The supply of mathematics teachers in England and Wales

This paper reports the findings of an ethnographic study of student teaching experiences in a preparation program that emphasizes field‐based practicums. It explores what students do in these practicum sites; what forces influence their behavior, ideas, and/or attitudes; and the different ways students respond to the constraints found in their field placements. Finally, it discusses the implications of the study's findings towards the theoretical constructs of reproduction and resistance as they apply to the professional socialization of future teachers.     

The New Quality Assurance Arrangements in England and Wales

A new national quality assurance agency is about to commence operations. This article looks at the background to the new agency and at its immediate agenda, in which the recommendations of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education ('The Dearing Committee' are likely to bulk large. The article suggests a number of issues which the new agency will need to resolve if it is to prove more durable than its predecessors, the Higher Education Quality Council and the Quality Assessment Divisions of the English and Welsh Higher Education Funding Councils.     

Teacher Education in England and Wales

Teacher Education in England and Wales (Studies in Education, No. 8) GEOFFREY PARTINGTON, 1999 London: Institute of Education, University of London. 163 pp., ISBN 0 225 36476 8, £12     

The Implementation of Curriculum Change in School Science in England and Wales

Summaries

English

Science curriculum development in England and Wales started some 20 years ago and has led to the development of science curricula covering all major subjects, age levels and ability ranges. Dr Waring reviews, in this article, the successes and failures of the curriculum reform activities, and examines the underlying causes. In this review she draws extensively on the findings from researches into curriculum implementation, conducted in Britain and elsewhere.     

Geographical education and ideology in England and Wales

Conclusion If ideology is a nexus of ideas which represent the values of a society and the way that society operates, then clearly such ideas, in so far as they are held by those who have power in society, are bound to affect what is taught within the system of education. This may not be openly avowed, though in totalitarian regimes the education system is determinedly used to enforce the only ideology—that of those in power. The saving grace in a democratic system is that those being educated have access ideologies other than the dominant one. In England and Wales and to some extent elsewhere in the United Kingdom, there is little doubt that the geography curriculum has tended to serve the dominant ideology during the heyday of the British Empire and even during its period of decline in the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1960s and 1970s, an alternative ideology stressing the rights of the underprivileged became manifest in a geography curriculum that was not controlled centrally. The 1980s saw a reversal of this trend by those who had political power, though the reason advanced for the greater control of the curriculum was couched in terms of the economic needs of the nation and the desire to raise standards. But clearly those in power considered that theraison d'être of education was to promote an enterprise culture. However, in practice no ideology is ever pure. When the enterprise culture came into contact with long-cherished ideas of national sovereignty, marrying the two proved difficult. This was reflected in the neutral (not to say negative) position of the national curriculum in geography with respect to the European Union. Original language: English Norman Graves (United Kingdom) Professor Emeritus of Geography Education at the University of London Institute of Education. He is consultant to UNESCO in association with the International Geographical Union. Author of numerous works on geography education, he is involved in curriculum and textbook planning and is an acknowledged expert in his field of research.     

The Beginnings of Educational Psychology in the Universities of England and Wales

This paper analyses the contribution of the early departments of education in England and Wales to the development of the academic study of educational psychology. Based on historical and biographical research in primary and secondary sources, the paper examines European and American influences and the work of important pioneers in the education departments of universities in England and Wales. A discussion follows of syllabuses, textbooks and research, including the importance of the Journal of Experimental Pedagogy. The paper concludes with a comment on the methodology of this research. This paper is intended to promote the general thesis that the application of psychology to education owes more to the work of education departments than to the growing science of psychology.     

Thinking Theory: The field of education management in England and Wales

The field of education management has grown rapidly in the past 30 years with members positioning themselves in all parts of the education system. The main claim for distinctiveness is working with and on behalf of the practitioner, and intellectual positioning is based on the nature of intervention with the practitioner such as empirical research, course provision, and consultancy. In undertaking an intellectual analysis of the field, Bourdieu's theory of practice, developed through and with Habitus and Field, is used to think with and to develop an understanding of the 'possibilities' and 'traps' for the professional practice of field members.     

The School Placement of Pupils with Down's Syndrome in England and Wales

Data on the placements of over 3,000 children with Down's syndrome (born between 1980 and 1992) were collected from 94 areas around the country, over the 12 year period studied. Analysis showed an increase in the proportion of children attending mainstream schools, with wide local variations. Very small numbers of children had mixed placements (part-time mainstream/special school) and placements in specially resourced units. Changes in school type occurred from mainstream to special school, typically at around 8 or 9 and again at 11 to 12 years. There was a disproportionate number of boys with Down's syndrome in special schools, apparently because more boys than girls entered special schools at 5 or 6 years old.     

Teacher relationships and educational reform in England and Wales

Collegiality has been advocated as an antidote to the presumed isolation and individualism of teachers. In the main body of this paper, I review British contributions to this debate. Studies suggest that collegiality is more likely to flourish within primary schools than in other settings. Recent developments, especially the introduction of a National Curriculum, promise contradictory results: increasing the press toward collaborative, participatory planning, while simultaneously depriving teachers of their traditional autonomy over curricular content. In the final section, I consider whether there are different questions which should be addressed.     

The correlation between a level grades and degree results in England and Wales

A (Advanced) Level grades are used as part of the selection procedure for entry to university study in England. This article reports on an analysis of the correlation between A level grades and degree results using data on graduates in 1979.The author is an economist at the Department of Education and Science. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the DES.     

The Teenage Religion and Values Survey in England and Wales: an overview

The Teenage Religion and Values Survey was conducted throughout the 1990s among young people between the ages of 13 and 15 years. A total of 33,982 young people took part in the survey. As the next phase of this research begins for the twenty‐first century, this paper looks back at the survey conducted in the 1990s and considers two aspects of the research. First, this paper considers the methodology behind designing such a survey. Second, this paper considers some of the insights generated by the survey under five headings: personality, spiritual health, religious affiliation, belonging without believing and church‐leaving.