Girls (and Boys) and Technology (and Toys)

In this inquiry, I have examined how 11- to 14-year-old students used technology to design and produce toys. While most students created toys by hand, I explored the range of computer use, and male and female students’ views of this integrated unit. In addressing three specific research questions, I found that a project-based unit allowed students to use technology in meaningful ways, that the wide variety of computer use disrupted typical gender-technology patterns, and that computer use allowed some shifts in traditional gender-technology relations. L’étude porte sur les diverses utilisations de l’ordinateur et sur la manière dont les garçons et les filles de 11 à 14 ans perçoivent l’unité intégrée qu’est un jouet conçu par ordinateur. Les résultats suggèrent qu’une unité axée sur un projet permet aux élèves de se servir de la technologie de manière intéressante, que la variété des utilisations de l’ordinateur modifie profondément les modèles typiques quant à la technologie et aux différences entre les sexes et que l’utilisation de l’ordinateur permet certains changements dans les rapports traditionnels entre la technologie et les sexes.

As if it Could be Otherwise: A Tribute to Maxine Greene, December 23, 1917 – May 29, 2014

Tribute to Maxine Green

Exploring the use of new school buildings through post-occupancy evaluation and participatory action research

This paper presents the results of the development and testing of an integrated post-occupancy evaluation (POE) approach for teachers, staff, pupils and community members using newly constructed school buildings. It focusses on three cases of UK secondary schools, demonstrating how users can be inspired to engage with the problems of school design and energy use awareness. The cases provided new insights into the engagement of school teachers, staff and young people regarding issues of sustainability, management, functional performance and comfort. The integrative approach adopted in these cases provided a more holistic understanding of these buildings’ performance than could have been achieved by either observational or more traditional questionnaire-based methods. Moreover, the whole-school approach, involving children in POE, provided researchers with highly contextualised information about how a school is used, how to improve the quality of school experiences (both socially and educationally) and how the school community is contributing to the building's energy performance. These POE methods also provided unique opportunities for children to examine the social and cultural factors impeding the adoption of energy-conscious and sustainable behaviours

Learning Through the Arts: Lessons of Engagement

In this article, we describe the effects on student achievement and attitudes of a Canadian school-wide, arts education approach, Learning Through the Arts (LTTA). Our sample included over 6000 students and their parents, teachers, and principals. We gathered data, both at the outset and after three years of involvement in LTTA on student achievement, student attitudes towards arts and schooling, and out-of-school activities. We found no baseline differences in achievement nor in socioeconomic status in the LTTA and control schools. At the end of three years, the grade-6 LTTA students scored significantly higher on tests of computation than students in control schools. We conclude the article with suggestions for extending this longitudinal research. Keywords: arts-based learning, arts-based schooling, engagement, arts and achievement Dans cet article, les auteures décrivent les effets sur le rendement scolaire et les attitudes des élèves du programme Apprendre par les arts (APLA) implanté dans un réseau scolaire. Léchantillon regroupait plus de 6000 élèves, les parents, les enseignants et les directeurs des écoles canadiennes participantes. Les auteurs ont colligé, au début dimplantation du programme APLA et après une période de trois ans dapplication, des données sur le rendement des élèves, leurs attitudes envers les arts et lécole et les activités extrascolaires. Il ny avait aucune différence de base quant au rendement ou au statut socioéconomique entre les écoles ayant recours au programme APLA et les écoles témoins. Au terme de létude de trois ans, les élèves qui ont appris avec le programme APLA ont obtenu en mathématiques des notes nettement supérieures à celles des élèves des écoles témoins. Mots clés: enseignement et apprentissage par les arts, participation, arts et rendement des élèves.

A Geographical Analysis of Canadian Students Taking Independent Music Lessons: The Rural Experience

The engagement of students taking private music lessons is affected by a range of factors, one of which is the geographic location of the student’s family. This is a geographical analysis of 6,500 questionnaire responses completed by Canadian music teachers, students, and parents, including 819 responses (12.6%) from participants living in ‘rural’ areas, as defined by Statistics Canada. Participants’ home locations were categorized on a five-point ordinal scale from ‘rural’ to ‘very large urban population center’, data-matched with further geospatial data relating to deprivation and road distances, and assessed for strength and direction of association with questionnaire items. Results revealed that students living in more rural areas performed more regularly than those in more urban areas, with parents and teachers in more rural areas taking greater part in collective music making events. Whilst they derived a smaller proportion of their household income from music, teachers in more rural areas garnered greater respect from parents. Parents also reported increasing pleasure in children’s musical progress as population centers decreased in size. The results offer tentative support to the view that in more rural situations, where there are potentially fewer students and teachers, closer intergenerational bonds are possible, and more aspects of private music lessons might reflect locally-valued traditions and resources