On Going (Way) Beyond One’s Data: A Proposal to Restrict Recommendations for Practice in Primary Educational Research Journals

To counteract what we see as a growing research-reporting concern, we propose the following editorial-policy change regarding the content of primary research articles in educational research journals: Contributors should restrict their discussion and conclusions to their data and not offer recommendations for educational practice nor speculate about the educational policy implications of their research. We believe that this change will be beneficial for maintaining a separation between evidence and opinion concerning the legitimate warrants of empirical research. We suggest viable accompaniments and alternatives to authors offering practical recommendations and policy speculations in primary-research journal articles. Among these is to rely on all sources of evidence, including systematic research syntheses based on the aggregated contribution of multiple research studies from different sources, with recommendations for practice tailored to specific situations so that both their validity and utility will be increased. It is hoped that our proposed policy change will initiate a conversation among researchers, editors, reviewers, and educational-policy experts with respect to the scope and purpose of primary research journal articles.     

Young adolescent psychological need profiles: Associations with classroom achievement and well‐being

Drawing on self‐determination theory, a person‐centered methodology was adopted to identify distinct pupil profiles based on their psychological need satisfaction. A sample of 586 pupils (387 male, 199 female; mean age = 12.6, range 11–15 years old) from three secondary schools reported their psychological need satisfaction, and well‐ and ill‐being, with teachers rating pupil achievement. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed five distinct profiles. Four profiles indicated synergy existed between the three needs, showing similar in‐group levels of satisfaction across the needs but in varying amounts. Univariate and multivariate analyses, controlling for school and taught subject, revealed the satisfied group displayed the highest classroom performance (F_4,540 = 7.03; p < 0.001; η_p² = 0.05), well‐being (F_8,1,136 = 45.63; p < 0.001; Wilk's Λ = 0.57; η_p² = 0.24) and lowest ill‐being (F_8,1,134 = 23.39; p < 0.001; Wilk's Λ = 0.74, η_p² = 0.14), whereas the dissatisfied group displayed the most adverse outcomes. The findings illustrate that the three psychological needs may operate interdependently and should be considered in combination rather than in isolation. The research offers practical insights into why pupils may function differently in classrooms and could inform targeted initiatives towards pupils with psychological need satisfaction deficits.     

The multiple sources of workplace stress among land-grant university faculty

Workplace stress has received a fair amount of treatment in the research literature over the past decade. What has not been examined, at least not systematically, is this same phenomena inacademe. Our study looked at stress among university faculty at a land-grant university located in the western region of the U. S. Analyses from the self-assessment mail survey (N = 786) reveals that faculty in the Hard Pure Nonlife (e. g., Astronomy, Math, Physics), Hard Applied Nonlife (e. g., Civil Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Computer Science) and Soft Applied Life (e. g., Education Administration, Special Education) experience more stress than faculty in disciplines such as Hard Pure Life (e. g., Botany, Zoology) and Soft Pure Nonlife (e. g., English, Philosophy, Communications). Careful attention was paid to the different levels of stress reported by male and female faculty, with women professors reporting a higher level of stress than their male counterparts. We provide an assessment and explanation for this finding. Research ends with several proposals for individual faculty, department chairs and academic administrators for addressing the problem of workplace pressure and work overload.     

An assessment of the minimum reading comprehension of prospective teachers as defined by a de facto standard

This study contrasts minimum reading comprehension of prospective teachers and average readability of required undergraduate textbooks. The Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) test represents student test scores and textbook readability measurements on the same scale. Over 2,274 teacher education program applicants at 21 institutions in one state participated. A representative sample of 237 books used in these schools was selected. Since the mean DRP test score for students (79.6) was much higher than the mean DRP readability for books (69.9), any difficulties in understanding the average text by the average student cannot be due to basic deficiencies in reading comprehension. However, 20% of the applicants scored below the average DRP value for all books and 33% below the average for the more difficult books. Minimum reading ability varied with plans for teaching at different grade levels and academic areas and with level of commitment to the teaching profession.     

Community participation in bureaucratic organizations: Principles and strategies

The present paper points out that there are tasks that primary groups perform better than bureaucracies and those that bureaucracies perform better than primary groups. Both types of tasks are very interdependent so that sometimes primary group tasks must be performed within the boundaries of the bureaucratic organization. The argument is made that when primary groups intervene in bureaucracies, they can do so directly in non-expert tasks without lowering the effectiveness of the bureaucratic organization. When they intervene in expert aspects, they should do so indirectly through an expert advocate. However, in all intervention the primary group must take into account that its structure is contradictory to that of the bureaucracy and, therefore, it must keep as much distance as possible—consistent with its ability to intervene. From this analysis we derive a series of hypotheses suggesting when the community might ideally use the bureaucracy's own experts, when the community must hire its own experts, when the community should use mass media, strikes, indigenous workers, etc. It is suggested that the multitudinous possibilities for linkages can all be derived from a few basic underlying dimensions of the situation.

---

Résumé Cet article montre qu'il existe certaines tâches que les groupes primaires accomplissent mieux que les bureaucraties, et certaines autres qu'accomplissent mieux les bureaucraties. Les deux sortes de tâches sont interdépendentes; donc parfois les tâches des groupes primaires doivent s'accomplir parmi les organisations bureaucratiques. Les auteurs soutiennent que les groupes primaires peuvent intervenir dans les bureaucraties en complétant les tâches non-expertes sans réduire l'efficacité de l'organisation bureaucratique. Quands ils participent à certains sujets experts, ils devraient se munir d'un agent expert. Mais dans toute intervention le groupe primaire doit se rendre compte que sa structure contredit celle de la bureaucratie et que, par conséquent, il doit se tenir autant à distance que possible par rapport à sa compétence d'intervention. De cette analyse proviennent des hypothèses qui indiquent quand une communauté peut se servir le mieux du personnel expert d'une bureaucratie, quand la communauté doit engager des experts, quand la communauté doit se servir des mass média, des grèves, des ouvriers indigènes, etc. Les nombreuses possibilités de liaisons proviennent toutes de quelques dimensions fondamentales de la situation.

     

Video Presentations that have to Teach

To be successful, an instructional video presentation needs to be effective, valued, liked and efficient, and educationalists and designers should strive (explicitly and implicitly) to satisfy these criteria. In the interests of optimum teaching effect, a didactical distinction is recommended between video presentations that have to ‘instruct’, ‘explain’, ‘tell’ and ‘let encounter’. A schema or frame of reference is proposed, the use of which (it is claimed) can help to optimise communication between video producer, teacher and instructional designer