Accountability and school improvement in the work of LEA inspectors: the rhetoric and beyond

This paper considers the impact of recent legislation on the role and function of local inspectorates/advisory services in relation to their role in monitoring the quality of schools and in fostering school improvement. It examines both the common ground and differences in the approach taken by successive Labour and Conservative governments and explores the nature of the demands now being made on inspectors which are not consistent with the existing preferences and practice of inspectors. The paper analyses some of the tensions between accountability and school improvement in government policy and on the basis of the writer's experience as a Chief Inspector suggests ways in which the two may be combined.     

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     

Examining school inspectors and education directors within the organisation of school inspection policy: perceptions and views

State school inspection creates expectations in the interface between transnational ideas and national policy contexts. This article investigates how inspectors and education directors understand and reformulate their regulatory roles in relation to the new framework for school inspection policy in Norway. Using data from the LEX-EL project, interviews with 3 educational directors and 6 school inspectors in 3 County Governors' Offices were analyzed. The article draws on organizational theory, within the concept of institutionalization. Findings suggest inspectors function as change agents, channeled through inter- and intra-institutional cooperation. Additionally directors are more tightly coupled to their counterparts in other counties. Moreover, the role of school inspectors is moving from a compliancy-based focus to increased emphasis on self-evaluation and quality assessment.     

五年一贯制高职前期教育策略

通过五年一贯制高职教育和三年制高职教育的比较,提出五年一贯制教育的前两年为前期教育阶段,探讨了在这一阶段可以实施的教学和管理策略,以期促进五年一贯制高职教育的发展。     

The place of emotions while inspecting schools: reflections of two Ofsted inspectors

This article investigates the role of emotions of inspectors while inspecting schools as reported by inspectors themselves within an education context of increased accountability that arguably privileges rationality over emotions. The study is built on an emotion management framework that regards emotions not only as unavoidably natural and intimately linked to ‘rational’ judgements that people make, but also that such judgements are social constructions used to regulate expression of emotions. In-depth interview data of one retired and another, semi-retired Office for Standards in Education, inspectors were thematically analysed to assess the extent to which their emotions formed part of school inspections. In the absence of an officially sanctioned narrative of inspectors’ emotions during inspections, two kinds of self-prescribed emotions emerged as key findings: emotions for accountability, to which inspectors gave expression, and emotions for improvement, that they suppressed. For an inspection body that needs to ensure both accountability and improvement of schools to justify its viability, these research claims open up a new area of discussion that should lead to a review of inspection body’s stance on emotions and individual inspectors’ self-reflections on the moral as well as professional obligation to pursue both emotions for accountability and improvement.     

AutoCAD与工厂设计教学改革

计算机辅助设计(AutoCAD)软件与化工类工厂设计教学的完美结合,使得大学的工厂设计教学不再局限于手工绘图的教学模式,绘图环境发生了彻底变化。为了配合工厂设计教学,该文从教学理念、教学模式和教学方法3个方面分析、归纳了采用美国AutoCAD教学软件的优点,为推动化工类工厂设计教学改革提供借鉴方法。     

比较教育在港大：早期的历史

香港大学在比较教育方面的研究及教学已有相当长的历史,本文则专注于介绍它的早期情况。有关在比较教育或至少与其相关领域的研究历史,可追溯到1926年大学教育学会资助出版的第一期《教育杂志》。这一期刊载的文章中,包括了中华民国新的教……     

生化药厂与抗日战争

近年来,学术界在肯定中共军队在抗日战争中的重要地位前提下,同时积极评价国民政府军队的抗战。但是对于基层民众如何对日本侵略同仇敌忾,英勇抵抗事迹,仍有赖于抗战史,甚至社会史、工商业史的进一步研究。本文拟从医药史角度,撷取生化药厂作为个案,研究民众自发的抗日活动,冀图补描部分中国人民的爱国义举。     

Education in early postcolonial India: expansion,experimentation and planned self-help

After independence India’s leaders committed the country to democracy with universal franchise and to pursuing a socialistic pattern of society. As part of these interlocking projects, it was widely recognised that India’s educational systems needed reform. However, with scarce resources, Indian policy-makers faced the dilemma of whether to improve the existing system, which served a narrow, urban elite, or expand it to the entire population, as the Constitution promised they would. This overview of education policy in the first two decades after 1947 finds that, at the centre, Indian planning did not monopolise control over education. Rather, India’s was a socialism of scarcity, which relied on self-help efforts by the people to build the institutions of the welfare state. However, by relying on communities to use their own resources to build local schools, this DIY socialism entrenched existing inequalities.     

“校中厂、厂中校”生产性实训基地建设研究

职业教育具有服务社会与培养职业人双重功能,这决定了"校中厂、厂中校"与社会企业之间有着天然联系,同样的"校中厂"、"厂中校"也不是单纯的教育和教学,它需要能具备企业的一些基本特性与特征,本文重点研究"校中厂、厂中校"如何进行生产性实训基地的建设与成效。     

数字化工厂实验室建设的研究与探索

分析高校实验室长期面临的困扰,介绍了数字化工厂实验室的建设背景与基本内涵,阐述了数字化工厂实验室的优势特点,为改革传统实验室模式、提高实验室建设质量提供了有益探索.     

职业生涯教育重在早培养规划意识

大学生职业生涯教育对大学生就业乃至一生事业的发展至关重要,因此,迫切需要将其贯穿到整个大学学习和生活中。本文从具体实例分析出发,着重阐述了及早培养学生规划意识对职业生涯教育所起的重要作用。     

3Hs Education: Examining hands-on,heads-on and hearts-on early childhood science education

Active engagement has become the focus of many early childhood science education curricula and standards. However, active engagement usually emphasizes getting children engaged with science solely through hands-on activities. Active engagement by way of hands, heads, and hearts are kept separate and rarely discussed in terms of getting all to work together, although inquiry-based education and student interest have been accepted as important in science education. The current study is an inquiry-based research. It aims to describe and examine projects and activity stations for preschoolers in a Turkish preschool classroom bringing together the pieces of the puzzle of science education, called here ‘Hands–Heads–Hearts-on Science Education'. The study, conducted from a qualitative-interpretivist paradigm, reveals that activity stations and projects create a context for hands-on (active engagement), heads-on (inquiry based or mental-engagement), and hearts-on (interest based) science education. It is found that activity stations and projects, when maintained by appropriate teacher-support, create a playful context in which children can be actively and happily engaged in science-related inquiry.     

Education policy and early fertility: Lessons from an expansion of upper secondary schooling

This paper studies the effects of education policy on early fertility. We study a major educational reform in Sweden in which vocational tracks in upper secondary school were prolonged from two to three years and the curricula were made more academic. Our identification strategy takes advantage of cross-regional and cross-time variation in the implementation of a pilot scheme preceding the reform in which several municipalities evaluated the new policy. The empirical analysis draws on rich population micro data. We find that women who enrolled in the new programs were significantly less likely to give birth early in life. There is however, no statistically significant effect on men's fertility decisions. Our results suggest that the social benefits of changes in education policy may extend beyond those usually claimed.