The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt: An Innovative Research-Based Program for High School Students

The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt (SSMV) is an innovative partnership program between a Research I private university and a large urban public school system. The SSMV was started in 2007 and currently has 101 students enrolled in the program, with a total of 60 students who have completed the 4-yr sequential program. Students attend the SSMV for one full day per week during the school year and 3–6 wk in the summers following their ninth- to 11th-grade years, with each grade of 26 students coming to the Vanderbilt campus on a separate day. The research-based curriculum focuses on guiding students through the process of learning to develop questions and hypotheses, designing projects and performing analyses, and communicating results of these projects. The SSMV program has elevated the learning outcomes of students as evidenced by increased achievement scores relative to a comparison group of students; has provided a rigorous research-based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics elective curriculum that culminates in a Summer research internship; has produced 27 Intel and Siemens semifinalists and regional finalists over the past 4 yr; and has supported the development of writing and communication skills resulting in regional and national oral presentations and publications in scientific journals.     

Paying the price for being inclusive: the story of Marshlands

This article illustrates, through the story of one mainstream primary school, the tensions between the inclusion agenda and the standards agenda. The school is situated in an area of social deprivation and nearly half of the school population have been identified as having special educational needs. The story presented in this article illustrates powerfully the inherent injustice of the performative culture which pervades education and the effects of this discourse for children with special educational needs and their teachers. I argue that a policy change is needed to create a more equitable education system and that, in the absence of such a change, schools such as the one presented here will risk being categorised as failing schools. This will have disastrous consequences for the teachers' careers, children's self‐concepts and the inclusion agenda itself.     

Interlocutor Informative Speech

Objective: To provide students with a collaborative experience at informing others, featuring the skills involved in facilitation and making credibility claims for others

Courses: College or high school level Introduction to Oral Communication, Public Speaking, or Advanced Public Speaking     

Reviews

In the UK policy context, skills, education and learning are seen as a universal solution to a vast array of economic and social problems. In challenging this view, this paper argues that those educationalists calling for progressive reforms to the education system need to acknowledge the reality of the contemporary workplace and the institutional context of UK capitalism. When it comes to the question of how the UK might move towards a more inclusive high skills society, no matter where we start to look - be it the economy or a highly class-divided English education system - it all seems to add up badly. In challenging the current policy agenda, educationalists will need to insist that progressive educational reform cannot be separated from the struggle for broader political, social and economic change.     

The relationship between child abuse,parental divorce,and lifetime mental disorders and suicidality in a nationally representative adult sample

ObjectivesTo determine how the experiences of child abuse and parental divorce are related to long-term mental health outcomes using a nationally representative adult sample after adjusting for sociodemographic variables and parental psychopathology.MethodsData were drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS, n = 5,877; age 15–54 years; response rate 82.4%). Logistic regression models were used to determine the odds of experiencing lifetime psychiatric disorders and suicidal ideation and attempts.ResultsParental divorce alone was associated with some psychiatric disorders after adjusting for sociodemographic variables (AOR ranging from 1.30 to 2.37), while child abuse alone was associated with psychiatric disorders (AOR ranging from 1.39 to 6.07) and suicidal ideation (AOR = 2.08; 95% CI = 1.57–2.77) and attempts (AOR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.02–2.31) after adjusting for sociodemographic variables. However, having experienced both parental divorce and child abuse together resulted in significantly increased odds for lifetime PTSD (AOR = 9.87; 95% CI = 6.69–14.55), conduct disorder (AOR = 4.01; 95% CI = 2.92–5.51) and suicide attempts (AOR = 2.74; 95% CI = 1.84–4.08) compared to having experienced either parental divorce or child abuse alone. These results were attenuated when further adjusting for parental psychopathology.ConclusionsWhen the experience of parental divorce is accompanied with child abuse, the associations with some poor mental health outcomes are significantly greater compared to the impact of either parental divorce or child abuse on its own. Therefore, parental divorce is an additional childhood adversity that significantly contributes to poor mental health outcomes especially when in combination with child abuse. Parental psychopathology attenuated these relationships suggesting that it may be one possible mechanism to explain the relationships between child abuse, parental divorce, and psychiatric disorders and suicide attempts.     

Flipped Instruction in a High School Science Classroom

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study examining the effectiveness of flipped instruction in a 9th grade biology classroom. This study included four sections of freshmen-level biology taught by the first author at a private secondary school in the Pacific Northwest. Using a block randomized design, two sections were flipped and two remained traditional. The quiz and posttest data were adjusted for pretest differences using ANCOVA. The results suggest that flipped instruction had a positive effect student achievement, with effect sizes ranging from +0.16 to +0.44. In addition, some students reported that they preferred watching video lectures outside of class and appreciated more active approaches to learning.     

Pr?diktoren von Bildungsprozessen in der Konfirmandenarbeit

Non-formal education has received little attention by empirical research so far. Drawing on a representative study of confirmation work in the Protestant Church in Germany (7404 adolescents, aged 13?C14, and 1430 workers in 520 groups) a multi-level analysis predicts relevant factors for success on the level of individuals (confirmands) as well as on the group level. Criteria variables are the experience of participation, an increase in knowledge, interest in youth-groups and the experience of community. The predictors related to differences between the groups account for a high share of variance (between 11 and 22%). On the individual level, all four predictors (gender, group experience, religiosity, cultural background) are statistically significant. A context effect is identified concerning religiosity. The pedagogical aims and activities contribute to the explanation of variance to a considerable degree.     

Repositioning of special schools within a specialist,personalised educational marketplace – the need for a representative principle

This paper considers how notions of inclusive education as defined in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Salamanca Agreement (1994 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 1994. The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education, Paris: UNESCO. http://www.unesco.org/education/information/nfsunesco/pdf/SALAMA_E.PDF (accessed September 1, 2003) [Google Scholar]) have become dissipated, and can be developed and reframed to encourage their progress. It analyses the discourse within a range of academic, legal and media texts, exploring how this dissipation has taken place within the UK. Using data from 78 specialist school websites it contextualises this change in the use of the terms and ideas of inclusion with the rise of two other constructs, the ‘specialist school’ and ‘personalisation’. It identifies the need for a precisely defined representative principle to theorise the type of school which inclusion aims to achieve, which cannot be subsumed by segregated providers. It suggests that this principle should not focus on the individual, but draw upon a liberal/democratic view of social justice, underlining inclusive education’s role in removing social barriers that prevent equity, access and participation for all.     

Infants' developing understanding of social gaze

Young infants are sensitive to self‐directed social actions, but do they appreciate the intentional, target‐directed nature of such behaviors? The authors addressed this question by investigating infants’ understanding of social gaze in third‐party interactions (N = 104). Ten‐month‐old infants discriminated between 2 people in mutual versus averted gaze, and expected a person to look at her social partner during conversation. In contrast, 9‐month‐old infants showed neither ability, even when provided with information that highlighted the gazer’s social goals. These results indicate considerable improvement in infants’ abilities to analyze the social gaze of others toward the end of their 1st year, which may relate to their appreciation of gaze as both a social and goal‐directed action.     

Ethnography at a distance: globally mobile parents choosing international schools

The research we report on was conducted from our computer desktops. We have not met the people we have studied; they are part of what Eichhorn described as a “textual community”, gathered around the threads of online conversations associated with a website servicing the needs of English-language speakers in Germany. The thread in question started in 2008 with a query from someone about to move to Berlin, seeking advice about the best international school in which to enrol her three children. The ensuing conversations are revealing, not only because of the schools canvassed and the manner in which they are discussed, but also because of the schools that are not charted into the discussion. This paper raises questions about qualitative research methodologies in online settings, particularly in relation to studies of the global middle-class. It examines claims about an emerging commitment to “nonlocal ethnography” and the surmising one can make about research subjects one never meets, but who remain comprehensible because of the broader cultural context in which they are situated. The research carries the promise of “rich enough” ethnography, reflecting a commitment to understanding what people do, documenting and analysing the intricate realities influencing and shaping individual choices people make, the complexities they face and the realities they help create. The fact that it was done “at a distance”, in so-called virtual spaces, does not undermine its ethnographic authenticity.