Learning while playing: Children's Forest School experiences in the UK

Children's outdoor play is declining, despite clear links between play, learning and development. Alternative learning initiatives which provide children with a diversity of play opportunities, including the chance to play outdoors, are therefore needed. One such programme, Forest School, is increasing in popularity in the UK and internationally, yet little is understood about its impact on children's learning, or how alternative approaches are informing learning in mainstream settings. This novel study examined primary school children's experiences of engaging in a Forest School programme in relation to this intersection between formal and informal approaches to learning. It explored how children interpret their experiences when faced with a fusion of learning environments and critically evaluates the benefits children realise, when asked to reflect on their learning engagement in both classroom and outdoor settings. Interviews were conducted with 33 children from two mainstream primary schools in England who had recently completed a 6-week Forest School programme. A rigorous phenomenological thematic analysis revealed three inter-related themes: a break from routine; learning through play; collaboration and teamwork. The findings suggest that the blending of Forest School with mainstream settings contributes to children's social, cognitive, emotional and physical skill development through experiential learning using play. These findings are significant because they not only emphasise the values of social constructivist play-pedagogy which underpin Forest School practice, but also highlight the need for primary schools to consider learning outside of the classroom as an effective pedagogy.     

School placement and classroom participation among children with disabilities in primary school in Norway: a longitudinal study

The purpose of this paper is to address changes in school placement and classroom participation with respect to children with disabilities of primary school age in Norway, as well as examining the factors which explain variation in school placement and classroom participation. School placement refers to whether children with disabilities attend regular school, while classroom participation refers to time spent in regular classrooms at regular schools. The analysis is based on longitudinal data drawn from surveys undertaken in 2003 and 2006, of parents of children with disabilities. Present findings suggest there are no major changes in school placement during primary school years, which is contrary to earlier findings. However, the amount of time children with disability are absent from regular classes does increase significantly as the children become older. Size of municipality population, type of disability and degree of impairment are the main factors which have an impact on school placement. In addition to these, the amount of special education also has an impact on classroom participation. There are small changes in mechanisms that lead children out of both regular schools and classrooms, during their primary school years. However, some of the identified factors strengthen in importance as the children become older. The apparent policy change for older children, from special school placement to an “out of class” practice, is discussed. It could be seen as regular schools’ adaptation to the tension between the prevailing ideology of inclusion and schools’ maintenance of existing practice.     

Project Spraoi: two year outcomes of a whole school physical activity and nutrition intervention using the RE-AIM framework

We aimed to assess the impact of Project Spraoi: a school-based physical activity (PA) and nutrition intervention that reached 473 primary school children and 43 school staff in Cork (Ireland). Four primary schools (2 intervention, 2 control) with similar characteristics participated and for 2 school years, intervention schools were assigned an ‘Energizer’, who promoted PA and healthy eating. A subsample of children from the intervention schools (n?=?106) and matching controls (n?=?125) had measures of body mass, waist circumference, blood pressure, fitness, nutritional knowledge/attitudes and PA recorded at baseline and after 2 school years. Process evaluation techniques assessed the impact of the intervention on teachers, parents and children. Analysis of covariance revealed the intervention was associated with smaller waist circumference relative to gender and age (p?<?0.0005), slower resting heart rate (p?=?0.003) and favourable nutritional attitudes among 10 year olds. No significant change across other variables or among 6 year olds was found. Teachers, parents and children reported positive outcomes for PA behaviour and nutritional knowledge/attitudes. Project Spraoi has shown to improve heart rate and prevent further gains in fat mass amongst older aged children. The positive impact of the intervention supports the need for its continued delivery, particularly as children age.     

Hamburg’s Family Literacy project (FLY) in the context of international trends and recent evaluation findings

The authors of this article begin with an introduction to the holistic concept of family literacy and learning and its implementation in various international contexts, paying special attention to the key role played by the notions of lifelong learning and intergenerational learning. The international trends and experiences they outline inspired and underpinned the concept of a prize-winning Family Literacy project called FLY, which was piloted in 2004 in Hamburg, Germany. FLY aims to build bridges between preschools, schools and families by actively involving parents and other family members in children’s literacy education. Its three main pillars are: (1) parents’ participation in their children’s classes; (2) special sessions for parents (without their children); and (3) joint out-of-school activities for teachers, parents and children. These three pillars help families from migrant backgrounds, in particular, to develop a better understanding of German schools and to play a more active role in school life. To illustrate how the FLY concept is integrated into everyday school life, the authors showcase one participating Hamburg school before presenting their own recent study on the impact of FLY in a group of Hamburg primary schools with several years of FLY experience. The results of the evaluation clearly indicate that the project’s main objectives have been achieved: (1) parents of children in FLY schools feel more involved in their children’s learning and are offered more opportunities to take part in school activities; (2) the quality of teaching in these schools has improved, with instruction developing a more skills-based focus due to markedly better classroom management und a more supportive learning environment; and (3) children in FLY schools are more likely to have opportunities to accumulate experience in out-of-school contexts and to be exposed to environments that stimulate and enhance their literacy skills in a tangible way.     

Effects of differentiated school vouchers: Evidence from a policy change and date of birth cutoffs

This paper studies the effects of an increase in school choice by examining a 2008 reform that made the value of Chile’s (previously flat, universal) school voucher a step function of student income. This policy increased the number of private schools that low income children could access free of charge. I identify the impact of the policy by combining its introduction with variation from a date of birth enrollment cutoff. I show that the differentiated voucher lowered, but only slightly, the probability that students used public schools. Students more likely to move to private schools experienced better school characteristics but no increase in test scores. Further analysis suggests a rise in test scores for students most likely to stay in public schools. These results suggest that the effects of the policy on test scores were caused by responses from public schools, instead of by the re-sorting of students into private schools.     

近年来我国中东部地区高考人数下降的现象分析——以鄂豫苏冀四省为例

基本处于中东部地区的鄂豫苏冀四省市高考人数逐年下降,原因主要是中东部地区中小学辍学率增高,未成年人打工经商者增多、高中升学率减少,受大学生就业难冲击,中考放弃报考普通高中而选择中职的人数增加,随迁子女就地报名高考,东部地区在高中和中小学阶段出国留学的人数增多,受都市影响中东部农村地区出生率下降等诸多原因。稳定高考人数、提高农业人口的综合素质的最好办法是:国家应该采取一切措施控制中部地区的辍学率,改革高校课程设置和培养人才的理念,提高大学生的就业率,减少大学生就业难对中小学的冲击,做好中职与高考的接轨工作。     

The impact of primary school quality on learning in Egypt

In many industrialized societies it is suggested that school quality has less than the anticipated impact on student achievement once the influence of the family has been considered. Since schools are more easily amenable to government intervention, the ambiguous showing of schools has not augered well for a public philosophy which portrays schools as agents of social change.This report re-examines the relationships among home, school and achievement performance in the Egyptian context by assaying the relative impact of families and schools on student test performance. This re-examination is undertaken, in part, because in LDCs one of the strongest associations with level of per capita income is the proportion of school age population enrolled in primary classes. This link between primary school attendence and national development places importance on the need to improve the quality of numeracy/literacy skills in order to further increase the efficiency of the Egyptian economy.Similar to findings in other third world primary school systems, the impact of school quality on achievement performance explains more variance than does the influence of the home. Apparently, Egyptian primary schools do provide a learning milieu independent of home resources which affects pupil test performance on basic literacy skills.Given the impact of separate home and school inputs to achievement performance mentioned above, the last question raised in the paper asks whether school quality in Egypt affects the learning of socially disadvantaged children more than others. This can be checked by examining the interactive term between home and school when a regression is performed on student achievement. Findings reveal that indeed the incremental effects of school quality on the poor are greater than those found for children of advantaged backgrounds. Apparently, Egypt's longstanding egalitarian ideology espousing educational opportunity has paid some dividents to those children of the poor who have remained in school.     

Providing school-based learning in elementary school mathematics: the case of a professional development school partnership

Abstract

School–university partnerships also known as professional development school (PDS) partnerships provide potential for universities and schools to establish partnerships that can benefit university faculty, school teachers, university students, and school students. This study examines the impact of a PDS partnership in which the author served as a school-based mathematics coach for two years in a high-need elementary school. Data sources included interviews, surveys, and field notes from classroom observations. Inductive qualitative analyses which were situated in a multi-level framework for researching professional development found that teachers posed more cognitively demanding mathematical tasks and high-level questions in year two compared to year one of this project. Further, student achievement was noted on both state-wide and district-created assessments. Also teachers reported that the school-based approach to professional development led to some teachers taking on more informal leadership roles to support their colleagues’ mathematics instruction. Implications for school-based learning opportunities across the world include the need to establish specific university–school partnerships, and carefully designing research studies to examine the impact of these learning opportunities.     

Exploring the impact of supplementary schools on Black and Minority Ethnic pupils’ mainstream attainment

This paper reports findings from a study commissioned by the (then) Department for Children, Schools and Families. The research mapped the provision, and explored the impact, of supplementary schools and aimed specifically to develop further understanding as to how supplementary schools might raise the attainment of Black and Minority Ethnic pupils. Drawing on a national survey and case study data from 12 supplementary schools, we highlight a range of perceived impacts identified by teachers, pupils and parents and problematise the concept of impact. We identify the unique contribution and impact that supplementary schools make to the mainstream school attainment of pupils from diverse (linguistic, cultural, ethnic) backgrounds. We suggest that there is much to be learnt by the mainstream school sector about the difference supplementary school education makes to minority ethnic children, while questioning whether mainstream indicators of impact should be applied to supplementary schools.     

Fostering research engagement in partnership schools: networking and value creation

The call for teachers and schools to become more research-engaged is resonating stronger than ever with government efforts to improve research impact and educational quality in the United Kingdom (UK) and many other countries. In these endeavors strengthening the social network structure and collegial relationships that enable collaborative research and learning in schools are often overlooked. This longitudinal, multi-method case study focused on understanding this pivotal social dimension. It examined in what way and to what extent research-engaged relationships are developed and value for practice is created among school colleagues. The context was a secondary school that is part of a longstanding school–university research partnership in the UK. Social network and survey data, school documents, individual narratives, and interview data were collected and analysed during one academic year. Results reveal that school leadership adopted an approach in which they combined the development of formal structures and informal networking to foster a significant increase in research-engaged interactions among school staff. Two key elements of the school–university research partnership were distinguished as powerful drivers of fostering research engagement. Outcomes show that the increased research engagement led to diverse types of value creation in both the core and periphery of the research network of school staff.     

试论音乐与体育的相互关系及其在体育教学中的促进作用

随着教学改革的不断推进,音乐在体育教学和训练中的促进作用越来越明显,在大中小学及体校的体育教学中,音乐已被当作主要教学元素广泛应用起来。音乐应用在体育教学中对提高教学质量具有一定的促进作用,对于大中小学的体育教师在教学中具有普遍的启发作用,有助于音乐在大中小学及体校的体育教学中应用和发展。     

Educational choice and achievement: The case of secondary schools in the Arab Republic of Egypt

Before 1952 university education in Egypt was generally for the wealthier classes because the universities charged fees and only the richer families could pay those fees. For less wealthy families payment was more difficult, not only because of the direct cost of higher education, but also because of the high opportunity cost of sending children to study. After the 1952 revolution the Egyptian government introduced free education at all levels and encouraged those who wanted to further their education to enter universities. Thus elitism was eradicated from Egyptian higher education. This paper uses data from a sample of Egyptian university students and analyses the determinants of secondary school choice and the factors likely to affect secondary school certificate marks. In particular we are interested in the effect of family background, represented here by father's occupation.The results suggest that individuals with fathers in higher occupational categories tend to go to private schools rather than public schools. They also tend to choose general schools rather than technical or Koranic schools. In turn, high social background as well as attendance at a private school, have a positive and significant effect on examination marks. These findings are alarming because Egypt has a rate of increase in population of over 2% and the supply of university places will therefore have to be rationed. The most likely screening factor would be examination results and as a consequence Egyptian universities may in the future become elitist once more.     

K–12 and University Educators Working Together Toward Change: Initiating a Conversation About Practice

This case study of a joint school/university professional development opportunity explored how 12 practitioners came together to examine change in light of discrepancies between current practice in local schools and promising practices recommended in the literature for students identified as having significant disabilities. The group met monthly over the course of one school year to study action research and to examine aspects of individual practice and their emerging identity as a community of learners. Participants explored perceptions about promising practice relative to actual practice engaged in by K–12 teachers, the impact of ongoing structured conversation on individual practice, and the impact of group membership for both individual participants and school/university partnerships. After one academic year, participants reported that the impact of this structured conversation was highly meaningful with respect to positive change in individual practice, the creation of a new support network for participants, and the development of new understandings between university and K–12 practitioners. Findings are discussed in light of implications for researchers, teacher educators, and K–12 practitioners in their various roles as agents of social change.     

Contested Desires: The Edible Landscape of School

Food and drink are associated with survival and for children and young people the edible landscape represents an essential part of survival in the modern school. Within any institution that ‘contains’ persons over time, such as schools, hospitals and prisons, the organization and control of eating and drinking takes on a particularly significant role. At one and the same time, food and drink and the space in which they are served and consumed can become a site of contested desires, a space where authority and resistance are exercised. It is clear from early accounts that the association of school children with food and drink was also seen as potentially chaotic. It served to remind those seeking to ‘improve’ the morals and behaviour of the ‘lower’ classes of the chasm of difference that existed between the social classes. There is a sense of fear and revulsion in these early accounts of collective consumption. But schools and kindergartens were, from the middle of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century, also important sites for the production and consumption of food as a form of pedagogy. This paper explores the interior and exterior edible landscape of school in the UK context and suggests some pointers to its significance in terms of the development of pedagogy and curriculum.     

Civics education in transition: the case of Japan

This chapter describes the study as it was conducted in Japan in three schools: a public, a private, and a university school in Sapporo City, Hokkaido prefecture. The results suggest that the civic education curriculum in all of the schools is based on that outlined in the Courses of Study published by the Ministry of Education. In addition to Civics classes, the curriculum includes school events and student council activities. With regard to the development of civic values, the analysis suggests that in the public and the private school, the implicit values encountered in everyday school life have a greater impact on students than do the explicit values outlined in the school precepts or civic education curriculum. In the university school “acting with decency” is regarded as important, both explicitly and implicitly.     

Resourced provision: the impact of inclusive practices on a mainstream primary school

This personal account from a special educational needs co‐ordinator illustrates the negative impact that resourced provision has had on one school. The provision caters for children with communication and interaction difficulties and is housed in a mainstream primary school. For this school, while the provision has had a beneficial impact on the development of inclusive values among pupils, it has also led to a decline in the overall effectiveness of the school. The achievement data of pupils in the provision has had a detrimental impact on overall school performance data. Current narrow measures of school effectiveness in England mean that schools with increasingly diverse student populations can pay the price for their commitment to inclusion, as this example illustrates.     

Residence-based priorities and school choice

Many countries use centralized school choice procedures to assign pupils to schools. To address excess demand for a particular school, ties are broken according to priority points granted based on various criteria, such as proximity to the school. Using a unique reform undertaken in Madrid (Spain), we estimate the impact of abolishing residence-based priorities on families’ school choices, the stated motivation for choosing a school, and the final school allocation. Utilizing several administrative datasets on school applications, we find that the reform increases families’ out-of-district school assignments and assignments to schools further away from their home address. Parents of immigrant children did not change their application behavior in the first years of the reform but caught up with natives three years after its implementation. Children generally accessed slightly better-performing schools, particularly those from lower-educated backgrounds.     

Self-esteem and Cultural Identity in Aboriginal Language Immersion Kindergarteners

In gauging the success of Aboriginal language immersion education, the focus is often placed on measuring language acquisition and academic achievement. Although useful, these metrics only tell part of the story; to achieve real school success, it is also vital to develop high personal self-esteem that results in a positive concept of oneself as a learner, and high collective self-esteem, or attitude toward one’s heritage, family, community, and school. This article describes the impact of Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) immersion education on the personal and collective self-esteem of kindergarteners, and discusses their concept of ethno-cultural identity, as compared to previously studied cohorts of Inuit learners in immersion and mainstream language schools. The results give important insights into not only the self-esteem of children in this immersion school as part of a measure of its overall success, but also the school experiences of Aboriginal children in different cultural, geographic, and educational contexts.     

The Impact of Action Research for Professional Development: case studies in two Manchester schools

Teacher professional development has come to be recognised as a major policy tool as part of the UK Government's agenda for raising standards and school improvement. These demands call for new approaches to professional development. We need to reconceptualise what teachers learn while at work as professional development which can complement direct work with children. The study reported on in this article is an attempt to investigate the impact of teacher inquiry as part of an action research project on three teachers involved in the North West Consortium for the Study of Effectiveness in Urban Schools (NWCSEUS). This was a partnership of schools, Manchester and Salford local education authorities, the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University set up with the intention of establishing a research culture in schools in order to improve practice and raise teaching standards. The aim of this particular study was to undertake a critical analysis of the impact of the NWCSEUS project on three teachers’ professional development as well as to provide relevant information on the critical components of teacher inquiry. Using the methodology of a multiple‐case design, a cross‐case analysis was drawn up NUD*IST software was used to aid analysis and category development. The teachers reported on demonstrated the positive impact that teacher inquiry can have on both individual teachers and the school as a whole, as through a teacher inquiry culture, schools can become learning environments where teachers continuously plan and evaluate for school improvement and effectiveness.     

Talking in class: a study of socio‐economic difference in the primary school classroom

In this paper, I consider the relationship between socio‐economic background and the school experience of two groups of children. I seek to establish whether or not there are identifiable differences in the language of primary school children living in two demographically contrasting geographical areas and, if there are differences, how these differences might impact upon a child's capacity to access learning. In investigating these relationships, I conducted semi‐structured interviews with the two groups using the work of Bernstein as a starting point. I found that while the children in the first school, located in a largely less affluent area of Bristol, appeared to lack confidence, extended vocabulary and often clarity in their speech, the children in the second school, located in a middle class, affluent area of the city appeared articulate, self‐ confident and in possession of a varied and extended vocabulary. While it is not appropriate to generalise from this small scale study, these findings raise questions about the language children experience from an early age both in the home environment and at school and suggest that there is a significant part for schools to play in ensuring that they are not excluding some groups of children from participation.