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The wider dimensions of academic integrity
No full textPlenary Address: Annual International Conference of the Center for Academic
Integrity St. Louis, Missouri
17 October 2009
In this presentation I'd like to focus on the wider dimensions of academic integrity. To participate in this conversation, we need to turn a mirror on ourselves – as an academic community– and ask whether we're setting the right example for our students, and also whether our rhetoric of integrity is consistent with the reality of our academic world
Decline in academe
No full textWhen universities became corporate universities, the constraints that defined universities changed. The values of the old university, of scholarship, truth and freedom, were replaced by the values of the market. Education became a product, the university a firm, and the university system an industry. This paper considers the decline in academe as universities converge towards for-profit corporate universities. The paper explores why universities have become corporations, how they have become corporations, and how academics survive within those corporations. In the corporate university, the academic becomes accountable to management and to
students. Collegiality is sacrificed for managerialism, and freedom for accountability. The academic role is inverted. The academic becomes the academic of the production line, producing standardised teaching and research. The paper suggests that the corporate university risks sacrificing too much scholarship and too much
freedom for the principles of the market, thereby diluting the integrity of the university.
"On his way to the Ministry, the Minister learns that there is a new hospital in Northern London that is staffed with 500 administrators and ancillary workers, but has no doctors, nurses or patients. The Minister is aghast."
From The Compassionate Society. Yes Minister, BBC (1981)
Listening to children’s voices in qualitative health research
No full textThe data for this paper has emerged from two separate qualitative research projects that investigated children’s constructions of health and nutrition. Extensive focus group interviews with children aged between 5 and 12 were conducted across a range of schools in South Australia. The data were transcribed verbatim and inductively analysed to identify common themes. The emergent data provides evidence that children’s voices play an important role in illuminating issues, which are central to a child’s personal constructions of identity, health and ‘good’ nutrition. In turn, this plays a crucial role in assisting in the development and implementation of health promoting strategies where nutrition and health is concerned in specific age cohorts from early childhood through to adolescence
Developing efficacy beliefs in the classroom
No full textA major goal of education is to equip children with the knowledge, skills and
self-belief to be confident and informed citizens - citizens who continue to
see themselves as learners beyond ‘graduation’. This paper looks at the key
role of nurturing efficacy beliefs in order to learn and participate in school
and society. Research findings conducted within a social studies context are
presented, showing how strategy instruction can enhance self-efficacy for
learning. As part of this research, Creative Problem Solving (CPS) was
taught to children as a means to motivate and support learning. It is shown
that the use of CPS can have positive effects on self-efficacy for learning, and
be a valuable framework to involve children in decision-making that leads to
social action. Implications for enhancing self-efficacy and motivation to learn
in the classroom are discussed
Images of literacy in reference CD ROMs and search websites for children
No full textIn the technologised society, the new information and communication
technologies (ICTs) are becoming one of the main areas and tools of literacy
activity. ICTs are also becoming one of the active ‘participants’ of literacy
education. In the present paper, I discuss my ongoing doctoral research into
the discursive construction of the child as a literate subject in reference CDROMs,
online encyclopedias and search websites for children.
My research is driven by a number of questions: What notions of
literacy are offered to the child user of ICT-based educational products?
Whose literacy practices are represented as universal by their producers?
Who may and may not benefit from technology-mediated literacy education?
How is the child user of ICTs constructed as a literate, social and cultural
subject and who is excluded by these constructions?
I am conducting my study within the approaches of social semiotics
and discourse analysis. My objects of analysis are both verbal texts and
images. Here, I will focus on images as ‘participants’ in the construction of
the notions of literacy and on what the images of literacy in reference CDROMs
imply about their users as literate, social and cultural subjects
Teachers as co-authors: internalizing the writing process
No full textOur goal as teacher educators should be to train exemplary teachers who can elicit superior writing from their students. But how can this goal be accomplished? How can we hope to train exemplary teachers who will elicit superior writing if we do not first provide a way for our graduate students, our
future teachers, to experience and internalize the writing process
Effective collaboration: deep collaboration as an essential element of the learning process
No full textCollaboration is a frequently used term in current educational debates. However, the nature of collaboration and the possibilities it offers are often assumed among practitioners. Where it is dealt with as problematic, this tends to be at the operational level (Hargreaves 1992; O’Neill 2000). In this paper I argue that the process of collaboration is more complex than it may initially appear, and use Boreham’s (2000) research as a vehicle to explore this complexity. In addition, I use Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development to provide a possible theoretical explanation of why collaboration can be effective. I also argue that collaboration works on two levels in a manner akin to Argyris’ explanation of double-loop learning (Argyris 1992), and offer opportunities for the development of a creative pedagogy. Lastly, I examine the implications of effective collaboration for learners and professionals in communities of support, practice and learning.
Introduction
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Regulating teachers
No full textThe British Government’s recent imposition of performance-related pay for
teachers is the latest in a host of unpopular regulatory measures. In this paper,
I examine the philosophical basis of regulation as a means of achieving
higher educational standards and offer an analysis of the contradictions
involved in regulating the teaching profession. I argue that regulatory
measures alone are not equal to the problems they seek to rectify. An
autonomous profession is morally self-regulating; professionals internalise
purposes, values and performance expectations. The present regulatory
regime is likely to undermine teacher commitment to underachieving pupils.
It is likely to increase rather than decrease the number of poorly educated and
disaffected individuals
“Feeling better about myselfâ€: An examination of the strengths and weaknesses of a tool developed to explore the impact of dyslexia support on the self-esteem and motivation to learn of dyslexic young offenders
No full textEvidence suggests that the prevalence of dyslexia is higher in the offending population. Kirk and Reid (2001) hypothesize there may be a link between crime, dyslexia and self-esteem. It has been suggested that individuals who are involved with the criminal justice system and have had a negative
schooling experience linked to their dyslexia may benefit from specialist dyslexia support to the extent that it can help reduce re-offending rates (Klein 1998; Jameson. & Ward 2001). However UK government agencies place their main emphasis on working on literacy taking a Basic Skills approach to tuition despite evidence that there is equal need for self-esteem and life-skills support. Without quantifiable evidence of the impact that dyslexia support can have on offenders’ self-esteem, funding agencies are reluctant to support projects. This paper explores the strengths and weaknesses of a tool designed to quantify the impacts of one to one dyslexia support on self-esteem and a range of behaviours. It considers lessons learned from the use of the
questionnaire with a group of young people at risk of offending who had been excluded from school. The paper concludes that providing the questionnaire is used in conjunction with qualitative interviewing and is tailor made with the objectives of each project in mind, it is completed
consistently, and considers a range of issues exploring both perceptions and actual behaviour, the data collected can provide useful quantification of qualitative information that can help to convince funders of the importance of the softer outcomes of dyslexia tuition
Development and validation of a brief mathematics attitude scale for primary-aged students
No full textIn this report I describe the development and validation of a 10-item scale for assessing primary-aged students’ attitudes towards mathematics. A validation of the scale with 774 primary students indicated that the scale comprised three components: a reflection of students’ overall enjoyment of mathematics; their perceptions of its value as a subject area; and perceptions of their ability to cope with their assigned mathematics work. The three components of the current scale were generally found to have acceptable reliability and validity across grades four, five and six. Recommendations for refinements to the scale and for its use with primary–aged students are discussed