Inspection Effectiveness: an analysis of an OFSTED inspection

Barry Carpenter, Principal Lecturer in Education, Westminster College, Oxford and Chris Stoneham, Head of Learning Support, Henry Box School, Witney, Oxfordshire, build on the advice given by Maria Landy in Vol.9 No. 1 of Support for Learning , and show how an OFSTED inspection can be a rewarding experinece.     

>OFSTED: inspecting schools and improvement through inspection

Approximately one‐third of all maintained secondary schools in England, and a smaller tranche of nursery, primary and special schools, were inspected under the arrangements set out in Section 9 of the 1992 Education (Schools) Act by the end of 1994. This article reviews some aspects of quality assurance in the national inspection system in England. It looks in particular at the improvement of inspection and at improvement through inspection. Continuous improvement of the inspection system reflects feedback from key stakeholders, as well as work by OFSTED to incorporate new developments. Improvement through inspection, broadly defined, has to cover both what occurs at the individual school level and in the system at large as a result of inspection. We argue that an effective inspection system can provide a powerful incentive for, as well as directly contributing to, school improvement and development     

Pubertal development of the understanding of social emotions: Implications for education

Recent developmental cognitive neuroscience research has supported the notion that puberty and adolescence are periods of profound socio-emotional development. The current study was designed to investigate whether the onset of puberty marks an increase in the awareness of complex, or “mixed,” emotions. Eighty-three female participants (aged 9–16 years) were divided into three groups according to a self-report measure of puberty stage (early-, mid- and post-puberty). Participants were presented with emotional scenarios, and used four linear scales to rate their emotional response to each scenario. Scenarios were designed to evoke social emotions (embarrassment or guilt) or basic emotions (anger or fear), where social emotions are defined as those which require the representation of others' mental states. We measured the relative complexity or “mixedness” of emotional responses, that is, the degree to which participants reported feeling more than one emotion for a given scenario. We found that mixed emotion reporting increased between early- and post-puberty for social emotion scenarios, and showed no relationship with age, whereas there was no change in mixed emotion reporting for basic emotion scenarios across age or puberty groups. This suggests that the awareness of mixed emotions develops during the course of puberty, and that this development is specific to social emotions. Results are discussed in the context of brain development across puberty and adolescence, with speculation regarding the potential implications for education.     

OFSTED, Inspection and the Betrayal of Democracy

Drawing briefly on the quite different discourses of schooling-as-performance and education-as-exploration, the paper opens by exploring some of the consequences of the distinction between schooling and education for any system of school inspection. The second section of the paper examines the conceptual and practical inadequacy of 'accountability' as an agent of reciprocal public engagement in a participatory democracy. In its stead a more robust, more open notion of 'reciprocal responsibility' is offered as a more fitting means of professional and communal renewal. Section III focuses on the relationship between means and ends that is at once central to democracy and so conspicuously absent from current inspection arrangements. The short conclusion suggests we need a radical break from OFSTED if we wish to approximate more closely to our democratic aspirations.     

Instead of OFSTED: a critical discussion of OFSTED on ‘Spiritual,Morale Social and Cultural Development’

This article offers a critical appraisal of the consultation document on ‘Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development’ issued by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) in February 1994.     

The OFSTED Inspection Model: the views of LEA chief inspectors

This paper describes the results of an interview study of the reactions of local education authority (LEA) chief inspectors to the OFSTED inspection model and Handbook. Although inspectors generally commended the thorough nature of the inspection approach, substantial reservations were nevertheless expressed about certain aspects, particularly the logistics of conducting inspections. Inspectors’ views of the methods and procedures are discussed in the light of the implicit rationale of the model and the findings of an OFSTED‐initiated review of the first 100 OFSTED inspections. The paper concludes by suggesting that some of the fundamental assumptions underpinning the model should be questioned     

Regulation of emotions in socially challenging learning situations: an instrument to measure the adaptive and social nature of the regulation process

Self-regulated learning (SRL) research has conventionally relied on measures, which treat SRL as an aptitude. To study self-regulation and motivation in learning contexts as an ongoing adaptive process, situation-specific methods are needed in addition to static measures. This article presents an ‘Adaptive Instrument for Regulation of Emotions’ aimed at accessing students’ experiences of individual and socially shared regulation of emotions in a socially challenging learning situation. The instrument, grounded in self-regulated and socially regulated learning theory, comprises four interrelated components: the socio-emotional challenges experienced in a collaborative learning situation; individual and group-level attempts to regulate the immediate emotions evoked by the challenges; the personal goals; and goal attainment pursued in that situation. The theoretical foundation of the instrument and its components are outlined and some reliability issues illustrated. The limitations but also educational potential of the instrument to understand regulation of emotions in socially challenging learning situations are discussed.     

社会转型时期社会主义核心价值体系的构建

在社会转型时期,社会主义市场经济体制的建立和发展、全球化问题的突出、科技的飞速进步、价值观的自身属性,不可避免地造成了我国人民在价值观上出现了种种问题;价值主体、价值取向、价值选择、价值评判标准呈现出多样性,价值观上的虚无主义盛行。面对这种价值追求和价值观念的多样化。我们要有适合中国国情、符合中国发展特色的主导价值观念,即要建立中国特色社会主义核心价值体系。     

Achievement emotions in higher education: A diary study exploring emotions across an assessment event

An increasing number of emotions have been found to affect the way students learn and their academic achievement. However, little is known about how dynamic these achievement emotions (AEs) are, the extent to which they vary with the assessment process, and how they relate to prior academic ability and student achievement outcomes. Our intensive longitudinal diary study with tertiary students (N = 166) examined their AEs across a three week assessment period (study, test and feedback week). Overall, the results indicated that emotions during the study and test week were unrelated to both GPA and test score, but the starting level of emotions during the feedback week were related to GPA and test score. The changeability of emotions were not related to either GPA or test score. Overall, AEs seem to have a meaningful relationship to achievement only once results are known. These findings expand our knowledge about the relationship between AEs, prior academic ability and achievement and how emotions change across an assessment event.     

情感取向:和谐社会的一个重要特征

情感与社会因素相联系，具有社会性和历史性的特征，构建社会主义和谐社会，离不开对情感取向的培养与引导，应正确理解情感在构建和谐社会中的动力作用，同时也要看到情感也是和谐社会的一个价值尺度。     

Response and the social construction of error

Although the subject of error has been the focus of considerable scholarly inquiry, little is known about the effects of error on teachers' responses to students' writing. This article offers a prolegomenon to further research on response to error from a social constructivist perspective. Three areas for investigation are suggested and illustrated with more specific focuses: the effects of error on teachers' processing of student writing; the relationship between error and the and the teachers' construction of the writer's persona; and the relationship between the changing status of socially constructed norms of language use and response to error. Acknowledging the general disjunction between scholarship and teaching practices, the second half of the article turns to another kind of needed inquiry within the “scholarship of teaching.” Greater focus on reflective practice allows teachers to develop more sophisticated approaches to error in the classroom, especially in the relationship between instruction and response to students' writing.     

论社会管理创新视域下的行政检查规制

为了保证行政检查收集资讯和监督功能的实现,防止行政检查滥权而对相对人权益的侵犯,保障行政检查法治的实现,应以社会管理创新为视角,顺应法治原则和人权保障之要求,反思行政检查的现有理论和立法,从行政检查权设定、行政检查中相对人协助、行政检查后信息处置和行政检查程序等方面规制行政检查。规制行政检查,对化解社会矛盾、促进社会公正、保持社会稳定、促进行政机关依法行政和提高行政管理水平具有重要意义。     

Parental coping with children's negative emotions: relations with children's emotional and social responding

This study examined the relation between parents' reactions to children's negative emotions and social competence. Additionally, the role of parental emotional distress in children's emotional socialization was examined. The emotional reactions of 57 preschoolers (33 girls, 24 boys; M age = 59.2 months) were observed during their free-play interactions. Parents (mostly mothers) completed questionnaires about their reactions to children's negative emotions. An index of children's social competence was obtained from teachers. Results indicated that the relation between harsh parental coping strategies and children's emotional responding was moderated by parental distress. In addition, the relation of the interaction of parental coping and distress to children's social competence was mediated by children's level of emotional intensity. It was concluded that distressed parents who use harsh coping strategies in response to children's negative emotions have children who express emotion in relatively intense ways. In turn, these children find it relatively difficult to behave in a socially competent manner.     

Parental reactions to children's negative emotions: longitudinal relations to quality of children's social functioning

Relations between self-reported parental reactions to children's negative emotions (PNRs) and children's socially appropriate/problem behavior and negative emotionality were examined longitudinally. Evidence was consistent with the conclusion that relations between children's externalizing (but not internalizing) emotion and parental punitive reactions to children's negative emotions are bidirectional. Reports of PNRs generally were correlated with low quality of social functioning. In structural models, mother-reported problem behavior at ages 10-12 was at least marginally predicted from mother-reported problem behavior, children's regulation, and parental punitive or distress reactions. Moreover, parental distress and punitive reactions at ages 6-8 predicted reports of children's regulation at ages 8-10, and regulation predicted parental punitive reactions at ages 10-12. Father reports of problem behavior at ages 10-12 were predicted by earlier problem behavior and parental distress or punitive reactions; some of the relations between regulation and parental reactions were similar to those in the models for mother-reported problem behavior. Parental perceptions of their reactions were substantially correlated over 6 years. Some nonsupportive reactions declined in the early to mid-school years, but all increased into late childhood/early adolescence.     

Expression of emotions and physiological changes during teaching

We investigated the expression of emotions while teaching in relation to a teacher’s physiological changes. We used polyvagal theory (PVT) to frame the study of teaching in a teacher education program. Donna, a teacher-researcher, experienced high levels of stress and anxiety prior to beginning to teach and throughout the lesson we used her expressed emotions as a focus for this research. We adopted event-oriented inquiry in a study of heart rate, oxygenation of the blood, and expressed emotions. Five events were identified for multilevel analysis in which we used narrative, prosodic analysis, and hermeneutic-phenomenological methods to learn more about the expression of emotions when Donna had: high heart rate (before and while teaching); low blood oxygenation (before and while teaching); and high blood oxygenation (while teaching). What we learned was consistent with the body’s monitoring system recognizing social harm and switching to the control of the unmyelinated vagus nerve, thereby shutting down organs and muscles associated with social communication—leading to irregularities in prosody and expression of emotion. In events involving high heart rate and low blood oxygenation the physiological environment was associated with less effective and sometimes confusing patterns in prosody, including intonation, pace of speaking, and pausing. In a low blood oxygenation environment there was evidence of rapid speech and shallow, irregular breathing. In contrast, during an event in which 100 % blood oxygenation occurred, prosody was perceived to be conducive to engagement and teacher expressed positive emotions, such as satisfaction, while teaching. Becoming aware of the purposes of the research and the results we obtained provided the teacher with tools to enact changes to her teaching practice, especially prosody of the voice. We regard it as a high priority to create tools to allow teachers and students, if and as necessary, to ameliorate excess emotions, and change heart rate, oxygenation levels, and breathing patterns.     

学校道德教育与社会主义和谐社会的构建

构建和谐社会需要公民道德素质的提高。提高公民道德素质的基础是对全体公民进行道德教育,其中学校道德教育是公民道德教育的主要渠道,积极开发和利用道德教育资源是增强学校道德教育实效性的重要环节。     

The social construction of gender in the superintendency

The public school superintendency in the United States is overwhelmingly socially constructed as masculine even though the educator workforce from which superintendents are drawn is 75% female. Predictably, those who teach, research and write about the superintendency in the US, again overwhelmingly male, have largely reinforced the sexist gendering of this critical leadership position. In contrast, this study explores how three women superintendents engaged, in a complex fashion, the gendered social construction of the super intendency as they conducted the daily work of leading school districts in the state of Texas. This study also verifies for feminists in other national contexts the critical need for feminist research to be conducted in a wide variety of national contexts, especially because the feminist work of one specific context may be very different than that of another. The study ends with recommendations that fit Texas and the US at the beginning of the 21st century.