Fables: The Tortoise? The Hare? The Mathematically Underachieving Male?     

Leone Burton 《Gender and education》1999,11(4):413-426

This article reports on some results from an interview-based study with 70 practising research mathematicians, 35 women and 35 men, at universities in England, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland. The aim of the study was to explore epistemologies of these mathematicians and any impact of them on how they conducted their professional lives. In this article, three conjectures are examined. The first was that career experiences would differ between females and males, as they indeed did. The second was that women would be differently distributed to men within the disciplinary areas, which was not the case. The third was that gender would have no effect on how these mathematicians understood and practised their discipline, which was the case. In the concluding section of the article, the findings are related to the learning of mathematics, particularly in schools, where the expressed heterogeneity of these mathematicians is replaced with an insistent drive towards homogeneity, and that homogeneity reflects a discipline which has been dominated by male styles, choices and expectations.  相似文献   

The importance of interplay between school-based and networked professional development: School professionals’ experiences of inter-school collaborations in learning networks     

Tünde Varga-Atkins  Mark O’Brien  Diana Burton  Anne Campbell  Anne Qualter 《Journal of Educational Change》2010,11(3):241-272

Previous literature has demonstrated that networks can be valuable sources of professional learning. In 2005 all Liverpool schools formed into ten Learning Networks with the aim of improving the quality, and entitlement of, continuing professional development (CPD) for staff as part of a whole-scale local authority initiative. The Liverpool Learning Networks Research explored professionals’ CPD experiences following this organizational change and whether it has enhanced their practice. Triangulated data, a large-scale survey and qualitative interviews conducted in 2007, seem to suggest that where professionals benefited from professional learning in a networked context, the quality of the networked CPD as well as a positive school culture and intra-school collaboration were all important contributors to the success of networked-CPD. This finding can usefully apply Turbill’s (Teacher learning for educational change. Open University Press, Buckingham, 94–114, 2002) model of professional learning to the intersection between school-based and networked-CPD, which suggests that it is at this intersection between internal and external domains that teacher learning can take place. Two scenarios, where this interplay between school-based and networked CPD is positive (enhancement) or negative (tension), are reported through five case studies of professionals underpinned by the survey data, where relevant.  相似文献   

Working with teachers to promote children’s participation through pupil‐led research     

Debbie Burton  Margaret Smith 《Educational Psychology in Practice》2010,26(2):91-104

Enabling children and young people to act as researchers is increasingly viewed as useful in supporting their increased “participation” within settings where they live, work or receive services. This paper reports upon a project conducted by two educational psychologists (EPs) with two primary school class groups, in which the children and their teachers were provided with direct teaching and guidance to develop and undertake their own school‐based research projects. The work of each class group produced significant developments of educational provision across the whole school, showing that the EPs’ work had directly enabled the children to “make a positive contribution”. In addition, teachers and psychologists observed several social, cognitive and personal benefits to the children brought about by their engagement in the processes of questioning, data gathering, analysis, knowledge generation, and dissemination. The authors emphasise the potentially valuable contribution of EPs in promoting children and young people’s understanding and application of research skills, and in working directly alongside teachers within the classroom. Furthermore, the project represents a successful example of EPs and teachers engaging in joint direct work with children.  相似文献   

Effectiveness of peers in delivering programs or motivating older people to increase their participation in physical activity: Systematic review and meta-analysis     

Elissa Burton  Kaela Farrier  Keith D. Hill  Jim Codde  Phil Airey  Anne-Marie Hill 《Journal of sports sciences》2018,36(6):666-678

The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effectiveness of peers to deliver programs or encourage older people to be physically active and improve physical outcomes. Peer reviewed articles published in English between January 1976 and June 2016, retrieved from six databases according to the predefined inclusion criteria were included. Where possible results were pooled and meta-analyses conducted. Eighteen articles were included in the review, a total of 3,492 intervention participants, average age 66.5 years and 67.1% were female. Overall, study quality was medium to high. Interventions mainly included resistance, flexibility and cardiovascular training, however there was one aquatic exercise group. Eight studies were delivered by peers and five utilised peer support, which included advice and being positive but was not directly linked to an exercise intervention. While 16 of the 18 studies reported improvement in levels of physical activity and/or noted physical benefits by peer involvement, the meta-analyses findings supported the control groups for the six-minute-walk-test and the timed-up-and-go test. Findings from this review suggest exercise programs involving peers can promote and maintain adherence to exercise programs. However, results were inconclusive as to whether peers have a positive effect on improving older people’s physical function.  相似文献   

Multiple choice and true/false tests: reliability measures and some implications of negative marking     

Richard F. Burton 《Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education》2004,29(5):585-595

The standard error of measurement usefully provides confidence limits for scores in a given test, but is it possible to quantify the reliability of a test with just a single number that allows comparison of tests of different format? Reliability coefficients do not do this, being dependent on the spread of examinee attainment. Better in this regard is a measure produced by dividing the standard error of measurement by the test's ‘reliability length’, the latter defined as the maximum possible score minus the most probable score obtainable by blind guessing alone. This, however, can be unsatisfactory with negative marking (formula scoring), as shown by data on 13 negatively marked true/false tests. In these the examinees displayed considerable misinformation, which correlated negatively with correct knowledge. Negative marking can improve test reliability by penalizing such misinformation as well as by discouraging guessing. Reliability measures can be based on idealized theoretical models instead of on test data. These do not reflect the qualities of the test items, but can be focused on specific test objectives (e.g. in relation to cut‐off scores) and can be expressed as easily communicated statements even before tests are written.  相似文献   

Newspapers' Struggles with Civic Engagement: The U.S. Press and the Rejection of Public Journalism as Propagandistic     

Burton St. John III 《The Communication Review》2013,16(3):249-270

This article examines how two factors—journalism's professionalized vigilance against co-option and its difficulty differentiating social action communications from propaganda—led to many in the press attacking public journalism as propagandistic. Sociologist Alfred McClung Lee's mid-20th century writings provide fresh explanations for how press critics conflated public journalism with propaganda. Finally, this article maintains that newspapers can improve their pertinence in a new media age by better linking citizen voices into news stories.  相似文献   

Facilitating reflective learning in higher education     

Jill Burton 《Studies in Continuing Education》2013,35(2):193-195

Although writing groups have a long history in higher education, they have only recently been recognized as a support strategy for doctoral students, particularly those at the dissertation stage. From the perspective of student participants, we investigate motivations for participation in and perceived outcomes of voluntary semi-structured writing groups used to facilitate doctoral degree completion. Group participation resulted in the development of a vibrant intellectual community among students, recent doctoral recipients, and faculty. Commitment to degree completion and student and faculty scholarly productivity soared through the use of this simple but innovative pedagogical strategy.  相似文献   

WINTER FAIRYLAND     

Grace Oakes Burton 《The Educational forum》2013,77(1)

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Primary science: knowledge and understanding     

Neil Burton 《Education 3-13》2013,41(2):220-221

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Randomised controlled trial of incentives to improve attendance at adult literacy classes   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Greg Brooks  Maxine Burton  Pam Cole  Jeremy Miles  David Torgerson 《牛津教育评论》2013,39(5):493-504

Background: Incentives have been proposed as a method to improve attendance in adult literacy classes. In the UK, several areas have piloted the use of incentives to promote attendance at adult literacy classes. To date no rigorous evaluation of this policy has been undertaken. This paper describes (as far as we are aware) the only UK‐based randomised controlled trial to evaluate the use of financial incentives in order to promote attendance in classes for adult learners.

Methods: We used a cluster‐randomised design. Twenty‐nine adult literacy classes were randomised in two groups using minimisation. Intervention group learners received £5 (US$10) for each class attended. The main outcome was class attendance; the secondary outcome was literacy scores.

Results: After allocation, one class was found to be ineligible for the study. In the 28 remaining classes there was a statistically significant reduction of about 1.5 sessions (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.28, 2.79; p = 0.019) attended by the intervention group compared with control, after adjusting for cluster size and baseline scores. The difference in reading scores between the intervention and control group, conditioned on baseline scores, was ?2.38 (with controls scoring higher than the intervention group), but this difference was not statistically significant (95% CI ?7.40 to 2.57, p = 0.33).

Conclusion: Payments to attend adult literacy classes had an adverse effect on attendance. This trial needs urgent replication, ideally with a larger incentive, before this approach is widely used by policy makers.  相似文献