Does students' machismo fit in school? Clarifying the implications of traditional gender role ideology for school belonging

How much students feel at home in school predicts academic outcomes. In view of the gender achievement gap, it is worth examining the gendered pattern of this school belonging. Studies on school belonging, however, have barely acknowledged possible obstructive effects of traditional gender role attitudes of individual students and student cultures. This study examines the relationship between gender role attitudes and a sense of school belonging among a sample of 6380 students from 59 Flemish schools at the start of their secondary education. The results of multilevel analyses indicate that boys show less sense of school belonging than girls, as do students with more traditional beliefs about gender roles. Moreover, student attitudes related to gender roles are strongly shared at the school level, so that we can speak of a gender role student culture. Students enrolled in more traditional gender role student cultures reveal less school belonging.     

How different are students of school psychology and clinical psychology?

Based on many years of training students in both school and clinical psychology, the authors have formulated some impressions of differences and similarities found in these trainees. While generalizations remain tentative and call for research, the students in each of these disciplines seem to present different patterns in cognitive styles, perceptions of clients, conceptions of professional role, and personality characteristics. In personality, the students in these fields often display differences in need for structure, need for external support, social maturity, and desire for autonomous professional functioning. Differences seem to be related to variations in previous work and educational experiences, and to differences in age, sex and marital status. Implications for quality of service offered and training needs are outlined.     

How do primary school teachers develop knowledge by crossing boundaries in the school–university partnership? A case study in China

University experts typically serve as knowledge sources for teacher learning. Experts in China are no exception. Nevertheless, minimal attention has been focused on knowledge flow between experts and teachers, and its contribution to teacher knowledge development. Drawing on the perspective of knowledge process across boundaries, this qualitative study investigates knowledge growth of primary school teachers involved in a small-scale school–university partnership in Northern China. In-depth interview was adapted as the main approach to collecting data. Nine participating teachers, two school administrators, and one university expert were interviewed. Findings show that expert-led knowledge transfer (knowledge-for-practice is directly delivered) and teacher-involved knowledge translation (knowledge-in-practice is reframed and situated) are the main focus of the partnership studied. However, collaboration-oriented knowledge transformation (altering existing knowledge and creating knowledge-of-practice) is insufficiently emphasised. Furthermore, this study discusses significant implications for advancing the transformation of knowledge and expert–teacher collaborative knowledge creation as well as for further study.     

How closely related are the national curriculum and the global dimension? A content analysis of the global dimension in elementary school textbooks in Taiwan

Over the past few decades, researchers, educators, and policymakers have become increasingly concerned about preparing future generations for life in the rapidly changing global society; thus, interest in the global dimension of school curricula has been growing. However, as tension often exists between this global dimension and national education, infusing the former into the latter is not an easy task. Although some countries claim their national curriculum has a global dimension, and many global educators emphasize the relevance of global education in all curriculum areas, little empirical evidence supports such claims. To bridge this gap, the extent to which school textbooks reflect a global dimension must be explored. Therefore, this study conducted a content analysis of 84 elementary school textbooks in Taiwan to examine the scope of their global dimension. We found that around 10 % of the textbooks’ content was related to the global dimension, the majority of which was in the learning areas of social studies and integrative activities. The most evident global education concepts were ecological sustainability and world peace, whereas human rights and social justice were underrepresented. The ideal of linking the global dimension with all aspects of education and all curriculum areas remains a challenge. We provide suggestions for teachers, educational authorities, and textbook publishers and authors regarding revisions to current textbooks to enhance the global dimension.     

How many words are enough? Investigating the effect of different configurations of a software scaffold for formulating scientific hypotheses in inquiry-oriented contexts

Instructional Science - We extended research on scaffolds for formulating scientific hypotheses, namely the Hypothesis Scratchpad (HS), in the domain of relative density. The sample comprised of...     

Does it matter who your schoolmates are? An investigation of the association between school composition,school processes and mathematics achievement in the early years of primary education

Although many studies have focused on the importance of school composition for student achievement, there is still no consensus on whether school composition matters to student achievement, and, if so, why. Therefore, the present study investigates the association between school composition and mathematics achievement at the end of second grade in Flanders. International research points to the initial ability level, SES, ethnicity and sex composition of the school as potential variables in explaining differences in student achievement. Moreover, some researchers suggest that schools ‘react’ to their student body and for that reason we investigated the possible association between school composition and school processes. Data from the SiBO Project have been analyzed using multilevel regression and multilevel mediation analysis. The results showed no direct school composition effects with respect to prior achievement, SES, ethnicity and sex on math achievement. We found two small differential effects, indicating that mean school prior achievement seems to positively affect initially high achievers, and the proportion of minority students in school seems to negatively affect students speaking a non‐European language except for Turkish, Arabic or Berber at home. Furthermore, two small indirect effects were found which suggest that schools with a high mean prior achievement or a high mean SES keep in regular contact with their students' parents and this, in turn, appears to enhance students' math achievement. Overall, our results seem to indicate that school composition in the early years of primary education hardly matters.     

Practice performing the game is used in the English teaching of primary school

English situation teaching Of Primary school, according to psycho-logical characteristic of students, through opening various informativesituation, offer as many as possible chances to carry on the exercises inEnglish to students, such as conversation, th…     

Humanities in the primary school – philosophical considerations

ABSTRACT

Drawing on a range of philosophical traditions, this article argues that the humanities are essential aspects of the development of the whole child. The humanities help children to understand themselves and other people in relation to place, time, belief, identity and culture and to become empathetic, thoughtful and critical citizens. Learning the content, language, concepts, skills and ways of working associated with separate disciplines is important, as is exploration of key ideas related to human experience and culture, including controversial ones. Defining the humanities in the primary years by the types of knowledge, qualities and values involved may be more appropriate than by subject. These can be learned, and reinforced, in all subject areas, with some offering particularly fertile opportunities, and through cross-curricular approaches. An emphasis on factual knowledge is too limiting, with active, first-hand experience helping to engage and include children. To teach and demonstrate appropriate ways of working and thinking, teachers require pedagogical content knowledge and enthusiasm as well as subject knowledge.     

From policy to practice?: the reality of play in primary school classes in Northern Ireland

As more countries align their curricular frameworks with play-based and experiential pedagogies, this paper provides a critical insight into the benefits and challenges that arise in practice when a play-based approach to learning and teaching becomes a political directive in Northern Ireland primary schools. Drawing on socio-constructivist and post-structural thinking, the messages from Foundation Stage teachers and the learning experiences provided are unravelled through the researchers' interpretive lens, exposing for critique two key discourses about the relationship between play as policy and practice – namely play as learning and play as pedagogy. Although this study may have raised more questions than answers about the debate, the authors conclude, in so doing, it has facilitated an original troubling of the established discourse and added to the knowledge base about the politicisation of play as practice in the early years of primary schooling.     

Strengthening ‘the foundations’ of the primary school curriculum

The low status of the foundation subjects (e.g. Music and Physical Education (PE)) in English primary schools is well documented. Using PE as an illustrative example, a thematic analysis of 51 PE trainee students’ assignments, based on their perceptions of a two-week experience in a primary school, highlighted a number of areas of concern (e.g. limited/inadequate preparation; insufficient teacher knowledge/confidence; variable/limited subject leadership and non-qualified teachers delivering the curriculum). The possibility of teachers, coaches and other external specialists learning collaboratively with and from each other within a community of practice/learning is proposed as one way of strengthening the foundation subjects within the primary school curriculum.     

How to make the neighbourhood school a school for all?

A new special education strategy was launched in Finland by the Ministry of Education in 2007. The new Basic Act was enacted in 2010 and the new national core curriculum concerning three‐tiered support for pupils in 2011. Since the 1990s, teachers across Finland have participated in developing Finnish basic education towards greater inclusion. The goal of this study was to enhance understanding of the implementation of the Finnish educational reforms. In this study, teachers' perceptions of good inclusive teaching arrangements were analysed and compared with the theories of inclusive education. There is still a lack of information available on the implementation of inclusive education practices, and especially about teachers' experiences of teaching in inclusive classrooms. In 2010, basic education teachers (N = 327) in Lapland, Finland, were asked to describe their experiences and perceptions of inclusive teaching arrangements. The results indicated that teaching practices have become more diverse, flexible and differentiated, enabling teaching of diverse groups. More and more teachers preferred teaching in teams and planning their work together, showing that changes in schools change the teacher's profession too. In this study, a framework for inclusive schools was constructed through implementing the indexes of inclusion created by Booth and Ainscow.     

How Fair are Student Ratings in Assessing the Teaching Performance of University Teachers?

This paper examines the effects of course characteristics on student ratings of university teaching. The multivariate effects of various course characteristics on student ratings of university teachers were examined by a 5×4×3×2×2 multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with academic discipline, class size, level of course, type of course, and mode of study as independent variables and a set of six composite student ratings as the dependent variable. Data were obtained from a university in Hong Kong and consisted of 4996 course average ratings collected from 25 departments over two academic years. Significant differences were found in course average student ratings across academic disciplines, class size groups, course levels, types of course, and modes of study. The effect sizes of the largest differences between sub‐groups within each of the factors were also estimated. Academic discipline differences and class size were found to have the largest effect on student ratings, with effect sizes of 0.43–0.86 and 0.55–1.01 respectively. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Primary learners of the future — laying the foundations for lifelong learning in the primary school

Observing teaching assistants (TAs) working with children of differing needs and ages in two primary schools with ostensibly differing strategies for the use and deployment to TAs, it was clear that the TAs in these schools teach, although they do not have all the attributes of those with qualified teacher status. The types of activity of the TAs were categorised, and subsequently compared with various models of teaching. This finding has implications for teachers and management strategies in schools, for the professional status of TAs in the education community, their conditions of service and pay structure, which in turn has implications for the budget allocations to schools.     

Ready for school? Impacts of delayed primary school enrollment on children's educational outcomes in rural China

This paper estimates the causal impacts of delayed primary school enrollment on children's educational outcomes in rural China. Instrumental variable estimates exploiting the discontinuity in children's enrollment age around the enrollment cut-off date indicate that a one-year delay in school enrollment increases the incidence of first-grade retention by approximately 10 percentage points for boys and reduces the probabilities of middle school enrollment by 6 percentage points for both boys and girls. These results suggest that delayed enrollment, even if it may be an optimal choice made by poor parents in response to financial constraints, is likely to be harmful to children's educational development in rural China.     

‘Mind the Gap’: the influence of assessment criteria in primary school mentoring

This paper considers the signs student teachers on a PGCE Secondary Course display as evidence of a readiness to progress to a higher level of performance. It includes activity types which enable mentors to assess progress in relation to established competence areas. The arguments and proposals are founded on the outcomes of qualitative research methods conducted over a period of time with mentors and student teachers on a PGCE Secondary Modern Foreign Languages programme.