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Student participation in school life may be considered from the points of view of diverse theoretical frameworks that question different educational aspects related to such social involvement. Issues such as the construction of a democratic school, education for citizenship, active learning and student-centred education may be addressed when the object of one's study focuses on student participation. In the present study, we sought to learn how student participation is promoted in a given set of schools, and what class representatives, students' legal representatives, have to say about it. Data collection was performed by means of a self-description guide characterizing school practices with regard to students' participation and a semi-structured questionnaire administered to the class representatives and vice representatives. The participation described in the guide we have analysed involves mostly one representative type and reveals what is statutorily established. According to the representatives who participated in the study, the role of a student representative is not yet sufficiently valued by the school and by educational actors, namely by their constituents. Hence, it may be concluded that there is mitigated democracy present in the current education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the application of natural games mechanics within higher education as a vehicle to encourage student engagement and achievement of desired learning outcomes. It concludes with desiderata of features for a learning environment when used for assessment and a reflection on the gap between current and aspired learning provision. The context considered is higher (tertiary) education, where the aims are both to improve students' engagement with course content and also to bring about potential changes in the students' learning behaviour. Whilst traditional approaches to teaching and learning may focus on dealing with large classes, where the onus is frequently on efficiency and on the effectiveness of feedback in improving understanding and future performance, intelligent systems can provide technology to enable alternative methods that can cope with large classes that preserve the cost benefits. However, such intelligent systems may also offer improved learning outcomes via a personalised learning experience. This paper looks to exploit particular properties which emerge from the game playing process and seek to engage them in a wider educational context. In particular we aim to use game engagement and flow as natural dynamics that can be exploited in the learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Electrónica Interuniversitaria De Formación del Profesorado is the property of Asociacion Universitaria de Formacion del Profesorado (AUFOP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: This article reviews empirical research on the effects of student participation in school decision-making processes. Out of 3102 searched citations, a total of 32 publications met the inclusion criteria. The qualitative analyses employed in this review yielded a typology of student participation, a categorisation of the diverse effects of student participation and an overview of the quality and quantity of related research (available evidence). We found moderate evidence of positive effects of student participation on life skills, self-esteem and social status, democratic skills and citizenship, student–adult relationships and school ethos. We found limited evidence of positive effects on academic achievement, facilities, rules or policies, and health; we also found low levels of evidence of negative effects. We did not find sufficient research on the positive effects of student participation on peer relationships or on effects on teachers. Different forms of student participation seem to have different effects, but first and foremost, this review indicates a need for more comprehensive high quality research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This response to "Buscando la Libertad: Latino Youths in Search of Freedom in School" by Jason G. Irizarry demonstrates how youth participatory action research (YPAR) as an instrument of subverting oppressive school policies and structures is a form of critical policy analysis (CPA). As an evolving method, CPA acknowledges the absent voices in policy, questions policy inequities, fosters empowerment, and influences policy. Youths who engage in YPAR, as demonstrated by Project FUERTE, have the courage to critique school policies that have the power to alter their educational trajectories, which offers more hope for change than scholarly elites who critique policies from the ivory tower. This response concludes with suggestions for educators. In order for sustainable changes in school policies and structures to occur, youths partaking in YPAR need collaborative support from principals and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the authors' work on finding a more pragmatic approach to dealing with power, this commentary calls into question the possibility of a preestablished agenda by the researchers, who struggled to engage high school students. There might have been a case of overly ambitious expectations at work; also, the authors confess to being in the school only once a week and that their students were themselves struggling to find their place in a new charter school with an emphasis on social action. This response challenges the authors to reexamine their wish to engage students with institutional power by suggesting that they consider their own positions of power inside the school and classroom. Lastly, the response posits that rather than focusing on the limitations of service-learning and/or public achievement, which may make them appear as less desirable models for social action, we should consider such approaches as providing the very thing-small wins-the authors sought in and that educators should prepare their students for more substantial engagements with power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fehrman and Schutz contend that the fine balance between having students experience real-world obstacles to social change and having them learn how to navigate around those obstacles can be achieved by having adults both pre-select community action projects that are both possible and meaningful to ensure a modicum of success, and jump in and redirect wayward efforts when necessary to get them back on a trajectory aimed at a positive outcome. I agree. I also suggest that other factors are significant as well, namely the purposeful nurturing of a sense of community and hopefulness. Finally, I point out that adult intervention and democratic teaching are in no way mutually exclusive, especially by any standard John Dewey might have suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from a two-year ethnographic study of Latino high school students engaged in youth participatory action research (YPAR), this article describes students' quest for freedom in schools, locating their struggle within a larger effort to realize the democratic ideals of public schooling. Using Latino/a Critical Race Theory as a theoretical lens, the author demonstrates how popular discourse around the "achievement gap" often obscures the oppressive policies and practices implemented by educators that limit freedoms necessary for educational and personal development and profoundly influence the identities and life trajectories of Latino youth. The article concludes with an exploration of YPAR as a practice of educational freedom with the potential to transform the educational experiences and outcomes for Latino youth and other communities that have been traditionally underserved by schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines a two-year effort to engage groups of inner-city students in community engagement projects at Social Action Charter High School, SACHS, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In this project, graduate student volunteers coached small groups of students working on community change projects, collecting data on what happened over time. Kahne and Westheimer (2006) identified a key challenge to projects of this kind. On the one hand, social action projects seem able to enhance students' belief in their own capacity to solve community problems only if adult allies make sure the students do not encounter any significant barriers to success, although this misleads them, albeit unintentionally, about the realities of unequal power in society. On the other hand, authentic engagements with realworld institutional power tend to reduce students' confidence and their desire to participate in social action in the future. Thus the "catch-22" in our article's title. This article shows how one of the groups we worked with at SACH discovered a middle way between Kahne's and Westheimer's two extremes. Even though the students were not able to overcome the power they encountered, they nonetheless found creative and pragmatic ways to accomplish significant tasks. We argue that the students' experience shows a possible avenue for educators to move beyond the catch-22. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Astin's I-E-O model as a framework, this article explores the effects of a variety of factors on first-year persistence for conditionally-admitted students participating in a learning community at a public land-grant university. Since the learning community began in 2002, program administrators have collected survey, interview, and academic success indicators for participating students. In 2007, the program received grant funds to more carefully investigate factors that promote and inhibit persistence among students. For students matriculating in 2007, this study collected survey and entry characteristic data to probe predictive factors for persistence after the first year. These data allow us to better identify and understand dominant influences on student persistence as well as plan more informed interventions for students most at risk for departure. Key factors at our university that affected persistence of at-risk students included social integration, academic conscientiousness (most notably the use of self-regulatory learning strategies), and select pre-college characteristics including motivation and college preparatory curriculum. This article serves as a case study; after describing our local context, we present the inputs and environmental factors most predictive of persistence. We close by discussing the implications of this research for universities and colleges seeking to improve support for at-risk students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents a study that examines the types of frames occurring in student blogs profiled on admission department Websites. The study investigated student blogs used for recruitment purposed from 1, 734 school websites and used analysis of variance (ANOVA) to assess the relationship between blogger classification and the use of frames. The results of the study indicate that it is possible to present the college experience at an institution using student blogs, which provides opportunity for prospective students to test drive a school. The study concludes that recruitment blogs give universities and colleges the control on telling the story of their institution compared to non-institution blogs.

The article focuses on the 2007-2008 company report of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). According to executive director James R. Plasker, the society has experienced positive net revenue which made the society to function more productive. Regarding the society's membership, there has been an increase in the participation of students with the implementation of the Student Advisory Council (SAC) in 2006-2007. The publications of ASPRS play a vital part in the vision of the society, the "Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (PE&RS)," remains its quality and financial stability.

This article focuses on Czech pre-Marxist sociological journals - Sociologická revue (established in 1930, published until 1940, and again in 1946-49) and Sociální problémy (established 1931, published 1931-1938/39 and 1947/48) - and compares how they functioned with the work of the contemporary Sociologický časopis/Czech Sociological Review (analysed volumes 32 (1996) to 41 (2005)). Although the internal situation of the branch and its public evaluation were rather different during each of the two periods, the author believes that looking back at the well-established earlier period of Czech sociology can provide some comparative data for a better understanding of the current situation and its imperfections. First, the author quantitatively analyses the 'genre' composition of the old and new journals and concludes that in the earlier publications reviews and scientific polemics were more strongly represented, whilst the papers - especially those in Sociologická revue - were less likely to be connected with any empirical research. Conversely, the old sociologists were highly involved in the public sphere, which included student education and active participation in policy making. Nowadays, Czech sociologists tend to be wrapped up in themselves; they produce better theoretical and empirical papers, but the number produced per person has decreased, and their reception is probably weaker. In the article the author also analyses the means of recruitment of the journals' editorial boards, relations within the Czech sociological community itself and its relations abroad, and other issues of the sociology of Czech sociology, past and present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graduate schools in the United States have made a philosophical commitment to support greater diversity, including attracting and retaining students of color. With an increasingly diverse U.S. population, recruiting and retaining a diverse student body is critical. This paper offers some practical suggestions for accomplishing at goal, based on the author's practical experience with adult students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of an experiential approach of teaching undergraduate research methods that allows students to conduct a formative program evaluation of their own baccalaureate social work program. Evaluation of this approach showed that a participatory approach valuing the feedback of students and provides an opportunity to create a change within the school of social work helped students to overcome their resistance to research. Students internalized research concepts and appreciated the importance of research through the practical application of their work. This case study suggests that the participation in program evaluation of undergraduate students increases the expectation that the graduates will perceive themselves as researchers.

A unique professional development program took place for senior student affairs officers at The University of Salamanca (Spain) in June 2005. Participants had firsthand experiences with studying abroad and had opportunities to exchange ideas and perspectives with professionals from a variety of institutions from within and outside of the United States. This article will describe the purpose of the Institute, the workshops presented, and the learning outcomes attained. By examining the answers to those questions, a variety of themes emerged clarifying the participants' learning outcomes and potential applications of how to use those new perspectives. Invited Article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the role of generational change in the emergence and continuity of the WFSF, generational change as situated through macro-historical perspectives, generational value shifts and their implications for the WFSF, and asymmetries and potentialities revealed through youth futures literature. It argues that the development of the WFSF in the longer term will require a generational approach that incorporates greater youth and student participation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the training of teachers participating in writing-across-the-curriculum program intended for middle schools in which the development of a training model was collaborated by a rural Michigan school district of 2,000 students and the Central Michigan University. The author noted that the most important step in developing the program was determining whether there was a need or desire to improve writing pedagogy and student writing skills. The author emphasizes that the future culture of the schools will be fashioned by how staff development systems evolve.

Discusses the importance of giving students more control in the classroom. Design of their own syllabus; Active role for students; Students making decisions about assignments, reading, activities, and grading.

The article moves beyond the interest in evaluation techniques and considers evaluation as an element of the authority system of school organizations. Such authority systems are the means by which the activities of individuals may be directed and coordinated in the service of organizational goals. Thus the extent to which such systems foster or diminish student engagement is of particular interest. The article examines problems of high school authority systems as manifest in the relationships between the teachers performing evaluations and the students subject to those evaluations. It considers the impact of such problems as perceived by students on various forms of student disengagement from school. There has long been considerable interest in securing student participation in school. This is particularly true at the high school level where the problems that result when students do not participate actively in the program of the school become quite visible. The attention of researchers and policy makers has focused on three quite different manifestations of lack of student involvement in the school program: apathy or low level participation, violence and vandalism or participation in negative activities, and absenteeism and early withdrawal or nonparticipation.

The article discusses the significance of self-government in high schools in the U.S. Self-government implies the participation of the student in making, interpreting, and enforcing the laws of the school. It is believed that the practice of self-government corrects a wrong attitude toward law and order by giving practice in law-making and law-enforcing. Among the practical attempts at self-government, the municipal form has been taken as a model, and school cities have been instituted. The operation of self-government has been found successful in high schools in the U.S. like in the John Crerar School of Chicago, Hyde Park High School, and in the State Normal School in New York.

The article contends that college students can be a vital voice in campus technology decisions involving outsourcing. It states that since outsourcing involves the transfer of responsibility from an institutional service to a private corporation, several issues need to be addressed. These include theft of data and transfer of agreements. Ways on how students offer a different perspective to the decision-making process are described. Also mentioned is the outsourcing of e-mail at Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) in Pennsylvania.

The article discusses the importance and role of student judicial boards in suppressing peer pressure and plagiarism among American students. According to the author, student judicial board have the responsibility and accountability to accomplishe the objectives of socialization in the teaching of plagiarism as a literacy practice with favorable confidentiality. He adds that the student initiated procedure are neither inflicting punishment nor personal attacks on integrity, however, they may involve a loss of administrative control, but enhance active learning across the curriculum and encourags the establishment of a student judicial process.

This article talks about the educational advantages of department-run campus newspaper. Three common alternatives for organizing a campus newspaper are, university-controlled and run "house organ," insisting on favorable coverage of campus events and programs, student-controlled and run newspaper, often produced by the student government without any formal working arrangement with the journalism or any other department on the campus, and, laboratory newspaper, produced by students under the supervision of the journalism program. The newspaper was transferred to the Department of Mass Communication in summer 1980 and experience over the last one year indicates that the move has been beneficial to the needs of journalism students and the university community.

The article offers information on the annual conference of the Two-Year College English Association (TYCA)-West at the Glendale Community College in Glendale, Arizona from October 13-14, 2017 with the theme "The Measure of Tomorrow: Assessment through the Lens of Race, Diversity, & Inclusion."

The author discusses how to promote collaboration between educational developers and students' unions at colleges and universities. She states that students' unions can assist in the development of learning and teaching policies, help engage other students in academic development programmes, and provide data on student experience. In addition, she comments that educational leaders can develop student representatives, mentor education research, and support student-led teaching awards.

Discusses the importance of forest students on the protection and maintenance of forests in Canada. Functions of forest science graduates; Impact of student participation on forest management; Associations of foresters active in the country.