Using participatory action research to address absenteeism

Many urban high schools serving low-income families have below-average attendance rates, which can indicate that fewer students are prepared to matriculate into college and career opportunities. Through the use of participatory action research (PAR), we – a group of four educators at Wilson High School – have changed school policies and procedures in order to address our school's most problematic behavior: students cutting class. Through the processes and outcomes that our group, the Class Cutting Task Force, has experienced, we have called upon action learning (AL) in our focus on practical and experienced problems, and we have learned an important lesson: without clear and consistent school-wide expectations, our students cannot meet their potentials. Additionally, we have become empowered to drive a school-wide improvement initiative from the ground up by using the four-stage PAR process. It is our experience with the PAR process as a method of engagement in AL for school practitioners that we aim to share in this account of practice.     

An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large-scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.     

One of the gang? Peer relations among students with special educational needs in Irish mainstream primary schools

Internationally and in Ireland, the adoption of inclusive education frameworks have been broadly welcomed, particularly by parents of children with special educational needs (SEN). Mainstreaming these children is generally viewed as positive primarily because of the social factors associated with attending mainstream schools for children with SEN. Despite this commonly held view, there is increasing evidence to show that children with SEN have difficulties participating in mainstream environments. Using data from the Growing Up in Ireland study of 8,578 nine year olds, this paper examines whether peer relations differ among typically developing students and students with different types of SEN. We focus on the quantity and quality of peer relations using data on the child’s number of friends and, using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the quality of relations with their peers. These measures are examined by controlling for a range of individual, home and school-level factors simultaneously in a regression model. Our findings show that, all else being equal, students with SEN, particularly those with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD), are more likely to have fewer friends and experience negative peer relationships compared to their peers without any additional needs. Based on these findings, we argue that specific interventions may be needed to promote positive peer experiences for children with SEN in mainstream education.     

Who Went to College? Socio‐Economic Inequality in Entry to Higher Education in the Republic of Ireland in 2004

Ireland has experienced substantial increases in participation in higher education in recent years. This paper examines whether or not increased admission rates between the mid‐1990s and 2000s led to a reduction in social class inequality in access to higher education. We draw on two data sets, one, a dedicated survey of new entrants to higher education in 2004, the other, a combination of the results of a series of school leavers' surveys conducted in the mid‐1990s and early 2000s. We show that the period has been characterised by both continuity and change. Continuity is reflected in persistent social inequalities in access to higher education: the children of higher professionals and farmers, in particular, have maintained their privileged access to higher education. Change is reflected in some closing in relative social inequalities, partly arising as more advantaged groups reach a saturation point in progression to higher education, and partly due to the children of manual workers increasing their participation rates.     

Achieving inclusion? Effective resourcing of students with special educational needs

In line with the increasing policy emphasis on inclusive education, there is now a greater focus on how best to provide for students special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools. However, there is little consensus internationally as to the most equitable way in which to support these students. Despite ongoing evaluations of the existing funding structures, there has been little discussion to inform future changes and ensure an equitable distribution of resources. This paper examines the system of SEN funding in Ireland during a period of policy change. Using data from a National Survey of Schools, we examine the profile and distribution of students across different school contexts to assess the extent to which the existing funding model targets those most in need. Findings show that the current through-put funding system broadly targets students with SEN but in any new model, there is room for greater differentiation in the allocation of funding, particularly within disadvantaged school contexts. The paper highlights the need for further discussion around how we conceptualise special education in mainstream education. We argue for greater emphasis on student outcomes and school accountability where SEN funding is received to support students.     

How Do Chemistry Teachers Deal with Students' Incorrect/Undesired Responses to Oral Classroom Questions? Exploring Effective Feedback Practices

In this paper, chemistry teachers’ reactions/behavior or actions following students’ undesired, unexpected or incorrect responses/answers to the posed teacher oral questions are reported. This study which was carried out in Tanzania in Iringa Municipality involved three chemistry teachers teaching in three different secondary schools. Actual teaching situations of the three teachers were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed interpretively. We also performed semi-structured interviews with these teachers to bring forth the teachers’ inherent perceptions about their practice in relation to what was observed of the teachers’ individual actual teaching situations. Up to eight different forms of teachers’ responses or reactions to students’ undesired responses or incorrect answers are discussed with respect to how each is perceived to either positively or negatively affect students’ progressive learning. From the study, productive questioning is affected by teachers’ inability to effectively use classroom powers to trigger students’ thinking, as well as not being able to use students’ varied views to achieve the set learning goals. Instead of using their power strategies to facilitate students’ engagement with the scientific matter, the teachers used their classroom powers to guard themselves against classroom insecurities during the teaching process, such as preventing students from questioning their subject knowledge competencies.

     

Effects of alternative treatments—An EDA team project in high schools

Scientific statistical working in a team is a special challenge for students in high schools, especially with a civic statistical problem. Ideally, they are following the PPDAC cycle: they formulate a problem together, plan an investigation, collect the data, use software to analyze the data, and formulate results in a seminar paper. This article is written jointly by a student and a computer science teacher involved in the project, offering insights from both perspectives.     

Simply academic? Why children with special educational needs don’t like school

International studies have raised concerns about the academic and social implications of inclusive policies on school engagement and successful learning and, in particular, on the ways in which friendships are formed between students with SEN and other students. This article stems from research findings which show that Irish children with special educational needs like school less than their peers without SEN in mainstream settings. Using data from a large scale longitudinal study of 8578 9-year-olds, this paper uses a child centred research approach to investigate why this is the case particularly when they are in receipt of supports. To do this, we focus on processes underlying their dislike of school such as their academic engagement and social/peer relations. We measure academic engagement by looking at their interest in the subjects mathematics and reading and the extent to which they complete their homework. We examine the social/peer relations of students with special educational needs by assessing the extent to which they report liking their teacher. Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Scale and the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale we also examine the nature of peer relations among children with special educational needs in mainstream settings. Both academic engagement and social engagement play a central role in understanding the broader school engagement of children with special educational needs. By simultaneously examining the role of academic and social relations in shaping the engagement of children with SEN, the analysis provides a unique opportunity to fundamentally assess the barriers to true inclusion for children with special needs.     

School matters: how context influences the identification of different types of special educational needs

Despite dramatic changes in Irish special education policy during the last decade, there is little understanding of the factors influencing how special educational needs (SEN) are identified and whether identification varies across different school contexts. International research has tended to focus on how individual child characteristics influence SEN identification. Less attention has been given to other factors such as teacher characteristics or school social mix. Using data from the nine-year-old cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland study, this article examines which children are most likely to be identified with different SEN types taking into account student social background characteristics, teacher characteristics and school social mix. Findings show that children attending highly disadvantaged school contexts are far more likely to be identified with behavioural problems and less likely to be identified with learning disabilities than children with similar characteristics attending other schools. It seems that ‘behavioural’ issues take precedence over learning difficulties in these schools pointing to a culture of care/containment rather than academic progress.