Item format as a factor affecting the relative standing of countries in the third international mathematics and science study (TIMSS)

Abstract

Since the introduction of the Northern Ireland Curriculum, (Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order, 1989) education in Northern Ireland has been underpinned by a process of continual change. The Department of Education has established new priorities which are no longer purely concerned with academic standards but which are more focused on preparing pupils for life in a modern complex democracy. Many of the key issues which have emerged over the past decade such as a commitment to social inclusion, personal development and balance in the curriculum have been, and continue to be an important part of the Rudolf Steiner philosophy. This paper argues that a critical examination of the Steiner approach to education has the potential to inform and improve practice in mainstream schools. In the same way, Steiner schools would benefit from a careful scrutiny of recent policy developments in mainstream practice.     

Accountability in Partnership or Partnership in Accountability: Initial teacher education in Northern Ireland

This paper analyses accountability and partnership in Initial Teacher Education for the primary school sector in Northern Ireland. In considering teacher education, the paper focuses on three higher education institutions: Stranmillis University College, St Mary's University College and the University of Ulster. Of the three institutions, the Roman Catholic Church maintains St Mary's University College while the other institutions have no religious affiliations. The paper focuses on the reform of teacher education within the British Isles and sets Northern Ireland into a context of a system of teacher education which has developed new patterns of accountability. Three sources of evidence are used to analyse accountability; firstly the perception of schools that are partners in Initial Teacher Education; secondly, the views of the Education and Training Inspectorate who are responsible for accrediting teacher education in Northern Ireland; and thirdly, the views of the three university schools of education. The paper will demonstrate how teacher education in Northern Ireland is simultaneously similar to, and different from, teacher education in the rest of the developed world. It will illuminate the dimensions of accountability in the primary school sector and show how in Northern Ireland this is heavily segregated by religious denomination.     

Technical Education in Northern Ireland After Partition: A Case Study of the Work of a Newly‐formed Local Education Authority,County Down 1925–1933

On the partition of Ireland in 1921, the Northern Ireland Ministry of Education assumed control of the educational services which had been previously administered by four independent bodies in Dublin. The Education Act (Northern Ireland) 1923 created the county councils and county borough councils of the new devolved state the local education authorities in their areas and imposed on them certain duties for the establishment of machinery for the local administration of education. This paper considers the role of a newly‐formed single county authority in the implementation of technical education in its area. The historical background and the effects of legislation are discussed and the authority’s work relating to the transfer of schools and development and progress of this branch of education are assessed during the early years of the new administration.     

LEA Inspectors and Advisers: a developmental analysis

Until recently the great majority of pupils in Northern Ireland attended schools associated with their own religion. Recently there have appeared a number of new, planned, religiously integrated schools and this movement has been given official support by the decision of the Department of Education for Northern Ireland to include a section in its new legislation which facilitates and promotes the development of integrated schools. This paper is concerned with trying to understand what it means to call a school integrated in the specific context of Northern Ireland. It describes three characteristics of the new schools: school membership, that is, the planned religious composition of the enrolment and staffing; the ethos of the school with regard to the two communities; and the role of parents in their management.     

Dyslexia policy and practice: cross‐professional and parental perspectives on the Northern Ireland context

This article considers policy and practice in relation to dyslexia provision in Northern Ireland since the 2002 Task Group Report. Using interviews with original and current stakeholders, this research, funded by SCoTENS (Standing Conference on Teacher Education, North and South), examined the extent to which recommendations have been met in the intervening years. Perspectives of interviewees indicated that while pockets of good practice have existed, this has been inconsistent. Despite the Department of Education (Northern Ireland) promoting and funding a significant and replicable model of teacher education and making efforts to monitor its efficacy, concerns remain regarding the optional nature of training, the maintenance of the discrepancy model of dyslexia identification, the need for early multi‐disciplinary identification, whole‐school policy development and post‐primary provision. In addition, stakeholders questioned the sustainability of funding and advocated enhanced transparency for parents, whose voices, it would appear, can still go unheard.     

Management of bullying in Northern Ireland schools: a pre-legislative survey

Background:?Unlike the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland has only recently (2003) implemented legislation regarding the requirement for anti-bullying policies in the province's school system.

Purpose:?The purpose of the study was to ascertain the nature of the management of bully/victim problems across Northern Ireland schools prior to the enactment of legislation.

Sample:?From an exhaustive sampling frame of all 1329 schools in Northern Ireland (96 nursery, 910 primary, 167 secondary, 73 grammar, 54 special, 29 further education), a total of 285 schools replied to a questionnaire (20 nursery, 181 primary, 41 secondary, 26 grammar, 13 special, 3 further education, 1 non-specified), a return rate of 23.11%.

Design and methods:?A review of the literature and consultation with educational experts in Northern Ireland resulted in the development of an ‘Audit’ questionnaire designed to examine dissemination and implementation (or not) of Department of Education, or bespoke, discipline and anti-bullying policies; components of anti-bullying programmes; the communication of anti-bullying policies to the school community; staff training; reporting and management of claims of staff victimisation; sanctions against bullies; and homophobic bullying.

Results:?It was found that, in a legislative vacuum, the schools in Northern Ireland had been acting in a proactive manner regarding the management of such bully/victim problems (e.g., development and implementation of policies, effective communication strategies).

Conclusions:?These results provide a baseline from which the efficacy of subsequent legislation in Northern Ireland can be evaluated. Utilisation of the methodology adopted in this study would be beneficial in other jurisdictions in evaluations of knowledge, attitudes and management of bully/victim problems, either pre- or post-implementation of legislation.     

Shared Education in contested spaces: How collaborative networks improve communities and schools

Societies which suffer from ethnic and political divisions are often characterised by patterns of social and institutional separation, and sometimes these divisions remain even after political conflict has ended. This has occurred in Northern Ireland where there is, and remains, a long-standing pattern of parallel institutions and services for the different communities. A socially significant example lies in the education system where a parallel system of Catholic and Protestant schools has been in place since the establishment of a national school system in the 1830s. During the years of political violence in Northern Ireland a variety of educational interventions were implemented to promote reconciliation, but most of them failed to create any systemic change. This paper describes a post-conflict educational initiative known as Shared Education which aims to promote social cohesion and school improvement by encouraging sustained and regular shared learning between students and broader collaboration between teachers and school leaders from different schools. The paper examines the background to work on Shared Education, describes a ‘sharing continuum’ which emerged as an evaluation and policy tool from this work and considers evidence from a case study of a Shared Education school partnership in a divided city in Northern Ireland. The paper will conclude by highlighting some of the significant social and policy impact of the Shared Education work.     

The International Education Index: A global approach to education policy analysis,performance and sustainable development

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world struggled to address growing educational inequalities and fulfil the commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The pandemic has exacerbated these inequalities and changed how education functions, moving to online and hybrid methods. The challenges in global education highlighted and worsened by the pandemic make it necessary to re-evaluate education systems and the policies in place to support access, quality and equal opportunity. This article focuses on analysing education policies at a national level. It tests a pilot policy analysis tool, the International Education Index (IEI), developed as a starting point to begin this reconsideration and create an accessible and comprehensive way to evaluate national education systems to inform decision-making and policies in the new context. This research uses Ireland and Northern Ireland to test the IEI pilot tool. The IEI consists of 54 questions across nine indicators, including institutional frameworks, education strategies, digital skills and infrastructure, twenty-first century skills, access to basic social services, adherence to international standards, legal frameworks, data gathering and availability and international partnerships. Countries can score 108 points to be categorised as having developed, emerging or nascent national education systems. Ireland scored 94 and Northern Ireland 81, indicating that they have developed national education systems.     

Higher Education Participation of Northern Irish Students 1

Higher education in Britain displays a diversity of patterns of participation and provision. The establishment of funding councils for England, Scotland, Wales; together with the advisory body the Northern Ireland Higher Education Council (NIHEC), for Northern Ireland, will further increase this diversity. As these councils go about their work, a valuable exercise might be conducted by recording the patterns of participation in the early 1990s. Each council confronts a different tradition, with different levels of participation, and with somewhat different issues on their policy agenda. The NIHEC oversees a small two university system, with a high Northern Irish age participation index, and where affirmative action and equal opportunity measures have a particular prominence.     

Student teachers,special educational needs and inclusion education: reviewing the potential for problem‐based,e‐learning pedagogy to support practice

Northern Ireland has invested heavily in the use of technology enhanced learning at all levels of education. Alongside this, radical changes to the school curriculum and the planned move away from academic selection towards a more inclusive system are challenging those involved in Initial Teacher Education to find ways to improve teaching and learning for more inclusive classrooms. This study reviews a pilot programme that integrated problem‐based and blended e‐learning pedagogy to support student teachers learning in the area of special needs and inclusion education. Findings indicate that using a carefully constructed blended programme can effectively support key teaching and learning aspects of pre‐service training and help develop skills in critical reflection. It also offers initial teacher educators in Northern Ireland insight into some of the most pressing problems experienced by student teachers during training, and provides a rationale for continued programme development.     

All Christians? Experiences of science educators in Northern Ireland

In this paper we respond to Staver’s article (this issue) on an attempt to resolve the discord between science and religion. Most specifically, we comment on Staver’s downplaying of difference between Catholics and Protestants in order to focus on the religion-science question. It is our experience that to be born into one or other of these traditions in some parts of the world (especially Northern Ireland) resulted in starkly contrasting opportunities, identities and practices in becoming and being science educators. The paper starts with a short contextual background to the impact of religion on schooling and higher education in Northern Ireland. We then explore the lives and careers of three science/religious educators in Northern Ireland: Catholic (Jim) and Protestant (Ivor) males who are contemporaries and whose experience spans pre-Troubles to post-conflict and a Catholic female (Colette) who moved to Northern Ireland during the Troubles as a teenager. Finally, we discuss the situation regarding the teaching of creationism and evolution in Northern Ireland—an issue has recently generated high public interest. The Chair of the Education Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly recently stated that “creationism is not for the RE class because I believe that it can stand scientific scrutiny and that is a debate which I am quite happy to encourage and be part of…” (News Letter 2008). It could be the case that the evolution debate is being fuelled as a deliberate attempt to undermine some of the post-conflict collaboration projects between schools and communities in Northern Ireland.     

Building a Springboard: regionalization within the Microelectronics in Schools and Colleges Development Programme

The Departments of Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have indicated that the recently launched Development Programme in Microelectronics in Schools and Colleges is to be structured along lines 'comparable' to NDPCAL, the National Development Programme in Computer Assisted Learning (Department of Education and Science, 1979). This paper considers some of the possible consequences of this intention. Drawing upon the reports and evaluation studies of NDPCAL, their own personal experience within NDPCAL and the theories of innovation of Donald Schon, the authors identify 'regionalization' within the Microelectronics in Education Programme as the key to its long-term success. Alternative approaches to the development of regional infrastructures for the support of the innovation are explored and a proposal is made for the establishment, within the new Programme, of 'regionalization' projects.     

Traveller culture and lifestyle as factors influencing children's integration into mainstream secondary schools in West Belfast

In 1997, the Department of Education for Northern Ireland made the decision to mainstream Traveller children into secondary schools including those in West Belfast. Before then, Traveller children over 11 years of age remained in a dedicated school for all Traveller children of school age living within the catchment area of West Belfast. This paper presents the findings of a small‐scale research project that examined the experiences of Traveller children attending two West Belfast secondary schools which have integrated Traveller children into mainstream education since 1997. It also discusses ramifications of mainstreaming for Traveller parents in West Belfast. The project focused particularly on the following: the attitudes of Traveller children to mainstreaming and inclusion at secondary level; the possibilities mainstreaming offers for furthering the inclusion of Travellers into the community at large; and the perceptions of Traveller parents in West Belfast to mainstreaming in secondary schools.     

A Comparison of Part-time Higher Education Provision and Participation Rates in the UK: Implications for the Development of Provision in Northern Ireland

Most studies of higher education participation rates have been primarily concerned with the numbers of full-time students most of whom have progressed into higher education soon after leaving secondary school or full-time further education. This paper seeks to compare part-time provision and participation levels in Northern Ireland with that in other parts of the UK. The pattern which emerges is that part-time participation rates in Northern Ireland do not appear markedly different to those in other parts of the UK. However there are distinctive features in the pattern of provision. Compared with Scotland, a much higher proportion of part-time HE in Northern Ireland takes place within the universities. It is argued that these differences should be considered when examining options for tackling the under-supply of HE places in Northern Ireland which are identified in the Northern Ireland Appendix to the Dearing Report.     

Promoting Evidence-based Education Practice and Better Student Outcomes through Improved Consumer Reporting

The past two decades have seen an increased need for better consumer reporting in education. This has resulted in part from a variety of education initiatives sponsored by the US Department of Education (ED) and others. The initiatives have increased the number of school improvement options available to educators and encouraged—or sometimes required—that choices be guided by “scientifically-based research.”     

Higher Education Participation in Northern Ireland

Higher education participation in Northern Ireland is higher than England and Wales and second only to Scotland. This paper charts the progress of participation and examines its social characteristics. Uniquely within the UK, approximately one-third of Northern Ireland entrants come from working class backgrounds. Catholic and female participation has also increased significantly but the participation of mature entrants is lower than in the rest of the UK. High participation levels have been achieved, however, by large numbers of entrants leaving to study in Scotland and England. There is a significant undersupply of higher education places in Northern Ireland when compared with either Scotland or Wales. With the costs of higher education being increasingly borne by individual students and their families there is already evidence that more students would prefer to remain in Northern Ireland to study. Increasing pressure on places is driving up A-level entry requirements and many students are forced to leave Northern Ireland to study or not to study in higher education. These developments threaten the advances made by particular social groups. Lifting the MASN cap in Northern Ireland is a significant policy objective.     

The contribution of ‘shared education’ to Catholic–Protestant reconciliation in Northern Ireland: a third way?

Northern Ireland has achieved political stability and its devolved government is now tackling public policy issues neglected during periods of sectarian violence. Notwithstanding the prevailing political optimism, one legacy of the conflict is a deeply divided society. This is particularly manifest in the education system where around 90% of children attend either state (controlled) schools (de facto Protestant) or Catholic (maintained) schools, with integrated schools accounting for less than 6% of the school population. In an attempt to address this duplication of services, in the context of 85,000 empty desks, external funders have piloted an initiative entitled The Shared Education Programme (SEP) where schools working in cross‐community partnerships deliver shared classes and activities in order to improve education outcomes. This paper attempts to: quantify the educational returns for pupils participating in the SEP; articulate the qualitative reconciliation benefits from the perspective of teachers, parents and pupils; and, locate the findings of the research in the ongoing policy debate about restructuring education provision in Northern Ireland at a time of budget retrenchment and declining school rolls.     

Towards Partnership in Teacher Education in Northern Ireland—an unfinished story

This paper was presented at the Gargnano seminar. It presents an analysis of the reform of teacher education in Northern Ireland from 1992 to 1995. It points to similarities and differences with developments in England and Wales and describes in detail the debate on partnership teacher education up to June 1995. The focus of the paper is on policy development in N.I. and on the interactions between the main players involved in advising government and implementing policy. The positions taken up by the Government, the HE institutions, the schools and the Northern Ireland Teacher Education Committee are described. The approach taken by the University of Ulster in the planning and delivery of social work training in N.I. is used as an exemplar of partnership building worthy of examination by the teaching profession. The paper concludes with a short section (written in September 1996) which brings the reader up to date on some major developments, including a “step back from the brink”.     

Student teachers’ attitudes to inclusion: implications for Initial Teacher Education in Northern Ireland

With the imminent passing of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Act (SENDA) into law in Northern Ireland, along with changes to the curriculum and the planned move away from academic selection for post‐primary pupils in 2008, the education system in Northern Ireland is about to embrace radical change. Inclusion has now become one of the most pressing educational issues both nationally and internationally. As we move to address such change, there is a recognition that Initial Teacher Education (ITE) must review how new teachers are trained so they are equipped to teach effectively in classrooms that may be very different from their own learning experience. This paper focuses on a research project undertaken at the University of Ulster that considers student teachers’ attitudes to inclusion before their first teaching practice experience. While the findings reveal evidence of support for the philosophy of inclusion and for inclusive practices generally, they also show that many young teachers still show a strong attachment to, and belief in, traditional academic selection as a preferred education model     

英国高等教育资格框架(FHEQ)的新进展及启示

英国高等教育资格框架(FHEQ)是一个以学习成果为基础、将所有高等教育资格分为5个级别的框架。该框架在保障高等教育质量、促进教育系统内部的沟通与衔接、加强高等教育与利益相关者的联系以及促进国际交流等方面起到了重要的作用。我国要建立高等教育资格框架,既需要制定详细的资格指标体系,又需要提高高等教育质量保障的透明度。