The effects of instructional organization and locus of control orientation on meaningful learning in high school biology students

This study investigated the effects on meaningful learning achievement of concept-related instructional organization and locus of control orientation. Two five-week instructional treatments were developed, one which explicitly stressed concept relationships and one which did not. Five hundred and forty-one subjects at six Indiana high schools were involved in the study. Analyses of covariance of posttest and six-week retention test scores with treatment as the independent variable showed no significant treatment effect. Analyses of variance of test scores with locus of control orientation as the independent variable resulted in highly statistically significant differences. Subjects with an internal locus of control orientation achieved more than externally oriented subjects. A two-way analysis of covariance by treatment and locus of control orientation resulted in a statistically significant treatment/locus of control interaction effect for retention test scores. Externally oriented subjects who were exposed to the concept-related treatment generally retained more than those in the comparison group. Internally oriented subjects retained about the same amount of information regardless of treatment group. When the male and female subjects were analyzed separately, the interaction effect appeared greater for females than for males.     

Re/conceptualising time and temporality: an exploration of time in higher education

ABSTRACT

In this paper we deconstruct hegemonic conceptions of time in higher education. Drawing on a recent project, we argue that limiting assumptions about time dominate notions of student capability and prospects of success. The paper reveals how the conceptualisation of time is constituted within a framework that individualises and decontextualises difficulties. Within this frame, socio-cultural elitism is left largely unchallenged, with many students left out and misrecognised as purely lacking capability and commitment. Rethinking simple distinctions between ‘time’ and ‘temporality’, we consider ways to broaden understandings to enable a more inclusive and ‘inventive’ system. We apply a Foucauldian analysis to argue that we co-construct the future in the very ways that we react to the present and think about the past. We must recognise that the way we work in the present is how we create the future. Our everyday actions, assumptions and reactions re/produce our futures.     

The impact of Child Development Associate training on the beliefs and practices of preschool teachers

This study examined the impact of Child Development Associate (CDA) training on the beliefs and practices of early childhood teachers who did not have college degrees or early childhood college coursework. Preschool teachers who were enrolled in CDA classes (n = 76) and a comparison group of teachers (n = 50) completed two surveys of beliefs and practices. Repeated measures Multivariate Analyses of Variance indicated that the CDA training teachers decreased the amount they endorsed beliefs and practices that contrast with Developmentally Appropriate Practice over time more than the comparison teachers. Results suggest that CDA training can be an effective means of increasing the developmentally appropriateness of beliefs and self-reported practices of early childhood teachers, which past research suggests will ultimately impact classroom quality.     

The use of video as a teaching resource in a new university

This paper reports on a survey of the use of video as a teaching resource within one British University, drawing on evidence gathered during 1995 from fourteen Schools within its four Faculties. It identifies the factors and issues which influence the use of video in teaching, including management of video resources within the Schools; how video is used to support teaching strategies; and its perceived usefulness as a teaching resource. Findings note the extent to which video is used across the University; the factors that support or discourage its use; and the awareness and expectations that teaching staff have of video as a teaching tool. The discussion offers some recommendations as to how video use may be supported and improved within the University. The research could form the basis for a larger study to establish whether the findings from this survey may be typical of the picture in higher education generally.     

British higher education and its older clients

The older clients of the British highereducation system are both extremely numerousand extremely diverse. In this paper we drawupon the results of a national survey ofgraduates to show how this diversity in termsof age and mode of study, and by implication interms of motivation, gender and subject ofstudy, directly impacts upon the types ofoutcome measurements that are appropriate andupon the levels of outcome that are achieved.     

Anonymous versus public student feedback systems: metacognition and achievement with graduate learners

Educational technology research and development - The aim of this repeated measures study was to examine an anonymous student feedback system (delivered using clickers) versus a public student...     

Development of reasoning associated with pictographs: Representing, interpreting, and predicting

A developmental model involving four response levels is proposed concerning how students arrange pictures to represent data in a pictograph, how they interpret these pictographs, and how they make predictions based on these pictographs. The model is exemplified by responses from three related interview-based studies. In Study 1, examples of each response level are provided from 48 preparatory- to tenth-grade students. Students from higher grades were more likely to respond at higher levels. In Study 2, 22 students were interviewed longitudinally after a three-year interval; many improved in response level over time, although a few responded at lower levels. In Study 3, 20 third-grade students were interviewed and then prompted with conflicting responses of other students on video; many improved their initial responses to higher levels after exposure to the conflicting prompts. Associations among levels of representing, interpreting, and predicting were explored. Educational implications are discussed concerning reasonable expectations of students and suggestions to develop these skills in students at different grades. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Teacher as Researcher: Developing the Skills with Pre-Service Art Specialist Students

This paper details a project which involved a group of art specialist Diploma in Education students, two lecturing staff plus a group of primary school children in a series of planned art activities for two terms. The Saturday Morning Art programme (S.M.ART) was developed to enable the students to systematically focus on art learning in these classes by using largely qualitative research processes within a case study framework. By introducing these pre-service trainee art teachers to research techniques which they can then use, we believe we are preparing them to be self-evaluative and reflective practitioners in the classroom.     

Using Greek Mythology as a Metaphor to Enhance Supervision

The authors review some uses of myths and stories in counselor education and supervision. They note that collaborative supervision is especially relevant to the exploration of alternative views of supervisee growth that may be mirrored in myths and stories and in their multiple interpretations. The interpretation of the Greek myth of Psyche is examined as a possible vehicle for enhancing counselor growth in supervision.