What does better peer review look like? Underlying principles and recommendations for better practice

We conducted a literature review of best practice in peer review. Following this research, we identified five principles for better peer review: Content Integrity, Content Ethics, Fairness, Usefulness, and Timeliness. For each of these principles, we have developed a set of recommendations to improve peer review standards. In this article, we describe the role of peer review and how our five principles support that goal. This article is intended to continue the conversation about improving peer review standards and provide guidance to journal teams looking to improve their standards. It is accompanied by a detailed checklist, which could be used by journal teams to assess their current peer review standards.     

Education reform in England: quality and equity in the performative school

This article argues that contradictory forces affect teachers' work in the neo-liberal school system in England, with a diversity of governance models alongside increasingly dominant orthodoxies of what constitutes ‘effective practice and leadership’. School reforms in England have focused on increasing overall attainment and on closing the achievement gap for pupils from ‘disadvantaged communities’; whilst there is evidence that reforms have delivered on the former, evidence is inconclusive on the latter, with some critics arguing that some reforms have increased social inequality. The future for teachers’ professional identity and practices in this landscape is uncertain. Whilst this article broadly concurs with many studies of teacher identity which argue that the ever-extending reach of performative mechanisms has restricted teachers’ opportunities to develop as activist professionals with ‘a moral purpose’, it also argues that the diversified landscape may provide the opportunity for new autonomous spaces. It goes on to suggest that further research is needed into the forms of locally determined values and practices emerging in ‘quasi-privatised’ academies and free schools in England, to explore whether these professional communities will be entirely managerialist/entrepreneurial in character, or whether models of practice underpinned by a concern with social equity and social justice issues may emerge.     

The influence of student teachers on the perspectives of early childhood cooperating teachers regarding early reading instruction

Much attention has been given to the impact of cooperative teachers on the pedagogical behaviour of student teachers. In many cases, however, cooperating teachers gain as much from the student teacher as the student teacher acquires from them. This study was designed to elicit answers to the following two questions: (1) What are the perspectives of early childhood cooperating teachers regarding early reading instruction in the Jordanian context? and (2) Does the perspectives of early childhood cooperating teachers engaging in early reading instruction change as a result of working with student teachers? The study targeted a sample of 25 cooperating teachers and 28 student teachers who participated in the study by completing a questionnaire, and follow-up interviews were also conducted with 13 cooperating teachers. Results of this study indicate that cooperating teachers endorse the phonics method more than the whole language (WL) approach. Unlike past research, the results of this study revealed that (1) the student teaching experience had no effect on the perspective of cooperating teachers regarding early reading instruction and (b) the perspectives of cooperating teachers do not become similar to those of their student teachers who were WL-oriented. The results have implications for early childhood teacher education programmes and professional development for kindergarten teachers.     

Assessing the social and affective outcomes of inclusion

The systematic assessment of the social and affective outcomes of inclusion has been lagging behind the assessment of academic outcomes. This is particularly problematic in view of research evidence supporting concerns about peer rejection and bullying. In this article, Norah Frederickson and Elizabeth Simmonds, of University College London, and Lynda Evans and Chris Soulsby, from Foxwood Special School, report their evaluation of the social and affective outcomes of a special- mainstream school inclusion initiative that places particular emphasis on peer preparation. Measures completed by pupils were used to assess peer group inclusion, social behaviour, bullying and feelings of belonging at school. Results showed that pupils who had transferred from special to mainstream schools experienced positive social outcomes and none experienced peer group rejection. However, results were less positive for mainstream pupils with special educational needs and the authors discuss possibilities for development. Trends in peer reports of bullying suggest that there is no room for complacency and that ongoing monitoring is required.     

A case study of the mis-management of educational change: an interpretation from an affective standpoint

The paper describes a case study of the development and implementation of a policy to monitor teachers’ classroom practice in a secondary comprehensive school in Wales, UK. The change process is interpreted from an affective standpoint to explain how the experience of feelings and emotions shapes organisational practice. In particular, the interpretation illustrates how affective experience may influence the distinction between espoused and in use theories, which may in turn have an effect on individual and organisational resistance to change and the success of the implementation. Differences between espoused and in use theories may increase both organisational anxiety and resistance in a self-sustaining cycle. We argue that when the anxieties and emotions of organising in schools are allowed to surface in the change process and are reflected upon, the espoused and in use theories are more likely to correspond and organisational anxiety and resistance to change to decrease.     

The mathematical strengths and weaknesses of children with dyslexia

This paper reports the findings of two related studies that examined the mathematical strengths and weaknesses of children with dyslexia. In study one, dyslexic children were compared to children without special educational needs on tests that assessed arithmetic fact recall, place value understanding and counting speed. Study two used the same methodology, but matched the dyslexic children with the non‐dyslexic children on a number of factors, including intellectual ability. This excluded the possibility that confounding variables accounted for the differences between the groups in study one. Both studies indicated that the dyslexic children had slower and less accurate number fact recall than the non‐dyslexic children, but had unimpaired place value understanding. The results for counting speed were more equivocal, but there was a trend for the dyslexic children to be slower counters. The results suggest that dyslexia is not normally associated with a general mathematical impairment, but rather an uneven profile of skills. This profile can be explained in terms of the phonological processing weaknesses associated with dyslexia. The finding that dyslexic children have a specific difficulty recalling arithmetic facts suggests that a teaching programme that emphasises mental methods may disadvantage them.     

Undergraduate research as a student engagement springboard: Exploring the longer-term reported benefits of participation in a research conference

ABSTRACT

Background: Undergraduate research is evident in many forms across higher education: in journals, at conferences and on research placements. It is widely reported that undergraduate research can encourage the development of discipline-specific and transferable communication skills and, in some cases, a more complex development of higher-order critical appraisal. Recent studies of extracurricular undergraduate research conferences have also found that participants report a development of self-authorship and an appreciation of the conference as liminal and transformative space. With many published studies measuring immediate feedback surrounding conference events, there is also a need to explore participants’ reflections over a longer term period of time.

Purpose: This small-scale project investigated participants’ self-report of whether and in what ways participation in a non-assessed, extracurricular undergraduate research conference had impacted their academic and professional practices, one year after their involvement in the conference.

Method: The qualitative study took place over two academic years with participants from an undergraduate conference which was held annually. The investigation adopted an action research methodology and completed two cycles of research. Data were collected firstly through an online survey with open questions, yielding feedback from 44 respondents. Focus groups were then conducted with nine of these students to explore this data further. A thematic approach was used to analyse the data.

Findings: The two cycles of data collection and analyses resulted in the identification of four central themes: (1) general positive impact on studies or career; (2) the development of presentation skills and personal confidence; (3) the development of research skills and perspectives; (4) an increased engagement with extracurricular opportunities.

Conclusions: Overall, our analysis identified that participants reported a development in communication skills and an enhanced relationship with the concept of ‘research’ and self-authorship. Students’ report that participation directly led to increased engagement with additional extracurricular activities is particularly noteworthy, as it contributes something new to the growing body of literature surrounding undergraduate research. More widely, the study suggests the potential for undergraduate conferences to act as springboards for increased extracurricular engagement.