Aggression in primary schools: the predictive power of the school and home environment

In this study, we analyse the predictive power of home and school environment-related factors for determining pupils’ aggression. The multiple regression analyses are performed for fourth- and eighth-grade pupils based on the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007 (N = 8394) and TIMSS 2011 (N = 9415) databases for Slovenia. At the national level, the Lestvica agresivnosti aggression scale was administered in both TIMSS cycles. For home environment variables, we included those related to socio-economic status, pupils’ educational aspirations, parental activities with their children and pupils’ free time activities. The results show that the variables related to socio-economic status, spare time activities and parental activities are significant predictors. The results differ in both analysed data-sets. For school environment variables, we include those related to the school climate, pupils’ attitudes towards school and school subjects and pupils’ achievement in mathematics. We find that the variables related to school climate and students’ self-confidence are significant predictors. These results are stable in both years. The predictive power of the school characteristics model (including only the school environment variables) is larger (based on the proportion of explained variance) compared with the home characteristics model. The hierarchical linear model of data from 2007 to 2011 shows small differences in aggression between schools. The inclusion of two data cycles collected in two time- periods allows us to observe changes in aggression predictors over time. Practical implications are finally included.     

Teachers and tests: assessing pupils' reading achievement in primary schools

The purpose of the present study was to examine validity aspects of teachers’ judgements of pupils’ reading skills. Data come from Sweden's participation in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001, for Grades 3 and 4. For pupils at the same achievement levels, as measured by PIRLS 2001 test, teachers’ judgements of pupils’ achievement levels varied from one teacher to another. Moreover, there were significant differences between teachers’ judgements in Grades 3 and 4. Teachers in Grade 3 who had taught their pupils for almost 3 years showed higher correspondence between their judgements and pupil achievement within classrooms than 4th-grade teachers who, typically, had only taught their pupils for approximately 1 semester at the time of the data collection. The results indicate that teachers’ judgements and tests can be useful within classrooms, but that teachers may need external assessments to calibrate judgements over classrooms.     

Failed regulations and school composition: selective admission practices in Chilean primary schools

This is an exploratory study about pupil selection. Admission regulations are central to understanding issues of school mix, segregation and educational justice. In Chile, student selection has been intensively discussed but scarcely studied. Using a questionnaire for headteachers (N = 581), we explore how school admission processes are organised and implemented within a market-based educational system with a high-stakes testing regime where schools are pushed to use selection practices. Despite the existence of a national (although weak) legal prohibition at the time the survey was conducted, half of the headteachers state that they use some mechanism to select students (play sessions, student testing, or interviews with parents) even when they do not face demand pressures. Exploratory data suggest higher levels of selectivity in subsidised private schools. Regression analysis shows a strong association between ‘selectivity’ and homogeneous academic intake and social composition. Presumably, the widespread use of selection procedures responds to the structuring force of a double system of educational accountability; strong pressure on performance within a testing regime and where funding depends on enrolments makes selection a fundamental strategy for schools, but which is seriously affecting equality goals.     

Private tutoring intensity in schools: a comparison between high and low socio-economic schools

Private tutoring (PT) is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. In Israel too, about a third of elementary school students participate in PT. Based on sociological and school quality considerations, we examined school characteristics that are associated with PT intensity at school. The data encompassed a random state wide sample of 389 Israeli elementary schools collected by the Ministry of Education in 2012. The results showed that in high school socioeconomic status (SES) schools the percentage of students who participated in PT was higher compared to low SES schools. In high SES, schools with high PT intensity were characterized by high school achievements whereas in low SES, schools were characterized with low school achievements. PT seems to be a factor that increases the social distinction between high and low SES schools. In Israel, PT seems to create distinct ‘school enclaves’ that reproduce social inequality.     

Differences between secondary schools: A study about school context,group composition,school practice,and school effects with special attention to public and Catholic schools and types of schools

The results indicate that in Flanders secondary schools of different denomination and of different school type (based on their curriculum offerings) differ with respect to several characteristics. With respect to the educational framework, learning environment and learning climate differences between schools are small and differences are more situated within schools. Multilevel analysis reveals that almost 19% of the variance in mathematics achievement is at school level. The effect of denomination is small and disappears when student background (which is related to school practice) is taken into account. The effect of school type remains important when controlled for student background and denomination. Group composition, the social and learning climate, and the opportunity to learn seem to matter and explain almost 90% of the school effect. They also explain more than four fifths of the effect of school type (and denomination together) which accounts for 65% of the school level variance.     

Comparison of teacher talk directed to boys and girls and its relationship to their behaviour in secondary and primary schools

There have been a number of earlier investigations, using differing methodologies, into the extent to which teachers in the secondary school interact with boys and girls and the results have suggested an imbalance in the teachers’ verbal behaviour towards the genders that is quite similar to the imbalance found in teachers’ behaviour in the primary school. The main aim of this study was to devise an investigation using the same methodology as that used in a recent primary school investigation in order to be able to make a fair comparison between the two levels. The results showed considerable differences in the teachers’ verbal behaviour towards the genders in the secondary school from that of teachers in the primary school. Where the primary school data showed teachers interacting more with the boys than the girls and the boys being less on‐task than the girls, the secondary school data showed no such differences.     

Social reproduction and education policy

The last half-century of sociology of education is littered with the debris of functionalist theories about social reproduction, inequality and class. This article discusses 'progressive 'and 'conservative 'readings of arguments about social reproduction and explores the consequences for the sociology and the politics of education with reference to supposed 'influence ' and 'audience'. New Labour's embrace of the school effectiveness/improvement movement and the introduction of the Sure Start programme illustrate that while 'social reproduction' is still a concern for sociologists of education, policy-makers have more 'practical' concerns.     

Students' experiences of aggressive behaviour and bully/victim problems in Irish schools

Since the 1980s, a greater understanding of the frequency and typology of bullying/victim problems in schools has been accrued in many countries, including Ireland, where a nationwide study of bullying behaviour in schools was undertaken in 1993–1994. However, rather less is known about Irish school students' involvement in other forms of aggressive behaviour. The purpose of the survey described here was to ascertain the prevalence of school students' experiences of certain categories of general aggressive behaviour, as well as the prevalence of bully/victim problems, in Irish schools. Data were obtained via the administration of a specially and extensively modified version of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire to 5569 participants (2312 primary and 3257 post-primary) in Ireland in the autumn/winter school term of 2004–2005. Principally, it was found that experiences of aggressive behaviour appeared to be widespread; whilst age trends varied according to individual categories of aggressive behaviour, gender differences were more clear – boys were more frequently the targets of ‘direct’ forms of aggressive behaviour, whereas girls were more frequently the targets of ‘indirect’ forms. Furthermore, bully/victim problems appear to be persistent in Irish schools, with 35.3% of primary students and 36.4% of post-primary students reporting having been bullied over the last three months. It was contended that inroads into preventing and dealing with bullying and aggressive behaviour in Irish schools might best be made via governmentally-supported nationwide intervention programmes, as has been the case in Norway.     

Social position of special needs pupils in the classroom: a comparison between German special schools for pupils with learning difficulties and integrated primary school classes

The rejection of pupils with behaviour problems is a serious problem for inclusive education schools. Sometimes parents prefer special schools because they do not want their children to become outsiders in integration classes. Are they right? The study presented here surveys children with behaviour problems in integrated primary school classes and in special education schools. The main focus is the extent to which behaviour problems influence social relations within the classes. The findings indicate that German pupils with behaviour problems are not well liked. The comparison of special education classes and integrated primary school classes also shows, however, that this is not solely a feature of integrated classes. Pupils with behaviour problems are disliked in both systems, and to a comparable degree. This means that there may be some good arguments for special schools. But both systems—special schools and integrated school classes—have outsiders. Especially parents of pupils with learning difficulties and behaviour problems should know that there is no difference here between special education classes and integrative primary school classes.     

Tomboys and girly-girls: embodied femininities in primary schools

This paper is about how 9–11-year-old children, particularly girls, co-construct tomboy and girly-girl identities as oppositional positions. The paper sits within a theoretical framework in which I understand individual and collective masculinities and femininities as ways of ‘doing man/woman’ or ‘doing boy/girl’ that are constructed within local communities of masculinity and femininity practice. Empirical data come from a one-year study of tomboy identities within two London primary schools. The paper explores the contrasting identities of tomboy and girly-girl, how they are constructed by the children, and how this changes as they approach puberty. The findings suggest that the oppositional construction of these identities makes it harder for girls to take up more flexible femininities, though it is possible to switch between tomboy and girly-girl identities at different times and places.     

Mathematics achievement in high- and low-achieving secondary schools

This paper identifies the amount of variance in mathematics achievement in high- and low-achieving schools that can be explained by school-level factors, while controlling for student-level factors. The data were obtained from 2679 Iranian eighth graders who participated in the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Of the total sample, 1422 and 1257 students were from high- and low-achieving schools, respectively. Two-level hierarchical linear modelling was applied. The results indicated that of the total variance in mathematics achievement, 27.95 and 6.70% were due to between-school differences in the high- and low-achieving schools, respectively. Controlling for the school-level factors, the better-performing students were those with a higher level of confidence in learning mathematics in both samples. After controlling for the student-level factors, inadequacies in school resources and school type yielded the strongest link to achievement in the high- and low-achieving schools, respectively.     

Note passing and gendered discipline in Vietnamese schools

While researchers agree that note passing is predominantly an activity engaged in by girls, there has been relatively little consideration of why this is the case. In this article, I argue that gendered expectations about the appropriate characters of boys and girls in Vietnam are incorporated into the disciplinary framework of schools, and that note passing provides the means for girls to adjust to the gendered disciplinary techniques to which they are subjected. The article is based on extended ethnographic fieldwork conducted within two ninth-grade classes at two lower secondary schools in the northern Vietnamese port city of Haiphong.     

A new and different space in the primary school: single‐gendered classes in coeducational schools

This paper derives from a two‐year ethnographic study conducted in single‐gendered classes in two Tasmanian government coeducational schools in socio‐economically disadvantaged areas. These schools specifically adopted proactive strategies to address the educational disengagement of boys whose social behaviour affected their own education and that of many others in the schools—an example of the situation currently described in Australian and international studies as an educational crisis. The unquestioned status of the coeducational primary school classroom is challenged and a theorized alternative is explained.     

Development of German reading comprehension in two-way immersive primary schools

Two-way immersion (TWI) is a variant of the increasingly popular bilingual instruction. Most TWI research lacks longitudinal data or the consideration of background variables to control for possible selection effects. This article examines the development of German reading comprehension of TWI students (N = 984) from fourth to sixth grade compared to conventionally taught students (N = 992). The latent growth curve models showed that immersion students reached the same level of German reading comprehension over the three measurement points, even if background variables like first language, socioeconomic background, and cognitive ability were included. Despite reduced instruction in German, TWI students showed the same reading comprehension level as students in regular instruction while having the advantage of learning an additional language. Although the level of reading comprehension differed between language groups (L1 German speakers, L1 partner language speakers, simultaneous bilinguals), the learning trajectories of reading comprehension were similar.     

The nature of institutional heteronormativity in primary schools and practice-based responses

Concern for school-based homophobia is increasing, yet there is a tendency to focus on individual incidents of homophobic bullying rather than the cultural and institutional factors supporting them. We analyse ways in which institutional heteronormativity operates in primary schools and report results from our research in UK schools that culminated in a Participatory Action Research project in which practicing teachers explored possibilities for disrupting dominant discourses of sexuality and gender expression. We argue that policy and practice need to be reconceptualised to recognise institutional heteronormativity and to interrogate the discourses underpinning systematic forms of oppression.     

In the field with two rural primary school head teachers in England

ABSTRACT

The research focuses on the complexities associated with contemporary rural primary school leadership. The paper draws on in-depth ethnographic research undertaken in two contrasting English rural primary schools and their surrounding community over a period of three years and in particular the experiences and perspectives of the two head teachers from these schools. The paper is conceptually informed by the work of Bourdieu [1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul] and his work around field, habitus and capital as a means of understanding practice. The paper contends that as the neo-liberal economic field increasingly contaminates the field of schooling so a contextual understanding of the complex and shifting social space which a head teacher occupies, including their habitus and the capital they deploy, is of central importance to understanding practice.     

小学生欺负问题的干预研究

Intervention research on school bullying was conducted in a primary school with an action research method. After conducting a five-week intervention program, the occurrence ratio of being bullied on the way to school and back home and the degree to which children were bullied dropped significantly, but the rate of reduction in grade three was greater than that of grade five. Moreover, pupils’ sense of security in school and the teachers’ awareness and problem-solving ability were also improved. __________ Translated from Jiaoyu Yanjiu 教育研究 (Educational Research), 2008, (2): 95–99     

Changing schools: a study of primary secondary transfer using Vygotsky and Bernstein

ABSTRACT

This article is concerned with the influences that are brought to bear on the design of school buildings and the effects that the design of these buildings have on those who teach and learn in them. The article also focuses on the ways in which design is altered in and through the practices of these occupants. We argue that there is a mutual shaping of design and practice in these schools. We deploy the theory of socio-genesis developed by Lev S. Vygotsky and the sociology of pedagogy developed by Basil Bernstein in order to study the consequences for students of different trajectories of transfer between different designs and pedagogic cultures of primary and secondary schools in England. Our intention is to contribute to current debates about the effects of new school designs and the enduring concerns raised by difficulties that some students encounter in transitions between schools.     

中小学语文综合性学习的呈现与把握

综合性学习开展有助于培养学生学习和探究的兴趣,中小学语文教材的综合性学习内容,从编排形式和活动方式上呈现出学科综合、校本主题综合、自由兴趣综合、跨学科综合等类型及特点。现阶段中小学综合性学习在教学中应如何把握,如何实施的教学策略是我们努力探讨并需要逐步解决的。     

Context matters: primary schools and academies reform in England

There is little conclusive evidence linking academies reform in England with school improvement. While this reform has been effective in improving educational outcomes in some contexts, it has been resoundingly unsuccessful in others. Nevertheless, political faith in autonomous schooling as key to a world-class education remains strong. This paper considers how matters of context impact on approaches to and enactments of this policy. Drawing on case study data from two groups of primary schools from (1) a local authority and (2) an academy chain, the paper examines the particular situated, professional, material and external factors that impact on these schools’ capacities to cope with and respond to academies reform. In light of the continued tendency within policy for schools to be dematerialised, the paper argues the ongoing significance of greater attention to matters of context in understanding how schools are navigating the complex terrain of this reform.