What is The International Statistical Institute?

This is the second of a short series of articles briefly describing the organisations that sponsor Teaching Statistics.     

‘Building up speed’, ‘trying to break free’, ‘pushing it through the pipe’: using metaphor to explore early career STEM researchers’ grant writing capability

This study demonstrates the use of metaphor analysis in needs assessment for developmental support and shows how it can be used to critically examine assumptions in the literature about the ways emerging researchers conceptualize their career trajectory. We investigated the professional development needs of a group of science, technology, engineering and mathematics early career researchers, to provide them with better grant writing support. Conceptual metaphor theory was used to explore interview data, in part to identify where training design could be modified. In the case of the group under investigation, close metaphoric analysis presented a richly embodied view of our participants’ research activity and suggested ways to provide a stronger focus on strategic and processual aspects of grant writing in such settings.     

The digital skills paradox: how do digitally excluded youth develop skills to use the internet?

Digital skills are an important aspect of ensuring that all young people are digitally included. Yet, there tends to be an assumption in popular discourse that young people can simply learn these skills by themselves. While experience of technologies forms an important part of the learning process, other resources (i.e., access to technology and support networks) plus clear motivations are required. Through in-depth interviews with 20 young people who are digitally excluded, this paper highlights the kinds of digital skills these young people find problematic, and the reasons why they find developing these skills so challenging. We demonstrate how poor access to technology, limited support networks and their current situation prevent these young people from gaining the experiences they need to support the development of their digital skills; and how lack of experience and inadequate skills limit the extent to which they perceive the internet to be valuable in their lives. These individual experiences, shaped very much by the wider social structure of which they are part, show how young people cannot simply be left to learn digital skills by themselves and that intervention is required to try to address some of the digital inequalities apparent in younger generations.     

The social geography of childcare: making up a middle‐class child

Childcare is a condensate of disparate social forces and social processes. It is gendered and classed. It is subject to an excess of policy and political discourse. It is increasingly a focus for commercial exploitation. This is a paper reporting on work in progress in an ESRC funded research project (R000239232) on the choice and provision of pre‐school childcare by middle‐class (service class) families in two contrasting London locations. Drawing on recent work in class analysis the paper examines the relationships between childcare choice, middle‐class fractions and locality. It suggests that on the evidence of the findings to date, there is some evidence of systematic differences between fractions in terms of values, perspectives and preferences for childcare, but a more powerful case for intra‐class similarities, particularly when it comes to putting preferences into practice in the ‘making up of a middle‐class child’ through care and education.     

Earth surface modeling for education: How effective is it? Four semesters of classroom tests with WILSIM-GC

This paper presents results from a randomized experimental design replicated over four semesters that compared students’ performance in understanding landform evolution processes as measured by the pretest to posttest score growth between two treatment methods: an online interactive simulation tool and a paper-based exercise. While both methods were shown to be effective at enhancing students’ learning of the landform concepts and processes, there was no statistically significant difference in score growth between the two instructional methods. However, the attitudinal survey indicated that students consistently favored the simulation approach over the paper-based exercise. With the simulation method, female students showed greater score growth than males, especially for test items requiring higher level thinking. This indicates that the visually rich interactive simulation tool may be integrated to better support female students’ learning in geoscience. Science major students generally outperformed non-science major students in terms of score growth, which suggests that background knowledge played an important role in realizing the potential of computer modeling in enhancing students’ learning. Sufficient scaffolding is necessary to maximize the effect of interactive earth surface modeling in geoscience education.     

The Role of Institutional Research in Higher Education: Enabling Researchers to Meet New Challenges

Based on a survey of 243 New England colleges and universities, this article is designed to contribute to an understanding of the current and projected roles of institutional research and to discuss the implications of these roles for the education and training of future institutional researchers. Results from this study reveal the strongest relationships between the institution's size and the scope of the institutional research function, the reporting relationship, and the size and the qualifications of the institutional research staff. Multivariate analysis identifies the size of the institutional staff and the qualifications of the institutional director as significant predictors of involvement in planning and policy studies. These data indicate the need to enhance the presence, qualifications, and level of activity of institutional researchers in order to enhance the contribution to institutional decision making particularly among small institutions. Recommendations are offered to achieve these goals and prepare the institutional research profession for the challenges confronting higher education now and in the 21st century.     

Beyond Part C: Reducing Middle School Special Education for Early Intervention Children with Developmental Delays

This study examined the rates of special education placement during middle school grades (sixth through eighth) among children who participated in the Linda Ray Intervention Program (LRIP) center-based and home-based learning modalities. The study sample included 113 children in Miami Dade County Public Schools who had gestational cocaine exposure and received early intervention services due to developmental delays. This study found that children who participated in the center-based (25 hours per week) learning modality had a significantly lower rate of special education placement (14%) than the students in the home-based (three hours per week) learning modality (30%) in middle school. Also, results indicated that children who were socioeconomically disadvantaged (free/reduced lunch) and in the home-based learning modality were three to four times more likely to be in special education. This study provides evidence for the long-term impact of the LRIP center-based modality on special education outcomes.     

Math and Science Scholars (MASS) Program: A Model Program for the Recruitment and Retention of Preservice Mathematics and Science Teachers

The shortage of certified teachers in mathematics and science in Texas classrooms is a major concern and mirrors national tends. Dramatic increases in shortages of teachers have stimulated the design of new certification programs that recruit and place teachers in classrooms as quickly as possible (Texas Center for Educational Research, 1999). While maintaining several of the characteristics of traditional certification programs, the Math and Science Scholars (MASS) Program streamlines the certification process, supports preservice students through tuition remission and scholarships, and provides quality mentoring and early fiend experiences in K–12 classrooms with well-qualified teachers. The strategies in this model program are dramatically increasing the numbers of undergraduate majors in mathematics and science considering high school teaching as a career.     

Neglected realities: exploring the impact of women’s experiences of violence on learning in sites of higher education

Feminist pedagogy offers an exciting alternative to more conservative, traditional academic approaches, as it offers a site where women’s lives and experiences are accorded a place of importance and are considered worthy of theorizing. Within the last decade, feminism has been increasingly challenged to broaden its perspective and include the standpoints of those who are not part of the dominant group, whose voices have been traditionally silenced within academia. Issues of race, class, sexuality and ability have subsequently become a core focus of most women’s studies classrooms. Yet despite its transformative goals and sometimes radical pedagogical practices, these spaces often remain complicit in not fully acknowledging the impact of trauma on women’s lives. Drawing on the journal entries of first year social work students, this inquiry explores the impact of trauma on three women, struggling to negotiate the demands of academia, while simultaneously coping with memories of past abuse. It is argued that violence against women is a collective responsibility, rather than an individual pathology, as it has been conceptualized in the past. The findings highlight the need to address women’s experiences of violence as a legitimate barrier to learning.