The role of socioeconomic status and school quality in the Philippines: Revisiting the Heyneman–Loxley effect

In 1983, Heyneman and Loxley stated that in low income countries, school-level factors could account for a greater proportion of variance in student achievement as compared to student-level characteristics. The phenomenon has come to be known as the “HL effect” and signaled the important role of schools in developing countries. This study investigated the presence of the HL effect using a longitudinal sample of 1790 11.5-year-old students from 60 schools in a developing country, the Philippines. The main variables of interest were related to socioeconomic status and proxy measures of school quality. The correlates of achievement were explored using two-level multilevel modeling, while controlling for students’ prior ability. While findings did not support the presence of the HL effect in the sample, with schools accounting for only 3–5% of overall conditional variance, schools were found to be important in the production of higher achievement scores.     

Identity formation of teacher–mentors: An analysis of contrasting experiences using a Wengerian matrix framework

In order to understand the process of identity formation in a community of practice, Wenger (2002) proposes a matrix framework whereby three qualities (connectedness, expansiveness and effectiveness) are matched against three modes of belonging (engagement, imagination and alignment). In this paper we use this framework to analyse the experiences of two teacher–mentors and interpret how their identities are formed during the process of mentoring student–teachers. Factors that contribute significantly to the development of their identity include the school culture, the ‘personalities’ of the other community members, and the influence of other relevant communities of practice.     

Getting ‘virtual’ wrongs right

Whilst some philosophical progress has been made on the ethical evaluation of playing video games, the exact subject matter of this enquiry remains surprisingly opaque. ‘Virtual murder’, simulation, representation and more are found in a literature yet to settle into a tested and cohesive terminology. Querying the language of the virtual in particular, I suggest that it is at once inexplicit and laden with presuppositions potentially liable to hinder anyone aiming to construct general philosophical claims about an ethics of gameplay, for whom assumptions about the existence of ‘virtual’ counterparts to morally salient phenomena may prove untrustworthy. Ambiguously straddling the pictorial and the performative aspects of video gaming, the virtual leaves obscure the ways in which we become involved in gameplay, and particularly the natures of our intentions and attitudes whilst grappling with a game; furthermore, it remains unclear how we are to generalise across encounters with the virtual. I conclude by briefly noting one potential avenue of further enquiry into our modes of participation in games: into the differences which a moral examination of playfulness might make to ethical evaluation.     

Rotation,Translation, and Trajectory in Diving

Abstract

Theories causing rotation of the body in diving were critically reviewed and a statement relating angular momentum to both the angle of lean and the angle of force was presented. Equations were developed by which the partition of energy between rotation and translation could be computed.     

Leisure Attitudes of Varsity Athletes vs. NonVarsity Athletes

Abstract

Students (N = 104) enrolled in four low fitness, one middle fitness, and one high fitness class in basic physical education classes at the University of Connecticut participated in a 4-week program of isometric exercises done with an adjustable nylon belt which was stabilized against various body segments. Low, middle, and high fitness classes were compared in the amount of improvement made in the 5 items in which significant gains had been made. The MWF classes which did 30 min. of isometric exercises for 12 class meetings were compared to the TTh classes which met for 8 class meetings and which did the same isometric exercise program and in addition did stretching exercises and ran a mile.

When all groups were treated together, mean gains of 1.1 in. in the vertical jump, .74 sec. in the agility run, .17 sec. in the 30-yd. dash, 151.9 lb. in the leg lift, and 57.0 lb. in the back lift were made. These were all significant at the 0.005 to the 0.0005 level. Small but significant gains were made in right and left grip, the Fait endurance hang, and the 380-yd. run. The low fitness classes made greater improvements in the leg lift, the vertical jump, and the agility run than did the middle or high fitness groups. The high fitness class made greater improvements in the back lift and in the 30-yd. dash than did the low or middle fitness classes. The classes which did only isometric exercises for a half-hour three times each week for 4½ weeks made greater mean gains in the vertical jump, the agility run, the 30-yd. dash and the back lift than did the classes which met for 60-min. periods twice each week for 4½ weeks and did stretching exercises and running in addition to the isometric exercises. However, the latter made greater gains in the leg lift.     

E-Master of Marketing: Phase 2 in Transnational Marketing Education

A previous article in Higher Education in Europe (Vol. 24, No. 2, 1999), by three of the authors of the present article, outlined the beginnings of an on-line course, "Marketing Theory and Practice" (MTP), offered by the Department of Marketing of Monash University in Australia. It noted the opportunities such a development presented in terms of collaboration. Following the successful introduction of MTP on-line (http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/Subjects/MKT/ MTPonline/) into the undergraduate programme, the project team applied for a significant funding grant to implement a department-wide strategy for the electronic delivery of marketing education. This implementation includes the development of an E-Master's degree in Marketing, details of which are discussed in this article.     

‘They never go off the rails like other ethnic groups’: teachers’ constructions of British Chinese pupils’ gender identities and approaches to learning

This paper examines the ways in which British Chinese pupils are positioned and represented within the popular/dominant discourse of teachers working in London schools. Drawing on individual interviews from a study conducted with 30 teachers, 80 British Chinese pupils and 30Chinese parents, we explore some of the racialised, gendered and classed assumptions upon which dominant discourses around British Chinese boys and girls are based. Consideration is given, for example, to teachers’ dichotomous constructions of British Chinese masculinity, in which British Chinese boys were regarded as ‘naturally’ ‘good’ and ‘not laddish’, compared with a minority of ‘bad’ British Chinese boys, whose laddishness was attributed to membership of a multiethnic peer group. We also explore teachers’ constructions of British Chinese femininity, which centred around remarkably homogenised representations of British Chinese girls as ‘passive’ and quiet, ‘repressed’, hard‐working pupils. The paper discusses a range of alternative readings that challenge popular monolithic and homogenising accounts of British Chinese masculinity and femininity in order to open up more critical ways of representing and engaging with British Chinese educational ‘achievement’.     

The impact of culture contact and desegregation on the whites of an urban high school

Conclusion Desegregation has generally been presented as an outgrowth of the civil rights movement and as an attempt to redress the educational disadvantages blacks have suffered as the result of a racial imbalance. Given the general theoretical considerations of resource allocation, the assumption has been that reallocations of resources to blacks would necessarily mean reallocation of these resources to blacks from whites. This view is also part of the popular culture where the process of desegregation has caused turmoil and disturbance among whites based, manifestedly at least, on the notion that improving educational benefits for blacks necessarily means a reduction in the same benefits for whites.Based on an analysis of the experiences of teachers and students at one polyethnic inner-city high school, we suggest that not only have whites at this school not been disadvantaged by the desegregation process but that there is evidence indicating that there have been more advantages for whites than for blacks. What, then, are the advantages of desegregation for whites, both students and teachers? In this school it was found that the advantages differed for white students and for white teachers, with white students experiencing more positive outcomes than white teachers experienced.     

Cognitive Difficulties in Struggling Comprehenders and Their Relation to Reading Comprehension: A Comparison of Group Selection and Regression-Based Models

ABSTRACT

Difficulties suppressing previously encountered but currently irrelevant information from working memory characterize less skilled comprehenders in studies in which they are matched to skilled comprehenders on word decoding and nonverbal IQ. These “extreme” group designs are associated with several methodological issues. When sample size permits, regression approaches permit a more accurate estimation of effects. Using data for students in Grades 6 through 12 (n = 766), regression techniques assessed the significance and size of the relation of suppression to reading comprehension across the distribution of comprehension skill. After accounting for decoding efficiency and nonverbal IQ, suppression, measured by performance on a verbal proactive interference task, accounted for a small amount of significant unique variance in comprehension (less than 1%). A comparison of suppression in less skilled comprehenders matched to more skilled comprehenders (48 per group) on age, word reading efficiency, and nonverbal IQ did not show significant group differences in suppression. The implications of the findings for theories of reading comprehension and for informing comprehension assessment and intervention are discussed.