Leading and managing learning and teaching in higher education

This paper outlines the findings of a study that examined the conceptions of academics regarding the nature of ‘leading’ and ‘managing’ learning and teaching in six Australian universities. These data were considered in the light of institutional systems and documentation regarding the leadership and management of learning and teaching and the contemporary literature on leadership and management, particularly in higher education. The research found that there was congruence between academic conceptions of the roles of leaders and managers in HE and those found in other contexts. In contrast, there was considerable variance and significant gaps between these conceptions and HR and professional development practices. The paper reports findings that have significant implications for more systematic and explicit professional development for University leaders and managers of teaching and learning. In addition, it argues that changes are required to the prevailing approaches in the current HR systems and policies in order to effectively develop, support and recognize effective leadership and management practices as they relate to learning and teaching.     

Public Transit and School Choice in Philadelphia: Exploring Spatial Equity and Social Exclusion

This article explores the importance of considering transportation mode when calculating commute time for a child’s school choice options. While proponents of school choice argue that students can attend any school that will provide them the best education, several have argued that commute time is as important for families as a school’s characteristics. However, research to date models commute time using either distance as a proxy or minutes driving. In Philadelphia, a context where most people use public transportation to work and school, the authors argue that commute time to school must be calculated using this mode of transit. Using geospatial network analyses, the authors create choice sets for each neighborhood public high school. They first calculate the commute time between each zoned public high school and each public high school choice in the city by driving and by using public transportation. These two sets of commute times are then evaluated for the differences. The authors then calculate choice sets based on the average commute time in the city based on both modes of transportation. Finally, they compare the choice sets for each service area for spatial equity of public school quality. Findings indicate that the commute times between driving and public transportation are statistically different. Furthermore, public school choice sets within Philadelphia are spatially equitable, although the overall school quality needs improvement. The article concludes with policy implications and recommendations for future research.     

A trio of evaluation and assessment models from pre ICT innovations: Lessons from the past

Three major evaluations of innovative projects designed and implemented in the US during the 1960s and 1970s provide models for the design and analysis of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects. Large in scope, sophisticated in design and explicit in reporting, the three evaluations were: an analysis of major factors in “change agent” projects conducted by the Rand Corporation; an evaluation of Follow Through, a program to continue supporting “disadvantaged” children in elementary school; and a multi-year evaluation of the Comprehensive School Mathematics Program, a multi-grade project designed to change mathematics instruction and, at the same time, develop suitable assessment tools. Each of the studies provides a model of how ICT projects, both those in place and those in the design stages, may be evaluated in order that important questions — “What happened?” and “Why?” and “To what effect?” — can be answered. The three evaluations stress the importance of defining project characteristics, working from clearly defined practices, assessing fidelity of implementation, studying the multiple reactions of all the stakeholders, and conducting assessments of pupil progress at appropriate times and with appropriate measures. The models can serve ICT educators as guidelines as they look for complex, meaningful and educationally sound ways of determining the impact of ICT on all stakeholders.     

Validity in teachers’ summative assessments

This paper describes some of the findings of a project which set out to explore and develop teachers’ understanding and practices in their summative assessments. The focus was on those summative assessments that are used on a regular basis within schools for guiding the progress of pupils and for internal accountability. The project combined both intervention and research elements. The intervention aimed both to explore how teachers might improve those practices in the light of their re‐examination of their validity, and to engage them in moderation exercises within and between schools to audit examples of students’ work and to discuss their appraisals of these examples. This paper reports findings, arising from this work, of the research that aimed to study how teachers understand validity, and how they formulate their classroom assessment practices in the light of that understanding. The paper also considers how that understanding might be challenged and developed. It was found that teachers’ attention to validity issues had been undermined by the external test regimes, but that teachers could re‐address these issues by reflection on their values and by engagement in a shared development of portfolio assessments.     

Epistemic vagueness and English assessment: Some reflections

Assessing English candidates in high stakes examinations requires using vague evidence which in some cases will necessarily mean that assessments are arbitrary. This is a price worth paying to preserve the authenticity of assessments.     

Self-defense and martial arts evaluation for college women: preliminary validation of perceptions of dangerous situations scale

Martial arts and self-defense programs train fearful people, especially women, to be more competent and confident to defend themselves in dangerous situations. However, there are no validated instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of programs purporting to teach self-protection. The Perceptions of Dangerous Situations Scale (PDSS), composed of fear, likelihood and confidence subscales, was developed and validated for university women. Participants were 368 university women, ages 17 to 45 years (M age = 20.7 years). Content validity of the PDSS was established through an expert panel, and construct validity was established through principal components analysis and determination of instructional sensitivity. Reliability was established through alpha coefficients. The PDSS, when used with university women, offers promising measurement opportunities in self-defense and martial arts settings.     

Speaking to read: The effects of speech recognition technology on the reading and spelling performance of children with learning disabilities

In recent literature on persons with learning disabilities (LD), speech recognition has been discussed primarily as an assistive technology to help compensate for writing difficulties. However, prior research by the authors has suggested that in addition to helping persons to compensate for poor writing skills, speech recognition also may enhance reading and spelling; that is, what was designed as assistive technology appears to serve remedial functions as well. The present study was conducted to determine whether elementary and secondary students with LD who used the technology to write self-selected compositions and class assignments would demonstrate improvements in reading and spelling. Thirty-nine students with LD (ages 9 to 18) participated. Nineteen participants used speech recognition 50 minutes a week for sixteen weeks, and twenty students in a control group received general computer instruction. Results indicated that the speech recognition group showed significantly more improvement than the control group in word recognition (p<.0001), spelling (p<.002) and reading comprehension (p<.01). Pre- and posttests on five reading-related cognitive processing measures (phonological, orthographic, semantic processing, metacognitive reading strategies, and working memory) indicated that for the experimental group, only phonological processing improved significantly over the treatment period when compared to controls (p<.04). Further ANCOVA suggested that growth in phonological processing was associated with significant differences among conditions for all three academic measures: word recognition, spelling, and reading comprehension. Address correspondence to 971 N. Altadena Drive, Pasadena, CA 91107. E-mail center@frostig.org.