Virtuous reality: moral theory and research into cyber-bullying

This article draws on a study investigating how 11–14 year olds growing up in England understand cyber-bullying as a moral concern. Three prominent moral theories: deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics, informed the development of a semi-structured interview schedule which enabled young people, in their own words, to describe their experiences of online and offline bullying. Sixty 11–14 year olds from six schools across England were involved with the research. Themes emerging from the interviews included anonymity; the absence of rules, monitoring and guidance and, the challenges associated with determining the consequences of online actions. The findings demonstrate the advantages of adopting a character-based moral theory to compliment rules and/or consequence based moral theories as the basis for future research into cyber-bullying. The findings evoke some wider implications for future research into cyber-bullying that might equally be applied to investigations into other Internet related moral concerns.     

Wake up Information Literacy Instruction: Ideas for Student Engagement

In this article, three librarians from Santa Fe College, the community college winner of the 2015 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, share their successful work in information literacy instruction. While the ACRL award is given for overall achievement, this article focuses upon their creative and varied approaches to instruction, incorporating a wide blend of strategies to reach students across the college. Beginning with targeted approaches to virtual instruction, including broad use of the flipped classroom model, and building in active learning techniques, the librarians at Santa Fe College have built an instruction program that could serve as a model to community college libraries across the country.     

Individual difference predictors of creativity in Art and Science students

Two studies are reported that used multiple measures of creativity to investigate creativity differences and correlates in arts and science students. The first study examined Divergent Thinking fluency, Self-Rated Creativity and Creative Achievement in matched groups of Art and Science students. Arts students scored higher than Science students on two of the three measures. Regression analysis indicated that the educational domain demographic variable was the most consistent predictor of all three measures of creativity. The second study compared natural science, social science and arts students on two performance and two preference measures of creativity, whilst controlling for the effects of general intelligence. Results indicated only Self-Rated Creativity displayed significant group differences, with the regression analysis suggesting a stronger role of personality variables. The differences between the groups and implications for the measurement of creativity are considered.     

Technologies and Reformed-Based Science Instruction: The Examination of a Professional Development Model Focused on Supporting Science Teaching and Learning with Technologies

Journal of Science Education and Technology - While access to computers, other technologies, and cyber-enabled resources that could be leveraged for enhancing student learning in science is...     

Legitimizing the Wound: Mapping the Military's Diagnostic Discourse of Traumatic Brain Injury

Following reports spanning from the beginning of the OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) and OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) conflicts to the early 2010s, this rhetorical investigation analyzes the U.S. military's diagnostic practices used to identify mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in blast-affected troops. Considering the notion of “wound/injury” as a possible boundary object, this paper discusses how the conceptual framing of “invisible” injuries may produce interruptions of distrust that inhibit effective diagnosis.     

Education for Social Transformation: Soviet University Education Aid in the Cold War Capitalist World-System

International education is seen as an effective form of soft power. This article reviews one of history’s largest and most ambitious attempts to achieve global influence through university education, and to reshape the world—the Soviet university aid program, 1956–91. Drawing on existing research and Soviet archival materials, we lay out and contextualize characteristic features of the Soviet education aid program. Specifically, we identify its focus on students from “developing” and newly independent countries, and its ambition to form graduates who would return home to become national leaders sympathetic to Soviet socialism. We conclude by approaching the program from a world-systems perspective. Here, we highlight the intended catch-up style modernization and national economic development for countries through their participation in the Soviet university aid program as well as the intended development of the human capital of participant countries. The complex impacts on participants throughout the world and their subsequent worldview are the subject of ongoing research by the authors.     

Conditions for mental health in education: Towards relational practice

There are concerns globally about the emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people and in this paper a critical orientation comprises both theoretical and empirical data sources. The case is made that (1) the medical model of mental health – that of problem identification, diagnosis and medical treatment at the level of the individual – is not appropriate for the vast majority of children and young people in schools and (2) relational approaches would be more sensitive in responding to the complexity of the ‘conditions’ in the schools, homes and communities in which young people live. Articulations of these conditions in the literature are explored while we also draw on empirical data from part of an evaluation of a school-based teacher-training programme in which interviewees and respondents mapped out their own conditions for emotional wellbeing and mental health. We conclude with proposals for relational approaches which (1) acknowledge the links between affect, cognition and school climate and culture, (2) foreground mental health and poverty as impacting on young people’s emotional wellbeing in their communities, families and schools and (3) attend to voice – providing spaces in which young people can develop their own ‘preferred narratives’ concerning emotional wellbeing and mental health.     

Professional noticing of coordinated mathematical thinking

Over the past three decades, research and policy in many geographic regions has promoted a shift from direct, lecture-oriented mathematics instruction to inquiry-based, dialogic forms of instruction. While theory and research support dialogic instructional approaches, some have noted that the complexities of dialogic teaching make it difficult for teachers to implement. One mechanism by which teachers can improve their decision-making practices in dialogic classrooms is learning to notice (i.e. becoming aware of learners’ processes). While research has contributed frameworks for understanding how teachers notice individual learners’ mathematical thinking, there is little conceptualization regarding how teachers notice group processes in mathematics classrooms, which is integral to dialogic instruction. We offer a noticing framework termed professional noticing of coordinated mathematical thinking that describes how teachers notice group activity in mathematics classrooms. Professional noticing of coordinated mathematical thinking is conceptualized as a bi-dimensional process: noticing groups’ mathematical activity and noticing groups’ coordinated activity. Teachers must become aware of how groups approach the mathematical and collaborative nature of a task, since both of these aspects inform whether learners develop opportunities to learn in groups. The framework describes noticing practices integral to dialogic instruction and promotes inquiry for future research related to teaching moves in dialogic classrooms.     

Beyond cultural and geographical proximity: delving into the factors that influence the dynamics of academic relationships between students in higher education

Higher Education - Scholars have widely recognised the importance of academic relationships between students at the university. While much of the past research has focused on studying their...     

Aspiring to include versus implicit ‘othering’: teachers' perceptions of inclusive education in Wales

Wales, one of the four nations of the UK, is currently undergoing major education system-level reform. From the curriculum, through to a new additional learning needs (ALN) system, there is a renewed focus on inclusive education. Research has shown the importance of teachers' attitudes towards inclusion in creating inclusive learning environments. This research study is based on data from a survey of teachers in Wales (n = 253) exploring their perceptions of inclusive education. Thematic analysis of open-text responses revealed that while teachers were able to articulate the ‘ideal’ of inclusion, these positive ideals were often caveated by both implicit othering of learners with ALN and by the explicit limitations of behaviour, training, and finance and resources. This article critically evaluates the implications of teacher perceptions of inclusive education in Wales, suggesting that without a change in teacher attitudes, the vision of an inclusive education system may be compromised.