To be seen and heard: Enhancing student engagement to support university aspirations and expectations for students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds

An important goal for educators is to foster student engagement in order to support a sense of valuing and aspiring to higher levels of education. To value education, students need to perceive that they are welcome, express their ideas and engage meaningfully in each education space they enter. Therefore, ‘pupil voice’ has the potential to become an important influencing factor regarding the degree to which students become self-regulated learners, value educationand consequently support their aspirations and build their expectations to go on to university. This study examines the role pupil voice plays in building cognitive and emotional engagement, and whether this, in turn, builds desire for further study and expectations for university entry. Pupil voice is operationalised as the extent to which the student feels heard, involved and supported by the school community. Student survey data was collected (N = 542) from a low socioeconomic status region of the southwest corridor of metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. Structural equation modelling substantiated our serial mediation hypothesis. For students, a discernible pupil voice significantly and positively increased cognitive engagement (self-regulated learning), which increased emotional engagement (valuing education) that, in turn, increased university desires, which led to increased university expectations. The results of this study underscore the importance of policies and practical interventions designed to develop strong student–teacher relationships, where students feel they are both seen and heard.     

Game Building with Complex-Valued Functions

Abstract

In this paper, we describe how we integrated complex analysis into the second semester of a geometry course designed for preservice secondary mathematics teachers. As part of this inquiry-based course, the preservice teachers incorporated their geometric understanding of the arithmetic of complex numbers and complex-valued functions to create a game using Geometer’s Sketchpad. We detail a game created by a pair of preservice teachers that exemplifies their creativity and knowledge of complex-valued functions. Given inquiry-based courses have inherent challenges we also present projects that were not as exemplary.     

The complex development of student-teachers' thinking

Studies of student-teacher development have tended to suggest a three-stage model of development in which the novices' concerns shift outwards from an initial preoccupation with self, to a focus on tasks and teaching situations, and finally to consideration of pupil learning. This paper, based on sequence of post-lesson interviews conducted with 25 student teachers following 1-year postgraduate courses within school-based partnership schemes of initial teacher education, questions the adequacy of such a model. Analysis of the reasons that the student-teachers offered for their teaching decisions, and of their lesson evaluations suggests a high level of concern for pupils' learning and an awareness of the complexity of teaching from very early in their training. The implications of these findings are explored; in particular, the challenges that they pose to teacher educators in terms of course structure and curricula, and the need to be responsive to individual learners.     

Electronic detection of dielectrophoretic forces exerted on particles flowing over interdigitated electrodes

Dielectric particles flowing through a microfluidic channel over a set of coplanar electrodes can be simultaneously capacitively detected and dielectrophoretically (DEP) actuated when the high (1.45 GHz) and low (100 kHz–20 MHz) frequency electromagnetic fields are concurrently applied through the same set of electrodes. Assuming a simple model in which the only forces acting upon the particles are apparent gravity, hydrodynamic lift, DEP force, and fluid drag, actuated particle trajectories can be obtained as numerical solutions of the equations of motion. Numerically calculated changes of particle elevations resulting from the actuation simulated in this way agree with the corresponding elevation changes estimated from the electronic signatures generated by the experimentally actuated particles. This verifies the model and confirms the correlation between the DEP force and the electronic signature profile. It follows that the electronic signatures can be used to quantify the actuation that the dielectric particle experiences as it traverses the electrode region. Using this principle, particles with different dielectric properties can be effectively identified based exclusively on their signature profile. This approach was used to differentiate viable from non-viable yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).     

Combining peer‐assessment with negotiated learning activities on a day‐release undergraduate‐level certificate course (ECTS level 3)

Peer‐assessment was used within a negotiated curriculum in a module on training and development at ECTS level 3. The students on the programme were exclusively day‐release and all had a major responsibility for the management and delivery of work‐based training programmes. Analysis of student evaluations, supplemented by those of university assessors and the external examiner, showed that the learning on the programme was transformative in that it changed the way students perceived their own abilities and their potential to make improvements in their work both as students and trainers. Peer‐assessment encouraged critical reflection, helped develop skills of autonomous learning and provided feedback that took account of individual learning needs. Weaker students benefited from the talents of their more able peers. Students planned, monitored and assessed their learning activities in a way that significantly increased motivation and raised academic standards. The learning achieved led to a transformation of personal and professional perspective on the part of the students leading to greater personal autonomy.