Raising standards 1988 to the present: a new performance policy era?

This article explores the context of the period following the Education Reform Act 1988 in terms of the efforts by successive governments to raise academic standards. These attempts are illustrated by discussion of the impact of the introduction of market forces and parental choice, a centralised National Curriculum and associated assessment regime, the increasing cultures of performativity and surveillance in schools and the resulting commercialisation of education. The article then examines the current Secretary of State for Education, Mr Gove's, plans for the future standards agenda1 ¹Department for Education, The Importance of Teaching: Schools White Paper (Runcorn: Department for Education, 2010). View all notes, speculating that the current trend of raising standards and emphasising standards and performance is nearing the end of its useful life. Finally, drawing on Barker's2 ²Bernard Barker, The Pendulum Swings: Transforming School Reform (Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham, 2010). View all notes advocacy of progressive community schools and the best of the progressive tradition the article suggests a counter argument to the creeping commercialisation and narrow results-based focus on standards in schools since 1988.     

The Why of Learning

Alexander, Schallert, and Reynolds's (2009 Alexander, P. A., Schallert, D. L. and Reynolds, R. E. 2009. What is learning anyway? A topological perspective considered. Educational Psychologist, 44: 176–192. this issue[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]/this issue) what, where, who, and when framework situates different perspectives on learning in different places in this multidimensional space and by doing so helps us to better understand seemingly disparate approaches to learning. The framework is in need of a fifth, why dimension. The why dimension helps to place learning within an evolutionary and cultural perspective and to better understand students' motivation to learn and their preferences for what, where, and how to learn.     

Mapping Visual Culture in Comparative Education Discourse

It would be fascinating to map out the political implications of scopic regimes, but it can't be done too reductively. The perspectivalist regime is not necessarily complicitous only with oppressive political practices. Under certain circumstances it may be emancipatory; it really depends on how it is used. [1] [1] M. Jay (1988) Scopic regimes of modernity, in: H. Foster (Ed.) Vision and Visuality, pp. 3‐28 (Seattle, WA, Bay Press). View all notes

     

Multilevel analysis of student civics knowledge scores

Compositional effects of scholarly culture classroom/school climate on civic knowledge scores of 9th graders in the United States were examined using the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) 1999 Civic Education Study data. Following Evans et al. (2010 Evans, M. D. R., Kelley, J., Sikora, J., &; Treiman, D. J. (2010). Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 28, 171–197.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2014 Evans, M. D. R., Kelley, J., &; Sikora, J. (2014). Scholarly culture and academic performance in 42 nations. Social Forces, 92, 1573–1605.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), we conceived that the number of books at home, referred to as the home literacy score by IEA, can be an index of scholarly culture of the student's home, and its aggregated average constitutes scholarly culture of the classrooms/schools. The results obtained through multilevel analysis indicated that there were indeed large unique compositional effects and its effect size was comparable to that of mean parent education, individual level scholarly culture, and parent education. Implications of the results in terms of educational policy were discussed.     

From Board of Education to Department for Education and Employment

’The rise of a central authority for English education had been a slow, tortuous, makeshift, muddled, unplanned, disjointed and ignoble process.‘ ¹ 1. A.S. Bishop, The Rise of a Central Authority for English Education (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1971), 276. View all notes

     

‘A Glance from God’: Zadie Smith's On Beauty and Zora Neale Hurston1

Zadie Smith's most recent novel, On Beauty (2005 Smith, Z. 2005. On Beauty, London and New York: Penguin.  [Google Scholar]), declares its connection to E. M. Forster's Howards End (1910 Forster, E. M. 1910. Howards End, London: Edward Arnold.  [Google Scholar]) with its first line, while the novel's title comes from Elaine Scarry's On Beauty and Being Just (1999 Scarry, E. 1999. On Beauty and Being Just, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.  [Google Scholar]). At least as important for understanding Smith's central vision are the novel's allusions to Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937 Hurston, Z. N. 1987. Their Eyes Were Watching God, London: Virago Modern Classics.  [Google Scholar]) and Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938 Hurston, Z. N. 1990. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica, New York: Perennial Library.  [Google Scholar]).     

Do We Fear Ageing? A Multidimensional Approach to Ageing Anxiety

Ageing anxiety is the expression of peoples' fear of ageing (Lynch, 2000 Lynch, S. M. (2000). Measurement and prediction of aging anxiety. Research on Aging, 22(5), 533.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Despite greater longevity in the population, there is a lack of research into this aspect of life (Lasher &; Faulkender, 1993 Lasher, K. P., &; Faulkender, P. J. (1993). Measurement of aging anxiety: Development of the Anxiety about Aging Scale. The International Journal of Aging &; Human Development, 37(4), 247–259.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This research explored fears of ageing across four dimensions: Fear of Old People, Physical Appearance, Psychological Concerns, and Fear of Losses. Three hundred and forty eight participants aged 18–88 participated in an online survey. Findings were: (a) men and women have different fears of ageing; (b) greater quality contact is related to less ageing anxiety; (c) poor health is related to greater ageing anxiety, (d) ageism, defined by Nelson (2005 Nelson, T. D. (2005). Ageism: Prejudice against our feared future self. Journal of Social Issues, 61(2), 207–221.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) as prejudice toward ageing is positively correlated with ageing anxiety. The implications of these findings are that better quality contact and more positive attitudes toward ageing are associated with less ageing anxiety. As such, possible key target areas in developing appropriate interventions are provided, with hope to prepare adults of all ages for the inevitable—life is a terminal illness, so enjoy while you can.     

School‐based Teacher Training. Can it work?

The article briefly reports on a school‐based training group, citing it as illustration of a development shared by other schools which have evolved partnerships with higher education. It suggests that good mentoring practice has existed in previous years and that there is a pool of expertise in schools, which can be tapped for the benefit of teacher training in the new courses. (Implementation of Circular 9/92). ¹ Nichloas Pyke, Inspectors cast doubt on in‐school training. TES 10.3.95 article on forthcoming report by HM Inspectorate on the School Central Intial Teacher Training Scheme. (SCITT) View all notes

     

In Defense of Chi's Ontological Incompatibility Hypothesis

This article responds to an article by A. Gupta, D. Hammer, and E. F. Redish (2010 Gupta, A., Hammer, D. and Redish, E. F. 2010. The case for dynamic models of learners' ontologies in physics. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19: 285–321. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) that asserts that M. T. H. Chi's (1992 Chi, M. T. H. 1992. “Conceptual change within and across ontological categories: Examples from learning and discovery in science”. In Cognitive models of science: Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science, Edited by: Giere, R. 129–186. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar], 2005 Chi, M. T. H. 2005. Common sense conceptions of emergent processes: Why some misconceptions are robust. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 14: 161–199. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) hypothesis of an “ontological commitment” in conceptual development is fundamentally flawed. In this article, I argue that Chi's theoretical perspective is still very much intact and that the critique offered by Gupta et al. is itself based on a flawed interpretation of Chi's theory. The purpose of this article is to address that misconception of Chi's work and to clarify her overall theoretical perspective. I begin by reviewing Chi's theory of ontological commitments, making an important comment about her position on the nature of expert conceptualizations. I review the methodological approaches used by J. D. Slotta and M. T. H. Chi (2006 Slotta, J. D. and Chi, M. T. H. 2006. The impact of ontology training on conceptual change: Helping students understand the challenging topics in science. Cognition and Instruction, 24: 261–289. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to measure ontological commitments and comment on the instructional implications of Chi's theory. I then address the misconception held by Gupta et al. about Chi's work and call for more empirical research to tease apart the differences between Chi's view of “parallel ontologies” and Gupta et al.'s view of “flexible ontologies.”     

Talking (fe)male: examining the gendered discourses of preservice teachers

Through the use of feminist poststructural discourse analysis (Baxter 2003 Baxter, J. 2003. Positioning Gender in Discourse: A Feminist Methodology. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), the author examines the gendered discourses created and reified by a group of preservice secondary social studies teachers (n?=?25). Because gender is socially constructed, it is important for future teachers to examine their own gendered identities in order for them to be able to see how they contribute to the greater society. Findings reveal discourses of ‘having it all', ‘being a superwoman', ‘female struggle', and ‘gender not playing a key role in culture’ being advanced by both male and female identified individuals. Intersections of race and social class with gender added to the complexity of the different discourses. Implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Freeing the Mind of the Oppressed

This article examines the evidence that supports and rebuts the claims of school resegregation. By examining both types of evidence and considering them complementary (James 1986 James, F. 1986. A new generalized “exposure-based” segregation index: Demonstration in Denver and Houston. Sociological Methods and Research, 14(3): 301–16. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Kelly and Miller 1989 Kelly, P. and Miller, W. 1989. Assessing desegregation efforts: No “best measure.”. Public Administration Review, 49(5): 431–37. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the author gives the reader a deeper understanding of the current trends in school segregation. First, the literature on the topic of school segregation is discussed. Then follows a discussion of the methods used in the study and the findings. The conclusion includes implications of the findings.     

The barriers to achievement for White/Black Caribbean pupils in English schools

Pupils of White and Black Caribbean descent make up the largest category of mixed heritage pupils in the United Kingdom. As a group they are at risk of underachieving and are proportionally over‐represented in school exclusions. Yet little is known to date about the barriers to their achievement. The common‐sense explanation for their underachievement is often in relation to the perception that mixed‐heritage people are more likely to have ‘identity problems’ and low self‐esteem because of their mixed backgrounds. In some cases, this view is further compounded by low teacher expectations associated with the socio‐economic background and household structure of some mixed heritage pupils. By drawing on qualitative data from recent research, ¹ 1. See Tikly et al. (2004 Tikly, L., Caballero, C., Haynes, J. and Hill, J. 2004. Understanding the educational needs of mixed heritage pupils, London: DfES.  [Google Scholar]). View all notes this article will explore the barriers to achievement faced by White/Black Caribbean pupils in English schools. We argue that although White/Black Caribbean pupils are likely to experience a similar set of barriers to achievement as Black Caribbean pupils, there are important distinctions to be made. The specific barriers to achievement identified for White/Black Caribbean pupils derive from socio‐economic disadvantage, low teacher expectation linked to misunderstandings of mixed heritage identities and backgrounds, and the behavioural issues and attitudes towards achievement linked to peer group pressures.     

Principles and Practice of Scaled Difference Chi-Square Testing

We highlight critical conceptual and statistical issues and how to resolve them in conducting Satorra–Bentler (SB) scaled difference chi-square tests. Concerning the original (Satorra & Bentler, 2001 Satorra, A. and Bentler, P. M. 2001. A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis. Psychometrika, 66: 507–514. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and new (Satorra & Bentler, 2010 Satorra, A. and Bentler, P. M. 2010. Ensuring positiveness of the scaled chi-square test statistic. Psychometrika, 75: 243–248. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) scaled difference tests, a fundamental difference exists in how to compute properly a model's scaling correction factor (c), depending on the particular structural equation modeling software used. Because of how LISREL 8 defines the SB scaled chi-square, LISREL users should compute c for each model by dividing the model's normal theory weighted least-squares (NTWLS) chi-square by its SB chi-square, to recover c accurately with both tests. EQS and Mplus users, in contrast, should divide the model's maximum likelihood (ML) chi-square by its SB chi-square to recover c. Because ML estimation does not minimize the NTWLS chi-square, however, it can produce a negative difference in nested NTWLS chi-square values. Thus, we recommend the standard practice of testing the scaled difference in ML chi-square values for models M ₁ and M ₀ (after properly recovering c for each model), to avoid an inadmissible test numerator. We illustrate the difference in computations across software programs for the original and new scaled tests and provide LISREL, EQS, and Mplus syntax in both single- and multiple-group form for specifying the model M ₁₀ that is involved in the new test.     

Student Perceptions of Autonomy-Supportive Instructional Interactions in the Middle Grades

Autonomy support in classrooms is believed to coordinate students' inner motivational resources in ways that enhance student engagement (e.g., Jang, Kim, &; Reeve, 2012 Jang, H., Kim, E. J., &; Reeve, J. (2012). Longitudinal test of self-determination theory's motivation mediation model in a naturally occurring classroom context. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 1175–1188. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028089[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Yet, to our knowledge, no study has investigated student-generated interpretations of the motivational significance of their teachers' autonomy-supportive practices. Interpretations gathered from students' responses to video clips of their own teacher were studied with a diverse sample of students (N = 59, 50.8% male, 64.4% African American) in six urban classrooms from fourth- to eighth-grade class sections. Through this method of cued video response, we explore whether or not students experience the significance of autonomy-supportive instructional events or interactions as motivational theory predicts. Our results suggest that consideration of the social and relational features of the classrooms within which teachers enact autonomy support may identify influential contextual factors relevant to how and why autonomy support is linked to positive outcomes.     

A Technology Integration Education (TIE) Model for Millennial Preservice Teachers: Exploring the Canonical Correlation Relationships Among Attitudes,Subjective Norms,Perceived Behavioral Controls,Motivation, and Technological,Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) Competencies

Intellectual goods can follow the same pattern as physical goods with the product life cycle of birth, growth, maturity, and decline. For the intellectual good of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK), its birth began with Shulman (1986 Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4–14.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1987 Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–22.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was used to test the relationships among five of the 12 constructs in the technology integration education (TIE) model developed by Holland and Piper (2014 Holland, D. D., &; Piper, R. T. (2014). Technology integration education (TIE) model: Millennial preservice teachers' motivations about technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) competencies. Journal of Education Computing Research, 51(3), 257–294.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Based on the patterns of cross-loading correlations, this study found that there were limited correlational relationships between the set of independent variables and the set of dependent TPACK variables. For this pilot study, the sample consisted of 90 elementary education majors and 51 secondary education majors.     

Assessing Preservice Leaders' Beliefs,Attitudes, and Values Regarding Issues of Diversity,Social Justice,and Equity: A Review of Existing Measures

While convincing research suggests that beliefs are the best predictors of individual behavior and that educators' beliefs influence their perceptions, judgments, and practices, research also states that beliefs are hardy and highly resistant to change (Bandura, 1986 Bandura, A. 1986. Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.  [Google Scholar]; Dewey, 1933 Dewey, J. 1933. How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process, Boston: D.C. Heath. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Pajares, 1992 Pajares, F. 1992. Teachers' beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3): 307–332. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Rokeach, 1968 Rokeach, M. 1968. Beliefs, attitudes, and values: A theory of organization and change, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  [Google Scholar]). Understanding the nature of beliefs, attitudes, and values is essential to understanding future administrators' choices, decisions, and effectiveness regarding issues of diversity, social justice, and equity. This article provides a review of quantitative measures, instruments, inventories, and studies that assess educators' personal and professional beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, and preconceptions. The literature review briefly describes related studies and the discussion section highlights in detail the design, piloting, and results of two fairly recent measures that broadly define diversity, that report validity and reliability data, and that are relatively easy to administer and score.     

Defining Personal Epistemology: A Response to Hofer & Pintrich (1997) and Sandoval (2005)

Some researchers, including B. K. Hofer and P. R. Pintrich (1997) Hofer, B. K. and Pintrich, P. R. 1997. The development of epistemological theories: Beliefs about knowledge and knowing and their relation to learning.. Review of Educational Research, 67(1): 88–140. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] and W. A. Sandoval (2005) Sandoval, W. A. 2005. Understanding students' practical epistemologies and their influence on learning through inquiry.. Science Education, 89: 634–656. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], argue for defining personal epistemology as views about the nature of knowledge and knowing but not views about the nature of learning. Others continue using a more expansive definition of personal epistemology that includes views about learning. I argue that the scope of personal epistemology should not be decided entirely a priori. If people's views about the nature of knowing and knowledge turn out to be separable from (despite being intertwined with) their views about the nature of learning, then it makes sense to define 2 separate areas of study corresponding to those 2 separable sets of psychological constructs. From some theoretical perspectives, however, empirical results may support the interpretation that views about knowledge are inseparably entangled with views about learning. In that case, excluding views about learning from personal epistemology obscures rather than elucidates the content and cognitive structure of students' views. To be clear, I do not think the community should decide, now, to etch “views about the nature of learning” into the definition of personal epistemology. I argue instead that it is more productive not to converge on a definition until further empirical and theoretical progress points us toward the best way to “cut up [nature] … along its natural joints” (Plato, 1995 Plato. 1995. Phaedrus, Edited by: Nehamas, A. and Woodruff, P. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.  [Google Scholar], p. 64).     

The positioning of adult learners: appropriating learner experience on the continuum of empowerment to emancipation

This article offers a critical analysis of discourses and power structures and the ways they operate in two instructors’ adult education and ESOL classrooms. The instructors defined learner experience in specific ways and subsequently used those definitions and drew on their learners’ experiences to define their curricula and pedagogy. They conceptualized learner experiences in ways that potentially empowered or emancipated learners from existing power structures. The data presented are part of a two‐year study of different lifelong learning and adult education contexts in the north‐eastern and mid‐western USA. Data sources included survey, interview, artifact collection, and observation methods. Data analysis was guided by a sociocultural theory of literacy development (The New London Group 1996 New London Group. 1996. A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66: 60–92. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Gee 1996 Gee, J. 1996. Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in discourses , (2nd edn), London: Falmer.  [Google Scholar], 2003 Gee, J. 2003. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, New York: Macmillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Barton and Hamilton 1998 Barton, D. and Hamilton, M. 1998. Local Literacies: Reading and writing in one community, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Holland et al.'s (1998 Holland, D., Lachicotte, W. Jr., Skinner, D. and Cain, C. 1998. Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  [Google Scholar]) theories of figured worlds and identity development, Bakhtin’s (1963 Bakhtin, M. M. 1963. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, Edited by: Emerson, C. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. 1994 [Google Scholar], 1975 Bakhtin, M. M. 1975. The Dialogic Imagination, Edited by: Emerson, C. and Holquist, M. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1998 [Google Scholar], 1979 Bakhtin, M. M. 1979. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, Edited by: Mcgee, V. W. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1994 [Google Scholar], 1986 Bakhtin, M. M. 1986. Toward a Philosophy of the Act, Edited by: Liapunov, V. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1993 [Google Scholar]) theory of dialogism, and Foucault’s (1963 Foucault, M. 1963. The Birth of the Clinic: An archaeology of medical perception, Edited by: Sheridan‐Smith, A. New York: Vintage. 1975[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1980 Foucault, M. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews & other writings, 1972–1977, Edited by: Gordon, C., Marshall, L., Mepham, J. and Soper, K. New York: Pantheon. 1980 [Google Scholar]) conceptualization of power. One instructor offered her learners a chance to empower themselves, that is, to find gratification by learning to appropriate mainstream ways of acting, thinking, believing, and using text. The discourse that promotes such instructional efforts is predominant in lifelong learning and adult education. In this discourse, referred to at the outset as one of coherence, learner experience, as a resource for language and literacy development, is essentialized as dispositional, meaning that correct or proper attitudes and beliefs are necessary for empowerment. The other instructor practised a reverse discourse, or what Gee (1996 Gee, J. 1996. Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in discourses , (2nd edn), London: Falmer.  [Google Scholar]) referred to as a liberatory literacy. She positioned learners to critique the Discourses they encountered, including those they participated in, as movement toward emancipation, toward communicative competence or a critical stance in the world. In effect, learners reversed the panoptic framework and turned the gaze back upon existing power structures. In this case, learner experience was valued for the experiential positioning it offered learners.     

A Perspective on Individual Growth and Classroom Management

I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de‐escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized. ¹ 1. Ginott, Haim. Teacher and Child. New York: MacMillan, 1972. View all notes