Amaral, Isabel; Miranda, Guilhermina Lobato; Nunes, Clarisse (2017). Social Network to Support Parents and Teachers of Students with Multiple Disabilities. Journal of International Special Needs Education, v20 n1 p14-24 Jan. This study aimed to analyze how the Social Software tools could respond to the needs of parents and teachers of students with multiple disabilities in improving their practices, as well as provide information and resources related to the topic of multiple disabilities. The study was implemented in Portugal and involved 45 participants: 25 special education teachers, 5 regular education teachers, and 15 parents of children with multiple disabilities. Using the NING platform, we built a social network, which we set in motion by creating online spaces to share experiences and thoughts. These spaces sought to respond to the needs and difficulties reported by the participants. We adopted a Design-Based Research methodology and used several data collection methods and analysis techniques. The results showed that several dimensions were crucial to create this Social Network, such as the tools, the moderation and the management of the social network and the participation of the teachers and… [Direct]

Gebauer, Judith; Javadi, Elahe; Novotny, Nancy L. (2017). Comparing Student Interaction in Asynchronous Online Discussions and in Face-to-Face Settings: A Network Perspective. Information Systems Education Journal, v15 n3 p64-71 May. Online discussions enable peer-learning by allowing students to communicate ideas on what they have learned in and beyond the classroom. Peer-learning through online discussions is fostered when online discussions are interactive. Interactivity occurs when students refer to and use perspectives shared by peers, and elaborate, respond to, or propose alternative views to those shared by others. Open interactions in online discussions require students to choose whom they communicate with in the discussion forums. This study examines the extent to which the patterns of student-to-student interactions in online discussions resemble student interactions with the same peers in face-to-face settings. Online discussion data were collected in six sections of an introductory IS course over three semesters. Each section's dataset contains data from four online discussions among students, as well as the results of two familiarity surveys administered at the beginning and at the end of the… [PDF]

Izmirli, Serkan (2017). Can We Use Facebook Groups to Establish Social Presence in Online Courses?. World Journal on Educational Technology: Current Issues, v9 n4 p173-182. In this research, the potential of Facebook groups used in an online course in order to establish social presence was examined. Qualitative research methodology was used in this study. The participants of the study were 12 senior undergraduate students taking the School Experience course online over a period of 12 weeks. A Facebook group where announcements and deep discussions were made and files were shared was used. Facebook group posts as document data; and student interviews as interview data were collected. According to the results, it was found that Facebook groups established social presence. Social presence involves three categories; affective expression, open communication and group cohesion. Paralanguage, emotion, humor and self-disclosure emerged as indicators in the affective expression category. Acknowledgement, agreement, invitation and continuing a thread were found as indicators in the open communication category. Greetings and salutations, vocatives, group… [PDF]

Govind, Madhu (2022). A Qualitative Examination of Second Grade Teachers' Experiences and Attitudes around Coding and Robotics Education. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Tufts University. In recent years there has been an increased push for K-12 computer science education. A major reason for this push is the growing evidence that introducing young children to coding can enhance their interest and promote their learning of foundational skills needed to thrive in today's technologically rich world. However, little research has focused on early elementary teachers and their diverse experiences and attitudes around teaching coding and robotics. This dissertation addresses this gap by examining a sample of second grade educators (N = 15) from six elementary schools in a large U.S. public school district. The schools were selected to pilot the Coding as Another Language (CAL) — KIBO program, which consisted of a training and curriculum that emphasized the pedagogical overlaps between computer science and literacy using the KIBO educational robotics platform. Teachers attended a full-day professional development training and subsequently implemented the CAL-KIBO curriculum… [Direct]

Sarah Dominique Colmaire (2022). Womxn's Leadership Alliance: An Informal Co-Mentoring Network and Its Potential Impact on Second-Generation Gender Bias in Independent School Leadership. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. This study examined the impact of an informal co-mentoring network on the female mid-level leaders in independent schools. The sample was composed of mid-level female administrators in National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) accredited independent schools. An increased understanding of support for female administrators is needed to overcome second-generation gender bias and pursuing higher leadership roles in independent schools has implications for both NAIS and CAIS. Qualitative phenomenological research design was applied to study ways participants say an informal co-mentoring network impacts perceptions of their leadership trajectory, if an informal mentoring network addresses and overcomes second-generation gender bias, and the processes, materials, and discussions through which mid-level female leaders in independent schools co-mentor each other in an informal co-mentoring network to overcome second-generation… [Direct]

Parker Alexander Miles (2024). Cyborg Literacies in an Afterschool "Loophole of Retreat". ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan. In this dissertation I explore the fugitive technology practices of Black high-schoolers in a tech-rich after-school makerspace. To do so, I invoke ontologies from two cyborgs to make sense of these Black teens' practices. First, James and Costa Vargas (2012) offer the Black Cyborg– the rebel intellectual rejecting victimization through self-making– as a figure that can emerge from the antiBlackness that organizes American social and political activity, of which schooling is a vehicle. Second, Haraway's (1985) cyborg is a metaphor and a scientific reality that casts the porous human/machine boundary in relief and helps to articulate how Black youth's imbrication with the digital offers both new ways for them to interpellated into antiBlackness and new ways to refuse it. With a third figure, Harriet Jacobs' (1861) loophole of retreat, I align with the long history of fugitive and liberatory Black literacy and making– and more recent interventions about the need and design of Black… [Direct]

Cowan, Katherine C.; Strobach, Kelly Vaillancourt (2019). Comprehensive School Safety: Leading and Advocating for What Works. Communique, v47 n6 p1, 28-29 Mar-Apr. February 14 marked the 1-year anniversary of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and April 20 marks the 20th anniversary of the tragedy at Columbine. Much progress has been made over the last 20 years in the understanding of threat assessment, crisis preparedness, and the importance of increasing access to comprehensive mental and behavioral health supports. At the core of this understanding is the recognition that there are no single or simple solutions to school safety; rather, ensuring safe schools requires a comprehensive, ongoing effort on the part of the entire school community. It is a way of being, a mode of operation, a culture, and a commitment to evidence-based practices. It also requires acknowledging that there is no way to guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen but that we do everything possible both to prevent unsafe behaviors and actions and to mitigate the negative consequences when safety is compromised. As such, it… [Direct]

Mosneaguta, Marina (2019). The Impact of a Global Education Program on the Critical Global Awareness Level of Eighth Grade Students in a Rural School in South Carolina. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of South Carolina. Over the past few years of teaching at a school district in a southeastern state, the researcher noticed that her students had become increasingly interested in various global topics. Students wanted to talk about world events and cultures around the world, but they had a limited understanding of their own roles as world citizens. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of global education program on the critical global awareness levels of eighth grade students at East Bridge Middle School. This researcher analyzed the effects of global education program on the critical global awareness level of eighth grade students using action research. This researcher studied the impact of the program on eight participants. Five female and three male participants enrolled in a global education elective class at East Bridge Middle School and met every other day for 90 minutes. The data analysis showed three major themes: the lack of student exposure to global education topics at… [Direct]

Stummann, Cathy Brown (2014). Practice Stories in Natural Resource Management Continuing Professional Education: Springboards for Learning. Studies in Continuing Education, v36 n3 p322-341. The use of stories from professional experience in continuing professional education has been on the rise in many fields, often aimed at bolstering capacity through sharing professional knowledge and/or supporting reflective practice. Practice stories are also suggested to be beneficial in supporting professional learning of new concepts. These uses of practice stories are not evident in public natural resource management (NRM) continuing professional education. In light of greater public involvement in NRM practice over the last 20 years, however, the use of practice stories could now be particularly beneficial to NRM professionals. This study examines the use of practice stories in workshops aimed at deepening public NRM professionals' understanding of social science concepts suggested to be valuable in making sense of the social and political complexity intertwined in public involvement practice. Feedback from workshop participants suggests that practice stories may be able to… [Direct]

Manca, Stefania (2018). ResearchGate and Academia.edu as Networked Socio-Technical Systems for Scholarly Communication: A Literature Review. Research in Learning Technology, v26. ResearchGate and Academia.edu have been increasingly acknowledged as the most popular academic social network sites (ASNS) for scholarly communication. Along with their benefits for supporting communication and knowledge sharing within academic communities, concerns over quality and credibility remain a pertinent issue. In terms of research investigation, ASNS have attracted strong attention for new scholarly practice and their potential for building, maintaining and enhancing reputation. However, a thorough understanding is still lacking of how these sites operate as networked socio-technical systems reshaping scholarly practices and academic identity. This article analyses 39 empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals with a specific focus on ResearchGate and Academia.edu. The aim is to describe the status of the research and to identify gaps and priorities in the areas of scholarly networked learning and shared knowledge. Results show that the number of studies focusing… [PDF]

Aghababazadeh, Yasaman; Tajeddin, Zia (2018). Blog-Mediated Reflection for Professional Development: Exploring Themes and Criticality of L2 Teachers' Reflective Practice. TESL Canada Journal, v35 n2 p26-50. Reflection is a key component of teacher quality assessment and a venue for professional development. Among many tools for teacher reflection, keeping blogs as a user-friendly, technology-enhanced tool has recently come to the forefront in teacher education. To contribute to the body of literature on the potentiality of blogs for teacher professional development, this study sought to investigate the use of blogs by Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers to provide a perspective on the themes in their reflection-on-action and the degree of criticality of their reflection. To this end, 32 male and female in-service EFL teachers, teaching at different language institutes, voluntarily agreed to post their classroom experiences to a blog over a 3-month period. Content analysis of the reflection tags resulted in the identification of three main reflective categories, each including a number of themes: (a) teacher-oriented category (e.g., teachers' sharing emotions, classroom… [PDF]

Altun, Arif; Ilgaz, Hale; Mazman, Sacide G√ºzin (2015). A Cross Cultural Perspective on Information Communication Technologies Learning Survey. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, v20 n2 p159-168 Jul. Information behavior has been at the core of researchers' interest for a long time. According to researches attention in the field of information research has shifted over the years from a dominant interest in the use of channels and sources to an emphasis on the encountering and seeking of information and the interpretation of meaning from that information. However, measuring this disposition to seek and its related skills is a challenge. In this study, the "Information Seeking Strategies Scale" was adapted to the Turkish language. The results indicated that (a) the scale could be used in Turkish settings by removing two items, (b) ICT tools are employed for information seeking rather than information sharing by Turkish college students who participated in this study, and (c) no gender or grade differences were observed. Further recommendations are discussed…. [Direct]

Ellis, Bronwyn (2015). Learning Opportunities in the 'Golden Years' in a Regional City. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, v25 n2 p28-43. Several projects relating to older learners have been conducted over the past decade or so, some involving the University of the Third Age (U3A) Whyalla, as well as other groups composed of older citizens. Some provide examples of engagement with the local university campus; others have this potential. Here a wide range of learning activities, as revealed by survey data, publicly available information, and participant observation, are described. Together with long-running group activities, new activities — a men's shed and a music learning activity — have potential outcomes for participants' health and wellbeing. Such informal and non-formal learning opportunities help meet non-metropolitan lifelong learning needs. Some discussion of possible solutions to unmet needs is included. Maximising information sharing and cooperation can lead to mutual benefits, including for educational institutions. Increasing social inclusion benefits the whole community…. [Direct]

Chikowo, R.; Gwandu, T.; Mapfumo, P.; Mashavave, T. C.; Mtambanengwe, F.; Nezomba, H. (2014). Factors Influencing Access to Integrated Soil Fertility Management Information and Knowledge and Its Uptake among Smallholder Farmers in Zimbabwe. Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, v20 n1 p79-93. Purpose: The study evaluated how farmer acquisition, sharing and use patterns of information and knowledge interact with different socioeconomic factors to influence integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technology uptake. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted as part of an evaluation of field-based farmer learning approaches introduced by SOFECSA in Zimbabwe. Building on emerging farmer interactive platforms, data were collected using farmer participatory research approaches. Findings: Over 90% of the farmers identified the national extension agents as the farmers' most preferred and reliable sources of information on ISFM, with farmer-to-farmer interactions ranking second. Non-governmental organisations and the print media emerged as the least trusted sources of agricultural technical information. Field-based learning centres, which enabled interactive evaluation of different ISFM options, constituted 50%, indicating that they were major platforms for… [Direct]

Pracana, Clara, Ed.; Wang, Michael, Ed. (2021). Psychological Applications and Trends 2021. Online Submission This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2021, organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.), that this year has been converted into a fully Virtual Conference as a result of the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. Modern psychology offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and behavioral standpoints), from this academic and practical scientific discipline, aims ultimately to benefit society. The International Conference seeks to provide some answers and explore the several areas within the Psychology field, new developments in studies and proposals for future scientific projects. The goal is to offer a worldwide connection between psychologists, researchers and lecturers, from a wide range of academic fields, interested in exploring and giving their contribution in… [PDF]

Cooper, Sandi; Nesmith, Suzanne M.; Purdum-Cassidy, Barbara; Rogers, Rachelle Meyer (2015). Ways That Preservice Teachers Integrate Children's Literature into Mathematics Lessons. Teacher Educator, v50 n3 p170-186. Children's literature involving mathematics provides a common, natural context for the sharing of mathematics. To learn more about how preservice teachers included children's literature in their mathematics lessons, a study was conducted over two semesters during a required field experience component of an undergraduate teacher education program. The preservice teachers were required to use a children's literature book to explore a mathematical concept in three mathematics-focused lesson plans. The qualitative data analysis revealed that in planning mathematics lessons to incorporate children's literature, preservice teachers tended to focus on basic approaches. Specifically, the preservice teachers most often used a book as context for review, to develop a concept, or to use with manipulatives. As a result, it is important for teacher educators to provide the opportunity for preservice teachers to learn more about the various ways of integrating literature and provide the necessary… [Direct]

Brown-Hobbs, Stacey; Civetti, Linda; Frazier, Laura Corbin; Gordon, Paula (2015). PDS Leadership Team as Community of Practice: Implications for Local School System and Higher Education Partnerships. School-University Partnerships, v8 n2 p41-52 Fall. Professional development school (PDS) partnerships have existed in one local school system (LSS) with three different institutions of higher education (IHE) for over a decade. Commonalities and distinctive features were noted between the partnerships. In an attempt to establish standardized and equitable policies from the LSS level, representatives from each IHE were invited to a shared leadership meeting. From this first meeting, focused on PDS logistics and LSS policies, has grown quarterly collaborative meetings which have yielded professional development for mentor teachers and site coordinators, professional training for LSS and IHE faculty, and program level information sharing. Content analysis of meeting minutes suggests that a community of practice (CoP) was formed unintentionally and may have facilitated the development of the "Nine Required Essentials for PDS" in the Leadership Team PDS network. Strategies for the intentional planning of CoP in a PDS are provided…. [PDF]

McGuigan, Linda; Russell, Terry (2015). "Animals Don't Just Grow Feathers When They Want To…". Primary Science, n138 p18-21 May. The short view of inheritance is that it is about what every organism gets from its parents, one generation to the next. Young children appreciate that offspring have strong similarities with their parents. A longer perspective embraces the similarities and diversity in relatives' features; it includes the characteristics of predecessors within and beyond the extended family, to include members of a species going back thousands of generations. In this longer view, the slow but significant changes we call "evolution" make sense. Evolution connects ideas of inheritance from the pool of variation over "deep time" that give rise to evolutionary change as a response to shifting environmental circumstances. From this explanation emerges an elegant and complex way of understanding the world. This article is about the authors sharing some of their insight and research into teaching evolution and inheritance to younger students…. [Direct]

Dimri, Anil K. (2015). Mechanism of F2F Student Support in Open and Distance Learning System: Indian Experience. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, v16 n3 p61-73 Jul. Present paper seeks to analyse the system of face to face programme delivery adopted by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for its distance learners over a period of two and half decades. The paper also analysed that with the growth in student enrolment, new schemes of face to face programme delivery was developed and implemented and some of them have made significant contribution in developing a suitable network. However, the scheme originally launched on the philosophy of institutional networking, resource sharing, collaboration and convergence was highly successful and mainly responsibly for the growth of ODL in India. The schemes of learners support centres launched subsequent only supplemented the existing scheme. Attempt has also been made to critically analyse the pros and cons of each of the scheme offered for ODL learners for face to face interaction and how a particular scheme was more acceptable…. [PDF]

Bainter, Sierra A.; Curran, Patrick J. (2015). Advantages of Integrative Data Analysis for Developmental Research. Journal of Cognition and Development, v16 n1 p1-10. Amid recent progress in cognitive development research, high-quality data resources are accumulating, and data sharing and secondary data analysis are becoming increasingly valuable tools. Integrative data analysis (IDA) is an exciting analytical framework that can enhance secondary data analysis in powerful ways. IDA pools item-level data across multiple studies to make inferences possible both within and across studies and can be used to test questions not possible in individual contributing studies. Some of the potential benefits of IDA include the ability to study longer developmental periods, examine how the measurement of key constructs changes over time, increase subject heterogeneity, and improve statistical power and capability to study rare behaviors. Our goal in this article is to provide a brief overview of the benefits and challenges of IDA in developmental research and to identify additional resources that provide more detailed discussions of this topic…. [Direct]

Benson, David (2015). Curriculum Visions: The Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and Dwayne Huebner Discuss Civics and Citizenship. International Journal of Christianity & Education, v19 n1 p38-56 Mar. This article considers the Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority's (ACARA) plan for Civics and Citizenship, assessing the role of religions therein. Through a dialectical hermeneutic, ACARA is brought into a mutually critical conversation with the work of curriculum theorist Dwayne Huebner. Both of their distinct visions are found to make space for diverse religious identities, and to affirm students taking responsibility for what they make of this world. They clash, however, over the path to societal harmony and the place given to discussing our deepest differences in belief and practice. In this article it is argued that a constructive use of Sacred Texts in Civics and Citizenship may facilitate a synergy between ACARA and Huebner that is educationally viable and democratically profitable. This would require that curriculum content is decentred to serve a dialogical pedagogy built on the sharing of our foundational narratives as together we pursue the common… [Direct]

Gaston, Michelle Elise (2017). Seeking Common Ground: First-Year U.S. University Students' Experiences with Intercultural Interaction and Friendship in an On-Campus Residential Community. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. The number of international students on U.S. campuses has increased more than 84 percent over the past decade (IIE, 2016). Although it has been well-established that interaction and friendship with local students is a key element for international student adjustment to a foreign university, few studies have grappled with how these intercultural relationships develop, and even fewer have studied intercultural relationships from the domestic students' point of view. This dissertation uses a qualitative case study approach to add to this small, but growing, body of literature. Grounded in a conceptual framework consisting of Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis and its more recent updates by Pettigrew, Tropp, Wagner, and Christ (2011), and the principles of social identity theory (Brown, 2000; Tajfel, 1981) this study sought to examine relationship development between domestic students and international students over the course of an academic year. Ten first-year domestic students with… [Direct]

Bauters, Merja; Leinonen, Teemu; Pejoska, Jana; Purma, Jukka (2016). Social Augmented Reality: Enhancing Context-Dependent Communication and Informal Learning at Work. British Journal of Educational Technology, v47 n3 p474-483 May. Our design proposal of social augmented reality (SoAR) grows from the observed difficulties of practical applications of augmented reality (AR) in workplace learning. In our research we investigated construction workers doing physical work in the field and analyzed the data using qualitative methods in various workshops. The challenges related to learning in the construction sites were: sharing of specific situation processes or details, need of direct communication channel over distance and support for social appraisal. The second result of the study is a prototype. SoAR is a design solution, an application for smart phones. The primary target for the SoAR design builds on the discoveries and idea that current AR developments in the area should focus on enhancing human-to-human interactions: messages, gestures, words and other small elements of communication. We present the current SoAR prototype that enhances video calls with overlaid drawings therefor SoAR is a tool for asking and… [Direct]

Ely, Adrian V. (2018). Experiential Learning in "Innovation for Sustainability": An Evaluation of Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs) in an International Masters Course. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, v19 n7 p1204-1219. Purpose: The urgent challenges of sustainability require novel teaching methods facilitating different types of learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine the important role of experiential learning in higher education programmes relating to sustainability and to evaluate a number of teaching and learning activities (TLAs) that can be used to leverage this approach. Design/methodology/approach: Based on questionnaire surveys carried out for over seven years with students from a highly international master's-level course, this paper describes the utility of experiential learning theory in teaching around "innovation for sustainability". Drawing on Kolb's theories and subsequent modifications, the paper reviews and evaluates the TLAs used in the course that have fostered experiential learning in the classroom, including role-play seminars, case study-based seminars and sessions centred around sharing and reflecting on personal professional histories. Findings: The… [Direct]

Lauren Patricia Bagwell (2022). Art, Emotion, and Reflection: Engaging with Social Issues in the Classroom. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin – Madison. This study investigated three teachers and their students at International School in Guatemala as they engaged with social issues through and with art. Student and teacher experiences were examined using critical theory, concerned with ideological conflicts that shape the curriculum and how knowledge is legitimated within schools and communities (Anyon, 1978; Apple, 2004), and multiliteracies, concerned with the multimodal forms learners engage with mean-making visually, spatially, auditorily, and behaviorally (Berriz et al., 2019; Holloway & Gouthro, 2020; New London Group, 1996). Following a qualitative study approach, two secondary classrooms and one primary classroom were selected as they were already engaging with art and social issues in their classroom before the study. Over the semester, I conducted semi-structured interviews with participants, engaged with participant observations virtually, and analyzed student artwork. The first key finding indicates that art can be… [Direct]

Lee, Jessica Nikola (2022). Fostering the Support and Development of Resilience in Children of Alcoholics in the School Setting. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Texas A&M University. Over the last century, the expected role of the classroom teacher has shifted dramatically. We have begun to move away from someone whose main purpose is to provide rote instruction to students, to a shift that educators are facilitators of learning that work to meet the needs of the whole child and not just their academic growth. An increased amount of contemporary research has yielded results that identify the urgency to support the social and emotional demands of students in addition to their intellectual abilities. Children who live in households with alcohol abuse face challenges and obstacles outside of school that necessitate a need for additional social and emotional support within the classroom. The purpose of this multiple case study was to analyze the lived experiences of six self-proclaimed adult children of alcoholics in order to learn ways in which to help support current children of alcoholics in the elementary school classroom. Six adult children of alcoholics were… [Direct]

Heather M. Streets (2022). The Collegiate Black Space: Black College Students' Use of New Counter-Spaces for Support, Knowledge Production, and Organizing for Activism. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of San Francisco. Black collegians who attend historically white institutions continue to struggle with racism, microaggressions, feelings of alienation, minimal or improper advising, and an undue pressure to prove themselves (Bonner, 2010; Feagin & Sikes, 1995; Strayhorn, 2010). These barriers to success result in part due to a lack of support from the colleges and universities that they attend (Allen, 1992; Parker, Puig, Johnson & Anthony, Jr., 2016). With institutional benefits designed to benefit white students over students of color, Black students must find their own alternatives for collaboration and to provide support for their peers. Many Black spaces can be defined as third spaces (Bhabha, 1994), where Black people go to find community, share information, and get advice. Using a concept I developed called "the collegiate Black space," this dissertation argues that Black college students who attend historically white institutions have also turned digital spaces into Black… [Direct]

Jensen, Sune Qvotrup; Laursen, Julie; Pedersen, Oline; Prieur, Annick (2016). "Social Skills": Following a Travelling Concept from American Academic Discourse to Contemporary Danish Welfare Institutions. Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy, v54 n4 p423-443 Dec. The article traces the origin and development of the concept of social skills in first and foremost American academic discourse. As soon as the concept of social skills was coined, the concern for people lacking such skills started and has been on the increase ever since (now sharing public attention with related concepts such as self-control, emotional intelligence and empathy). After the analysis of the academic history of the concept follows an examination of the implementation of a range of assessment instruments and training programmes related to social skills (and lack hereof) in contemporary Danish welfare institutions (more specifically, day nurseries and schools, employment and penal services). The analysis forwarded in the article thus demonstrates how an intellectual idea may develop and travel–and on its journey connect to pre-existing cultural logics and societal concerns. The idea of social skills has through its development been made uncontroversial–everybody wants… [Direct]

Lashley, Jonathan William (2019). Our Educative Reticence: A Grounded Theory of Instructors' Not Adopting Open Textbooks. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Clemson University. The Open Textbook Network (OTN)–an organization based out of the University of Minnesota and comprising over 1,000 postsecondary institutions–supports the open education movement by facilitating in-person workshops about, sharing training resources for, and curating a library of peer-reviewed open textbooks. Its efforts are meant to build awareness of open education among attendees by teaching them about the positive potential of open textbooks in addressing the rising costs of attending college, waning public investment in higher education, increasing pedagogical dependence on the course materials of commercial publishers, and curbing other barriers to affordability, access, and equity in higher education. While many instructors who have attended OTN workshops went on to review and adopt open textbooks in their course or, at least, leave the experience with an intent to explore open textbook use in the future, a small population (n = 76) openly admitted to having no interest in… [Direct]

Reilly, Anissa (2018). An Investigation of Principals' Perceptions about the Use of Social Media to Build Trust, Transparency, and a Greater Sense of Community. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Sage Graduate School. Communication practices have changed over the years. Therefore, the way school leaders connect with its stakeholders should align with these changes. Social media is one way to meet this shift. However true this may be, there are some leaders that will not engage with these online platforms. In contrast, those leaders that utilize social media seem to reap benefits. Through the use of qualitative methodology, this study investigated the perceptions held by elementary school leaders about the use of social media to build trust, transparency, and a greater sense of community. The research examined belief systems held by the participants with respect to social media and its role in communicating and connecting with stakeholders. Findings indicated that school leaders believe there are benefits and consequences with social media, social media requires too much time; therefore, a point person is needed to maintain the platforms and communicating via social media requires training…. [Direct]