Comparing social desirability responding on world wide web and paper-administered surveys

Social desirability responding (SRD) on surveys administered on the World Wide Web (WWW) and on paper was examined using 178 graduate and undergraduate students randomly assigned to a 2 (World Wide Web and Paper) ×2 (Anonymous and Nonanonymous) true experimental design. The findings reveal no differences in SDR between the WWW and the paper-administered survey conditions, and no differences in SDR between the anonymous and nonanonymous conditions. These findings and potential explanations are examined for consideration by anyone interested in using the WWW to obtain accurate information from survey participants.     

Influence of a shared leadership model in creating a school culture of inquiry and collegiality

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a Local Systemic Change (LSC) initiative (N = 216) at Year 2 in a 5‐year plan. Key questions were: What is the extent of school and teacher involvement?; What is the impact on teacher preparedness, attitudes, and beliefs?; and What is the extent of institutionalization? The model of professional development used shared leadership (Lead Teachers & Study Groups) along with workshops in inquiry, content, and assessment. All teachers averaged 81 hours of participation by the end of Year 2; LTs averaged 161 hours. Longitudinal and episodic data were collected using multiple instruments, including Horizon Research Teacher Survey (Baseline and Year 2), SG and Lead Teacher surveys (Year 1 and Year 2), Context Beliefs About Teaching Science and Classroom Observation Protocol (Year 2). Gains in teachers' practices, beliefs, and professional culture (collegiality and department chair support) were measured at significance levels of .05. The results indicate that sustained and intensive professional development influences individuals and school culture. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 3–24, 2005     

Do they matter in education politics? The influence of political parties and teacher unions on school governance reforms in Spain

This article focusses on the evolution of the school governance model in Spain since the 1980s. In Spain and elsewhere in Europe, the state’s monopoly over education has softened and new forms of educational governance have emerged. This has resulted in the decentralization of decision-making authority to individual schools, municipalities, and regions and a significant increase in school autonomy. We explore from a political science perspective how partisan preferences and teachers unions have decisively shaped the reform trajectory. We show that leftist and center-right governments and different teachers’ unions have promoted different versions of school autonomy in line with their ideological rationales, resulting in a reconfiguration of the school governance model with each change in government.     

Comparing the Effectiveness of a Supplemental Computer-Based Food Safety Tutorial to Traditional Education in an Introductory Food Science Course

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether a Web-based computer tutorial for food safety is an effective tool in the education of food science and nutrition students. Students completing the Web-based tutorial had a greater improvement in pre-test scores compared with post-test scores and compared with students who attended lecture only. Students completing the tutorial indicated a favorable attitude toward computer-supplemented instruction.     

Psychical contexts of subjectivity and performative practices of remuneration: teaching assistants’ narratives of work

A range of sociological work has theorized neoliberal regulative regimes, suggesting the contradictions contained in the enactment of policy and foregrounding the painful effects of these processes on subjectivities produced within performative school cultures. This paper contributes to this body of work by tracing the movement of desire in teaching assistants’ subjective relations to workplace practices of remuneration. We do this through an analysis of a series of group- and individual-free associative interviews with teaching assistants working in primary schools. Drawing on a Lacanian account of the way processes of identification channel affect, as desire, through signifying chains within a discursive field, we explore the associative chains of meaning that overdetermine the subjectivities produced within performative practices of remuneration. We suggest that the complex and contradictory chains of signification embodied in the school environment constitute a space where fragile teaching assistant subjectivities reiterate previous relations to an ambiguous Other.     

Utopia Explored: Three Recent Fictionalizations of Fruitlands for Young Readers

Three recent novels for children offer fictionalizations of the year that Louisa May Alcott spent at the utopian community of Fruitlands: Little Women Next Door, by Sheila Solomon Klass [New York: Holiday House, 2000]; Becoming Little Women, by Jeannine Atkins [New York: Putnam, 2001]; and Fruitlands: Louisa May Alcott Made Perfect, by Gloria Whelan [New York: HarperCollins, 2002]. This essay explores the strikingly different ways in which three different authors approached the project of presenting to children the inspiring but ultimately disillusioning story of a real-life dream of a utopian community that failed to come true.Claudia Mills is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado and the author of many children’s books, most recently Makeovers by Marcia and Ziggy’s Blue Ribbon Day (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005).     

Professional equity as reported by biology teachers

In 1982, the National Association of Biology Teachers surveyed its membership in order to assess the role and status of women in biology education. Items describing roles, salaries, assignments, professional activities, and sexual bias were included in the survey. This paper compares the responses of male and female biology educators, draws conclusions from the data, and suggests implications for the science education profession. Inequality in several professional areas was revealed. More women than men were single and reported no dependent children. Women exceeded men in both the lower and upper ends of the distribution of years of experience. However, the percentage of men exceeded that of women in most salary brackets beyond $20,000 and more men reported paid consulting opportunities. Men tended to teach at larger institutions and, at all academic levels, more men taught “advanced” classes. More men than women were involved with research activities. However, neither sex felt that the other one received preferential treatment in regard to salary and promotion. The majority of education administrators as well as science and biology faculties were male. However, the recent influx of women into science education positions may produce important changes. It is recommended that a comparative study be conducted in five years.     

Working memory deficits in children with specific learning disorders

This article examines working memory functioning in children with specific developmental disorders of scholastic skills as defined by ICD-10. Ninety-seven second to fourth graders with a minimum IQ of 80 are compared using a 2 x 2 factorial (dyscalculia vs. no dyscalculia; dyslexia vs. no dyslexia) design. An extensive test battery assesses the three subcomponents of working memory described by Baddeley (1986): phonological loop, visual-spatial sketchpad, and central executive. Children with dyscalculia show deficits in visual-spatial memory; children with dyslexia show deficits in phonological and central executive functioning. When controlling for the influence of the phonological loop on the performance of the central executive, however, the effect is no longer significant. Although children with both reading and arithmetic disorders are consistently outperformed by all other groups, there is no significant interaction between the factors dyscalculia and dyslexia.     

Design of an evidence-based diversity workshop to support participation of older people in their community care

Diversity is what makes a person unique, with the intersection of diversity characteristics potentially a strength or a barrier to accessing healthcare, and thereby affecting health and well-being outcomes. Many older people with diverse needs are not accessing appropriate services to meet their needs, leading to suboptimal health and well-being. Community aged care workers are at the frontline, working with diverse older people with complex needs; yet there is a dearth of training available in this sphere. This paper outlines the development and pilot evaluation of a diversity training workshop for managers and frontline community aged care workers. The aim of the workshop was to empower the workforce to support increased participation of older people with diverse needs in their own care, to ultimately lead to their improved health and well-being.

Workshop development was underpinned by sound education principles, a competency framework and research evidence. First iteration of the workshop underwent pilot testing with three groups, two in metropolitan Melbourne (n = 31) and one in regional Victoria (n = 10), Australia. Feedback was gathered via an independent observer (field notes), pre- and post-workshop surveys, and phone interviews with participants 3-month post-workshop. Pilot data and feedback informed changes to workshop content (type of knowledge, application of knowledge and skills), workshop structure and androgogical (adult learning) approach.

An evidence-informed diversity training workshop was developed through an iterative process, with the aim of enhancing knowledge, skills and attitudes of community aged care workers. This approach has developed a workshop that aims to better meet the needs of an aged care workforce, so that they may better support older people with diverse needs to increase engagement and participation in their care, optimizing their health and well-being.