Expanding Higher Education in the UK: From ‘System Slowdown’ to ‘System Acceleration’

This paper sets out to explore the implications of current patterns of participation and attainment, particularly among 16–19 year‐olds, for the further expansion of higher education in the UK. It uses a range of recent statistics on participation and attainment to describe what is termed ‘system slowdown’. It then explores a basis for ‘system acceleration’ through the development of five possible routes into higher education both for 16–19 year‐olds and for adults. We conclude the paper by looking briefly at a number of inter‐related strategies the Government could adopt to encourage ‘system acceleration’. We suggest that unless the Government is prepared to consider policy changes of this type, it is unlikely to reach the higher education participation target it has set itself and may also jeopardise the basis for a sustainable lifelong learning system for the 21st century.     

‘Building Dancing’: Dance within the Context of Architectural Design Pedagogy

Recent theoretical and technological developments redefine the discipline of architecture substantially. Current day approaches in design pedagogy focus on personal and bodily experiences of the subject and the need for investigating new ways and methods to enhance awareness of spatial experiences is inevitable. In order to establish a heuristic understanding of embodiment in space within design pedagogy, collaborative studies of dance and architecture are important supports. This article introduces ‘Building Dancing’, which is an approach to embodied learning. The project is specifically designed and developed for students of architectural design and aims to integrate the existing body of knowledge and hands‐on exercises under a holistic framework. Within this study, the issue of embodiment is regarded not solely as a theoretical concept but a transforming method for achieving a conception of a reality and an understanding of architectural design processes.     

The ‘Golden Egg’

We examine a geometrical construction of a “perfect” egg shape, comparing it with students' conceptions of the ideal shape. Dimensions of birds' eggs are investigated, to find out how egg shapes are related to natural circumstances.     

From ‘consulting pupils’ to ‘pupils as researchers’: a situated case narrative

Schools in England are now being encouraged to ‘personalise’ the curriculum and to consult students about teaching and learning. This article reports on an evaluation of one high school which is working hard to increase student subject choice, introduce integrated curriculum in the middle years and to improve teaching and learning while maintaining a commitment to inclusive and equitable comprehensive education. The authors worked with a small group of students as consultants to develop a ‘student's‐eye’ set of evaluative categories in a school‐wide student survey. They also conducted teacher, student and governor interviews, lesson and meeting observations, and student ‘mind‐mapping’ exercises. In this article, in the light of the findings, the authors discuss the processes they used to work jointly with the student research team, and how they moved from pupils‐as‐consultants to pupils‐as‐researchers, a potentially more transformative/disruptive practice. They query the notion of ‘authentic student voice’ and show it as discursive and heterogeneous: they thus suggest that both a standards and a rights framings of student voice must be regarded critically.     

The evolution of school league tables in England 1992–2016: ‘Contextual value‐added’, ‘expected progress’ and ‘progress 8’

Since 1992, the UK Government has published so‐called ‘school league tables’ summarising the average General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) ‘attainment’ and ‘progress’ made by pupils in each state‐funded secondary school in England. While the headline measure of school attainment has remained the percentage of pupils achieving five or more good GCSEs, the headline measure of school progress has changed from ‘value‐added’ (2002–2005) to ‘contextual value‐added’ (2006–2010) to ‘expected progress’ (2011–2015) to ‘progress 8’ (2016–). This paper charts this evolution with a critical eye. First, we describe the headline measures of school progress. Second, we question the Government's justifications for scrapping contextual value‐added. Third, we argue that the current expected progress measure suffers from fundamental design flaws. Fourth, we examine the stability of school rankings across contextual value‐added and expected progress. Fifth, we discuss the extent to which progress 8 will address the weaknesses of expected progress. We conclude that all these progress measures and school league tables more generally should be viewed with far more scepticism and interpreted far more cautiously than they have often been to date.     

‘To Catch at and Let Go’: David Bakhurst,Phenomenology and Post‐phenomenology

This paper examines David Bakhurst's attempt to provide a picture of ‘the kinds of beings we are’ that is ‘more realistic’ than rationalism. I argue that there is much that is rich and compelling in Bakhurst's account. Yet I also question whether there are ways in which it could be taken further. I introduce the discussion by exploring Bakhurst's engagement with phenomenology and, more specifically, Hubert Dreyfus—who enters Bakhurst's horizon on account of his inheritance of the philosophy of John McDowell. Whilst I recognise that Bakhurst's encounter with Dreyfus demonstrates his achievements—over rationalism and over Dreyfus—I also suggest that it opens up certain questions that remain to be asked of his position on account of its conceptualism. These questions originate, not from a Dreyfusian phenomenological perspective, but from the post‐phenomenological perspective of Jacques Derrida. Through appealing to key Derridean tropes, I aim to show why the conceptual idiom Bakhurst retains may hold us back from understanding the open nature of human thought. I end by considering what therefore needs to come—and what needs to be let go—in order to best do justice to the ‘kinds of beings we are’.     

Meaning‐making with colour in multimodal texts: an 11‐year‐old student's purposeful ‘doing’

Colour, a visual element of art and design, is a semiotic mode that is used strategically by sign‐makers to communicate meaning. Understanding the meaning‐making potential of colour can enhance students’ understanding, appreciation, interpretation and composition of multimodal texts. This article features a case study of Anya, an 11‐year‐old student who participated in a classroom‐based research project that explored developing student visual meaning‐making skills and competencies by focusing specifically on a selection of visual elements of art and design in picture books and graphic novels. Excerpts from Anya's interview about her multimodal print text revealed that her intentional use of colour was affected by her participation in the learning opportunities afforded during the explorative study that included overt instruction about making meaning with colour. The semiotic analysis of Anya's use of colour in her multimodal text included a consideration of how the various distinctive features of colour were evident in her work. The article concludes with a discussion of pedagogical and assessment issues associated with teaching students about colour and other visual elements of art and design.     

‘Eye-candy’ in ‘Interactive Books’– a Wholesome Diet?

CD-ROMs are becoming more widely used now and one particular genre seems to have a good deal to offer as a medium for the development of reading. These so-called ‘interactive books’ have not yet been investigated in terms of their usefulness in teaching reading and Clare Burrell and John Trushell make a useful beginning to this. They are particularly concerned with whether the eye catching graphics of these books helps or hinders children’s reading of them and their report raises many interesting issues.     

Motives for ‘Laddishness’ at School: Fear of failure and fear of the ‘feminine’

‘Laddish’ behaviours in school have been identified as impediments to the academic progress of some boys and girls. This article provides and discusses empirical evidence to support Jackson's proposal in an earlier article that ‘laddish’ behaviours may act to protect the self‐worth and/or social worth of many boys, and that ‘laddishness’ may be prompted by both a fear of academic failure and a fear of the ‘feminine’. Drawing upon data from interviews with 50 boys across two secondary schools, the article focuses upon a key characteristic of ‘laddishness’, namely, the overt rejection of academic work. It is suggested that overtly rejecting academic work serves a dual function for some boys. First, it enables them to act in ways currently consistent with hegemonic forms of masculinity in their schools. Secondly, it provides an excuse for failure and augments success.