Vol 15 no 1 january 2016 by ijlter.org

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching And Educational Research

Vol.15 No.1

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

The International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research is an open-access journal which has been established for the disChief Editor Dr. Antonio Silva Sprock, Universidad Central de semination of state-of-the-art knowledge in the Venezuela, Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of field of education, learning and teaching. IJLTER welcomes research articles from academics, edEditorial Board ucators, teachers, trainers and other practitionProf. Cecilia Junio Sabio ers on all aspects of education to publish high Prof. Judith Serah K. Achoka quality peer-reviewed papers. Papers for publiProf. Mojeed Kolawole Akinsola Dr Jonathan Glazzard cation in the International Journal of Learning, Dr Marius Costel Esi Teaching and Educational Research are selected Dr Katarzyna Peoples through precise peer-review to ensure quality, Dr Christopher David Thompson originality, appropriateness, significance and Dr Arif Sikander readability. Authors are solicited to contribute Dr Jelena Zascerinska to this journal by submitting articles that illusDr Gabor Kiss trate research results, projects, original surveys Dr Trish Julie Rooney Dr Esteban Vázquez-Cano and case studies that describe significant adDr Barry Chametzky vances in the fields of education, training, eDr Giorgio Poletti learning, etc. Authors are invited to submit paDr Chi Man Tsui pers to this journal through the ONLINE submisDr Alexander Franco sion system. Submissions must be original and Dr Habil Beata Stachowiak should not have been published previously or Dr Afsaneh Sharif be under consideration for publication while Dr Ronel Callaghan Dr Haim Shaked being evaluated by IJLTER. Dr Edith Uzoma Umeh Dr Amel Thafer Alshehry Dr Gail Dianna Caruth Dr Menelaos Emmanouel Sarris Dr Anabelie Villa Valdez Dr Özcan Özyurt Assistant Professor Dr Selma Kara Associate Professor Dr Habila Elisha Zuya

VOLUME 15

NUMBER 1

January 2016

Table of Contents Funding Higher Education in Australia: Is it Time to Look at Income Share Agreement as an Alternative Model to Income Contingent Loans? ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Steven Holliday and Ergun Gide Discipline Based Art Education as an Approach to Art Instruction: The Case of Standard Seven Curriculum in Botswana ................................................................................................................................................................................ 14 Dr Magdeline Chilalu Mannathoko Inclusive Education and Challenges of Providing Classroom Support to Students with Blindness in a General Education Classroom at a School in Botswana ................................................................................................................ 30 Joseph Habulezi, Odiretsemang Molao, Sandy Mphuting and Kebotlositswe Mark Kebotlositswe Small-Group Discussion and the Development of Interpretive Strategies in Literature Classrooms: a QuasiExperimental Study with 9th - Grade Students ............................................................................................................... 42 Agapi Dalkou and Evangelia Frydaki Experiences of School and Family Communications and Interactions Among Parents of Children with Reactive Attachment Disorder ............................................................................................................................................................ 66 Raol Taft, Candace Schlein and Crystal M. Ramsay The Predictive Power of Reasoning Ability on Academic Achievement ...................................................................... 79 Mehraj A. Bhat Critical Analysis of Embedded and Summative Feedback from Online Doctoral Instructors on Benchmark Assessments .......................................................................................................................................................................... 89 Kelley Walters, PhD and Patricia Henry, PhD

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1-13, January 2016

Funding Higher Education in Australia: Is it Time to Look at Income Share Agreement as an Alternative Model to Income Contingent Loans? Steven Holliday Central Queensland University, Australia Ergun Gide Central Queensland University, Australia

Abstract. Human Capital Contracts are an emerging alternative means for financing the up-front investment cost of university students. This method involves investors financing the development of a students’ human capital based on their expected future incomes and taking as share of their future income for a defined period as a return on their investment. In recent years such an approach has begun to emerge in the United States in particular. In Australia student fees are funded through an income contingent loan system however this system is struggling with high debt levels and high proportional write offs. Would an Income Share Agreement (ISA) program possibility be an alternative scheme which may take pressure of the Australian Government funding by transferring the risk to the private sector? Ideally such a scheme would maintain the basic principles behind the current system, but allow for private investors to predominantly fund the scheme. Potentially principles from both financing systems may provide a framework for a new innovative model into the future. This review suggest that further research appears to be warranted as this alternative scheme has potential to address some of the key Higher Education funding concerns in Australia at this time. Keywords: HECS; Human Capital; Funding; Higher Education; ISA; “Income share agreements”

Introduction Funding of higher education is vital for the achievement of the educational aspirations of any nation. If the funding is not adequate, it is unlikely that the desired results will be actualised. The capital labour market is known for its limitations as the market has difficulty pricing the work in progress value of individuals. According to Yu and Salyards (2008) Capital Asset Pricing Models do not allow for the market to adequately price human capital as a work in progress. An investment in an individual’s higher education is an investment in a future asset, but there is no

way to secure that investment. As Chapman (1997) pointed out market for human slavery,” so how does an investor invest graduate’s expected income? Future income is uncertain, and collateral to fall back on or recover should the future income eventuate.

“there is no in a future there is no streams not

Friedman outlined the reasoning for his Human Capital Contract ideas as follows: “The counterpart for education would be to "buy" a share in an individual's earning prospects: to advance him the funds needed to finance his training on condition that he agrees to pay the lender a specified fraction of his future earnings. In this way, a lender would get back more than his initial investment from relatively successful individuals, which would compensate for the failure to recoup his original investment from the unsuccessful” (Friedman, 1955, np.). “On the other hand, if individuals sold 'stock' in themselves, i.e., obligated themselves to pay a fixed proportion of future earnings, investors could 'diversify' their holdings and balance capital appreciations against capital losses. The purchase of such 'stock‟ would be profitable so long as the expected return on investment in training exceeded the market rate of interest”(Friedman & Kuznets, 1945, p.90). Over the last 5 to 7 years there has been considerable interest in Human Capital Contracts or Income Share Agreements (ISA’s) as they are sometimes known. Contracts through organisations such as Pave, Upstart and Alumni have been commenced in a Friedman style approach. This has also come to the attention of regulators who have begun to consider guidelines for the operation of these schemes (discussed further below). Australia has a significantly different approach to the funding of higher education (HE) to the United States, however these concepts should be explored to further to examine whether they can be adopted successfully to the Australian context and for the benefit of the public good.

Methodology To further understand how these relatively new concepts can be applied to the Australian Higher Education sector, a review of current literature has been summarised below. The literature reviewed examine both contemporary practices and current thinking both for arguments for and against this approach. By looking at the recurrent themes arising from this literature, these concepts are then considered with reference to our current higher education funding arrangements in Australia and consideration is then made as to how these concepts may be applied in that context.

Analysis and Results of Literature Review

a) What is a Human Capital Contract (HCC) and how does it work? Palacios explained the concept and benefits of HCCs succinctly as follows: “Under a human capital contract, a student receives funding in exchange for a percentage of his or her income during a fixed period of time. Human capital contracts

are equity-like instruments because the investor‟s return will depend on the earnings of the student, not on a predefined interest rate. The effects of these arrangements are, among others, less risk for the student, transfer of risk to a party that can manage it better, increased information regarding the economic value of education, and increased competition in the higher education market”(Palacios, 2002, p.1). Another term used for these type of arrangements are “Income Share Agreements”(ISA), this title focuses more on the shared arrangement of investing in an individual’s future income, as those who share in the person’s success should also be rewarded with a share of that success as a return on their investment. The Wall Street Journal has described such agreements as “individuals selling stock in themselves”(Belkin, 2015). In the United States legislation has been introduced to begin the regulation of such arrangements under the “Student Success Act” (US Congress CRS, 2014) whereby student loans would be capped at 30 years and a maximum of 15% of earnings. This legislation is currently seeking passage in respect of these agreements (Griswold, 2014a; Supiano, 2014) . Another important aspect of this legislation is that it is not regarded a debt instrument (US Congress CRS, 2014) which has the benefit for the student in terms of future borrowings and provides a level of security for the student. Companies such as Upstart, Pave and Lumni in the United States are currently providing such financing and the terms are usually based on extensive algorithms to assess the potential risks and potential benefits of the individual being financed (Griswold, 2014b; Nisen, 2015; Surowieki, 2013). The investor is also encouraged to mentor and support the student, however the recent legislation places a prohibition on investors coercing or forcing certain actions or choices on the borrower (CRS, 2014). The idea of advance funding by private investors for a stake in an individual’s success is not new, for example the world champion boxer Muhammed Ali was financed by investors in his early years. These investors paid for his training and expenses in return for a share of his winnings (Surowieki, 2013). In the world of publishing it is not unusual for a book company to advance a writer funds in advance of the book being completed in anticipation of future reward (Surowieki, 2013). Although these examples are similar to the concept discussed, they are relatively unique situations which recognise rare talent. The idea of income contingent loans are not new with such educational financing occurring in many countries such as the U.S.A, U.K, Australia and New Zealand but this financing is usually made by the government and not the private sector (Chapman, 2006). The benefits of an income share agreement was well put by Holt (2013), when compared to private student loans which are common the United States.

“On a private student loan, my nominal monthly payment is fixed (sure, certainty is nice) but my income could change or go away altogether (making certainty just a monthly repetition of bad news). With an Income Share Agreement the converse is true: I don‟t know what my nominal monthly payment will be over the entire term, or how much I will pay overall, but I do know that I will always be able to afford it. Which would you prefer? I‟ll take the certainty from an Income Share Agreement”(Holt, 2013, np.). Income Share Agreements are based similarly on the concepts surrounding income contingent loans such as the Higher Education Contribution Scheme HECS) in Australia, however they have a market approach. An insightful comment on the new Income Share Agreements was made by Surowieki from the New Yorker Magazine: “Upstart may succeed or it may fail, but the principle behind it is unlikely to disappear. This isn‟t entirely a benign development. Income-based plans make it easier for students to repay their loans, but they also reinforce the idea that education funding is the responsibility of the individual rather than of the state. Still, on their own terms, they‟re a step forward. The old way of borrowing was predicated on a world in which the job market was stable and everyone had a steady income. That world of work is changing. The way we finance it needs to change, too” (Surowieki, 2013, np.). b) Are income share agreements akin to a slavery model? There are many commentators who view a Human Capital Contract or an Income Share Agreement in respect of the funding of higher education and other similar arrangements as a form of indentured service which is akin to a slavery model (Previti, 2013). Whilst a common mental image associated with slavery would involve chains and whips and harsh conditions, indentured slavery was generally associated with debt and the exchange of human labour for a set period of time (Oei, 2015). The main objections centre on the availability of opt-out clauses over the course of the agreement (Nerlove, 1975) and whether the lender was able to exercise a level of control over the student that they had financed. The other considerations are whether the conditions are too harsh or unreasonable and whether students are being taken advantage of (Nerlove, 1975). These are reasonable concerns and some of these aspects have been considered in recent legislation in the United States, in particular the Student Success Act (CRS, 2014). Some media commentators such as Kevin Roose from New York Magazine express their social concerns as reflected below and this implies that there may be an uneasiness toward financing where students pledge their future income: “A year-old company begun by ex-Googlers that is giving young people in the post-crash economy the chance to indenture themselves to patrons in the investor class. It does this by making it easy for users to create human-capital contracts” (Roose, 2013, np.).

Oie & Ring (2015, p.714) believe that although there are no human property rights under such agreements, such property rights may be approximated under a financial agreement and that it is important to define some of the legal aspects and definitions in these agreements. This need for legal clarity appears to be a common theme in respect of ISA’s (Kelchen, 2015; Oei, 2015; Supiano, 2014). Some considerations per Oei & Ring (2015 pp. 714-716) in respect of these contracts which separate them from the notion of indentured servitude or slavery are as follows : (i) ISA’s do not force the borrower to work for them; (ii) ISA’s are a voluntary agreement; (iii) Work performed is compensated; (iv) The type of work performed is not specified. c) Availability of investors and the issue of bankruptcy or refusal to pay According to the Wall Street Journal (Belkin, 2015), the financing company Pave ran into problems in 2015 with carrying out this sort of arrangement, not due to student demand for the loans, as demand for their Income Share Agreements was exceptionally strong, the issue was the level of investor take up. Between 2012 and 2014 Pave received over 10,000 applications for funding, however they could only provide for 70 students. Pave found that the lack of legal clarity made it difficult for investors to commit to providing the capital funding (Belkin, 2015, np.). As there are only a few commercial providers, this does represent a potential difficulty for these types of funding arrangements. Whilst this is a current problem, the moves towards legal clarification in the United States may assist to improve investor confidence. The other difficulty perceived by investors is surrounding bankruptcy, refusal to pay and income hiding or even declaring their true intentions for study. “An ISA structure gives students incentive to be less than honest about their intentions -for example, saying they plan to become computer scientists but knowing they will go into social work” (Supiano, 2014, np.). The issue of income avoidance to avoid debt has been well discussed by various commentators (McArdle, 2015; Nerlove, 1975; Oei & Ring, 2015; Supiano, 2014) when considering this area of financing. It should be noted at this point that in the Australian income contingent loan system, repayments are managed through the taxation system and the data is collected from tax returns and repayments made via tax deductions to cover the expected liability. This has proven to be an effective method for recovery, however as Income Share Agreements are generally in the private financing domain, such collection options are not available. The inability to definitively determine the share to be paid could be problematic and this increases the risk for potential investors.

(d) What are the community benefit concerns of ISA’s and how are differing sectors and needs addressed? As a general rule, in a capitalist society the free market will balance supply and demand to determine optimal pricing and provide a diversity of options in the market place. According to Yu & Salyards (2008) human capital models generally have difficulty in this arena as humans are less predictable than machinery or inanimate processes and therefore it is difficult to price in Capital Assets Pricing Models (CAPM). Risk and return play an important consideration, as it does in a normal free market model. In terms of financing future graduates, the market for engineers and doctors, the risk and return factors will be completely different as will be the amount financed. Investors may reasonably prefer to invest in graduate careers which typically generate more income, than investing in graduates in professions which are typically lower paid. The lower the expected income profile, the higher the risk of default and the market will tend towards pricing that risk in the form of higher interest charges. Palacios, the founder of Pave believes a market based approach will send the correct resourcing signal to the student: “Because ISA investors earn a profit only when a student is successful, they offer students better terms for programs that are expected to be of high value and have strong incentives to support students both during school and after graduation. This process gives students strong signals about which programs and fields are most likely to help them be successful” Palacios, De Sorrento & Kelly (2014, p.1). Whilst market forces may drive students to make good economic choices for their future, there is a concern about the social good aspect of education and whether this can be protected in a free market model. Whilst nurses and teachers are vitally important to the community, they are not paid as well as lawyers and accountants. Under a market based Income Share Agreement model there would be a tendency for those being trained in careers which are lower paid, to have their proportional repayments at a higher level. There is a sense of unfairness in this as there would be an additional risk loading which further compounds their lower salary profile and ability to pay. Widespread adoption of such a model could in time affect the supply of students entering these fields. (e) Yale University Tuition Postponement Option This Human Capital Contract concept was partially applied to the Tuition Postponement Option (TPO) introduced to Yale University. This program ran from 1971 to 1978 and was jointly contributed to by Tobin (President of Yale ) and Milton Friedman (Harris, 2013). It was discontinued in 1978 when the government introduced alternative funding options for such students. The concept was generally regarded as the first application of income contingent loans for education, however this was also similar to a Human Capital Contract.

The TPO levied the tuition cost for a cohort of students as a debt to that group of students. A percentage of income would be charged to all of the cohort until the debt was cleared for the entire group. This resulted in members of the cohort paying significant amounts due to the default of others (Harris, 2013). Those defaulting or with poor earnings resulted in a delay in the finalisation of the overall debt obligation, the debt burden of which fell onto the successful students. This arrangement was seen by the students as inequitable and the Alumni of Yale University more than 20 years later pressed for the closure of this arrangement and the write off of remaining debts. The idea that successful graduates would help offset the costs of the unsuccessful graduates was part of the Friedman concept, but his idea was that this was not to be funded by the university itself (Harris, 2013). Under the TPO the debt was defined, attracted interest and the potential term of the contract was extremely long, in this case 35 years before the debt would be written off, whereas the Friedman concept had no defined debt value but was an income contingent payment over a shorter defined period (Friedman & Kuznets, 1945). Whilst this scheme was generally regarded as a failure, it was an experiment which can be learned from. Despite the fact that this program had to be discontinued due to the protests from Yale’s Alumni two decades later, the concept of income contingent financing was later revived through the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) in Australia and similar schemes in other countries such as the UK and New Zealand (Chapman, 2006). (f) H.R.4436 - Investing in Student Success Act of 2014 This Act is important to the topic of human capital contracts, or income share agreements as it represented the first moves in the legal sphere in the area of these types of agreements. This legal move provides an indication of the public issues and the safeguards which were considered important. It provides what appears to be a clear set of guidelines for the protection of students. In terms of a legal definition for an income share agreement, the following was submitted to US Congress as a definition of an Income Share Agreement: “An agreement between an individual and any other person under which the individual commits to pay a specified percentage of the individual's future income, for a specified period of time, in exchange for payments to or on behalf of such individual for postsecondary education, workforce development, or other purposes”(CRS, 2014, np.). The specific areas which were placed as guidelines can be summarized as follows (CRS, 2014): (i) Agreements must specify the percentage of future income agreed to; (ii) The first $10,000 of any year is exempt (indexed each year for inflation); (iii) It must specify what is included as future income;

It must specify a maximum term and the act proposed a maximum period of 360 months not including any months where the borrower’s income was below the minimum; (v) No more than 15% of a person’s income should be obligated under the agreement; (vi) It should also specify the arrangements for early termination of the agreement; (vii) Prohibits the lender to place controls over the borrowers’ actions; (viii) The agreement must clearly indicate that this is not a debt instrument. (iv)

(g) Review of the current Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECSHELP) in Australia The HECS system was regarded as an innovative solution and it has been in operation since 1989 in Australia (Harris, 2013). There are many important principles which underpin this system, and these need to be considered in considering any alternative approaches. One of the important aspects of the HECS program was to re-introduce private contributions from students, whilst at the same time allowing access to university for poor but talented students (Chapman, 1996). In 2005 as part of the Higher Education Support Act 2003, this scheme which relates to students under Commonwealth Supported Places was renamed as the Higher Education Loans Program (HELP) and has now become known as HECS-HELP (Parliament of Australia, 2014). Some of the main principles of HECS-HELP are as follows: (i) Income Contingent financing lowers financial barriers to entry for students who do not have access to funds for higher education, particularly for poor but talented students (Chapman, 1997, p.741). (ii) Income Contingent financing provides a level of insurance for the student, should their career path be affected by unforeseen circumstances and their income not be what was expected, there is no requirement for contributions until they reach the average wage as was per the original scheme (Birch, 2008; Chapman, 1996, 1997). (iii) Income contingent financing provides for students to still have capacity to have future borrowing capacity by only requiring repayments when above average income is earned (Chapman, 1997). Another important aspect is that repayment is payable on death or out of an estate, nor is it payable upon bankruptcy, it remains only payable on the student paying a future portion of their income after they reach a minimum wage level. These factors allow young graduates to be eligible to apply for finance. Concerns were raised early in the scheme that the education loans would delay students in starting families due to the financial burden and restricted borrowing capacity. These concerns raised by Davis (2005), were refuted by a comprehensive analysis in an article (Yu, Kippen & Chapman, 2007, pp.73-90). (iv) As Chapman pointed out: “HECS offers a form of „default insurance', such that the former student does not have to bear the costs of reneging on their debt as a result of periods of low future incomes. This is quite different from a mortgage-style loan, in which the costs of defaulting may be very high in terms of being locked out of other capital markets

(most notably for housing) through damage to a person's credit reputation” (Chapman, 1997, p.742). (v) Alternative schemes are available for upfront payment and subsidies are provided to reward and encourage that option. (h) How are private fee charges determined in Australia? The Australian undergraduate commonwealth funded places have two components which are determined by the field of education (FOE). The groupings of the fields of education determines the amount of government funding which is provided to the university for that student, and the maximum amount which the government will finance as a student contribution, which the government then manages. For example, based on 2015 rates, a student studying to be a teacher will have a government contribution of $10,026 which will be paid to their university, and the university can set a fee for the student contribution to a maximum of $6152. The Government also pays the student contribution to the university and manages the arrangements for repayment. It should be noted here that nearly all universities in practice apply the full maximum student contribution. In contrast a law student has a government contribution of $1961 and a maximum student contribution of $10,266 which shows a more inverse relationship between the private and government contributions. As an additional contrast, the high cost courses have a different variation again e.g. Engineering, and these relationships are shown in the table below. Table 1: Commonwealth Grants Scheme (CGS) contributions 2015 –comparison table for Law, Education and Engineering

Subject field

Commonwealth Contribution

Maximum Student Contribution

Total Resourcing

Percentage Student Contribution

Education

$10,026

$6,152

$16,178

38%

Law

$1,961

$10,266

$12,227

84%

Engineering

$8768

$16,850

$25,618

66%

Source: Total resourcing for a Commonwealth supported place by discipline ‐ 2015 (Australian Government, 2015). Whilst the various student contribution rates are determined by the government as part of political negotiation, perceived needs and national priorities, there is a nexus between estimated future incomes and the amounts that students are expected to contribute. Generally, lawyers and doctors earn much more than teachers and this is reflected in the higher contributions for those fields of education. In addition, the total resourcing amounts also reflect the relative costs

associated with the delivery of programs, therefore law which is more classroom based is less resourced than engineering which has higher costs in terms of laboratories, internships and equipment and supplies. Whilst it is difficult to find the guidelines for determining the basis of contributions, the basis was described by Duckett around the time of the Nelson review as: “They incorporate the same mix of policy considerations: cost of courses and perceived private returns to education” (Duckett, 2004, p.218). This aspect of the Australian funding arrangements is particularly relevant to this discussion as the level of contribution has a proportional relationship to expected graduate salaries, therefore the finance risk is reduced for those on lower anticipated career salaries, but reducing the amount that needs to be financed by those students.

Discussion: Would an ISA arrangement work in Australia? The Australian HECS-HELP system is managed by the Australian Government and is not a private market based solution. The Australian Government as the financer of the student contributions bears the risks of unrecovered debt and this has been rising in the last few years and the level of write off is a concern for the government. According the Grattan Institute, the Australian Government finances around $6b each year in loans and it is expected that around $113m will be uncollectable by 2017 with approximately 17% which is considered to be doubtful debts, in other words they do not expect to obtain full recovery (Norton, 2014, p.1). Graduates are unlikely to move away from these current arrangements as the HECS-HELP system provides a convenient and low risk method of financing in respect of the fees those students must contribute towards their higher education. If the current ICL arrangements remained unchanged, there would be little incentive to move away from this government based program, unless there was a viable alternative that was perceived to more advantageous. In the United States the ISA’s have in recent years gained interest due to the financing gaps in the US system as the government loans are not accessible to many and there are other perceived shortfalls and inequities (Palacios, De Sorrento & Kelly, 2014). Income Share Agreements to date have not been part of recent reform discussions in Australia, however with the new interest in this style of financing for education in the United States, it may be useful to at least consider the merits of ICA’S and how these could be applied to meet Australia’s needs. Australia would particularly benefit from this particularly if the funding burden and risk can be moved to the private sector. An increase in funding by private equity could potentially free up government funds for investment and this could potentially lead to increased development in the higher education sector.

Conclusion Income Share Agreements are a form of Income Contingent loans and they have many of the same benefits in terms of providing access, lowering barrier to entry to university, allowing the student to pay when they can afford to make payments and so on. The added benefit is these Share Agreements have the potential to move the funding burden away from the Government or the university and into the private sector, which is a significant outcome if achievable as it has the potential to free up funds for improvements in the sector. The main difference is that some successful graduates will pay more than they would under the current HECS-HELP system in Australia, but this is offset by the fact those less successful could also pay less, but on balance students should be successful as a result of their higher education in terms of graduate outcomes and salaries and these benefits can provide the return on investment to lenders. Another key difference is the defined period of the ISA, the current HECS-HELP arrangements continue until the debt is cleared and will index according to inflation to maintain the real value of the outstanding debt. By comparison an ICA potentially makes personal financial planning easier due to the defined nature of the financial arrangement (lessens uncertainties and therefore risk). There are many factors to consider, particularly in the area of legal guidelines and protection of both investors and students, but some of this ground work is already being established in the United States. If recovery of ISAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and income determination for repayments was tackled through the taxation system in the same way the current HECS-HELP system works, this would lessen some of the investor concerns, however as this is a private market method of funding, a way forward would need to be negotiated. Income Share Agreements are relatively new, however further research into how this approach could be adopted in the Australian context may prove to be worthwhile, particularly if it could provide an innovative approach to Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s higher education funding systems. It should also be noted at this point that there is an element of income contingency in the student contributions in Australia. The level of contribution by the students (currently set as maximums for universities to charge) is reflective of expected graduate salaries, lawyers, doctors and accountants are expected to contribute proportionally more than nurses or teachers. One overall solution to funding may be to look at removing these notional contribution proportions and moving to a form of income contingent loans based solely on graduate income and providing the university funding proportion on more of a standardised cost proportion or other measure which would be independent of expected graduate ability to pay. From a funding management perspective, this would allow proper consideration of both funding components (government contributions and student contributions) rather than having these as a mix of different concepts i.e. direct cost, ability to pay and national priorities. These

sorts of ideas as well as the legal frameworks behind such Income Share Agreements may be well worth further research. It is possible that within those ideas an improved process will be generated for the funding of education in Australia.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 14-29, January 2016

Discipline Based Art Education as an Approach to Art Instruction: The Case of Standard Seven Curriculum in Botswana Dr Magdeline Chilalu Mannathoko University of Botswana Gaborone, Botswana Abstract. There are various curricula models in Art and Design, some of which are Critical Studies, Arts Propel and Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE). While these models theoretically have different foci, they are essentially similar in the critical content areas from which they draw their disciplinary knowledge and skills. These are listed under the DBAE as Art History, Art Criticism, Production and Aesthetics. The four disciplinary content areas are critical in the development of fundamental knowledge and skills in Art and Design. Production entails that students apply the art elements and principles of design while at the same time drawing a critical eye from aesthetics. Students explore a variety of media in different ways. They also ask philosophical questions in the process as well as drawing ideas from historical contexts. These are the four things that students do with art. The purpose of this paper is to find out the extent to which the Art and Design curriculum in Botswana is reflective of the fundamental principles of DBAE which has pervaded most art curricula in different countries. Content analysis was done on the existing syllabus and other policy documents that inform the curriculum to identify overlaps. The study was an Action Research and it involved sixty-six level three Art specialists in-service student-teachers from the University of Botswana who worked in groups to share their Art teaching experiences in relation to DBAE. They later identified and categorised Art objectives stipulated in the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) syllabus according to DBAE disciplines. When presenting their findings, Student-teachers concluded that Art Production and Art Criticism were effectively addressed during curriculum development compared to the other two disciplines. Nevertheless, they argued that objectives which required learners to explore colour schemes covered „Aesthetics‟ and the ones seeking for explanation of Visual forms can address „Art History‟ As a result, the study recommends that an evaluation be done to Art education in the CAPA to include the components of DBAE. Teachertraining institutions also need to prepare students-teachers to incorporate DBAE components in their instruction.

Key Words: Creative and Performing Arts; Art Education; Attainment Targets; Objectives; Art and Design curricula models.

Introduction Art as a discipline was recently introduced in Botswana schools. It was introduced at junior secondary school (1992) earlier than in lower primary schools (in 2002). To me this is an anomaly as there is likely to be unsequential development of the subject. At upper primary art was introduced in 2005. Before the introduction of a curricula syllabus called Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), art in Botswana primary schools was taught without a guideline, therefore, it was optional (Mannathoko, 2015). Among some of major innovations in the Botswana school curriculum was the suggestion to introduce practical subjects among them art and design, art and craft then (Report of the National Commission on Education, 1993) (RNCE). This ideas was subsequently adopted in 1994 under the Revised National Policy on Education (1994) and this gave birth to the CAPA syllabus in 2002 (Phuthego, 2007). The main aim for the introduction of practical subjects was to develop technological thinking and manipulative skills in learners. Such appreciation would lay the foundation for national development at an early stage. CAPA drew its content from disciplines that include home economics, art and craft, business studies, design technology, dance and drama and physical education (Curriculum Development and Evaluation Unit, 2002). The grouping of these subjects under the umbrella CAPA was recommended by the American agency called „Cream Wright‟ which was assigned by the Ministry of Education, Skills and Development to review the primary school curriculum (Phibion, 2006). To account for this combination, the agency explained that CAPA subjects were put together to facilitate project teaching and integration (Wright, 1995). Moreover, the Curriculum Development and Evaluation Unit (2002, 2005) has stipulated in the CAPA syllabus, Attainment Targets, which guide teachers on what is expected of pupils at the end of each level of learning (lower and upper primary). These Attainment Targets are categorised into four aspects for lower primary: Knowledge and Understanding, Manipulative Skills, Creativity and Attitudes. For Upper Primary skills were increased by adding the aspect of „Communication‟ and hence making them five in this level. The Attainment Targets are the basis upon which the Botswana Examination Council (BEC) will base their examination questions on, to diagnose the pupils‟ ability at the end of each of the two levels. The Department further generated the general and specific objectives which define the content to be delivered at each level of learning. “The CAPA syllabus‟ main aims, are to help students develop creativity skills; problem solving aptitudes, critical thinking competencies, aesthetic recognition and appreciation, psychomotor dexterity along with positive attitudes towards practical work and productivity” as cited by the Curriculum and Evaluation Department of 2005.

Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE) approach being the most recommended mode of teaching and learning Art internationally, is not mentioned in the CAPA syllabus and hence the need to investigate how teachers addressed it at both lesson planning and lesson presentation stages. The methodology enhances the interdisciplinary nature of the four DBAE disciplines (art production, art criticism, aesthetics, art history) discussed at length in the literature review section. DBAE framework has the greatest aim of teaching art in its social, cultural and historical context and it combines practical work with theoretical and contextual studies (Hayes, 2015). The four disciplines are aimed at enhancement of in-depth knowledge of visual arts among art students. Discipline-Based Art Education has been viewed by many art educationists to be the most effective approach in the teaching and learning of art. The methodology integrates the disciplines of aesthetics, production, art history and art criticism into a coherent body of knowledge. This study, therefore, examined the extent to which art education within the CAPA syllabus addressed DBAE component. The study was a result of a recommendation in one of my studies which examined education documents (Revised National Policy for Education, Basic Education and Primary Education programmes) to find out the extent to which they promoted DBAE. The study recommendation suggested a further research „to investigate the extent to which teachers addressed DBAE disciplines during instruction‟. Two major questions guiding this study can be put forward as:  How do the art education topics and objectives address DBAE framework?  To what extent do strategies and methodologies in art address DBAE approach?

Literature Review This section discusses literature related to the study with more focus on Discipline-Based Art Education framework; since all data was based on this approach. DBAE is a curricula model that draws its content from the four disciplines which will be discussed later in this section. It was designed by the Paul Getty Trust in America in the early 1980s to support a diminished emphasis on studio instruction and encouraged education across four aforementioned disciplines within the arts (Greer, 1993). Following its footing in 1982, the Getty Education Institute for the Arts based in America, recommended DBAE as an effective approach to teaching art, arguing that it helps learners experience the visual arts in a variety of ways. According to Greer (1993) the institution‟s recommendation was an adoption of the ideas of art educators who had been advocating a more integrative methodology that draws its knowledge and skills competences from the four disciplines which follows: The first discipline, production; is simply, how to create an artwork. It involves creative use of tools and art equipment in innovative ways. It results in tangible studio products that demonstrate critical thinking and imagination processes and art students get stimulated as they explore or manipulate art media (Greene, 2014). Art production is a critical component in any art programme. It is a domain that promotes kinaesthetic development as students express themselves in some

visual medium. Students are encouraged to explore a variety of media in the process of production. They learn the peculiarities of different media. They are also exposed to multi-media studies in which they learn how to combine media in expressive ways. Students become masters of different media. According to Greene (2014) studio production gives students the opportunity to express themselves and show their individuality. Another domain, art criticism, is equally important. In simple terms art criticism is „talking about art‟. It involves discussing, evaluating, interpreting and analysing various aspects of art such as style, media and the use of art elements and principles of design (Day and Hurwitz, 2012). Students carry out critiques both verbal and in written form which heighten their understanding of the art forms and their social context. As recommended by Feldman (1994) art criticism follows four chronological steps, namely, description, analysis, interpretation and judgement. Description involves describing what you see in the artwork including the „credit line‟ information. In the second step, students analyse how visual art elements such as colour, texture, shape are organised into principles of design such as balance, variety, harmony, rhythm and proportion (Ragans, 2000). Talking about art elements and principles of design develops students understanding of art as a means of visual communication (Lampert, 2006). Art Criticism uses several areas of Bloom‟s Taxonomy but also involves higher levels of thinking. The third step, interpretation focuses on the diagnosis of the artwork, to get its meaning while the last step, judgement, allows the viewers to examine whether the artwork is successful or not, looking at how the art elements were used. It also allows for personal feelings about an artwork, that is whether one likes or dislikes the piece of work, with justification to their choices. Eskine and Kozbelt (2015) view this stage as the critical judgement of specific artworks which allows viewers to look within themselves and ask why they like or dislike the piece of artwork. Choices can vary from one person to another since it allows for individual opinions about the artifact. Thus, involving children in this step will develop their critical, problem solving, self-reliant, selfesteem and creativity skills (Schabmann et al, 2015). Art History is described as the examination of the artists and art‟s contribution to the societies and cultures. Studying art history helps students to understand how visual communication has evolved overtime (Dash, 2006). It includes the authors of the works and information about the work itself. Students get to understand the artists themselves and the environment in which they functioned, the historical periods and unfolding of events in time and space. We get to understand the evolution of artistic styles and factors that influenced them (Bamford, 2006). Thus, art work provides a visual record of the socio-cultural changes over time, thus insights into the history of a people. It further provides valuable insights and information about the present. Art and culture cannot be separated from one another because both relates to the actions and continuation of a people (Mannathoko, 2013). As a result, art students need to study art history so that they get to understand how the artists understood their media, means of expression as well as the philosophical underpinning their practices. This leads to a better understanding of current practices which ideally are based on the history and how art evolved through time (Merwe, 2007). This kind of

methodology enables students to relate the past and the present and put their art and understanding of art in context and comparison. Art educationists have proven that art history relates to social studies as it helps us examine historical events through an artistâ&#x20AC;&#x;s eyes. The discipline answers the following questions: Why was the artwork created? How was it used? and What was its purpose? Aesthetics on the other hand, deals with philosophical questions, questions that address the nature of art and the beauty of phenomena. It interrogates the notion of beauty and its relativity. It addresses the questions on our judgement of art, whether good or bad (Day and Hurwitz, 2012). We all react emotionally to artworks. The work of art can upset or excite us. Thus, our values, experiences and thoughts of beauty influence what we think about the art object. There are various activities that we can do with students that challenge their understanding of the aesthetic domain. They can be asked to define the subject and its nature. They should be asked to interrogate its nature and epistemological origins. They learn to differentiate art from what is not art. They identify art that belongs to the canon and why others cannot be similarly canonised. Historicised works of art are identified and studied in detail. In their philosophical inquiry, students make reference to socio-cultural factors that have an influence on art production. They examine beliefs and values that influence production and broaden their conceptual grasp of the nature of artistic expression. A critical dimension of aesthetics is that it enables students to appreciate art for its own sake without making reference to specific cultural performances as models of good aesthetics. It therefore removes those cultural barriers and limitations that could hinder them from an informed appreciation of art from the other. Through art criticism students develop the ability to justify their opinions and positions. Moreover, Aesthetics helps students realise what kind of art pleases most people. This is also helpful for them when decorating their homes and choosing clothes. Furthermore, critical skills are used in Aesthetics because questions such as; why one feels that way or why you came to a specific conclusion may arise. As a result, Aesthetics sometimes go hand-in-hand with Art Criticism. A number of people fail to differentiate aesthetics from art criticism. However both are important in the development of critical and reflective thinking. It is important to note that there is no one answer to a given question. Diverse answers are all important. What is important is the effort to work towards a solution. Such aesthetic interrogation is what is critical in the two disciplines of aesthetics and art criticism. To address or to find solution for the provided question is extremely significant. Thus, DBAE approach is designed to insure that all learners obtain an in-depth study of art (Dhillon, 2006). This framework has been proven through time and research therefore, it should be seriously considered by all the art teachers. Agosto (1993) in Dobbs (1993) shares conclusions drawn from various researchers on DBAE implementation. She says results revealed that students who approach their art from the DBAE are in a position to construct their own personalised knowledge as opposed to universalised knowledge. Their studio art is better informed and quality is generally better. They have a broader perspective in their approach to

art including their art and language comprehension and vocabularies which are significantly enhanced. As a result, having an in-depth understanding of art entails heightened abilities and capabilities to think critically, create, to write, to evaluate and value art products.

Research Methodology The paper aimed at examining the extent to which Botswana primary school art curriculum and its pedagogical instruction addressed DBAE approach which is believed by most art educationists in the Western countries to be the most effective method of teaching and learning art. The study adopted a type of education research called „Action Research‟. The method is sometimes called „participatory action research‟ since it includes findings by performing actions. The method concentrates on a person carrying out findings with other people to reach a conclusion. Mills (2014) states that Action research in education is about investigating one‟s own practice in educational set ups. It involves gathering data on their own teaching and students learning in their particular contexts. This is linked to Dewey‟s, Harbermas‟ and Schon‟s reflective practice critical in the generation of self-knowledge. One can also investigate their operational environments from a broader perspective such as the school environment, resources and other factors that have a bearing on students learning outcomes and performances. The aim is to improve practice by the individual or participants in the given context. According to Brundrett and Rhodes (2014) the purpose of action research is to develop teacher researchers who are able to creatively solve everyday problems encountered in the school context for the improvement of their own teaching and students learning, improve curriculum and adapt instructional or assessment strategies. The study adopted the „Focus group‟ method of interview under qualitative research design. The decision to use focus group strategy was prompted by Stewart and Shamdasani‟s (1990) ideas of focus group process cited in Pickard (2007, p. 220). The aforementioned authors suggest the following situations in which focus group discussions can be used: obtaining general background information about a topic of interest; generating research hypotheses that can be submitted to further research and testing using more quantitative approaches; stimulating new ideas and creative concepts; diagnosing the potential for problems with a new program, service or product; generating impressions of products, programs, services institutions, or other products of interest; learning how respondents talk about a phenomenon of interest which may facilitate quantitative research tools and interpreting previously obtained qualitative results. Adopting and adapting Stewart and Shamdasani‟s (1990) advice, data was collected through engagement of participants in groups, to examine the CAPA syllabus specifically, the art component, in relation to DBAE framework. Participants were third-year inservice student-teachers who were pursuing their primary education degree in the University of Botswana as art education specialised. Thus, the study covered what was practised in rural and urban learning contexts of Botswana.

The geographical areas were sampled that way because students came from various regions of the country under different cultural context and hence a good representation of the study. I found it necessary to use this diverse and representative sample so as to adequately cater for diverse contexts from which the learners came from and teacher contexts articulating the CAPA curriculum and methodology. Such an approach is emphasised by Parlett and Hamilton (1972). The study was also informed by Paul Getty Trust‟s theory of Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE) which advocated for encompassing the four disciplinary categories for the purposes of teaching art. DBAE was introduced in America in the early 1980s. According to Phung and Fendler, (2015) the approach was designed to support a diminished emphasis on studio teaching and encouraged education across the four aforementioned art disciplines. Inservice students-teachers from primary schools were found to be the most appropriate target group as they were practicing teachers who were implementers of the CAPA curriculum. Fifty-one (77%) of the participants held Diploma in Education as art specialists while fifteen (23%) were art education non-specialists teachers when pursuing diploma. The study focused on standard seven class as it is the highest level of learning in primary school therefore, having mature students who qualifies to a comprehensive art education advocated by DBAE approach. They were assigned to first identify the objectives which addressed DBAE approach and later categorise the selected objectives according to specific DBAE components believed to be relating to them. In addition, students were required to suggest activities which could be developed during planning and teaching processes to cater for the omitted DBAE disciplines. Prior to engaging students in the examination of the art education curriculum, they were engaged in an activity to share their experiences on how they implemented art modules within the CAPA syllabus. I called this group „Pre-Focus Group‟. Groups later presented their consolidated results which showed no evidence of having knowledge of DBAE framework. This prompted a formal class to introduce students to DBAE approach and later engaged them in a second group activity which I named „Post- Focus Group‟. At this stage, the case study student-teachers were required to apply what they learnt and hence check their understanding since they were in-service teachers who were expected to implement what they learnt to promote DBAE and hence making art education rich in all aspects of learning. The next stage involved group presentations of their „Post-Focus Group‟ findings and opinions to colleagues in class which led to common agreement as to which objectives in the curriculum addressed specific DBAE disciplines. Data was then consolidated so as to be disseminated to other academicians who may use information for development of art education in their institutions. The focus-group strategies followed to collect data were found to be very appropriate for this type of study as per Packard‟s (2007) advice that “focus group can be used at any point in the research design. During the early stages of an investigation focus groups can allow you to explore a topic, to establish just what the salient issues surrounding the topic are and what requires further investigation. Using „open‟ focus groups allows your research participants to

talk about the things that they feel are significant” (p. 220). As a result, the focus group method provided a useful guide to further studies as the results from the „Pre-Focus group prompted the next step which is teaching DBAE to studentteachers and assign them to examine the CAPA syllabus in relation to DBAE. The themes for discussion are centered around teacher competences in handling the DBAE curriculum and student learning activities in this curriculum model.

Results In this section I present the results in two main categories as data from studentteachers is in two folds: „Pre-Focus Groups‟ where participants shared their teaching in art and „Post- Focus Groups‟ where they examined the art education modules in relation to DBAE framework. Pre-Focus Groups: Sharing Experiences in the Teaching of Art This section addresses the second research question which sought to find out the extent to which strategies and methodologies used in Botswana primary schools infuse aspects of DBAE as a curricula model. As aforementioned, studentteachers were engaged in „Pre-Focus Groups‟ to share their experiences of how they planned and taught art as a subject. This was after realising that the focus of the art education objectives was on „art production‟ and a bit of the other three, art history being the least covered after the study which prompted this research. This was to find out the extent to which DBAE approach was catered for during the implementation of the art curriculum. In terms of planning, participants said schemes of work were done at regional level. According to responses, all regions had teachers selected from schools to work together under the supervision of the Education Officers. They were tasked with coming up with a common scheme of work which could be used by all schools in a region for uniformity, since they had common mid-examinations. This according to the case study studentteachers involved just listing topics for a term so as to have common arrangement. They explained with concern that, not all teachers who were involved had knowledge of the subject and in some instances the whole team lacked knowledge and skills in all the CAPA subjects. When responding to approaches and methods of teaching art, all participants concurred that they followed what was dictated by the specific objectives. For example, if the objective required pupils to list art elements, they did exactly that since the examination questions were guided by the objectives. To check student- teachers‟ effort in making art education comprehensive, a guiding question was framed in the context of how student teachers made sure their teaching addressed the CAPA attainment targets and how they incorporated DBAE model into their teaching. All participants showed no knowledge of the two concepts „attainment targets‟ and „DBAE‟ approach although the CAPA syllabus stipulated „attainment targets‟ which informed the designed objectives for each discipline listed under CAPA subject. Feedback from student-teachers therefore, shows the need to help teachers understand the nature of art as a subject and introduce them to effective approaches to teaching and learning art, thus, equipping them with necessary skills and knowledge which can help produce pupils with comprehensive art education. Mannathoko

(2009) is of the view that if well implemented, DBAE strategy has the greatest aim of teaching art in its social, cultural, and historical context and it combines practical work with theoretical and contextual studies. She builds on the premise that art is best approached from an interdisciplinary/integrative mode of fusing the four DBAE disciplines, namely, art history, art criticism, art production and aesthetics. This approach gives a holistic means of learning as opposed to the fragmented and segmented approach. This philosophy of art according to Walling (2000) came as a follow up of Bruner‟s (1960) notion of giving students an understanding of the fundamental structure of art. The good thing about the strategy offered by DBAE to teach the arts using an integrated disciplines approach is that, it does not only change what most art teachers teach but also alters the view of the nature and value of art education. Having knowledge in DBAE therefore, could assist teachers to identify gaps in the art curriculum and come up with activities to biff the content. Thus, student-teachers were introduced to the model of DBAE after realising their lack of knowledge in the area. To check their understanding and preparing them for incorporation of the approach when going back to schools, students were later tasked to examine the CAPA syllabus specifically standard seven art education section in relation to DBAE. They were to identify objectives addressing DBAE disciplines and categorise them as shown in table 2 in the next section. Post-Focus Groups: Examination of the Art Education Objectives within the CAPA syllabus in relation to DBAE The task under this theme was also designed to respond to the first research question which was to investigate the extent to which upper primary art education objectives addressed DBAE. As aforementioned, student-teachers were tasked to examine the art education aspect of CAPA to identify objectives addressing DBAE components and categorise them as shown in table 1. In addition, students were required to suggest activities which pupils could be engaged in to close the identified gaps. Some of the suggestions were an extension of existing objectives while some were newly designed to cater for omitted disciples. I have extracted standard seven Art education general objectives listed in the CAPA syllabus and categorised them according to the DBAE disciplines they address. Thereafter, specific objectives designed by the Curriculum Development and Evaluation Unit (2005) which are stipulated in the CAPA syllabus were arranged according to the DBAE disciplines that they match and inserted in table 1. The general objectives as per the Curriculum Development and Evaluation Unit (2005) state that at the end of standard seven, learners should be able to: use art elements and principles in drawing (Art Production); develop skills and techniques of colour schemes (Art production); apply skills and techniques in batik making (Art production); apply skills and techniques in ornament making (Art production); develop skills and techniques in sculpture making by carving (Art production) and develop skills and techniques of sculpture making by construction (Art production). These results reveal that standard seven art education has six general objectives which are all advocating „art production‟ discipline. There is no evidence of emphasis on the other three disciplines namely; criticism, art history and aesthetics. © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Table 1: Categories of Standard 7 Art Education Specific Objectives (from 2005 CAPA syllabus) according to DBAE

Topic Drawing (Art elements & principles)

Art Criticism -Analyse art elements & principles in a given artwork. .

Art History N/A

Painting (Colour schemes)

-Recognise the use of colour schemes in an artwork. *

N/A

2-Dimensional Crafts (Batik)

-Define batik. *

Experiment with artificial & natural dyes in batik making. *

3-Dimensional Crafts (Body ornaments)

-Explain body ornaments. * -Identify types of ornaments. *

-Explore different materials & techniques for making body ornaments. * -Make body ornaments using different materials. *

Sculpture (Carving)

-Recognise examples of sculpture made by carving.

Identify materials suitable for sculpture making by carving. *

Art Production - Explore the use of art elements & principles in drawing. -Create a composition using art elements & principles. - Explore with colour schemes in painting. -Create a composition using a chosen colour scheme. -Experiment with artificial & natural dyes in batik making. -Explore the use of tools & materials in batik making. -Create a batik work such as scarf, skirt & wall hanging. -Decorate jewellery made from paper by painting & texturing. -Explore different materials & techniques for making body ornaments. -Make body ornaments using different materials. -Explore with tools, materials & techniques in sculpture making.by carving. -Create a sculpture

Aesthetics -Analyse art elements & principles in a given artwork. * - Explore the use of art elements & principles in drawing. * -Recognise the use of colour schemes in an artwork. *

-Experiment with artificial & natural dyes in batik making. * -Explore the use of tools & materials in batik making. *

-Decorate jewellery made from paper by painting & texturing. * -Explore different materials & techniques for making body ornaments. * -Make body ornaments using different materials. * -Recognise examples of sculpture made by carving. * -Explore with tools, materials &

by carving either in relief or in the round.

Construction

-Explain mobile, relief & freestanding sculptures. *

-Explore with tools, materials & techniques in sculpture making by construction. *

-Explore with tools, materials & techniques in sculpture making by construction. -Construct a sculpture using appropriate materials & techniques.

techniques in sculpture making.by carving. * -Identify materials suitable for sculpture making by carving. * -Explore with tools, materials & techniques in sculpture making by construction. *

Like the general objectives, specific objectives shown in Table 1 also show emphasis on the discipline of „art production‟ because from the 16 (55%) specific objectives identified as directly addressing DBAE from the overall total of 29, 15 (94%) were said to advocate art production while 1 (6%) focused on „art criticism‟. In addition, students identified 23 specific objectives which could be adopted to cater for the omitted disciplines. 6 (26%) of these objectives were attached to „art criticism‟, 5 (22%) to „art history‟ and 12 (52%) to „aesthetics‟. Examples of activities pupils could be engaged in to cover for the omitted objectives were suggested. It is important to note that some of these objectives were adopted from the already existing objectives under art criticism and art production in table 1 while some were newly identified from the syllabus and added to the table. Activities were designed to suit specific disciplines as shown in the examples below: This included „art history‟ under the topics „Drawing‟ and „Painting‟ as the discipline was not attached to any specific objective. Drawing & Painting under art history: Student-teachers were of the same view that drawing and painting media and techniques used in the past including purposes of the images created should be introduced to upper classes in primary schools to prepare them for „art history‟ courses at high education. Activities suggested included: introducing students to rock paintings; scratched wood work and branded leather work. The objectives under art criticism state that pupils should be able to talk about artwork and apply art elements and principles of design were said to can develop pupils‟ aesthetics skills because they will be exposed to various artworks and analysing them will help them understand the artists‟ intensions and hence appreciate the works which is „aesthetics. In addition, the findings further reveals that as pupils experiment with the visual elements which is an objective for „drawing‟ under „art production‟, they will incorporate ideas learnt when analysing art pieces and

hence showing appreciation of other artists‟ work which will result in the discipline of „aesthetics‟. Moreover, the objective which states that pupils should „recognise the use of colour schemes‟ in an artwork was adopted and adapted to suit „art criticism‟ and „aesthetics‟, the explanation being that before children use colour, they need to learn its importance and how it can communicate different expressions and reality and that knowledge can only be gained through discussion of artworks and hence pupils appreciating colours around them. Steers (2005) concurs with this idea that children understand art better if involved in art criticism. 2-Dimensional Crafts (Batik) The objective „Define batik‟ was placed under the discipline of „art criticism‟ with the justification that the definition of batik incorporate its processes therefore, for children to understand the technique, the teacher should bring a sample for them to discuss looking at how media and art elements were used in a design to address the design principles. This view too can also lead to the discipline of „aesthetics‟ as pupils will appreciate other designers‟ work and benefit from their ideas when creating their own work. Furthermore, „experimenting with improvised materials such as dyes from natural matter in fabric design which is an objective under „art production‟ in table 3, was said to can also address „art history‟ and „aesthetics‟ in the sense that discussion of artificial dyes will lead to talking about batik media and techniques used in the past such as boiling roots and leaves with colour to dye fabric for decoration purposes or to communicate a certain culture. Student-teachers said children will later on engage in the use of batik making tools and other materials. (Objective under art production) assuming that they will be allowed to explore both artificial and natural media and techniques and hence appreciate both of them which is „aesthetics‟. With respect to 3-Dimensional Crafts (Body ornaments); suggestions were made that objectives adopted for „art criticism „explain body ornaments‟ and „identify types of ornaments‟ could be covered by bringing different samples to class and asking pupils to identify materials used and explain the processes they think were followed to create the product. One of the student-teachers commented that the type or name of the ornaments is derived from the material used and gave an example of beads necklace that they are made from beads. As shown in table 3, the two objectives on exploration of materials and making of body ornaments using different materials were adopted from the discipline of „art production‟ to also cover „art history‟ and „aesthetics‟. Student-teachers suggested that under art history, pupils should be exposed to materials and techniques used in the past such as clay, snail shells and dry wild fruits beads so as to appreciate the work of ornament which evolved over time which informs the present. According to Mannathoko and Major (2013) exposing children to a variety of media develop their creativity skills and hence gain confidence in their creation of artwork. Sculpture (Carving): The objective „recognise examples of sculpture made by carving‟ was seen by student- teachers to can cover „art criticism‟ and „aesthetics‟ arguing that children can only be able to differentiate sculptures if engaged in an activity which allows for deeper understanding of their media and techniques and even their roles thus, resulting in appreciation which is aesthetics in art

perspective. They therefore, suggested that teachers could bring samples or take children for an art tour to a relevant art centre for them to critique sculptures having guiding questions or statements designed by the teacher to focus children on the activity. „Identifying materials suitable for sculpture making by carving‟ objective categorised under „art history‟ was said to can cover art history if children can be taught about the role of sculptures in the past, how they were created and media used then later given images of various sculptures both created in the past and contemporary ones to categorise according to „Traditional‟ and „Contemporary‟ sculptures. Examples were given as clay, wood, aluminium, plaster of paris and papier maché sculptures. Chanda (1993) has discussed types and roles of African sculptures in the past, giving an example of a small wooden human figure sculpture which was tied to women who had problems of giving birth. They were also other types buried in secret areas and honoured as they were believed to be ancestors with powers that could destroy the community and no one was allowed to go to the place or else disaster would be experienced by the whole community. Finally, students concurred that two objectives based on exploration of sculpture media and materials and the proper identification of such materials under „art history‟ was adopted to can also cover the discipline of „aesthetics‟ with the argument that as children understand sculpture of the past and explore various media and techniques, they will understand them broadly and appreciate sculpture created in different times and thus, developing aesthetics skills. Construction The objective „explain mobile, relief & freestanding sculptures‟ was believed if adopted could cater for „art criticism‟ with the justification that children can be exposed to the images or real sculptures and allowed to discuss them in terms of the media and techniques used to create each of the three types. The student who suggested the activity explained to colleagues that children will understand better if engaged in critiquing the sculptures rather than just explaining the concepts. With „art history‟ and „aesthetics‟, an objective on exploration of sculpture materials and tools was adopted from „art production‟ and students agreed that the two disciplines can be covered by an activity discussed under sculpture (carving) which advocate exposure of children to sculptures created over time and hence promote the discipline of „aesthetics‟. Educationists such as Lindstron (2007) and Bain (2004) advice educators to effectively engage children in all the four aspects of DBAE so as to produce citizens who are diverse and who can face all the challenges in life.

Conclusions and Recommendations The document analysis data revealed that DBAE was not mentioned in the art education within the CAPA syllabus. Nevertheless, some of the general objectives and specific objectives linked well with the DBAE disciplines. The objectives emphasised the discipline of „Art Production‟ with less focus on „Art History‟. In addition, the „Pre-Focus Group‟ data has revealed that all the student-teachers lacked knowledge of DBAE framework as they have not been considering components of the DBAE when implementing art education modules within the CAPA syllabus. However, after being introduced to the approach, they showed a lot of understanding as they were able to identify the

objectives from the CAPA, matching DBAE disciplines and placed each at the relevant discipline. They further managed to come up with activities which could be implemented to cover for the omissions. The study therefore; recommends a further study to make a follow-up with students who were engaged in this project to see how far and how well they implement what they learnt in terms of DBAE framework. It would also be of benefit to the education system in Botswana to incorporate DBAE approach in the arts syllabus so as to guide teachers who could be lacking knowledge of this important approach to art teaching and learning. Thus, the intension is to organise a workshop for various education personnel to share with them the DBAE approach to teaching the arts. References Agosto, M. (retrieved from www.buffaloschools.org, 28 January, 2016). Comprehensive Discipline- Based Art Education. Buffalo: Art Education Department. Bain, c. (2004). Today‟s student teachers: prepared to teach versus suited to teach? The Journal of the National Art Education Association, 57 (3), 42 – 45. Bamford, a. (2006). The wow factor: global research compendium on the impact of the arts in education. New York: Waxman Münster. Brundrett and Rhodes (2014). Researching educational leadership and management: methods and approaches. London: Sage. Chanda, J. (1993). African arts and culture. massachutts: Davis publications. Chanda, J. and Basinger, A. M. (2000). Understanding the cultural meaning of selected African Ndop statues. The use of art history constructivist inquiry methods. Washington DC: Education resources information center. Curriculum Development and Evaluation Department (2002). Lower primary school syllabus, standard one to four. Gaborone: Ministry of Education. Curriculum Development and Evaluation Department (2005). Upper primary school syllabus, standard one to four. Gaborone: Ministry of Education. Dash, P. (2006). „Heritance, identity and belonging: African Caribbean students and art education.‟ The International Journal of Art and Design Education. 25 (3), 256 – 267. doi: 10.1111/j.1476- 8070.2006.00492.x. Day, T. and Hurtwiz, A. (2012). Children and their art: Art elementary and middle schools. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Dhillon, P. A. (2006). Aesthetics education. Urbana-Champaign: The university of Illinois Press. Dobbs, S.M. (1992). The DBAE handbook: An overview of the Discipline-Based Art Education. Los Angels: Getty Centre for Education in the Arts.

Eskine, K.J. and Kozbelt, A. (2015). Art that moves: Exploring the embodied basis of art representation, production and evaluation. New York: Springer Science and Business Media Dordrecht. Feldman, E.B. (1994). Practical art criticism. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Greer, W.D. (1993). Developments in Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE): From art education towards art education. A Journal of Issues and Research. 34 (2), 91101. doi: 10.2307/1320446. Greene, T.P. et al, (2014). Arts education matters: We know, we measure it. Education week, 34 (13), 24. Hayes, P.A. (2015). High quality visual arts education k-8, the student, the principal and the teacher. Ann Arbor: Seattle Pacific University. Lampert, N. (2006). Critical thinking dispositions as an outcome of art education. A Journal of Issues and Research in Art Education, 47, (3), 215-228. doi: 10.2307/25475782. Lindstrom, L. (2007). Creativity: what is it? Can you assess it? Can it be taught? International Journal of Art & Design Education, (25) 1. doi: 10.1111/j.14768070.2006.00468.x. Mannathoko, M.C. (2009). Interpreting the new lower primary art and craft component of the Creative and Performing Arts, the Botswana national curriculum. Case studies of four primary schools in the south central and central north regions. An illuminative evaluation. Cardiff: University of Wales Institute Cardiff. Mannathoko, M.C. and Major, T.E. (2013). An illuminative evaluation on practical art, craft and design instruction: The case of Botswana. International Journal of High Education, 2 (3), 54-61. doi:10.5430/ijhe.v2n3p54. Mannathoko, M.C. (2013). Community involvement in the teaching and learning of arts and culture in primary schools: A case of four primary schools in Botswana. International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities, 5 (2), 19-27. Mannathoko, M.C. (2015). Why the arts are not part of the examination family: The case of Botswana primary schools. International Journal of Scientific Research and Education, 3(12), 4736-4746. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/ijsre/v3i12.10. Merwe, L. (2007). Assessment in the learning area of arts and culture. A South African perspective. The Journal of Research in Teacher Education, 14 (2), 51-68. Mills, G.E. (ed) (2014). Action research: a guide for the teacher researcher. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Parlett, M. and Hamilton, D. (1972). Evaluation as illumination: A new approach to the study of innovatory programmes. Scotland: University of Edinburgh. Phibion, O,S. (2006). Botswana primary school teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x; perception on the introduction of the creative and performing arts (CAPA). A case of Lobatse town (urban) and Tlokweng village (semi- urban) schools. Gaborone: University of Botswana.

Phung, T. and Fendler, L. (2015). A critique of knowledge-based arts education: Ars gracia through ranciére‟s aesthetics. Journal of Education, 3, (1), 177-191. Phuthego, M. (2007). An evaluation of the indigenous musical arts in the creative and performing arts syllabus and the implementation thereof in the primary schools curriculum in Botswana. Unpublished Dmusic thesis. Pretoria: University of Pretoria. Pickard, A.J. (2007). Research methods in information. London:Facet Publishing. Ragans, R. (ed) (2000). Art talk. Ohio: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. Republic of Botswana, (1993). Report of the national commission on education. Gaborone: Government printers. Republic of Botswana, (1994). The revised national policy on education. Gaborone: Government printers. Schabmann et al (2015). Where does it come from? Developmental aspects of art appreciation. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 1-11. doi: 10.1177/0165025415573642 Steers, J. (2005). Orthodox, creativity and opportunity. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 25 (3), 297 – 307. Walling, D.R. (2000). Rethinking: How art is taught – A critical convergence. California: Corwin Press, Inc. Wright, C. (1995). Subject combinations and time-tabling for basic education in Botswana. Gaborone: Ministry of Education.

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 30-41, January 2016

Inclusive Education and Challenges of Providing Classroom Support to Students with Blindness in a General Education Classroom at a School in Botswana Joseph Habulezi University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana Odiretsemang Molao Central Regional Education Office, Serowe, Botswana Sandy Mphuting Kgalagadi Regional Education Office, Kang, Botswana Kebotlositswe Mark Kebotlositswe Molefi Senior Secondary School, Mochudi, Botswana Abstract. The research investigated classroom support provision and the challenges of providing support to students who are blind in a general education classroom at an inclusive secondary school in Botswana. Interviews, observation and questionnaires were used to collect the data. The challenges of providing classroom assistance to students who are blind in general education Biology classrooms are as diverse as the students themselves. The teaching methods some teachers use do not cater for all the students in an inclusive classroom. The main factors leading to this include lack of adequate preparation and shortage of both human and material resources. The class enrolments pose a challenge because the classrooms are over enrolled. The study recommends that special education Biology teachers be increased at the school and more learning support workers equally be hired. Teacher capacity building should also be considered as well as the acquisition of more access technology. Keywords: Classroom support; blindness; Botswana; challenges.

1. Introduction Botswana has committed itself to achieving full inclusion in education to both maximise the potential of its people for the future development of the country and to fully comply with the international requirements for human and educational rights. This is because the country views education, (Christie, 2010,

UNESCO, 1994, 2001, 2008, 2009), a basic human right. In its positive efforts to fulfil its commitment, the government of Botswana through the Ministry of Education and Skills Development formulated a guiding mission statement; to provide efficient, quality, and relevant education and training that is accessible to all. Consequently, in 2011, an inclusive education policy was launched and implemented. The implementation of inclusive education, though, has faced some challenges. Despite all the efforts to cater for all students equitably, students with blindness at a senior secondary school in Kgatleng District in Botswana are academically performing poorly. This study, therefore, investigated the challenges of providing classroom support to students with blindness in a Biology class. The research aimed at establishing the underlying challenges of providing assistance to students with blindness in a general education Biology classroom at a secondary school in Kgatleng District in Botswana. Basing on the findings, the study suggested solutions to overcoming the challenges. Overleaf is a table showing an extract of the performance of the students in reference in their final form five results from the school. For ethical reasons, the names of students have been replaced with letters. Botswana uses the points system in which a distinction, ‘A’ is 8 points, ‘B’ is 7 points, ‘C’ is 6 points, ‘D’ is 5 points, ‘E’ is 4 points while ‘F’, ‘G’ and ‘U’ attract no points.

Table 1.1 Performance of students with visual impairment in the 2014 BGCSE examinations

I J

E E

D D

U U

GG GG

B C

Points attained

Commerce

Art

Religious Education

Literature in English

Social Studies

Geography

History

Biology

Physics

Chemistry

Mathematics

Science Double Award

Setswana

English language

Student name A

36 35

E B

31 30

D F

D C

D F

24 21

17 16

BGCSE-Botswana general certificate of secondary education

Source: Special Education Department, 2015

The trend of the results above prompted this research to find out the challenges of providing classroom support to students with blindness in a general education Biology class at a school in Botswana. Providing support to students who are blind remains a challenge in general education classrooms and these challenges vary as some lie with the teachers, while others lie with the students. Students who are visually impaired have unique learning needs that must be addressed in order for these students to become independent and productive citizens of the society. It is against this back drop that today the family and educational institutions face a significant challenge in providing services that will enhance the positive academic outcomes for such students. One cannot over emphasis the fact

that making appropriate decisions about students who are blind requires clear understanding of their unique learning needs and interventions.

2. Classroom support Classroom support mainly provides assistance to teachers during classroom activities. Sharma et al (2010) emphasise that when students who are blind are included in the classroom, it allows the mainstream teacher receive the much needed assistance in the teaching of the needy students. Support basically refers to resources and strategies that promote a student’s development, education, interests and personal well-being in the classroom (Mphande, 2011). The support offered needs to align with the teaching and learning methods the mainstream class teacher uses for all the students to benefit academically (Abbott, 2014). This environment should start with the attitude of school administrators towards the inclusion of the students who are blind. The administrator’s attitude influences the attitude of others, therefore creating acceptance or rejection. The administrators should not only establish a school based support team and encourage collaboration but also be active members of the team. Other members of the team like learning support workers must be made available to increase support in the classroom. In addition, classroom support can be provided by specialist teachers who would support general education teachers during lessons or they can co-teach. Travers et al (2014) warn that the organisation and management of additional support for students require on-going monitoring and review to evaluate its effectiveness. The support provided by learning support workers should be importantly aiding the development of independence in the students. In the classrooms, the students who are blind should be availed opportunities to learn like any other student. Firstly, the trained special education teacher should assist students in the development of the sense of touch and use of other senses in order to respond positively to situations. Williams (2015) and Fraser (2015) recommend that the students who are blind should not be treated as passive observers any more but must be involved actively in all the lessons. Greater concept realisation and increased interest for students can only be realised if the students are valued and given opportunities like all other students. Piljl and Van den Bos (2001) advise that teachers should talk while they teach and verbalise notes as they write legibly on the board. Delors (1996), Witburn (2014) and William (2015) add that the use of verbal commentary, use of hands on experience, sensitive questioning, explanations and descriptions can bring alive the abstract material of some subject areas. In addition, students with blindness should be strategically positioned to maximise their potential visually or auditory. Students who are blind cannot fully access the curriculum if modifications and adaptations are not considered. It is therefore important to consider the abilities of students in any given subject and content. Nasib (2005) asserts that changes to the syllabi, content or period of a course can be changed to cater for students’ impairment in line with their abilities. Access technology simplifies and aids in most of the operations of supporting the students’ learning in inclusive education.

3. The study The study investigated current classroom support given to students who are blind during Biology lessons at an identified school in Kgatleng District in Botswana. The purpose was also to investigate existing challenges that interfere with supporting the successful learning of students with blindness and academic achievement of the students in Biology. The questions that guided the study include: 1. What classroom support is currently offered to students who are blind in a general education classroom at the school? 2. What are the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;related challenges that interfere with classroom support that is provided to students with blindness in a general education classroom at the school? 3. What are the teacher-related challenges that interfere with classroom support that is provided to students with blindness in a general education classroom at the school?

4. Population and sample Students from six Form 5 classes which had students who are blind and the teachers who taught those classes were the target population. A purposefully selected sample of informants who were deemed knowledgeable about the subject included a Biology specialist teacher for students who are blind, a Biology general classroom teacher, 7 students with blindness and 8 sighted learners. Volunteer sampling, though, was used on the sighted learners after the research purpose was explained to the classes. Table 1.2 Classification of interviewees Participants

No. of Participants

Females

Males

Biology specialist teacher

Students who are blind

Biology general classroom teacher

Sighted learners

Total

5. Methods The study used a mixed methods approach to collect data. This included one-toone and focus group interviews, lesson observations and questionnaires. More than one methods of data collection were used because they can show the result and explain why it was obtained. Additionally, it places credibility and dependability of the findings of the study (McMillan and Schumacher, 2014). The lesson observations were done in two days in the two classrooms that had students with blindness to understand the assistance students were accorded during lessons. Two observations were done; each session lasted 40 minutes. This was guided by a 10 point observation check list that was administered

during lessons. The observations were done by the Senior Teacher Biology who was also a member of the research team. The lessons were video recorded with participants’ permission. The interview was also used to collect data. 17 participants were used as shown in table 1.2 above. The gender break down and statuses of participants are provided in the table above. The participants’ age in years ranged from 16 to 40. Arrangements for the interviews were made following the ethical procedures and understanding of the research purpose. The interviews were video recorded with participants’ permission. In addition, self-administered questionnaires were used on students with blindness. The questions were formulated, brailled and hand delivered to students. The responses were then transcribed from braille to ink print.

6. Ethical considerations The Regional Education office, which sponsored the research during the Inclusive Education Action Research, assisted the researchers in obtaining permission and consent from the relevant personnel.

7. Results The findings from the data collected show that the trained and qualified general education Biology teacher used diagrams which were not embossed. The observations also showed that the diagrams used by the general biology teacher were not bold enough (visible). They were also crowded with labels. The inappropriate use of the diagrams in this case became a disadvantage to the students with low vision since they could neither see nor read the information clearly. The teacher confessed that sometimes she would only remember about the students who are blind when she entered the class to teach. This presented a big challenge for students who are blind since they could not see the materials. The sighted students assisted by describing the diagrams to the students who are blind. Lesson notes were most often made available in the form of hand-outs in ordinary print and in large print, thus only useful to the sighted students together with those with low vision. During the lesson, the general education Biology classroom teacher wrote small letters on the chalk board, drew illustrative diagrams which she did not let students with blindness know about. On the other hand, the Biology specialist teacher for students who are blind was descriptive in her teaching. Whilst teaching, she would pause to allow students ask questions or walk to students who are blind to reinforce. She wrote bigger letters on the chalk board and also spelled and read out some of the key words as the lesson was in progress so that students with blindness could benefit. Interview results indicated that some effort is made to support all students. The special education Biology teacher had prepared some files with brailled hand outs and embossed diagrams. These learning materials were made available to the students with blindness during the lesson. There were no prescribed recorded or brailled Biology text books found during the research in the library or special education department.

The students who are blind were very concerned with the absence of prescribed text books in Biology. They pointed out that the diagrams and lesson hand outs are mostly derived from text books. The students with blindness could not use the available text books for the purpose of research, homework or preparation for examination. The research findings indicated that there is an acute shortage of human resources in the special education unit. The respondents mentioned the need to provide more special education Biology teachers and learning support workers. During the observations, no learning support workers were found in any of the classes. At the time of this research, there was only one learning support worker against 21 students with blindness. Out of the nine Biology teachers in the school, there was only one who was trained in special education. To add on to this problem, the specialist Biology teacher had been allocated four (4) classes of Biology to teach. This included the class which had a total of twenty nine (29) students including four (4) with blindness. In both classes observed, the students with blindness were strategically positioned; nearer to the chalk board and with a buddy. Other than the perkins braillers and the hand frames, there were no assistive devices found in the classrooms. At the Special Education Department though, there were three closed circuit televisions, seven talking scientific calculators, head phones, 2 braille printers connected to computers, perkins braillers, a photocopying machine and two tape recorders.

8. Discussion 8.1 Teaching Methods From the lesson observations conducted, the Biology special education teacher taught a class for 40 minutes. During the lesson, the teacher was descriptive in her teaching. She used a large hand writing to write on the chalk board and spelled out all the words she wrote, pausing all the time to check whether all students were on board. She also gave individualised attention to students with blindness. This benefited all the students. Her teaching method is synonymous with the recommendation of Piljl and Van den Bos (2001) that teachers should talk while they teach and verbalise notes as they write legibly on the board. Roe (2008), Williams (2015) and Niwagaba (2014) add that the use of verbal commentary, use of hands on experience, sensitive questioning, explanations and descriptions can bring alive the abstract material of some subject areas. On the other hand, the general Biology classroom teacher used small hand writing on the chalk board and did not spell out everything she wrote on the chalk board. This disadvantaged both students who are totally blind and those with low vision. More often, the students do not benefit from such lessons.

8.2 Learning materials provided Observation, interview and questionnaire results reveal that students with blindness in a class taught by a special education specialist Biology teacher were given brailled notes, embossed diagrams, enlarged hand outs, magnifying glasses and laboratory apparatus for tactile observation. Mavundukure (2001) and Opretti and Belalcazar (2008) all support the use of learning materials for students who are blind because they increase accessibility and clearer

understanding of the subject matter. Contrary to the practice and sound views above, students with blindness in a class that was taught by a general education Biology teacher were not provided with any pre brailled materials, embossed diagrams or any other learning material other than perkins braillers. Occasionally, the teacher stated that she provides students with large print materials and allows students with blindness to explore laboratory apparatus or models. This makes the students use perkins braillers to take down notes in class and eventually cause a lot of noise throughout the lesson because the braillers did not even have rubber mats to absorb the noise.

8.3 Lack of access technology In the self-administered questionnaire, 6 out of the 7 students with blindness stated that digital or computer aided learning materials were not availed to them during lessons. Interviews of both teachers and students yielded the same result that there are no assistive devices being used during Biology lessons except for hand frames, hand held magnifiers and perkins braillers. The students also bemoaned the fact that they were unable to access internet to research because there are no adapted computers except for the two which are used for materials production. A snap survey in the Special Education Department revealed that there are three closed circuit televisions, seven talking scientific calculators, head phones, 2 braille printers connected to computers, perkins braillers, a photocopying machine and two tape recorders. At the time of this research, the school had an enrolment of 21 students with blindness among whom 16 were braille users and five used large print. Going by the numbers of the students and the available equipment, there is need to increase the access technology that is available especially internet connection to the Special Education Department and acquisition of adapted computers for students with blindness. Adaptive technology is very important, as Bray, Brown and Green (2004) and DePountis, Pogrund, Griffin-Shirley, and Lan (2015) stipulate, because it has revolutionised, simplified and improved the efficiency in modifying and adapting teaching and learning materials for students who are blind.

8.4 Shortage of learning support staff Interviews and observations showed that there is a serious shortage of learning support staff. This includes braillists, learning support workers and special education Biology teachers. The school has 9 Biology teachers but among them, there is only one special education Biology teacher for students with blindness, who does not only support students in her classes, but also other students too and all the teachers for Physics and Chemistry. With her teaching load of four classes at the time of the research, this seems to be too much for her to be effective enough in the provision of meaningful learning support. This defeats the Government of Botswanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (2006) efforts and guidelines that consideration should be made to reduce special education teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; teaching loads by one class to allow them time to assist other subject teachers as well as students who are blind.

There were no learning support workers in the classes during the observations; students also confirmed this during interviews. The only learning support worker mostly accompanies students who are visually impaired to the hospital. Mwakyeja (2013) and Habulezi and Phasha (2012) state that the primary responsibility of the learning support worker is to support the classroom teacher, enabling the teacher to provide the educational programme that meets the needs of all the students in the class, including the students with blindness. This important role has not been played because there is only one learning support worker against 21 students. This seriously impacts negatively in the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; participation and understanding of experiments conducted during lessons. Teachers normally make students with blindness sit next to sighted learners who lend their support by describing the diagrams drawn on the board to their colleagues. This form of assistance enables the students with blindness to visualise and comprehend the lesson instructions during the course of the Biology lesson but may disadvantage the sighted students as they could miss points in the process of learning.

8.5 Lesson preparation The interview further revealed that the general Biology teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lesson planning did not cater much for the students who are blind. Planning ahead of the lesson would help the teacher to organise the lesson and assemble materials appropriate to the lesson content. If a student with low vision requires enlarged print, audio tapes or brailled materials, they should be prepared ahead of time (Nasib, 2005). With regard to the special education Biology teacher, interview results indicated that some effort was made to support the students who are blind. Before her lesson, she prepared some files with brailled notes and embossed diagrams. These learning materials were made available to students with blindness before or when they met for lessons. This foresight in planning ensured the inclusion and increased participation of students with blindness during lessons. In fact, Sharma et al (2010) assert that flexibility, adaptability and positive attitudes toward inclusion are co-attributes of successful inclusive teachers.

8.6 Sitting arrangement and number of students in classes In Biology classrooms and laboratories, just like Niwagaba (2014) advices, the students with blindness were strategically positioned in the front row nearer to the teacher and chalk board. They are also made to sit side by side with the sighted students. According to both of the teachers, this sitting arrangement enabled the students with blindness to easily hear the lesson instructions since they were closer to the teacher. The front row seats allow the students with low vision to see the diagrams drawn on the chalkboard. The sighted students who sit next to students who are visually impaired also play an important role in the support system. As already pointed out, the sighted students assist by dictating notes, spelling words and describing diagrams and pictures used during the lesson. The number of students was slightly lower where there were students with visual impairment but somehow higher. It must be realised that one (1) student who is blind in Botswana, is equated to 4 sighted students. Taking this scenario into consideration it therefore means a class with 37 students including four students with visual impairment is quite large, with a very high teacher

student ratio. This further curtails the support that the specialist teacher renders to the students with visual impairment.

8.7 Remedial lessons Rarely, the general education Biology teacher conducts remedial lessons. On the other hand, this is a regular practice for the special education Biology teacher who takes time to meet and conduct remedial lessons with the students who are visually impaired separately during study time. This gives the students an opportunity to learn some of the concepts they could not fully comprehend during normal lessons. Witburn (2014) and Mwakyeja (2013) recommend pre and post tutoring sessions in the sense that they give an opportunity to go over key concepts and discuss what went well or was particularly difficult and examine the quality of any work produced. In addition to teaching normal lessons the special education Biology teacher emphasized the need to meet with the students with visual impairment for the purpose of guidance and counselling. In terms of life skills learning, these occasions reinforce the sense in which students take responsibilities for aspects of their own organization and keep them well-grounded both in their academic and personal lives. In contrast, the general Biology teacher did not mention ever conducting guidance sessions with the students who are blind.

9. Conclusion The challenges of providing classroom support to students who are blind in a general education Biology classroom are as diverse as the students themselves. The teaching methods most teachers use do not cater for all the students in the inclusive classroom because most of the teachers in the school are not trained in the teaching and learning methods for students with special educational needs. In addition, the majority of the teachers lack adequate preparation for their lessons in that they may prepare for the mainstream students but forget that there are students who are blind who may need brailled, enlarged, embossed or recorded teaching and learning materials. The challenges are compounded by the shortage of trained special education Biology teachers, learning support workers, access technology and brailled or recorded prescribed Biology text books. The human resource shortages translate into workloads that are too much to efficiently manage for the trained special education Biology teacher and the only learning support worker. The class enrolments also pose a challenge because the more the students in the class, the more difficult it becomes to support them.

10. Recommendations The study recommends that more special education Biology teachers be deployed to the school and more learning support workers should equally be hired. Access technology simplifies work and reduces demand for human resources; more of the access technology should therefore be procured. Teacher capacity building should equally be considered.

References Abbott, S. (Ed.), (2014). The Hidden Curriculum; the glossary of education reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum Bray, M., Brown, A., & Green T. D. (2004). Technology and the diverse learner. A guide to classroom practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press INC. Christie, P., (2010). The complexity of human rights in global times: the case of the right to education in Africa. International Journal of Educational Development 30, 3–11. Delors, J. (1996). Learning: The Treasure within. Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the twenty- first century. Paris: UNESCO. DePountis, V., Pogrund, R., Griffin-Shirley, N. & Lan, W. Y. (2015). Technologies used in the study of advanced Mathematics by students who are visually impaired in classrooms: Teachers’ perspectives. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 105(9), 265 –278. Fraser, K. (2015). Accessible Science: making Life Sciences accessible to students with visual impairment. Washington State School for the blind: Washington D.C. Available on: www.perkinselearning.org. Government of Botswana, (2011). Inclusive Education Policy. Ministry of Education: Government Printers. Government of Botswana, (2006). Establishment register for secondary schools: Directorate of Teaching Service Management. Gaborone: Government Printers. Habulezi, J. & Phasha, T. N. (2012). Provision of learning support to learners with visual impairment in Botswana: A Case Study. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 69: 1555-1561. Mavundukure, G. (2001). Special education provision in Botswana. Paper presented to at a workshop to specialist teachers for learners with visual impairment, in Selebi Phikwe, Botswana. McMillan, J. & Schumacher, S. (2014). Research in education. Evidence–based inquiry. 7th ed. Pearson: London. Mphande, S. (2011). Access in the classrooms for learners with blindness in Zambia. Unpublished thesis. Mwakyeja, M. B., (2013). Teaching students with visual impairments in inclusive classrooms: A study of one of the secondary schools in Tanzania. (Unpublished masters’ thesis). Nasib, M. (2005). Child Psychology, a necessary tool for student teachers. Unpublished manuscript. Niwagaba, G., (2014). Including and teaching blind children in ordinary classrooms. Teaching tools teachers use and their influence on the inclusion of blind children in an ordinary classroom in a primary school. (Master’s thesis). University of Oslo, Norway. Opretti, R., Belalcazar, C., (2008). Trends in inclusive education at regional and interregional levels: issues and challenges. Prospects 38, 113–135. Piljl S., & Van den Bos, K. (2001). Redesigning regular education support in Netherlands. European Journal of Special Education. 16 (2): 111-119. Roe J. (2008). Social inclusion: meeting the socio-emotional needs of children with vision needs. British Journal of Visual Impairment. Vol. 26 (2): 147-158 Sharma, U., Moore D., Furlonger B., King, B. S., Kaye L., & Constantinou, O. (2010). Forming effective partnerships to facilitate inclusion of studentswith vision impairments. Perceptions of a regular classroom teacher and an itinerant teacher. The British Journal of Visual Impairment. Vol. 28 (1): 57-67. Special Education Department, (2015). Result analysis for 2014 BGCSE special education students. Molefi S.S.S: Mochudi.

Travers, J., Balfe T., Butler, C., Day, T., Dupont, M., McDaid, R., O’D’onnell & Prunty, A. (2014). Addressing the challenges and barriers to inclusion in Irish Schools. Dublin: Special Education Department, St Patrick’s College. UNESCO. (2009). Policy guidelines on inclusion in education. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO. (2008). Towards inclusion. Available: www.portal.unesco.org/education UNESCO. (2001). Open file on inclusive education support materials for managers and administrators. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO. (1994). The Salamanca Statement and Frame Work on Special Education. Paris: UNESCO. Whitburn, B. (2014). The inclusion of students with vision impairments: Generational perspectives in Australia. International Journal of Whole Schooling, 10 (1) 2014 Williams, G. (2015). Making Science accessible to students who are blind or visually impaired. Washington State School for the blind: Washington D.C. Available on: www.perkinselearning.org

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 42-65, January 2016

Small-Group Discussion and the Development of Interpretive Strategies in Literature Classrooms: a Quasi-Experimental Study with 9th - Grade Students Agapi Dalkou and Evangelia Frydaki National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Abstract. This article presents a quasi-experimental study exploring the effect of small-group discussion on students’ ability to develop interpretive strategies in literature classrooms. In the absence of such research in secondary education, we conducted a study with 9th-grade students, including one experimental group and one control group. The main hypothesis was that, when students approach literary texts by working in peer-led small groups, with a teacher facilitator, they develop interpretive strategies to a greater extent than when they approach texts within the context of teacher-centered instruction. Results indicated that, by the end of the academic year, a) students who studied literary texts in small groups developed interpretive strategies to a higher level than students who worked on texts alone, within the context of teacher-centered instruction and b) students of the experimental group demonstrated higher individual competence in the development of interpretive strategies, but the improvement was not statistically significant. Conclusions and implications for educational practice are being discussed. Keywords: secondary education; literature classrooms; interpretive strategies; interpretation; small group discussion

Introduction A common problem often identified in literature classrooms, both in secondary and college education, is students’ lack of ability -or preparedness- to assume an interpretive stance on their own (Eckert, 2008). Relevant research suggests that struggling readers’ comprehension of literary texts can be improved if their teachers provide them with suitable reading skills, as well as with regular opportunities to read, discuss texts and respond to literature (Almasi & Fullerton, 2012). However, as Hamel & Smith (1998) point out, there are few models that can help teachers overcome the difficulties they face in helping students

comprehend texts and, at the same time, be involved in student-centered discussions. Likewise, teachers find themselves in an awkward position when they try to teach their students how to deal with a literary text – how to interpret it - by avoiding the danger to impose the one and only ―correct‖ interpretation. A possible solution to this problem is claimed to be the use of smallgroup discussion. Small-group work is the essential aspect of cooperative learning, which, according to R. Slavin, ―…refers to a variety of teaching methods in which students work in small groups to help one another learn academic content‖ (Slavin, 1995, p. 2). Working in small groups is considered as a fundamental part of academic learning in general (Gillies & Ashman, 2003), as it enhances student involvement in the learning process (Hiltz, 1998). Moreover, when it comes to secondary education, cooperation matches with the adolescent culture, since, as Slavin (1995) points out, during adolescence, ―the peer group becomes allimportant‖ (Slavin, 1995, p. 3) and small-group work provides both high and low-achieving students with the opportunity to succeed academically without peer contempt. Given the limited research in this area, particularly in the case of Greece, this study aims to explore whether middle adolescents approaching literary texts by working in small groups develop interpretive strategies to a greater extent than when they approach texts within the context of teacher-led instruction. We consider that such an exploration could be helpful for both the research community and literature teachers in secondary schools. Review of Related Literature: Small Groups and their Effects on Adolescent Students’ Reading Skills Research on Primary School Students and Early Adolescents. Over the last two decades, a number of studies on small-groups and their use on literature instruction has demonstrated the positive effects of peer-led, small-group discussions on students’ interaction with literary texts. Many of these studies focus on primary school students (up to 11 years of age), like the work of Almasi, (1995) on peer-groups and their effect on students’ ability to solve sociocognitive conflicts that occur during literature discussions, the study of Law (2011) on cooperative learning and reading comprehension, or the work of Slavin et al. (2009) on the effects of ―The Reading Edge‖, a cooperative program for the teaching of literature in middle schools (sixth-grade students). Supporting evidence of the relationship between cooperative or collaborative learning and enhanced literacy outcomes is also provided by a recent meta-analytic review conducted by Puzio & Colby (2013). The authors reviewed over thirty years of research on literacy. They found that, overall, student performance on literacy tests was significantly higher when teaching practices included cooperative and collaborative learning activities. This review included studies with students from Grades 2 through 12. Early adolescents are also the center of Fletcher’s (2014) research on ―effective‖ reading strategies for early adolescents (11-13 years old). Fletcher conducted an extensive literature search of related studies that have taken place since the mid-1990s. The review ends up with a summary of effective teaching features and practices, including small group work; however, working in small groups is just one of the many practices that ―effective‖ teachers implement, and it is not presented as the key to a successful teaching. © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Stevens (2003) has conducted a study which focused on adolescents and their specific learning needs. Stevens implemented a literacy program called ―Student Team Reading and Writing‖ (STRW). The program focuses on early adolescents (6th-8th grade , age 11-14), its primary goal being to respond to their needs and abilities, by incorporating a number of instructional changes, like using ―good‖ literature as the basis for reading instruction, providing instruction on reading comprehension strategies, using cooperative learning strategies, etc. Results favored students of the experimental schools against students of the comparison schools, whose teachers used ―traditional instructional methods‖ (p.153). The author believes that cooperative learning is probably the most effective component of the program, since it motivates students to actively engage in the learning process and it takes advantage of adolescents’ ―strong peer orientation‖ (p. 156). Like most studies in literacy instruction, this study also focuses on reading comprehension as a desired learning outcome or ability. In their experimental study, Vaughn et al. (2011) examined the effects of a reading program called ―Collaborative Strategic Reading‖ (CSR) on reading comprehension. It was a large-scale experiment, with 7th and 8th grade students. Results showed that treatment students scored higher than control students on the reading comprehension tests. The authors state that it is possible that collaborative work, which promotes student engagement and discussion about text, may be the key element of CSR. However, their study does not address which elements of CSR have a major impact on reading comprehension. Research on Middle Adolescents. When it comes to middle adolescent students, research seems to be more limited. Studies in this field have also illustrated the positive outcomes of small-group discussions of literature. In an earlier study on 9th grade students, Nystrand, Gamoran & Heck (1993) investigated whether and under what conditions peer-group work would help students think and reason about literary texts. They found that small-group discussion can be very effective if teachers want students to develop higher order thinking, compare ideas, or reach a general agreement on a controversial issue. However, the positive effects of small-group work are visible only if certain conditions are met; groups must be highly autonomous and group tasks must be carefully designed, so that they are inherently collaborative and interesting to students. With 10th-grade students as participants, the study of Fall, Webb & Chudowsky, (2000) demonstrated the positive effects of small-group discussion on students’ comprehension of literature. The authors compared academic performance on language arts tests between students who discussed the story they had read in small groups and students who did not discuss it. The key finding of the study was that peer-group cooperation in a 10-minute discussion within groups of 3 had an essentially positive impact on students’ comprehension of the story. The mechanisms that students used to solve sociocognitive conflicts during group discussions included the construction of fuller and more accurate meanings of the stories, as a result of students’ exposure to alternative ideas. Research on Small Groups and Students’ Reading Skills: the Case of Greece. In the case of Greece, the search results of the relevant literature were highly disappointing. Research in Greece on cooperative/collaborative learning

alone, is limited. Review of the most prominent Greek scientific journals (educational and literacy) 1 from 1995 until today, did not reveal any scientific studies on small-group work. Research on the Internet was more fruitful, since it uncovered that there is a research team at the University of Patras (the HCIUPatras group), that has remarkable research activity in the area of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)2. Their studies describe computersupported collaborative learning modelling environments and evaluate collaborative learning within these environments. As interesting these studies may be, unfortunately, none of them refers to literature instruction. Similarly, research in the Greek National Archive of PhD theses has shown a few studies in cooperative/collaborative learning, but none of them explored its effects on literature instruction. Most of these studies also focused on CSCL, which was usually implemented in math and science classrooms. Conclusions from the Literature Review. In reviewing the research on small-group work and its effects on adolescent students’ reading skills, we realized two things. First, the vast majority of the studies focuses on the effects of small-group discussion on comprehension3, which is usually measured with standardized multiple-choice tests. Interpretation of literary texts, on the other hand, is usually considered in these studies as an intellectual ability or action incorporated into the wider concept of literature response. Few studies focus on interpretation itself, like the work of Scott & Huntington (2007), which compared how novice learners interpreted literary texts while working in small, peer groups, versus when they engaged in whole class discussion. Even fewer studies focus on the development of interpretive strategies, like the work of Mayo (2001), which explores the effects of collaborative learning on students’ ability to change the interpretive strategies they use. The results of this research indicated that collaborative contexts can effectively broaden the range of students’ interpretive strategies. However, participants in both studies were university students. There is a lack of evidence that small-group discussion works equally well with younger students, when it comes to literature interpretation. This concern brings us to the second issue that emerged from the literature review, which is the question of the age of participants. Recent research with middle adolescents is considerably more limited. Therefore, this study aims to enrich the research on middle adolescent students, and, at the same time, introduce the issue of the development of interpretive strategies as a research objective in secondary education. In particular, it explores whether middle adolescents approaching literary texts through small-group discussion develop interpretive strategies to a greater extent than when they approach texts within the context of teacher-led instruction over a period of one academic year. Needless to say, this is a pioneer study for Greece, since research on small-groups and its effects on students’ reading skills practically does not exist in Greek education. Theoretical Background The Notion of Interpretive Strategies. Secondary school teachers often expect students to use sophisticated reading and interpretive approaches requiring them to display an interpretive stance, without systematically supporting them to develop interpretive strategies (Orlando, Caverly, Swetnam

& Flippo, 2003). However, a clear definition of the notion of interpretive strategies has not been given yet in literary theory, neither has it been clearly defined which these strategies exactly are. When the term interpretive strategies is used by literary theorists, it usually refers to the methods of interpretation of literary texts. The notion of interpretive strategies is frequently used by Stanley Fish (1980) to denote the strategies employed by interpretive communities4. According to Fish, interpretive strategies are methods ―…not for reading (in the conventional sense) but for writing texts, for constituting their properties and assigning their intentions‖ (p. 171). When Fish talks of methods for ―writing‖ texts, he does not use the term literally; he refers to the notion of creative reading, through which the reader ―creates‖ the text by assigning intentions to it. Another definition of interpretive strategies is given by Jonathan Culler (1975), who identifies as interpretive strategies the ―conventions for reading literary texts‖ (p.118), and ―interpretive operations‖ (p. 162). Kintgen (1990) has described the dual role of interpretive strategies, arguing that these strategies impose both the goal of interpretation – that is, the kind of meaning we are looking for - and the methods we use to interpret literary texts (Kintgen, p. 3). Thus, the search for the author’s intentions or the search for historical, ideological and socio-cultural influences, constitute interpretive strategies concerning the kind of a valid interpretation. Likewise, the use of narratology features, like Genette’s (1980) concepts of the narrator’s voice and mood, or looking for metaphors and symbols, constitute interpretive strategies concerning the methods for reaching valid interpretations; by valid meaning interpretations based on textual and not arbitrary data. A different type of categorizing interpretive strategies is used by Lee & Hughes (2012), who adopt in their research ten predetermined interpretive strategies, which fall under four broader categories: Preview, Author’s craft, Interpretation and Personal Response. For example, identifying the rhyme is indicated as an interpretive strategy under the Author’s Craft category, while making predictions is an interpretive strategy under the Preview category (Lee & Hughes, pp. 496-499). However, this particular categorization of interpretive strategies is incorporated in the broader sense of comprehension, whereas the study presented here focuses on interpretation. Therefore, based upon the literature on interpretive strategies, in the present study the term interpretive strategies is used to describe the set of expectations and methods based on which readers interpret literary texts. These strategies determine both the kind of valid interpretations and the processes that lead us to these interpretations. For example, when we seek the author’s intention in a poem, or when we look for socio-political messages within a literary text, we are using interpretive strategies that determine the kind of valid interpretations; that is, the kind of meaning a reader expects to find. Likewise, when we choose to observe the structure of a story, by looking for narratology features, or when we decide to look for metaphors and symbols, we are implementing interpretive strategies that determine processes which can help us interpret the text. There are numerous interpretive strategies; as Fish (1980) points out, ―the list is not meant to be exhaustive‖ (p.168). In any case, readers – in our case, students – who use interpretive strategies, are those who make

autonomous interpretive efforts; they try to identify the literary discourse by taking into account textual and/or non-textual data; and they attempt to locate the main theme and the essential points of a literary text, in order to find its meaning. It was considered of essential importance to focus on the notion of interpretive strategies, for two main reasons. First, through the implementation of interpretive strategies, we can see the students’ various intellectual abilities unfold. The development and implementation of interpretive strategies is a complex, high-level intellectual process, which presupposes and develops, at the same time, multiple cognitive and aesthetic functions, and engages students into problem-solving processes. Second, as Hamel and Smith (1998) discovered in their research, putting interpretive strategies into the center of the teaching process ―…freed the teacher from endorsing a particular interpretation…‖ (p. 355). The acceptance and encouragement of multiple, yet valid interpretations, sets the base for a literature instruction that enhances critical and creative thinking. Small-Group Discussion, Teacher-centered Instruction and Literature Interpretation. In the present study we use the term small-group discussion to describe a teaching practice that is the center of cooperative and collaborative learning and is considered as a key feature of what Alvermann (2002) describes as ―participatory approaches to literacy instruction‖ (p. 201). According to Alvermann, participatory approaches are student-centered approaches, which incorporate classroom structures and activities that enhance peer interaction, like literature discussions in small groups. In participatory approaches teachers act as scaffolders, gradually withdrawing their support as students seem more capable of constructing their own learning. When constructing small groups, the level of autonomy given to students can vary. For the needs of the present study, it was decided that discussions of literature in small groups should incorporate the main features of collaborative reasoning, as it is described by Chinn, Anderson & Waggoner (2001). According to the authors, in collaborative reasoning discussions, the teacher asks a single central question about the story read. Students adopt positions on the story and then they provide explanations and arguments to support or contradict these positions. Students collaboratively construct their arguments and teachers are encouraged to reduce the amount of time they talk; however, they are invited to scaffold their students on the development of reasoning. In the present study we refer to small-group discussions of literature as a participatory approach to literature instruction, in which students discuss literary texts in groups of 4 or 5, as it is indicated in most cooperative learning methods (Slavin, 1995), following the main principles of collaborative reasoning. In this study, small-group discussion is compared to the ―teacher-centered transmission model of instruction‖ (Alvermann, 2002, p. 201), or, the ―traditional teacher-led whole-class approach‖ (Law, 2011, p. 402) as it has also been called. According to Alvermann (2002), the teacher-centered transmission model of instruction has a ―lock-step approach to literacy learning‖ (p. 201), focusing on subject matter coverage over in-depth, active learning. Teacher-led discussions of literature incorporate the main features of recitations (Chinn, Anderson & Waggoner, 2001; Nystrand, 2006). According to Chinn, Anderson & Waggoner, the recitation format has an IRE form: teacher Initiation - student Response -

teacher Evaluation. Moreover, in recitations, the interpretive stance adopted by teachers and students is mainly efferent; that is, readers mainly look for information. The interpretive authority is generally controlled by the teacher, who also controls the turn-taking during the discussion. The teacher also possesses control over the topic, mainly by asking questions, to test students about a matter already known by him/her. Despite the literature supporting cooperative and collaborative learning in literature instruction, the teachercentered model seems to be the most common, at least in the United States (Alvermann, 2002), whereas, the use of small groups seems to be more limited than we would expect, as Vaughn et al. (2011) state: ―We also realized that few teachers used small groups prior to participating in our study, and when they did, these small groups were not executed with procedures following cooperative grouping, including giving specified roles to students and requiring interactive work around text and responses‖ (p. 959). This is also the case for Greece, although this is an empirical rather than a scientific realization, due to the lack of relevant research in Greece. However, if we suppose that educational practices in the classroom follow the national educational policy in each country, we have strong reasons to believe that the use of small groups in Greek classrooms is a rare phenomenon, since, until the year 2013, when the Ministry of Education introduced the project method as obligatory for the teaching of literature on the 10th grade, all teaching instructions5 for literature recommended that teachers should apply the teacher-centered instruction model. Small-group work was simply absent in the official guidelines towards teachers. Choosing small-group discussions for the teaching of literature and literature interpretation in particular, was based not only on the supporting research data already mentioned. Small-group discussion can foster the development of interpretive strategies, due to the social dimension of literature, which is supported by many theorists: Fish (1980) denotes that the interpretation of literature takes place within a community of readers; that is, an interpretive community. Smagorinsky (2001) believes that readers construct the meanings of literary texts as a result of cultural mediation, since meaning is located not only in the reader or the text, but also in the cultural history that precedes them. Nussbaum (2010) points out that through literature people develop the ability to ―get into other peoples shoes‖, to understand their feelings and desires. Therefore, interpreting literature is, in many aspects, a social action and smallgroup discussions seem to be a powerful tool in the hands of a teacher who desires to help his/her students develop interpretive strategies. Aim and Research Questions The purpose of our study was to explore whether small-group, peer-led discussion fosters the development of interpretive strategies in the teaching of literature in a more effective way compared to teacher-centered instruction. Two research hypotheses guided our study: 1. During the teaching of literary texts, students who work in small groups come up with interpretations of greater diversity and validity compared to students who work within the context of teacher-centered instruction. 2. Students who work in small groups demonstrate higher individual competence in the development of interpretive strategies than students who work within the context of teacher-centered instruction. © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

The hypotheses indicate that we make a distinction between group productivity and individual competence (Webb, 1995).

Method Design In order to test the hypotheses, we conducted a quasi-experimental study, with one experimental group and one control group, which took place during the academic year 2010 – 2011. We introduced as intervention for the experimental group the teaching of literary texts through small-group discussion: students were taught 7 literary texts from the curriculum in groups of 4 or 5. These teaching sessions were equally distributed throughout the whole academic year, interjected by teaching sessions with no intervention. At the same time, the control group received no intervention regarding the teaching strategy. Both groups took a pre-test and a post-test, which measured the students’ ability to develop interpretive strategies, before and after the intervention, respectively. During the experiment, all 7 teaching sessions were followed by measurements of the dependent variable – the development of interpretive strategies. Participants Two classes of 9th-grade students from the same school -a public junior high school in a district of Athens, Greece- participated in the study. The class that constituted the experimental group had 24 students (10 boys and 14 girls) and the class that became the control group had 22 students (13 boys and 9 girls). In choosing our participants, our first concern was to ensure that our students would be able to develop, at some level, interpretive strategies. The ability to interpret is not something exclusively taught in schools; it is ―constitutive of being human‖ (Fish, 1980, p. 172). We can expect that students of all ages can develop interpretive strategies according to the level of their maturation. We chose a school from an urban, middle-class area, so that the students included in the study would be of a socio-economic status representative of the mean of the wider student population (more than half of the Greek population resides in Athens). 9th grade was considered a reasonable choice, since students in this grade are old enough to develop interpretive strategies to a satisfactory level, and yet they do not have to meet the demands, pressure and workload that come along with senior high school. The two particular classes (out of four 9th- grade classes in the same school), were chosen based on their academic performance. That is, we included the two classes whose students had similar grades in the course of Modern Greek Literature. We used the grades of the previous academic year as a criterion. Materials Students of both groups were taught 7 Modern Greek literary texts (both poems and prose) from the national curriculum, that is, texts contained in the school book. The texts were: a) The bridge of Arta, a folk song, b) R. Ferraios, Thourios, a poem written in 1797, inviting the Greeks to revolt against the Οttoman dominion, c) I. Makrygiannis, Memoirs, an excerpt from the memoirs of a Greek general who fought in the revolution against the Ottoman empire, d) E. Roidis, The Glass Stores, a humorous short story satirizing the intolerable situation in the Athenian streets and sidewalks, e) K. Palamas, Ode to the

Parthenon, a poem about the Greek monument, f) K.P. Cavafy, In 200 B.C., a poem talking (among others) about the emergence of the Hellenistic world and g) N. Kazantzakis, Life and Adventures of Alexis Zorbas, an excerpt of Kazantzakis’ biographical novel. In every teaching session all students were given discussion sheets, which were specially designed for the instruction of the texts. The concept underlying the design of the sheets was the creation of a tool that would be used as a guide for students in their attempt to interpret the text, but also as a data source concerning the learning outcome; that is, students’ interpretations and the interpretive strategies behind these interpretations. Constructing an instrument was necessary, since no validated test existed to measure the dependent variable (development of interpretive strategies) for the specific literary texts taught. However, we used as our guide the instrument designed by Fall, Webb & Chudowsky (2000, p. 900), which measured 10nth-grade students’ performance in a variety of skills: comprehension, interpretation and evaluation of literary texts. This instrument was modified to meet the present study’s demands, by focusing on interpretation and serving as a teaching and measurement tool at the same time. Specifically, 7 discussion sheets were designed, one for each text, based on the concept of the hermeneutic circle (Dilthey, 1976). According to this concept, the act of reading is a continuous movement between the whole and the parts of the text. In designing our tools we incorporated the principles of the recent hermeneutics, as well as certain principles of the reader-response theory, which focuses on the reader and accepts multiple interpretations. This is why the questions provide the students with some hints or reading guidelines to help them interpret the text, but they do not impose or strictly direct students towards a single interpretation. Each discussion sheet included three questions, which should be answered in written form. The first one asked students to narrate the text or give a summary of its content, by assuming a role of a character in the story. This question focused on a first, holistic approach of the text. The second question focused on the analysis of specific parts of the text (e.g. thematic units, character and literary style evaluation, etc.). The reading instructions became more specific here. The third question asked students to narrate or give a summary of the whole text again, this time from a different perspective, so that the preceding analysis could be utilized (see Appendix A). The discussion sheets given to the experimental group and the control group were the same, the main difference being that the students in the experimental group were told to answer the first question individually and the next two questions as a team, whereas the students in the control group were told to answer all three questions individually. Τhe students’ written answers would be evaluated in terms of interpretive diversity and validity, and the comparison of the grades emerging for the two groups would allow us to test the research hypotheses. Another data source was the pretest and posttest, used to test the second research hypothesis, which refers to the students’ individual competence in the development of interpretive strategies. Since no such standardized test was found in the bibliography, we proceeded again with a self-developed tool. Taking into consideration the relevant research (e.g. Mayo, 2001, Fall, Webb & Chudowsky, 2000; Kucan & Beck, 2003; Boscolo & Carotti, 2003), we ended up

with a test which had the following form: students were given a literary text they had not been taught. The text – a poem – was chosen considering the students’ academic level and background. For example, the poem used in the pretest, The Companions in Hades by Giorgos Seferis, has a content familiar to 9thgrade students, since they had been taught the epic poem of Odyssey in the 7th grade. At the same time, this poem has an allegoric and symbolic character, which leaves it open to multiple interpretations. The poem for the posttest was chosen in similar grounds. The text was followed by two open questions, designed in a way that encouraged multiple interpretations. Questions also asked students to justify their answers, so that we could identify the interpretive strategies behind these interpretations (see Appendix B). Both instruments described above were tested for their reliability. In particular, for the pretest and posttest, the instruments were tested through the split-half technique (Wiersma & Jurs, 2005). The Guttman Split-Half Coefficient was 0.88 and 0.86 for the pretest and the posttest respectively, which was considered to be satisfactory as a reliability indicator for the instrument. Regarding the worksheets, a different technique was implemented, since the instrument could not be divided in half (it contained three questions – activities). Instead, we followed the parallel or alternate forms procedure (Wiersma & Jurs, 2005). As it was mentioned, all worksheets were constructed under the same concept: the hermeneutic circle. It was not possible to test two worksheets at the same time, because this would mean that students would be taught two different texts simultaneously. However, we tested the correlation between the grades in the first and the second worksheet, which were given to the students within a time period of two weeks. Correlation was quite high (r = 0.90), giving, thus, a positive indication about the reliability of the instrument. Finally, all measurement tools were evaluated by two graders: the researcher and the school teacher. Correlation between the two graders varied from r = 0.84 to 0.87, which was considered as quite satisfactory, taking into account the subjective nature of evaluating interpretation of literary texts. During teaching sessions, observation forms were used for the experimental group, in order to follow students’ participation during the lesson, especially during the group work phase. This tool was similar to Lloyd & Beard’s (1995) observation tool for whole class discussions, with some adjustments to fit group work observation. The original Lloyd & Beard’s tool was used with the control group. Field notes were also kept during teaching sessions for both groups, as a means of evaluating the teaching and learning process and making possible changes, when needed. Field notes also fostered a deeper knowledge of the learning situation, allowing for richer descriptions and more accurate conclusions (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2008). Procedures The main study covered almost a whole school year (October 2010 - May 2011). There was a preliminary phase (April-September 2010), which included the sampling process, the meetings with the school teacher of the two classes chosen, the decisions about the composition of teams in the experimental group, a preparatory meeting with the students, the pretest, and, finally, a short pilotresearch.

It was decided that both groups should have the same teacher in the Modern Greek Language class, in order to ensure equality within groups in terms of a significant variable: the teacher. The problem was that, in Greece, collaborative learning is not widely used yet, and very few teachers have expertise on it. This was also the case of the school teacher in our experiment. It was mutually decided that it would be best for the validity of the experiment if the teacher for both experimental and control group during the intervention was one of the researchers. The researcher, a teacher as well, had been systematically implementing collaborative learning strategies in the teaching of literature for the past 3 years. Being a researcher and a teacher at the same time raises of course the question of bias: the researcher might be tempted to favor the experimental group as a teacher. This is a common challenge when a researcher is also the designer of an intervention (Barab & Squire, 2004). We tried to avoid this by using an observer, who would be present in all teaching sessions and would point out if the researcher was acting in favor of the experimental group. For the same reason, all teaching sessions were tape-recorded. Finally, the school teacher that taught the rest of the texts – without intervention – during the academic year, was the same for both groups, as well. Regarding the composition of the teams for the experimental group, 5 teams were formed: four with 5 members and one with 4 members. One hour was spent to inform both experimental and control group students of the procedures concerning their work with the teacher-researcher and the worksheets they would be using. Students were roughly informed about the experiment; that is, they were told that their class was chosen to participate in a study which explored the outcomes of a new method of teaching literature. In the last 20 minutes the pretest took place. Another two hours were spent for a short pilot research, in order to test our tools: work sheets, tests and observation forms. The main research (October 2010 – April 2011) was the intervention itself, which was implemented in 46 teaching hours. This means that the experimental group was taught Modern Greek literature in small groups with the researcher as the teacher for 23 hours over the academic year, whereas, for the rest of the year, the same group was taught the same lesson with their school teacher, through direct instruction. Likewise, the control group was taught Modern Greek literature through direct, teacher-led instruction with the researcher as the teacher for 23 hours over the academic year, whereas, for the rest of the year, they were taught the same lesson with their school teacher, through direct instruction again. Interpreting Literature in Small Groups: a Teaching Model. Teaching sessions were articulated as follows (each session lasting three 45-minute hours): Phase 1: Preparing the Whole Class. This phase began with the teacher reading the text aloud, so that reading ability differences among students could be controlled. In the end of the reading, the teacher answered possible student questions, concerning vocabulary or comprehension. Next, students were asked to answer the first question in the worksheets individually, within a time limit of 10 minutes. After the time had expired, certain answers (as many as possible, depending on time constraints) were read aloud in class and a whole class

discussion followed, with the students making comments on the answers preceded and the teacher making necessary clarifications. Phase 2: Working in Groups. This was the core part of each teaching session. Students were told to answer the second question on the work sheet, this time as a group, based on certain instructions that had been given to them in the preparatory meeting in the beginning of the school year, based on Johnson & Johnson, 2009a, p. 42 (see Appendix C). Students were also reminded to follow the instructions on their work sheets (see Appendix A). Apart from the reader and secretary role, teams were not asked to appoint any other role to their members. It was clearly stated, though, that, as a group, each team would hand only one discussion sheet. The time limit for the second question to be answered was 15 minutes this time. As the students were proceeding with their discussion of the text and the formation of their answer, the teacher was walking around the classroom, observing the teams, encouraging students to cooperate and offering support and facilitation, when necessary. Phase 3: Whole Class Discussion of Team Work. After all teams had composed their answers, the ―reader‖ of each team read aloud his team’s answer to the 2nd question. Teams’ answers were discussed with the whole class. Students were encouraged to comment on other teams’ answers and the teacher asked questions that further promoted the conversation on the text and helped clarify vague or ambiguous points. Phases 2 and 3 were repeated for the third and last question of the worksheet. Phase 4: Team Work Evaluation. After the text instruction was over, teams were evaluated on the grounds of both academic performance and collaboration skills. The evaluation was mainly performed by the teacher, based on the grades of the 2nd and 3rd question on the discussion sheets, as well as on the observation sheets where she recorded each student’s participation during group work. Each team received a final grade (out of 20), which was the sum of the two grades: performance and collaboration. Ensuring Team Work. In order to foster true collaboration among team members and avoid undesirable phenomena such as the ―free rider‖ effect (Slavin, 1995; Webb, 1995), we tried to ensure that certain conditions would be met. First, we focused on Positive Interdependence and Individual Accountability (Johnson & Johnson, 2009a & 2009b). We invested a great deal of effort to make our students realize that, within the group, the only way for someone to succeed is the team itself to succeed and that one person’s indifference had a significant negative impact. Second, we tried to promote face-to-face interaction, interpersonal skills, and group processing (Johnson & Johnson, 2009a & 2009b). We tried to promote real interaction by forming relatively small groups, with direct eye contact among members, and with the same composition throughout the year, so that strong collaborative bonds would be created. Moreover, we insisted on developing interpersonal skills by regularly giving feedback about acceptable behavior. Next, we chose to construct groups that would be partially structured, since, according to the research, these groups tend to be more effective (Sawyer, 2004). Regarding the composition of the student groups, we chose to form teams that would be heterogeneous in terms of academic

performance (Cohen, 1994; Tunkle, Anderson & Evans, 1999) and sex. Finally, the teacher acted as a facilitator, by modeling, coaching and scaffolding (Jonassen, 1999). During group work, she intervened when it was absolutely necessary (for example to answer a question that other group members could not answer or to point out ―social loafing‖ phenomena). The Control Group Teaching Model. At the same time, during the intervention, the students of the control group were being taught the same texts by the same teacher / researcher, through teacher-centered instruction, with the number of sessions being kept constant in comparing the experimental and the control group. In general, we followed the direct instruction model by Joyce & Weil (1986), which includes five main phases: a) Orientation, b) Presentation, c) Structured Practice, d) Guided Practice, e) Independent Practice. In the first two phases the teacher presented the text and provided general guidelines for its interpretive approach. In phase c and d, students worked under the teacher’s guidance, involved in whole class discussion, whereas in phase e they worked alone completing their discussion sheets, with the teacher helping each one individually, in case a student asked for help. Therefore, compared to the experimental group teaching model, the control group model did not involve any small group work; instead, it involved teacher-led whole class discussion and individual practice. The evaluation phase (April – May 2011) included discussion with the students of both groups concerning the intervention: how they experienced the whole process, whether they found it effective and/or pleasant. The study ended with the posttest. Data Analysis In order to test the first research hypothesis, we compared the grades of students of the control and the experimental group for their answers to the 2nd and 3rd question in the discussion sheets. In this way, we could compare interpretations that resulted from teamwork with interpretations that resulted from individual work, for the experimental and the control group, respectively. Answers were given a grade from 1 to 5, with 1 corresponding to comments or interpretations with little or no relation to the text, and 5 corresponding to valid interpretations. When we refer to ―valid‖ interpretations, we mean interpretations sufficiently justified with textual data, meaning that alternative interpretations are possible. Middle grades (2,3,4) corresponded to valid interpretations with no or little justification. Grade 0 was appointed only when there was no answer at all. This grading system, inspired by Boscolo and Carotti (2003), was considered appropriate, because it was open to the evaluation of multiple interpretations. Therefore, in order to compare the answers of the two groups, we added the grades appointed to each one of the two questions in the discussion sheet, that is, 5 + 5= 10. Next, we estimated the means for each worksheet, for the experimental and the control group separately. The means of the two groups were compared using ANOVA. In order to test the second research hypothesis, we compared individual interpretations of students of the experimental and the control group. In particular, we used two data sources: grades in the pretest and posttest, and grades of the answers in the first question in each one of the 7 discussion sheets, which was also answered individually by students of both groups. The means of

the grades in the posttest and in the first question of the worksheets were compared using ANOVA. We also ran an ANCOVA to compare the means of the grades in the posttest, controlling for performance in the pretest. Statistical analysis was performed with the statistical package IBM SPSS, ed. 19.

Results Correlation between Teaching Strategy and the Development of Interpretive Strategies in Literature Instruction Comparison of the mean grades of students in the last 2 questions of all 7 worksheets tested whether discussion in small groups resulted into more diverse and valid interpretations than whole class discussion within the context of teacher-centered instruction. Means and standard deviations of students’ grades in literary text interpretation for all 7 teaching sessions, comparing group performance of the experimental group with the respective individual performance of the control group, are presented in Table 1. Table 1: Means and Standard Deviations for the Development of Interpretive Strategies by Students of the Experimental Group and the Control Group in all 7 Teaching Sessions (Comparing Group Work with Individual Work).

Group Experimental (Ν=24) Interpretation 1st teaching session 2nd teaching session 3rd teaching session 4th teaching session 5th teaching session 6th teaching session 7th teaching session

Mean

Standard Deviation

Control (Ν=22) Mean

Standard Deviation

7.73

1.01

4.57

1.56

7.67

1.49

5.05

1.95

7.70

0.45

4.35

2.19

8.88

0.28

5.80

1.95

7.46

1.42

5.83

1.47

8.71

0.53

6.20

1.94

8.34

0.31

6.41

1.66

0.58

5.52

1.56

Total 8.07 Note. Grades are from 1 to 10.

Data from Table 1 indicate that the experimental group scored higher than the control group, in all 7 teaching sessions (total mean grade 8.07 versus 5.52). ANOVA showed that these differences were statistically significant: for the differences in the total mean grades between the two groups, F was 55.892, statistically significant at 0.000. F for the differences in each teaching session

separately, varied from 14.602 to 66.575, in every case statistically significant at 0.000. Finally, η2 for the difference between the total mean grades was 0.560, meaning that the teaching strategy accounted for 56% of the variance of student grades. These differences, which are indicated as numbers, are practically differences concerning the validity and variability of interpretive strategies developed by students of both groups, which were expressed in their answers in the second and third question of the worksheets. In order to make this picture clearer, we are presenting an example of students’ answers, choosing answers representative of the average level of interpretive validity and variability for both groups. The example is taken from the last teaching session. The text taught was an excerpt from N. Kazantzakis, Life and Adventures of Alexis Zorbas. This passage describes the scene where the narrator first meets Zorbas. The two heroes’ characters emerge from the vivid description and the dialogue that takes place: Zorbas is presented as a passionate, spontaneous person, who enjoys life, mainly with his senses. On the other hand, the narrator (one of the two heroes in the book) is presented as a well-educated, reasonable and sensible person. The last part of the excerpt engages with the description of Zorbas’ relationship with his santouri6. We are citing answers to the last question of the worksheet, which is the following: Suppose, now, that you are a group of sailors drinking their coffee in the same coffee shop as the writer, sitting on the next table. You are present at the scene of Zorbas’ arrival and you are eavesdropping on the whole conversation that follows. After a while, another friend of yours arrives and sits with you. Describe to him, as a group now, the whole scene of the two men’s acquaintance and conversation, commenting on their characters and stressing out some of their ideas that might have impressed you. Finally, tell him if, in your opinion, the writer decided to take Zorbas with him and why. The students of the team of Athena7, from the experimental group, answered as follows8: ―- Hello, Lazarus! Where have you been? You are late! - What can I say, guys, I was waiting for the rain to stop! - Well, you missed a great scene: listen: while we were drinking our coffee, we overheard an interesting conversation. It all began when a grey-haired, tall guy, came near a quiet man who was drinking sage, sitting on the table next to us. Although they didn’t know each other, the tall guy asked the other one to take him along on his journey to Crete. At first he was surprised, but then he saw that he was special. He made tasty soups and he enjoyed life. It is worth mentioning that the quiet man asked him to sit with him and we saw the grey-haired guy ordering rum instead of sage. Moreover, we heard about the several part-time jobs he said he had done and that he had beaten up his boss, just because he felt like doing so. He was saying that his biggest love was the santouri, in his happy and sad times he plays santouri and, you won’t believe this, that live wire, who had such passion for santouri and freedom, has a family! We also had the chance to listen to him playing the santouri. Finally, the man in the next table decided to take him along in his journey. But they are so different… - Well, you know, opposites attract. And what is the name of the stranger? - Alexis Zorbas‖. The students of this team, in their attempt to interpret the text, seem to have adequately comprehended the characters of the two heroes, especially the character of Zorbas. They have learned how to observe and utilize the heroes’

external features, their actions and their ideas, in order to deeply understand the heroes’ ethos, character and state of mind. They focus on essential points, even when these concern details (e.g. they observed the fact that Zorbas ordered rum instead of sage and evaluated it accordingly). Moreover, they seem to have learned how to observe the scenery (―I was waiting for the rain to stop‖ – in the first paragraph of the passage it is mentioned that it was raining in the beginning). The students have also realized the uniqueness in Zorbas’ personality. Finally, they have spotted one of the basic strategies used in literary texts: the strategy of opposite characters, which helps the heroes’ personalities emerge and stand out (―Well, you know, opposites attract‖). These accomplishments come as a result of the fact that the students used a set of interpretive strategies: focusing on the characters and comparing them, observing the scenery (time and place) and keeping track of the plot. In other words, the students altogether chose to focus on narratology features, in order to approach the text in a meaningful way. This set of interpretive strategies concerns the processes that lead to valid interpretations, as they were described in the Introduction of the present study. The following answer written by a student from the control group, also exemplifies the average level in terms of interpretive validity and variability: ―- Welcome, Takis. Have a seat… what’s new? Hear me out … a while ago, two gentlemen were sitting here, having a conversation. - So, what of it? - They were two strangers, who started talking. The one was spontaneous and witty, and he was straightforward and he wanted the other guy to take him with him on a journey. The other one was calm, cautious, he was weighing things. And, deep inside, he wanted to take him along, this old man with his callous hands and his sparkling eyes. He was probably fascinated by his straightforwardness and his ideologies. And he will probably take him with him, although they are different. However, he had an opinion about everything and I was fascinated by him, as well. Although this student seems to have perceived the basic aspects of the two heroes’ characters, as well as the differences between them, it can be observed that her description is not as deep and comprehensive as the one made by the Athena team. She mainly focuses on superficial aspects (e.g. ―his straightforwardness‖, a term that is taken from the text as it is), she is not utilizing basic text information (e.g. Zorbas’ passion for santouri) and she cannot focus on one of the main characteristics of the hero, that is, his passion for life and his tendency to feel first and think afterwards. Even though she uses more or less the same interpretive strategies as the students who worked in a group, the implementation is carried out in a rather careless and superficial way. The examples presented above are representative of the differences between group work and individual work in all 7 teachings. Students of the control group usually – but not always – tried to make an interpretive comment. However, in every case, interpretations that came as a result of team work (which applies to the students of the experimental group) were more valid, more variable and they clearly took into account more textual data. Another comment concerns the validity of the results presented so far. One could claim that the answers composed by the teams in the control group do not represent the interpretations of all team members; since the teams were heterogeneous, the answers could be just the work of the best student in the

team, or the product of the cooperation of 2-3 good students. As it was mentioned in the Method chapter, we focused on the establishment of an environment that would ensure true collaboration within the teams by setting common goals, observing team work, providing feedback on each team’s collaborative performance etc. Based on our observation of the team work during all teaching sessions, as well as on the data gathered by the observation sheets and our field notes, we came to the conclusion that 4 out of 5 teams in the control group developed true collaboration; everybody contributed to the conversation and the team members seemed to have developed a strong community identity (Bielaczyc & Collins, 1999). Only one of the teams presented signs of dysfunction, since the weaker students were also quite introverted and could not manage to keep up with the rest of the group. Overall, our first research hypothesis, according to which students who work in groups end up with more valid and variable literary interpretations than students who work individually, is confirmed by our results. Correlation between Teaching Strategy and Individual Performance in the Development of Interpretive Strategies Two data sources were used to test the second hypothesis. First, the performance of students of the experimental and the control group on the pretest and the posttest was compared. Second, we compared their grades in the first question of the worksheets, which was individually answered by students of both groups. Table 2 presents means and standard deviations of students’ grades in literary text interpretation for the Pretest and the Posttest, comparing individual performance between the experimental group and the control group. Table 2: Means and Standard Deviations for the Development of Interpretive Strategies by Students of the Experimental Group and the Control Group in the Pretest and the Posttest. Group Experimental (Ν=24) Standard Deviation

Control (Ν=22)

Interpretation

Mean

Standard Deviation

Pretest

3.80

2.46

4.26

3.70

Posttest 4.02 Note. Grades are from 1 to 10.

1.83

3.70

1.60

Data from table 2 indicate that the experimental group scored lower than the control group in the pretest (3.80 versus 4.26) and higher than the control group in the posttest (4.02 versus 3.70). ANOVA showed that these differences were not statistically significant: for the differences in the pretest grades between the two groups, F was 0.434, p = 0.514. For the differences in the posttest grades between the two groups, F was 0.375, p = 0.543 (probability standards were set at 0.05). For our second hypothesis to be confirmed, we would expect to get two findings: first, a non-significant difference in the pretest, so that equality in performance could be demonstrated, supporting, thus, the study’s validity, and © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

second, a significant difference in the posttest, in favor of the experimental group, to support the argument that collaborative learning raises individual performance. Our first expectation was met, but the second expectation was not. However, although the difference in the posttest was not statistically significant, it should be pointed out that the direction of the correlation between the independent and the dependent variable was the one predicted by the hypothesis, that is, students of the experimental group scored higher in the posttest. In fact, we observe a reverse in student performance: the control group scored higher in the pretest and lower in the posttest; still, these differences might be due to random factors. An ANCOVA was also run to test whether student performance in the posttest was affected by individual performance before the intervention. Performance in the posttest was used as the dependent variable; the teaching strategy was the independent variable, with performance in the pretest as covariate. Table 3 presents the results. Table 3: Analysis of Covariance Summary Table of the Development of Interpretive Strategies in the Posttest, by Teaching Strategy and Performance in the Pretest. Source

η2

Teaching Strategy Pretest

1.180

0.433

0.515

0.012

17.122

6.275

0.017

0.148

Error

98.234

2.729

Total

124.375

The model on Table 3 describes the difference of mean grades for the development of interpretive strategies in the posttest between the experimental and the control group, controlling for the development of interpretive strategies in the pretest. Again, the effect of the teaching strategy on the posttest performance is not statistically significant. On the contrary, performance in the pretest highly correlates with performance in the posttest (p = 0.017). It was considered necessary to use another data source in order to check our hypothesis. The mean scores in the first question of the students’ discussion sheets, which was answered individually by students of both the control and the experimental group, were also examined. This was considered to be a valid data source, because a measurement which occurs regularly during the school year, in the form of an activity that takes place during a teaching session, may give a more complete and systematic picture of students’ ability to develop interpretive strategies than a written test which takes place only twice a year. Table 4 presents means and standard deviations of students’ grades in literary text interpretation for all 7 teaching sessions, comparing individual performance of students of both groups.

Table 4: Means and Standard Deviations for the Development of Interpretive Strategies by Students of the Experimental Group and the Control Group in all 7 Teaching Sessions (Comparing Individual Work between the Two Groups). Group Experimental (Ν=24) Individual Interpretation

Mean

Standard Deviation

Control (Ν=22) Mean

Standard Deviation

1st teaching session

2.41

1.22

2.39

1.09

2nd teaching session ssession 3rd teaching session

2.68

1.12

2.68

1.19

2.97

1.49

2.15

1.18

4th teaching session

3.45

1.18

2.83

1.28

5th teaching session

2.56

1.04

2.44

0.96

6th teaching session

3.17

1.77

2.73

1.28

7th teaching session

3.41

1.13

3.04

1.18

Total Note. Grades are from 1 to 5.

2.87

1.08

2.60

1.00

It can be observed that both groups started with almost equal average grades for the first two teaching sessions, but from the third one until the last one, the experimental group was consistently ahead. We ran an ANOVA again to compare the average grades between the two groups for each teaching session separately. ANOVA showed that these differences were not statistically significant, except for the third teaching session, were F = 4.056, p = 0.05. However, for the total average of all 7 teaching sessions (2.87 for the experimental group and 2.60 for the control group), F was 0.903, which was not statistically significant (p = 0.347). Therefore, the second hypothesis was not confirmed by our findings. However, we could say that our results demonstrate a tendency for a positive correlation between collaborative learning and individual performance in the development of interpretive strategies.

Discussion Our results set the ground for certain inferences and remarks. Initially, our first research hypothesis, according to which students who work in small groups end up with more valid and variable literary interpretations than students who work individually, was confirmed by our results. The positive

effects of small-group work on the development of interpretive strategies are mainly visible during the discussion of the literary text in small groups. This procedure seems to be the one that makes a difference, compared to teachercentered instruction. The genuine and autonomous interpretive effort takes place during small group work. Students who work in groups attempt a deeper and more insightful interpretation of the literary text, by carefully observing and analyzing textual and/or non-textual data. There are various possible explanations to this phenomenon. Students are not afraid to express their views, since they are not exposed to whole class and teacher criticism (see Nystrand, Gamoran & Heck, 1993; Alvermann et al., 1996). As a result, small group discussion provides students with access to a greater variety of opinions, perspectives and interpretations of the literary text. Rosenblatt’s (1995) view about the variability of interpretations seems to be confirmed here. The others bring their own experiences and interpretations to the discussion and the whole reading experience is richer than the one provided by individual reading. In addition, the use of an instrument like the worksheets given to our students, based on the hermeneutic circle, inviting them to approach literary texts in terms of real life situations, seemed to support this effort importantly. The second hypothesis was not confirmed by our findings. The supremacy of students who work in small groups over those who are taught with direct instruction, is not as visible when students are asked to interpret literary texts individually. Results favor the experimental group again, but not to a statistically significant level. Other research has showed similar results (e.g. Kucan & Beck, 2003). Why is this happening? An explanation for this asymmetry between the experimental group’s performance during group work and during individual work may lie within what is described as situated cognition. According to the situated cognition concept, knowledge is basically ―situated‖, not independent; it is partly the product of the activity, the environment and the culture within which it is developed (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1988). Therefore, when a certain knowledge or ability – like the development of interpretive strategies - is acquired within a certain learning context – like small group discussion – is it so implicit that it can be successfully transferred within a different context, for example during an individual reading or a test? All teachers must at some point have observed students who seem to have fully comprehended the lesson during the teaching session, but have great difficulty in writing a report about it at home. This is what C. Bereiter (1997) refers to as the problem of knowledge transfer: ―What we learn in one situation we often fail to apply in another‖ (Bereiter, p. 288). However, our data, especially the ones testing the students’ improvement overtime, favored the experimental group in all cases, even though statistical significance did not occur. Limitations of the Study The present study is a small scale experiment. Due to the small sample, the study’s basic restriction lies in its external validity. Moreover, as with every quasi-experimental design, the participants were not chosen through random sampling; intact groups were used. Therefore, although the groups used were similar regarding certain crucial variables (age, academic performance, socioeconomic background, the teacher), and thus some confidence could be placed

in the conclusions drawn, the results should be still interpreted and generalized with caution. (Wiersma & Jurs, 2005). Further research concerning the kind of small-group experiences and environments fostering the development of valid and variable literary interpretations might be revealing different dimensions of improvement of teaching literature. Moreover, the question about individual improvement as a result of small-group work needs to be further explored.

Conclusion Our findings showed that small group discussion enhances the development of interpretive strategies. The finding is of more importance given that the State of Greece, in which the current study was conducted, differs from many European nations in terms of school culture (less collectivist) and the organization of the educational system (a more centralized system) (Dimaras, 1995; Skourtou, & Kourtis-Kazoullis, 2003). Such an educational system seems discouraging regarding teachers’ and students’ engagement in innovative efforts. Small-group discussion can be a valuable instrument in the hands of a teacher who has difficulties teaching students how to interpret literary texts or wishes to support them to better respond to literature. Regarding the notion of interpretive strategies, it is a useful concept for teachers who are interested in working towards that direction. Small-group discussion seems to help students use the interpretive skills inherent in them, by enhancing active learning and peer interaction, and by avoiding the imposition of a single interpretation. Therefore, this study can be of practical value for literature teachers in secondary schools.

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Footnotes In particular, we reviewed the publications from 1995 until today of the following journals: Review of Educational Issues, Pedagogical Review, Pedagogical Discourse, Pedagogical Review, Philologist and Philological. 2 The research work of the Human Computer Interaction team of the University of Patras is described in detail in the University website: http://hci.ece.upatras.gr/index.php?id=23&option=com_content&task=view&lang=iso8859-7 3 We are making a distinction here between comprehension and interpretation, considering as comprehension of texts what Purves & Rippere (1968) describe as ―perception‖, that is, description of a text, including retelling and summarizing. Interpretation, on the other hand, is considered here as what Gibson (2006) roughly describes as ―the activity of bringing to light what a literary work is trying to say‖ (p.440). Culler (1997, p. 64) makes a very clear distinction between comprehension and interpretation, by giving an example: suppose we are asked: ―What is Hamlet about?‖ If we answer: ―It is about a prince in Denmark‖, we are not interpreting the text. But if we answer‖ ―Hamlet is about the breakdown of the Elizabethan world order‖, then we are engaging on an interpretive action. 4 The notion of interpretive communities was introduced by Stanley Fish (1980), in order to explain why two or more readers share the same interpretations (since there is no such thing as an objective text, according to the reader-response theory) and why one single reader regularly changes his/her interpretations. Interpretive communities consist of readers who share interpretive strategies. These strategies exist before the act of reading and, therefore, they determine the form of the reading object – the text – rather than the other way around, as it is usually supposed to be. This explains why different readers give the same interpretations (they belong to the same interpretive community) and why one single reader uses different interpretive strategies and, thus, gives different interpretations (he/she moves between multiple communities). Interpretive communities grow or deminish and people move from one to another (Fish, pp. 171172). 5 For further reference, the relevant document is (translated in English from Greek): Guidelines for the teaching of philological courses in junior high school (academic year 20032004). Ministry of National Education and Religion, Pedagogical Institute, Department of Secondary Education, pp. 174-217. These guidelines are still used by teachers today. 6 Santouri: a traditional musical instrument 7 Students in the experimental group named their teams as follows: Hermes, Victory, Panthers, Athena and Aris. 8 All student answers were translated from Greek, maintaining the students’ language and style. Possible mistakes in grammar, syntax or expression were not corrected. 1

Appendix A Example of work sheet used in the teaching of literary texts by the students of the experimental group. Discussion sheet Course: Modern Greek Literature Text: Nikos Kazantzakis, The Life and Adventures of Alexis Zorbas (schoolbook pp. 164-168) Team name: …………………………… Team Members: 1).............................................. 2)............................................ 3).......................................... 4) .............................................. 5)......................... ........... Instructions 1. Answer all three questions (with open books). 2. Answer the first question individually, and the next two questions as a team. The answers of the last two questions must emerge from the participation of all team members. Your ideas must be supported by specific citations from the text. 3. Choose a ―secretary‖, who will be writing down the team’s answers to the questions, and a ―reader‖, who will be reading them in front of the whole class. 4. If you have any questions, ask all your team members first. Only if none of them can give you an answer, you may ask the teacher. 5. At the end of the lesson, you will hand all the work sheets to the teacher. Questions 1) Suppose you are the writer (and main character of the novel) and, the night after you first met Zorbas, you run into an old friend of yours, on the boat to Crete. Describe to him, in short, the scene of your acquaintance with Zorbas, pointing out his personal characteristics and ideas that impressed you. Then, say whether you finally decided to take him with you to Crete or not, and why.

2) a) Complete the table below by gathering as many evidence as you can about… The scenery (where is the story taking place?) and the plot (what is going on?)

The characters (Who are they, appearance and behavior)

The narrator’s comments (about whatever impresses him)

The way the author writes (style, words…)

b) Try to make Alexis Zorbas’ profile, by completing the diagram below:

3) Suppose, now, that you are a group of sailors drinking their coffee in the same coffee shop as the writer, sitting on the next table. You are present at the scene of Zorbas’ arrival and you are eavesdropping on the whole conversation that follows. After a while, another friend of yours arrives and sits with you. Describe to him, as a group now, the whole scene of the two men’s acquaintance and conversation, commenting on their characters and stressing out some of their ideas that might have impressed you. Finally, tell him if, in your opinion, the writer decided to take Zorbas with him and why.

Appendix B B1. Pretest Text: The Companions in Hades, by George Seferis fools, who ate the cattle of Helios Hyperion; but he deprived them of the day of their return. — Odyssey Since we still had some hardtack how stupid of us to go ashore and eat the Sun’s slow cattle, for each was a castle you’d have to battle forty years, till you’d become a hero and a star! On the earth’s back we hungered, but when we’d eaten well we fell to these lower regions mindless and satisfied. (Translated By Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard) Questions Question 1.a. What do you think the Companions in Hades, the Sun’s Cattle, and their story symbolize? b. On what evidence from the text is your answer based? Question 2. Who do you think the ―companions‖ are speaking to? What are their words aiming at? Are there any clues in the poem that lead you to this conclusion? B2. Posttest Text: To have taken the trouble, by K.P. Cavafy I’m broke and practically homeless. This fatal city, Antioch, has devoured all my money: this fatal city with its extravagant life. But I’m young and in excellent health. Prodigious master of things Greek, I know Aristotle and Plato through and through, poets, orators, or anyone else you could mention. I have some idea about military matters and friends among the senior mercenaries. I also have a foot in the administrative world; I spent six months in Alexandria last year: I know (and this is useful) something about what goes on there— the scheming of Kakergetis, his dirty deals, and the rest of it.

So I consider myself completely qualified to serve this country, my beloved fatherland, Syria. Whatever job they give me, I’ll try to be useful to the country. That’s my intention. But if they frustrate me with their maneuvers— we know them, those smart operators: no need to say more here— if they frustrate me, it’s not my fault. I’ll approach Zabinas first, and if that idiot doesn’t appreciate me, I’ll go to his rival, Grypos. And if that imbecile doesn’t take me on, I’ll go straight to Hyrkanos. One of the three will want me anyway. And my conscience is quiet about my not caring which one I chose: the three of them are equally bad for Syria. But, a ruined man, it’s not my fault. I’m only trying, poor devil, to make ends meet. The almighty gods ought to have taken the trouble to create a fourth, an honest man. I would gladly have gone along with him. Questions Question 1. The person who speaks in the poem is telling us how he plans to serve his country. What do these plans tell us about his ethics? On what evidence from the text is your answer based? Question 2. ―But, a ruined man … with him‖: Write a paragraph in which you will describe what, in your opinion, is the meaning of this verse. Which are the textual data that lead you to your conclusion?

Appendix C Instructions for student behavior during group work (adopted by Johnson & Johnson, 2009a, p. 42) i) Be critical of ideas, not people. ii) Remember that we are in this together. iii) Encourage everyone to participate. iv) Listen carefully to everyone’s ideas, even if you do not agree. v) Rephrase something somebody said, if it was not clear. vi) Try to understand all sides of the issue. vii) First we express all the ideas and then we put them together.

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 66-78, January 2016

Experiences of School and Family Communications and Interactions Among Parents of Children with Reactive Attachment Disorder Raol Taft and Candace Schlein University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, MO, USA Crystal M. Ramsay Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA, USA

Abstract. Effective communications between schools and family members about curricular concerns can positively impact students‟ performance across behavioral, academic, and social domains. Moreover, family involvement in schooling may be more important for children with disabilities, especially students with severe emotional and behavioral concerns, such as with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). Students with RAD present some of the most challenging behaviors to school personnel. In turn, needs of students with RAD require their families to work together with school staff as equal curriculum decision– makers to promote hopeful outcomes for this group of learners. In this article, we discuss the findings of an investigation into the experiences of parents of children with RAD. We uncover their storied perceptions of encountering a lack of proactive, positive, and useful communications throughout their children‟s educational careers. Keywords: reactive attachment disorder; adoptive and foster parents; home-school communications; curricular stakeholders; special education.

Introduction Effective school and family interactions and communications that increase family participation are crucial for promoting more positive outcomes for children in school across academic, social, and behavioral domains (Epstein & Sanders, 2002; Fan & Chen, 2001; Hill & Taylor, 2004; Jeynes, 2005; Pomerantz, Moorman, & Litwack, 2007). Engaging with parents as partners in the educational process is universally considered best practice, particularly in

special education. It is also necessary in order to optimize student performance (Fine, 1990; Indelicato, 1980; Miedel & Reynolds, 1999; Nowell & Salem, 2007; Shortt, Douglas, & McLain, 2000; Simon, 2001). The importance of building positive and collaborative interactions with families can be seen in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in the United States (Epstein, 2005; United States Department of Education, 2010). One of the basic tenets of the Act is to empower parents and provide them with meaningful information so that they can make informed decisions about their children's education. This is especially pertinent for children with disabilities. Key pieces of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, 2004), in fact, are predicated on this notion (e.g., IDEA, Sects. 300.322, 300.504). Among the concepts that are embodied in IDEA is the imperative that schools and families must collaborate with one another (Katsiyannis, Yell, & Bradley, 2001; Turnbull, Turnbull, Erwin, Soodak, & Shogren, 2011). What IDEA does not do is go so far as to operationalize and define positive interactions and strong communications. The literature, however, highlights several concepts aimed at supporting good relationships across members of the school community (Blue–Banning, Summers, Frankland, Lord Nelson, & Beegle, 2004; Schlein, Taft, & Tucker–Blackwell, 2013; Turnbull et al., 2011). While positive home and school interactions and communications are effective for promoting the best outcomes for students with disabilities, it may be even more important for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (Duchnowski et al., 2012; Dunlap & Fox, 2007; Flick, 2011). Parental involvement is suggested as a necessary component in the treatment of children with behavior disorders. It is further recommended for relationships to be cultivated between school, community, and family and to establish collaborations that allow families and community members access to roles in decision–making. Collaborations between key stakeholders help to establish a systems approach for addressing issues presented by children with challenging behaviors (Dunlap & Fox, 2007; Flick, 2011; Kaufmann & Landrum, 2013; Yell, Meadows, Drasgow, & Shriner, 2009). Farmer, Quinn, Hussey, & Holahan (2001) proposed a systems approach to addressing the needs of students with behavioral issues. Farmer et al. (2001) suggested employing a multidisciplinary team for individuals at high risk to intervene on multiple levels as a means of addressing system variables that promote change across students‟ behavior systems. This approach aims to reorganize the behavior system of correlated constraints affecting the student. Parental factors are specifically cited as one of five factors that need to be considered when addressing the needs of youth with disruptive and challenging behaviors. In this article, we discuss an investigation into the experiences of parents of children with severe psychological and emotional issues called Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). RAD children can present with severe aggressive and challenging behaviors (Cain, 2006; Schwartz & Davis, 2006; Taft, Ramsay, & Schlein, 2015). In particular, we focus on home and school communications and interactions of parents of children with RAD. We highlight stories of experiences suggesting that for these parents, communications between families and schools were complex and dysfunctional. Significantly, we underscore the pivotal gap

between home and school that might mark the schooling experiences of children with RAD and their families to elucidate ways of enhancing home and school communications.

Background: Students With RAD and Parental Involvement Children with RAD can present schools and education professionals with very challenging behaviors (Davis, Kruczek, & McIntosh, 2006; Floyd, Hester, Griffin, Golden, & Smith–Canter, 2008; Schwartz & Davis, 2006). They often exhibit inappropriate behaviors that range from subtle planned behaviors to extreme and proactively planned inappropriate behaviors or overt dangerous aggression (Taft, Ramsay, & Schlein, 2015). Research supports that children with RAD can be the most difficult group of children with problem behaviors that service providers will work with in schools (Dunlap & Fox, 2007; Green, 2003). Additionally, Schwartz and Davis (2006) discussed the effects of RAD on school readiness and concluded that RAD children present the school with academic, social, and behavioral challenges and problems that need to be addressed so that the learners can optimally benefit from their learning environments. Other problems to consider when working with children with RAD are identifying triggers of behavior, determining appropriate and effective consequences, and understanding the behavior in terms of behavioral function. With most children, school professionals can identify triggers or events likely to elicit inappropriate behavior. This is not always the case with children with RAD (Cain, 2006; Thomas, 2005; Trout & Thomas, 2005). In fact, it is not uncommon for children with RAD to exhibit extreme behaviors without any noticeable antecedent or trigger for the behavior (Cain, 2006; Taft, Ramsay, & Schlein, 2015). It is accepted behavioral principles that antecedents can predict the occurrence of behavior and that consequences maintain or decrease behaviors (Alberto & Troutman, 2013, Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). Unfortunately, consequences that maintain behaviors are often more difficult to identify in children with RAD (Cain, 2006). Difficulties identifying antecedents and consequences make determining a verifiable functional relation between behaviors and consequences extremely problematic. This, in turn, negatively impacts attempts to design effective behavior intervention plans. Even when antecedents, consequences, and behavioral function are determined, children with RAD often do not respond to behavior intervention practices and programs. This includes those that have been commonly and effectively used for interventions to address behavior problems for children with behavior disorders (Cain, 2006; Taft, Ramsay, & Schlein, 2015; Thomas, 2005; Trout & Thomas, 2005). Problems that children with RAD exhibit are due to the negative impact of disturbed and dysfunctional early relationships effectuated by extreme neglect, abuse, violence, and changes in primary caregivers (Schwartz & Davis, 2006). Families must be included as stakeholders in their child‟s educational team, given the difficulties presented by students with RAD. Family members know their children better than anyone else. A family-centered and team-based process is crucial for addressing the needs of this student population. Families

need to be involved so that they can support children during the assessment process, validate data collected by interventionists, report on behaviors, provide information about the performance of their children, and provide critiques of suggestions that are offered by intervention teams (Cain, 2006; Thomas, 2005).

Methodology Participants were parents of children with RAD; they are information– rich, having lived with their children and experienced the behaviors that are key to understanding the central phenomenon in this study. We made use of opportunistic purposive and criterion–based sampling to recruit and select parents for investigative participation. We required two criteria for participation in this study: (1) Parent‟s child had to be diagnosed with RAD or significant attachment disorder, and (2) Parent‟s child had to be currently enrolled in school or be of school age. We met potential participants at a RAD parent support group, at an academic conference, and through the recommendation of friends. Each participant received an explanation of the purpose of the research study and informed written consent was obtained from them. Participants were foster parents, adoptive parents, or both foster and adoptive parents. Our participants included 10 parents (9 mothers and 1 father) from four states and nine different school districts. Their children attended rural, suburban, and urban schools. This study made use of the narrative inquiry research tradition of Clandinin and Connelly (2000). This form of investigation enabled us to focus on collecting and analyzing “stories of experiences” as data (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990, 1991). Moreover, narrative inquiry was selected as the method for conducting this study due to the detailed ethical considerations that are intertwined with this methodology. Angel, Stoner, and Shelden (2009) highlighted the great need for a relationship that is founded on trust between professionals and mothers of children with disabilities. In turn, we endeavored to work together with our participants in “relational” narrative research (Clandinin et al., 2006). We conducted semi–structured interviews to allow us to ask clarifying questions, further probe specific responses, and provide our participants with an opportunity to elaborate on their stories if they so desired. The first author was the sole interviewer as a means of concentrating rapport and establishing trust between one interviewer and participants. Moreover, our participants were provided with a copy of interview transcriptions following our interview sessions, and they were asked to provide feedback regarding the accuracy of the information collected. Our interview questions focused on the experiences of parents of children with RAD or significant attachment issues. The interview protocol included questions to stimulate discussion, to allow our participants to openly express their views, and to elaborate on topics prompted by questions. Interview sessions were open–ended, recorded, and later transcribed. Individual interviews were conducted at a place chosen by the participant. Session length varied depending on participants‟ answers. Ten interview sessions were conducted over the course of one year,

totaling 677 minutes of recorded interviews. One interview session was conducted with one mother and father together at their request. One participant engaged in two interview sessions for scheduling reasons. We completed descriptive and reflective field notes following all interviews. We replaced all person names and place names with pseudonyms. We reviewed the transcriptions in–depth to determine major emergent codes and common narrative themes. Finally, we used the three–dimensional narrative inquiry space (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) to shed light on some of the personal, social, temporal, and contextual variables of our participants‟ narratives of experiences. We then drew narrative interpretations from our data as investigative findings to deliberate over the level and quality of home and school communications that participants outlined.

Findings We present here some of the narratives of experiences of our participants regarding their interactions with school staff. We examine our participants‟ lived scenarios of family and school communications and interactions. In exploring these experiential stories, we underscore our participants‟ perceived need to be involved in curricular advocacy for their children who have severe psychological, behavioral, and emotional problems. Participants explained their perspectives on communication efforts with their children‟s schools. Although some viewed communications with school staff more positively than others, all agreed that there was not a solid system in place to work together on a continuous basis. Our participants highlighted how they sometimes felt isolated from schools and even from other family members. In fact, many participants are regular members of a support group for parents of children with RAD so that they might gain support and reduce feelings of isolation. They further expressed a perceived need for connections with their children‟s schools. For example, Georgia and Harvey have a 14–year–old daughter, Amanda, and a 13–year–old son, John, with RAD. They related that they did not feel as though there is an emphasis in their children‟s schools on communicating with parents. They discussed their belief that working with students with RAD might require a team effort. I don‟t think educators really get training, or it‟s not really emphasized to connect with the parents and have relationships with the parents. And with these kids, you really have to work together as a team or it‟s not going to, I mean nobody‟s going to get a full picture. Although Georgia and Harvey would prefer to work together with their children‟s school as a team in order to effectively make curricular decisions for their son and daughter, they felt that a lack of training among educational professionals about home and school communications was responsible for stifling such connections between them and their children‟s educators. Megan, who adopted a 12–year–old son with RAD, Shane, also added in the next narrative her perception that schools are apprehensive about communicating at length with parents:

My experience is that most teachers and people in the education system profession are usually scared to death of parents. And so it‟s easy for them to kind of see this cute little kid and think, 'Oh, well I‟ll just work with this cute little kid, and really the parents are probably the ones with all the problems.‟ Significantly, Megan expressed her perspective that the school is both fearful of input from parents and that they blame parents for children‟s behaviors. This theme was similar among our participants, since their children‟s negative behaviors were not always present in school. Children with RAD sometimes only present behavioral symptoms or extreme behavioral responses in the home environment. Instead, Megan illuminated how she has interpreted her interactions with her son Shane‟s school negatively, as a story of both fear and blame. In addition, Clare noted how some of the negative communications that she encountered with the school also run counter to supporting the needs of her 15–year–old son, Mark. Well I can‟t tell you how many phone calls I‟ve had with teachers and I just had a phone call with my son‟s principal a couple weeks ago. They called me to tell me some behavior that my kid‟s done, and then say, „But they felt really bad about it, so we‟re not going to really do anything.‟ No, they didn‟t feel bad about it. Document it! Get it in the computer! I don‟t care if he felt bad about it! He still needs to be held accountable. My son, 15, stole from the cafeteria, and they‟re calling me to tell me, „Well, we‟re sorry to have to call you and tell you that he stole. He got caught by the resource officer and the lunch ladies, and now he‟s gonna…‟ and I‟m like, „Good! He steals all the time. I‟m glad he got caught. Keep an eye on him. Can you write this down?‟ But no. The principal was like, „Oh, but he felt really bad about it,‟ and he is a cute kid. And he is a flirt, and he can schmooze. People feel bad for him. And so he gets away with lying and stealing and cheating and people are like, „Aw, but how could that cute, sweet little kid…?‟ But really, I have to work really hard as a parent to get to introduce myself to all the school people and now that we‟re in high school it‟s even harder because there‟s all these teachers and all these new administrators that don‟t know us. I say, „Here‟s the story, here‟s the deal, here‟s his struggle. Please hold him accountable.‟ Because it‟s not helping him by just saying, „Oh, there, don‟t do that again.‟ Clare had previously related to the school that Mark, like many children with RAD, is able to manipulate others for gain and hide bad behaviors from certain people. Clare asked the school to help her to make Mark accountable for his negative behaviors. Instead, she discovered that Mark had successfully charmed his teachers so that they were sympathetic to him. They felt that it would be better not to document the incident or reprimand Mark, since he expressed that he was sorry for his actions. However, Clare was frustrated that the school was not helping to reinforce methods that she was using at home with Mark to lessen his negative behaviors and to make him accountable for his actions. Clare‟s story is thus important for indicating a common theme among our participants, where

communications and interactions with the school often did not seek to attend to parents‟ needs or requests, nor to unify emotional and behavioral management across the home and the school. In these cases, school professionals simply ignored the input from parents. Interacting with our participants reinforced a shared narrative that these parents of children with RAD do not feel like their input was considered fully or respected. Our participants clearly conveyed that when curricular power is not shared, they feel as if they have no control over their children‟s education. The next narrative is highly useful for considering facets of the interactions between school staff and our participants during the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process, which is critical for structuring students‟ written learning plans that account for their special needs in school. Janet, commented on the IEP process for her 7–year–old son, Warren, in the following story. When it came time for the IEP process, and we were in there, the principal‟s over there texting under the table while we‟re talking about these things and I‟m expressing concern. Just didn‟t really feel like they were hearing anything I had to say. They didn‟t want to know what my input was. They pretty much had a mindset of what they were going to do. And that‟s what they were going to do. Janet‟s story displayed how she did not feel as though she was treated as a member of her son‟s education team with respect to curricular decision–making for her child. Janet discussed how this situation resulted in her feeling disempowered. Since the principal did not attend to Janet‟s concerns or provide full attention during the parent conference, she was not convinced that the principal was acting in Warren‟s best interest. When students have special emotional needs, it is crucial that educators maintain sensitivity to the needs of both families and children. Teasing, stigmatization, worries about future needs, and other concerns can add emotional burdens to families that may not be experienced by families of children without disabilities. Thus, school personnel need to be especially supportive of parents of children with RAD and other severe emotional and behavioral disorders. In spite of this expectation, Georgia and Harvey‟s lived scenario below about their son, John, demonstrated that communications acknowledging the needs of students and their family members were lacking. This formed a barrier inhibiting the efficacious implementation of resources to support Georgia and Harvey‟s children. Our son‟s home district has not shown much initiative in wanting to help us address our son‟s need to reduce his excessive transitions. They have not responded to our request for them to participate in our son‟s case management team, which is to function and help us bring together the multiple agencies and entities involved in his care, treatment, and education planning related to his disability and need for a group-home setting with family involvement for a longer period of time. Georgia and Harvey‟s experiential narrative is important for understanding their experience that schools do not always communicate with families or advocate for children in ways that satisfy the interconnected needs of parents

and their children. As a result, Georgia and Harvey suggested that school staff are not able to act on behalf of their children in meaningful ways. This was also the situation for many of our other participants. For example, Nicole, whose daughter, Jenny, has RAD, revealed her belief that the school did not properly inform her about options for services and help to support her daughter. I didn‟t realize with RAD that she needed to have…It would have been nice if they had that, but I thought that the special services were only for the children who were severely handicapped, like that needed wheelchairs to get around and stuff. I didn‟t realize… Nicole emphasized how she felt as though she is on her own to navigate an intricate system of agencies and to find a solution for her child, because the school provided misinformation or responded to her with a lack of information about resources in their communications. Georgia and Harvey also underscored this situation with their experiences in communicating with the school with respect to the needs of their daughter, Amanda. Harvey: Oh, my gosh. We met with them at least 10, 12 times. The principal is not tops on my list there. Georgia: The principal, we met with one-on-one, and then he handed us off to the counselor. Harvey: He got tired of us. Georgia: We probably met with her about 4 or 5 times and then they had a special ed person that we met with in the school, which was Mrs. Diner. Then we met with the district person in charge of special ed, and it‟s like each time you have to drag the information out of them. They won‟t volunteer, „Okay, here‟s what you guys need to give. Go do this, this…‟ Harvey: Oh no, they didn‟t help us. We had to figure it out on our own. Georgia: They won‟t give you any information as to what you need to do to help this kid. They said, „Well, you know maybe we could take her out and give her a half an hour of extra this during the day.‟ And you know, sometimes when we‟d leave these meetings we‟d feel pretty good but then nothing would change. I mean, Amanda would still be struggling. She couldn‟t do the homework. This narrative of experiences is significant for showcasing how our participants encountered several roadblocks in their efforts to support their children. Georgia and Harvey highlighted how they believed that the school administrator at their daughter‟s school became tired of interacting with them and passed them on to other support staff. Ultimately, however, they were unable to receive aid that they felt to be valuable. At the same time, Megan exemplified, in the following narrative, the fatigue that our parent participants related to us in attempting to engage with the school. The communication piece, like if he didn‟t have to… It really feels like you have to push to find out what‟s necessary, but then sometimes there should be a limit to what they communicate. There was a point in time just being really honest, mid-school year, where I was just exhausted with hearing about all of his

bad, and it was kind of had gotten to this point where I dreaded checking the email to know what he had done that day. Megan, like our other participants, expressed how communications with faculty and staff at the school were often negative. Although our participants revealed that they would like to have more productive conversations with the school about ways of helping their children, Megan highlighted how the most frequent form of school communications were to report to parents negative behaviors of their children. Such reports were often highly frequent in number and resulted in our participants wanting less interaction with the school. The stories that we collected from our participants‟ experiences highlight a great need to improving home–school communications. The narratives of experiences that we discussed expose areas in which our participants would benefit if schools would foster better ties with them. Our participants‟ voiced experiences serve to specifically delineate some of the needs of children with RAD and their families, and the types of communications and interactions that they require.

Discussion Until now, the voices of parents of children with RAD have gone largely unheard, and their experiences have been unknown or misunderstood. When discussing children with RAD it is obvious that parents raising these children need support. Children with RAD behave in ways that are extraordinary when compared to other children, even those with emotional and behavioral disorders (Taft, Ramsay, & Schlein, 2015), and parenting a child with RAD is a task fraught with extraordinary challenges. A disorder that begins with a lack of initial healthy attachment early in life becomes a daily trial for the children and for those who care for them. The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children‟s (APSAC) recent report confirmed a lack of clarity about how to help families and children with RAD or attachment issues. (Chaffin et al., 2006). For the caregivers of children with RAD, who face daily and ongoing challenges, positive communications with their children‟s schools are essential. Evidence indicates that the children‟s educational system is one of the most important variables to consider in any remediation effort, and best practices dictate that family participation must be encouraged when designing academic, social, and behavioral goals and interventions for students with behavioral disorders. Further, IDEA mandates that parents should be considered full and equal partners on the IEP team (Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, 2004). Parents and the family are crucial variables for success of any intervention plan. In this study, however, we found that the information and input families offer is often ignored by education professionals or other caregivers. Unfortunately, such was the case for our parent participants who experienced interactions with their children‟s schools across four states and nine school districts. This study is significant, since within this investigation we address a great gap in the literature in terms of examining some of the experiences of parents of children with RAD, particularly with respect to communicating and interacting with their children‟s schools. Although positive interactions and

strong communications between the home and the school might prove to be helpful for attaining positive academic, emotional, and social outcomes for children with RAD, the experiences highlighted here showcase how, for our participants, related efforts were lacking or limited. Findings from this study indicated that for these parents of children with RAD, families experienced a lack of respectful, proactive, positive, and useful communication throughout the educational process. This study does not aim to generalize findings. Nevertheless, our participants‟ narratives of experiences might be useful for depicting some of the situations and needs of other parents of children with RAD or parents of children with other severe emotional and behavioral disorders. Direct interviews were conducted with 10 parents from across four states and nine school districts. Despite the geographic diversity, their stories were strikingly similar. It is anticipated that this study will be informative to others dealing with children with RAD, and that it will offer verisimilitude and transferability to other settings. We thus hope that this paper will prompt educators and school leaders to recognize some of their own practices in home and school communications and to identify concrete ways of improving and expanding upon them.

Limitations and Future Research The strength of this study is the window that the parent voices provide into the nature of their interactions and communications with school personnel. Although the findings of this study might not be generalized to other families with children who have RAD, it is plausible that the stated findings might prove to be relevant for other families experiencing challenges with communicating with their children‟s schools. Parents of children with RAD or those who have children with other severe emotional and behavioral disorders might also resonate with the experiences discussed in this article. School administrators, school counselors, and support staff for students with special emotional and behavioral difficulties might find this work useful for delineating some of the needs of students and their families. It might further highlight areas in provided services that need to be addressed to improve students‟ academic and social lives in school. A potential limitation of this study is the fact that almost all of our participants were members of a support group for parents of children with RAD. Our participants might share specific home situations that have led them to seek out a support group. They might also converge in terms of shared parenting characteristics or similar personal needs. In this way, our findings might be shaped accordingly. Future research needs to investigate effective methods of promoting improved communications between schools and parents of children with RAD. Such methods would enable positive supports for families and school personnel, and they would address the complex challenges that currently prevent or minimize interactions between the home and school. Additionally, narrative inquiry might continue to be a means of exploring RAD and its implications for caregivers and children because of the depth and richness of experiences it captures. Significantly, parent voices might be essential in helping close the gap

in the research on students with RAD and for developing effective interventions and strategies.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 79-88, January 2016

The Predictive Power of Reasoning Ability on Academic Achievement Mehraj A. Bhat Department of Education University of Kashmir, South Campus, Anantnag-192 101 Jammu and Kashmir, India. Email: mehrajsc@gmail.com

Abstract. The present study examined the contribution of six components of reasoning ability (inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, linear reasoning, conditional reasoning, cause-and-effect reasoning and analogical reasoning) to explain the variation in academic achievement of class 10th students. Through stratified random sampling technique five hundred and ninety eight students solved 35 contextualized different components of reasoning problems standardised by the investigator. The different components of reasoning ability were assessed with help of automatic linear modelling. The predictive power of various components of reasoning ability for academic achievement was 31.5 %. Out of the six dimensions of reasoning ability, the maximum involvement was reflected by deductive reasoning (.49) followed by cause and effect reasoning (.26) inductive reasoning (.16), linear reasoning (.05), conditional reasoning (.03) and analogical reasoning (.02) on academic achievement. The results achieved with the help of this method predicted greater accuracy and authenticity. Keywords: Reasoning Ability; Academic Achievement; Predictive Power

Introduction Since the evolution of human beings, reasoning ability has been used as an important element to solve their day to day related problems. It has been acknowledged as the main component of human nature. Its expression can be found in the teaching of Socrates, Confucius and others (Chen, 2000). The aim of education is to equip the people with the ability to reason out. Therefore the development of reasoning skills, its improvement and various approaches invited the attention of teachers, thinkers, and academics for years (Kemler, 1998).

Reasoning is a thoughtful activity that has vital significance during the whole life. All most all the theories of intelligence give much emphasis on the reasoning and have crucial importance in daily routines and patters of life (Wilhelm, 2004). The students make use of reasoning ability in various life patterns in general and education in particular. It helps students to draw conclusions and these conclusions help them to solve their problems. It assists students in gaining true knowledge, because knowledge is based on logic and rationality. Besides, it helps students in decision making, problem solving, causal relationships, making inductive and deductive generalizations and academic excellence. Studies also revealed that reasoning helps in developing IQ (Leighton & Sternberg, 2004). In various thought process such as decision making, critical thinking and problem solving, reasoning is pivotal (Samarapungavan, 2009). The researchers (Tella etal, 2008) claimed that pupils‟ reasoning ability is an essential condition for the assessment of the performance in learning and is also an indicator of their future performance. Moore and Bruder (1996) highlighted the significance of reasoning ability they stated that reasoning skills help students think clearly and logically to act upon multiple problems with a rational approach. Reasoning is a very important aspect of human existence. In today‟s complex world, the ability to think and reason logically is essential for everybody. The ability to reason is indispensable when problem solving skills are required. Without reasoning, already acquired knowledge and experiences cannot be applied to new situations (Bhat, 2014). Progressive psychologists explore the growth and expansion of reasoning from birth to maturity. The first comprehensive theory of reasoning development was Piaget's theory of cognitive development (Demetriou, 1998). Cognitive psychologists and mathematics teachers have great interest in area of reasoning (National Council of Mathematics Teachers [NCTM], 2000). Without reasoning, already accomplished knowledge and experiences cannot be applied to new situations. Reasoning is broadly defined as “the process of drawing conclusions” (Leighton and Sternberg, 2004, p. 3, 4). The true conclusions assist in problem solving because they are reliable representations of the external environment. Therefore, the main aim of education is to make available the situations which will stimulate the students‟ with reasoning abilities (Valanides, 1997).

Various Dimensions of Reasoning Earlier there were two categories of reasoning such as inductive and deductive made by philosophers. Later on abduction was introduced and finally it was acknowledged that there are three categories of reasoning (Allan, 2006). Roediger & Rushton (1987) in their book “Psychology” has mentioned some types of reasoning, like- conditional, analogical and linear reasoning. Although, there are some more categories of reasoning from which some are not familiar. These are cause-and– effect reasoning, comparative reasoning, criteria

reasoning, decompositional reasoning, systematic reasoning, syllogistic reasoning (Vince, 2011; Shank, 1998; Wason and Johnson, 1972; Jeotee, 2012). In the present study the researcher selected six types of reasoning (inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, linear reasoning, conditional reasoning, causeand-effect reasoning and analogical reasoning) because these are widely applicable in daily routines and patterns of life in general and classroom situation in particular. The brief descriptions of them are as: In inductive reasoning one can articulate generalized principles and inferences on the basis of certain evidences (Mangal, 2007). However, the deductive reasoning is a process of drawing inferences on the basis logic and fact. In this type of reasoning one can draw logical inferences from identified reports or indications. The conditional reasoning encompasses making conclusions with given major evidence (Markovits and Barrouillet, 2002). Similarly, the linear reasoning involves straightforward relationship among elements (Mangal, 2007). The analogical reasoning is the capability to identify and practice interpersonal resemblance among conditions or actions and is a basic feature of human perception. It is an essential method in scientific results and problem-solving, classification and decision-making (Gust et al. 2012). Lastly Cause-and-effect reasoning observes the reasons of definite activities, occasions, or circumstances (causes) make specific concerns (effects)”. It is central to human reasoning in everyday life as well as in other disciplines (Robert, 2005).

Relationship between Reasoning ability and Academic Achievement Academic achievement has become an indicator of a child‟s future in the present extremely competitive world. Many students seem not to get recognition proportionate with their known or related abilities. Generally, we find students with average abilities excel in different areas. The perplexing facts, which have come into forefront, are that in spite of having similar educational amenities, atmosphere, desires etc. academic achievement of students differs from one another (Gakhar & Aseema, 2004). Therefore, the topic of academic achievement has assumed a lot of meaning in the modern educational system. In our social set up, academic achievement is considered as a main standard to judge one‟s whole capabilities and competencies. Therefore, academic achievement occupies an essential place in teaching learning process. In the present socioeconomic and cultural context academic achievement is of paramount significance. Right from the beginning great stress is placed on achievement at secondary school level (Gupta, Sharma & Gupta, 2012). This stage has its own organized hierarchy which is mainly based on achievement and performance, because this period is a path to enter professional courses. The academic achievement is a multidimensional and multifaceted phenomenon. There are various factors, which influence pupil‟s academic achievement viz. school climate, parental involvement, intelligence, learning experiences at schools, parental occupation, their educational level, reasoning, personality, motivation, heredity, problem solving interest aptitudes, learning styles and socio-economic status of the parents and many more factors (Can, 2009).

In the present times everyone desires to have a high academic performance. The entire system of education is centred on students‟ academic performance. An insignificant research occurs concentrating on the role of reasoning ability on pupils‟ performance in science and other subjects but they are limited and inconsistent. The results of Ertepmar (1995) and Oloyede (2012) found that formal reasoning ability as a strong predictor for the achievement in chemistry. It has been also studied that reasoning can be used to predict the performance of students‟ achievement in chemistry (Abdu, 1998). The results of Sungur et al. (2001) also indicated that reasoning ability significantly affects students‟ achievements. Tekkaya and Yenilmez (2006) discovered that reasoning skill was the chief predictor of understanding, showing 31% of variation. Kuhn and Holling (2009) showed that reasoning ability appears to be significant for predicting academic achievement in science. The results of Nnorom (2013) depicted that those students who had high reasoning ability achieved better in biology than the students who had low reasoning ability. However, the above studies suffer from one or more shortcomings. These are as: 



Reasoning ability was frequently measured using an insignificant, haphazard set of tasks. The resulting representation of the paradigm is therefore contaminated by task-specific variance and does not necessarily replicate all appropriate characteristics of reasoning ability. Similarly, studies relating reasoning ability and academic achievement showing variations in their results, due to some extraneous errors in the data, therefore results are not conclusive. Besides, most studies usually focused on a single construct of reasoning ability, such as inductive reasoning or deductive reasoning, which fails to provide a synthetic view of reasoning ability. The tools used to measure reasoning ability were not accurate with respect to their constructs and sometimes vague from common reasoning tasks. This problem is apparent, e.g., in the work of Valanides (1997) used Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT) to measure formal reasoning ability where the same type of test served as a formal operation performance (1998) task in another. The test used to measure formal reasoning ability have several common characteristics with those used to measure formal operation performance, it is not clear which characteristics are accountable for the high correlation acquired between them. Previous researches used common techniques (linear regression analysis) to know the effect of reasoning ability on students‟ achievement. Nevertheless, this aspect of the program also has shortcomings. According to Yang (2013) linear regression is restricted to the stepwise process merely having no competence of showing all feasible subsets of regression. It is restricted in terms of optimal statistics for variable collection and present standards are in the practice of significance assessments liable to to Type I/II errors. Besides, linear regression analysis incapable to automatically ascertain and handle distant cases and finally incapable to conduct model together to improve predictions.

Current Study The present study addresses these issues by using reasoning ability tasks carefully selected from previous researches to represent all aspects of reasoning ability to know the power of different dimensions of reasoning ability on the students‟ academic achievement. Furthermore, investigator investigated the predictive power (whether predictor variables account for variability in a dependent variable) of reasoning ability on academic achievement by using different method (automatic linear modelling). This quickens the data investigation procedure through numerous automatic mechanisms. The innovative technique is an enhancement over the outdated method in the limitations drawn above. Predominantly, two main areas of development are in involuntary variable selection and involuntary data planning.

Method Participants Participants were 598 of the age group 16-17 years. The students were selected from 18 high schools from two districts of State J&K (India). Design and Procedure In the present study the investigator used survey method. The data was collected with the help of reasoning ability test having six dimensions (analogical, linear, conditional, deductive, inductive and cause and effect reasoning) constructed by the investigators on a representative sample of 598 secondary school students through stratified random sampling technique. The reliability was calculated through Crombach alpha having reliability coefficient 0.71 and the reliability for each dimension is .65, .75, .63, .65, .73 and.71 respectively. The validity of the test was evaluated through face validity and construct validity. The face validity was evaluated through experts and to evaluate construct validity of the test, the investigator used two methods i.e. relationship between the total score of test and scores of each dimension (using Pearson‟s correlation) and compare high and low group to know the discrimination validity (two independent sample „t‟ test) of the test. All the values are significant at 0.01 and 0.05 level. For academic achievement the researcher used previous marks obtained by the schoolchildren in the final end term examination (2013-2014) conducted by Board of School Education. The marks were collected from students‟ results records kept in the respective schools. The following criteria were kept in mind for using academic scores as measure of achievement: i) ii)

The annual examinations are conducted by State level body, thus contain objectivity and comprehensiveness. The marks are the sum total of all the subjects taken together, thus controlling all the intervening variables.

iii) iv)

Experts of different subjects prepare the exam papers, thus papers may be considered as standardized tests. Marks include performance on theoretical, practical as well as internal assessment. Thus the annual scores are reliable, dependable and give complete report of overall assessment of the child.

Besides, it has been also found that a number of researchers (Uzuntiryaki, 2007; Kuhn and Holling, 2009; Ghazvini and Khajehpou, 2011) have used academic achievement scores as measures of academic achievement.

Results In order to know the end product of different dimensions of reasoning ability on studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; achievement, automatic linear modeling has been used with the help of SPSS 20. The data for the same is presented in figure 1, table 1 and figure 2.

Adjusted R2= .315

Figure 1: Model Summary of Reasoning ability on Academic Achievement

From the above model it indicates that 31.5% of variance in academic achievement is explained by different dimensions of reasoning ability, it reflects that model has accuracy. The model also shows the effect and importance of various dimensions of reasoning ability on academic achievement which is shown in table 1.

Table 1: Effect and Importance of Different Dimensions of Reasoning Ability on Academic Achievement

The table 1 shows that all the dimensions of reasoning ability are important predictors and have significant importance on academic achievement. Further the table 1 shows that all the F values of different dimensions of reasoning ability (F=137.29, 36.85, 45.88, 13.82, 7.46, 4.29 P < 0.01, 0.05) are significant at 0.01 and 0.05 level. Thus, it can be concluded that each dimension of reasoning ability have significant effect and importance on academic achievement. Out of the six dimensions of reasoning ability, the maximum importance is shown by deductive reasoning 0.49 followed by cause and effect reasoning 0.26, inductive reasoning 0.16, linear reasoning 0.05, conditional reasoning 0.03 and analogical reasoning 0.02 on academic achievement. The model depicts the graphical presentation is shown in figure 2.

0.49 0.26

0.16

0.05

0.03

0.02

Figure 2: Effect of Different Dimensions of Reasoning Ability on Academic Achievement

Conclusions According to the results of the study it has been found that reasoning ability seemed to be the main predictor of academic achievement. This means that having greater reasoning ability promotes better academic achievement. There is also evidence from the present study that students show competence in different reasoning components. The individual differences in reasoning ability could be explained by performance in academic achievement. The results which have been drawn with the help of automatic linear modelling showed greater accuracy, compatibility, authenticity. Therefore, it is imperative to foster reasoning ability among students, so that they could excel in all walks of life in general and academic pursuits in particular. It is further suggested that schools should make provision for materials that can stimulate the reasoning ability of the students. Things like computer games, fascinating objects, simulation and games of different kinds may be provided. It becomes progressively imperative to develop reasoning ability through all-time learning so that the learner may be able to face challenges and may lead important life, and build a balanced world (Shu, 2000). Hence, present systems of education all over the world have acknowledged the need and improve pupils reasoning ability (Moshman, 1990; Wu, 2001). Besides, teachers should ask the students‟ questions like „why‟ and „why not‟ and cultivate the habit of „ifthen-else‟. Teachers can also play an important role by adopting various strategies and techniques, which help in the development of reasoning ability. They can help students to develop their advanced levels of reasoning through careful range of tasks and the use of probing questions so that students may learn problem solving approaches and use the power of extra formal reasoning to better formulate and justify mathematical calculations. The continuous development of mathematical reasoning habits should be given priority in the high school students. From the findings of the study it has been also revealed that out of the six dimensions of reasoning ability, the maximum importance is of made by deductive reasoning (0.49), cause and effect reasoning (0.26) and inductive reasoning (0.16), on academic achievement. Therefore, it is imperative that school teachers should promote these types of reasoning among school going students. Moreover, teachers should to plan their lessons and classroom setting according to learners reasoning ability. School administrators may put extra efforts to embed curriculum with reasoning and skills, so that students may get opportunity to sharpen their skills.

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National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).(2000). Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Retrieved on 23 November from http://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Math_Standards/12752_exec_pssm.p df Nnorom, N. R. (2013). The Effect of Reasoning Skills on Students Achievement in Biology in Anambra State. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 4(12), 2102-2104 Oloyede, O. I. (2012). The Relationship between Acquisitions of Science Process Skills, Formal Reasoning Ability and Chemistry Achievement. International Journal of African and African American Studies, 8(1), 1-4 Robert, T. (2005). Discovering the World through Debate: A Practical Guide to Educational Debate for Debaters, Coaches, and Judges. (3rd ed.). New York: IDEA Press Books Roediger, H. L., & Rushton. J. P. (1987). Psychology (2nded.). Boston: Little Brown & Company. Samarapungavan, A. (2009). Reasoning. Retrieved on 15 th August, 2014, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/reasoning/ Shank, G. (1998).The extraordinary powers of abductive reasoning. Theory and Psychology, 8(6), 841-60 Shu, Y. M. (2000). Postmodern and Moral Education. Bulletin of the National Institute of Educational Resources and Research Special Issue of Moral Education. Sungur, S., Tekkay, C. & Geban, O. (2001).The Effect of Gender Differences and Reasoning Ability on the Learning of Human Circulatory System Concepts. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 20, 126 – 130 Tekkaya, C., & Yenilmez, A. (2006). Relationships among measures of Learning Orientation, Reasoning Ability, and Conceptual Understanding of Photosynthesis and Respiration in Plants for grade 8th Males and Females. Journal of Elementary Science Education, 18(1), 1-14 Tella, A., Tella, A., Adika, L. O., & Toyobo, M. O. (2008). Relationship among demographic variables and pupils‟ reasoning ability. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 6(3), 709 – 728. Uzuntiryaki, E. (2007). Learning styles and high school students‟ chemistry achievement. Science Education International, 18(1), 25-27. Retrieved on 5/5/2013 from http://www.icaseonline.net/sei/march2007/18-1-2007-25_37.pdf Valanides, N. (1997). Formal reasoning abilities and school achievement. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 23(2), 169-185. Vince, M (2011). Reasoning in everyday life Department of Applied Informatics Comenius University in Bratislava Slovakia. Retrieved on 3rd June 2013 from http://dai.fmph.uniba.sk/courses/ICS/examples/paper-vince.pdf Wason, P., & Johnson-Laird, P. (1972). Psychology of Reasoning: Structure and Content. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA Wilhelm, O. (2004). Measuring Reasoning ability. Retrieved from 21-Wilhelm.qxd 9/8/2004 5:09 PM Page 373 Wu, M. (2001).The identification of reasoning skills mechanism. Educational Research, 83, 72-93 Yang, H. (2013). The Case for Being Automatic: Introducing the Automatic Linear Modeling (LINEAR) Procedure in SPSS Statistics. Multiple Linear Regression Viewpoints, 39(2), 27-37

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 89-102, January 2016

Critical Analysis of Embedded and Summative Feedback from Online Doctoral Instructors on Benchmark Assessments Kelley Walters, PhD Northcentral University California, United States Patricia Henry, PhD Northcentral University California, United States Abstract. Providing transparent written feedback to doctoral students is essential to the learning process and preparation for the capstone. Written feedback is even more critical in an online environment where face-to-face interaction is limited. Two major types of feedback that play a determining factor to student success are embedded and summative feedback. Hence, providing students with clear and consistent feedback on scholarly written course work enhances the writing abilities of doctoral candidates and prepares them to write their final capstone. The purpose of this study was to conduct an exploration of faculty feedback on benchmark written assignments in an online doctoral program. The researchers examined instructor feedback provided to online doctoral students on scholarly writing assignments throughout their doctoral program. The Corpus for this analysis included 236 doctoral level written assignments that included feedback from approximately 51 faculty members. Student papers were retrieved from all content courses in the doctoral program. Researchers identified the types and frequencies of embedded and summative written feedback, while also developing an analysis of relationships that existed between page length and embedded feedback. This study sought to accomplish four goals: (1) Describe the types and frequency of embedded feedback. (2) Describe the frequency and patterns of faculty summative feedback on student papers. (3) Analyze if there is a relationship between embedded feedback and summative feedback. (4) Analyze if there is a relationship between length of paper and embedded feedback. Keywords: faculty feedback; online doctoral programs; embedded feedback; summative feedback

Introduction The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative exploration of faculty feedback on benchmark written assignments in an online doctoral program. The researchers examined instructor feedback provided to online doctoral students on scholarly writing assignments throughout their program. Researchers identified the types and frequency of embedded and summative written feedback. Using a method of move structure analysis, embedded feedback was reviewed and coded to determine moves and their frequency. Then moves were examined to determine if and/or how these were synthesized into patterns to provide summative written feedback on student papers. In addition, an analysis was conducted to determine if there were any relationships that could be determined between feedback and length of paper.

Background Despite attention given to doctoral education, there is still a lack of attrition and retention research at this level. High rates of doctoral student attrition, which consistently range from 40 to 50 per cent, are one of academia's well-kept secrets (Berelson, 1960; Bowen & Rudenstine, 1992; Lovitts, 1996; Cook & Pullaro, 2010). However, according to Cook and Pullaro (2010), “Although none of the existing national databases can provide a graduation rate that accounts for all students, all the databases do provide valuable information that contributes to our understanding of student success” (p. iv). Degree completion and graduation rates can be linked with many different factors - such as institutional resources, student academic characteristics, and demographics (Scott, Bailey, & Kienzl, 2006). One of the most critical factors in completing the doctorate is adequate preparation of students for research. The role of the relationship between the mentor and the student has been found significant (Earl-Novell, 2006). Other factors include providing students with clear expectations and encouragement to finish the doctoral study in a timely matter (Ehrenberg, 2011). While it is the responsibility of the university to provide resources and institute policies that increase student success (Johnsrud & Banaria, 2004), it is the experience of the student throughout the program and the relationship with faculty that can make the difference. Instructional faculty are in the position to determine the developmental needs of students and provide a transfer of knowledge and skills from their own experiences and education. This is consistent with the scaffolding of knowledge concept offered by Vygotsky (1979). Vygotsky‟s idea of scaffolding includes tools and techniques to provide support for students where they learn to become independent learners. Appropriate support is necessary for students to progress through the milestones in order to complete the doctoral degree. In every doctoral course in this study, students are asked to submit written assignments that are aligned to program learning outcomes and course objectives. Giving written feedback on assignments has always been an important aspect of the teaching profession. While there is research that supports that instructor feedback is important to online students (Arbaugh &

Hornik, 2006; Wolsey, 2008), little research has focused on the frequency of instructor feedback in online doctoral courses. This study on embedded and summative feedback frequency was designed to offer a fuller understanding of the online teaching and learning experience.

Problem Students in the doctoral programs of this study participate in two years of coursework before entering the doctoral study phase. During this time, they work with many faculty members on assignments that range from discussion boards, to reflection pieces, to research papers. All of these courses include written assignments and most include a final benchmark assignment. Students must pass this benchmark assessment in order to continue in the program. Faculty are expected to provide feedback on these written assessments in order to scaffold student learning, improve student writing ability, and prepare students for the doctoral study process. Providing transparent written feedback to doctoral students is essential to the learning process and preparation for the capstone. This may be even more critical in an online environment where face-to-face interaction is limited. Two major types of feedback that may play a determining factor to student success are embedded and summative feedback. Hence, providing students with clear and consistent feedback on scholarly written course work enhances the writing abilities of doctoral candidates and prepare them to write their final capstone.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine instructor feedback provided to online doctoral students on benchmark scholarly writing assignments throughout their program. The research team analyzed all feedback within these assessments, identifying the types and frequency of both embedded and summative comments, as well as noting any relationships between feedback and page length. This study sought to accomplish four goals: (1) Describe the types and frequency of embedded feedback. (2) Describe the frequency and patterns of faculty summative feedback on student papers. (3) Analyze if there is a relationship between embedded feedback and summative feedback. (4) Analyze if there is a relationship between length of paper and embedded feedback.

Rationale Concise formative written feedback during the course work phase of an online doctoral program can be challenging. This formative feedback on written assignments should be aligned to the summative task of writing the final capstone. Using formative feedback during course work should support the philosophy of assessment for learning as opposed to assessment of learning. Although feedback takes many forms, embedded and summative feedback on student work can create a process of transparency, which allows faculty to clearly convey proficiency levels to their students. Therefore, understanding the frequency and types of embedded and summative feedback provided by this

large group of faculty may help online universities to determine if the feedback measures implemented in fact align to the skills needed to complete the capstone. A recent review of the literature revealed limited findings on the role of written feedback in an online doctoral program (Scott, Bailey, & Kienzl, 2006; EarlNovell, 2006; Walters, Henry, Vinella, Wells, Shaw, & Miller, 2015). While many studies have been conducted on feedback to students at the undergraduate level, limited studies have focused on the role of embedded and summative feedback at the post graduate level (Fook, & Sidhu, 2010; McVey, 2008). Furthermore, when narrowing the focus to online doctoral students, the results became scarce. This study sought to offer an understanding of the type and frequency of embedded and summative feedback found in doctoral level assignments. The Research Questions follow: 1. What types of embedded and summative feedback are found in doctoral level written assignments? 2. What is the frequency of each type of feedback? 3. What relationship exists between the different types of feedback, if any? 4. What relationship exists between paper length and embedded feedback, if any?

Research Design & Methods Data Analysis Faculty feedback were examined at the MACRO: SUMMATIVE FEEDBACK and the MICRO: EMBEDDED FEEDBACK domains. Within the MICRO: EMBEDDED FEEDBACK domain, move structure analysis (Sinclair & Courtland, 1977; Swales, 1981; 1990; Bhatia, 1983; Halliday & Hassan 1985; Skelton, 1994; Mirador, 2000; Lewin, Fine, & Young, 2001) was used to examine the foundational components of faculty formative feedback on written student assignments. Move structure analysis is based on the analysis of both communicative purpose and linguistic structure. Skelton (1994) stated “Move structure analysis is a technique particularly used in the teaching of professional or academic writing, and is typically used as a means of describing what may always be done rather than what must or is always done” (p. 456). A „move‟ refers to frequently occurring short phrases, with „functions‟ purporting short sentences and „exponents‟ as frequent individual words. Through the use of these identifiers, common themes, patterns, and frequencies were developed.

Participants There were no participants involved in this study. All data used was collected from archived courses from 2011 in an online University. The students represented in this data are all working on their doctorate of education degree. Based on Fall 2010 demographic data, the students represented in these programs are all working on an advanced graduate degree. The student population is comprised of 43% African Americans, 39% European, 4% Hispanic

and 14% other individuals. The mean age is 43, with 76% of the population being female.

Data Collection The doctoral program consists of many different program specializations across a single College. Specifically, the College of Education ranges in specializations from K-12 programs to higher education teacher and leadership programs. Each of the specializations includes courses with benchmark assignments known commonly as major assessments. These benchmark assessment assignments were used for this corpus. The final analysis included 236 doctoral level written benchmark assessments that include feedback from approximately 51 faculty members. Student papers were retrieved from all content courses in the doctoral program that were submitted between January and December 2011. Papers were pulled from approximately 16 courses (from all specializations) taught over the course of the year. The course instructors included both full time and contributing faculty members and are all employed by the online institution where the research was conducted, while also representing a plethora of universities where many of the contributing faculty are also employed.

Study Limitations The data collected in this study was rich and varied and provides valuable insights into the frequency and nature of academic feedback as a tool to guide, direct, and support students in their learning. Time constraints placed some limitations on labor intensive manual coding resulting in some instances where only a descriptive account of the nature and frequency of feedback comments could be provided in this report. Whether faculty used other types of feedback was entirely beyond the scope of the analysis as the data provided did not cover methods of feedback outside of embedded comments recorded in the assignments under scrutiny. Academics may well use other means of providing feedback such as tutorials, formal or informal meetings, university website and other communicative technologies, such as Skype for example, to augment assignment feedback. No account of these methods is considered in this analysis of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; assignments and where such additional methods are used to communicate to students that may mitigate some of the findings of this report.

Part A: Overview of Benchmark assessment papers within the scope of the study Papers in this study ranged in page length from 4-33 pages. Sixty-three percent of all papers had between 8-15 pages. More than half (52.2%) were between 1015 pages. Figure 1 summarizes this information and shows that just over four out of every five papers were between four and sixteen pages in length.

Figure 1 – Number of Papers with Greater or Less than 16 Pages

Of the 80% of papers with less than 16 pages, one out of every eight assignments was 10 pages in length.

Summary for Part A Paper‟s submitted for doctoral benchmark assessments averaged between 10 to 15 pages in length. Most interesting was that of the 236 papers reviewed more than 80% were less than 16 pages in length, while 52.2% of papers were between 10-15 pages.

Part B: Types of embedded feedback found in doctoral level benchmark assessments The four types of embedded feedback across all these papers include:  Comments in the margin  Using „track changes‟ in Microsoft Word  Using highlighters  Using summative comments When weighted by frequency, these types of embedded comments are set out relative to each other in Figure 2:

Figure 2 – Types of embedded feedback

Comments in the margin resulted in the largest amount of embedded feedback followed by the use of highlighting. Summative comments resulted in only 3% of total feedback across all papers in the study. These types of feedback were further analyzed for their location in the paper and the following types of feedback were identified and coded as set out now in Figure 3.

Figure 3 - Location of Embedded Feedback

Summary for Part B There appears to be alignment between the 53% type of „comments in the margin‟ and location of „feedback in the margin‟ at 38%. Both locations of „feedback in the body‟ and „feedback in the text‟ comprised 46% of all embedded feedback located in the textual part of the papers. This aligns with both text type „highlighting‟ and „track changes‟ that comprise 44% of all feedback. In addition, the 3% of summative feedback corresponds to the 2% summative feedback and the 1% in both the abstract and cover page where most summative feedback was considered.

Part C - Frequency of each type of embedded feedback The types of embedded feedback from Part B comprised:  Comments in the margin  Using ‘track changes’ in Microsoft Word  Using highlighters  Using summative comments Part C details the frequency of each of the four identified types of embedded feedback. Comments in the Margin Feedback that comprised comments written into the margins of student papers averaged eight comments per paper across the entire data set, or ten comments if only papers that used this means are considered. One-hundred-and seventynine of two-hundred-and-thirty-six papers coded had comments in the margin, interestingly that when this was the only means of embedded feedback only 10 comments were provided. The range of comments ran from the highest amount recorded being sixty-six to the lowest recorded being one. Seventy-six papers had between fifty to ten comments. The range of these frequencies is now set out in Figure 4.

Figure 4 – Range of Frequencies of Comments in the Margin

Of all papers analyzed, nearly a quarter did not have comments in the margin at all. Nearly a third of all margin comments for a paper extended between 5-9 total comments. Another third consisted of between 10 – 25 comments throughout the papers. Based on the analysis between page length and comments in the margin conclusions can be developed that paper lengths between 6 and 15 pages had between 6 and 25 comments noted in the margins. In addition, the highest concentration of „comments in the margin‟ was on papers that ranged from 10-13 pages. This is interesting in that the determined average number of margin comments across all papers was eight with combined feedback and 10 when this was the sole feedback.

Using ‘Track Changes’ in Microsoft Word Feedback which relied on the use of „Track Changes‟ in Microsoft Word as a means of embedding responses on student papers averaged three changes per paper across the entire data set, or seven changes if only papers that used this means of feedback are considered. One hundred of the two-hundred-and-thirtysix papers analyzed used this method. The range of comments ran from the highest amount recorded being one-hundred-and-fifty-six to the lowest recorded being one. Fourteen papers had between forty-three to ten comments. The range of these frequencies is now set out in Figure 5:

Figure 5 - Frequencies of Track Changes' in Microsoft Word

Using Highlighters Feedback which relied on the use of highlighters as a means of embedding feeding back on student papers averaged four highlighted sections per paper across the entire data set, or twelve highlighted sections if only papers that used this means of feedback are considered. Seventy-three of the two-hundred-and-

thirty-six papers analyzed used this method. The range of highlighted sections ran from the highest amount recorded being one-hundred-and-sixty-five, to the lowest recorded being one. Thirty-one papers had between ten and forty-eight highlighted sections. Highlighting consisted of 25% of all embedded feedback. The range of these frequencies is now set out in Figure 6:

Figure 6 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Frequencies of Highlighted Sections

Highlighting resulted in nearly a quarter of all embedded feedback. Instances of highlighting were sometimes not accompanied by additional comments and therefore made analysis difficult from a student perspective. Highlighting is not necessarily intuitive without accompanying text therefore any use of highlighting would need to be accompanied by descriptors to benefit the student.

Summary for Part C Aligning these findings with the frequencies figure indicating that papers with ten pages had received nearly twice as many track changes comments than any other number of pages paper the next closest in track changes comments were in the 11-13 page ranges. After 13 pages the number of track changes dropped. Patterns developed between types and frequencies of embedded feedback and paper length. Papers between 10-13 pages seemingly attracted the most embedded feedback across the entire dataset with highlighting being nearly one quarter of all feedback.

Part D: Relationship between length of paper and embedded feedback Analysis indicates that there is a relationship between page length and the amount of embedded comments in papers. Papers with page lengths between 10-13 pages had the most types of embedded feedback regardless of the type of embedded feedback. Ten page papers had the most significantly noted embedded feedback. In addition, papers longer than 16 pages had a significant drop in embedded comments when compared with papers less than 16 pages. Table 1 indicates the specific relationships between page length and embedded feedback.

Table 1 – Relationship between length of paper and embedded feedback Relationship Between Length of Paper and Comments in Margin Embedded Feedback Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages Pages

Track changes made within MS Word

Using Highlighters

Summative Comments

= 04 = 05 = 06 = 07 = 08 = 09 = 10 = 11 = 12 = 13 = 14 = 15 = 16 = 17 = 18 = 19 = 20 = 21 = 22 = 24 = 25 = 29 = 30 = 33

Figure 7 shows a cross-reference between embedded feedback and length of paper.

Figure 7 – Embedded Feedback Cross Referenced with Length of Paper

Longer papers, defined as more than fifteen pages, comprised twenty per cent of all papers yet only received fifteen per cent of all feedback provided. Therefore, longer papers receive less rather than more feedback when considered against the entire data set.

Summary for Part D The insertion of comments into the margin of the paper was the most frequently used method of embedded feedback. Three out of every four papers analyzed had comments in the margin. Six out of every ten papers where comments were used had between one and fourteen comments inserted. Only four out of every ten papers used „Track Changes‟ in Microsoft Word as a means of embedding feedback. Of these, there were between one and ten insertions in all cases except one that had more than that. Proportionately, longer papers received less feedback than shorter ones. There was a relationship between the length of the paper submitted and the amount of feedback received. This means that prorated embedded feedback should equate to the one in four papers containing over sixteen pages drawing one quarter of all feedback as shown in Figure 8, while Figure 9 shows that when all four forms of feedback are cross referenced with papers with more than

or less than sixteen pages, larger papers draw only fifteen per cent of feedback although they make up twenty per cent of all papers. From a teaching and learning perspective in using embedded feedback as a means to increase student understanding and scaffold learning opportunities this analysis reveals that assignment lengths for the most frequent types and occurrences of instructor embedded feedback from instructors should be targeted to no more than 13-15 pages. Longer and shorter paper page lengths in this dataset received less feedback from both frequency and type perspectives.

Part E Summative review Feedback that comprised the use of summative statements as a means of embedding feedback on student papers comprised twenty-one per cent of all papers across the entire data set. Fifty of the two-hundred-and-thirty-six papers analyzed used this method. The range of summative comments ran from the highest amount recorded being nine, to the lowest amount recorded being one. Fourteen papers had between two to nine summative comments. The range of these frequencies is now set out in Figure 8:

Figure 8 – Frequencies of Use of Summative Comments

In the initial coding stage, the category summative feedback had not been given a definition and only one-hundred-and-seven feedback comments had been coded to this category. The relationship between summative and embedded feedback was not distilled enough after the first round of coding. Therefore, additional detailed comparative analysis and re-coding was necessary to filter the „actual‟ embedded feedback into specific categories leaving the summative feedback relating to the rubric criteria of the assessments. Only fifty of the twohundred-and-thirty-six papers analyzed used this feedback style. Summative feedback comments also comprised a variety of data that was re-coded to other feedback categories that had been developed during the process of distilling and refining thematic categories; and the weightings of this coding are shown in Figure 9.

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Figure 9 - Feedback Re-coded from Summative Comments

Thus comments re-coded from the category summative feedback fit into the categories that had already been developed. Nearly 79% of summative comments were aligned with areas covering aspects of the assignment rubric that was used for assessing the assignment for a grade, leaving only 3% of comments remaining as coded „summative‟. A pattern was identified for summative comments with general comments provided by the instructor relating to overall student performance in regards to the alignment of the student‟s work to the requirements of the assignment.

Summary for Part E Many of the original elements coded to the summative category ended up to be re-coded to eleven other categories. Once re-coding of summative feedback was complete only 3% of all feedback related to the summative category. These summative items related to overall student performance. Interestingly, the recoded elements originally aligned to the summative category and re-coded to embedded feedback categories were aligned to categories relating specifically to the rubric criteria for the assignment.

Key Findings and Suggestions The levels of summative feedback re-coded to elements relating to the use of a rubric were noteworthy. In qualitative terms, it could be suggested that use of a rubric provides the student with the most comprehensive form of feedback, as it is explicative in addressing all the key elements and expectations of an assignment and the extent to which a student has met or fallen short of those standards. The quantitative analysis demonstrated a co-relation between paper length and amount of feedback given. Longer papers defined as more than sixteen pages comprised twenty per cent of all papers yet only received fifteen per cent of all feedback provided. Although limited in scope, this study determined that both „track changes‟ and „margin comments‟ were the most frequently used online doctoral writing benchmark assessment feedback comments to students. In addition, the use of highlighting could be more useful to students as a mechanism for feedback

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when accompanied by additional comments explaining the highlighted areas of the assignment. A relationship developed between the amount of feedback provided by faculty and the number of pages in assignments. Papers between 10 and 13 pages received the most detailed feedback from faculty when considering paper lengths between 4 and 33 pages. Universities considering course benchmark assessments should be cognizant of the declining input from faculty when page length exceeds 16. Assignments ranging from 6-15 pages should be considered for maximizing faculty feedback to students, with an optimal page length of 10 for capitalizing instructor feedback to students. Limited summative feedback is provided when the assignment is evaluated through the use of a rubric that can provide detailed assignment criteria expectations intuitively for the student.

Conclusion There were four types of embedded feedback used by faculty members in an online Universities‟ benchmark assessment papers. The four types include „comments in the margin‟, „using track changes in MS Word‟, highlighting, and summative comments. The most frequently used type of embedded feedback was margin comments with the least as summative comments. Initially, there was overlap between what was coded as summative feedback and what was coded as embedded feedback. Through comparative analyses, most elements originally coded as summative were re-coded to embedded feedback categories. Many of these categories related back to the evaluation rubric used for the assignment. Therefore, the relationship between embedded feedback and summative feedback included re-coding of comments from the summative to categories relating to the assignment rubric. Additionally, there was a relationship between paper length and embedded feedback. Papers between 1316 pages received the most feedback, while papers longer than 16 pages declined in the amount of feedback provided.

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