History taught at school versus history discovered at home: The case of Estonia

Two conflicting versions of the history of their country were acquired by children in Estonia during the Soviet rule. While the official version was taught systematically at school, the unofficial one, banned from the public sphere, was discovered individually by each child with the help of parents or other adults, family photo albums, surviving books from the 1920'ies and 1930'ies, and other sources. Differences between the two versions are described as well as their relations to ethnic identity and self-esteem, and the reasons for the failure of the official version and the survival of the unofficial one are analysed.     

Secondary school students' use of computers at home

This article presents the results from a survey of students in Year 9 in secondary schools in England (ie, aged about 14 years) which investigated access to computers at home, frequency and duration of use, the applications used and students' reasons for using a computer at home. Responses showed that the majority of students had access to a computer, although few had one for their sole use. The most widely used applications were games/adventures and word processors. There were significant gender differences in access to computers at home, frequency of using computers and the applications that students spent most time using.     

Away with all teachers: The cultural politics of home schooling

In the United States and a number of nations, one of the most powerful dynamics of educational 'reform' involves the movement toward home schooling. The national media have spoken glowingly about it and the number of children being schooled at home is growing rapidly. In large part, this is stimulated by the circulation of anti-statist discourses and by the continuation and expansion of claims about school failure. In these accounts, the sources of educational problems are multiple: teacher education institutions produce teachers who are unprepared academically and unskilled in teaching the 'basics'; state funded (public, in the US sense of the word) schools have been taken over by 'progressive' models of teaching that are unworkable; these same schools do not teach 'traditional' cultural and religious knowledge, beliefs, and values; and public schools do not listen to conservative parents and are much too bureaucratic. Supporters of home schooling are usually religious fundamentalists who have increasing power in the USA and elsewhere. They have formed a national coalition and have joined in a tense rightist hegemonic alliance with neo-liberals and neo-conservatives, an alliance that seeks to reconstruct our common-sense about education and about all things social. The article shows how the movement toward home schooling has become more extensive and more dangerous than has usually been thought. In the process, home schooling is situated within the larger conservative and authoritarian populist ideological, religious, and social movements that provide much of its impetus. Connections are suggested with other protectionist impulses and connections are made to the history of and concerns about the growth of activist government. Finally, the article points to how it may actually hurt many other students who are not home schooled.     

Voices of home and school on democracy and human rights education at the primary level: a case study

The purpose of this research was to investigate the perceptions of home and school concerning ideally implemented primary democracy and human rights education. In this qualitative study, data were collected from six voluntary classroom teachers and 16 parents in a selected school through interviews. The results of the interview yielded five major themes: physical and environmental issues, instructional process, teacher characteristics, assessment practices, and communication patterns for teaching democracy and human rights ideally. Most of the participants also indicated the lack of partnership between home and school. The results showed that there are gaps between the existing and desired conditions of democracy and human rights education in schools.     

The self-evaluating school — a case study of a special school

School self-evaluation allows staff to review the quality of their work in relation to local contexts. In this article, Peter Neil, senior lecturer in education, Alex McEwen, professor of education, and Karen Carlisle and Damian Knipe, both research assistants in the Graduate School of Education at Queen's University, Belfast, discuss a research project focusing on the process of self-evaluation carried out by staff at a special school in Northern Ireland. The project involved the participants in the completion of a research journal over a four-week period. The authors describe the ways in which the outcomes of the project were fed back to staff and the impact the project had on a range of issues, including teaching and learning and the school's professional development agenda.     

高中家校合作的现状及对策分析

对于高中生来说,家庭和学校是其生活的两大环境。家校合作开展以来,有效促进了教学质量的提高。但是,家校合作实际操作中还仍然存在很大的问题。因此,从思想认识、体制机制等方面进行了原因分析,并针对问题及原因提出了强化双方的合作意识、拓宽双方的合作渠道等切实可行的解决对策。     

A longitudinal study of children's early literacy experiences at home and later literacy development at home and school

Studies of literacy attainment in the early years of school have identified various measures at school entry which predict later attainment. The study reported has sought not only to replicate earlier findings but to investigate significant home factors from a younger age. Literacy experiences of 42 children at ages 3, 5 and 7 were investigated, and the relationship of home factors to literacy development explored. Findings are reported concerning two outcome measures at age 7: children's reading level, as determined by the difficulty level of their school reading book, and whether or not children at age 7 were judged to have literacy difficulties. Significant factors included having favourite books at age 3; letter knowledge and parents reading to children at school entry; and at age 7, access to home computers, and parents’ knowledge of literacy teaching in school. Children with literacy difficulties owned fewer books, were less likely to read to themselves or their parents, and generally had less support for literacy at home. Implications for teachers, highlighting the relevance of home literacy, are discussed. The findings underline the importance of home factors for children's literacy development.     

中外中学生物学教育改革趋势

生物学是21世纪的前沿学科。发展迅速。它将给人类带来新的机遇和挑战。其学科教育在国内外也越来越受到重视。本文从教材编写、教学内容、教学目标、教学测量与评价等四个方面阐述当今国际国内生物学教育发展的趋势，以期让读者更好地了解生物学教学发展的方向，为教学改革提供可借鉴之处。     

Family literacy as a third space between home and school: some case studies of practice

In this article, the relationship between literacy practices and spatiality is explored in the context of family literacy. The article draws on fieldwork in family literacy classrooms as part of two evaluations in Croydon and Derbyshire of family learning provision. Methods of evaluation included classroom observations in rural and suburban locations. In addition, teachers and parents were interviewed. In this instance, family learning included literacy and language activities with parents and children in school and nursery settings. These were learning spaces where parents and children collaborated on joint projects including book making, storytelling, the making of visual artefacts and reading and writing activities. The research revealed how family literacy classrooms could be understood as ‘third spaces’, between home and school, offering parents and children discursive opportunities drawing on both domains.     

Socioeconomic school segregation in a market-oriented educational system. The case of Chile

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the socioeconomic status (SES) school segregation in Chile, whose educational system is regarded as an extreme case of a market-oriented education. The study estimated the magnitude and evolution of the SES segregation of schools at both national and local levels, and it studied the relationship between some local educational market dynamics and the observed magnitude of SES school segregation at municipal level. The main findings were: first, the magnitude of the SES segregation of both low-SES and high-SES students in Chile was very high (Duncan Index ranged from 0.50 to 0.60 in 2008); second, during the last decade, SES school segregation tended to slightly increase in Chile, especially in high schools (both public and private schools); third, private schools – including voucher schools – were more segregated than public schools for both low-SES and high-SES students; and finally, some market dynamics operating in the Chilean education (like privatization, school choice, and fee-paying) accounted for a relevant proportion of the observed variation in SES school segregation at municipal level. These findings are analyzed from an educational policy perspective in which the link between SES school segregation and market-oriented mechanisms in education plays a fundamental role.     

Accountability,school reform,and equity: The troubling case of Sylvan school district

Most educational accountability systems draw upon relatively simplified indicators of student learning. Despite sufficient criticism and evidence of their misuse, test scores continue to be emphasized—even though they have a deadening effect on the very school district these accountability systems intend to primarily influence. This paper focuses on one of these low-performing school districts. The case study of Sylvan One reveals that the influence of state policy is especially circumscribed in a district like Sylvan's that is beset by such prevailing conditions as the politics of race, the culture of poverty, vacuums in communication and leadership, and the uncritical mass of human resources. Each of these conditions limits change and reform dramatically. Account-ability and reform must focus on a rigorous curriculum and well-understood standards—but only in the context of this community, replete with its problems ofrelationships, resources, andracism. These are the “three Rs” that are tantamount to creating and sustaining reform. And this approach is more about political development than anything else. Recommendations for moving beyond the traditional policymaking tools of mandates and inducements are suggested, recognizing that policy may at best promote equality, but not necessarily excellence and equity.     

Primary pupils' use of information and communication technologies at school and home

Based on survey data from 612 pupils in five English primary schools, this paper investigates children's engagement with information and communication technologies (ICTs) inside and outside the school context. Analysis of the data shows pupils' engagements with ICTs to be often perfunctory and unspectacular, especially within the school setting, where the influence of year group and school attended are prominent. Whilst the majority of children felt that ICT use led to gains in learning, the paper discusses how there was a strong sense of educational uses of ICTs being constrained by the nature of the schools within which 'educational' use was largely framed and often situated. The paper concludes by suggesting possible changes to ICT provision in primary schools, most notably relaxing school restrictions regarding Internet access and developing meaningful dialogues with pupils about future forms of educational ICT use.     

To enter the castle of fear: engendering children's story writing from home to school at KS2

This paper describes a small‐scale writing project in which a class of KS 2 primary pupils were invited to import their own narrative interests into a task designed by their teacher and the researcher within the constraints of the National Literacy Strategy. By employing an adventure genre, based on problem and puzzle solving, pupils were encouraged to introduce familiar scenarios and characters from their favourite stories in books, comics, videos or computer games. The work produced has been analyzed to highlight the different ways in which boys and girls engaged with key aspects of narrative and how this enabled discussion of gendered literacy practices in which boys and girls held an equal stake. The author discusses the importance of developing strategies by means of which children's understanding and transformations of their preferred modes of narrative pleasures can be housed within the current literacy framework.     

Conditions of school success: Relationships between characteristics of pupils,home environment,and school marks

European Journal of Psychology of Education -