Enhancing interest in peer interaction: a developmental analysis

Using an intrinsic motivation paradigm, the effects of providing different reasons for interacting with a peer were examined in terms of children's subsequent interest in playing with the other child. Children (5 1/2, 7, and 9 years old) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions and provided with identical information about a child presented on a television monitor (that he was nice and had a new Lego game). In the experimental conditions, children were then asked if they wanted to play with the peer either "because he has a new game" (situational information) or "because he's real nice" (dispositional information). The results indicated that, for the 9-year-olds, the dispositional/intrinsic information enhanced subsequent intrinsic interest in the peer relative to the control condition, while the situational information undermined later interest. In contrast, for the younger age groups, the situational information increased interest in peer interaction for the younger age groups in comparison to the control condition, while the dispositional information did not differ from control. The findings are discussed in terms of potential processes underlying these effects.     

School Governors: An LEA Perspective

The article relates the experiences of one large comprehensive school in its first year as a member of a pilot Local Resource Management (LRM) scheme. It considers some of the difficulties, the training implications and some of the advantages and disadvantages which have already come to light. Some advice is also given to other schools which are likely to be involved in such schemes as soon as the ‘Baker Bill’ becomes law.     

Professional Development: An LEA Adviser's Perspective

This paper represents a summary and discussion of the findings of a single site case study which investigated the causes, reactions, and coping strategies relating to teacher stress in a comprehensive high school. Data analysis suggested that the problem of stress was multi‐dimensional in nature; levels of stress depended upon the interaction of any number of stressors which may be modified by experience, status, and the individual coping process. Coping strategies were found to be complex patterns of actions which were palliative or direct‐action, used in sequence or simultaneously to combat stress. The findings suggest pointers for the multi‐level management of stress which may need to extend beyond self‐management strategies.     

Mental effort and elaboration: A developmental analysis

Dual-task procedures—finger tapping and associative memory—were used to examine developmental differences in the amount of mental effort required to deploy rehearsal and elaboration. Sixth- and college-grade subjects participated. Subjects performed the strategies aloud in Experiment 1 vs silently in Experiment 2. Recall results showed the superiority of elaboration over rehearsal in associative memory. Mental effort estimates were based on the amount of finger-tapping interference produced by concurrent memory strategy activity. Evidence for a developmental difference in mental effort was found only in the second experiment. A significant age-by-condition interaction indicated a small age-related increase in the effort required to use rehearsal, accompanied by a much larger developmental decline in the elaboration effort.     

Talking of Quality: The educational discourse of Registered Inspectors

This paper draws on interview data with Registered Inspectors, collected as part of a large research project examining the role of Registered Inspectors. The professional biographies of three Registered Inspectors are used to hypothesise the educational values that they hold and these values are then compared with those revealed during the interviews. The analysis shows that these Registered Inspectors have totally accepted the managerial discourse of Ofsted. It is finally suggested that this discourse has 'written' not merely the mode of inspection but the professional subjectivity of the inspectors.     

The effect of personal relevance on psychological inference: a developmental analysis

The effect of personal relevance was examined as a motivational alternative to capacity-based explanations of young children's failure to describe others in terms of psychological characteristics. In Study 1, children at 2 age levels (5-6 and 9-10 years) were asked to describe actors exhibiting different behaviors and to select partners for different games. As predicted, children who expected to interact with the actors were much more likely to describe them in psychological terms. Older children selected partners based on instrumental goals, maximizing their own outcomes, whereas younger children selected partners based on liking. The findings were replicated in Study 2, and expecting interaction was also found to affect behavior (toy allocation). The results suggest that the verbal inferencing skills of young children have been underestimated in the past, and that younger children may be more oriented than older children toward affective relative to instrumental goals in anticipating interaction with a peer.     

Averting Role Confusion Between Doctoral Students and Major Advisers: Adviser Disclosure Statements

Doctoral students in counselor education programs and their major academic advisers may unfortunately encounter role confusion in their relationships, affecting both parties personally and professionally. To mitigate misunderstandings, the authors recommend the use of adviser disclosure statements. Advantages for faculty members and students are discussed, and an example of an adviser disclosure statement is presented.     

Educational Performance Indicators and LEA League Tables

Abstract

A common procedure for using examination results as performance indicators is based upon residuals from regression analysis. These analyses are typically applied to aggregated data: this paper demonstrates that such procedures give unstable results. It is suggested that aggregate‐level analyses are uninformative and that useful comparisons cannot be obtained without employing multilevel analyses using student‐level data.     

Teacher education and LEA perspectives on disruptive behaviour: initial teacher training

From an examination of documents obtained from forty‐nine local education authorities (LEAs), a research suggested as useful by a project on disruptive behaviour (Lawrence, Steed & Young, 1978), an account was obtained of the expectations of LEAs as to how initial teacher training, programmes should introduce teachers to the skills required for coping with disruptive behaviour. This paper reports the findings derived from these LEA documents and examines their implications for initial teacher training.

LEAs are asking colleges to provide factual information about facilities, discussion of major related concepts and training in observational skills, and in a problem solving approach. These requirements are modest and feasible, but require staff who are up‐to‐date vis‐a‐vis disruptive behaviour.     

The Placement of Pupils with Down's Syndrome: a survey of one northern LEA.

Although the 1981 Education Act encouraged LEAs to integrate pupils with special educational needs, responses varied widely. Stephanie Lorenz, an LEA educational psychologist, considers the effects of legislative change on the integration of a cohort of pupils with Down's Syndrome in one LEA.     

南京国民政府时期教育视导人员及其管理

南京国民政府时期,教育视导制度得到进一步完善,对视导人员的种类和资格、任用和待遇、职务和权限都有详细的规定。对视导人员的管理,就成功方面而言,提高了视导的专业性与工作效率,规范了视导行为,确保了视导的真实、公正;就其失误而言,视导人员良莠不齐,重视察轻指导,权责混乱。南京国民政府时期的教育视导制度之得失,可供今日之借鉴。     

The OFSTED Inspection Model: the views of LEA chief inspectors

This paper describes the results of an interview study of the reactions of local education authority (LEA) chief inspectors to the OFSTED inspection model and Handbook. Although inspectors generally commended the thorough nature of the inspection approach, substantial reservations were nevertheless expressed about certain aspects, particularly the logistics of conducting inspections. Inspectors’ views of the methods and procedures are discussed in the light of the implicit rationale of the model and the findings of an OFSTED‐initiated review of the first 100 OFSTED inspections. The paper concludes by suggesting that some of the fundamental assumptions underpinning the model should be questioned     

Repeated-measures analysis of variance in developmental research: selected issues

This paper presents a review of recent developments in statistical techniques for repeated-measures analysis of variance. Since the literature has emphasized the issue of mixed model assumptions and their violation, we present an updated perspective on the nature of these assumptions and their implications for mixed model, adjusted mixed model, or multivariate significance tests. However, the central theme of the review is that the validity of mixed model assumptions is but one consideration in selection of an appropriate method of repeated-measures ANOVA. In particular, we recommend the avoidance of omnibus significance tests in favor of specific planned comparisons whenever hypotheses more specific than the omnibus null hypothesis may be formulated a priori. The analyst must also consider whether multiple dependent measures are to be analyzed, and the paper discusses alternative approaches to true multivariate repeated-measures designs. It also includes discussion of other relevant issues, including a brief review of the strengths and weaknesses of commonly available statistical software when applied to the analysis of repeated-measures data.