Achieving both intellectual quality and relevance in classroom learning experiences: some conceptual challenges

The idea that the educational needs of secondary school students are best met by providing them with learning experiences that are both intellectually challenging and connected to the world beyond the classroom underpins several recent pedagogical initiatives in Australia. However, such learning experiences are rarely found in practice. Many reasons for this have already been identified, but we suggest there may be another dimension to this problem. From our experience of trialling a similar pedagogical approach with Years 8 and 10 students, the participating teachers seemed to be struggling with a conceptual dilemma that interfered with creating learning experiences that are both intellectually challenging and relevant. We suggest this dilemma was generated by a dualistic framework of thinking and practice, endemic in education systems, which constructs academic rigour and relevance as incompatible with each other. We conclude that there is a need for more extensive teacher professional development in pedagogies which attempt to integrate intellectual rigour and relevance.     

Response to intervention for reading difficulties in the primary grades: some answers and lingering questions

The purpose of this article is to describe the current research base and identify research needs related to response to intervention (RTI) frameworks in primary-grade reading. Research is reviewed on early reading instruction and intervention, the implementation of multitiered reading interventions, and the determination of intervention responsiveness. Areas identified as in need of research include (a) the conditions under which early reading interventions are most effective in RTI contexts, (b) multitiered interventions for students with limited English proficiency, (c) reading instruction for students who make limited progress in Tier 3 intensive interventions, (d) criteria for determining intervention responsiveness, and (e) the effects of fully implemented RTI frameworks. Although RTI research may be expensive and difficult to implement, it may contribute to improved reading outcomes for many students who are otherwise at risk of serious negative life consequences.     

Alternative education on Prince Edward Island: a hybrid of ‘mainstream’ and special education

Alternative education programmes have acted as a disciplinary practice used by schools in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, as a response to providing students, especially those identified with challenging behaviours, who do not fit into ‘mainstream’ schools.

This article highlights the emergence of alternative education in PEI and brings to light the complexities underpinning how a child with challenging behaviour is viewed. Through the use of Foucauldian genealogical analysis and critical discourse analysis, this research centres on the discourse of ‘alternative education’ and problematises how alternative education programmes have been put in place as a solution to the problem of the child with challenging behaviour in ‘mainstream’ schools as constituted in the 1990s in PEI, Canada.

Using data generated from educational policies, government documents, and interviews with educators who worked in alternative placements and practitioners who worked with students identified as having problematic behaviour, I propose that alternative education programmes are hybrid programmes emerging from an overlapping of understanding from ‘mainstream’ education and ‘special education’.     

Learning from Writing in College Biology

This study used both quantitative and qualitative analyses to examine the influence of written arguments on learning in a college level introductory biology class and the types of metacognition employed by students while writing. Comparison of a treatment and control group indicates that the writing assignments used had minimal impact on overall content learning as measured by conventional exams. Subsequent interviews and think-aloud protocols with a subset of students indicated that writing arguments had the potential to foster learning through forward and backward search strategies. However, few of the students took advantage of this opportunity to use metacognitive skills. This study suggests that preparing written arguments is not sufficient, by itself, to have a reliable effect on student learning and is consistent with the view that students must be explicitly taught when and how to use different metacognitive strategies.     

Returning to the mirror: reflections on promoting constructivism in three educational contexts

Since the early 1980s educators have argued that reflection is an essential dimension of good pedagogical practice. This discussion of my attempt to support a constructivist approach to learning for three different groups of learners illustrates one effort to engage in such reflection. I analyze several assignments I have designed for differently positioned learners, all within the context of a liberal arts college in northeastern USA. Referring to the assignments I have developed in each context, I analyze the particular kinds of structures, challenges and supports I try to provide to learners, with the goal of surfacing the convictions I hold about learners' identities and capabilities. My intention is to identify underlying pedagogical principles that inform my practice across contexts, not only to make it clearer for myself and others what guides that practice but also, in an effort to acknowledge the evolving and interdependent nature of this work, to articulate the new challenges this analysis poses for me.     

Realizing the Value of Non-Purchased Content

This presentation summarized a May 2013 white paper published by Taylor & Francis Group, Facilitating access to free online resources: challenges and opportunities for the library community (www.tandf.co.uk/libsite/pdf/TF-whitepaper-free-resources.pdf). Taylor & Francis staff conducted research aimed at exploring free content discoverability from the perspective of librarians. Study focus groups were held in London and Seattle, Washington in early 2013. Research also included telephone interviews, surveys, and literature searching to identify relevant studies and commentary articles.     

The Effect of a State Department of Education Teacher Mentor Initiative on Science Achievement

This study investigated the effectiveness of a southern state??s department of education program to improve science achievement through embedded professional development of science teachers in the lowest performing schools. The Science Mentor Program provided content and inquiry-based coaching by teacher leaders to science teachers in their own classrooms. The study analyzed the mean scale scores for the science portion of the state??s high school graduation test for the years 2004 through 2007 to determine whether schools receiving the intervention scored significantly higher than comparison schools receiving no intervention. The results showed that all schools achieved significant improvement of scale scores between 2004 and 2007, but there were no significant performance differences between intervention and comparison schools, nor were there any significant differences between various subgroups in intervention and comparison schools. However, one subgroup, economically disadvantaged (ED) students, from high-level intervention schools closed the achievement gap with ED students from no-intervention schools across the period of the study. The study provides important information to guide future research on and design of large-scale professional development programs to foster inquiry-based science.     

Examining socially shared regulation and shared physiological arousal events with multimodal learning analytics

Socially shared regulation contributes to the success of collaborative learning. However, the assessment of socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) faces several challenges in the effort to increase the understanding of collaborative learning and support outcomes due to the unobservability of the related cognitive and emotional processes. The recent development of trace-based assessment has enabled innovative opportunities to overcome the problem. Despite the potential of a trace-based approach to study SSRL, there remains a paucity of evidence on how trace-based evidence could be captured and utilised to assess and promote SSRL. This study aims to investigate the assessment of electrodermal activities (EDA) data to understand and support SSRL in collaborative learning, hence enhancing learning outcomes. The data collection involves secondary school students (N = 94) working collaboratively in groups through five science lessons. A multimodal data set of EDA and video data were examined to assess the relationship among shared arousals and interactions for SSRL. The results of this study inform the patterns among students' physiological activities and their SSRL interactions to provide trace-based evidence for an adaptive and maladaptive pattern of collaborative learning. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence about how trace-based data could be utilised to predict learning outcomes in collaborative learning.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Socially shared regulation has been recognised as an essential aspect of collaborative learning success.
• It is challenging to make the processes of learning regulation ‘visible’ to better understand and support student learning, especially in dynamic collaborative settings.
• Multimodal learning analytics are showing promise for being a powerful tool to reveal new insights into the temporal and sequential aspects of regulation in collaborative learning.

What this paper adds

• Utilising multimodal big data analytics to reveal the regulatory patterns of shared physiological arousal events (SPAEs) and regulatory activities in collaborative learning.
• Providing evidence of using multimodal data including physiological signals to indicate trigger events in socially shared regulation.
• Examining the differences of regulatory patterns between successful and less successful collaborative learning sessions.
• Demonstrating the potential use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to predict collaborative learning success by examining regulatory patterns.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Our findings offer insights into how students regulate their learning during collaborative learning, which can be used to design adaptive supports that can foster students' learning regulation.
• This study could encourage researchers and practitioners to consider the methodological development incorporating advanced techniques such as AI machine learning for capturing, processing and analysing multimodal data to examine and support learning regulation.