Understanding the experience of non contributory online participants (readers) in National College for School Leadership online communities     

Kathy Seddon  Keith Postlethwaite  Geoff Lee 《Education and Information Technologies》2011,16(4):343-363

This study explored the range of participation taking place in the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) online communities and focussed on participants who defined themselves as not actively contributing to the online discussion. We called these non-contributory participants “readers” Whilst we recognised that an individual community member’s degree of participation might simply reflect their choice, we wanted to ensure that where fuller active participation was sought, there were no system or personal barriers to prevent it. A literature review with a dual focus was therefore made, the first element being factors in the online environment that might affect participation, and the second being personal motivation where we drew especially on dynamic motivation theory. A questionnaire was constructed based on this dual review. This had questions that generated both numerical and text based responses. After a pilot study, alterations in the questionnaire were made and the revised version was sent to 2,600 recently active community members. Over 750 replies were received yielding qualitative and quantitative data. Of these, 587 identified themselves as “readers” and only their responses were analysed for this paper. Analysis produced a very rich picture of motivational factors affecting participation in online communities. Benefits of various types of online interaction were put forward and suggestions about barriers to online interaction were made. This paper suggests that online participation may be seen as a continuum and that non contributory online participants (readers) are a far from homogeneous group ranging from those who experience technical and personal barriers to those who value and gain much from readership. Suggestions are made to assist readers who would like to take further scaffolded steps towards the role of contributor  相似文献   

Comparing different measures of affective attributes relating to sustainability     

Kerry Shephard  Nell Smith  Lynley Deaker  John Harraway  Freya Broughton‐Ansin  Sam Mann 《Environmental Education Research》2011,17(3):329-340

A survey was developed to benchmark the affective sustainability characteristics of an incoming cohort of students in a Polytechnic in New Zealand, with the intention to monitor changes in these attributes as the students experience higher education over subsequent years. The survey contained a number of research instruments as we were interested in exploring how best to record these attributes. This article reports on the comparative efficacy of four of these instruments in describing the affective characteristics of the students. All the instruments depended on respondents’ self‐reporting in the absence of researchers or interviewers. The results do encourage us to have some confidence that students’ sustainability characteristics may be researched using a variety of survey‐based research instruments, and particular confidence in ongoing use of the Revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale.  相似文献   

Examining the Impact of Pedagogy on Student Application of Learning: Acquiring,Sharing, and Using Knowledge for Organizational Decision Making     

Alice C. Stewart  Jacqueline Williams  Karen Smith‐Gratto  Sylvia Sloan Black  Betty Turner Kane 《Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education》2011,9(1):3-26

In this pilot research we examine the impact of two leadership development training programs on the ability of students to acquire knowledge, share knowledge, and apply knowledge for organizational decision making. One program emphasized concepts and case‐based application based on a technical learning paradigm. The other program used a game‐based computer simulation, Virtual Leader, grounded in an experiential or situated learning paradigm. After training, students from both programs engaged in a complex in‐basket exercise to examine the quality of their leadership and managerial abilities. In this exercise, participants from each training intervention worked with their trained cohort to accomplish a day of managerial work. Participants were observed and their individual and collective actions and decisions on behalf of the organization were evaluated. Using qualitative research we compared the organizational decisions associated with each group to determine which pedagogical technique resulted in the most effective application of student learning. While technical learning pedagogy was associated with greater information acquisition, the game‐based computer simulation (an experiential, social‐interaction oriented pedagogy) was associated with better decision quality and more shared cognition. Evidence suggests that students taught with the game‐based computer simulation collectively demonstrated a greater ability to apply what they learned.  相似文献   

The ‘inclusion’ of elite athletes with disabilities in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games: An exploratory analysis of British newspaper coverage     

Andrew Smith  Nigel Thomas 《Sport, Education and Society》2013,18(1):49-67

The XVII 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, England, was the first major international multi-sport event to include elite athletes with disabilities (EADs) in its main sports programme and medal table. In this exploratory article we seek to examine some of the complex issues surrounding the inclusion of EADs in the Manchester Games by analysing the coverage afforded those athletes by six national British newspapers. The results suggest that: (1) there was a tendency by the British media to discuss the performances of EADs in terms more-or-less consistent with a medicalized understanding of disability; (2) the inclusion of EADs in the Games signalled the ‘end of a sporting apartheid’ between ‘able-bodied’ athletes and EADs; and (3) that the participation of EADs in the Games was said to reflect the alleged growing ‘inclusion’ of people with disabilities in the wider society more broadly. The paper concludes by discussing some of the unintended consequences of including EADs in the Games, including those brought about by the classification system used to group athletes into events according to their particular impairment. Those which were associated with the supposed need for greater media coverage of EADs in ‘able-bodied’ sports competitions such as the Commonsealth Games.  相似文献   

Corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability: Why professional sport is greening the playing field     

Sylvia Trendafilova  Kathy Babiak  Kathryn Heinze 《Sport Management Review》2013,16(3):298-313

In this study, we explore institutional forces affecting environmental sustainability in professional sport teams and leagues in North America. Interviews with sport executives and executives from partner groups, 122 websites and organizational documents, and 56 media reports were examined. Data revealed how environmental management practices are being diffused in professional sport organizations. Evidence indicated associative behavior among sport organizations with respect to environmental management. Data also illustrated that media played a role in driving and defining the type and extent of involvement in professional sport teams’ environmental sustainability efforts. We discuss environmental sustainability as it affects a team's or league's CSR related initiatives (i.e., averting legal recourse, saving money, as well as building stronger relationships with stakeholders (e.g., customers, fans, local communities, federal governments and corporate partners)), and speculate how these efforts might evolve and inform the development of environmental sustainability in organizations in the sport, service and entertainment sectors.  相似文献   

The Impact of an Inquiry-Based Geoscience Field Course on Pre-service Teachers     

Gwen Nugent  Michael D. Toland  Richard Levy  Gina Kunz  David Harwood  Denise Green  Kathy Kitts 《Journal of Science Teacher Education》2012,23(5):503-529

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the effects of a field-based, inquiry-focused course on pre-service teachers?? geoscience content knowledge, attitude toward science, confidence in teaching science, and inquiry understanding and skills. The field-based course was designed to provide students with opportunities to observe, compare, and investigate geological structures in their natural environment and to gain an understanding of inquiry via hands-on learning activities designed to immerse students in authentic scientific investigation. ANCOVA and MANCOVA analyses examining differences in outcome measures between students in the field experience (n?=?25) and education students enrolled in the traditional, classroom-based course (n?=?37) showed that students in the field course generally had significantly higher scores. Results provide evidence of the value of the field and inquiry-based approach in helping pre-service teachers develop the needed skills and knowledge to create effective inquiry-based science lessons.  相似文献   

Regulating interest when learning online: Potential motivation and performance trade-offs     

Carol Sansone  Jessi L. Smith  Dustin B. Thoman  Atara MacNamara 《The Internet and Higher Education》2012,15(3):141-149

Online learning may be particularly sensitive to self-regulatory trade-offs between maintaining interest and performance. Undergraduates in online or on-campus sections of the same course rated strategies used to motivate studying for the first exam, and interest after the first exam and at semester's end. First exam and final class grades were obtained. We compared online and on-campus students in reported use of strategies to enhance the importance of studying-related outcomes (goals-defined) and to enhance the studying experience (experience-defined). The latter included an Internet-based strategy (i.e., making studying more enjoyable by exploring class web page). Online and on-campus students did not differ in reported use of outcome-focused strategies but online students were more likely to report exploring the class web page. For online students, greater exploration was associated with higher interest but lower first exam grades, which predicted final interest and grades. Implications for regulating interest and online learning are discussed.  相似文献   

Encouraging teacher development through embedding reflective practice in assessment     

Linley Cornish  Kathy Ann Jenkins 《Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education》2012,40(2):159-170

Learning to become a teacher is a developmental process, part of which is learning to become a reflective practitioner. The authors have implemented a structured approach to developing the habits of critical reflection, the purpose of which is to guide their university students (who are pre-service teachers) to progress through the stages of teacher development and to facilitate self-motivated professional growth. Their attempts to incorporate into these pre-service teachers' learning the ‘practice’ part of reflective practice have included the development of different kinds of practical and applied tasks. In turn, their attempts to incorporate the ‘reflective’ part of reflective practice have involved the embedding in assessment activities of different scaffolds for metacognitive reflection. Their innovative processes of embedding reflection in assessment have been guided by Dewey's and Schön's views of reflection, their own views of the teacher education process, and Brookfield's conception of ‘critical lenses’ which can be used as a scaffold to structure professional growth and development.  相似文献   

Negative student emotions and educator skill in experiential education: a taxonomy of classroom activities     

Wright  Sarah  Dean  Kathy Lund  Forray  Jeanie M. 《Higher Education》2022,83(5):987-1002

Higher Education - Experiential teaching practices can provide transformative learning opportunities for students. However, thus far the experiential education literature considers...  相似文献   

Preschool selection considerations and experiences of school mistreatment among lesbian,gay, and heterosexual adoptive parents     

Abbie E. Goldberg  JuliAnna Z. Smith 《Early childhood research quarterly》2014

The current study is the first to investigate the school selection considerations and school-related experiences of sexual-minority parents with young children. The sample consisted of 210 parents in 105 couples, including 35 lesbian couples, 30 gay male couples, and 40 heterosexual couples, all of whom had adopted a child three years earlier. We found that parents with less income were more likely to consider cost in choosing a preschool, and parents with less education were more likely to consider location. More educated parents tended to emphasize racial diversity and the presence of adoptive families, and, among sexual-minority parents, the presence of other lesbian/gay parents. Sexual-minority parents were more likely to consider racial diversity than heterosexual parents. In reporting on their experiences with schools, heterosexual parents were more likely to perceive mistreatment due to their adoptive status than sexual-minority parents, and sexual-minority parents living in less gay-friendly communities were more likely to perceive mistreatment due to their sexual orientation than sexual-minority parents living in more gay-friendly communities. Our findings have implications for early childhood educators and administrators seeking to create an inclusive learning community for all types of families.  相似文献