Acoustical barriers in classrooms: the impact of noise on performance in the classroom

There is general concern about the levels of noise that children are exposed to in classroom situations. We report the results of a study that explores the effects of typical classroom noise on the performance of primary school children on a series of literacy and speed tasks. One hundred and fifty eight children in six Year 3 classes participated in the study. Classes were randomly assigned to one of three noise conditions. Two noise conditions were chosen to reflect levels of exposure experienced in urban classrooms (Shield & Dockrell, 2004): noise by children alone, that is classroom–babble, and babble plus environmental noise, babble and environmental. Performance in these conditions was compared with performance under typical quiet classroom conditions or base. All analyses controlled for ability. A differential negative effect of noise source on type of task was observed. Children in the babble and environmental noise performed significantly worse than those in the base and babble conditions on speed of processing tasks. In contrast, performance on the verbal tasks was significantly worse only in the babble condition. Children with special educational needs were differentially negatively affected in the babble condition. The processes underlying these effects are considered and the implications of the results for children’s attainments and classroom noise levels are explored

The effects of environmental and classroom noise on the academic attainments of primary school children

While at school children are exposed to various types of noise including external, environmental noise and noise generated within the classroom. Previous research has shown that noise has detrimental effects upon children?s performance at school, including reduced memory, motivation and reading ability. In England and Wales children?s academic performance is assessed using standardised national tests of literacy, mathematics and science. A study has been conducted to examine the impact, if any, of chronic exposure to external and classroom noise on the test results of children aged 7 and 11 years. External noise was found to have a significant negative impact upon performance, the effect being greater for the older than the younger children. The analysis suggested that children are particularly affected by the noise of individual external events. Test scores were also affected by internal classroom noise, background noise levels being significantly related to test results. The negative relationships between performance and noise levels were maintained when the data were corrected for socio-economic factors relating to social deprivation, language and special educational needs. These results provide further evidence of the detrimental impact of noise upon schoolchildren and of the need for appropriate acoustic design of schools to minimise these effects

Editorial for Special issue of ReCALL on Mobile Assisted Language Learning

As in other areas of education where the possibilities offered by mobile learning are being increasingly investigated, there is a growing body of research in the field of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). The collection of papers in this volume addresses secondary and tertiary education, mobile devices and mobility of learners. The authors describe both the successes and challenges they faced, and consider some of the barriers to the adoption of MALL. Sufficient research has been carried out for MALL to have been identified as separate from computer assisted language learning (CALL). Within this special issue, Kukulska-Hulme and Shield provide an overview of studies that have been carried out in the last six years or so, and the move from content delivery to supported collaboration and interaction

Designing postgraduate pedagogies: connecting internal and external leaders

Learning is the new resource driving the knowledge economy. Now everyone is expected to make themselves available to learn : un-learn : re-learn. Much has been written about new modes of learning, as well the new technologies that promise to deliver information 24/7. Paradoxically, however, in the field of educational sociology there has been little systematic theorisation of the pedagogies designed to facilitate learning in the knowledge economy. Nor have there been systematic efforts to connect macro economic, technological and social changes to state official policies and institutional pedagogic practices. The Bernsteinian theoretical corpus models the power and control relations generating pedagogic discourses, practices and identities from the macro level of policy formation to the micro level of pedagogic interactions. It is therefore useful in examining the new pedagogies designed to generate the learning resources of the knowledge economy. In this paper, we draw on and extend Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse and identities to analyse the design and implementation of a postgraduate unit in educational research. This unit aimed to be: rigorous in disciplinary knowledge, technologically innovative, cost efficient; and responsive to diverse student needs and market contingencies

Planning the mobile future: The border artistry of International Baccalaureate Diploma choosers

This paper reports on a study of students choosing the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBD) over state-based curricula in Australian schools. The IBD was initially designed as a matriculation certificate to facilitate international mobility. While first envisaged as a lifestyle agenda for cultural elites, such mobility is now widespread with more people living ‘beyond the nation’ through choice or circumstance. Beck (2007) and others highlight how the capacity to cross national borders offers a competitive edge with which to strategically pursue economic and cultural capital. Beck’s ‘border artistes’ are those who use national borders to their individual advantage through reflexive strategy. The study explored the rationales and strategy behind the choice of the IBD curriculum expressed by students in a focus group interview and an online survey. This paper reports on their imagined transnational routes and mobile orientations, and how a localised curriculum limits their imagined mobile futures

Selfie-Portrait

The selfie has become the currency of today; boldly stating: I was here, this is how I felt, and, most importantly, I exist. This has become our self-reflection. Exploring the self-portrait, as have countless artists of the past, Johnny Shield uses the various selfies as reference for his sculptural works - both empty vessels and sculptural busts. Made from glass these fragile objects are all doomed to break. You, the viewer, are witnessing a truly damned object: the central portrait uneasily rests on a pedestal that is actively electrolytically corroding. While on display, this pedestal will lean more and more precariously, ultimately spilling the glass portrait onto the ground. By participating in the legacy of self-portraiture but producing a self-destructive object, Johnny is simultaneously endorsing and condemning the sacredness of the art object, the selfie, as well as the practice of glorifying the artist

The Shield 1992

Murray State University Yearbook, 1992https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/yearbooks/1066/thumbnail.jp

The Shield 1989

Murray State University Yearbook, 1989https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/yearbooks/1063/thumbnail.jp

The Shield 1970

Murray State University Yearbook, 1970https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/yearbooks/1045/thumbnail.jp

The Shield 1981

Murray State University Yearbook, 1981https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/yearbooks/1055/thumbnail.jp