Recognising and managing pupils with mental health difficulties: teachers' views and experiences on working with educational psychologists in schools

The role and future directions of the educational psychology services are being re‐examined and there is a drive to build a more integrated system of services for children and young people that incorporates education, health and social care. This qualitative study examines teacher’s perspectives on their professional involvement with educational psychology services. The results indicate that while it was clear that educational psychologists are highly valued by teachers, there are a number of issues that teachers believe constrain service provision. We suggest that greater cross‐system consultation is needed in order to more closely examine how the roles of professionals working in education, health and social care services impact on each other.     

把全社会变成学生学习的大课堂——教育服务供给社会化的发展路径与监管策略

在我国教育现代化进程中,如何把全社会变成学生学习的大课堂,更好地满足人民群众的多样化教育需求,是一个亟待解决的重大现实问题。随着"互联网+教育"的发展,教育服务供给呈现出社会化趋势,为解决这一难题提供了新的可能。教育服务供给社会化是教育高质量发展和教育治理现代化的必然要求,将推动供给来源从"大包大揽"转向"多元协同",服务方式从"标准生产"转向"个性定制",教育监管从"野蛮生长"转向"有序发展"。依循这一思路,未来教育发展将从标准化走向精细化,业务分工更加细化,非核心、标准化和特需型教育业务将逐步实现服务外包。为了有效推进教育服务供给社会化的实践,一方面要积极探索学校购买教育服务的有效模式,支持学校购买教育服务,加强绩效评估和风险预防,培育教育服务新业态;另一方面,要完善新型教育服务监管机制,加强顶层设计,强化事中监管,注重行业自律,从而形成政府宏观调控、学校开放办学、社会广泛参与的治理格局。     

Pilot evaluation of the Whole Inclusive School Empowerment (WISE) project in kindergartens in Hong Kong: A mixed method approach

This pilot study used a quasiexperimental design to evaluate the Whole Inclusive School Empowerment (WISE) project providing educational psychology services to kindergartens to support students with diverse learning needs. There were eight intervention kindergartens that received WISE educational psychology services and eight control kindergartens without the service. The intervention kindergartens were provided with a 0.125 educational psychologist and 0.7 teacher coordinator. In January and June 2017, teachers in intervention and control kindergartens completed questionnaires assessing student behavior, school readiness, and their own teaching efficacy. Focus group sessions involving teachers and school principals were conducted in July 2017. The results indicated a greater improvement in prosocial behavior and school readiness in intervention kindergartens compared with control kindergartens. Teachers and principals reported that they were better equipped in supporting diverse learning needs. The results provided initial evidence supporting the effectiveness of educational psychology services for kindergartens in improving student outcomes.     

Leadership of education psychological services: fit for purpose?

At a time of great change for educational psychology services in England, this paper reviews current theories of leadership and proposes how an integration of key aspects of these can be applied to support a self review of leadership practice, both by individual leaders and by services. The message from current theory is that in the midst of complexity and rapid change, a primary focus on the head of service is outdated; there should instead be a focus to develop the leadership capacity of the service as a whole. Key constructs considered are systems thinking, social identity, authenticity, and leadership as social construction.     

Parent involvement in an early childhood special education program: A descriptive analysis of parent demographics and level of involvement

The present study was conducted to evaluate the level of parent involvement in an early childhood special education program in a large midwestern urban school district. Areas surveyed included parents' current input, participation, and desired level of participation in the initial eligibility evaluation, the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) meeting, and the initial Individual Education Plan (1EP). Additional areas assessed included parent-teacher contact, overall satisfaction with the early childhood program, and services the parent might be interested in receiving. Generally, parents were satisfied with their involvement and input in their child's educational program. Differences between parents' level of income, education, race, gender, and marital status and their subsequent level of involvement in their child's education were noted.     

The development of a group consultation approach to service delivery

This paper outlines the development, within a small, rural educational psychology service in Wales, of a group consultation approach to service delivery. This involved educational psychologists offering consultation to small groups of teachers as an alternative to direct assessment work. The process of implementing the group consultation approach is described and the findings of a pilot evaluation in the northern area of the county are discussed. The evaluation is a report on initial findings. It is expected that further update reports will be submitted.     

The Rationality of Educating for Wisdom

Sternberg's call for an educational focus on teaching wisdom can be viewed as part of a nascent trend to reorient educational psychology away from exclusive focus on the so-called algorithmic level of analysis. The thrust of his research program on wisdom, like those emphasizing rationality as a critical construct in educational psychology, is on aspects of cognition heretofore backgrounded: the goals and beliefs of the learner, thinking dispositions, values, morality, cognitive styles, and the evaluation of cognition in terms of normative criteria.     

Hegemonic Exceptionalism and Legitimating Bet‐Hedging: paradoxes and lessons from the US and Japanese approaches to education services under the GATS

In this paper we consider the negotiating positions adopted by the US and Japan for the liberalisation of trade in educational services under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). We argue that the US adopts a position of hegemon and freerider in the development of a liberalisation regime in education. The aggressive character of the US position is profoundly influenced by: (1) a strong federal government level faith in service liberalisation; (2) high levels of domestic privatisation in the fields of higher education, training, testing and evaluation; (3) active lobbying by educational services providers. Nonetheless, the US is cautious about allowing foreign competition into domestic education markets. This stems in part from active resistance of the public education sector; and in part because of the delicate jurisdictional questions it would raise given the constitutional right of states to control educational policy. Ironically, US reticence also seems to be related to the relatively high levels of private educational expenditures in the US. In contrast, the Japanese government's approach is motivated primarily by bet‐hedging and legitimation concerns. Japan is not a net‐exporter of educational services and cannot be said to have comparative advantage in this field. However, three things seem to be influencing what might be seen as Japan's surprising decision to join the group of only four (World Trade Organization)WTO member nations who have submitted negotiating proposals for trade in educational services. First, the Japanese are strongly interested in the expansion of trade in other service areas, and may be willing to negotiate in education in order to further negotiations in these other areas. Secondly, Japan's decade‐long economic crisis has contributed to an important policy shift in the government's plans for higher education. Questions about the relevance and competitiveness of Japanese higher education have recently led the Japanese government to commit itself to this sector's ‘internationalisation’. To this end the government is also considering legislation that allows for the accreditation of 282 K. Mundy & M. Iga foreign higher education within Japan. Nonetheless, the Japanese government's negotiating proposal on trade in educational services is much more tentative than that presented by the European Union (EU) and New Zealand, for example. Japan places unique emphasis on the importance of regulatory control mechanisms for foreign service providers. As in the US, at least some part of the Japanese reticence seems to be driven by relatively high levels of private educational expenditure in the country. This paper is organised as follows. In Sections I‐V we briefly trace the history of the WTO, the GATS, and the inclusion of educational services in the GATS. Here we emphasise the strong role played by the US in the inclusion of services in international trade negotiations, and its part in the collapse of ‘embedded liberalism’ as a foundation for a multilateral trade regime. We also look briefly at the contentious aspects of the current round of negotiations in the education sector and describe their current state of play. In Sections VI and VII, we look more closely at the political economy of the negotiating positions adopted by the US and by Japan. We situate the negotiating approaches of these two countries within a comparative analysis of their relative share of current trade in educational services. In our concluding section, we begin to answer two questions. First, what theoretical framework best explains the content and direction of the American and Japanese negotiating frameworks? Second, what can the negotiating positions of these two important WTO members tell us about the overall direction and likely outcomes of the Doho round of negotiations on educational services?     

Psychology of education in the UK: development in the 1960s

This paper attempts an account and evaluation of the historical development of psychology of education in the 1960s in the UK. It contributes to both the history of the academic discipline of educational studies and to the history of higher education. Progress of the subject is introduced in the general context of university developments and the research environment of educational studies and then examines the growth of research and scholarship in psychology of education through an assessment of the contributions of individual psychologists, including the inheritance from pre‐1960s scholars, an analysis of the authorship of papers in the British Journal of Educational Psychology, and case studies of selected university centres of research excellence. A brief discussion of external research funding is followed by a consideration of advanced course development and the provision of suitable textbooks. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research.     

Combining Economic and Conjoint Analysis to Determine Optimal Academic Services

In today's era of global competition, organizations must manage their functions and activities in a manner such that they are responsive to customers' needs and can provide excellence in service to the customer while also being efficient and cost conscious. These issues are extremely common in corporate organizations, but such concerns are equally relevant in service industries, including institutions of higher education. This study is conducted at a private, undergraduate institution of higher education. We utilize focus group evaluation and conjoint analysis combined with economic analysis in the form of a newly designed preferred utility economic cost diagram to pick the ideal services that should be provided to enrolled students at the institution. The package of ideal services accounts for preferred utility expressed by students and a new methodology (preferred utility function) to balance these against financial considerations to optimize services and financial gains for a college adult education program. This combination of focus groups and mathematical techniques can be easily employed by educational institutes.     

Trade in Educational Services: An Overview of GATS and Policy Implications for Higher Agricultural Education in India

Abstract

Higher education is a service that contributes to national development, integration and regional cohesion. Agricultural education in particular has been viewed in many developing countries as a significant contributor to sustainable development and poverty alleviation. In view of its public mandate, higher education in most countries is regulated by competent bodies. However, higher education is also a service recognized under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is therefore subject to WTO's essential principles of promoting trade liberalization, market access and equitable treatment to all participants. But very little is known about the consequences of free trade in educational services. Also it is difficult to define which educational services are strictly commercial and which are public services. As a result, application of GATS can lead to disputes, unless the definitions are clear and international standards are in place, as in the case of other WTO agreements such as TRIPS, SPS and TBT. The present paper assesses the implications of application of the provisions of GATS to higher education in general and agricultural education in particular, with respect to Indian regulatory mechanisms for agricultural education. International scenarios of application of GATS in higher education and relevant policy issues for India as perceived by the faculty members of agricultural universities are discussed. The purpose is to initiate a fruitful debate at various national forums that can inform national policy and take advantage of the opportunities provided under GATS, while ensuring that national interests are kept in perspective.     

Identifying the costs and benefits of educational psychology: a preliminary exploration in two local authorities

This article provides an account of a small-scale pilot study of the cost and perceived benefits of the educational psychology services in two comparably small local authorities in England. This study is preparatory to a more detailed examination of the costs and likely benefits of state provision of educational psychology services in England. The work is contextualised by acknowledgement of the growing pressure on local authority services to trade and for schools to directly commission the services of educational psychologists. Provisional findings indicate significant differences between the impact of the two services that participated. The authors offer speculation on the effects for local authorities and schools, and ways in which the study might be developed to provide more satisfactory answers to the questions of “what is the value of educational psychology in practice” and “how best to deploy educational psychology services?”     

The Appraisal of Educational Psychologists: A very private affair

This paper presents the results of a survey into the use of appraisal in educational psychology services within Local Education Authorities in England and Wales. Based on the findings of the study, the current range of appraisal schemes in use within the educational psychology service are described. The way in which such schemes link with appraisal in the wider local authority context is considered, and an attempt is made to identify whether appraisal schemes used with educational psychologists have distinctive features and, if so, what those features are.     

教育信息化2.0时代企业参与职业教育的审思与进阶之路

教育信息化2.0时代,职业教育信息化建设从注重"物"的标准化供应转向满足"人"的多样化需求。在此背景下,教育信息化企业参与职业教育不再满足于做单一的产品提供商,开始向综合服务、运营服务转型,以满足消费主体的个性化、多样化和深层次的教育需求,技术和服务相结合的业务类型,成为教育信息化企业的发展趋势。目前这类企业参与职业教育还存在合作持续性欠缺、服务延伸不确定以及话语体系不一致等问题,通过开发企业自身服务供给能力、界定信息化供给的"所为"与"所不为"并强化制度环境的外部保障,庶几可突破教育信息化企业参与职业教育的瓶颈,促进新型产教融合的进阶提升。     

A discussion of the developing role of educational psychologists within Children’s Services

This paper reflects upon the developing role of educational psychologists (EPs) within the local authority Children’s Services, from the starting point that the EP role has, through numerous reviews, been clearly conceptualised. Detailing the philosophy and framework for the inception of Children’s Services in England, the authors propose two specific directions for EP work within this context. With an illustrative case study of one local authority EP service, it is argued that, whilst the core EP functions remain constant, it is the range and derivation of EP work which is being, and will continue to be, transformed. Reinforcing Stobie’s emphasis from 2002 upon EPs’ ability to respond flexibly to the changing socio‐political context, and the associated challenges for initial professional training, the authors highlight the significance of issues of role specialisation, commissioning of educational psychology services, and evaluation of the outcomes of EP work. A strategy for future EP role reviews is proposed.     

学校定位与高素质应用型人才培养模式的探索与实践——以成都大学为例

文章以成都大学有特色的学校定位与高素质应用型人才培养教育模式为例,对地方本科院校的科学定位与人才培养的教育模式作了论述,具体而言,即设置科学合理的课程体系,建构紧密型的产学研合作体系,完善教学评估和教学质量保障体系,改革考试与评价制度,构建个性化的学生素质发展测评体系,以尽快建立适应市场经济要求的教育结构和运行机制。提高教育质量并保持其健康持续地发展。     

Community participation in education: A case study of the Boards of Trustees' experience in the Fayoum governorate in Egypt

Abstract

The current study investigates the case of community participation in the Egyptian education with special focus on Fayoum governorate - province - and its experience in developing Boards of Trustees (BOTs) in public schools. Through a field survey with boards of trustees' members, their perception of the BOTs efficiency, effectiveness and problems is analyzed with reference to the theoretical literature and other international experiences. Main findings point to the fact that the Fayoum model is in conformance with the ongoing paradigm in education calling for increasing shared responsibility for provision. Although respondents were generally optimistic about the potential opportunities for BOTs improving the quality of the educational process, yet their evaluation of the real level of their current effectiveness, was not similarly so. Evidently, more needs to be done to transform the experience of the establishment and operationalization of the BOTs, from being merely a form of pseudo participation, into being more genuine.