The relationship between classroom quality and students’ engagement in secondary school

Student engagement has been identified as an influential mediator between classroom interactional quality and adolescent learning outcomes. This study examined the relationship between classroom quality and student behavioural engagement in secondary school classrooms. Three dimensions of classroom quality (emotional, organisational and instructional support) and the dimension of student engagement were observed in nine classrooms using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Self-ratings of behavioural engagement were provided by 181 Finnish secondary school students along with their teachers’ ratings of classroom-level student engagement. The results showed, first, that there was variation in both classroom quality and student behavioural engagement between the classrooms. Second, classroom organisational support was associated with observed and with teacher- and student-rated engagement, and instructional support was associated with student-rated and observed engagement. Third, emotional support did not have a direct effect on student engagement but contributed to student engagement indirectly via organisational and instructional support. There were no gender differences with respect to self-reported engagement. Class size had a positive effect on teacher-rated engagement. The results demonstrated specific associations between the domains of classroom quality and student behavioural engagement in secondary school classrooms.     

Socio-demographic and practice-oriented factors related to proficiency in problem solving: a lifelong learning perspective

This article explores the relative importance of different socio-demographic and practice-oriented factors that are related to proficiency in problem solving in technology-rich environments (PSTREs) and by extension may be related to complex problem solving (CPS). The empirical analysis focuses on the proficiency measurements of PSTRE made available by the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, which is relevant for gaining insight on some of the factors related to CPS. The purpose was to examine the relationship between the broad information processing experience that individuals gather in different contexts over the lifespan, and the chances to develop problem-solving skills that adults receive in different socio-demographic profiles. Results reveal that socio-demographic factors such as age, education and immigration status as well as practice-oriented factors such as ICT use and reading practice at and outside work are strongly related to proficiency.     

Student engagement scale: development,reliability and validity

In this study, the purpose was to develop a student engagement scale for higher education. The participants were 805 students. In the process of developing the item pool regarding the scale, related literature was examined in detail and interviews were held. Six factors – valuing, sense of belonging, cognitive engagement, peer relationships (emotional engagement-I), relationships with faculty members (emotional engagement-II) and behavioural engagement within the scope of the components of campus engagement and class engagement – made up of 41 items were identified. The total variance explained was 59%. A higher student engagement score was regarded as an indicator that the student had a high level of engagement with the university, campus and class, while a lower score demonstrated that the student’s engagement with the campus and class was weak or that disengagement could occur.     

Re-examining and developing the notion of academic citizenship: A critical literature review

The notion of academic citizenship has been largely associated with the service role which is a part of academic work seen as additional to teaching and research. The changing landscapes of higher education and the increasing diversity of academic work have prompted debates on what academic citizenship means. This paper challenges the conventional association of academic citizenship with the service role and presents a critical review of the key themes and issues explored in extant literature on the subject. Drawing upon the general view of citizenship as practice, it proposes that the different dimensions of academic work be seen integratively, with academic citizenship reframed beyond the service role. We argue that academic citizenship needs to be conceptualised as a practice of enactment, that is, by the values, processes and means by which it is enacted and asserted as academics draw on freedoms, autonomy and individual motivations.     

Learning statistics with interactive pictures using R Shiny: Generally preferred,but not generally advantageous

Constructing interactive web apps has become more accessible for instructors, for example, by using the R package Shiny. Here we explored learners' preferences and the efficiency of interactive simulations versus static pictures in acquiring statistics knowledge of Cohen's d and standard normal distribution. Results revealed that students' spontaneous interaction with pictures was infrequent (pilot study, N = 26). While prompts (Exp. 1, N = 152) effectively ensured the manipulation of simulations, student exposure to interactive simulations led to longer learning times though similar test performance compared with student exposure to static pictures. Multiple interactive representations led to lower test performance than single interactive and static representations (Exp. 2, N = 117). Though no advantage was gained regarding learning outcomes, participants preferred the interactive variant (Exp. 3, N = 119). Taken together, this study demonstrates that the superiority of interactive pictures cannot be assumed to hold in general. Further work should evaluate how mental model construction can be effectively scaffolded by interactive simulations.     

The impact of Geospatial Inquiry lessons on student interest in science and technology careers

Advances in online geospatial technologies (GST) have expanded access to K-12 classrooms which has implications for the support teachers require to effectively integrate GSTs to promote learning. Previous studies have shown the impact of GST-integrated lessons on student engagement, spatial thinking skills, and/or content knowledge; however, most of these studies have been small in scope and scale and frequently focus on the affordances of the technology, without addressing the context of the implementation and student characteristics for whom GST is most impactful. We attempt to address some of these gaps. Our program scaled an effective GST-focused professional learning and development program to a national audience through a facilitator development model. This paper explores the student characteristics and lesson factors that resulted in student interest in science and technology and careers in those fields. After teaching a Geospatial Inquiry lesson created during a teacher workshop, teachers (n = 82) submitted the lessons and surveys on the implementation of Geospatial Inquiry lessons. The implementation surveys and lessons were scored for alignment to the principles of high-quality Geospatial Inquiry. Students (n = 1924) completed a post-lesson retrospective survey and indicated the extent to which their perceptions and attitudes toward science and technology changed because of the lesson. Results indicate that teacher GST performance is associated with increases in student outcomes. Students with previous exposure to science activities were more likely to have increased interest and excitement in science and careers in science but decreased interest in technology careers. Students who had previous exposure to technology activities had increased interest and excitement in technology and careers in technology but decreased interest in science careers. Geospatial Inquiry lessons also had a significant impact on students who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. After participating in the lessons, students who identify as female reported higher engagement and interest in science and higher interest in science careers. Students who identified as Black or Hispanic also reported higher interest and excitement in science and technology, and students who identified as Black reported marginally higher interest in science careers.     

Does the Great Firewall Really Isolate the Chinese? Integrating Access Blockage With Cultural Factors to Explain Web User Behavior

The dominant understanding of Internet censorship posits that blocking access to foreign-based websites creates isolated communities of Internet users. We question this discourse for its assumption that if given access people would use all websites. We develop a conceptual framework that integrates access blockage with social structures to explain Web users’ choices, and argue that users visit websites they find culturally proximate and that access blockage matters only when such sites are blocked. We examine the case of China, where online blockage is notoriously comprehensive, and compare Chinese Web usage patterns with those elsewhere. Analyzing audience traffic among the 1000 most visited websites, we find that websites cluster according to language and geography. Chinese websites constitute one cluster, which resembles other such geolinguistic clusters in terms of both its composition and its degree of isolation. Our sociological investigation reveals a greater role of cultural proximity than access blockage in explaining online behaviors.     

National Sporting Pastimes,Spectacles of Sporting Otherness and American Imaginings, 1880–1920

This discussion focuses on how the rise of America's national sporting pastimes, during the period 1880–1920, was inextricably tied to the ambitions and outpourings of American print capitalism and a concomitant congealing of a sense of modern American nationhood. In examining this thematic, we explicate the manner in which American national sporting audiences during the period 1880–1920 were variously constituted through discourses of national and ethnic sporting difference or Otherness. Hence, we examine the popular representation of turn of the century rodeo practices (as narrated through the spectacle of the western showman William Frederick ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody's Wild West show productions), the position of early-twentieth-century American baseball in relation to other sporting cultures (graphically depicted by Albert Goodwill, or A.G., Spalding's promotional publications, specifically the 1911 America's National Game) and the national and ethnic differences discerned within the global sporting landscape more generally (explicated within the 1919 National Geographic article ‘The Geography of Games’). These performances and representations of ethnic and national sporting Otherness played an important role in re-inscribing and legitimating the (White European American) normative core of American sport culture (as manifest within and through the dominant practices of playing and/or spectating of football, baseball and basketball).