'What it Makes Sense to Say': Education, Philosophy and Peter Winch on Social Science

This paper sets out Peter Winch's central ideas about the nature of the social sciences, and reappraises their potential for educational research. It is argued that the dichotomy between 'reasons' and 'causes' has done much harm, and that the important matter of understanding 'what is real for us' has recently been neglected. Winch's philosophy suggests a more adequate framework for educational research: one that embraces a pluralistic interpretive position, accommodating various methods and various kinds of understanding of the social, and that views educational science as involving opportunity for reflection and a degree of distance from the world of practice, yet at the same time as essentially part of the political debate about education.     

Towards a meta-research agenda in science and enviormental educaion

Abstract

This paper begins by establishing the existence of a debate in the broader educational community about the nature, meaning and significance of educational research, and its recognition that different approaches to educational research do not simply represent different strategies for data collection but rest on and express different ideologies that implicate different political attitudes among teachers, students, subject‐matters,schools, support agencies and researchers themselves. Evidence can be seen that this debate is beginning to appear in the science education literature and it is believed that the arguments can be extended.

It is argued that research in science education and environmental education needs to consider methodology in the political terms of ideology, rather than simply in the technical terms of method and technique. Some of the recent thinking about the politics of method in both science education and environmental education, is then considered briefly and a number of meta‐research questions are proffered that might focus further attention on the political theory of research in these two fields.     

Narrative analysis as philosophical research: Bridging the gap between the empirical and the conceptual

There is a longstanding debate about what can be expected from philosophy of education and what its place can be in educational theory. A remarkable resemblance can be found between the debate about the usefulness of qualitative research methods and the kinds of insights they produce. The debate between proponents of empirical (quantitative) research and of qualitative research can be traced to the opposition between the need for understanding and the desire to manipulate. We argue that empirical qualitative research is of a similar nature to philosophical research, its aim being mainly to understand a human practice. We offer a framework that allows the clarification of what may be expected from an educational science and consequently from qualitative research methods: taking as one?s starting point human experience, providing comments, and thus trying to open the eyes of others to particular human realities.     

THE CONCEPT OF EVIDENCE IN EVIDENCE‐BASED PRACTICE

There exists a vast literature on evidence‐based practice (EBP) in education. The debate branches out in several directions, for example, what EBP entails for the nature of educational practice, what it entails for the teaching profession, what counts as use and abuse of evidence, and what educational research could or should contribute to a what works kind of practice. In this essay Tone Kvernbekk focuses on the fate of the concept of evidence in the debate, observing that the concept seems, by and large, to be missing from the debate. She argues that educational debates about EBP stand to gain in nuance and depth from employing philosophical insights about evidence. Kvernbekk develops this claim by discussing different conceptions of evidence and by inquiring into three aspects of the evidentiary relation: the meaning of “based,” underdetermination, and the relativization of evidence.     

Reflections on improving teacher performance

Abstract

The debate about declining education standards and quality has been going on for decades. At the centre of this debate has been teacher performance. But the blame for the decline in educational standards and quality of education in South Africa cannot be placed squarely on the shoulders of teachers alone. Society as a whole must accept its share of responsibility too. For the decline or the improvement of the standard and quality of education depends on the roles played by teachers, parents, learners, tertiary institutions, non-governmental organisations and the government. To blame teachers alone misses the core problem, which is at the root of the continuing decline in educational standards and quality in a country which has the biggest economy in Africa. To stem this tide will require a collaborative effort by all these role players. But, more importantly, it will require the restructuring of how teachers are trained, as well as the transformation of school governing bodies, so as to enable them to play the role the South African Schools Act intended them to play. The profession must also be made attractive in order to attract talented matriculants. This will entail improvements in the salary structure and conditions of service of teachers. It will also be necessary to revamp the current teacher in-service training and development system to enable it to play a more meaningful role in assisting teachers to continually refresh and retool their skills in order to cope with the ever-changing teaching and learning environment.     

Inclusion: the role of special and mainstream schools

For children with special educational needs, seeds were sown for the move away from segregated settings to inclusion in mainstream settings following the 1978 Warnock Report. However, the ‘special versus mainstream school’ debate was re‐ignited in 2005 when Warnock recommended a more significant role for special schools than previously envisaged. Furthermore, an increase in special school placement has been reported, prompting this investigation of the role of special schools in the current climate of inclusion. Literature from Britain, Europe and New Zealand, including research that listens to ‘the voice of the child’, which compares experiences of children with special educational needs in special and mainstream schools, is reviewed. The findings give no clear indication that either setting leads to better outcomes. Tensions between the inclusion agenda and standards agenda are highlighted. It is concluded that special schools in reduced numbers are likely to remain a feature of the inclusive education system, with recommendations for the development of special–mainstream school partnership links. The quality of the setting, regardless of the type of setting, is emphasised, highlighting implications for staff training in special and mainstream schools. Further research comparing outcomes for children educated in different types of provision is recommended.     

Art and Lifelong Learning

It is argued, through the example of art education seen from a broad cultural perspective, that the concept of lifelong learning implies common terms of reference for learning in all contexts in which learning takes place, especially in schools, colleges and universities. This implies a common approach to standards at all levels of formal educational provision. The disparity of school art and art in other learning contexts is discussed, and concepts of standards currently in use are examined and found to be highly problematic. The idea of practitioner referenced standards is introduced in relation to standards derived from educational theory and practice. In the case of art these are considered in terms of ‘what it is that artists do; what it means to engage with a work of art at first hand; what people have to say about artists and works of art; and what it means to engage in learning’. Ways of relating these standards to each other and to lifelong learning in the context of a research rationale for an art curriculum are put forward. In conclusion, it is suggested that co-ordination of the current review of the National Curriculum and the developmental work on standards currently being undertaken by the QAA would represent a basis for the establishment of appropriate standards for lifelong learning, although this would require a new level of co-operation between the relevant educational sectors. Such standards would assist in reducing the possibility that lifelong learning could develop as a further isolated and self-justifying educational sector in a divided national educational system. They would also provide an opportunity for post-modern thinking to make a worthwhile contribution to educational debate.     

The Bookmark Standard-Setting Method: A Literature Review

The Bookmark method for setting standards on educational tests is currently one of the most popular standard-setting methods. However, research to support the method is scarce. In this report, we review the published and unpublished literature on this method as well as some seminal work in the area of evaluating standard-setting studies. Our review highlights both strengths and limitations of the method. Strengths include its wide acceptance and panelist confidence in the method. Limitations include a potential bias to produce lower-than-intended standards and problems in selecting the most appropriate response probability value for ordering the items presented to panelists. It is clear that more research on this method is needed to support its wide use. Several areas for future research to better understand the validity of the Bookmark method for setting standards on educational tests are presented.     

Standard-Setting Methods as Measurement Processes

Some writers in the measurement literature have been skeptical of the meaningfulness of achievement standards and described the standard-setting process as blatantly arbitrary. We argue that standard setting is more appropriately conceived of as a measurement process similar to student assessment. The construct being measured is the panelists' representation of student performance at the threshold of an achievement level. In the first section of this paper, we argue that standard setting is an example of stimulus-centered measurement. In the second section, we elaborate on this idea by comparing some popular standard-setting methods to the stimulus-centered scaling methods known as psychophysical scaling. In the third section, we use the lens of standard setting as a measurement process to take a fresh look at the two criticisms of standard setting: the role of judgment and the variability of results. In the fourth section, we offer a vision of standard-setting research and practice as grounded in the theory and practice of educational measurement .     

Science and Judgment in Environmental Standard Setting

Environmental regulation, like educational policy, crucially depends on the establishment and enforcement of standards. One can observe numerous similarities in the interplay of social, political, and technical issues in educational and environmental standard setting. In this article, I review several major types of environmental standards (design, performance, exposure, safety, and behavioral) and discuss their points of contact with educational standards. In this article, I highlight areas of judgment common to both standard-setting processes and describe the principal mechanisms that are used to improve the credibility of environmental standards. In conclusion, I suggest ways in which experiences gained in the environmental arena could usefully be extended to the educational arena.     

Partisanship in Educational Research

In his empirical study of educational research, James Tooley claims to have uncovered 'partisanship' in the 'focus content and argument of educational research'. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that Tooley's study is simply one more manifestation of the failure of many educational researchers to take account of the extensive theoretical and methodological developments that have occurred over the last four decades in the political and social sciences. It is suggested that a debate about partisanship and educational research which took these developments seriously would not be a narrow debate in which researchers with right wing affinities try to score political points against researchers of the left. Instead, it would be a more intellectually rigorous and theoretically informed debate about the complex relationship between educational values and political beliefs on the one hand and research methodologies and practices on the other.     

The interplay between structure and agency in the enactment of STEM policy

In their paper, Hoeg and Bencze argue that current STEM curriculum guidelines prioritise the training of a workforce in detriment of a democratically grounded education for citizenship. We agree that there is an insufficient questioning about which type of citizenship STEM curricula would favour and wish to contribute to this debate by (1) problematising different meanings and aspects of citizenship in different models of democracy and (2) exploring the dialectical nature of structure and agency in the discursive construction of educational (policy) discourse. We also discuss results from recent empirical research about teachers’ ideas on citizenship education in order to challenge views that assume a linearity between educational policy and its enactment.     

Cultural Themes in Educational Debates: the nature‐culture opposition in accounts of unequal educational performance

This paper investigates certain aspects of the debate about the causes of unequal educational performance. By analysing two illustrative explanations of performance, it shows that the debate appears to be shaped by a fundamental theme in modern Western culture, the nature‐culture opposition. This suggests that the knowledge that we have concerning educational performance is influenced not only by the social and political interests and positions of educators and researchers, but also by more basic cultural concerns; and if we want to understand both educational performance and the debate surrounding it, we need to be aware of this broad influence.     

教育知识图谱构建中的标准词汇参考模型研究

教育是典型的知识密集型领域,因此,进行领域知识的共享研究对教育领域的发展非常重要。多年信息化的历史经验告诫我们:共享的前提是必须对领域资源实施标准化。尽管我国教育领域研发了系列教育元数据标准,但是从智慧教育的需求来看,这些标准普遍表现为缺乏语义、比较零散、体系不够完善等。随着近些年知识图谱的提出,为教育资源的知识整合发展提供了重要的技术手段。然而,目前知识图谱构建的主要焦点在构建技术方面,忽视了构建中的标准化问题。长此以往,领域将会构建出很多“知识孤岛”。为解决这些问题,本文在对国内外教育领域内标准进行研究的基础上,以系统理论为依据提出并构建了一个集预定义词汇的W3C语义Web标准、顶层词汇标准和领域词汇标准于一体的三层架构模型——教育资源知识图谱标准词汇参考模型。基于该模型建构知识图谱,不仅为教育领域数据的标准化提供标准词汇参考,而且也为规范构建教育领域知识图谱提供了参考。     

Samuel Bowles,Herbert Gintis and Diane Ravitch: a classic controversy in education revisited

Two important books in the field of US education, Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis's Schooling in Capitalist America and Diane Ravitch's Revisionists Revised, are reviewed. The author contends that the dynamic tension in the debate on US education that existed in the late 1970s when these two books were published has virtually disappeared from the mainstream of educational thought. After more than a decade of conservative national leadership the mainstream debate on educational reform has centered on more technical and institutional issues and away from the fundamental philosophical debate over the role of schools in US society. The radical analysis informed by Marxism which Bowles & Gintis employed has been essentially eliminated from the mainstream of educational thought, while the conservative‐to‐liberal analyses have moved to the right politically. Diane Ravitch has continued to be a force in this debate; she is currently a US Assistant Secretary of Education. The author examines Ravitch's response to the radical critique represented by Bowles & Gintis and argues that without the latter's challenges to conventional reason, liberal educational thought will become increasingly conservative, sterile and reactionary. No salutary dialogue can emerge from parties (i.e. US conservative and liberal thought) who share similar basic assumptions about the nature of society and education.     

关于音乐教育心理学研究方法的思考

通过对当前音乐教育心理学的发展现状的分析指出,音乐教育心理学已经成为音乐心理学的一个重要组成部分,对音乐教育心理学研究方法的思考具有现实意义。当今我国音乐教育心理学研究一方面亟需加强“量的研究”,另一方面必须重视“质的研究”,在教育实践中采用行动研究模式将两者有机地结合是实际有效的研究方法。     

论作为教育本体论的教育哲学——兼论“反本质主义”教育观点的时代困境

教育学界关于本质主义与反本质主义的争论一直是教育理论研究中的热点问题。教育本体论问题本身具有不可消解性,即“本质主义”的思维方式内在地反映了人类本性的历史性和永恒性的统一。而问题的关键不在于是否追求教育有无“本体”或“本质”,而在于对教育“本体”和“本质”的追问方式。基于后现代主义理论自身的贫困,教育本体论并不能有效解决教育研究中的“本质主义”倾向问题。在终极价值上,当代教育哲学就是教育本体论;在次级反思的层面上,教育哲学就是教育观;在当下中国现实中,这种教育观就是主体性教育观。     

A Proposed Framework for Evaluating Alignment Studies

Evaluating the multiple characteristics of alignment has taken a prominent role in educational assessment and accountability systems given its attention in the No Child Left Behind legislation (NCLB). Leading to this rise in popularity, alignment methodologies that examined relationships among curriculum, academic content standards, instruction, and assessments were proposed as strategies to evaluate evidence of the intended uses and interpretations of test scores. In this article, we propose a framework for evaluating alignment studies based on similar concepts that have been recommended for standard setting (Kane). This framework provides guidance to practitioners about how to identify sources of validity evidence for an alignment study and make judgments about the strength of the evidence that may impact the interpretation of the results.     

Is Inquiry-Based Science Teaching Worth the Effort?

Inquiry-based science teaching has been advocated by many science educational standards and reports from around the world. Disagreements about and concerns with this teaching approach, however, are often ignored. Opposing ideas and conflicting results have been bouncing around in the field. It seems that the field carries on with a hope that someday they can reconcile. Unfortunately, over half a century, the opposing views have never been reconciled. Rather, they have become clearly divided, as shown in a recent debate. As such, this article intends to serve as a bridge between people holding different views and to identify key disagreements that have been sustaining the tension. The purpose is to improve science education. Suggestions for future research are also provided for a discussion.     

我国教育质量标准体系构建的理论与实践探索

从我国教育质量标准的理论研究入手,梳理我国理论界关于教育质量内涵、建立分类教育质量标准、将国际标准质量管理体系引入教育领域的研究等;分析我国对于教育质量标准的实践探索,包括培养标准定位、教师资格标准、教学内容标准、教学评价标准等;立足我国教育质量标准的理论与实践状况,提出建立国家教育质量标准的必要性。