The prevalence of ‘life planning’: evidence from UK graduates

At a time when ‘personal development planning’ is being rolled out across the UK higher education sector, this paper explores young adults’ inclinations to plan for the future in relation to work, relationships and other aspects of life. Although Giddens has emphasised the prevalence of strategic life planning (or the ‘colonisation of the future’) in all strata of contemporary society, du Bois Reymond has argued that there are important differences by social class, with young people from more privileged backgrounds more likely than their peers to engage in such life‐planning activities. This paper draws on interviews with 90 young adults (in their mid‐20s) to question some of these assumptions about relationships between social location and propensity to plan for the future. It shows how, within this sample at least, there was a strong association between having had a privileged ‘learning career’ (such as attending a high‐status university and identifying as an ‘academic high flier’) and a disinclination to form detailed plans for the future. In part, this appeared to be related to a strong sense of ontological security and the confidence to resist what Giddens terms ‘an increasingly dominant temporal outlook’.     

Girls’ biology,boys’ physics: evidence from free‐choice science learning settings

Many of the explanations for girls’ disinterest in physics focus on the role of the educational system in creating this situation. Here, we use evidence from free‐choice science learning settings to study if this lack of interest is also expressed in non‐school settings. Three sets of self‐generated questions raised by children, adolescents and adults in the fields of biology and physics were used. The outcomes of this analysis show that the polar pattern previously described in school science settings, in which physics proves significantly less interesting to girls than to boys, while biology is of greater interest to girls than to boys, also appears in free‐choice science learning settings. While boys develop an interest in physics with age, girls do not develop such an interest to the same degree. Thus, the initial gap in interest is probably not based on school‐related causes, but its widening in later years probably is. A difference was also found between the genders in the type of information requested and in the motivation for raising the questions. Using topics that appeal to girls’ interest as the context of science learning could prove beneficial in the process of mainstreaming science education. These topics can be identified using girls’ spontaneous questions.     

Conceptualizing teacher immediacy through the ‘companion’ metaphor

Situated within the critical pedagogic scholarship that deals with the issue of ‘teacher immediacy’, this study proposes an understanding of the practice of pedagogy through the metaphor of ‘companionship’. A friendly individual but not a friend, the instructor is seen here as someone who can connect to college-age students without any visible effort and someone who makes explicit use of the power dynamics in a classroom to foster academic excellence. The companion model is first compared to other pedagogical models that are conceptualized through metaphors (e.g. in loco parentis, ‘teacher-as-entertainer’) and is then evaluated in terms of its potential weaknesses.     

E‐assessment within the Bologna paradigm: evidence from Portugal

The Bologna Declaration brought reforms into higher education that imply changes in teaching methods, didactic materials and textbooks, infrastructures and laboratories, etc. Statistics and mathematics are disciplines that traditionally have the worst success rates, particularly in non‐mathematics core curricula courses. This research project, Mathematics and Statistics for the Development of Professional Skills, which is in progress at the University of Beira Interior in Portugal, has as one of its main objectives the development of the e‐assessment system as a resource for learning assessment and student self‐regulation. Based on the results of the above‐mentioned project, this paper will give evidence of how to improve the reliability of an e‐assessment system, show that e‐assessment can be a good alternative to open‐ended tests and that students tend to show a positive attitude towards its use. We show that this can be done by checking the internal consistency and measurement error of the e‐assessment tests, the analysis of the association between student scores obtained by different methods of assessment and the analysis of data survey on student opinion about e‐assessment methods.     

The construction of the ‘ideal pupil’ and pupils’ perceptions of ‘misbehaviour’ and discipline: contrasting experiences from a low‐socio‐economic and a high‐socio‐economic primary school

This paper examines the effect of school social class composition on pupil learner identities in British primary schools. In the current British education system, high‐stakes testing has a pervasive effect on the pedagogical relationship between teachers and pupils. The data in this paper, from ethnographic research in a working‐class school and a middle‐class school, indicate that the effect of the ‘testing culture’ is much greater in the working‐class school. Using Bernsteinian theory and the concept of the ‘ideal pupil’, it is shown that these pupils’ learner identities are more passive and dominated by issues of discipline and behaviour rather than academic performance, in contrast to those in the middle‐class school. While this study includes only two schools, it indicates a potentially significant issue for neo‐liberal education policy where education is marketised and characterised by high‐stakes testing, and schools are polarised in terms of social class.     

The ‘End’ of Kant‐in‐Himself: Nietzschean difference

Kant's over‐reliance on universal reason and his subjection of free will to the moral law can be seen as normalising a particular and restrictive view of autonomous human existence—a view implicit in liberal accounts of education. Drawing on Nietzsche's critique of Kantian thought, this paper argues that the transcendental and unattainable realm of Kantian reason is insufficient as a sole basis for moral thought and action or as the basis of respect for others as ‘ends‐in‐themselves’. For Nietzsche, the possibility for each individual goes well beyond compliance with any imposed system of values, his metaphorical ‘death of God’ leaving room for creativity and difference.     

Sixth‐formers reading ‘the troubles’: A cross‐community investigation

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a one‐year (2002–2003) action research project conducted in a representative number of post‐primary schools across the sectarian divide in Belfast. The research investigated the responses of sixth‐form students to a number of carefully chosen texts focused on ‘The Troubles’. In analysing the pupils’ responses, it was discovered that, although inherited sectarian tensions persist, it is possible in many cases to encourage pupils to critically examine their attitudes and even abandon some prejudices. The key elements are the choice of texts and the need to provide ample and skilfully directed opportunity for dialogue and reflection. These findings are particularly relevant in the current climate of curriculum change, with the new emphasis on ‘diversity’ as well as ‘local and global citizenship’.     

‘I cannot study far from home’: non‐traditional learners' participation in degree education

This study explores the demand amongst potential higher education (HE) learners from the non‐traditional group for flexible degree level provision, key factors influencing their decision to pursue a degree and existing degree provision. The research entailed a combination of a questionnaire survey, focus group discussions and interviews with the relevant stakeholders in Fife, Scotland. There is evidence for the existence of a demand for local degree provision in Fife: 22% would certainly want to pursue a degree locally and another 31% who originally did not intend to pursue a degree would reconsider it if there were suitable local provision. An increasing demand for degree provision in Fife is also evident and requires addressing. Although there are now three models of college/HE partnerships available within the area, the types of partnerships which can cater more for the need of non‐traditional learners are still very limited. It is also argued that flexible and local learning provision is merely a starting point and that practical and academic support to ensure successful completion of learners' studies is even more crucial.     

Portfolios as evidence of reflective practice: what remains ‘untold’

Addressing recent calls for investigating the specific quality of reflection associated with the uses of portfolios in teacher education, this paper describes and interprets the ‘practice of portfolio construction’ as revealed in the construction and presentation of two kinds of portfolio in two in-service courses for mentors of teachers in Israel: a ‘process’ portfolio and a ‘product’ portfolio. The study revealed that the language of practice and form of reflection bore striking similarities across the two practices of portfolio construction, regardless of their differences in content, purpose, organization and the degree of intervention of the course instructors in its construction. In both types of portfolios, the mentors described their learning mostly at technical levels of reflection. This tendency raises the question of whether the genre of portfolio writing, inevitably bound by institutional constraints, is generically conducive to reflecting on controversial experiences at interpretative, critical levels. The study suggests that within a centralized educational system, as in the case of Israel, the documentation of critical reflection is problematic.     

Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions: a qualitative study

Academic hardiness is a personality characteristic that may differentiate students who avoid challenging academic course work from others who are willing to pursue these types of challenges. Research findings have demonstrated the need to understand and examine the construct in different life stages and cultural settings, and there are additional aspects of the construct that have yet to be identified. The purpose of this study was to explore the possible dimensions of academic hardiness and its components (commitment, control, and challenge) using qualitative methodology. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 primary school children (aged 10–12 years old). They were asked to narrate and reflect on their experience about school failure and low grade in a test in a school lesson. The findings demonstrate that students differ as to the way they face the negative experience, as results showed that a variety of factors were related with students’ academic hardiness. The findings are discussed in relation to the recent literature.     

‘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.     

A Teacher's Response to ‘Reflection‐in‐action’

A teacher‐researcher questions whether Schon's Reflective Practitioner is an appropriate text for ensuring change in teaching practices. It is argued that teachers’ perspectives prompt a particular interpretation of ‘reflection‐in‐action’ that justifies individualistic, immediate and limited change strategies. Schon's rhetorical appeals can be interpreted as offering tacit approval for the existing craft culture; for the inhibiting effects of this craft culture to be effectively challenged, individual teachers need the supportive insights which collaboration can provide.     

Leveraging critical literacies for social change: questioning the culture of compliance at an ‘F’ school

This article traces the experiences of two veteran elementary school teachers in the urban Southwest, who are positioned by district and state policy ‘texts’ as insubordinate and failing, and who employ critical literacy practices to reconstruct and redesign these texts as they seek to create more equitable and humane conditions in schools. Stemming from a larger phenomenological study, this article explores how teachers in a ‘failing’ elementary school in the Southwestern US understand and negotiate district, state, and federal policies and examines how these policies shape and inform their identities as professionals. This research has important implications concerning the potential of critical literacy as a mode of resistance, the promise inherent in school/university partnerships for promoting change, and the ways in which the practice of deconstructing/reconstructing dehumanizing texts can foster a re-professionalization of teaching.     

‘Success’ and ‘Failure’ in the Education Marketplace: An Example from New Zealand

This paper details the impact of market policies in New Zealand on one low socio-economic school, raising questions about the underlyingassumptions of the programmes designed to turn around so called failing schools. The impact of macro policies on disadvantaged schoolsin the market place is documented, as is recent evidence on the impactof schools entering a spiral of decline on their examination outcomes.It is argued that school success and failure cannot be understood inisolation but needs to be placed in the wider context of stateeducational policy. Consequently, change strategies which ignore thewider policy settings risk failure.     

‘Reading drop‐outs’: Can they be predicted?

Abstract

In the Netherlands many pupils in grade one have difficulties in beginning reading. Approximately 7.5% of all children do not succeed in learning to read well enough to be able to proceed to the following school‐year together with the other pupils. These children either have to repeat a year or have to go back to kindergarten; alternatively, they are referred to special education. These children are called ‘reading drop‐outs’.     

Understanding: ‘Knowledge’, ‘Belief’ and ‘Understanding’

The following paper is intended as an exercise in friendly criticism of one of Harvey Siegel's and Mike Smith's (Knowing, Believing and Understanding, this volume). I'm in substantial sympathy with the general thrust of their paper and my remarks merely provide some criticism of their discussion's conceptual coherence and clarity and a correspondingly slightly adjusted version of what they have to say. My focus is limited to the conceptions of knowledge, belief and understanding and their inter-relationships in terms of which they offer suggestions to science educators.     

Peirce’s Rhetorical Turn: Conceptualizing education as semiosis

Abstract

The later works of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1913) offer an extended metaphor of mind and a rich conception of the dynamics of knowledge and learning. After a ‘rhetorical turn’ Peirce develops his early ‘semiotics’ into a more general theory of sign and sign use,while integrating his pragmatism, phenomenology, and semiotics. Therefore, in this article I bring Peirce’s notion of semiosis—the sign’s action—to the forefront. In doing so, I hope to disclose how Peirce’s rhetorical turn not only opens up towards a richer conception of the dynamics of knowledge and learning, but also invites a shift of perspective from the psychological processes of learning to the semeiotic processes that characterizes the very dynamics of knowledge production.