Institutions,Individuals and Talk: The Construction of Identity in Fine Art

This paper is based on research in a university department of Fine Art. It is an exploration of the ways in which learning takes place - or fails to - in the spoken interchanges between tutors and students known as ‘cross-section crits’. The discussion draws on Harre's model of social and personal development and on a notion of argument to understand the place of shared knowledge and discourse, as well as conflict, in the construction of distinctive personal identity. Three examples of ‘crits’ are examined. These suggest insights into the culture of the fine art institution and offer implications for the role and conduct of talk and language in the teaching and learning process.     

Australian undergraduate Internet usage: self-taught, self-directed, and self-limiting?

The Information Age is upon us and it heralds a new paradigm in the way universities conduct research. Lack of understanding and a cautionary stance towards the Internet has left many universities lagging far behind the needs of its student population. Research shows that both students and academics are struggling on their own to learn about these new channels of information with little, or no, guidance from their educational institution. As a consequence, the Internet remains a little understood and poorly utilised mode of gathering resource information for many of today's and tomorrow's researchers.     

"I Didn't Expect That I Would Get Tons of Friends More Each Day": Children's experiences of friendship during the transition to school

This article presents some of the findings from a study that explores the complex nature of the transition to school, and looks specifically at 23 children's experiences of friendship and the way in which this impacted on their early experiences of school. Observations of the children, and interviews with the children, their families and their teachers, revealed that not only did friends play a vital role in facilitating the children's transition to formal schooling, they also assisted directly in facilitating the children's learning. Conversely, a lack of friends was related to a more difficult transition, the repercussions of which often extended for some time. The article suggests that parents/caregivers and teachers may wish to take a proactive role in providing opportunities for children to make friends during their transition to school.     

The Other Side of Academic Dishonesty: The relationship between faculty scepticism,gender and strategies for managing student academic dishonesty cases

Student academic ethics is a serious concern for colleges and universities. The literature dealing with student academic ethics, however, focuses little attention on the possible connection between organizational characteristics and the efforts made by faculty to deter student academic ethics violations. In this case study analysis of faculty at a medium-sized university in the western USA, we found that the level of faculty institutional confidence is related to the use of formal deterrence strategies. Additionally, we found that female faculty members are less confident in the administration, but are only marginally less likely to use formal administrative approaches to manage academic ethics.     

Laptops meet schools,one‐one draw: m‐learning for secondary students with literacy difficulties

Mobile technology‐enhanced literacy initiatives have become a focus of efforts to support learning for students with literacy difficulties. The Laptops Initiative for Post‐Primary Students with Dyslexia or other Reading/Writing Difficulties offers insights into and addresses questions about ICT policy making regarding m‐learning technologies for students with literacy difficulties. Thirty‐one schools participated in this initiative. Adopting an intepretive perspective, research and data analysis centred on four school case studies and involved classroom observations, teacher, student and principal interviews as well as a survey of teachers in other participating schools. Findings are presented under three headings: laptop deployment models (fixed, floating and fostered), constraints and supports for teacher and student agency, and technology‐enhanced literacy pedagogy. We conclude by noting the increasing appeal of m‐learning to support literacy and how schools mediate access to laptops and associated literacy learning.     

Assessing the Impact of Counselor Licensure in Ohio as Perceived by Counselors,Counselor Educators,and Legislators

This study investigates the perceptions of counselors, counselor educators, and legislators regarding the impact of counselor licensure in Ohio.     

From Period Rooms to Public Trust: The Authority Debate and Art Museum Leadership in America

A recent lecture series at the Harvard University Art Museums titled “Art Museums and the Public Trust” marked the eightieth anniversary of the founding of Harvard's famed Museum Course. A graduate seminar begun in 1921 by the Fogg Art Museum's associate director, Paul J. Sachs, the Museum Course became the primary training ground for art museum leadership in the first half of the twentieth century. The 2001 commemorative lecture series was intended to foster a healthy debate on the place of the art museum in Anglo‐American culture. Instead, the speakers, veteran directors of America's and England's most prestigious art museums, invariably returned to one concern: authority—theirs and that of the art museum itself in contemporary society. Authority was at the heart of the Museum Course decades earlier, tellingly explored in annual debates around two significant topics. The first debate involved the pros and cons of including period rooms in American museums. In the second, students argued about whether America's established art institutions should collect the work of living artists. Questions of how museums should respond to the interests of audiences and communities, their responsibility to contemporary artists, and the meaning of a public trust trouble America's museum leadership now as then. This article explores the common ground between the Museum Course debates of the 1930s and Harvard's recent commemorative “debates” by America's contemporary museum leaders and comments on its significance for today's museums.