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Learning about research ethics and research integrity is greatly facilitated by case studies, which illuminate, ground and personalise abstract questions. This paper argues that fiction can provide similar learning experiences, incarnating ethical dilemmas through a medium that is highly accessible yet sophisticated in its depictions of how researchers behave. Examples of fictional illustrations are given to illustrate various themes such as animal experimentation, exploitation of the vulnerable, researcher bias and research fraud.

For people with symptoms that could indicate cancer, prompt presentation to a health care practitioner facilitates early diagnosis, improves survival, and is encouraged by public health agencies and cancer charities. Nevertheless, time to presentation from symptom onset (the patient interval) is known to vary widely. We report findings from a mixed-methods study examining help-seeking among people with symptoms of lung or colorectal cancer. Patients referred for urgent investigation were invited to complete a questionnaire about their symptoms and help-seeking experiences; 26 of these participants then took part in a semi-structured interview. Discrepant accounts of help-seeking were reported through the different research methods, with longer 'patient intervals' reported in interviews. We use the concept of 'public and private accounts' to reflect upon why socially conforming accounts of early presentation were presented in the questionnaires, whilst accounts of longer 'patient intervals' tended to be presented within an interview encounter.

An extensive focus on written language in early literacy instruction and assessment for emergent bilinguals places students at a disadvantage since they are learning English as a new language. Typically, classroom instruction has a narrow view of literacy and is dominated by a focus on tested skills, with little emphasis on the diverse backgrounds and experiences of today's students. In order to value the rich meaning-making process that emergent bilinguals bring with them to the classroom, this article explores the ways in which technology affords multimodal composing opportunities. A case of one emergent bilingual, Alon, whose home language is Tagalog, is presented to showcase his text productions as responses to children's literature. The findings help extend an understanding of articulating meaning through talk, contributions of written language, and the importance of the visual mode. This case helps educators see the need to take into account a cohesive portrait of composing processes as a way to make sense of the strengths of emergent bilingual students in English-only classrooms.

Composing is an essential part of literacy development in early childhood classrooms, and writing experiences are continually changing through advances in technology. Writing in a new language can be particularly challenging for emergent bilinguals as they navigate learning how to spell in English as part of the writing process. New pedagogical tools must be used to support these students as meaning makers and composers. In this study, we investigated how a group of first-grade emergent bilinguals used word prediction software as they created digital compositions over the course of a year. The results suggest several positive ways, such as basic spelling support, extended written responses, and additional opportunities to practice reading, that this digital tool enhanced the meaning-making process of emergent bilingual writers. Recommendations for educators to implement word prediction software in classrooms are included.

Reading comprehension expectations in content areas have increased for students during the past decade. Many secondary students, including students with learning disabilities, improve their reading proficiency of grade-level text when they receive explicit instruction. The authors propose a self-questioning strategy routine designed to enhance secondary students' comprehension of expository text and to increase student engagement in content classes. The routine includes explicit, teacher-directed instruction and incorporates before-, during-, and after-reading activities using modeling and guided practice. A scenario of a secondary teacher implementing the proposed self-questioning strategy routine in a social studies course is presented.

Purpose: The main purpose is to investigate what resources young emergent bilinguals use to communicate a multimodal response to children's literature. In particular, attention is paid to the ways students translanguage as part of the learning process. Design/methodology/approach: An ethnography-in-education approach was used to capture the social and cultural aspects of literacy learning in an English-only context. A multimodal transcript analysis was applied to video-recorded data as a method for examining semiotic resources and modes of learning. Findings: The results revealed that students used technology, paper-based resources and peers to construct meaning relative to books. Experimentation or play with the affordances of the tablet computer served as avenues to determine the agentive selection of resources. As students wrestled with constructing meaning, they gathered multiple perspectives from peers and children's literature to involve symbols and representations in their texts. Signs, multiple language forms and meaning came together for the social shaping of situated perspectives. Originality/value: This study addresses the call for educators to engage in multiliterate, multimodal practices with young learners in the contexts of classrooms. It provides insight into the need to create multilingual learning spaces where translanguaging freely occurs and the meaningful ways early childhood learners use technology. To fully understand what emergent bilinguals know and can do, they must be afforded a variety of semiotic resources at school.

There is a need to gain insight into the ways technology positively impacts the literacy development of young children learning English as a new language given public scrutiny about the use of technology in early childhood classrooms. When thinking about the future, being multiliterate is important and requires learners to make, remake, and interpret signs in multiple modes [Rowsell and Harwood, 2015. "'Let it Go': Exploring the Image of the Child as a Producer, Consumer, and Inventor." "Theory into Practice" 54 (2): 136-146]. This study builds on understanding communication from a multimodal perspective that sees the child as an active agent in their own learning. Twelve second-grade (ages seven and eight) emergent bilingual students responded to children's literature through video posts over the course of a school year. The findings indicate the essential role of semiotic resources in terms of student agency, feedback, identity, and digital play. The types of interactions that emergent bilingual students engage in using technology impacts literacy learning and pushes back against school curricula with a print-centric focus.

Despite a substantial body of research on young people's wishes about the content and delivery of sex and relationships education (SRE), studies still indicate dissatisfaction with the way lessons are provided. This discussion takes place in a public health context where young people's sexual activity is viewed negatively as a risk to health, and advice focusses on the need to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. This focus on risk clashes with cultural representations of sexuality, and particularly male sexuality, which focus on pleasure and risk taking. In this paper, we present insights from workshops provided by a local charity to boys aged 14-15 in a school in one of the most deprived areas in Edinburgh, Scotland. We held four focus groups with a total of 20 boys and interviewed the workshop providers and the school guidance teacher. The boys valued having men from outside school talking to them about sex and relationships in ways that made them feel respected. They were keen to learn more about relationships, highlighting the need to focus on how SRE is delivered to young working class men.

This article reports on an exploratory two-stage sequential mixed methods research study that investigated the views of university educators on the introduction of assessment methods other than essays, exams and dissertations within taught Masters programmes. In the first stage, interviews were conducted internationally with 45 participants and the data analysed using an activity theoretical framework. The article illustrates how interviewees questioned their existing practice and reworked aspects of it, using new assessment methods as tools to transform their teaching and learning processes. The issues emerging from this analysis informed the design of a second study that used Q methodology to interpret five shared viewpoints on assessment methods among a group of UK-based educators. These viewpoints all saw alternative assessment methods as having advantages over traditional methods in, for example, encouraging student motivation and improving equality of opportunity, although training for academic staff in such methods was seen as necessary. Differences between the five viewpoints related to, for example, whether improving assessment methods requires a shift in how learning is viewed, and the importance of institutional support in encouraging assessment innovation. The five viewpoints are compared and contrasted. Tensions within and across assessment related activity systems are also considered, and recommendations made for further research into stakeholder viewpoints and values to improve collaboration across interacting networks.

This article documents an extended Mexican family's social practices surrounding literacy as they engage with bilingual children's literature in a unique context that draws from both home and school without the pressures of curriculum mandates. The research is situated within the southeastern United States where English-dominant practices permeate the school and community. Sociocultural and third space theories provide a framework for understanding the complexities surrounding language use and literacy development. Findings indicate the new space, Story Nights, provides for the development of connections to Mexican culture and a notion of community-based literacy learning. The author makes recommendations for classroom teachers, teacher education programs, and educational policy to be more inclusive of Latino/Latina English learners.

This year-long qualitative study draws from multimodal theory and New Literacies Studies to document the digital literacy experiences of a diverse group of 2nd-graders using e-readers. Twenty-first century classrooms must expand traditional notions of literacy to prepare students for the ever-changing, media-rich world. Students participated in small-group digital reading workshops, where they read interactive picture books. The data mainly drew from transcripts of student interactions and open-ended interviews and were analyzed through a combination of comparative and discourse analyses. The author argues that multimodal texts offer opportunities for rehearsal of literacy practices, engagement, talk as a choice of reader response, and student agency. Even though personal digital devices offer opportunities for independent reading, young readers still need social interactions around books to co-construct meaning. The study found the students spent additional time reading and successfully mediated the available resources as they engaged in digital reading.

First year undergraduate courses in higher education tend to be designed based on assumptions of students' prior knowledge. Almost 600 undergraduates at five UK universities, studying biological sciences, were given an MCQ test in their first week at university, based on biology A-level (pre-university examination) core criteria. Results demonstrated low-level retention of basic concepts. There was variation between subject area and examination board and an inverse correlation between MCQ score and time since taking A-levels. By discovering what students remember from their pre-university learning, undergraduate courses can be designed to be more student-focused and so develop a deeper-learning teaching strategy. The results also suggest that, if A-levels are to be redesigned to enhance their impact for students entering higher education, creating programmes which encourage retention of key concepts should be a key factor to consider.

Transaction circles weave together elements of guided reading and literature circles in an open conversational structure that supports students as agentive learners. Discourse within these circles utilizing digital informational texts assist in the development of democratic practices even in a time when federal mandates limit curricula and prescribe programs. The findings of this study reveal the importance of aesthetic learning experiences in knowledge construction and the ways in which thinking through complex issues with others benefits social action.

The Curriculum for Excellence and new National Qualifications offer innovative reform, based on widely supported ideas and aims, for Scottish preschool, primary and secondary education levels. "Objectives and syllabuses" for science are replaced by "experiences and outcomes". Most strikingly, central prescription makes way for teacher autonomy in preparing young people to be responsible citizens as well as successful learners. This leads to diversity of provision and some uncertainties, with schools and parents recognising practical implementation problems. The success of the innovations should be enhanced by collaboration between different education sectors and the introduction of independent evaluation. The Government has, so far, resisted the latter.

Assessment at Masters Level is the subject of a three-year UK National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) project, "Assimilate", which seeks to explore innovatory approaches in this field. More than 40 interviews were undertaken for the project with teachers at Masters level in the UK and internationally. Although national and institutional systems differentiate clearly in their documentation how assessment at M-level should differ from that at undergraduate level, in practice there is not necessarily such clarity. This article draws on how teachers and programme leaders on Masters level courses who were interviewed for the project described the differences in practice. It concludes that there is considerable confusion and ambivalence about what distinguishes one level from another and scope for further clarification.

This article documents the experiences of a diverse group of second grade students during a nine week unit of study focused on graphic stories. The project begins as the class is immersed in reading graphic stories designed for young readers. Images, written text, and dialog are utilized to scaffold reading comprehension and to practice fluency. Then, students construct their own graphic stories based on characters from books, popular culture, and personal experiences. Each story is transformed into a digital format with narration using Photo Story. The results indicate student growth in the areas of comprehension and fluency. There is also a need to integrate new literacies with traditional to prepare students for communicating in the 21st century.

In this article the author shares examples of reading conferences with 10 English learners over the course of a semester. The reading conferences are conducted by four monolingual, European-American teachers at a primary school in the Southeastern United States. Sociocultural and identity theories are used as a theoretical frame for the research study. Observations of the reading conferences reveal several themes inhibiting the literacy learning of English learners: lack of self-correction opportunities, unbalanced instruction, metalanguage, text difficulty, and book levels. In addition, the conferences with English learners are compared to native-speaking students in a cross-case analysis. Transcripts illustrate the complex factors affecting the learning and identity formation process for English learners. The author offers suggestions for reframing reading conferences with English learners. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Over 20?years, 25 books have been published to date in the SEDA series, and this review article aims to analyse the ways in which books within the series have contributed to thinking in higher education pedagogy over this time. We have approached the texts through three lenses, analysing them chronologically, thematically and by the orientation of the authors towards educational development. We demonstrate that the coverage of topics and the syntheses of ideas that the texts represent have holistically provided invaluable coverage of the key thinking in the field. Not only have the texts contributed to knowledge but also they have asserted the importance of the underpinning SEDA values which they represent in practice, helping to build the community of practice that is educational development.

The Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) was formed in 1993 combining a number of predecessor organisations, including the Standing Conference for Educational Development and the Staff Development Group of the Society for Research in Higher Education. It was later joined by the membership of the Association of Educational Training Technology, SEDA Scotland and Flexible Learning in Higher Education. SEDA was set up to support members of the emergent profession of educational development, originally in the UK and subsequently internationally. In this article, the case is made that SEDA became a highly successful community of practice of individuals working in higher education institutions. It is proposed that features of communities of practice as proposed within the literature in the field can be evidenced in SEDA's activities and in comments collected from SEDA members whose views were sought for this article.

In the two decades, since Staff and Educational Development Association was formed, educational development has become a mature and internationally recognised discipline, informed strongly by the scholarship of teaching. Writing about teaching, learning and assessment has helped to describe, distil, analyse and affect practice, and to change the way in which educational development as a profession has become regarded. Books have been of great importance in this transition, with educational developers in many parts of the world building a learning community through discussing the books on their shelves. This article provides a personal selection of 20 key books that have been highly influential, with the aim of promoting debate both on the choice of texts and the future of educational development books in the next 20 years.

Implementing change in higher education is complex and challenging and its results are difficult to measure. This article will argue that university senior management can make change happen but it is rarely straightforward and never easy. It reviews the ways in which leaders aiming to enhance practice can implement enhancement activities, providing examples from the point of view of a senior manager working in a large United Kingdom metropolitan university that was experiencing a number of challenges requiring immediate action.

The United States is becoming more multilingual with globalization. Public schools continue to enroll increasing numbers of students who speak a language other than English. This adds to the rich diversity of classrooms while at the same time offers challenges for educators. This collaborative-ethnographic style research study investigates the ways in which identities are constructed for and by an English language learner (ELL) as she uses language at school. The author explores classroom reading events and the ways one ELL negotiates these events with her peers in an English dominant classroom. Results reveal the fluidity of identities across classroom curricular structures at school.

Problems continue to pervade the educational experiences of many minority students, especially Latinos. Through a sociocultural framework, this ethnographic study closely examines the experiences of a Puerto Rican family at home and in an English-dominant school. The study focuses on the school experiences of the family's kindergarten son. The analysis reveals ways this family can broaden Eurocentric world views. Early educators will realise the extent to which they alter a child's cultural identity, thus empowering or disempowering them as an individual. Implications for early childhood education include valuing funds of knowledge, code-switching, and challenging assumptions.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to outline the ways in which staff of a post-1992 UK university set about enhancing the student experience, at a time when the institution had poor student evaluations as demonstrated by the UK National Student Survey and other indicators. Using a range of interventions led by the PVC (Academic), a concerted effort is made to improve classroom teaching, assessment and feedback, and the ways in which actions taken in response to student feedback were reported back to students. Design/methodology/approach: The article reviews some of the literature available on the NSS and on bringing about changes in universities, and demonstrates how such approaches were put in place. Findings: Over a period of 18 months, it was possible to report significant changes in practice, resulting in demonstrable improvements, both in NSS scores and staff morale. Research limitations/implications: The article uses a reportage approach, describing the steps taken as part of an evidence-informed approach: potential future work will be undertaken by a new team, following a wide-ranging restructuring of the university. Practical implications: It was necessary to recognise that teaching staff felt they were already working very hard, so changes had to be both manageable for staff and demonstrably leading to measurable improvements. Social implications: The article argues that a top-down approach alone is insufficient to bring about rapid changes in a difficult context, and describes how diverse agents' enacted improvements. Originality/value: The quality enhancement approaches described here are shared by a number of universities with similar aims: the originality of the approach lies in its coherence and collaborative nature, which combined evidence-led leadership and cross-institutional commitment.

In this article, three educators share case studies describing racial biases and segregationist practices in early schooling. The authors draw upon critical race theory as a lens and employ critical discourse analysis to uncover classed and raced biases within and across three early childhood contexts. While the cases are situated in specific public school settings--a parent teacher association (PTA) fundraiser, a mandated literacy program, and a read-aloud--they shed light onto a variety of contexts as these are all common phenomena in many American elementary schools. Together, the cases illustrate how racism has been normalized through familiar practices in early childhood settings. Through description and reflection, the authors suggest ways to start seeing the strange in the familiar, unpacking racialized practices across three settings, and advocating new ways of thinking about these common practices leading to change and transformation. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)

This qualitative case study analyzes literacy events that were co-constructed by one bilingual, Mexican student and his English-only peers. The article examines the linguistic resources and literacy practices that Juan used as he created a picture book during writer's workshop. Data included video-taped interactions, artifacts, and interviews. The analysis utilized critical and narrative analyses. Findings illustrate the complexity of negotiating space as a bilingual outsider in an English-only classroom. The fluidity of the teacher's physical location impacted access to academic interactions. The importance of co-constructing literate identities proved invaluable as it built social and cultural capital for this particular child. (Contains 2 tables and 1 footnote.)

Throughout the United States, deficit perspectives contribute to Latino students' failure in terms of school success. This happens because many educators still regard bilingualism as a deficit. We examined the discourse of one family to better understand how deficit, assimilationist discourse affected them and their two children. We came to understand that, influenced by deficit messages, parents celebrated accelerated English acquisition. Implications for teachers include the recognition and support of linguistic and cultural diversity in the classroom. We suggest a sociocultural perspective that embraces the culture and humanity of every student and helps support the maintenance of multiple cultures. (Contains 4 footnotes.)

This study examined the functions that student talk served during partner reading events in a second grade classroom. Five major themes of talk emerged from the data including organizational, disputational, word strategy, meaning making and personal talk. All of these types of talk functioned to support partner reading except for personal talk, which occurred infrequently. The classroom teacher also provided support for these same discourses through her mini-lessons and read alouds.

There is evidence of progress over the last decade in the quest for research to inform ideas of good practice in teaching. This function of research had achieved increased status and funding, and attention has focused on issues such as how teachers learn and evidence-based practice. This has been supported by several "official" initiatives, three of which are given special attention in this paper. Teacher/researcher networking has contributed to greater involvement of teachers in research and discredited simple-minded ideas of "delivery" models of evidence to be embedded in practice. However, placing research entirely in teachers' hands has revealed concerns about research quality. Different forms of collaborative relationships between researchers and teachers, and among projects within a programme, have increased understanding of the conditions under which research can impact on practice. What and how to disseminate evidence to wider audiences remains a challenge.

The ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme is the largest ever programme of educational research in the UK. This article reports the purposes, processes, outcomes and issues arising from cross-programme thematic work on the conceptualization of, and research into, 'enhancing learning outcomes' which is a key aim of the programme. Early documentation from thirty projects is analysed, especially in relation to a classification of learning outcomes, dominant metaphors of learning, sector differences and evidence of outcomes. Discussion focuses upon persistent issues concerning the assessment of the broad range of outcomes, what leads to them, and how knowledge of these links might be established.

This paper explores, contrasts, and considers some of the implications of the different ways in which the culture of practice in pre-school provision is construed by various actors ("outsiders" and "insiders") in the enterprise. "Outsiders" means those with responsibility for the formulation of the curriculum, the inspection of provision and the training of pre-school staff (typically managers and assessors). The perspectives of two types of insiders, that is, pre-school practitioners and children, are considered. Differences are mapped out in the perspectives of outsiders and of insider practitioners and insider children, drawing on findings from a series of research projects carried out (between 1996 and 2001) investigating aspects of pre-school provision in Scotland. The evidence suggests that outsiders adopt an espoused culture that envisages practitioners fulfilling prescribed roles to deliver a curriculum that will allow children to achieve planned outcomes and which is largely independent of context. In contrast, the implicit culture of practitioners arises from the context of the setting in which they work, is dynamic, flexible, and focuses on maintaining desirable activities in the playroom rather than specified progress goals. The children's perspective is characterized by a focus on play, making choices to satisfy individual preferences and enjoying the company of other children. This study goes on to link these differences to differing pressures and responsibilities that rest on outsiders and insiders and their differing construction of childhood in the context of pre-school provision. The paper concludes with a consideration of some of the implications of these differences for innovations in practice, the initial and continuing education of practitioners, accounting for practice and planning for provision in a way that recognizes differences, and the need to test tentative educational knowledge in context, rather than assume a consensual body of knowledge.

This article emphasises the importance of research that helps us to understand how things are in early childhood education and care, why they are the way they are, what are the alternative decisions or actions we might take in order to change things and what are the implications of choosing among those alternatives. As an illustration of this, it focuses on the different ways in which outsiders and insiders make sense of practice in Scottish pre-school provision, and on the need to take account of such differences if changes are to be introduced to improve that practice. There is a common tendency to assume that the insiders, teachers and nursery nurses, share the same conceptual frameworks as the outsiders who wish to introduce change. The research reported here suggests that this is not a valid assumption. Some outsiders have been unhappy with this finding and its implication that they have not been ready to take account of the perspectives of others. Insiders, however, have been obliged to take account of outsiders' ways of construing practice since inspections and professional development activities have been based on such constructions. It is argued that effective innovation will only be achieved if those undertaking initiatives in pre-school provision fulfil their promises to take account of the perspectives of the other playroom stakeholders and not to assume that everyone thinks exactly as they do. (Contains 2 figures.)

Compared external expectations about preschool teachers and their role with the way teachers think about their own practice. Responses suggest that it is possible to establish an external, decontextualized framework that sets out the teacher's role and reflects current policy, research, or political and cultural agendas, but that it is important to consider the practitioner perspective for professional development. (JPB)

Uses data from pilot year of Pre-school Education Initiative in Scotland to look at the impact of government-introduced voucher system intended to expand preschool provision. Identifies four changes in provision and for the culture: playroom activities, expectations for purpose/outcomes of program, parental roles, and requirements for quality assurance and accountability. (Author/KB)

In 1996, a voucher scheme was introduced to promote educational provision for preschool children in Scotland. Qualitative and quantitative explorations of the views of parents and providers describe the workings of the educational "market" when one of the competing sectors (public sector) had a substantial monopoly power over the others (private and voluntary sectors). (Author/SV)

The consequential validity of assessment was explored through a qualitative study of the impacts of assessment practices on student perceptions of learning and their learning behavior. Results from 13 case studies over two and a half academic years show that students experiencing a variety of types of alternative assessment did perceive many of the features educators considered beneficial. (SLD)