend outpatient treatment and be found to have a satisfactory release from treatment compared to those with CPS involvement. Results from the multiple logistic regression analysis found that the significant predictors of CPS involvement were mandated status and unsatisfactory treatment release. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in treatment outcomes may be based on AOD agencies' difficulty in working with mandated clients and/or with the multiple demands placed by CPS on clients as part of their treatment plans. Further research is needed to determine reasons for CPS clients' high failure rates in AOD treatment.     

Teacher education and family–school partnerships in different contexts: A cross country analysis of national teacher education frameworks across a range of European countries

Abstract

Collaboration with parents is widely regarded as important in the education of children and young people, yet teachers rarely feel sufficiently prepared for this task. Several studies indicate that initial teacher education (ITE) programmes struggle to address issues of family–school partnerships (FSP). Our purpose in this study was to assess whether national ITE frameworks in seven European countries enable or constrain effective FSP preparation for preservice teachers. Our data, drawn from document analysis and national surveys, suggests that, despite the importance officially attributed to FSP at both governmental and ITE institutional levels, no single country presents a satisfactory picture in terms of FSP provision within their ITE programmes or in the extent to which preservice teachers are prepared to deal with the issue. Regardless of the existence (or not) of a national curriculum and variations, both in terms of legally-required competences and the amount of attention given to FSP in ITE programmes, it appears that simply making FSP compulsory is not the solution. Nor do national frameworks, in themselves, really appear to shape and direct the provision offered. Essentially FSP preparation still seems to depend upon the proclivities and expertise of individual teacher educators.     

When summative computer-aided assessments go wrong: disaster recovery after a major failure

This case study outlines the events of a recent summative computer‐aided assessment (CAA) failure involving 280 first‐year undergraduate students. Post‐test analysis found that the central server had become unexpectedly overloaded, thereby causing the CAA to be abandoned. Practical advice on just what to do in the event of a summative CAA failure is virtually non‐existent in the related literature. In response, this paper provides a detailed account of the post‐failure analysis and recovery activities from a practitioner's (ie, academic) viewpoint. Supported by empirical evidence, the research shows how the concept of “optional substitution” was developed as a pragmatic, equitable, and broadly acceptable solution to the problem.     

The Fish and Chip Club

This autobiographical narrative explores how close childhood friendship can be destroyed by the perniciously divisive nature of the 11-plus exam. It describes an irretrievable situation in which all children are victims.     

Young children's idiosyncratic written algorithms for addition

The research reported in this paper is concerned with the natural written algorithms created by nine- and ten-year olds when solving simple addition problems. It was undertaken with one hundred and seventeen children in Year 5 (Grade 4), who, because of their involvement in the Calculator Aware Number Curriculum (CAN) Project, had not been taught traditional pencil-and-paper algorithms for the basic operations. This provided an opportunity to investigate their responses when asked to solve a selection of additive word problems on paper without the use of calculators. The children's solutions were analyzed in terms of directionality of working and the emergence or otherwise of standard or idiosyncratic written algorithms. A preference for a horizontal layout and for working from left to right was shown to exist, and the children produced a wide variety of original and creative written algorithms.     

Sustainability Education and Australian Universities

Since the early 1990s, there has been discussion about the need for the curriculum of universities to provide students with understanding about the environment. Over the decade this discussion has evolved from thinking about how to green the university curriculum, through to proposals for our students to be environmentally literate and to receive education for sustainability (or sustainability education). Internationally, there have been many instances of universities taking this discussion seriously and introducing curriculum change. A variety of declarations and action plans have enabled universities to share ideas and support this change. Given a dearth of information about the degree to which universities in Australia were part of this discussion and change, we sought to gain an understanding of the status of sustainability education in these institutions. Responses from approximately a quarter of these institutions indicated that a handful of universities are engaged in this education for a wide range of their students, and in some universities more students of particular disciplines are gaining the exposure. However, there are clear barriers to the introduction and expansion of sustainability education.     

Student Performance and the Cost of Failure

This paper examines student performance and calculates the theoretical cost of academic failure by Australian undergraduates, using factors implicit in government funding formulae. In order to survive, higher education institutions have had to diversify their funding base and at the same time the government appears now to perceive its contributions as a subsidy to university students, rather than as being an investment in society's broad human infrastructure. The demand for accountability has increased, and output-based funding is much discussed. The ultimate university output is student success, and governments could place a monetary value on this in a very direct way. This paper takes a methodological approach in analysing the cost of failure.     

On the Stability of Performance Assessments

This study examined the stability of scores on two types of performance assessments, an observed hands-on investigation and a notebook surrogate. Twenty-nine sixth-grade students in a hands-on inquiry-based science curriculum completed three investigations on two occasions separated by 5 months. Results indicated that: (a) the generalizability across occasions for relative decisions was, on average, moderate for the observed investigations (.52) and the notebooks (.50); (b) the generalizability for absolute decisions was only slightly lower; (c) the major source of measurement error was the person by occasion (residual) interaction; and (d) the procedures students used to carry out the investigations tended to change from one occasion to the other.