Finding balance: impact of classroom management conceptions on developing teacher practice

A sociocultural perspective on teacher learning was used to investigate how three beginning teachers’ conceptions of classroom management affected their developing teaching practices. Students were followed from student teaching through their first 2 years of teaching. Data sources included interviews, classroom observations, and teacher education portfolios. Although all three teachers shared common conceptions of management as establishing positive learning environments, only two of the teachers were successful in doing so. Four key ideas shared by these two teachers served as pedagogical tools that framed their decision-making and scaffolded their early practice. These four conceptions are linked to a course on classroom management not taken by the third teacher. Implications of these findings for teacher education are discussed.     

Current research in developing countries: Teacher credentialling and distance education

Current research is reviewed on two aspects of educational efficiency in ‘developing’ countries: the effect of teacher credentials on student achievement and the cost-effectiveness of distance education. Major research findings on each topic are reviewed, followed by selected abstracts of current research publications and a brief annotated reference list. Complex debate over teacher credentials now concurs that investment in teacher credentialing is frequently productive but that the efficiency of particular investment strategies is often unknown. The potential cost-savings in distance teacher education are often not realized because of the small scale programs.     

Uses of examinations in developing countries: Selection, research, and education sector management

In September 1984, The Chinese government asked if the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank would be interested in assisting the officials in the Ministry of Education to think through some of the policy options in the field of examinations and standardized testing. In response, in April 1985 a meeting was held in Beijing. Attending the meeting were all officials in charge of examinations at the provincial and national levels, technicians and psychometricians in charge of designing examination items, and senior university officials and planners in the Ministry of Education. Attending from outside the country were the chief executive officers of examination agencies in three OECD countries: from the United States, Robert Solomon (ETS); from Japan, Tadashi Hidano (National Center for University Examinations); and from the United Kingdom, John Reddaway (Cambridge University Examination Syndicate); directors of the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement; and experts on the examination systems in Sweden, Australia and Kenya.This article summarizes the comments given to the Chinese Government following that meeting. The amount of attention devoted to problems of logistics and economies of scale is perhaps more pertinent to large, heterogeneous nations like China, but many of the comments could be applied to developing countries generally. These comments cover three areas (1) specific testing issues such as aptitude vs achievement tests, multiple choice vs other formats, etc.; (2) management issues within the system of selection such as whether government agencies or universities should make the selection decision, and whether a testing agency should be autonomous from government control; and lastly, (3) the uses of testing to perform necessary research and education sector management functions.     

INSET: prospects and practice in developing countries

Recent years have witnessed considerable growth of emphasis in the inservice education and training of educational personnel. It has come to be generally accepted that the pace of social and educational change makes preservice training an inadequate basis for long‐term professional competence, and that inservice training is an essential instrument for updating and upgrading staff. In contrast to preservice training, inservice courses can often be more easily related to the practicalities of the education profession, and several models of inservice training avoid removing staff from the workforce. Inservice practices are not usually without problems, however, many of which may be logistical and financial constraints arising from the decision to cater for trainees in their workplaces rather than in one central location.

This paper highlights some of these issues by reference to the experience of several less developed countries, and in particular by reference to practices in Papua New Guinea. For over a decade, university inservice courses have been organized in Papua New Guinea for school teachers and a variety of educational administrators. These programmes were developed independently of ‘main stream’ thinking on INSET, but analysis of their operation within a more general and contemporary theoretical context sheds useful light on issues of international interest.     

Peripheries and centers: research universities in developing countries

The research university is a central institution of the twenty-first century—providing access to global science, producing basic and applied research, and educating leaders of the academe and society. Worldwide, there are very few research universities—they are expensive to develop and support, and the pressures of massification have placed priorities elsewhere. For developing countries, research universities are especially rare, and yet they are especially important as key ingredients for economic and social progress. This article argues for the importance of research universities in developing and middle-income countries and points out some of the challenges that such institutions face.     

Issues and trends in qualitative research: Potential for developing countries

This article builds upon previous work carried out by the authors in the field of comparative and international education, with special reference to the implications of globalisation and contemporary methodological trends for educational research in developing countries. Distinctions are drawn between methodology and methods in exploring the potential and limitations of qualitative strategies for researchers, policy-makers and development assistance agencies. A review of contemporary trends and developments draws attention to a related volume of new work, the value of case studies of educational practice, the importance of context and the dangers of uncritical international transfer. The article also examines linkages between post-modernism and the interpretivist paradigm, issues of data analysis and validation, and the possible benefits to be gained from practitioner research and evaluation in the process of research capacity building in developing countries.     

Current and recent educational research with and in developing countries by U.K. researchers

This paper examines some of the major areas of educational research in developing countries undertaken by British researchers during the past decade. It does so, on the basis of research themes, rather than of specific research projects, since these highlight both areas of need and of interest amongst British academics. It highlights the loneliness and isolation of many researchers and urges closer collaboration and team work in different facets of educational development.     

Pre-service teachers undertaking classroom research: developing reflection and enquiry skills

This paper reports on the development of reflectiveness and research skills in eight pre-service teachers, through their participation in a funded research project to develop the handwriting of children with literacy problems. The project aimed to analyse the reflections of the trainee teachers participating in an authentic research study and to consider what this reflection on practice might offer to the education of teachers in the current UK training context. The context for the paper was a project which engaged pre-service trainee teachers in researching the proposition that automaticity in handwriting plays a role in facilitating composing processes and that the automaticity of early writers can be trained. Some outcomes of the project for pupils are reported. The focus in the present paper is, however, on the participating trainee teachers and the paper suggests that conducting research was a significant learning event for these pre-service teachers and that, through working together, they were able to analyse their development as researchers and their learning during the research process. At a time when the English government views teacher training as a method of school improvement and the effectiveness of training is measured through its immediate impact on pupil outcomes, this study offers an example of how shared research can offer positive learning outcomes for pupils, develop the reflective thinking of pre-service teachers through researching a real problem, and develop links across a range of school and university settings.     

基于语料库方法的大学英语课堂实践及研究

语料库语言学使语言研究的各个方面发生了变革,使语言学从人文学科逐渐成为实证性的语言科学。它的应用性使外语教学也兴起运用语料库的热潮。本文侧重研究语言在英语教学中的直接应用,即用语料库方法来教,以及教学生如何利用语料库,对象是大学生。在语料库语言学兴起之时,便已公认语料库在教学中的潜在价值。然而,真正把语料库运用到教学实践的人少之又少。本文是实证研究,做了两个为期8周的教学实验,本文实验数据来源于调查问卷、采访、期中期末考试成绩。数据分析结合了定量和定性双重分析。     

Exploring impact of accreditation on higher education in developing countries: a Vietnamese view

This study investigates the viewpoints of higher education managers, staff, lecturers and students on the impacts of accreditation in institutional quality management. These views are explored via a case study approach involving semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders at a leading university in Vietnam. The study’s results suggest that accreditation influences most of the university’s management activities, including programmes, teaching activities, lecturers, supporting staff, learners and facilities. We argue the influence of accreditation contributes significantly to enhancing the university’s quality of teaching, learning, research and management. Recommendations for improvement in the use of accreditation results are proposed.     

Recent educational research on developing countries by German researchers: A survey of the literature

How have recent trends in German educational research applied to developing countries? In order to outline the immediate state of this research in the FRG (1980–1983), the contribution first gives a brief review of its process from the beginning. The first part examines educational research until 1980, and then differentiates three main types of research on educational problems in Third World countries (on the implementation of projects; on the evaluation of education programmes and measures of educational aid; on education systems and the correlation between education and development). Through a survey of the literature published since 1980, the article aims to give an idea of the contemporary topics of this research and furthermore tries to show how German educationists try to come to terms with the failures of educational aid projects, also how they try to construct new and adequate theoretical models.     

Problematical aspects of expatriate educational research with and in developing countries

Discussions of the problems of expatriate educational research with and in developing countries are at the core of this paper. How should a research project be set up? Who should initiate it and finance it? How does it fit into an overall development strategy? These and other questions are analysed sensitively and with understanding. The paper also examines how research questions should be formulated and how the research should be designed. Inevitably there are hidden objectives which do not appear explicit in the early stages. There are yet others which should be made explicit. Problems also arise over collecting and disseminating data, especially when the time comes to publish a report. So often political and other considerations influence the final report. Ultimately, however, the success or failure and the value or otherwise of any research depends on an intricate web of relationships, at the heart of which must be mutual trust.