‘Wild’ girls? An exploration of ‘ladette’ cultures in secondary schools

‘Laddish’ attitudes and behaviours are central to current discourses on boys’ ‘underachievement’, as they are seen by many people to impede the progress of some boys in school. Whilst the vast majority of concern about ‘laddishness’ has, to date, focused upon boys, according to media reports there are now good reasons to worry about girls. Anecdotes from teachers and reports in the media suggest that some schoolgirls are now acting ‘laddishly’, that they are ‘ladettes’. This paper explores ‘ladette’ cultures in secondary schools, drawing upon interview data from100 pupils and 30 teachers. It tackles and discusses the following questions: (a) What does the term ‘ladette’ mean to pupils and teachers? (b) Do school‐aged ‘ladettes’ ‘exist’—and if so, what are they like inside and outside of school? (c) In what ways are ‘ladettes’ similar to, and different from, ‘lads’? (d) Are teachers concerned about ‘ladettes’? (e) Are ‘ladette’ behaviours on the increase?     

Simulating the Use of Disclosed Items in Computerized Adaptive Testing

Regular use of questions previously made available to the public (i.e., disclosed items) may provide one way to meet the requirement for large numbers of questions in a continuous testing environment, that is, an environment in which testing is offered at test taker convenience throughout the year rather than on a few prespecified test dates. First it must be shown that such use has effects on test scores small enough to be acceptable. In this study simulations are used to explore the use of disclosed items under a worst-case scenario which assumes that disclosed items are always answered correctly. Some item pool and test designs were identified in which the use of disclosed items produces effects on test scores that may be viewed as negligible.     

The relative effects of university success courses and individualized interventions for students with learning disabilities

Little is known about the relative effects of post‐secondary learning services for students with learning disabilities. We compared outcomes for students with learning disabilities who selected to: (1) take an academic learning success course (course‐intervention), (2) have regular individual interventions (high‐intervention) or (3) use services only as needed (low‐intervention). Pre‐ and post‐test comparisons revealed improvements in academic self‐efficacy and academic resourcefulness for students in the course‐ and high‐intervention groups. The course‐intervention group also showed decreases in their failure attributions to bad luck and increases in their general repertoire of learned resourcefulness skills in comparison to the high‐intervention group and had significantly higher year‐end GPAs in comparison to the low‐intervention group. Here we find positive outcomes for students with learning disabilities taking a course that teaches post‐secondary learning and academic skills.     

Empathy Is Associated With Dynamic Change in Prefrontal Brain Electrical Activity During Positive Emotion in Children

Empathy is the combined ability to interpret the emotional states of others and experience resultant, related emotions. The relation between prefrontal electroencephalographic asymmetry and emotion in children is well known. The association between positive emotion (assessed via parent report), empathy (measured via observation), and second-by-second brain electrical activity (recorded during a pleasurable task) was investigated using a sample of one hundred twenty-eight 6- to 10-year-old children. Contentment related to increasing left frontopolar activation ( p  < .05). Empathic concern and positive empathy related to increasing right frontopolar activation ( p s < .05). A second form of positive empathy related to increasing left dorsolateral activation ( p  < .05). This suggests that positive affect and (negative and positive) empathy both relate to changes in prefrontal activity during a pleasurable task.     

“It looked like one thing but when we went in more depth,it turned out to be completely different”: Reflections on the Discourse of Guided Reading and its role in fostering critical response to magazines

This article explores the discourses of power prevalent in classrooms through considering the nature of critical response and the role of reflective group talk in negotiating meaning in children's magazines. It shares the findings from a small‐scale research project, which explored the potential of guided reading to develop critically literate response to text and reports on a case study involving two groups of pupils from broadly similar primary schools. A critique of guided teaching is offered and it is argued that while on some levels the model seems an effective vehicle for fostering critical response, its inherent power structures bring into question the validity of its role in facilitating independent critical thought.     

Exploring cultural differences in critical thinking: Is it about my thinking style or the language I speak?

Critical thinking is deemed as an ideal in academic settings, but cultural differences in critical thinking performance between Asian and Western students have been reported in the international education literature. We examined explanations for the observed differences in critical thinking between Asian and New Zealand (NZ) European students, and tested hypotheses derived from research in international education and cultural psychology. The results showed that NZ European students performed better on two objective measures of critical thinking skills than Asian students. English proficiency, but not dialectical thinking style, could at least partially if not fully explain these differences. This finding holds with both self-report (Study 1) and objectively measured (Study 2a) English proficiency. The results also indicated that Asian students tended to rely more on dialectical thinking to solve critical thinking problems than their Western counterparts. In a follow-up data analysis, students' critical thinking was found to predict their academic performance after controlling for the effects of English proficiency and general intellectual ability, but the relationship does not vary as a function of students' cultural backgrounds or cultural adoption (Study 2b). Altogether, these findings contribute to our understanding of the influence of culture on critical thinking in international education.