Estimating the relation between health and education: What do we know and what do we need to know?

The empirical link between education and health is firmly established. Numerous studies document that higher levels of education are positively associated with longer life and better health throughout the lifespan.But measuring the causal links between education and health is a more challenging task. Aside from the typical econometric concerns about measurement error, functional form, and sampling properties, measuring the causal impact of education on health is confounded by the likely causal effect of health on education, and vice versa. Concerns about ‘missing’ variables that affect both the accumulation of human capital and the health capital - such as measures of individual discount rates - also make causality difficult to measure.Despite the difficulties, there has been a marked surge over the last decade in the number of empirical studies attempting to estimate the causal links between education and health. This survey reviews recent empirical evidence on the topic. Following the bifurcation in the literature, we split the survey into two pieces. First, we review the evidence of the effect of education on health. The vast majority of work in this area focuses on schooling up through college and its effect on adult health, including longevity. Second, we review the evidence of the effect of health on education, including health shocks in the womb and their effects on educational attainment. Rather than attempting a comprehensive review, our focus is to highlight relatively recent research.     

School leadership models: what do we know?

The growth in the importance of school leadership has been accompanied by theory development, with new models emerging and established approaches being redefined and further developed. The purpose of this paper is to review current and recent writing on leadership models. The paper examines theoretical literature, to see how leadership is conceptualised, and empirical literature, to demonstrate whether and how the research evidence supports these concepts. The paper shows that leadership models are subject to fashion but often serve to reflect, and to inform, changes in school leadership practice.     

The under-attainment of ethnic minority students in UK higher education: what we know and what we don’t know

In UK higher education, ethnic differences in academic attainment are ubiquitous and have persisted for many years. They are only partly explained by ethnic differences in entry qualifications. They vary from one institution to another and from one subject area to another. This suggests that they result in part from teaching and assessment practices in different institutions and subjects. We do not really know whether ethnic differences in attainment are reflected in variations in the student experience. We do not know what factors are responsible for the ethnic differences in attainment that remain when differences in entry qualifications have been taken into account. Finally, we do not know what aspects of teaching and assessment practices are responsible for variations in the attainment gap.     

We know off-rolling happens. Why are we still doing nothing?

Described by General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Geoff Barton as ‘beyond repugnant’ (TES, 2017), ‘off-rolling’ is the removal of pupils from the school roll via various unofficial means. This study positions a plethora of triggers for this form of exclusion, its prevalence and wider social implications. These perspectives will be evaluated alongside current national data and media perspectives, integrated with the outcomes of narrative accounts from practitioners in schools across England in 2018. The study concludes by commenting on the impact of performance-driven school cultures on limiting the choices parents and pupils are able to make when confronted by the prospect of exclusion from education. The longer-term social dangers presented by labelling a cohort of young people as marginal to education and society are considered, as is the fitness for purpose of the current education system in the meeting of pupil needs.     

What do we know about early sport specialization? Not much!

In November 2005, the International Olympic Committee's Medical Commission issued a statement on Training the elite child athlete recommending that “more scientific research be done to better identify the parameters of training the elite child athlete”. This paper focuses on a specific issue related to training the child athlete: early specialization. While associations between early specialization and expertise development are highlighted, much research also suggests early specialization is associated with a range of negative consequences affecting physical, psychological, and social development. Alternately, some researchers have proposed that an early diversification approach does not disadvantage athletes in acquiring expertise, and is important for the development of intrinsic motivation and skill transferability. However, this review suggests that inadequate evidence exists to resolve the issue in favor of either approach.     

Effective strategic planning in Australian universities: how good are we and how do we know?1

Strategic planning was introduced to Australian universities as part of the Commonwealth Government higher education reforms of 1988. The ‘Dawkins Reforms’ implemented extensive structural reform, changed executive leadership roles and responsibilities, commenced the ‘managerialisation’ of the Australian university sector, introduced the Higher Education Contribution Scheme and facilitated the transformation of Australian universities from collegial academies to modern, ‘enterprise’ universities.

There is an abundance of published marketing material celebrating ‘effective’ strategic planning outcomes in the myriad of strategic plans published by Australian universities. Yet, a recent study indicates that strategic planning remains a contested internal leadership function in Australian universities almost 30 years after traditional academic planning was replaced with commercially-focused strategic planning. This paper will review the effectiveness of strategic planning practices in Australian universities guided by the rhetorical question: ‘how good are we and how do we know?’     

When ‘we wish they knew’ meets ‘I want to know’

ABSTRACT

The tension between mandated curricula and students’ interests is evident throughout the history of science education. Societal expectations for student learning often lead to standards and curricula that leave little room for students to explore their own individual interests. Occasionally, however, an event can capture the interest of so many students that teachers feel compelled to respond. The Ebola outbreak of 2014 was such an event. This article discusses findings from a study of teacher decision-making; specifically, it explores how high school science teachers in the U.S. decided whether and how they should address Ebola during the 2014–2015 school year, when the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was at its peak. Approximately 2500 teachers of science responded to an online questionnaire that addressed their Ebola-specific instruction. In comparing the decisions of those who taught about Ebola and those who did not, the study found that teachers weighed various factors, in particular student interest but also curriculum standards, time, and availability of resources for teaching about Ebola. The article concludes with implications for future urgent health-related issues.     

Sustainable schools programmes: what influence on schools and how do we know?

This paper focuses on our experience of researching the influence of ResourceSmart Schools, a sustainable schools programme in Victoria, Australia. Drawing on ideas from programme theory and realist synthesis, we illustrate and reflect upon our approach to conceptualising, investigating and generating evidence about the programme’s impacts and influence in participating schools. This distinction is deliberate: it helps distinguish between efforts to understand the impacts that a programme has within schools (programme impact), and efforts to understand what it is about a programme that is influential in bringing about those impacts (programme influence). Drawing on evidence from our work in this project and the wider literature, we argue for a more nuanced discussion and more sophisticated investigations into the complexities of programme influence, rather than impacts only. Our conclusions suggest key areas of development for our own work, the provision of environmental and sustainability education, and their evaluation and research more broadly.     

Dare we know the nation? Considering the nexus of discursive leveraging and identity

The public history museum holds an inherent pedagogical purpose to define the nation through a history considered collectively supported by its citizenry. Widely acknowledged criticism often accompanies such exhibits and prompts calls for a more critical examination of the narratives advanced through the affirmed educational intent held by museums. How scholars are engaging the question of how – and even whether – history can succeed in interrogating the strategies utilized by the public history museum means reconsidering what role social education holds in advancing a critical sensibility about how nation is defined. This article offers a theoretical analysis that reviews the inherent nationalist purpose advanced by the public museum, and the tensions educators could face when seeking to better understand how it affirms a particular understanding of history and of the nation. This article suggests that social education needs to address its role to engage critically the complicity the public history museum holds in defining and guarding the nation, and in confronting the museum authority of history and exhibition practices.     

Mathematics teacher educator knowledge: What do we know and where to from here?

The knowledge that mathematics teacher educators need has attracted limited but increasing attention in recent years. The papers in this special issue build on emerging themes from that work and raise additional questions that contribute towards a future research agenda in the field. Several of the articles develop conceptualisations of teacher knowledge to apply to mathematics teacher educators, introducing new aspects and drawing attention to unique characteristics of mathematics teacher educators in the process. To some extent the questions these papers raise reflect similar questions in mathematics education more generally but for which the implications for mathematics teacher educators warrant attention. In this paper we review the articles in this special issue and use them as a springboard to examine contemporary developments in the field and posit ways forward for research on mathematics teacher educators’ knowledge.     

Basic skills and workplace learning: what do we actually know about their benefits?

In this paper we review the literature on the impact of workplace basic skills training on individuals, as measured by their effects on wages and employment probability. In addition, we also examine studies on the returns to individuals of general training at the workplace. On the whole, the evidence suggests that better numeracy and literacy skills have a strong positive effect on individuals' earnings and employment stability, even when other relevant factors, such as qualifications levels, are taken into account. There is also good evidence to suggest that general training provided at the workplace has a positive impact on individuals' wages, particularly when this training is employer provided rather than off the job. However, the literature also suggests that improvement of basic skills levels in adults has very small or even no positive effects on wages and employment probability. We discuss the implications of these findings on the formation of government policy on basic skills provision. We also propose that there is a real need for more research in this area, not only in terms of longitudinal quantitative studies tracking the effects of basic skills programmes on firms and individuals but also in terms of detailed case studies focusing on specific training programmes and their impact at the level of the individual and firm.     

What do we know and where do we go? Formative assessment in developing student teachers’ professional learning of teaching science

In the context of teacher education, it could well be suggested that assessment activities that build on formative interactions between student teachers and teacher educators might offer new windows into better understanding teaching and learning. This paper presents findings from a study into a primary science teacher education initiative that seeks to build the foundations on which 24 primary science student teachers, through the use of formative assessment of their science teaching and learning, can begin developing their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). In the project, formative assessment consists of activities used by teacher educators to stimulate interactions, self- and peer-assessment in order to provide insights into how student teachers develop their PCK during a semester. Content Representations (CoRes), were used as a tool to unpack the student teachers’ approach to teaching a science topic and the reasons for that approach. The results indicate that the use of CoRes, together with subsequent self-assessment and formative interactions with teacher educators and peers, do have the potential for PCK development for student teachers. The results further highlight the need for developing reliable and valid tools for capturing and assessing student teachers’ PCK in pre-service teacher education.     

各种各样的know

说起know这个词,大概不用过脑我们就能说出它是"知道"的意思。不过,在不同的语句中这个词表达的意境也不尽相同,比如下面这些句子:1.To know everything is to know nothing.样样皆通,样样稀松。2.As if you didn’t know.明知故问。3.You never know.谁也说不准。4.You can ask Jack for help,he knows the business.你可以找杰克帮忙,他比较在行。5.Scientists     

Do you know

A dragonfly(蜻蜓)has a life span(跨度)of 24 hours.蜻蜓的生命跨度是24小时。A duck's quack doesn't echo(回声),and no one knows why.鸭子的嘎嘎声没有回声,没人知道是为什么。A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.金鱼的记忆跨度是3秒钟。A shark(鲨鱼)is the only fish that can blink(眨眼)with both eyes.鲨鱼是可以用两只眼睛同时眨眼的唯一的一种鱼。Do you know…     

recognize和know

请先看下面一道动词误用解析题: 你认识张先生有多久了? 误:How long have you recognized Mr Zhang? 正:How long have you known Mr Zhang? 析:recognize作“认识”解时,是非延续性动词,不能与表示一段时间的状语连用;know作“认识”解时,是延续性动词,可以与表示一段时间的状语连用。     

Knowing what we don’t know: cognitive correlates of early spelling of different target types

Reading and Writing - Although research on cognitive correlates of spelling has been conducted, these studies generally do not distinguish between different types of targets that need to be...