Student–adult mentoring relationships: experiences from a Scottish school-based programme

Background:?This article reports on a mentoring programme which was implemented in selected Scottish secondary schools with the view to supporting students with school work, transition to further education/higher education, careers, and interpersonal skills. Mentoring students can enhance their academic, social, career and other outcomes. Mentoring relationships, when properly implemented, have been found also to yield positive results for mentors.

Purpose:?This paper is an investigation into a school-based mentoring programme which was implemented in 6 selected Scottish secondary schools. In so doing, we hope to contribute to an evolving framework for designing and implementing successful school-based mentoring.

Sample:?The sample for this study included 10 students aged between 16 and 17 years old in the second year of a broader 2-year business/education project, which aimed to promote student uptake of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers after secondary school. There were 11 mentors, who were drawn mainly from the science, health and the education sectors.

Design and method:?Methodologically, this study was qualitative interpretivist in nature. Data collection involved focus group discussion and individual semi-structured interviews.

Results:?The findings show mentee and mentor preparation, clarity of expectations, mentee–mentor matching, mentee motivation, appropriateness of meeting spaces and power relations, modes of communication including the use of social media, and the role of schools as essential conditions which influenced the quality of mentoring relationships.

Conclusion:?The findings suggest that mentoring programmes involving students in school and ‘external’ adult mentors need to consider a range of factors to achieve success when designing and implementing mentoring. This paper raises important issues for example, communication using social media, which have implications for practice in business sector and school partnerships involved in school-based mentoring.     

Gender and physics

Unlike many other countries, physics is highly popular in secondary education in Scotland, with large numbers opting for study at the Higher Grade on which entry to higher education is based. This paper reports a project that explored the attitudes and perceptions of Scottish girls and boys towards physics over the age range of 10-18 years old. Towards the end of primary school, attitudes towards science are very positive and both boys and girls are looking forward to studying more science in secondary school, although there is no evidence that the introduction of primary science has been a factor. By the end of the second year of secondary school, these positive attitudes have declined quite markedly and a significant decline of girls' attitudes towards science relative to boys' attitudes was clearly observed. The success of the Standard Grade physics course (a 2-year course taken in third and fourth year, ages 14-16 approximately) is easy to observe in terms of the restoration of positive attitudes of boys and girls again as the pupils move through third and fourth year. This process is especially clearly marked among girls. Surprisingly, over 90 per cent of the observed fourth year pupils wanted to continue studies in physics but a marked decline in attitude is observed during the Higher Grade course (a 1-year course which follows Standard Grade), this being more marked for boys. If the number of girls in physics is an issue for concern within the structure of Scottish system, then the focus of attention should be the structure and nature of the science course in the early secondary school.     

Choosing in schools: locating the benefits of specialisation

Recent policy in England has suggested that educational outcomes will be raised if schools specialise in particular subjects. In contrast, calls for the reform of 16–19 education have suggested that these outcomes will be improved if students become less specialised in their studies. At present, there is a limited evidence base from which to judge these arguments. In particular, we do not know the extent to which students’ achievements in 16–19 education are higher when they choose subjects which play to their perceived strengths. We also do not know whether students are more likely to choose to study subjects taught by more effective departments. That is, outcomes may be affected by the relative strengths of students or departments in circumstances where there is freedom to choose. In this paper we provide evidence of the existence and strength of these relationships. This evidence suggests that reducing the scope within schools for specialisation or competition will reduce average student attainment and these effects ought to be taken into account when evaluating alternative curriculum policies.     

Levelling the playing field between rural schools and urban schools in a HE context: A Scottish case study

At a time when interventions in widening access to, and participation in, higher education aim to maximise impact by engaging with schools located in the most deprived communities, school pupils in rural communities, and who experience deprivation, are, in practice, less likely to benefit. Using statistics available from the Scottish government, we show that state secondary schools located in Scottish remote or rural areas are not well served by the indicators capturing socio-economic, educational, or geographical deprivation widely used in the selection of schools for these outreach interventions. We construct a marker that identifies schools facing higher levels of deprivation than the Scottish average. We argue that (1) this marker is a step in the direction towards levelling the playing field between remote or rural schools and urban schools; and (2) it selects a wider range of schools for outreach interventions.     

Individual and Collective Leadership in School Science Departments

Given that the subject department is recognised by subject specialist teachers as the central and immediate unit of organization in secondary schools it is surprising that so little attention has been paid by researchers to the leadership dynamics within science departments. The leadership dynamics within the science departments of two contrasting school contexts were explored dialectically in this study. The structure ∣ agency and individual∣collective dialectics guided our interpretation of data from lesson observations, interviews and questionnaire responses, especially as they related to teachers' preparation of units of work (i.e., planned curriculum). As well as recognising thin coherence in teachers' responses we identify contradictions in teachers' perceived and enacted leadership roles, and perceptions of influences on curriculum planning and teaming within the two science departments. Throughout the article we disrupt traditional individualistic leadership discourses and suggest possibilities for more widespread application of an individual | collective leadership dialectic in school science departments.     

Can You See the Difference? Early Impacts of the Primary National Literacy Strategy on Four Secondary English Departments

As schools adapt to the Key Stage 3 Literacy Strategy, this paper looks at early impacts upon secondary English departments of the primary National Literacy Strategy (NLS). Since 1999, pupils with increasing experience of the primary NLS have been entering secondary schools. This paper focuses upon four secondary English departments at three points in time: early in the first year in which secondary schools received Y7 students who had experienced the NLS (autumn 1999), towards the end of the same school year (July 2000) and five terms later (spring 2002). The paper looks for shifts over time in departmental policy and practice across the primary/secondary transfer that may relate to the impact of the primary NLS. Of the two major findings from rounds one and two of interviews, one was confirmed by the third round of interviews and one was not. The persistent finding was that greater success with post-NLS students in Y7 was experienced by the English department that already practised high levels of liaison with feeder primary schools and worked positively to publicise their literacy practices across their own school's other subject departments. However, over the three years, the four departments grew more varied in their preparation for, and responses to, receiving students from the primary NLS. This suggests that English departments are operating their responses to the primary NLS with a fair degree of autonomy.     

Keeping up: A dilemma for science teachers

This paper is based on interviews with seventy-five science teachers in twelve schools across Australia. The interviews were conducted as part of a D.E.E.T. Project of National Significance. The purpose of the project was to develop a strategy for the professional development of science teachers. The main purpose of our interviews was to listen to teachers' views on what such a strategy should try to achieve. We asked them to talk about conditions affecting the quality of their work, their attitudes to teaching, their professional development, their careers, the evaluation of teaching, and Award Restructuring. Through these interviews we came to understand how many science teachers are loosely connected with potentially valuable sources of support for their professional development. In this paper we focus on one group of “loose connections”; those between science teachers and scientists in other fields, research in science education, and their colleagues within science departments in schools. Specializations: Science education, reflective practice, teaching and learning. Specializations: Professional development, educational evaluation.     

An Alternative Research and Science Teacher Preparation Agenda for Urban Science Education: An Insider’s Call for a Focus on Success

There are some small urban high schools that have high levels of student engagement in science. However, much of the science education research and student teacher placement in urban areas is done in large, somewhat dysfunctional schools. Those who have created these effective environments for science show that it is only in the whole school context in which these effective science classrooms exist and the matrix of interactions organized by the teachers outside the science classroom that leads to this success. The theory and research behind the success of this matrix of interactions that differentiates these effective classrooms from traditional inner city science classrooms is presented. Implications for science teacher educators are also presented.     

Education for Sustainability in Scottish Secondary Schools: boundary maintenance or professional reorientation?

This article reports on a study of education for sustainability in Scottish secondary schools. The study was based at the Institute of Education, University of Stirling, and was sponsored (between November 1997 and March 1998) by the Sustainable Schools Partnership, with funding from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Worldwide Fund for Nature Scotland and (between April 1998 and July 1998) by the University of Stirling. It comprised three research strands: a trawl of documentary evidence relating to policy and practice within the field of education for sustainability; interviews with key personnel in secondary schools identified as developing good practice in the field of education for sustainability; and a series of discussions with policy makers having a national and/or international perspective on education for sustainability and its development in schools. Although the prime focus was on Scottish schools, each of these strands also covered as a secondary concern relevant work in the other national regions of the UK. Having briefly clarified some issues of definition, the article offers an analysis of the central problem faced by schools (secondary schools in particular) involved in cross‐curriculum developments of this kind. That analysis focuses upon the aspiration of these schools to bring about whole‐school change within an institutional context characterised by strong boundary maintenance. The article then outlines the first of two findings: where education for sustainability is being developed within a secondary school setting, whole‐school change is likely to be conceived as modest modifications to existing structures. The article goes on, however, to outline some of the changing practices within these schools and, in doing so, introduces the second finding: where education for sustainability is being developed within a secondary school setting, whole‐school change is likely to be conceived in terms of a reorientation of professional interest and practice towards the local community and wider community concerns. These two findings, we argue, should be seen neither as complementary nor as existing in creative tension. They point to a school system seriously at odds with itself: pulled by one set of professional and managerial priorities towards piecemeal change within fixed parameters and by a very different set of professional and educational responses towards the reconceptualisa‐tion of teaching and learning and the closer involvement of schools in the local communities. This increased interest in the outward‐looking school community extends to issues of global concern. The article concludes with some thoughts on how this tension might be resolved through a radical reordering of educational priorities in favour of boundary realignment and community participation.     

Stability and Lability in Science Interest from Middle Schools to the Age of Science Choices (14 + )

Summaries

English

In parts of England and Wales, middle schools have been introduced for pupils of eight to 12 or nine to 13 years of age. From these they enter secondary schools whose general age of entry is 11. It is feared that the teaching of science in middle schools is inadequate and variable. This research has followed the science interests of pupils aged from 12 to 14 and investigated the factors that affect them by means of three questionnaires administered at yearly intervals.

The first questionnaire was administered to almost 600 boys and girls mainly to explore their recollections of the science activities they had experienced or not done in the 52 middle schools from which they came. Their liking for science was also measured and each of the activities done or not done was correlated with it. There were activities which correlated positively and negatively with liking for middle‐school science. There were also sex differences, with boys showing greater interest in ‘physical science’ activities and girls in biological ones. The most remarkable finding was that for girls the higher correlating activities were not merely biological but botanical and they were deterred by some activities with animals.

The second questionnaire after one year in the secondary schools, i.e. at 13 + , monitored the liking for chemistry, physics and biology taken by about 450 pupils. The third questionnaire was given at 14+ when these pupils had chosen to continue or abandon the further study of the three sciences. All the variables from the three questionnaires were then correlated with these science choices. Although the general influence of liking for middle‐school science had by then disappeared, certain specific middle‐school science activities still correlated significantly with science choices. The correlates of chemistry and physics choice were not exclusively physical science but included biological activities in which some measurement was involved, for example plant growth. There were sex differences. Previous activities with animals was detrimental to girls’ biology choices.

A range of other factors had, however, altered pupils’ liking for sciences over the two years in the secondary school: effects of teachers, perceptions of difficulty (especially in the case of girls’ physcial science) and liking for practical work. About a third of the pupils had not made up their minds about what subjects they wanted to study indicating that such an early age of choice is undesirable.     

School Effects in Scottish Secondary Schools

The present paper examines whether there is significant variation in schooling outcomes between Scottish secondary schools, and if so, how much is associated with pupil intake, and how much is associated with the schools they attend. It also examines whether schools vary in their effectiveness for different types of pupils, and whether schools tend to be superior, or inferior, across three different outcome measures. The study employed a subsample of data from the 1977 Scottish School Leavers Survey on over 700 pupils from 15 schools in one administrative division. These data were linked to data on the verbal reasoning quotients of the pupils, derived from a test administered to them before they entered secondary school. For each of the 15 schools we estimated the expected scores on measures of English, arithmetic and overall attainment for pupils with below average, average, and above average ability, controlling for pupils’ verbal ability, gender, prestige of father's occupation, mother's education, and number of siblings. The study shows there was wide variation in schooling outcomes between secondary schools in the division, even after controlling for family background characteristics and pupil ability prior to entering secondary school. There were few schools that were particularly effective for low ability pupils, but not high ability pupils and vice versa. Schools tended to be effective, or ineffective, across all three outcome measures.     

Large-scale curriculum change in a system of ten indonesian medical schools — A case study of educational innovation

This article reviews the literature on educational innovation and change, and emphasises factors which are held to facilitate rapid change. The remainder of the paper presents a detailed case history o1 educational innovation in 10 Indonesian medical schools, involvingN=260 academic departments. Within a 3-year period three-quarters of these departments have developed new curricula haled on sets of explicit instructional objectives, and most of these departments now indicate they are using these sets of objectives both for their teaching and for assessing students' competence. This case history describes how this task was approached, provides a synoptic picture of the results which have been obtained: then attempts to provide an overall account o1 those factors which assisted these changes to take place. It is contended that this case history of change within a system of established medical schools clarifies selected aspects of the theoretical literature on educational innovation and diffusion, on the planning of effective programmes of staff development, and provides planners with sonic practical guidelines for programme development and evaluation.     

Educating ‘Discouraged Workers’: cultural diversity in the upper secondary school

Through a qualitative study of the experiences of young people in the second year of post‐compulsory education in schools in four contrasting Scottish labour markets, we investigate the existence of a ‘discouraged worker’ effect. We argue that in the modem upper secondary school, which contains pupils with a range of attainment levels, it is possible to identify a number of distinct orientations to school life and suggest that the types of opportunities available within local labour markets affect young people's decisions to remain at school. We suggest that cultural responses to the school have become more individualised and that ‘discouraged workers’ can be identified in both the middle and the lower attainment bands.     

Scottish education: Changes in the examination structure in secondary schools

Conclusion Any examination system, to maintain its viability, must change in response to relevant pressures. When the Certificate examinations were introduced in 1888, their purpose was threefold: — to supplement the inspection of certain secondary-type schools; to establish uniform standards of attainment; to provide a Certificate acceptable to the universities and other examining or professional bodies. The first of these purposes was a temporary expedient, vital at that particular stage in the development of Scottish secondary education; the other two are still valid purposes today. Throughout the years, changes in the Certificate examinations have had two main aims: the encouragement of a widening of the curriculum to meet changing conditions, social, economic and industrial; and an easing of the pressure on secondary pupils. The introduction of the Ordinary grade in 1962 is entirely within this tradition; the projected Advanced grade is less clearly so;1) nevertheless, this departure may be the inevitable reaction to pressures to which the system has not previously had to respond.Whatever the final outcome may be, the emerging pattern of the examination structure in Scottish secondary education is at least evidence of an adaptability and resilience which critics of the system had feared it might no longer possess. It may even be the case that the future historian will regard 1962 as one of the key dates in Scottish education, paving the way for an extension of the provision of full secondary education, with a more relevant and vital curriculum, an examination structure geared to modern needs, and a consequent utilisation of talent which the country has always possessed, and can no longer afford to neglect.

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Schottische Erziehung: Veränderungen im Prüfungswesen

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Education ecossaise: Changements dans la structure des examens des ecoles secondaires

     

Pupil guidance: An integral part of teacher education and development in Scotland?

Many schools throughout the UK are experiencing challenging behaviour from pupils and high levels of absence and exclusion as they seek to implement initiatives aimed at raising pupil attainment [National Audit Office (2005). Improving school attendance, London: The Stationery Office]. These initiatives often presuppose that pupils will receive adequate levels of guidance and support to help them make curricular, personal, social, and health decisions. However, little is heard from teachers and students undertaking initial teacher education courses on how they have been prepared for this extended role of supporting increasing diverse student populations; nor do we know how they define guidance/pupil support and integrate this with their concept of the professional role of a teacher. This article presents evidence from a one-year study of pupil support in Scotland commissioned by the Scottish Executive Education Department. The study provided evidence for The National Review of Guidance Provision in Scotland [Scottish Executive (2003). The national review of guidance. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive; Scottish Executive (2005). Happy, safe and achieving their potential. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive]. The study explored the views of all 32 local authorities in Scotland, a sample of students in training in two universities and teachers, headteachers and pupils in eight case study schools, and also a sample of their parents. This article focuses specifically on the findings relating to teachers and students in training. It identifies the ways in which they support pupils and how well they think they have been prepared for that task. Two dominant models of pupil support emerge from these data: an embedded and a specialist approach, and these vary according to school and education sector. Primary school teachers were more likely to embed pupil support into their concept of being teachers, whereas secondary teachers perceived it to be a separate, specialist function, which many were reluctant to undertake. Some implications for teacher education are highlighted.     

Social class,gender and secondary education in Scotland in the 1950s

Newly accessible data from the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 are used to investigate the legacy in the 1950s of reforms to Scottish secondary schooling in the first four decades of the 20th century. These reforms had sought to extend opportunity for post‐primary education beyond the children of the professional middle class who had formed the largest part of the clientele of older secondary schools. The reforms also provided unprecedented opportunities to girls. The findings of the analysis are that the widening of opportunity was maintained in the stable, selective system of the 1950s. A broadly homogeneous system of academic secondary education had been created for about 45% of the age group, by means of selection at age 12. Social class continued to influence pupils’ progress in this secondary sector, but not to any different extent in the older or the newer schools. Progress in secondary school was not related to gender except in science.     

Collaborative Research in Scotland: a New Departure

A programme of collaborative research has been attempting to decentralize control over the process of research into Scottish education. Teachers and other practitioners have been involved in analysing data collected in surveys of Scottish school leavers, and stored in the Scottish Education Data Archive. Some of their analyses have been published in the Collaborative Research Newsletter. This paper briefly describes the programme, and summarizes some of the Newsletter articles in two areas of study: the secondary school curriculum, and the attitudes and experiences of non‐Certificate school leavers.     

Measuring Science Standards in Scottish Schools: The assessment of achievement programme

In Scotland, the fourth national survey of pupil performance in science in 1996 was the first to attempt to measure attainment in schools against the national policy statements for science which were introduced in 1993 as part of the 5-14 Development Programme. The government-funded Assessment of Achievement Programme (AAP) has been monitoring performance since the 1980s, but the introduction of national guidelines with age-related expectations of performance and progress has raised the stakes for those involved in implementing the curriculum. In order that the findings and their implications for effective learning and teaching are reliable, valid and an accurate reflection of what is important in science education, it is essential that the methods employed to produce a picture of what pupils in Scottish schools know and can do are defensible, technically and educationally. This paper describes the approach adopted by the AAP science team in 1996 and highlights the difficulties of translating what is essentially a learning and teaching framework into a means by which we can determine whether pupils are meeting the expectations of the national guidelines. The political and financial context means that compromises are inevitable, but these should be educationally defensible and should not convey the impression that some aspects of the science curriculum are to be accorded greater status than others. National monitoring should be, as far as is possible, an accurate reflection of science within the national guidelines as well as of pupil performance.     

Circular: Funding for Specialized Secondary Schools (1986)

Education commissions, higher education bureaus, education departments (bureaus), and finance departments (bureaus) of the various provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, and independently planned cities, as well as the various relevant ministries and commissions under the State Council:

With the reform of China's economic structure and the separation of the administrative organ from the enterprises, changes are taking place in the economic relations between many business departments and the enterprises under them. These changes have affected, to some extent, the funding for specialized secondary schools affiliated with these departments. The jurisdiction of some of these schools has also been adjusted accordingly. Under the circumstances, we need to further clarify the issue of funding for specialized secondary schools.