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

     

Cognitive development in relation to secondary school final examination results in the Italian school system

A Piaget‐type questionnaire was presented to about 800 students of the Science Faculty of Bari University at the very beginning of their first academic year. The score results of the questionnaire were analysed in terms of cognitive development and correlated with the grade obtained in the final examination at secondary school. The correlation (when statistically significant) were always positive but low. This suggests that more attention should be paid in the final examination to students’ master of high‐level cognitive processes.     

高职园林技术专业课程考试改革的探索与实践

高等职业教育高技能人才培养目标是否达到,考试是重要的检验手段,然而,传统的卷面考试基本上只能检验学生知识掌握的程度,而不能体现学生实践技能水平的高低。为此,在园林专业的教学实践中,对考试方法进行了一些改革的探索和实践。     

Inequality in Ghanaian secondary schools: Educational expansion,recruitment, and internal stratification

Researchers disagree as to whether expansion of an educational system leads primarily to greater equality of opportunity or the further reproduction of inequality. This article addresses this question through an examination of the social background characteristics of Ghanaian secondary school students in 1961 and 1974. Students in varying quality schools are compared as to their socio-economic status and urban experience. The data suggest that not only are children of relatively high-status parents gaining increased access to school, but that they are doing so increasingly in high-status institutions.     

Behaviour support in secondary schools

Student voice and pupil empowerment projects are common in many mainstream schools. However, such initiatives are more challenging to implement in provision for students experiencing (social), emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). As a consequence, they are less frequently attempted. This article reports one such attempt at an SEBD special school, where a student research group was formed to evaluate the school's behaviour policy. The students' views remind professionals of the need for consistency, positive relationships and communication underpinning behaviour management strategies. The article also reflects on a number of issues to consider when implementing such projects in special education contexts.     

乾隆朝殿试策问中的史学考题

本文梳理和分析了清乾隆朝殿试策问中史学考题的内容、出题形式及特点,揭示出乾隆时期一系列大规模官方学术活动的开展,是造就这一阶段史学繁荣的根本原因,此正是统治者高度重视史学的政治功能与社会效用所致。由此笔者提出结论:当下的科举史研究,大多探讨科举考试的历史背景、考试程序,殿试对策的语言艺术和试卷的文献价值,较少关注殿试策问本身的内容、思想倾向、命题技巧,及其中所体现的政治与学术之间的互动关系。如能从这一角度入手,不仅能丰富中国传统史学的研究,且必能为中国古代文化史、学术史和科举制度史的研究开辟一个新的视角。     

Variability analysis for effectiveness and improvement in classrooms and schools in upper secondary education in Slovenia: Assessment of/for Learning Analytic Tool

From 1995, data on students' achievement in schools (i.e., teacher's grades) and all data on achievement in the 5-subject group certificate – the Matura exam – have been systematically gathered for the entire yearly cohort of students in upper secondary education in Slovenia. This paper describes an on-line data selection system and data analysis tool designed for national subject testing committees, schools, and teachers as feedback for analyses of effectiveness, for the improvement of teaching in the classroom and for better learning. The use of data to influence teacher planning of future instructional activities for new groups of students (or for adjustment of policies) can in the long run lead to systematic improvement. This might be considered a secondary level of formative assessment – a key step in a continuous PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) process to establish and assure the quality of education.     

Geometry in English secondary schools

In the past twenty years many countries have implemented new approaches to the teaching of geometry at school level. In England, most schools seem to have changed towards an experimental science approach to geometry, whilst a significant number appear to have continued the traditional geometry of Euclid. The new approach uses a great variety of techniques, and thereby loses coherence: it is based largely on practical work and seems to have forsaken the deductive approach entirely.The paper attempts to quantify the present situation in England and suggests a way of building upon the experimental science approach to provide a unified knowledge of spatial configurations through deductive methods.     

Independent study in secondary schools

This paper reviews research and other publications on independent study in secondary schools in the United States appearing subsequent to the Alexander-Hines survey of the field in 1965–66. Particular attention is given to the rationale of independent study, types, characteristic features, independent study students and teachers, schedules, facilities, and outcomes. To the extent possible in the absence of another, more recent, comprehensive national survey, comparisons are made with the findings of the Alexander-Hines study. The state of the field, burgeoning but somewhat confused by the use of independent study as time rather than process, is summarized in a final section.

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Résumé Cette étude passe en revue la recherche et autres publications sur l'étude indépendante dans les écoles secondaires aux Etats-Unis, parues consécutivement à l'exposé du sujet par Alexander-Hines en 1965–66. Une attention particulière est donnée à l'analyse raisonnée de l'étude indépendante, aux types, traits caractéristiques, étudiants et professeurs adeptes de l'étude indépendante, programmes, facilités et aux résultats. Autant que possible en l'absence d'autres études d'ensemble national plus récentes, des comparaisons sont faites avec les conclusions de l'exposé Alexander-Hines. La situation actuelle, bourgeonnante tout en étant quelque peu confuse par l'utilisation de l'étude indépendante en matière de temps plutôt que de méthode, est résumée sommairement dans le dernier chapitre.

     

Student fear in secondary schools

Our data have shown that physical aggression has an extreme psychological effect on the student body of American secondary schools; it creates a subgroup of youngsters so adversely affected by fear as to merit the often-misused label of socially disadvantaged. This study has discovered that fearful youngsters differ importantly from others by virtue of much more than simple avoidance patterns. More than others, apprehensive youth tend to dislike their school, their teachers, and their fellow students. They see themselves as suspicious of their surroundings and helpless to modify conditions of a game which appears beyond their control.