'The visual helps me understand the complicated things': pupil views of teaching and learning with interactive whiteboards

This study is one element of a government‐sponsored evaluation into the introduction of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) to Years 5 and 6 in English primary schools. This element of the research aimed to gather information regarding pupil views of IWBs and the impact these tools can have on teaching and learning. To extend current literature, the method targeted pupils’ views of how IWBs can impact on metacognition: thinking about learning. Using a template that has been developed by the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University, pupils were encouraged to talk about learning in different contexts: this methodology and its rationale are described. The results show that overall comments from the pupils are positive, with the resulting themes encompassing how the IWB can facilitate and initiate learning and impact on preferred approaches to learning. The pupils describe how different elements of software and hardware can motivate, aid concentration, and keep their attention. On the negative side, pupils candidly describe their frustration when there are technical difficulties, their desire to use the board themselves and their perceptions of teacher and pupil effects. As IWBs are becoming more and more prevalent in schools, we discuss implications and make re‐commendations for teachers and manufacturers.     

Stress on campus: An interactional perspective

Faculty stress was investigated with the use of an interactional model of stress including roles, personal characteristics, coping strategies, and environmental characteristics. A random sample of 191 faculty members and 67 student-affairs staff members completed standardized measures of stress, strain, and coping resources and open-ended questions regarding sources of stress. Significant differences were found among faculty from different academic disciplines, between genders, and across semester time periods. Major stressors included time pressures, work overload, and interpersonal relationships. Body signals and poor interpersonal relationships were primary indicators of stress, and taking specific action and exercising were frequent coping behaviors. These findings have implications for administrative policy and faculty development programs.     

Effects of SRSD college entrance essay exam instruction for high school students with disabilities or at-risk for writing difficulties

Reading and Writing - Strategies instruction has improved the writing of high school struggling writers in previous studies, including students with disabilities. This study examined the...     

The free food (contrafreeloading) phenomenon: A review and analysis

Animals will perform an operant response to obtain food when abundant free food is available. These data have implications for current learning theories, especially in terms of the motivational variables associated with such behavior. The present paper reviews the literature and provides an analysis that suggests that responding for food in the presence of free food is importantly controlled by stimulus change attendant upon response-dependent food presentation. This apparent stimulus-reinforcer effect on behavior is compared to that observed in other areas of animal learning research that include preference between schedules of response-dependent and response-independent reinforcement, preference between schedules of signaled and unsignaled reinforcement, autoshaping and automaintenance, and self-reinforcement in animals.     

Globalisation of researcher mobility within the UK Higher Education: explaining the presence of overseas academics in the UK academia

In this paper, we argue that the power structure that lies within the UK elite universities dictates a division of labour through which the inflows of overseas academics into the UK academic labour markets are skewed towards these elite academic institutions where they are employed primarily in research-only posts. These posts, are less valued and are difficult to fill by UK academics. This explains the over-concentration non-UK academics within these posts and suggests that it is not a coincidence, but a result of a division of labour in which they are ‘used’ as a replacement labour.     

Summation of responding to CSs and an excitatory test context

The influence of test-trial delay of CS onset in obtaining response summation of an excitatory CS and an independently conditioned context was investigated. Water-deprived rats were given tone-shock and click-shock pairings in the training context and unsignaled footshocks in the test context. Durations of lick suppression in response to the tone (Test 1) and the click (Test 2) were then assessed in the test context. Licking was more suppressed when CS onset occurred early in the test session (e.g., 0 sec) than when it occurred later in the test session (e.g., 300 sec). The results from control groups that had received shock in an irrelevant context rather than the test context indicated that this effect was due to fear of the test context rather than diffuse, nonassociative fear. With onset of the clicks early in the test session on the second test day, response summation of the test context with the clicks was observed. This suggests that appreciable spontaneous recovery had occurred from any test-context extinction that took place on the first test day. We conclude that early onset of the CS on the test trial favors response summation of CSs and test context.     

Progression Towards Functions: Students’ Performance on Three Tasks About Variables from Grades 7 to 12

Identifying and expressing relations between quantities is a key aspect of understanding and using functions. We are aiming to understand the development of functions understanding throughout school years in Israel. A survey instrument was developed with teachers and given to 20 high and average achieving students from each of years 7–11 and to 10 high achieving students from year 12, a total of 110 students. Our analytical approach is to identify qualitatively what students appeared to do and whether their approaches led to complete solutions. We look for progress in understanding variables and relations between them, and we found that there does not appear to be a strong link between curriculum and informal understandings of variables and covariation, but there are other strengths.     

Developing educational goals: insights from a Peer Assisted Teaching Scheme

The rapid changes facing higher education are placing increased focus on the quality of the student experience, achieving learning outcomes, and employability expectations. As a result, academics in teaching roles are increasingly measured on performance via student evaluations amplifying attention on professional development initiatives for academics. One such initiative is the Peer Assisted Teaching Scheme currently in practice across many Australian universities. The critical component of the scheme is the establishment of teaching goals that provide focus and direction for the peer partnership. This study addresses two questions: (1) Around which aspects do academics set their goals for teaching improvement? and (2) How do academics’ goals align with the SMART goal-setting framework that is prescribed in the scheme? Findings from five Australian universities showed that goals align with a variety of educational areas yet many were underdeveloped, or misaligned with the proposed strategy. The implications of this are discussed and a framework for setting education goals for teaching improvement is developed.     

What the kids will like

For the British teacher interested in children and books, the year's best buy has been a monthly review sheet produced by two Sheffield teachers; 60p for twelve issues, post paid, promptly delivered. CLE invited Jane Powell and Steve Bowles to describe their project; and we publish extracts to illustrate the practical nature of their reviews.