Paired peer learning through engineering education outreach

ABSTRACT

Undergraduate education incorporating active learning and vicarious experience through education outreach presents a critical opportunity to influence future engineering teaching and practice capabilities. Engineering education outreach activities have been shown to have multiple benefits; increasing interest and engagement with science and engineering for school children, providing teachers with expert contributions to engineering subject knowledge, and developing professional generic skills for engineers such as communication and teamwork. This pilot intervention paired 10 pre-service teachers and 11 student engineers to enact engineering outreach in primary schools, reaching 269 children. A longitudinal mixed methods design was employed to measure change in attitudes and Education Outreach Self-Efficacy in student engineers; alongside attitudes, Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy and Engineering Subject Knowledge Confidence in pre-service teachers. Highly significant improvements were noted in the pre-service teachers’ confidence and self-efficacy, while both the teachers and engineers qualitatively described benefits arising from the paired peer mentor model.     

Good practices for student learning: Mixed‐method evidence from the Wabash National Study

Kathleen M. Goodman, Marcia Baxter Magolda, Tricia A. Seifert, and Patricia M. King review both quantitative and qualitative data to understand students' college experiences and provide powerful information to guide educators.     

Provision of quality education in the context of Syrian refugee children in the UK: opportunities and challenges

Abstract

While existing research has shown the importance of the three interrelated domains of the wider policy, the school and home/community environments in the development of quality education for learners, this literature does not fully capture the experiences of the refugee population. In this article we focus on a group of Syrian refugees who came as part of the first large cohort that was welcomed in the UK in December 2015. We adapt Tikly’s quality education frameworks and develop a model that highlights not only the importance of the three intersecting environments, but also the specific inputs/processes that are critical to achieving quality education for refugees. In so doing, we stress the critical role of English as a tool for refugee children’s inclusion and integration in schools. Consequently, the contribution of the paper is an understanding of the inputs/processes that are key to the development of quality education for migrant/refugee children.     

In the News

编者按：本专栏由英国大使馆文化处提供稿件,旨在让读者从中学习地道英文,体悟英文百味。本期介绍了网络带给英国传统报刊业的冲击。网络时代到来,新闻实现了24小时实时播报,英国纸媒业的寒冬真要到来了吗？     

Strategic narrative in multi-academy trusts in England: Principal drivers for expansion

Multi-academy trusts (MATs) are now a common feature of the English educational landscape. Yet numerous high-profile failures indicate that they present substantial challenges in terms of leadership and governance. One of the areas that most exercises school leaders and boards is the setting of strategic direction for the MAT. This includes elements such as its expansion. This article draws on 30 interviews with school leaders and trustees from 6 MATs and 10 interviews with national leaders of governance in looking to respond to the research question: What are the principal drivers for strategic expansion in MATs? The article begins by contextualising the research in light of recent policy, then moves to consider why theory on strategy as narrative was chosen in preference to other strategic approaches, and how it was employed to analyse data. The article concludes that within this sample there are a number of drivers for MAT expansion and that these fall under six principal categories: opportunities, values, pressures, feelings, risks and resources. It also concludes that resources and business viability play a substantial part in decisions to expand, and that strategy appears to be an iterative learning process. As such, it contributes to theory on the governance of multi-level organisations and to practice in terms of the Department for Education's focus on MAT growth.     

Factors associated with concussion-symptom knowledge and attitudes toward concussion care seeking in a national survey of parents of middle-school children in the US

Background:Developing appropriate concussion prevention and management paradigms in middle school(MS)settings requires understanding parents’general levels of concussion-related knowledge and attitudes.This study examined factors associated with concussion-symptom knowledge and care-seeking attitudes among parents of MS children(aged 10-15 years).Methods:A panel of 1224 randomly selected U.S.residents,aged ≥18 years and identifying as parents of MS children,completed an online questionnaire capturing parental and child characteristics.The parents’concussion-symptom knowledge was measured using 25 questions,with possible answers being“yes”,“maybe”,and“no”.Correct answers earned 2 points,“maybe”answers earned 1 point,and incorrect answers earned 0 point(range:0-50;higher scores=better knowledge).Concussion care-seeking attitudes were also collected using five 7-point scale items(range:5-35;higher scores=more positive attitudes).Multivariable ordinal logistic regression models identified predictors of higher scores.Models met proportional odds assumptions.Adjusted odds ratios(aORs)with 95%confidence intervals(95%CIs)(excluding 1.00)were deemed statistically significant.Results:Median scores were 39(interquartile range:32-44)for symptom knowledge and 32(interquartile range:28-35)for care-seeking attitude.In multivariable models,odds of better symptom knowledge were higher in women vs.men(aOR=2.28;95%CI:1.71-3.05),white/non-Hispanics vs.other racial or ethnic groups(aOR=1.88;95%CI:1.42-2.49),higher parental age(10-year-increase aOR=1.47;95%CI:1.26-1.71),and greater competitiveness(10%-scale-increase aOR=1.24;95%CI:1.13-1.36).Odds of more positive care-seeking attitudes were higher in white/non-Hispanics vs.other racial or ethnic groups(aOR=1.45;95%CI:1.06-1.99)and in older parental age(10-year-increase aOR=1.24;95%CI:1.05-1.47).Conclusion:Characteristics of middle school children’s parents(e.g.,sex,race or ethnicity,age)are associated with their concussion-symptom knowledge and care-seeking attitudes.Parents’variations in concussion knowledge and attitudes warrant tailored concussion education and prevention.     

Self-efficacy and vicarious learning in doctoral studies at a distance

Even though there are increasing numbers of PhD students in the distance mode, our current understanding of PhD candidature at a distance is limited and incomplete. On the one end of the spectrum are accounts of unhappy and isolated doctoral students who are separated from communities of practice. At the same time, literature offers accounts of PhD students at a distance who view themselves as agential and autonomous and are happy not to get sidetracked by others. In this reflection we ask what distinguishes the conventional PhD student from one who is studying at a distance, and invite more research on self-efficacy and vicarious learning of PhD students at a distance.     

Writing in Mathematics: An Alternative Form of Communication for Academically Low‐Achieving Students

Abstract. Classroom communication figures prominently in current math reform efforts. In this study, we analyze how one teacher used writing to support communication in a seventh‐grade, low‐track mathematics class. For one school year, we studied four low‐achieving students in the class. Students wrote in journals on a weekly basis. Using classroom observations and interviews with the teacher, we developed profiles of the four students, capturing their participation in class discussions. The profiles highlighted an important similarity among the four students: marginal participation in both small‐group and whole‐class discussions. However, our analysis of the students' journals identified multiple instances where the students were able to explain their mathematical reasoning, revealing their conceptual understanding, ability to explain, and skill at representing a problem. In this respect, journals potentially facilitate another important form of classroom communication. The promise of writing is that it offers an alternative to the visions of classroom communication that are strictly oral in nature.