‘Being an artist you kind of,I mean,you get used to excellence’: Identity,Values and Fine Art Assessment Practices

In this article I report on a study into fine art lecturers’ assessment practices in higher education. This study explores the ways that lecturers bring themselves into the act of assessment (Hand & Clewes 2000). I interviewed twelve fine art lecturers who worked across six English universities. Lecturers were asked to relate to me how they learnt to assess student artwork and what informed their judgement making. My research explores the interfaces between fine art lecturers’ assessment practices, their values and identity/ies. My analysis offers a rendering of the ways that values underpin lecturers’ assessment practices. The article explores the ways that lecturers’ assessment decisions relate to their experiences as ex art students, their identity as artists, their own artistic practices, their conceptualisation of the arts arenas and the HE sector. My key overarching argument is that identity/ies and values underpin and enrich fine art lecturers’ assessment practices.     

Online learner’s ‘flow’ experience: an empirical study

This study is concerned with online learners’‘flow’ experiences. On the basis of Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow, flow was conceptualised as a complex, multimentional, reflective construct composing of ‘enjoyment’, ‘telepresence’, ‘focused attention’, ‘engagement’ and ‘time distortion’ on the part of learners. A flow model was put forward with regard to virtual class environment in a traditional university context, comprised with flow antecedents, flow and flow consequences. Based on the model, a virtual‐course flow measure was developed and administered to 525 undergraduate students engaged in virtual classes in order to examine the empirical relationships between measured flow antecedents, flow experiences and flow consequence‐course satisfaction in this case. The analysis of the data showed that: (1) students’ perceptions of their level of ‘skill’ and ‘challenge’ specific to each course are critical to determining the level of flow, (2) flow is a significant predictor of course satisfaction and (3) other than flow, individual differences such as ‘gender’ and ‘having a clear goal’ can make a significant difference in the level of flow in a virtual course. These findings are discussed along with the implications for bringing up a computer‐mediated environment more conducive to flow and learning.     

‘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.     

‘Shoot for the moon!’ Students' identities as writers in the context of the classroom

A study of students' identities as writers was carried out in the classroom of a New Zealand primary teacher who had been formally identified by a national body of teachers as having excellent practice in supporting literacy acquisition. The researchers, Professor Janice Wearmouth, from the University of Bedfordshire, Mere Berryman, from the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and Lisa Whittle, from the Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand, aimed to compare high and low literacy achievers' identities as writers within the context of this teacher's pedagogy and the learning environment of her classroom. The researchers concluded that all students, both high and low achievers, were developing very positive writing identities in a context where the teacher's method of supporting her students' writing was very well planned through a process‐writing approach. This teacher had a very high degree of subject and pedagogical content knowledge and an acute awareness of her students' literacy learning needs. Her approach had an immediacy of responsiveness in relation to every student's learning and, above all, had recognition of the overwhelming importance of positive relationships in the classroom, teacher to student and peer to peer.     

Measuring ‘equity’ and ‘equitability’ in school effectiveness research

This paper introduces a Gini‐type index for measuring ‘attainment equity’ in schools; that is to say, how far a school (or group of schools) is from having a ‘fair’ proportion of its examination success attributable to a fair proportion of its student population. Using data from the National Pupil Database, the Index is applied to more than 20,000 students with matched attainment records at KS2 and KS4 in two ‘statistical‐neighbour’ local authorities in England, capturing the extent to which they are meeting a public policy notion of equity. It is then combined with existing contextual value added measures to analyse school and local authority performance in terms of both attainment equity and context.     

Success Without ‘A’ Pass: an Educational Experiment Revisited

In 1963, the University of Sussex inaugurated an innovative Early Leavers Scheme in response to two government reports which confirmed that it was still the norm for talented working‐class children to leave school aged 15 or 16 and indicated that the hopes of the 1944 Education Act were as yet unfulfilled. This article explores what the scheme has meant to some of the people who got to university because of it. Research on relevant documentation of the scheme and its outcomes held in the University of Sussex archives and information gathered from four people admitted to the scheme and its impact on them inform this article. The scheme is contextualised with relevant policy documents, government reports and academic publications to provide a framework for the accounts of those who took part in it and it is tentatively suggested that these have implications for higher education policy today.     

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.     

‘Rape’ in children

‘Rape’ as a sexual offence has been existing since time immemorial. In a country like India with her conservative and traditional society, sex is not discussed freely and a sexual offence particularly in childhood is hushed up, for fear of the victimised girl's future. Here an attempt is made to study the relavent factors responsible for ‘rape’ in children. These individual cases were followed up, rescued and rehabilitated whenever possible. This paper deals with a prospective study of 130 cases, between the ages of 6 months to 18 years from Bombay, over a period of 15 months. Over 77.68% oases were more than 4 years of age and 6.15% were between the ages of 6 months and 6 years. Shockingly, 2 young infants were of 6 months of age. Majority of these girls belonged to various slums of Bombay. 34.5% of girls were illiterate, and 79.23% had some knowledge about sex. Surprisingly 36.16% were willing victims and the criteria for including these cases under ‘rape’ was their under age i.e. less than 18 years. Of these 130 victims, 23 conceived, of which 6 delivered after full term. The remaining 17 cases were medically terminated. Of the accused, neighbours were responsible in 51.53% of cases, the remaining being contributed by employer, relative, friend and known hooligans from the same area. Some of these girls were rehabilitated and some are still in the remand home. Few girls, though minor, were married to the accused and were still keen on accepting them as their husbands against the wish of their parents.     

Being ‘nuff’ and ‘scudding class’: exploring girls’ and boys’ perceptions of popularity,gender and achievement in Antiguan secondary schools

This paper will report on the findings from classroom observations and focus group discussions conducted on the topic of popularity and fitting in at school with girls and boys from four government secondary schools in Antigua. The findings show that whilst boys did experience difficulties negotiating academic success and acceptable masculinities, the consensus was that popularity was associated with low achievement for both girls and boys. However, there was evidence that some girls were able to work hard and maintain better peer relations than other high achieving students, but that this ‘balancing’ required conformity to hetero‐feminine norms as well as the espousal of rigid views about what girls can and can't do. This suggests that real equality is far from being reached.     

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.     

‘Download’: ‘Postcards Home’ Contemporary Art and New Technology in the Primary School

‘Postcards Home’ using photography, scanning, digital image manipulation, text and colour printing was the third ‘Download’ project devised by the education department of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England. It was led by artist Laurie Long with teachers and pupils from Pooles Park primary school in Islington, an inner city borough in North London. Based on the production of a postcard featuring an image of personal significance, the children were involved in exploring and constructing their own and others' identities whilst developing their technology skills in creative ways. The project raises interesting questions about the applicability of contemporary art practices to the primary classroom. The research is based on participant observation and includes the voices of the artist and teachers involved.