The effect of music therapy services on classroom behaviours of newly arrived refugee students in Australia—a pilot study

This pilot study examined the effects of a short‐term music therapy program on the classroom behaviours of newly arrived refugee students who were attending an intensive ‘English as a Second Language’ secondary school. A cross‐over design with two five‐week intervention periods was employed with group music therapy sessions conducted one or two times per week. Data from the Behaviour Assessment Scale for Children were used to evaluate a range of positive and negative school behaviours. A significant decrease in externalising behaviours was found with particular reference to hyperactivity and aggression. No significant differences were found in other behaviours. Explanations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

Translanguaging: origins and development from school to street and beyond

The article traces the Welsh origins of “translanguaging” from the 1980s to the recent global use, analysing the development and extension of the term. It suggests that the growing popularity of the term relates to a change in the way bilingualism and multilingualism have ideologically developed not only among academics but also amid changing politics and public understandings about bilingualism. The original pedagogic advantages of a planned use of translanguaging in pedagogy and dual literacy are joined by an extended conceptualisation that perceives translanguaging as a spontaneous, everyday way of making meaning, shaping experiences, and communication by bilinguals. A new conceptualisation of translanguaging is in brain activity where learning is through 2 languages. A tripartite distinction is suggested between classroom translanguaging, universal translanguaging, and neurolinguistic translanguaging. The article concludes with a summary of recent research into translanguaging with suggestions for future research.     

Predicting Robust Learning With the Visual Form of the Moment-by-Moment Learning Curve

We present a new method for analyzing a student's learning over time for a specific skill: analysis of the graph of the student's moment-by-moment learning over time. Moment-by-moment learning is calculated using a data-mined model that assesses the probability that a student learned a skill or concept at a specific time during learning (Baker, Goldstein, & Heffernan, 2010 Baker, R. S. J. d., Goldstein, A. B. and Heffernan, N. T. 2010. “Detecting the moment of learning”. In Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems 25–34. In V. Aleven, J. Kay, & J. Mostow (Eds.),pp.Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 2011). Two coders labeled data from students who used an intelligent tutoring system for college genetics. They coded in terms of 7 forms that the moment-by-moment learning curve can take. These labels are correlated to test data on the robustness of students’ learning. We find that different visual forms are correlated with very different learning outcomes. This work suggests that analysis of moment-by-moment learning curves may be able to shed light on the implications of students’ different patterns of learning over time.     

Relationships Among Measures as Empirical Evidence of Validity: Incorporating Multiple Indicators of Achievement and School Context

In this article we examine empirical evidence on the criterion, predictive, transfer, and fairness aspects of validity of a large-scale language arts performance assessment, referred to as the Performance Assignment (PA). We use multilevel models to avoid biased inferences that might result from the naturally nested data. Specifically, we examine the relationships of the assessment with the Stanford Achievement Test, 9th Edition and the California High School Exit Examination. The results indicate that the measures are related, that students demonstrate a degree of transfer, and that the language arts PA is relatively more fair than comparison assessments. The results are robust to various model specifications and demonstrate that benefits do not accrue to all students equally.     

THE IMPACT OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ON FACULTY COMPENSATION IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

This study examines the impact of collective bargaining on faculty compensation at two‐year colleges over the period 1970‐81. The results show that faculty at unionized community colleges have not experienced significantly greater increases in compensation than their nonunionized brethren. In fact, the nonunion institutions actually experienced higher relative gains in compensation for the first three years after the unionized colleges first engaged in collective bargaining.     

A High Impact Practice that Works: Connecting Mentors From the Professional Community to Teacher Education Students

A high impact mentoring program at a community college connected professionals from the special education and early intervention fields with small groups of teacher education students. Two federal grants from U.S. Department of Education funded tuition scholarships and mentoring for 76 Special Education students and 78 Early Childhood Education/Early Intervention students in associate degree programs. The mentor programs consisted of individual monitoring by project staff, consistent contact with a mentor from the professional community and with other students in mentor groups, and structured monthly dinner meetings. Students who participated in the mentoring programs showed increased persistence and higher grade point average when compared with the general population of similar majors. Within each grant-funded population, students who showed low participation in the mentor programming presented lower retention rates and lower GPA than grant-funded students who took full advantage of the mentoring program.     

Supporting Professionalism,Diversity, and Context Within a Collaborative Approach to Gifted Education

Educators concerned about gifted learners are moving toward an evidence-based perspective focusing on children with exceptionally advanced learning needs who require flexibly responsive educational attention. This article describes two system-wide implementation experiences, one in a mixed urban/rural public school board and the other in an urban board of affiliated parochial schools, designed to meet the educational needs of diversely competent students. The authors discuss the intersecting roles of consultants, teachers, administrators, and parents, and some creative applications they have implemented that illustrate a respect for (a) teachers' professionalism, (b) individual developmental diversity, and (c) context-specific opportunities and constraints. The authors discuss ways that this flexible collaborative approach to integrating consultative processes into board-wide practices addresses the diverse educational needs of gifted learners, and also encourages high-level outcomes in learners not formally identified as gifted.