The TeachScheme! Project: Computing and Programming for Every Student

The discipline of project management has been available for almost 40 years. This paper examines several factors that make the management of software development projects more difficult than the management of many other kinds of projects. These factors negatively impact the software project managers' success in estimation and scheduling, planning, responding to schedule and budget pressures, monitoring project status and managing the integration, and testing phases of the project. Techniques for addressing each of these difficulties are described, and topics that need to be incorporated into software project management courses to address these issues are outlined.     

Anatomy Students That are “Team-Taught” May Achieve Better Results Than Those That are “Sole-Taught”

Anatomy practical classes have traditionally been taught by a team of demonstrators (team-taught) in a large dissection room. More recently, particularly in nonmedical contexts, practical classes have been taught by one teacher (sole-taught) to smaller student groups. The aim of this study was to compare student outcomes when the same course was delivered with practical classes team-taught at one campus (metropolitan) and sole-taught at a second campus (regional) while maintaining similar staff to student ratios. This anatomy course, for physiotherapy and lower academically credentialed exercise science/physiology students, utilized blended delivery whereby most content was delivered online and practical classes comprised the main face-to-face teaching. In 2018, the metropolitan campus introduced team-teaching practical classes while the regional campus continued with sole-teaching. Student marks and engagement with online content were compared between campuses and to the previous year (2017) when both campuses had sole-taught practical classes. While final marks for the course increased overall in 2018 (P < 0.01), exercise science/physiology students at the metropolitan campus (team-taught) improved their final marks (53.5 ± 1.1%) compared to a slight decrease for the regional (sole-taught) campus (44.8 ± 1.4%) (P < 0.01). There were no differences between campuses for physiotherapy students in 2018. Student engagement with online content did not contribute to the improvement in marks for exercise science/physiology students. Introduction of a team-teaching format improved student marks, particularly for the lower academically credentialed students. Team-teaching should be considered as the preferred format for anatomy practical classes, particularly in courses involving students with diverse academic credentials.     

Preventing retention: First grade classroom instruction and student characteristics

Retention is a frequently used strategy to support children who are struggling academically. However, the strategy is costly, and research findings with regard to positive outcomes are mixed. This study examined whether efficacious reading instruction might reduce rates of retention in first grade. We also evaluated the reading instruction the students received compared with children with similar reading and vocabulary skills who were not retained. Additionally, we examined the impact students' self‐regulation may have on grade retention. Findings reveal that it was significantly less likely for students to be retained at the end of first grade if their teacher was implementing more efficacious reading instruction. Moreover, there were substantial differences in the literacy instruction provided for children who were and were not retained. Finally, students in the efficacious reading condition who were retained exhibited significantly weaker self‐regulation skills than did their matched‐promoted peers. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Exploring sport brand double jeopardy: The link between team market share and attitudinal loyalty

Marketers are charged with the responsibility of attracting consumers and encouraging loyalty for their brands. Double jeopardy, a marketing law observed across numerous product and service settings, contends that loyalty is largely influenced by a brand's market share. There have been suggestions that sport may be one of the few areas immune to such effects, providing researchers with an opportunity to test how sport brand loyalty may be impacted by market share. The current research capitalises on this opportunity by assessing the effects of market share on attitudinal loyalty reported by a sample of 794 Australian sport fans. ANOVA tests revealed that fans of high market share brands displayed higher levels of attitudinal loyalty towards their favourite teams in comparison to small market share team fans. Further tests revealed that differences existed in terms of the brand association perceptions held by high and small market share team fans, and how these contributed to predicting attitudinal loyalty. Consequently, sport marketers should be cognisant of double jeopardy effects when evaluating sport brands and formulating marketing strategies, though future research is needed to determine the full applicability of double jeopardy within the sport context.     

News in an Age of Competition: The Case of Sensationalism in Dutch Television News, 1995–2001

Recent years have seen changing and shifting technologies as well as an uncertain economic climate. This research focuses on how audiences have reacted to these shifts, using a number of different sources of data to test hypotheses related to spending time and money on media. We suggest that previous studies examining audience expenditures and diffusion of new technologies may have overlooked the stressful economic conditions surrounding diffusion of some of those technologies. We find an increase in entertainment technology purchases as well as time spent with new and traditional media during recession years, beyond that indicated by the longer term trends. While there is a general decrease in coviewing behavior in recent years, the recession years reversed the trend. Results are discussed in terms of the constancy hypothesis and our hypothesis that the media provide outlets for reducing stress during difficult economic times.     

The influence of explicit nature of science and argumentation instruction on preservice primary teachers' views of nature of science

There exists a general consensus in the science education literature around the goal of enhancing learners' views of nature of science (NOS). An extensive body of research in the field has highlighted the effectiveness of explicit NOS instructional approaches in improving learners' NOS views. Emerging research has suggested that engaging learners in argumentation may aid in the development of their NOS views, although this claim lacks empirical support. This study assessed the influence of a science content course incorporating explicit NOS and argumentation instruction on five preservice primary teachers' views of NOS using multiple sources of data including questionnaires and surveys, interviews, audio‐ and video‐taped class sessions, and written artifacts. Results indicated that the science content course was effective in enabling four of the five participants' views of NOS to be improved. A critical analysis of the effectiveness of the various course components led to the identification of three factors that mediated the development of participants' NOS views during the intervention: (a) contextual factors (context of argumentation, mode of argumentation), (b) task‐specific factors (argumentation scaffolds, epistemological probes, consideration of alternative data and explanations), and (c) personal factors (perceived previous knowledge about NOS, appreciation of the importance and utility value of NOS, durability and persistence of pre‐existing beliefs). The results of this study provide evidence to support the inclusion of explicit NOS and argumentation instruction as a context for learning about NOS, and promote consideration of this instructional approach in future studies which aim to enhance learners' views of NOS. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1137–1164, 2010     

NO ONE LEFT TO PUSH: THE PUBLIC POLICY OF AGING AND BLINDNESS

The decline in psychometric measures of general intelligence (g) and performance of similar laboratory-based tasks has been pivotal in shaping psychogerontology's views of the aging intellect, and by extension, the ability to learn. However, parallel to this is the consideration that the motivation and intellectual needs of older adults may change. The study presented here found that levels of need for cognition are closely related to older adults' performance on Piagetian tasks, indicating an intellectual lifestyle preference that operates alongside, and interactively with, performance on traditional intellectual measures. The implications of this are discussed.