Using patchwork texts in assessment: clarifying and categorising choices in their use

An emerging form of assessment is the patchwork text, an application of assessment for learning, as opposed to assessment of learning. A framework for making choices in how to use patchwork texts in higher education courses is developed, drawing on prior research on, and use of, patchwork texts. These choices reflect the fundamental objectives of patchwork texts, namely continuous learning, deep learning, integrated understanding and critical self‐reflection, while also offering options for patchwork texts which can be tailored to particular courses and individual preferences.     

The relationship between young children’s enjoyment of learning to read,reading attitudes,confidence and attainment

Background: While there is a considerable body of research exploring the relationship between older primary school children’s reading attitudes, confidence and attainment, there is a noticeable lack of research with younger children. Furthermore, there is relatively little research exploring the extent to which children’s reading attitudes, confidence and attainment are related to their enjoyment of learning to read.

Purpose: To understand the relationship between young children’s reading attitudes, reading confidence, enjoyment of learning to read and reading attainment.

Sample: Two hundred and three children (103 boys) with an average age of 6 years and 9 months (.32 years standard deviation) participated in this study. Children were from 11 primary schools in England, located within a wide range of socio-economic neighbourhoods.

Design and methods: All children completed questionnaires examining their attitudes to reading, reading confidence (using Progress in International Reading Literacy Study items) and enjoyment of learning to read. Children also completed an assessment of word reading. All assessments were administered individually.

Results: Children’s attitudes to reading, reading confidence and enjoyment of learning to read correlated with their word reading skill; however, only reading attitudes and reading confidence predicted variance in reading success. With regard to gender differences, girls reported more positive reading attitudes than boys, even after controlling for differences in reading skill.

Conclusions: Results highlight that the relationship between children’s reading skills and the affective aspects of learning to read develops from a young age. Therefore, methods of reading instruction need to foster affective aspects of reading, in addition to developing cognitive skills to best support young children’s reading development.     

Helping Pre-Service and Beginning Teachers Examine and Reframe Assumptions About Themselves as Teachers and Change Agents: “Who is Going to Listen to You Anyway?”

The focus of this article is how to ensure (beginning) teachers’ needs as practitioners are part of the discursive dialogue in physical education teacher education programs. We consider the relationship between ‘structure’ and ‘agency,’ teachers as ‘change agents’ and refer to ‘workplace learning’ as we examine the extent to which the social structure of the school and the teaching profession, and?/?or the capacity of the individual to act independently, ultimately determines a teacher's behaviour in reaction to teaching expectations. We are interested as physical education teacher education faculty in how we (1) strive to help pre-service teachers examine and reframe assumptions about themselves as teachers and change agents, and (2) examine taken-for-granted school practices and processes. We share ways that physical education teacher education programs could encourage pre-service teachers agency and the relationship between initial teacher education and induction.     

A Conceptual Model for Teacher Education

Recent critiques of the discourse or beliefs and practices of physical education have focused on the restrictive ideological assumptions of the subject. However, these critiques in turn have been criticized for rehearsing once more the gap between theory and practice. Drawing on theoretical models external to physical education, a form of discourse analysis is proposed to link critical perspectives and practical concerns in an account of effective teaching and learning in physical education.     

The Parenting Early Intervention Programme in England, 2006–2011; a classed experience?

Family policy was a key component of the ‘New’ Labour government's family, social and education policy, and a wide range of family focused initiatives and interventions designed to ‘support’ families and improve individual, family and social outcomes were introduced. The post‐May 2010 coalition government's family policy exhibits key elements of policy continuity. There have been strong, class‐based critiques of this approach to social policy, which have argued that policies were informed by a project to recreate the working class. A key English family policy initiative, the Parenting Early Intervention Programme (PEIP) ran from September 2006–March 2011. The national evaluation of the PEIP was a large scale combined methods study of the implementation of parenting programmes in all local authorities in England, and forms the evidential base of this article which was built upon the completion, by participating parents, of three standardised pre and post parenting course questionnaires (N = 4446). A sample of 133 participating parents was also interviewed using semi‐structured interview schedules. The evidence from the PEIP evaluation showed the heterogeneous class nature of the PEIP cohorts, which over the roll‐out of the initiative, incorporated a larger number of middle class parents. In addition, the qualitative data indicated that parents had strongly positive participant perceptions of PEIP courses, characterised by ‘mutual reach’, and did not experience the courses in classed terms.The evidence from the quantitative and qualitative data collected for the national evaluation suggests that it is difficult to conceptualise the PEIP, as an example of the Labour government's family policy, in class terms—such an approach requires, at the least, major qualification.     

When Drinking Makes It Worse: The Malevolence Assumption,Appraisals, and Communication Goals

This investigation examined the influence of perceived alcohol consumption on appraisals of and communicative goals for problematic events in college students' dating relationships. We suggested that problematic events during which the offender was drinking would lessen offender judgments of responsibility and severity, as well as the likelihood that the offender would consider accepting fault for the event to be an important goal. We also posited that the importance of the goals to maintain the relationship and to manage positive face would vary as a function of who was drinking during the problematic behavior. Using a questionnaire, respondents (N = 228) were asked to imagine that they were an offender in one of two problematic event scenarios that described one of four offender-partner drinking conditions. Respondents then completed measures assessing their appraisals of and communicative intentions for the situation. The results indicated a pattern opposite of what was predicted in several cases, yet highlight unique implications for appraisals and communicative goals based on who was drinking during the problematic event.     

The impact of teacher immediacy on students' motivation: Is it the same for all students?

This study investigated the impact of teachers’ use of immediacy behaviors on students’ reported motivation to study over the course of a semester. Students’ state and trait motivation to study for a class was measured at three points during a semester. Reports of teachers’ use of verbal and nonverbal immediacy were collected at two points in a semester. It was hypothesized that not all students would respond similarly to a teacher low in immediacy. Support was found for this hypothesis. Students beginning the semester with either low or moderate state motivation to study were found to have increased levels of motivation later in the semester when exposed to a highly immediate teacher. Students beginning the semester with high motivation maintained high motivation regardless of the level of immediacy they reported their teacher of having.