The expanded developmental periphery: framing the institutional role of university continuing education units

This article argues that Burton Clark’s notion of the expanded developmental periphery provides a useful conceptual framework for examining the differing relationships between continuing and professional education units and the institutional core of traditional research universities. The intent is to examine how Clark’s notion offers a means to detect and analyse factors that assist in empowering some units and, conversely, those that are disempowering and lead to a perception of marginalisation in others. The article begins by examining differing perspectives in the literature on the relationship between continuing and professional education units and the university core. It then revisits Clark’s work on entrepreneurial universities before focussing on just one of the five transforming elements that Clark argues underscore the success of entrepreneurial universities—the expanded developmental periphery. The article explains how this notion was developed into a conceptual framework and was used in my own research examining the contribution that three continuing and professional education units made to their universities in Washington DC, Hong Kong and Sydney. I have used Clark’s notion as a diagnostic tool, which may have a wider application for examining relationships between the institutional core and its periphery.     

Prospective Educational Applications of Mental Simulation: A Meta-review

This paper focuses on the potential of mental simulation (mentally rehearsing an action to enhance performance) as a useful contemporary educational method. By means of a meta-review, it is examined which conditions impede or facilitate the effectiveness of mental simulation (MS). A computer search was conducted using Ovid PsycINFO. Reviews, meta-reviews, or meta-analyses published between 1806 and 2006 were included. The current paper presents the results of ten publications in which about 630 studies on mental simulation or mental practice are reviewed. According to the analyses, conditions that influence the effect of MS are the type of skill practiced, personal factors, time per trial, amount of trials, and instructional procedures. Based on these insights, it is reflected upon in which areas MS would be functional with regard to contemporary educational demands, such as for emotional, behavioral, and (other) complex cognitive tasks.     

Integration of students with severe and multiple learning difficulties

Abstract

Students with severe and multiple learning difficulties have traditionally been excluded from mainstream education. Three arguments are put forward for integrating these students: social and humanitarian motives; interpretations of the ‘least restrictive environment’ as one in which interactions with non‐disabled peers are least restricted; and a changing concept of education to include a range of functional skills which provide preparation for adult life. Ways of implementing integration are discussed, including location of special classes in regular schools, integration into regular classes, and partial integration through links between regular and special schools. Although many existing integration programmes appear promising, there has been little systematic research in the area and few attempts at independent evaluations. Fears about potential loss of support services in integration appear to have some justification. Fears about adverse behaviour by non‐disabled peers have proved to be largely unfounded, but opportunities need to be deliberately structured to ensure that positive interactions occur between integrated students and their peers. Long‐term outcomes for students with severe and multiple learning difficulties integrated into regular schools have not been considered.     

Weaving new meanings: evaluating children's written responses to a story telling resource package

This paper documents an evaluation of children's written responses to a story telling package used in an intervention project set up by the National Association for the Teaching of English as part of the larger Inspire Rotherham literacy campaign. The brief was to provide a group of primary teachers with innovative and inspirational approaches to raise the aspiration of Key Stage 2 children (age range 7‐9) and to improve their skills in story writing. The schools, who were self‐ selecting, were given a DVD of a professional story teller narrating tales appropriate to the age group, used alongside drama and role play workshops which helped the teachers engage children in aspects of narrative. The children were asked to retell one of their own favourite stories in writing before hearing the DVD stories and then to repeat this activity at the end of the 6‐week project. They were asked to include both pictures and writing. Their texts were analysed to provide both quantitative and textual data. Children were shown to have adopted many features of the language of the oral narratives they had heard in the second task improving both the structure and imagery of the stories they produced.     

Secrets and lies: sex education and gendered memories of childhood's end in an Australian provincial city, 1930s–1950s

There are few historical studies about the sex education of Australian youth. Drawing on a range of sources, including the oral histories of 40 women and men who attended two single‐sex, selective high schools in a provincial Australian city (Newcastle, New South Wales) in the 1930s–1950s, this paper explores the adolescent experience of sex education and gender relations. First, it outlines attempts by the New South Wales State Government and the Newcastle community to introduce sex education, especially during the moral panic about sexuality generated during World War Two. Second, it charts the experiential realm of growing up for adolescent females and males. Hegemonic gender ideology meant that sexual knowledge was mostly kept secret from adolescent girls, and that frightening lies about sexual matters proliferated in the vacuum created by sexual ignorance. For adolescent males, sexual knowledge, while still shrouded in myth and mystery, was more readily available. Indeed sex education classes were introduced at the boys' school in the 1950s, while the girls' school remained silent on the matter for the entire time. At the theoretical level, the paper suggests that the dominant ideology of femininity included sexual ignorance and was allied to the ideology of childhood innocence. Both ideologies were artefacts of patriarchal power.     

How adolescent mothers feel about becoming a parent

First-time adolescent mothers deal with challenges that place extra demands not only on their stage of adolescent development but also on their ability to adapt to their new role as a parent. The purpose of this study was to explore and better understand first-time adolescent mothers' meaning and experience of parenting during the 4-to-6-week postpartum period. A secondary content analysis was performed, using narrative data collected from a previously conducted study on factors that influence adolescent mothers' self-perceptions of parenting. Three themes emerged from the content analysis: "Being Caught Between Two Worlds," "Feeling Alone and Desperate," and "If I Knew Then What I Know Now." Findings revealed many adolescent mothers are unprepared for the demands of parenthood and, so, need extra guidance, instruction, and support from health-care providers and educators.     

‘I’d like to know why’: cultural capital and MA in education students’ interpretation of feedback commentaries

This article discusses the results of an investigation into selected MA in Education students’ interpretation of feedback to their written assignments in a teaching and learning institution in the UK, using the framework of cultural capital and acculturation. A case study method was adopted to investigate four participants’ thoughts and experiences with feedback over a period of two semesters. Participants were asked to go through a think-aloud process while responding to feedback from tutors to their assignments. Results of the think-aloud were used as springboard for interviews conducted with students. The article argues that students’ diverse and variable interpretations of tutor feedback can be explained by Bourdieu’s notion of ‘connaissance’ or knowledge as cultural capital. Additionally, students were found to have subscribed to the ‘acculturation’ process modelled by tutors in feedback provision.     

A survey study of evidence-based medicine training in US and Canadian medical schools

Purpose:

The authors conducted a survey examining (1) the current state of evidence-based medicine (EBM) curricula in US and Canadian medical schools and corresponding learning objectives, (2) medical educators'' and librarians'' participation in EBM training, and (3) barriers to EBM training.

Methods:

A survey instrument with thirty-four closed and open-ended questions was sent to curricular deans at US and Canadian medical schools. The survey sought information on enrollment and class size; EBM learning objectives, curricular activities, and assessment approaches by year of training; EBM faculty; EBM tools; barriers to implementing EBM curricula and possible ways to overcome them; and innovative approaches to EBM education. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used for data analysis. Measurable learning objectives were categorized using Bloom''s taxonomy.

Results:

One hundred fifteen medical schools (77.2%) responded. Over half (53%) of the 900 reported learning objectives were measurable. Knowledge application was the predominant category from Bloom''s categories. Most schools integrated EBM into other curricular activities; activities and formal assessment decreased significantly with advanced training. EBM faculty consisted primarily of clinicians, followed by basic scientists and librarians. Various EBM tools were used, with PubMed and the Cochrane database most frequently cited. Lack of time in curricula was rated the most significant barrier. National agreement on required EBM competencies was an extremely helpful factor. Few schools shared innovative approaches.

Conclusions:

Schools need help in overcoming barriers related to EBM curriculum development, implementation, and assessment.

Implications:

Findings can provide a starting point for discussion to develop a standardized competency framework.     

Seeking Understanding of Foreign Language Teachers’ Shifting Emotions in Relation to Pupils

Teaching is recognised as an emotional practice. Studies have highlighted the importance of teachers’ emotional literacy in the development of pupils’ emotional skills, the central position of emotions in teachers’ ways of knowing, and in their professional development. This longitudinal study draws on a dialogic understanding of emotion to present findings from qualitative interviews with teachers. This study aims to provide further understanding in this area by offering a perspective into 7 foreign language teachers’ emotions in relation to their pupils during their first decade in the profession. The most important finding was that negative emotions decreased while the positive emotions increased. Understanding what emotions teachers face and how they deal with them may help practicing teachers better understand their daily work and support student teacher preparation.