Value‐added is of little value

Published indicators of school ‘performance’, such as those shown annually in league tables in England, have been controversial since their inception. Raw‐score figures for school outcomes are heavily dependent on the prior attainment and family background of the students. Policy‐makers in Wales have reacted to this fundamental flaw by withdrawing the publication of school results. In England, on the other hand, they have reacted by asking for more information to be added to tables, in the form of student context such as the percentage with a special educational need, and ‘value‐added’ figures. In 2004, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) value‐added figures for England were based on student progress from Key Stage 2 at the end of primary education to GCSE at the end of compulsory secondary education. For 2005, at time of writing, the DfES plan to use context information in their model as well. This paper re‐analyses the 2004 value‐added figures and shows that they contain the same flaw as the original raw‐score tables. The purported value‐added scores turn out to be a proxy for the overall level of attainment in the school, and almost entirely independent of any differential progress made by the students. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these findings, if accepted, for policies based on identifying schools that are clearly more or less effective, and for the field of school effectiveness and improvement research.     

What is global education and where is it taking us?

Global education began as a movement to reform education and society in the 1960s and 1970s, through the work of educationalists, NGOs and also intergovernmental organisations. The global approach seeks to break with a curriculum that is grounded in subject knowledge and national culture. Instead, it seeks to explore alternative rationales for education and alternate futures. A second wave of global or international education occurred from the 1990s alongside discussion of globalisation, which brought the movement into mainstream education. One of the characteristics of global/international education is its ambiguity. It seeks to break with the past curriculum, but it is not always clear what will take its place. For some, preparing young people for the global market is foremost, while others aim to facilitate the child's sense of himself or herself as a personal being. What is common to both is a desire to challenge the boundaries that previously gave meaning to education (especially theoretical knowledge and culture) and a search for meaning and opportunity in the projection of power beyond national boundaries. We conclude by questioning whether children are adequately prepared to act as global citizens without an education based on academic knowledge and an ethical framework that is culturally grounded.     

What is a p‐value?

An in‐class activity is described that can be used not only to motivate hypothesis testing, but also to understand and compute the p‐value and power in a statistical test.     

where,where

我们说英语时,一定要遵循英美的习惯。当受到夸奖时,要回答一句“Thankyou.”。如听到夸奖“YourEnglishisverygood.”中国人往往谦虚地说一句“哪里,哪里”。但用英语回答“Where熏Where”却会使人感到莫名其妙甚至闹出笑话。说话某大款偕同夫人赴美经商。某美方客户到机场迎接,客气地对他说了句“Yourwifeispretty.”(你夫人很漂亮。)此大款立即谦虚地说:“Where熏Where”那美国人一听十分惊愕,心想“我只不过客气了一句,他较起真儿来啦。一定要我报出哪儿漂亮!”于是他只好说:“Oh熏eyes熏ears…every-where选”(眼睛、耳朵……哪儿…     

Education research in Australia: where is it conducted?

Research assessment exercises aim to identify research quantity and quality and provide insights into research capacity building strategies for the future. Yet with limited knowledge of the ecology of Australian educational research, there is little chance of understanding what research audits might contribute towards a capacity building agenda for such a complex field. This paper draws on secondary data analysis of research outputs submitted by 13 Australian higher education institutions to the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2010 and 2012 national research assessment exercises, to show where Australian educational research is conducted. Findings offer a profile of education researchers by location in academic organisational units within universities. By analyzing data not accessible through reported ERA data we were also able to present information about appointment profiles, specifically levels and type of appointment within universities, as well as data on institutional and geographic region, and patterns associated with type of outputs (books, book chapters, journal articles, conference papers and other outputs) and field of research. Analysis of the data reveals definitive shifts in the nature of the published outputs and in employment profiles of researchers and their location across university and regional groupings. Research audits are administrative processes that reshape institutional and disciplinary governance structures, policies, individual outputs, work practices and careers, but they are not the sum total of the field per se.     

What is the time?

Read the dialogues and write the times on the clocks.读下面的对话并在表盘上标上相应的时间。     

Who is the Strongest?

Boy Girl(Boy's little sister)Ice Sun Cloud WindHill Mouse Snake Eagle FireTime: Early in the morning on a winter day.Place: A field at the foot of a hill.(Ice,Hill are in place. Boy and Girl come in.)     

What is the target?

Reconciling the differential perspective with the Piagetian perspective is a very difficult task. The Piagetian perspective admits the existence of interindividual differences but interprets them as noise masking the universal logical succession of structures, whereas the differential perspective views development as consisting of "vicarious processes." As a matter of historical fact, the main aim of the "procedural studies" carried out in Geneva was to introduce concrete microgenesis into the macrogenetic Piagetian model.     

He doesn''''t know where his heart is

Five years ago, George, Frank's cousin, left medical college. The young man worked in a hospital now. He had a lot of knowledge of 1 and often operated on the sick people. Of course he was paid much 2 and led a happy life.     

What is Intended,What is Realized,and What is Learned? Teaching and Learning Biology in the Primary School Classroom

Within the framework of variation theory, 7- to 12-year-old students’ ways of understanding cellular respiration and photosynthesis were investigated against the background of their teachers’ teaching. Eighteen students were selected by the teachers and interviewed by the researcher. Lessons were observed and video recorded, and stimulated-recall interviews with the teachers were conducted. The students’ understanding of the function of oxygen and sugar in plants was described in four categories. The study concludes that young students can develop complex understanding if opportunities to learn are presented. The opportunities depended mainly on the language used by the teachers, such as metaphors, pointing out critical aspects of the object of learning. The study has implications for the relationship between teachers’ competence and students’ learning.     

‘It is the research of self experience’: feeling the value in action research

This article tells the story of an attempt to bring about major educational reform of the curriculum and educational values in Kazakhstan, using action research as part of that process. The article begins with a brief and selective review of the literature on aspects of emotion and moves to an account of the context and history of the reforms, before focusing on the ‘self experience’ of the participants and the authors. Emotion, its centrality and the interrelationship of three areas – the nature of teaching and teacher learning, the process of change and the experience of research – are explored in relation to reform and action research. The paper concludes with a reflection on the implications for the use of action research as a strategy for reform.     

Where in the world is Waterloo?

Waterloo, Belgium-To many it is song by ABBA. To Londoners it is a railway station. But to millions with a feeling for history, it was the scene of the battle that broke France's military dominance of Europe, although not many could say just where it is.     

How specific is the shape bias?

Children tend to extend object names on the basis of sameness of shape, rather than size, color, or material-a tendency that has been dubbed the "shape bias." Is the shape bias the result of well-learned associations between words and objects? Or does it exist because of a general belief that shape is a good indicator of object category membership? The present three studies addressed this debate by exploring whether the shape bias is specific to naming. In Study 1, 3-year-olds showed the shape bias both when asked to extend a novel name and when asked to select an object of the same kind as a target object. Study 2 found the same shape bias when children were asked to generalize properties relevant to category membership. Study 3 replicated the findings from Study 1 with 2-year-olds. These findings suggest that the shape bias derives from children's beliefs about object kinds and is not the product of associative learning.