The Chronicles of Homeschooling Gifted Learners

Homeschooling only has become a choice for many families of gifted children during the last two decades, as the number of gifted families has grown steadily along with the general homeschool population (Lubienski, Puckett, & Brewer, 2013). The current study examines a group of homeschooling mothers of gifted children who publish and maintain publically available blogs about their homeschooling experiences. In this qualitative study, four themes emerged (a) unintentional homeschoolers, (b) curriculum pivoting, (c) reflection as progress, and (d) reaching forward and back. In the current study we have identified some interesting but preliminary findings about families who homeschool their gifted child or children. We should continue working to understand the phenomenon of gifted homeschooling and its implications for schools and for society.     

Toward theories of partnership praxis: an analysis of interpretive framing in literature on students as partners in teaching and learning

ABSTRACT

A body of literature on students as partners (SaP) in higher education has emerged over the last decade that documents, shares, and evaluates SaP approaches. As is typical in emerging fields of inquiry, scholars differ regarding how they see the relationship between the developments in SaP practices and the theoretical explanations that guide, illuminate, and situate such practices. In this article we explore the relationship between theory and practice in SaP work through an analysis of interpretive framing employed in scholarship of SaP in teaching and learning in higher education. Through a conceptual review of selected publications, we describe three ways of framing partnership that represent distinct but related analytical approaches: building on concepts; drawing on constructs; and imagining through metaphors. We both affirm the expansive and creative theorising in scholarship of SaP in university teaching and learning and encourage further deliberate use and thoughtful development of interpretive framings that take seriously the disruptive ethos and messy human relational processes of partnership. We argue that these developmental processes move us toward formulating theories of partnership praxis.     

Child-initiated play and professional creativity: Enabling four-year-olds’ possibility thinking

Given enormous global challenges, alongside nurturing children's creativity, professional creativity has perhaps never been more vital ( [Craft, 2011a] and [Moss, 2010]). This paper considers how a small, qualitative, co-participative study in an inner city children's centre, explored practitioner perspectives and practice related to creativity understood as possibility thinking. This research builds on previous studies that have documented possibility thinking and analyses the nature of possibility thinking manifest in child-initiated immersive play triggered by practitioner-placed provocations, and pedagogical strategies which foster this.     

Self-regulatory and demographic predictors of grades in online and face-to-face university cohorts: A multi-group path analysis

Predictors of academic success at university are of great interest to educators, researchers and policymakers. With more students studying online, it is important to understand whether traditional predictors of academic outcomes in face-to-face settings are relevant to online learning. This study modelled self-regulatory and demographic predictors of subject grades in 84 online and 80 face-to-face undergraduate students. Predictors were effort regulation, grade goal, academic self-efficacy, performance self-efficacy, age, sex, socio-economic status (SES) and first-in-family status. A multi-group path analysis indicated that the models were significantly different across learning modalities. For face-to-face students, none of the model variables significantly predicted grades. For online students, only performance self-efficacy significantly predicted grades (small effect). Findings suggest that learner characteristics may not function in the same way across learning modes. Further factor analytic and hierarchical research is needed to determine whether self-regulatory predictors of academic success continue to be relevant to modern student cohorts.

Practitioner Notes

What is already known about this topic

• Self-regulatory and demographic variables are important predictors of university outcomes like grades.
• It is unclear whether the relationships between predictor variables and outcomes are the same across learning modalities, as research findings are mixed.

What this paper adds

• Models predicting university students' grades by demographic and self-regulatory predictors differed significantly between face-to-face and online learning modalities.
• Performance self-efficacy significantly predicted grades for online students.
• No self-regulatory variables significantly predicted grades for face-to-face students, and no demographic variables significantly predicted grades in either cohort.
• Overall, traditional predictors of grades showed no/small unique effects in both cohorts.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• The learner characteristics that predict success may not be the same across learning modalities.
• Approaches to enhancing success in face-to-face settings are not automatically applicable to online settings.
• Self-regulatory variables may not predict university outcomes as strongly as previously believed, and more research is needed.

     

Higher education strategy in digital transformation

Education and Information Technologies - Digital transformation in the global higher education industry determines the future roadmap to a sustainable education management strategy. This research...