Can students with dyslexia be effectively supported in the diversity of an international school setting?

In the diversity of an international school, many children for whom dyslexia is a barrier to literacy skill development may not have formally been identified as dyslexic; however, it does not mean that their needs do not require to be met. This paper considers the elements necessary to support the learners with dyslexia. Teaching Reading Through Spelling, which is a synthetic phonics-based APSL (alphabetic, phonic, syllabic, linguistic) programme, was used, 3 × 45 minutes a week, in an international school setting. The students (N = 12) made 2.0 years spelling, and 2.8 years reading improvement in one year. In addition to selecting an appropriate teaching programme, successful additional elements were found to be careful planning for both short and long term, effective communication and involvement of all participants.     

Education for children with severe and profound general learning disabilities in Ireland: factors influencing teachers’ decisions about teaching these pupils

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived high turnover of teachers working with pupils with severe and profound general learning disabilities in Ireland. Questionnaires and interviews were used to explore the situations in which teachers worked and their reasons for leaving or staying in teaching this group of pupils. The study found that while teachers were positive about working with this group, their working conditions and the level of support that they received were crucial factors in determining whether they remained in post. These factors and the implications for practice are discussed.     

TIJAH: Embracing IR Methods in XML Databases

This paper discusses our participation in INEX (the Initiative for the Evaluation of XML Retrieval) using the TIJAH XML-IR system. TIJAHs system design follows a standard layered database architecture, carefully separating the conceptual, logical and physical levels. At the conceptual level, we classify the INEX XPath-based query expressions into three different query patterns. For each pattern, we present its mapping into a query execution strategy. The logical layer exploits score region algebra (SRA) as the basis for query processing. We discuss the region operators used to select and manipulate XML document components. The logical algebra expressions are mapped into efficient relational algebra expressions over a physical representation of the XML document collection using the pre-post numbering scheme. The paper concludes with an analysis of experiments performed with the INEX test collection.     

Reviewing and Ethics in the Online Academy

This commentary paper reflects on what I have recently learned from being involved in the Editorial Development Group established by the journal EPAT (Educational Philosophy and Theory) and its owners, the learned society of PESA (the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia). Besides disseminating the experience of this group, the paper suggests there is a link between the ideas of ‘netiquette’, the online academy, and the ethics of reviewing.     

Can behavioural interventions increase citizens' use of e-government? Evidence from a quasi-experimental trial

Low uptake is one of the largest risks facing government agencies that seek to increase efficiency and reduce costs by providing services online. To date, very few studies have tested interventions to increase citizens' use of e-government services. Instead, almost all existing research has focused on identifying correlates of adoption. In the current study, we developed an intervention to increase citizens' use of an e-government service and tested it using a quasi-experiment. The intervention used several techniques informed by research from the applied behavioural sciences to encourage usage, including: altering defaults (customers who visited a customer service centre were invited to complete a form online rather than joining a queue), providing facilitating conditions (customer support was made available), and promoting the benefits and ease of the online service (a customer service representative and in-store written materials emphasised these points). Results indicated that the intervention significantly increased customers' use of the online service by 14.1 percentage points, 95% CI [9.1, 19.2]. Additionally, a survey of customers who experienced the intervention showed they were highly satisfied and appreciated the time-saving benefits, ease of use, and customer support provided. This study is among the first to provide a rigorous test of an intervention to encourage citizens to use e-government services, and can be used to inform practical efforts to increase e-government uptake.     

Source-code plagiarism in universities: a comparative study of student perspectives in China and the UK

There has been much research and discussion relating to variations in plagiaristic activity observed in students from different demographic backgrounds. Differences in behaviour have been noted in many studies, although the underlying reasons are still a matter of debate. Existing work focuses mainly on textual plagiarism, and most often derives results by studying (small) groups of overseas students studying in a Western context. This study investigates understanding of source-code plagiarism (i.e. plagiarism of computer programmes) amongst university students in China. The survey instrument was a Chinese translation of a survey previously administered in English in the UK. This paper reports the results of the exploratory survey conducted in China, and compares these results to those from a parallel survey conducted in the UK. The results show that there is a significant difference in understanding between the respondents from the two surveys, and suggest topics which a future and more comprehensive study may focus on.     

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in Mexico as preparation for higher education

In this study we analyse the relationship between Mexican students’ enrolment in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) and their college preparedness using a case-study methodology. We found that from the Mexican schools that offer the IB DP, most IB students are fairly successful in their college applications, such that the majority enrols at among the most well-regarded post-secondary institutions in Mexico. The possibility that IB DP grades and/or examination records might help boost students’ college admissions options does not seem to be a primary motivating factor for students’ IB DP enrolment. Rather, we found that students enrol in the IB DP because they think it will help prepare them to successfully handle college-level work. Students and educators believe that various aspects of the IB DP prepare them for college-level work, including the Theory of Knowledge course, the Extended Essay and the Creativity, Action and Service programme.