Rethinking assessment: managing behaviour and reducing disaffection

Disaffection and behaviour problems continue to be a cause of concern in many schools. Although many schemes and initiatives have attempted to address these issues, few have proved completely successful. It is suggested that in the light of the current phase of educational reforms, with its emphasis on raising standards and target setting, the role of increased assessment in the generation of these problems may have been overlooked. The experiences of a number of schools in exploring a different approach to pupil assessment emphasising the development of a number of generic ‘life skills’ are explored and the effects on these two issues discussed.     

Making it real: The benefits of workplace learning in upper-secondary vocational education and training courses

In OECD countries, ‘real world’ upper-secondary vocational education and training (VET) programs are used to engage less academically oriented youth in learning, while helping to prepare them for post-school work and/or further education. In general terms, VET programs with high employer involvement, such as apprenticeship schemes, are considered to be superior to classroom-based VET programs that are typically found in many English-speaking countries. In this study, we examine outcomes from a potential ‘third way’: classroom-based VET with a short-term structured workplace learning component. Using propensity score matching and PISA data linked to information from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth, we find this model is associated with higher school completion rates and better employment transitions.     

A distributed model for managing academic staff in an international online academic programme

Online delivery of programmes of Higher Education typically involves a distributed community of students interacting with a single university site, at which the teachers, learning resources and administration of the programme are located. The alternative model, of a fully “Virtual University”, which assumes no physical campus, poses problems of resource provision, recognition, and accreditation. We describe here an intermediate solution, based on an established on-ground university, but in which both students and teachers are distributed worldwide. We discuss the issues of management, communication, and quality assurance that are faced in implementing this fully distributed model. We describe the solutions we have applied in a wholly online programme of Higher Education which is delivered to over 2,000 graduate students in more than 100 countries by a worldwide pool of instructors.     

现代中餐厨房管理模式探讨

现代中餐厨房管理模式应是既具有现代国际酒店餐饮一体化管理手段，又具有中国厨房生产特色的--全程数字化管理模式。等级部门化运作管理与全程微象信息控制的督导管理是结合的最优化方式。     

Creativity: An essential component for effective leadership in today's schools

One of the most contentious areas in creativity theory is the question of domain specificity. How we conceptualize creativity — as something that transcends content domains, or as something that varies depending on the domain in question — has important implications for both creativity research and creativity training programs. The Amusement Park Theoretical (APT) model of creativity is the first creativity theory to successfully bridge the gap between these contrasting views of creativity. The APT model uses the metaphor of an amusement park to explore creativity. There are four stages: Initial requirements, general thematic areas, domains, and micro‐domains. The first level (initial requirements) is very general, and each subsequent level gets more and more domain‐specific. The APT model can provide a powerful framework for creativity assessment, selection of students for gifted education programs, and the development of creativity training programs.     

An economic model of workplace mobbing in academe

Workplace bullying or mobbing can be defined as the infliction of various forms of abuse (e.g., verbal, emotional, psychological) against a colleague or subordinate by one or more other members of a workplace. Even in the presence of academic tenure, workplace mobbing remains a prevalent issue in academe. This study develops an economic model that employs a Stackelberg differential game in order to analyze the interaction between a university administrator (or administrators) and a professor who is being “mobbed” by university administration, perhaps for political reasons related to the professor's use of academic freedom and/or tenure to publicly criticize the actions of university officials. One of the model's implications is that it is optimal for the professor to increase his or her research in order to increase job mobility when subjected to downward mobbing, and that the university administration may succeed in pushing out the tenured professor if the administration's mobbing actions are greater than a combination of professor's optimal salary and threshold quitting rate. In the long run, however, the institution and the administrator may lose if the professor leaves and his replacements do not keep up the research productivity.     

一种适用于实验室开放的综合管理系统

实验室开放是高校充分利用教学资源,着力培养学生实践能力及服务于社会的有效途径,已成为人们的共识。但实验室开放管理复杂、操作麻烦、工作量大,成为推进实验室开放的难点。因此,利用计算机与网络进行实验室开放管理势在必行。该文提出了一种基于校园网预约选课、门禁及设备管理于一体的开放实验室综合管理系统。     

The hospice: an educational-service model providing counseling opportunities and indirect benefits for older widows

The article focuses on the large and increasing number of older widows who are available for human service work within the hospice movement caring for the dying and the bereaved. The need for preparation for widowhood is cited as one major reason why widows should assist potential widows to prepare more adequately for this eventuality. Widows are portrayed as effective lay counselors in hospice because they have experienced the reality of death and possess an empathetic readiness for work in this human service field. The hospice training program for widows is appealing because it presents learning experiences that are satisfying for the older learner. Numerous therapeutic and educational benefits are available to the older widows who participate in hospice work and training. Widows, therefore, become both the beneficiaries and the benefactors of their service efforts.     

A mobile informal learning solution for workplace learners

This paper reports on the development of the “MobLearn@Work” App, which emerged from a study of informal learning among five employees at different companies in China. The purpose of the study was to develop a strategy for the design of mobile learning support tools that would enhance informal learning in the workplace. The App was developed by creating a platform to support informal learning through the integration of two sets of issues that emerged in the study: (a) affordances of contemporary Web 2.0 tools identified from the literature and by exploration of the participants’ mobile technology uses, and (b) informal learning activities of the participants that emerged in the context of their work. Consideration of these issues led to the conclusion that an effective App for informal learning should include functionalities such as really simple syndication, podcasting, Web-searching and microblogging, all of which were integrated into the “MobLearn@Work” App. The implementation of the App in these five cases over a six-month period yielded a further set of design recommendations, which are discussed in the paper.     

Supporting behaviour support: developing a model for leading and managing a unit for teenagers excluded from mainstream school

In the UK, mainstream schools can decide to exclude students because of their behaviour. Students are then placed in pupil referral units (PRUs, sometimes known as short-stay schools) until their needs can be more thoroughly assessed so that they can then be placed appropriately. This article outlines the development of one particular approach to leading and managing a PRU for students aged 11–14. Beginning with the idea that staff and students all have a range of needs to be met, the approach draws on psychoanalytic ideas of containment, holding and attachment, as well as recent neuro-developmental research, to demonstrate how students' needs can be best met through meeting the professional needs of staff. A range of interventions and areas of practice are then described to illustrate how containment, management and support are operationalised in day-to-day practice. Specific areas of impact of these interventions for students and their families are then highlighted.     

The learning credit card: A tool for managing personal development*

This is the report of a five month study, undertaken by Sundridge Park Training Technologies in association with Guildford Educational Services to assess the potential of smart card technology to support learning and the management of learning. The study had two strands—the state of the art of the technology and its potential for supporting, delivering and managing learning. In addition to a study of the literature and extensive discussions with people using smart cards, potential users of smart card and visionaries, the project team developed two illustrative systems using cards to store personal data relating to education and training. The term ‘smart card’ is often used loosely to describe three different types of card, each of which is similar in general shape and size to a traditional credit card. These are: memory cards, laser cards—and true smart cards incorporating a processor and memory. This study has been concerned with memory cards and smart cards. The focus for smart card applications has been predominantly financial: there are relatively few applications in education or training. A notable exception is the large scale project at the University of Bologna which uses smart cards to manage the progress and achievements of a large number of students in the Department of Electronics. The two illustrative systems provided valuable experience of using memory cards and smart cards in quasi‐real education and training applications. They highlighted the problems of limited memory capacities and confirmed the high level of user acceptance reported by other trials. We can expect considerable advances in the technology of both memory cards and smart cards over the next months and years. The memory capacities of both types of cards will increase many‐fold and the unit costs will fall as large quantities of cards are produced for financial applications. Education and training applications will benefit from this expanding market. The major surprise from the study was the level of interest in the work and the enthusiasm expressed by almost all of those who came to hear of it. The general level of awareness of smart card technology was found to be low. However, the requirement for a system which will enable individuals to manage and own their learning on an extended timescale was generally recognised. Some of the possible applications for smart cards and memory cards in education and training had emerged before the official start of the study and it is clear that the technology is potentially pervasive. The project team and those consulted identified a wide range of possible applications both in education and in training. These focussed on assessment, personal course planning and management, identification of relevant learning opportunities, and the ownership of learning. It was felt that, over the next few years, smart cards are very likely to be in common use as credit cards for financial applications. Therefore, their use for education and training should be planned now. The recommendations from the study are that: More detailed studies are needed to find out how smart cards and memory cards could be used by different organisations in a fully operational system; Standards should be established for smart card applications in education and training, similar to those governing financial applications; Applications should be developed after the standards have been established. To be convincing, these should take a case study approach with small pilot studies in a variety of contexts and must follow real needs rather than attempt to drive them; The case studies would then form the basis for a campaign to increase awareness of smart cards and their potential for education and training, together with a programme for building an infrastructure to support the proposed systems. The public sector should fund the task of developing standards and providing interfaces with existing educational systems and projects to demonstrate the feasibility of various applications. Since educational standards have a European dimension, the European Community may be a source of support for work in the area of standards. At the same time, private sector funding should be sought for skill development and career development systems in industry and in education. The Training Agency itself should consider the application of smart card technology to the control and management of the Youth Training Scheme (YTS).     

The ADHD Classroom Kit: A whole-classroom approach for managing disruptive behavior

In this article, an inclusive treatment package for children with ADHD, The ADHD Classroom Kit (Kit), is described. Components of the Kit are categorized in three areas: consequences for appropriate behavior, consequences for inappropriate behavior, and peer-mediated interventions. The empirical rationale for each component of the Kit is discussed. Also, a case study of a 6-year-old girl (Carol) with reported disruptive behavior problems is presented as preliminary data supporting the Kit's effectiveness. An A-B-A reversal design was used in Carol's classroom. Mean frequencies of appropriate behavior were 61.3% (baseline), 78.5% (Kit), and 70.7% (reversal). In addition, mean frequencies of on-task behavior were 76.2% (baseline), 87.8% (Kit), and 82.5% (reversal). Implications for future research and practice with the Kit are addressed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Rethinking Graduation and Time to Degree: A Fresh Perspective

Graduation and time to degree are paramount concerns in higher education today and have caught the attention of policy makers, educators and researchers in recent years. However, our understanding is limited regarding the factors related to graduation and time to degree beyond students’ pre-college characteristics (demographics and academic preparation), especially how student decision and performance in college affect their graduation. This study employs longitudinal data and applies event history analysis to track 12,096 first-time freshmen in a large public university from 2002 to 2014. Students’ academic progress is conceptualized into eight time-dependent variables whose values change over time, including major status (major change, double majors/minors and major declaration), enrollment intensity (enrolled term units and extra enrollment), and academic performance (term GPA, cumulative units and cumulative GPA). Discrete-time hazard models were used to answer the following question: beyond pre-college characteristics, what aspects of students’ decisions on majors and enrollment and their performance affect graduation and time to degree? The findings reveal that academic performance is the most important factor, followed by students’ decisions on majors (such as having double majors/minors). Pre-college characteristics only accounted for a very small proportion of the total variance after students’ performance and decisions are controlled. The study goes further in investigating how the effects of these factors change over time by enrolled terms.     

Writing for learning in secondary science: Rethinking practices

There is now considerable debate over the kinds of writing tasks that will enable secondary students to learn about science and to demonstrate scientific understanding. Advocates of modernist and postmodernist perspectives propose different genres as necessary to achieve very contrasting agendas. This paper presents an overview and analysis of the claims and counterclaims of these competing positions. Drawing on this overview and research on writing for learning including the authors' classroom-based research, a model is proposed to guide writing for learning in junior secondary science.