Religious Identity Development of Adolescents in Christian Secondary Schools: Effects of School and Religious Backgrounds of Adolescents and Their Parents

This study examines religious identity development of pupils at Dutch schools for secondary education (mean age 16.4). With the help of a theoretical conceptualization of “religious identity development” empirical research is carried out. Main question is whether differences in terms of religious commitment and exploration between pupils of the four participating schools can be explained by religious denominations of pupils and the importance the pupils' parents attach to worldview. It is concluded that school in general has no significant main effect on religious commitments and explorations of pupils. Religious backgrounds of pupils should be taken into account. Because pupils themselves do indicate that school has influence on the way they look at life, further research is needed in which specific school aspects (like the way pupils evaluate religious education) should also be taken into account.     

The Dutch policy of integration put to the test: differences in academic and psychosocial development of pupils in special and mainstream education

After several failed attempts to rein in the growth of special education, the Dutch government made a start in 1991 with a policy to accommodate pupils with problems in regular education and to put a stop to the growth of special education. This paper examines a large-scale study conducted by our research group at the University of Amsterdam which attempted to answer the question whether pupils with problems are better off in special education where there are more resources and they can get more attention than in mainstream schools. It was expected that the pupils in special education would do better due to the specialist care and individual attention. However, with a few exceptions, few differences were found when comparable at-risk pupils in regular schools were compared with their counterparts in both types of special schools. There was a conspicuously large measure of variability in both regular and special education. All school types had both at-risk pupils who were doing well from an academic and/or psychosocial perspective and pupils whose progress left much to be desired. There is little evidence to support the idea that at-risk pupils make less progress, in either their academic or psychosocial development, in regular schools compared with pupils in special schools. The general assumption that at-risk pupils will do better in special education does not seem to account for its attractiveness. Contrary to the policy theory, the dual system, as it exists in The Netherlands, does not appear to be an obstacle to the provision of adequate care for pupils with special educational needs. However, the policy to equip regular schools to accommodate this category of pupils appears not to be realized as simply as that. It has not proved possible to demonstrate the effects of the varying levels of specialist help provided by regular schools on the development of at-risk pupils.     

Pupils’ Image of ‘the Scientist’ among Two Communities in Israel: A comparative study

The image of ‘the scientist’ and its effect on the willingness to be a scientist and to follow a career in science were investigated in two different cultural populations of elementary and junior high school pupils in Israel: Hebrew‐speaking (secular) pupils (N = 390) and Arabic‐speaking Bedouin pupils (N = 185). Five different tools were employed in our investigation (naming scientists, pictorial representation of the scientist (‘Draw‐a‐Scientist‐Test’), statements regarding the characteristics of the scientist, reasons for wanting/not wanting or being able/being unable to be scientists, and sources of knowledge regarding the scientist’s image). The image held by Hebrew pupils was similar to those held by western pupils found in previous research, but some details were more elaborate (due to the fact that many different tools were employed here). However, the image held by the Arabic pupils differed from that found in previous research. This image had a strong ethnical trend, with Golden Age Muslim scientists’ names dominating name lists, and drawings of traditional Muslim figures. Another image found in their drawings was of a scientist admired as a teacher, emphasising the Bedouin school’s formal culture. The theory of modernity will be a useful analytical tool to judge the results of the investigation, whether the population is supposed to be (or is close to) a modern population and whether it does not, definitely, fall under this definition (see Methods and Discussion).     

The impact of placing pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools on the achievement of their peers

Background Over the past 20 years or so policy and practice on the education of children with special educational needs (SEN) has been aimed at placing increasing numbers of children in a mainstream school environment. Although this policy has been supported in principle by many teachers, parents and local authority officers, there has been much less agreement about whether this principle can be realized in practice, and even if it can, about what the impacts might be on the achievements of pupils with SEN in mainstream schools and, in particular, on their peers.

Purpose This paper discusses the key findings from a systematic review of the literature carried out by the Inclusion Review Group, on behalf of the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information (EPPI)-Centre, the purpose of which was to review research evidence on whether the placement of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) within mainstream schools has an impact on academic and social outcomes for pupils without SEN.

Design and methods The methodology followed the procedures adopted by the EPPI-Centre. Having agreed on the inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies that could be included in the review, an initial pool of 7137 papers were identified through electronic databases. After having screened all their titles and/or abstracts and having marked out possible papers to be included in the review, 119 paper copies were obtained—all of which were read by one or more of the authors of this paper. This led to a further reduction to 26 studies that were subjected to the EPPI data extraction process and synthesis.

Conclusions Overall, the findings suggest that there are no adverse effects on pupils without SEN of including pupils with special needs in mainstream schools, with 81% of the outcomes reporting positive or neutral effects. Despite concerns about the quality of some of the studies that were reviewed and the fact that the great majority were carried out in the USA, these findings should bring some comfort to headteachers, parents and local authority officers around the world at a time when concerns have been raised about the problems that schools face in responding to the twin agenda of becoming more inclusive and, at the same time, raising the achievements of all their pupils.     

Classroom conditions to secure enjoyment and achievement: the pupils' voice. Listening to the voice of Every child matters

This paper argues that pupil voice and the active engagement of pupils in shaping their own educational experience are integral to the success of the ‘Enjoy and Achieve’ strand of the Every child matters: Change for children programme. Through accessing the voice of Key Stage 2 pupils, insight was gained into what pupils believe to be the ideal ‘classroom conditions’ which enable them to enjoy and achieve at school. Pupil voice was accessed using an innovative form of group interview incorporating an Ishikawa or fishbone tool. The data was collected from 180 pupils, from Years 3–6 (aged 7–11) in a UK Junior school. The findings identify eight ‘classroom conditions’ which pupils see as being critical for them to be able to enjoy and achieve at school. Two of these ‘classroom conditions’ do not appear to be supported by previous research.     

Consistent and Inconsistent Pupils' Reasoning about Intensive Quantities: The Case of Density and Pressure

In this research we investigate whether the categorisation of physical quantities into intensive and extensive, according to scientific knowledge, is perceivable and understood by pupils aged 12–15 years. For this purpose we administered written questionnaires to 300 pupils, comprising four tasks for each intensive quantity: density and pressure. The tasks investigate whether pupils realise that intensive quantities do not depend on the amount of the system they refer to and the factors affecting pupils' reasoning and their consistency when studying phenomena involving fluids at rest or in transition. The analysis of responses led us to identify three models of consistent pupils' reasoning. It was also observed that a significant percentage of the pupils provide inconsistent answers, that is, they change their reasoning across tasks and use alternatives to scientific reasoning, influenced by phenomenological features of the tasks. According to our results we propose a number of recommendations, such as the introduction of intermediate teaching/learning steps to be followed as well as suitable experiments to be used towards the acquisition of the scientific model for density and pressure.     

Mathématique et affectivité

Summary This article sums up a survey carried out on pupils of 15 to 18 years of age to study the relations existing between mathematics and affectivity. Pupils were considered according to their sex and whether they were in literary or scientific streams.This work has been carried out according to a clinical method based on 60 recorded interviews and also according to an experimental method based on 600 sets of questions. Its objective was to show in which way mathematics can be considered as a support for libidinal cathexis used by the unconscious through various mechanisms.This research work has been published in: Mathématique et Affectivité, Édition Stock, Paris.     

A School Discovers the Gustatory

For the educational sages such as Salzmann or Fröbel it is quite normal to consider nutrition an educational factor as well. But perhaps at that time it was also simpler since it was clear enough from looking at pupils whether they were hungry or not. Today, on the other hand, there are if anything too many fat pupils, but that is probably only conspicuous in physical education. Still, a considerable portion of West German citizens suffer from a vitamin deficiency! This in any case is what the "German Society for Nutrition," which is by no means a lobby for Müsli, has found.     

“发现—体验—探索”渐进式教学模式在美术作品欣赏教学中的应用

小学美术欣赏教学中如何唤起学生的切身的感知和体验,是当前欣赏教学亟需解决的关键问题。笔者以《富春山居图》欣赏教学为例,以生本课堂理论为依托,运用体验式学习方法展开教学,在美术作品欣赏教学中开展"发现—体验—探索"渐进式的以学生为主体的欣赏活动,将传统教学中单向的美术观赏课程转化为双向的、多元的探究式互动欣赏教学,促进了学生艺术知觉的逐步形成。     

What information handling skills are promoted by the use of data analysis software?

This paper describes an investigation of secondary school pupils using data analysis software in their science lessons. The aim of the project was to determine the nature and complexity of data analysis tasks that could be mastered by pupils aged between 13 and 14 years, through the use of data analysis software. The research project involved the study of three matched experimental and control pairs of classes of pupils analysing scientifically- based data. The findings show that pupils using computer-based software can perform a range of complex tasks, including the use of Boolean logical operators, 'and', 'greater than' and 'less than', which are more intellectually advanced than reported by other researchers. These results show that given appropriate information technology (IT)-based data analysis tools, pupils as young as 13--14 can perform such complex data analysis tasks as classifying data according to one or more criteria and then ranking data according to a different criterion. This contradicts some of the earlier research that concluded that such tasks could not be easily achieved by pupils of this age     

A matter of attitude? Developing a profile of boys’ and girls’ responses to primary schooling

Much of the research investigating pupils’ attitudes towards school has been qualitatively‐oriented. This analysis explores the extent to which some of the differences between pupils can be rendered in quantitative terms. Drawing upon a survey of 1310 pupils in 21 primary schools, its main concern is to explore the extent to which there is a ‘gender gap’ in attitudes and responses to school. The question of whether schools participating in the research faced common or distinct challenges in terms of pupils’ attitudes was also of interest. Analysis confirms that, in line with previous research, primary girls were more favourably disposed towards school than primary boys. Factor analysis of pupil responses to an attitude questionnaire showed that girls were more positive in terms of engagement with school and pupil behaviour but that boys had higher academic self‐esteem. There were no differences between the two sexes in terms of relationships with peers. A cluster analysis identified the existence of five groups of pupils, some of whom have been highlighted in previous research using different approaches. These groups were: (1) the enthusiastic and confident; (2) the moderately interested but easily bored; (3) the committed but lacking self‐esteem; (4) the socially engaged but disaffected; and (5) the alienated. The gendered nature of some of these groupings was apparent: the first group was dominated by girls while the fourth and fifth were dominated by boys. However, analysis indicated that such gender‐based differences were, to some extent, matters of degree. Some 14% of primary boys, for example, were judged to be alienated, but so were 9% of primary girls. An analysis of the prevalence of each group within each of the participating schools showed that while many primary schools had similar overall pupil profiles, some faced specific challenges associated with having larger proportions of particular groups of children (for example the alienated, the socially engaged but disaffected or the committed but lacking self‐esteem). The implications of the findings for those concerned with interventions in relation to gender issues are briefly discussed.     

Influences on Computer‐based Problem Solving: help facilities,intrinsic orientation,gender and home computing

Abstract Microcomputer aided instruction often provides pupils with a means of obtaining assistance. The findings of an initial study suggested that experience on a microcomputer task with a help facility does not necessarily lead to improved performance. The frequent use of a help facility was associated with poorer concurrent performance and was associated with poorer performance when the help facility was no longer available. The possibility that the effects of the help facility were confounded by other variables led to a second controlled investigation of this issue. This experiment confirmed that a help facility was of no significant benefit and appeared to interfere with some aspects of the pupils’ performance. The initial investigation also examined other sources of influence on computer‐based problem solving. It was found that, as predicted, pupils with an intrinsic orientation tended to use a help facility less and to choose more difficult problems. However, pupils who were intrinsically orientated were not found to be any better at computer‐based problem solving than pupils who were less intrinsically orientated. Finally, no differences were found in computer‐based problem solving according to gender or the pupils’ access to home computers.     

'To trust or not to trust,…'-pupils' ways of judging information encountered in a socio-scientific issue

This article reports from a qualitative study of how 16-year-old Norwegian pupils dealt with a socioscientific issue. The pupils were interviewed on aspects of their decision-making concerning a local version of the well-known controversial issue: whether or not power transmission lines increase the risk for childhood leukaemia. The part of the study reported here has focused on their views on the trustworthiness of knowledge claims, arguments and opinions given to them prior to interview. It was found that many aspects of trustworthiness were experienced as problematic by the pupils. Using inductive analysis, four main kinds of 'resolution strategies' were identified that were used by the pupils to decide who and what to trust: 1) Acceptance of knowledge claim, 2) Evaluation of statements using 'reliability indicators' and through explicitly 'thinking for themselves', 3) Acceptance of researchers or other sources of information as authoritative, 4) Evaluation of sources of information in terms of 'interests', 'neutrality' or 'competence'. Some pupils used all these strategies, others used only one or two. The pupils' evaluations were nuanced and based partly on empirical evidence, but mostly on rather superficial contextual information. It is argued that some of the resolution strategies imply that autonomous evaluations were made. One main conclusion is that knowledge of different sources of scientific information needs to be more emphasized in science education for citizenship.     

Pupils' views of the role and value of the science curriculum: A focus-group study

Pupils' perceptions of their experience of school science have rarely been investigated. The aim of the research reported in this paper, therefore, was to document the range of views that pupils held about the school science curriculum, the aspects they found either interesting and/or valuable, and their views about its future content. As such, the research aimed to articulate their views as a contribution to the debate about the future form and function of the school science curriculum. The method adopted to elicit their views was to use focus groups-a methodology that has not been extensively used in the science education research. Reported here are the findings from 20 focus groups conducted with 144 16-year-old pupils in London, Leeds and Birmingham, split both by gender and whether the pupils intended to continue, or not, with the study of science post-16. The findings of this research offer a window into pupils' perspective of school science revealing both their discontents and satisfaction with the existing curriculum. On the negative side, many pupils perceived school science to be a subject dominated by content with too much repetition and too little challenge. From a more positive perspective, pupils saw the study of science as important and were engaged by topics where they could perceive an immediate relevance, practical work, material that was challenging and high-quality teaching. The implications of these findings and the insights they provide for curriculum policy and school science curricula are discussed.     

Language Attitudes and Community Engagement: Diwan–The Breton Immersion High School Through the Eyes of Its Pupils

This article is based on long-term participant observation and interviews with pupils and graduates of the Diwan immersion high school in Brittany, France. With reference to the theory of communities of practice, this article shows how the education in the Breton immersion school can influence a knowledge of the minority language and the young peoples’ engagement with the protection of the Breton language. This article presents the social and cultural capital received through the learning of the Breton language; the distinction between Diwan pupils and people from outside the community; and the gradual formation of a collective new Breton-speakers identity. The sociolinguistic prognostic shows that in a few dozen years the only Breton speakers will be Breton learners. The use of Breton depends thus on having knowledge of it and on finding a community in which this language acts as the benchmark for the creation of a Breton identity.     

Antecedents affecting science achievement scores in classrooms in Trinidad and Tobago

This paper initially notes the role of scientific education in a developing country and the need to enhance scientific education among the school population. Enhancement of science education for all pupils is dependent on the distribution of schools, quality of schools and pupil participation in any country. To understand how science education is advanced in a developing country it is also important to know who is currently succeeding in science education in schools and to understand how this success is distributed amongst the school population. Thus, this paper questions whether school-based science achievement may be predetermined by antecedent factors or whether there is an equal opportunity of success amongst all pupil participants. A review of the literature has found that many antecedent factors affect school and science achievement, and these factors may be more important than within-school processes thought to enhance science education. The antecedent factors refer to: social/home background; age, religion and sex of the pupil; school class level and size; type of school attended and its locality.This study assesses how antecedent factors affect science performance in a representative sample of pupils in primary and secondary schools throughout Trinidad and Tobago. The representative sample totalled 1998 children, aged 6–10 years. Pupils were selected from a geographic transect of Trinidad and Tobago, which fulfilled demographic criteria. Once pupils were selected, biographic data were obtained for each child. Science achievement was measured by an end-of-term science examination designed for each class by the class teacher and graded on a 100% scale (within each class). Within class pupil scores were ‘standardized’ for comparisons between classes, schools, etc. Results from the analyses are summarized as: science achievement scores decrease as pupils increase in age. Girls perform consistently better than boys, with a slight variation in the sex by religion by school level interaction. Pupils in private schools score higher than pupils in similar levels of state schools. Pupils from a middle class background perform better than pupils from a working class background. Differences in performance relate to the religion of the child, with Muslim pupils scoring higher than Hindu or Christian pupils. Pupils in single-sex schools perform at higher levels than pupils in co-educational schools, and this is true for girls-only and boys-only schools. At the secondary school level the type of school attended is related to science achievement performance with pupils in prestige (usually church controlled) schools performing better than pupils in the comprehensive (state controlled) schools.The results support, develop and refine the previous literature on school and science achievement. Unusually, girls are at the forefront of science achievement in both primary and secondary schools. Also, traditional prejudices of social class, school status and location are confirmed within the school system in Trinidad and Tobago. A number of directions for future research and classroom action studies are indicated which focus on the existence of these inequalities.     

‘METHOD‐REVERSION’: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINING CHANGES IN TEACHER‐BEHAVIOUR

The NFER research into comprehensive education reported that around one‐third of pupils in the schools studied took no part in extra‐curricular activities, and that level of involvement was lower among certain groups. This study examines whether the interests of these pupils were being met by their schools and finds that low participation cannot be explained‐‐directly at least‐‐by school failure in providing desired activities. Nearly two‐thirds of all non‐participant pupils indicated that there was no activity which they would like to see introduced. Detailed study in three schools suggests that the ‘traditional’ school activities, though gathering a large number of participants, may be poor integrators of pupils of different abilities and that smaller activities are more successful in this respect.     

THE MEASUREMENT OF PERSONALITY‐‐III

During 1963, arrangements were made by the then Ministry of Education for a national experiment in foreign‐language teaching to be carried out in selected primary schools in England and Wales. The main purpose of the experiment, which came to be known as the Pilot Scheme for the teaching of French in primary schools, was to discover whether it would be both feasible and educationally desirable to extend the teaching of a foreign language to pupils who represented a wider range of age and ability than those to whom foreign languages had traditionally been taught. Under the Pilot Scheme, French was to be introduced into the primary school curriculum on an experimental basis from September 1964 onwards. The choice of French as the language to be taught was virtually inevitable, since it would have been impossible to provide an adequate teaching force for the implementation of the experiment if any language other than French had been chosen. In most of the schools taking part in the Pilot Scheme, French was to be taught throughout the primary stage of the experiment by class teachers who had received special in‐service training, rather than by specialist teachers of French. Arrangements were made to provide continuity of teaching at the secondary stage, so that all the pupils taking part in the experiment would be able to continue learning French without interruption for at least five years.

Once the experiment had been set up, it was agreed that its effects should be evaluated over a period of years by the NFER. In the event, the NFER evaluation spanned the period 1964‐1974, taking the form of a longitudinal study of three age‐groups or ‘cohorts’ of pupils attending the schools taking part in the experiment. The sole criterion on which pupils were chosen for inclusion in one of the experimental cohorts was their date of birth. In the first instance, French was to be taught to all eight‐year‐old pupils in the selected primary schools from September 1964 onwards; thereafter, the teaching of French was to be extended to a further year‐group each autumn, until it involved all pupils in the 8‐11 age‐range. Thus, the first cohort to come under study was composed of all pupils in the large primary schools taking part in the experiment who fell within the age‐range 8‐0‐8#lb11 on 1st September 1964 and all pupils in the small primary schools who fell within the age‐range 8#lb0‐9#lb11 on that date: this provided a sample of approximately 5.700 pupils. (A wider age‐range was sampled in the small primary schools, to avoid the creation of unworkably small groups.) The second cohort was composed of all pupils in the large primary schools in the sample who fell within the age‐range 8#lb0‐8#lb11 on 1st September 1965: this provided a sample of approximately 5,300 pupils. Pupils in the small primary schools were not represented in the second cohort, since most children of an appropriate age had already been included in the French classes set up for the first cohort.

Originally, the NFER evaluation was to have been based entirely on a longitudinal study of the pupils forming the first two experimental cohorts. It was hoped that the results of this study would provide sufficient information to enable valid conclusions to be drawn regarding the feasibility and advisability of teaching French at the primary level. As the experiment progressed however, it became clear that the pioneer status of the first cohort had entailed an atypical introduction to French. During the first year of the Pilot Scheme, for instance, difficult staffing problems were encountered which had not always been foreseen: in some primary schools, French teachers were absent without replacement for a whole term in order to attend intensive language courses in France; in others, no trained staff were available to teach French during the first term of the experiment, with the result that the first cohort pupils in these schools started to learn French one term later than the others in their age‐group. The first year of the experiment could therefore be regarded with some justification as an essentially exploratory period, calling into question the validity of using the results obtained from the study of the first cohort as a basis for future comparison. In view of these circumstances, it was considered advisable to extend the evaluation to a third cohort of pupils: those who would begin their study of French in September 1968. The third and final cohort to come under study was thus composed of all pupils in the large primary schools still taking part in the experiment who fell within the age‐range 8#lb0‐8#lb11 on 1st September 1968 and all pupils in the small primary schools who fell within the age‐range 8#lb0‐9#lb11 on the same date: this provided a sample of approximately 6,000 pupils. Inclusion in the experimental sample was again determined solely by the age of the pupil. This meant that the sample was drawn from all the socioeconomic strata normally represented within the national educational system and, in consequence, was characterized by a wide range of ability.

The time‐span of the evaluation did not allow all the pupils taking part in the experiment to be studied for an equal period of time. The pupils in the first and third cohorts were under study for a total of five years: three years in the primary school and two years in the secondary school. The pupils in the second cohort were under study for a longer period: three years in the primary school and five years in the secondary school. During the ten‐year period of the evaluation, the main aims of the study were: (i) to investigate the long‐term development of pupils’ attitudes towards foreign‐language learning; (ii) to discover whether pupils’ levels of achievement in French were related to their attitudes towards foreign‐language learning; (iii) to examine the effect of certain pupil variables (such as age, sex, socio‐economic status, perception of parental encouragement, employment expectations, contact with France, etc) on level of achievement in French and attitude towards foreign language learning; (iv) to investigate whether teachers’ attitudes and expectations significantly affected the attitudes and achievement of their pupils; (v) to investigate whether the early introduction of French had a significant effect on achievement in other areas of the primary school curriculum.

The main findings to emerge during the earlier years of the evaluation were published in two interim reports (Burstall, 1968, 1970); the recent publication of the final report (Burstall et al., 1974) brought together both the earlier and the later findings and provided an overall view of the effects of the experiment during both its primary and secondary stages. What follows is an attempt to review briefly the research evidence presented in the final report, but it must be borne in mind that limitations of space will inevitably impose a certain selectivity on this review.

     

Best practice in conducting RCTs: Lessons learnt from an independent evaluation of the Response-to-Intervention programme

This paper presents the findings of the first independent UK evaluation of a large-scale randomised controlled trial of Response-to-Intervention, used as a catch-up literacy intervention. A total of 385 pupils in their final year of primary school (Year 6) were involved in the study (181 treatment and 204 control). These were identified as those at-risk of not achieving the threshold Level 4 in English at Key Stage 2. The pupils came from 49 schools across England. Twenty-seven schools were randomised to receive treatment immediately and 22 schools, which formed the control, were randomised to receive the intervention later. RTI was delivered in the summer term in preparation for pupil transfer to secondary school. The overall impact based on the standardised New Group Reading Test (NGRT) showed an ‘effect’ size of +0.19, and of +0.48 when considering only free school meal eligible pupils. However, these results must be viewed with considerable caution given the high attrition (over 25%) especially from the control group, and unclear identification of pupils eligible for the intervention. The fact that the evaluators did not have direct contact with schools when trying to identify eligible pupils, and that the developers wanted to use the pre-test to identify eligible pupils, led to this being a weak trial. The significance of the work therefore lies at least as much in the lessons learnt as in the headline figures. We learnt that ideally no more than two parties should be involved in communicating with schools, so that relevant instructions are passed quickly and acted upon promptly. This helps minimise the risk of misunderstanding and dropout post-allocation. Prior training on the technicalities of trials and research in general is necessary for both developers and any staff delivering the intervention so that all parties involved understand their commitment and the need to provide accurate and complete data. In future trials of RTI, it would be better for individual eligible pupils to be randomised rather than schools. RTI should ideally be given a whole year to allow the full cycle to be implemented, and it should be delivered daily for at least 30 minutes.