Project-based learning groups of friends and acquaintances: The role of efficacy beliefs

Abstract

This school-based study explored the role of collective and proxy efficacy beliefs in the performances of project-based learning teams comprising friends and acquaintances. Participants were 162 male students in Grade 8 who attended a Catholic high school, located in Sydney, Australia. Students were organized into 20 acquaintance groups and 21 friendship groups. Each group comprised 4 students who were completing project-based learning assignments in Geography, Religious Studies, and English. Data were self-reports and teacher-assessed group performance scores. Data collection occurred three times over a five-week period. Multilevel modeling was used to examine relationships between variables in the study. Statistically significant interactions involving group type, collective efficacy, and proxy efficacy were identified in Geography and Religious Studies. Implications are that it may be advantageous for teachers to assign students to friendship groups, provided they nurture collective efficacy, and that proxy efficacy may negatively affect group performance, depending on the context.     

Children’s and Adolescents’ Specific Interest in Science and Technology,Participation in Out-of-School Activities and Inclination to Become Scientists

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Recently, the literature has repeatedly reported an interesting decrease in science and technology (S&T) among youngsters, and a drop of...     

Teacher Leadership in Practice: Mapping the Negotiation of the Position of the Special Educational Needs Coordinator in Schools

Special needs care has taken on a substantial evolution within education. Special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) are no longer considered to provide individual guidance to students but to support and professionalize regular teachers in fulfilling special needs care in their classroom. In doing so, they act as teacher leaders. Many concerns are raised about how teacher leadership may interfere with the existing working relationships in schools. In this study, we use Positioning Theory as a theoretical approach to obtain an in-depth understanding of how the position of the SENCO and the responsibilities attached to this position are negotiated within the school. The findings illustrate that SENCOs received the legitimacy to act as teacher leaders when their expertise was recognized, when teachers perceived their task as first-line helpers, and when school principals were willing to release power.     

Job satisfaction among young European higher education graduates

The effects of diverse education-related variables on job satisfaction scores are analysed using a sample of European higher education graduates at early stages of their working life. Ordered choice models for job satisfaction are estimated including as explanatory diverse educational variables such as field of study, graduates’ evaluation of their educational experience, the match between the competences developed during education and those required by jobs, as well as information on graduates’ values and interests. The results show, even after controlling for actual job characteristics, that education-related variables have a great impact on graduates’ job satisfaction. Additionally, estimation results by each one of the countries included in the sample are also presented.     

A Hypothetical Learning Progression for Quantifying Phenomena in Science

In this article, we report on a three-pronged effort to create a hypothetical learning progression for quantification in science. First, we drew from history and philosophy of science to define the quantification competency and develop hypothetical levels of the learning progression. More specifically, the quantification competency refers to the ability to analyze phenomena through (a) abstracting relevant measurable variables from phenomena and observations, (b) investigating the mathematical relationships among the variables, and (c) conceptualizing scientific ideas that explain the mathematical relationships. The quantification learning progression contains four levels of increasing sophistication: level 1, holistic observation; level 2, attributes; level 3, measurable variables; and level 4, relational complexity. Second, we analyzed the practices in the Next Generation Science Standards for current, largely tacit, assumptions about how quantification develops (or ought to develop) through K-12 education. While several pieces of evidence support the learning progression, we found that quantification was described inconsistently across practices. Third, we used empirical student data from a field test of items in physical and life sciences to illustrate qualitative differences in student thinking that align with levels in the hypothetical learning progression for quantification. By generating a hypothetical learning progression for quantification, we lay the groundwork for future standards development efforts to include this key practice and provide guidance for curriculum developers and instructors in helping students develop robust scientific understanding.

     

The development and validation of an alternative assessment to measure changes in understanding of the longleaf pine ecosystem

A drawing assessment to gauge changes in fourth grade students’ understanding of the essential components of the longleaf pine ecosystem was developed to support an out-of-school environmental education program. Pre- and post-attendance drawings were scored with a rubric that was determined to have content validity and reliability among users. In the specific context of this intervention, the assessment documented significant growth in the understanding of the essential components, processes, flora and fauna of the ecosystem. This assessment found no significant differential advantage with respect to gender or dominance status of the students and is offered as an alternative to traditional assessments that favor select groups. Extensions of this framework to other ecosystems, and implications for in-service/pre-service educators and science proficiency, are discussed.     

Current Sociopolitical,Sociocultural, and Sociolinguistic Issues of Latino Immigrants in Julia Álvarez’s Novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents

The sociopolitical, sociocultural, and sociolinguistic issues many Latino immigrants face as they embark on the process of adjusting to American society have been depicted by many Hispanic American writers in the United States. Julia Álvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents attempts to raise awareness of these issues through the lives of 4 Dominican sisters who immigrated to the United States in the mid-1950s. In light of Álvarez’s novel, this essay seeks to illustrate how many young Latino immigrants currently strive to fit into American society and struggle to achieve success in a linguistically and culturally foreign environment.     

Metaphonological abilities of Japanese children

Linguists generally conceive of speech as a sequence of elementary soundunits or phones. On the other hand, cognitive psychologists have established the existence of a close link between segmental awareness (SA) and alphabetic literacy: the best speech segmenters are also the best readers; conversely, the lack of SA leads to lagging in the acquisition of the written code. Studies carried out with illiterate adults and preliterate children suggest that SA does not arise outside the context of learning to read and write. Furthermore, cross-cultural studies have so far supported the hypothesis that SA is promoted by alphabetic literacy only, and not by logographic or syllabic literacy. The present study is inspired by Mann's (1986) research and aims at studying the phonological (i.e. syllabic and phonemic) analysis abilities of Japanese first-graders who are learning to read in a syllabic writing system. The relatively poor performance of subjects tends to confirm the starting hypothesis that SA is closely linked to alphabetic literacy. Moreover, the subjects apparently resorted to spelling-based strategies to accomplish the tasks presented. This comes to support the general idea that the written characters used to transcribe a language tend to exert a strong influence on the conscious perceptual representation of the phonology of this language.This study would not have been possible without the precious help of Miss T. Yamamoto for the construction of the experimental items. We are also much indebted to Mrs. A. M. Van Craen for her good advice and for having introduced one of us (Carmela Spagnoletti) to the Japanese School of Brussels. We also wish to thank the Director of the Japanese School of Brussels for his permission to carry out the experimental work with his pupils, and to all the professors for having invited the parents to cooperate and provided us with many useful information. We are especially grateful to the children who participated to the experinmental sessions as well as to their parents. The present work has been partially supported by the Belgian Fonds de la Recherche fondamentale collective (convention n° 2.4562.86) and the Ministry of scientific Policy (Action de Recherche concertée: Processus cognitifs dans la lecture).     

Changes in school through a long-term project of action research. Building bridges between school practice and Roma communities

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out within the framework of a long-term action-research project in schools in Barcelona, Spain, in which a large concentration of pupils come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and are at risk of social exclusion. Specifically, the introduction of the Fifth Dimension (5D) model into these schools is analysed here. 5D is an action-research programme partnership between universities and schools that has been developed by an international network of researchers and is based on a collaborative learning model, supported by information and communication technologies and by the university students themselves. This study focuses on the changes produced in school practices and in the role of teachers. Over a 4-year period, qualitative data were elicited from four primary school using linguistic methods, field notes, interviews and focus group with educators involved in the process. Cultural Historical Activity Theory was used as a framework for analysis of the coded data. The findings highlight the key elements for the change: consistency in the mediating devices (proposed tools and activities), reorientation of classroom interactions into forms of collaboration, the changing roles of the teachers to include design, observation and help, and the development of inter-institutional partnerships based on permanent negotiation.     

Centering Nepantla Literacies from the Borderlands: Leveraging “In-Betweenness” Toward Learning in the Everyday

This article argues that building powerful literacies involves the centering of dispositions and practices that thrive on the boundary—spaces that are not always sanctioned as educational. Leveraging youths’ repertoires is particularly important for educators of nondominant learners who are committed to challenging characterizations of their students as being inept or deficient. To this end, we address how the design of learning opportunities that attend to polylingual repertoires (Gutiérrez, Bien, Selland, & Pierce, 2011)—the use of multiple languages and forms of expression-—can open up opportunities, pathways, for youth to leverage new identities as resources for consequential learning. We advance the idea of organizing learning environments where youth playfully negotiate their nepantla identities that are often in a “state of perpetual transition” (Anzaldúa, 1999, p. 100). We argue that nepantla literacies, or literacies that thrive in the boundary, emerge through negotiations with syncretic (Gutiérrez, 2014) literacies—those that are valued in the academy and across spaces and communities.