Curricular Choices Research Articles

Teaching Law for the Real World:

This article looks at changes which need to be made on two levels. First, on the role of law schools: in terms of practitioners, a new thought process should be developed at law schools to bring on board practitioners either as full-time faculty members or sessionals to teach law courses, and this would help bridge the gap between academia and the legal profession. In terms of curriculum, there is a need to update curriculum and course choices to include some necessary courses that should be considered part of any law programme. In terms of global understanding, law schools should not only offer more international law courses, but can simply incorporate comparative law into existing courses, and study abroad programmes would be an asset to form more international legal understanding. In terms of practicums, there should be a practical component added to law courses to allow for the students to learn day-to-day skills one would encounter in practicing law, including the legal implications of running a company, managing a staff and dealing with stakeholders and boards of directors, and a partnership within universities beyond the faculty of law to incorporate other departments would be of benefit to students who would like to use their law degrees in other fields. Second, on the role of the bar associations and the law society: mentoring programmes are essential in the teaching of law and are so often overlooked, and a mentoring partnership should be created between bar associations or law societies and law schools, which would not only allow for an increased learning experience invaluable to the student but it would also allow students to be better prepared for when they graduate, allowing for a better transition from law school to law practice. The ability of an organization, especially a learning organization like a university or a college of law, to learn from its past is the key to growth for its present and survival for its future for a better legal profession.

Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth over Breadth

Vocational education is a large part of the high school curriculum, yet we have little understanding of what drives vocational enrollment or whether these courses help or harm early careers. To address this we develop a framework for curriculum choice, taking into account ability and preferences for academic and vocational work. We test model predictions using detailed transcript and earnings information from the NLSY97. Our results are two-fold. First, students positively sort into vocational courses, suggesting the belief that low ability students are funneled into vocational coursework is unlikely true. Second, we find higher earnings among students taking more upper-level vocational courses – a nearly 2% wage premium for each additional year, yet we find no gain from introductory vocational courses. These results suggest (a) policies limiting students’ ability to take vocational courses may not be welfare enhancing, and (b) the benefits of vocational coursework accrue to those who focus on depth over breadth.

Beliefs about Future Curriculum

This article investigates how emotions of avoidance affect curriculum choice in a science classroom and also evaluates a research-based social form of learning for changing emotions of avoidance towards a specific science topic (arachnids) for a population of preservice teachers. It was found that there is a strong invariant structural relationship between emotions of avoidance and beliefs about incorporation of science concepts about arachnids. However, participation in the arachnid learning activities decreased emotions of avoidance and increased beliefs about incorporation into a science classroom. The implications of these findings are that social forms of learning can change avoidance emotions and beliefs of teachers and may even be effective for addressing other classroom topics that are socially sensitive, such as biological evolution or climate change.

Learning About Oneself:The Effects of Performance Feedback on School Choice

We design and implement a field experiment that provides students from less advantaged backgrounds with individualized feedback on academic performance during the transition from middle to high school. The intervention reduces the gap between expected and actual performance, as well as shrinks the variance of the individual belief distributions. Guided by a simple Bayesian model, we empirically document the interplay between variance reductions and mean changes of beliefs about students' own academic ability in shaping curricular choices. The shift in revealed preferences over high school tracks enabled by the intervention affects schooling trajectories, with better performing students being assigned into more academically oriented options.

Investigating Student Motivation and Performance in Electrical Engineering and Its Subdisciplines

Factors influencing choice of major in electrical engineering and later curricular and professional choices are investigated. Studies include both quantitative and qualitative analyses via student transcripts, surveys, and focus groups. Student motivation for choosing an electrical engineering major and later subdiscipline in the field is interpreted through expectancy-value theory, where primary factors of strong perceived value of future professional opportunities and strong influence of course instructors are identified. Performances in select required electrical engineering courses appear to serve as predictors for student choice of subdiscipline emphasis. In contrast, participation in student professional activities does not show statistically significant correlations with subdiscipline. Curricular and professional choices appear to be explained by expectancy-value theory with inclusion of socializers. The findings suggest that early and integrative exposure of all electrical engineering technical areas, including high-quality teaching, may provide an optimal basis for students to make future decisions on academic path and participation in professional activities.

A mixed methods comparison of teachers' lunar modeling lesson implementation and student learning outcomes

ABSTRACTThe authors compare three teachers' adaptations and implementation of a lunar modeling lesson to explain marked differences in student learning outcomes on a spatial-scientific lunar assessment. They used a modified version of the Practices of Science Observation Protocol (P-SOP; Forbes, Biggers, & Zangori, 2013) to identify ways in which features of inquiry were emphasized in each classroom. Additionally, classroom communities of practice were categorized as task-based or practice-based (Riel & Polin, 2004). The authors found that student learning outcomes were related to the fidelity with which the teachers implemented the lesson. Teachers with higher P-SOP scores fostered more of a practice-based learning community than task-based one, which also paralleled greater student learning gains. Although the students' scores did not differ by teacher on the preassessment, they did differ significantly on the postassessment, indicating that the curricular choices and learning communities developed by the teachers impacted what students were able to learn.

Are They Using the Data? Teacher Perceptions of, Practices with, and Preparation to Use Assessment Data

<p>Teacher instructional and curricular choices should be informed by student level assessment<br />data; however, there is a dearth of empirical research documenting teachers’ perceptions, uses,<br />and preparation to use assessment data. To address this gap in understanding, we surveyed<br />teachers working in two public school districts in the western United States, resulting in a<br />sample consisting of 52 K-12 teachers. Our results revealed a number of relationships between<br />engaging in professional development, uses of assessment data, and perceptions of the value of<br />the data. We found a number of anticipated relationships, including that teachers who are more<br />comfortable using assessment data in their practice tend to feel less overwhelmed with using<br />assessment data. We also found several paradoxical relationships such as the more teachers<br />engage in professional learning communities the less they create and use common assessments.<br />Our research has a number of important implications for structuring teacher professional<br />development in ways that enhance effective use of assessment data by educators to inform their<br />practice. Our findings also provide a foundation for a deeper examination of teacher<br />perceptions of, uses of, and preparation to use assessment data.</p>

Creating a Critical Genetics Curriculum as a Counternarrative to/in the Urban Imaginary

I am explicating the neologism critical genetics as a site of curricular engagement for urban science students, acknowledging that schools and school systems are hierarchical structures that reflect a community’s social norms and practices. This critical and standards-based critical genetics curriculum interrogates and disrupts the deficit narratives for inner-city minority youth while helping students manifest skills that are crucial for college-bound science learners. I also explicate the curricular choices made in an attempt to help students participate in developing authentic counternarratives so that they could resist the racial determinism embedded in dominant narratives of school success.

Teacher Conceptions, Curriculum Ideologies, and Adaptations to Linear Change in River School District

Curriculum ideologies are educational theories applied in everyday pedagogical practice. In this study, to better meet the learning needs of their students, four middle school teachers used a variety of ideologies as a professional toolbox. When confronted with school district standardization, these teachers adapted; however, as predicted by earlier studies, adjustments required the loss of previously successful curriculum. As predicted by Feldhusen, these losses affected teachers of high-level students (honors and gifted and talented) the most. In this district, two such teachers opposed standardization; nevertheless, even with resistance, they lost ideological-based curriculum choices. What are teachers of high-level students to do? Any standardization program will threaten and/or change eclectic ideological praxes. With such a dichotomy, a split is revealed between teacher beliefs and practices. In this study, an honors teacher could not bear the split and decided to stop teaching rather than give up her curricular eclecticism.

The Effectiveness of Using Young Professionals to Influence STEM Career Choices of Secondary School Students

There is a concern in many countries that secondary school student interest in careers in the STEM areas is declining. In response, a program has been developed in New Zealand for young professional technologists, engineers and scientists (known as ambassadors) to visit schools and carry out a variety of interventions to educate and encourage students to choose STEM careers. The interventions include careers talks and classroom activities, organized by regional facilitators who are employed by the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) to co-ordinate the programme across New Zealand. The goal of this research was to ascertain whether ambassador interventions are influential on students’ attitudes to careers and curriculum choices in school. The objectives were 1) To investigate the impact of the interventions on students’ views and perceptions of STEM careers; and 2) To discover any specific factors that must also exist in a given context for an intervention to be effective. The main finding was that the ambassador interventions were influential on student career decision processes, though not all students were influenced. The facilitators work effectively in recruiting, training, organizing and supporting the ambassadors, and the ambassadors belief in the value of what they are doing helps ensure effective interventions. The research outcomes are presented as a range of recommendations.

Textbooks, Literacy, and Citizenship: The Case of Anglophone Cameroon

Textbooks are commonly used to teach English in Africa, and most often are designed either by Westerners who are native speakers or by the Western-trained educators who took over the education of Africa’s children after colonialism. The issue is whether these educators can emancipate learners through the curricular choices they make in the versions of textbooks endorsed by their governments. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This article examines the content of nonfiction passages in four textbook series that have been used or are currently in use for English language and literacy education in Anglophone Cameroon to understand the shift in educational philosophies that might have occurred between the colonial period of the first textbook and the modern globalization period of current textbooks. It also questions the criteria for selection of passages to be included in these textbooks and their possible ramifications for learners’ identities as Africans,Cameroonians, and global citizens. Informed by postcolonialism, with a particular bent toward decolonial theory, the study utilizes content analysis, a qualitative research method that validates textual interpretations through inference (Krippendorf, 2004) and that seeks to understand meanings embedded in texts and their sociocultural/political significance. Findings reveal that while the Oxford English Readers for Africa of the colonial times are long gone, this series’ ideology of white superiority lingers in contemporary textbooks. They also reveal that there is an attempt to standardize cultural practices and belief systems based on Western models. This draws attention to minority rights, reminding educators to acknowledge pluralism in their literacy practices.

Personal worldview in constructing theological expertise? Avoidance goals and their narrative explanations in the context of career choice

This paper investigates theology students’ goals with respect to their career motivation and career decisions during theological studies. The aim is to investigate the career motivation of Finnish theology students, focusing especially on students aiming at general theological education. Faculties of Theology in Finnish universities provide general theological and teacher education and qualifications for students who want to become pastors for the Evangelical-Lutheran church. In study 1, the reasons given for the curriculum choices were investigated and classified. According to the results, students on different curriculum paths gave different kinds of reasons for their choices. It was especially interesting that students following the general theological curriculum path most often explained their curriculum choice by avoiding the other curricula. The aim of study 2 was to investigate further the perspectives of avoidance, so we focused on the students aiming at a general theological degree. In study 2, the narratives of career choice were analysed. The narratives were classified into four groups: students struggling with adversity (n = 26), searchers (n = 32), rejecting and rejected (n = 29), and general theological degree as a possibility (n = 44). When the studies were taken together, a picture of heterogeneity of student profiles in the general theological curriculum emerged along with the wide range of challenges these students face. These results are discussed in the light of theoretical viewpoints of personal worldview, career choice, and avoidance goals, and some implications for developing theological education are presented.

Repository of Instructional and Assessment Techniques for OBE-Based Instructional Module Development System

Instructional Module Development System (IMODS) project IMODS) project aims to assist educators in developing a STEM-based curriculum, even if the educator has not had extensive or formal training in educational methods. Research shows that choice of appropriate curriculum and assessment methods are critical in successfully teaching students and having the students retain the information taught. The IMODS strives to be a tool to assist educators in building that curriculum which will include an instructional and assessment plan. To successfully achieve this goal, a variety of educational, instructional, and assessment strategies are required to be integrated into the program. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a repository of current best pedagogical and assessment practices that will be part of IMODS. We also present integration of this repository into the IMODS software to present options for assessment and instruction that align with the type/level of student learning desired based on selections the user makes when defining the learning objectives of the course.

Curricular Choice and Adolescents’ Interest in Math: The Roles of Network Diversity and Math Identity

Background/ContextOver the last two decades, school districts in the United States have increasingly allowed students and their families to choose the schools they attend and, at the high school level, the courses they take. While the movement to provide more curricular choice for students and families has accelerated, so, too, has the policy emphasis on increasing students’ math achievement. The increased emphases on curricular choice and math achievement provide an opportunity to examine how students draw on their social capital when making curricular choices and whether the diversity of their relational resources is associated with math achievement.PurposeWe build from a social capital framework to examine how students who are able to exercise curricular choice do so by drawing on their social networks and how the resources accessible through these networks, operationalized as network diversity, are associated with math achievement. We also examine how this relationship varies by students’ math interest; an important individual-level characteristic that we hypothesize moderates the influence of network diversity on math achievement.SettingData for this study are from the restricted-use version of the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 (HSLS: 09), the fifth in a series of National Center for Education Statistics’ multisource, secondary longitudinal studies. For this study, we rely on cross-sectional base-year data (2009) when all students were in Grade 9.ParticipantsOur analytic sample consists of those students who: (1) were enrolled in and able to select their fall 2009 math course; (2) have valid scores on the dependent variable; and (3) have no missing values on items that constitute the independent variable-of-interest, network diversity. This subsampling strategy resulted in a final weighted, analytic sample of 5,570 students in 920 schools.Research DesignSecondary analysis of cross-sectional observational survey data.Data AnalysisMultilevel models with random intercepts are used to estimate students’ math achievement and properly adjust for the nested nature of the data. The models include controls for the HSLS stratified sampling design and for the probability of selection for individuals.ResultsAfter controlling for student- and school-level covariates, results indicate that our operational measure of social capital, network diversity, is significantly associated with math achievement. We also find that math interest significantly moderates this relationship, indicating that the presumed returns of social capital vary by this important non-cognitive characteristic.ConclusionsSocial capital in the form of network diversity helps all students reach resource-or information-rich contacts, such as teachers and counselors. However, by examining how math interest moderates the relation between network diversity and math achievement, we directly locate our work within an underappreciated theoretical niche that explicitly links how the presumed returns of social capital vary by student-level non-cognitive characteristics (e.g., math interest). Network diversity helps all students reach resource- or information-rich contacts including teachers and counselors. However, this does not guarantee that all students will see comparable returns. Results are further discussed in relation to schools’ curricular choice policies.

Alternative education and social justice: considering issues of affective and contributive justice

This article considers the ways in which three alternative education sites in Australia support socially just education for their students and how injustice is addressed within these schools. The article begins with recognition of the importance of Nancy Fraser’s work to understandings of social justice. It then goes on to argue that her framework is insufficient for understanding the particularly complex set of injustices that are faced by many highly marginalised young people who have rejected or been rejected by mainstream education systems. We argue here for the need to consider the importance of ‘affective’ and ‘contributive’ aspects of justice in schools. Using interview data from the alternative schools, we highlight issues of affective justice raised by students in relation to their educational journeys, as well as foregrounding teachers’ affective work in schools. We also consider curricular choices and pedagogical practices in respect of matters of contributive justice. Our contention is that the affective and contributive fields are central to the achievement of social justice for the young people attending these sites. Whilst mainstream schools are not the focus of this article, we suggest that the lessons here have salience for all forms of schooling.

Pedagogic voice: student voice in teaching and engagement pedagogies

In this paper, we are concerned with the notion of ‘pedagogic voice’ as it relates to the presence of student ‘voice’ in teaching, learning and curriculum matters at an alternative, or second chance, school in Australia. This school draws upon many of the principles of democratic schooling via its utilisation of student voice in respect of the curriculum and pedagogy. We recognise that within the schooling context, voice can represent many things. Drawing on interview data, we outline two key areas of student voice: community membership associated with the ownership of practices and decision-making related to the young people’s learning and improved engagement; and encouraging curricular choice and the inclusion of personal interests and strengths within a school environment that is flexible and encourages individual freedom while balancing these with a young person’s required progress at school. Given that a lack of voice in schools has been attributed to many marginalised students’ alienation from mainstream schooling, we demonstrate how attention to pedagogic voice can not only work to engage students in learning, but also improve civic engagement.

Curricular choices of ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities: translating international human rights law into education policy

This paper employs the provisions of international human rights law in order to analyse whether and how liberal states should regulate Haredi educational practices, which sanctify the exclusive focus on religious studies in schools for boys. It conceptualises the conflict between the right to acceptable education and the right to adaptable education in international human rights law, and analyses four case studies of Haredi education that exemplify different socio-legal approaches towards this conflict. The case studies show how education laws are transformed along the cogwheels of education policy, in which there are plural normative orders and many agents who implement them. Based on the case studies, I suggest that policies providing financial incentives for implementing educational standards may facilitate the realisation of the right to acceptable education in Haredi schools more than policies devised to enforce this right. I also suggest stipulations for effective conditional-funding policies.

Situating power potentials and dynamics of learners and tutors within self-assessment models

Many twenty-first century educational discourses focus on including and empowering independent learners. Within the context of five self-assessment models, this article evaluates how these practices relate to the realities of student involvement, empowerment and voice. A proposed new classification of these self-assessment models is presented and theories of power and student voice are utilised to build on the limited existing literature that examines issues of power in self-assessment. The results of the evaluations show that the standard self-assessment model, which has been the default model since the 1930s, is the least empowering for students and also detrimental to producing a dialogic forum with tutors. The other models are far more conducive to permitting a shared understanding of assessment protocols, processes and products and therefore potentially lead to more equitable and transparent assessment communities. The value of this study is that it helps to clarify the possible implications and impacts resulting from the use of each self-assessment model in order to make an informed choice, which will also support the alignment of assessment practices with learning and teaching and curriculum choices.

To change or not to change: indicators of K-12 teacher engagement in innovative educational practices

Teacher adoption of educational innovation frequently involves in taking risks and having a vision of trying something new. Some teachers seem to have a higher level of propensity for embracing the novelty associated with educational innovation. Building on our work to empirically document the behaviours associated with K-12 teacher engagement with educational innovation, we developed an instrument to measure their level of willingness to consider changes in instructional approaches and curricular choices. We administered the instrument along with several other measures to over 400 K-12 educators engaged in a professional development program designed to enhance teacher capacity to adopt educational innovations. We found a number of personal and professional variables to be associated with propensity to adopt educational innovation and developed a structural equation model to verify the relationships. We also found the pre- and post-professional development tour participants experienced significant increases in all but one of our measures. We discuss our results in the context of teaching in schools and the implications for teacher and organisational change.

College Expansion and Curriculum Choice

College Expansion and Curriculum Choice