How young people respond to learning spaces outside school: A sociocultural perspective

This article focuses on educational enterprises outside the formal sector, such as museums, botanical gardens and interactive science centres. International research is drawn on to illuminate how design, culture, educational strategies and settings combine to affect the way in which young people respond to experiences on offer, leading to analysis of the impact of such settings in promoting learning, and the likely implications for those who staff such venues. Aikenhead’s concept of the educator as ‘culture broker’ is developed to suggest ways in which learning might be best supported. It envisages a shift from ‘delivery’ strategies targeted at large groups towards approaches which focus on what learners choose to know about using dialogue between children and ‘known and trusted people’. Analysis of observed responses in various settings is undertaken from a sociocultural perspective using the notion of communities of practice. Implications for the roles of education managers and their staff in further research are developed.     

Selection for special education services: the role of gender and socio-economic status

Children from some demographic groups disproportionately receive special education (SE) services. Due to methodological shortcoming in existing work, it remains unclear whether this is due to real differences in academic needs or cultural selection/bias. Hence, in a community sample of 1250 Norwegian children, we examined the role of third grade SE services, academic test scores, behavioural problems, and teacher’s level of helplessness in mediating the effect of family socio-economic status (SES) and students’ gender on fifth-grade SE services. Results revealed no direct effects of either gender or SES on fifth-grade SE, but four mediated pathways were identified: (1) Boys had a greater likelihood of receiving fifth-grade SE services when (a) they previously received SE and (b) they experienced more ADHD symptoms, both in third grade. (2) Students from low-SES families were more likely to receive SE services in fifth grade when (a) they performed poorly in math in third grade and (b) their teacher reported greater feelings of helplessness when teaching these students. The findings are discussed with respect to the differential-needs hypothesis, mechanisms of cultural selection and the possibility of gendered selection for SE at younger ages.     

Computerized prompting partners and keystroke recording devices: Two macro driven writing tools

Recent research into composing processes has focused on instructional intervention strategies that promote effective composition practices within computerized writing environments. The field of computers and composition has benefitted both from advances in computing tools and developments in learning theory. The innovative computer tool discussed in this paper uses the macro-command language of a full-featured word processor to enact strategic support designed to help writers with their written work. From a theoretical standpoint, this tool created a writing environment based on Vygotskian theory of mediated learning and was grounded in an instructional strategy known as “procedural facilitation.” To evaluate the effectiveness of this computerprompting tool, a second macro application was used to log student keystrokes, thereby tracking student writing development, revisionary practices, and keystroke reactions to the prompting partner. Students using the prompting tool enacted divergent and convergent thinking assistance that appeared at the bottom of their computer screens while the system saved a process record of their keystrokes. Procedures for creating macro-driven prompting programs and keystroke-logging devices are discussed. Additionally, a catalog of prompts and summary of keystroke-mapping benefits are provided. Finally, our research using the macro-driven prompting partner and keystroke-register tool is detailed.     

Information and communication technology (ICT) in secondary schools: the role of the computer coordinator

A study was conducted in 2002 to evaluate the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in 21 secondary schools in one region of New Zealand. As part of the study, the role of the ICT coordinator was investigated. All the ICT coordinators were surveyed and 14 of them were interviewed in‐depth. It is found that they were all well‐equipped to take up a significant leadership role in their schools and some of them have already demonstrated visible leadership. This paper also identifies some obstacles that have reduced their effective leadership in ICT use in their schools.     

Team Hyena Puppet: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Making and Teaching Science Through Art

In 2016, professors representing Biology, Dance, Music, and Theatre and dance program students created Dunes, a performance piece that depicts the ecological succession of Michigan's sand dunes. The process used to make this work is a direct representation of the steps that Team Hyena Puppet, a collective of teaching artists and scientists, takes in their science-based art collaborations, which are used to reflect on and depict scientific research and simultaneously teach student participants and audience members science through the performing arts.     

Continuity in Parent-Child Relationships from Infancy to Middle Childhood and Relations with Friendship Competence

This cross-cultural study examined continuity in parent-child relationships from infancy to middle childhood in a sample of German families. Connections were traced between individual differences in a composite of markers of the parent-child attachment relationship system (including classification of the infant via the Strange Situation and parent via the Adult Attachment Interview and for mothers' ratings of sensitivity) and later parent-child communications. Fundings within the mother-child relationship revealed modest links between the composite and communications and were taken to suggest that the divergent fields of attachment and family communication research are addressing similar underlying relationship processes involving the interplay between relatedness and autonomy. Further findings revealed that the composite modestly predicted variability in children's competence in forming friendships and that differences in concurrent child-mother communications significantly added to and possibly mediated these effects. Results were interpreted as supporting a process model of development, whereby adaptation is influenced by both current and past relationship status.     

The Semiconductor Chemical Sensor

Several methods of detecting the presence of various chemical species are considered. A specific example of atomic hydrogen in lead selenide is examined and used to illustrate some important principles.     

Time for inclusion?

This article examines the constraints of modern temporality which are antithetical to the careful consideration that working with diverse learners requires for the development of inclusive, democratic education. We take up the conceptual construct of time to explore how it mediates systemic practices that impact policy positions of inclusion in initial teacher education and schooling. Our analysis demonstrates that temporality shapes the possibilities of inclusive practice within which a dominant agenda of compliance frames classroom complexities – both in schooling and higher education environments – into fragmented and preconceived responses to challenging situations. Education systems position educators in risk discourses concentrated on compliance and performance, in part through an emphasis that is placed on the diagnosis of learner differences and subsequent compartmentalised responses. Through schisms in modern time, we demonstrate the ways in which inclusion, like other educational demands, may be supported through a diffraction in time rather than subjugated to it.     

Expanding roles or evolving identity? Doctoral school psychologists in school vs. nonschool practice settings

The purpose of this study was to investigate variables related to the professional identity and career path of school-based vs. non-school-based doctoral-level school psychologists. Two hundred seventy-three psychologists trained as school psychologists completed a questionnaire developed to investigate their training, experience, and perceptions. Respondents differed little by employment setting (school-based vs. non-school-based) in reports of their training or experiences. However, significant differences were found among groups in two areas: ratings of relative importance of characteristics of employment setting, and perceived identity as a school psychologist.