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This paper aims to provide an overview of the development periods of home-based learning in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic, then discusses the differences in how the more affluent and well-educated middle-class parents and the economically and culturally disadvantaged working-class parents have dealt with the challenges of this new learning mode in their children’s education.

This research mainly adopted the qualitative research method, and used data from multiple sources, including online and offline participant observations, informal interviews and second-hand official reports.

The preliminary findings suggest that due to the closure of the formal schooling system, the impact of unequal family resources – such as tangible economic investment and intangible cultural and social support – on students’ academic performance has been exposed, thus reinforcing the pre-existing inequality between different social classes.

The findings of this paper are primarily based on preliminary observations and informal interviews, and it needs more systematic studies, both qualitative and quantitative, are needed to provide further empirical evidence to demonstrate the impacts of digital, housing and knowledge divide between the middle- and working-class families on students’ academic performance.

The paper presents new empirical data concerning the class mechanisms underlying home-based learning during the class suspension in Hong Kong. It shows that home-based learning in this challenging time has exposed the existing inequality in education.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how participants in diverse schools newly implement the Sanford Harmony social and emotional learning (SEL) program and perceive its benefits for students and overall school climate.

The current study employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design with a sample of five elementary schools in the western USA. Measures included classroom observations, administrator interviews, teacher interviews and focus groups, student focus groups, and a teacher questionnaire.

Findings indicated expected variation in implementation across schools, although all participants reacted favorably to the program and, importantly, would recommend the program to others. Administrators, teachers and students all saw the value of the program, particularly in terms of student relationship building and improved school climate. Implementation challenges experienced by schools were consistent with research on diffusion of innovations.

The present study demonstrates the importance of effective professional development, continued support, collective decision making and intentional integration of the SEL program throughout a school to support robust implementation and ultimately achieve intended outcomes.

Researchers have yet to examine in-depth implementation of the Sanford Harmony program and how best to support scale-up and more intentional implementation in schools. As implementation fidelity is a key component of a program achieving intended outcomes, the findings from the present study contribute to the knowledge base of supporting SEL program implementation.

China has invested massively in higher education, reaching a mass system, envisaging, as a next step, reaching a universal system. Brazil is still an elite system but needs to create adequate public policies to migrate to a mass system. The purpose of this article is to analyze the paradigms for a mass educational system, with regard to the quality of education offered, and the prospects for achieving a universal system, with Brazil and China as a reference.

The author applied an exploratory and qualitative method, through categorical content analysis. The data were collected through nine interviews with government managers, 15 unstructured (open) questionnaires to specialists in higher education and four student leadership.

The results indicate that the change from an elite system to a mass system impacts quality, as there is an inevitable change in experience. However, this modification does not testify against the mass system, as it is necessary for a nation to pass through it and structure itself adequately in order to reach the universal system, a path desired by both countries.

The study presented the reflections observed by the migration from the elite system to the mass system from the main stakeholders of the system in China and the prospects for Brazil to become a mass system. Additionally, it presented the perspectives for both countries to achieve the desired universal system.

This article theoretically analyzes how response to intervention (RTI) can be used as a tool in lesson study (LS) to enhance student learning and how RTI can be made more user-friendly by teachers in LS. The focus is on how RTI can be adapted to teachers' daily work by including it in the LS model and how LS can benefit by introducing a scientific approach in analyzing student learning outcomes through RTI. The article also highlights how this approach can contribute to learning for children with special educational needs (SEN).

This theoretical paper describes and compares the characteristics of the LS model with the RTI framework. The comparison highlights the design of models related to teachers’ development and learning outcomes. The benefits and challenges with the models are described. A previous research study related to the models is also briefly reviewed.

There are benefits and challenges with both the RTI and LS models but parts of the models appear to complement one another to some extent. Teachers' professional development and a better control of learning outcomes could be gained by combining the models. This could also lead to educational improvement.

There has been almost no research about a combined LS and RTI model.

This study aims to provide a thick description of a four-day bridging course in introductory accounting presented before the start of a student’s first year. The course aims to address the lack of prior accounting knowledge. The study also evaluates the effectiveness of the course using econometric techniques. Treatment effects are considered when interpreting the results.

This voluntary intervention used a quasi-experimental research design and quantitative techniques, including the application of propensity score matching (PSM), to isolate the treatment effect on the treated and untreated groups.

A positive and significant association is reported between attending the bridging course and performance in the first assessment.

A bridging course in accounting offers higher educators an opportunity to ensure that students are academically better prepared when entering university. This course provides adequate prior knowledge from which a student will benefit during the first assessments, which may contribute to increased self-efficacy and retention. This intervention has social implications for students as they can interact, participate and easily transition from school to university. Social implications include learning communities that are formed at the onset of their studies.

Bridging courses have been presented in other disciplines with positive results but not yet in accounting. Bridging courses in accounting are viable interventions to address gaps in prior knowledge and assist with the transition from school to university. This study expands literature by demonstrating the application and interpretation of PSM in quasi-experimental designs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether attention, emotion, and cognitive regulation (CR) may be strategies to advance one’s ethnic identity.

The paper is presented in three parts. The first section discusses integrative inquiry (INIQ) (Bresciani Ludvik et al., 2016), a mindfulness methodology and mindful inquiry training program, as a potential pathway to help mitigate stress and enhance healthy development and well-being strategies that combat stressors related to ethnic and racial identity; and increase opportunities for positive ethnic identity development. INIQ was designed to influence areas of the brain associated with attention regulation, emotion regulation, and CR in order to decrease stress and anxiety, and heighten executive functions of undergraduate and graduate students. The second section discusses an exploratory study to see whether INIQ resulted in higher mean scores for participants on their ethnic identity, as assessed by the multigroup ethnic identity measure (Phinney, 1992).

The results indicated that there was a significant increase in pre-test and post-test scores for mindfulness (p=0.001) as well as the dependent measure for learning exploration (p=0.028) among 30 undergraduate, master’s- and doctoral-seeking students. There was also a non-significant increase for clear understanding (p=0.15) and overall ethnic identity achievement (p=0.387); and non-significant decrease for ethnic belonging (p=0.424).

These findings suggest that INIQ may increase students’ ethnic learning exploration, which is an important process in ethnic identity development (Phinney and Ong, 2007). This study also suggests that INIQ increases mindfulness in participants. The authors conclude with a discussion and recommendations to future INIQ and other diversity centered student support practitioners interested in influencing positive ethnic identity formation.

The paper identifies and explores the perspectives of middle school educators regarding the benefits and challenges of an ongoing, emerging school–university partnership. Over five years, professors at one comprehensive, Midwestern university, formed a partnership with a local middle school. While progress has been made to develop the partnership, the authors recognized a lack of shared governance (Essential 7). In particular, they were unsure the partnership was mutually beneficial. The authors interviewed teachers, the principal, assistant principals, guidance counselors, the instructional coach and the youth service center director to gain their perspectives on the partnership.

The authors used an intrinsic, evaluative case study to examine educators perceptions of the benefits and challenges of the partnership (Guba & Lincoln, 1981; Patton, 2002). This approach was used because within this bounded system the authors have an interest in obtaining information to help improve the program and partnership.

Results suggest the partnership was beneficial in a number of ways including hiring of and offering fresh ideas to teachers. Educators also felt there were many benefits for university candidates. Challenges included scheduling, technology access and candidate disposition. Implications are discussed.

Inherent within the research methodology, researchers’ inclusion in the data collection process may affect participants responses.

Researchers discuss the implications of this work, including the role of hiring candidates and clear articulation of a mission for the partnership.

This work adds to research on school site stakeholders’ perspectives on the value of school–university partnerships and includes teachers and the schools’ entire leadership team.

The study aims to present a logic map linking the Professional Development School (PDS) Nine Essentials as a PDS theory of action and offer an analysis of dissertations that compare outcomes of learning in PDS and non-PDS contexts.

For this current study, the authors identified 25 of the 210 dissertations from a larger study that used a comparison methodology to provide a window into how learning in PDS and non-PDS settings may differ. In reviewing these comparison studies, the authors identified a set of clustered themes, as well as a variety of comparison constructs and measurements researchers used to determine the impact of PDS.

Five themes emerged including (1) the experience of learning to teach in a PDS setting vs. a non-PDS; (2) the experience of teaching in a PDS vs. non-PDS; (3) teacher candidate quality in a PDS vs. non-PDS; (4) teacher quality in a PDS vs. non-PDS; (5) school leader quality in a PDS vs. non-PDS; and (6) K-12 student learning in PDS vs. non-PDS.

Limitations of this study include the complications related to comparison, logic-related fallacies and the complexity of capturing simultaneous renewal.

In the 30th year of PDS work, the study utilizes a theory of action comprised of linking the PDS Nine Essentials to situate the comparison dissertation analysis of outcomes in PDS and non-PDS contexts suggesting challenges and possibilities and perhaps a direction for new research questions.

Studies have shown that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers remain to be one of the areas where there is considerable job growth (Lacey & Wright, 2009; National Science Board, 2010; Singh et al., 2002). However, in many rural regions, science teachers still find it challenging to motivate adolescents to develop an interest in these fields or pursue opportunities in STEM at their schools or in their communities. In exploring a distinctive way to motivate students from rural regions to develop and maintain a STEM mindset, the authors provided students opportunities to participate in programs within their communities to increase their interests in STEM. The authentic STEM learning experiences, “at no cost” for the high school students, helped them focus on cognitive and social abilities as they engaged in experiences developing identities as pre-STEM professionals. This paper reports on how the authors were able to develop research through the support of the professional development system at the university.

The authors explored the experiences of the high school students and parents as they engaged in the Science Olympiad events, community volunteering and mentoring projects over three years in the southeastern United States. A total of 50 high school students participated from the Science Olympiad team from ethnic backgrounds: Hispanic/Latino Americans (55%), African Americans (10%) and White Americans/Caucasians (35%) participated. The high school students and parents were asked to participate by completing required permissions and also completing pre- and post-surveys to help understand their reasons for participating in the activities. At the end of the semester, an interview was conducted with participants to better understand their experiences with working on the team and their STEM perspectives. Parents and guardians of the high school students were also asked to share their thoughts about their children participating in these activities through indirect conversations. The school partnership teacher, also Science Olympiad co-coach, invited high school students to participate in additional STEM activities throughout the school year through the university partnership.

The pre- and post-survey responses provided insight to researchers about the “lived experiences” of the students as they developed a STEM mindset. Analysis of data indicates students’ interests in STEM and working with youth increased as a result of the STEM opportunities. To help in increasing their interests, additional opportunities are needed for these youth to engage in STEM tasks and mentoring. The professional development system (PDS) creates the space for these opportunities to take place, leading to new knowledge for learning and “boundary-spanning roles” for school-university faculty to discover and experiment new ideas that “transcend institutional settings” (National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2021).

Additional research is needed in helping high school students develop a STEM mindset as they participate in volunteer STEM experiences. The survey tools should be revised to address the specific STEM activities that the students participate in during the year. In addition to feedback from the youth and parents using focus group interviews or other defined survey instruments.

The school-university partners continue to explore the successes and challenges of the collaborative effort. Disruptions in the collaborative effort such as school closures due to severe weather and the pandemic have resulted in cancellations of STEM opportunities for high school students. Despite challenges, this collaborative effort continues with an additional focus on STEM learning.

Suggested research may involve investigating parental involvement strategies that increase the likelihood of actual high school student attendance during out-of-school time activities, such as community STEM fairs, competitions and summer STEM camps. Use of focus group interviews provided students setting to talk freely.

Through a new initiative established by the PDS at the university, “PDS Master Teachers,” the school-university faculty were invited to participate and engage in purposeful, intentional professional learning and leading to enhance the quality of the experiences for teacher candidates (Professional Development System, Watson College of Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2022). This innovative program inspired the school-university faculty to reflect on practice and create new approaches to expand STEM learning in the school and community. Through this collaborative effort, the following National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) Nine Essentials were addressed: Essential 2: Clinical Preparation; Essential 3: Professional Learning and Leading; Essential 4: Reflection and Innovation; Essential 5: Research and Results; and Essential 8: Boundary-Spanning Roles (National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2021). The University’s PDS comprehensive approach to professional learning and its dedication to providing a space for all to engage in reflective practices for professional growth provided the required support for this project.

Being the first in family to go to university affects a student’s perception of value for money in higher education (HE) and impacts their experience and graduate outcomes. The current cost-of-living crisis may further compound inequalities already prevalent in the system.

New approaches to the regulation of HE providers mean it is vital that the sector recognises the challenges for disadvantaged students in completing their degree and securing a graduate job. The cost-of-living crisis not only impacts the day-to-day student experience but could jeopardise the onward value of their time at university, and therefore how the regulator views institutions. Many students will choose to socialise less, be more selective about the academic work they do and therefore develop less social and cultural capital which will have a negative impact on their ability to secure graduate jobs. Universities should be mindful that many first-in-family students are not aware of the importance of making social connections at university or how to best utilise the academic resources available.

Student support practices need to be adapted to both help students through the current financial challenges and ensure that they still have access to the “full” student experience. Government should reflect on the financial support available to students and offer more help to our poorest students who do not have savings and families to support them.