Credits, curriculum, and control in higher education: Cross-national perspectives

Through an examination of the higher education systems in threecountries (Indonesia, Nicaragua, and Vietnam), the authors explore howthe use of academic credits for monitoring student progress has been andcontinues to be linked to policies and institutions associated withcapitalist, market-driven economic systems. The recent histories ofthese countries and their current social and political contexts areanalyzed in relation to three interrelated themes that have emerged fromthe analysis of the three cases. These themes are: (1) Linkages topolitical and economic systems: higher education as vocationaltraining, (2) Standardization, efficiency, andtechnocracy, and (3) Who controls the curriculum? Inconclusion, the authors suggest that the academic credit system,embedded within a network of other educational practices, hastransformed the university into an institution focused on relativelynarrow, utilitarian aims rather than a more universal pursuit ofknowledge.     

Promoting Conceptual Change for Complex Systems Understanding: Outcomes of an Agent-Based Participatory Simulation

Components of complex systems apply across multiple subject areas, and teaching these components may help students build unifying conceptual links. Students, however, often have difficulty learning these components, and limited research exists to understand what types of interventions may best help improve understanding. We investigated 32 high school students’ understandings of complex systems components and whether an agent-based simulation could improve their understandings. Pretest and posttest essays were coded for changes in six components to determine whether students showed more expert thinking about the complex system of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Results showed significant improvement for the components Emergence (r = .26, p = .03), Order (r = .37, p = .002), and Tradeoffs (r = .44, p = .001). Implications include that the experiential nature of the simulation has the potential to support conceptual change for some complex systems components, presenting a promising option for complex systems instruction.     

Conditional gene manipulation: Cre-ating a new biological era

To solve the problem of embryonic lethality in conventional gene knockouts,site-specific recombinase(SSR)systems(Cre-loxP,Flp-FRT,andΦC31)have been used for tissue-specific gene knockout.With the combination of an SSR system and inducible gene expression systems(tetracycline and tamoxifen),stage-specific knockout and transgenic expression can be achieved.The application of this"SSR+inducible"conditional tool to genomic manipulation can be extended in various ways.Alternatives to conditional gene targeting,such as conditional gene trapping,multipurpose conditional alleles,and conditional gene silencing,have been developed.SSR systems can also be used to construct precise disease models with point mutations and chromosomal abnormalities.With these exciting achievements,we are moving towards a new era in which the whole genome can be manipulated as we wish.     

Assessing the Organizational Social Context (OSC) of child welfare systems: Implications for research and practice

ObjectiveThe study: (1) provides the first assessment of the a priori measurement model and psychometric properties of the Organizational Social Context (OSC) measurement system in a US nationwide probability sample of child welfare systems; (2) illustrates the use of the OSC in constructing norm-based organizational culture and climate profiles for child welfare systems; and (3) estimates the association of child welfare system-level organizational culture and climate profiles with individual caseworker-level job satisfaction and organizational commitment.MethodsThe study applies confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical linear models (HLM) analysis to a US nationwide sample of 1,740 caseworkers from 81 child welfare systems participating in the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (NSCAW II). The participating child welfare systems were selected using a national probability procedure reflecting the number of children served by child welfare systems nationwide.ResultsThe a priori OSC measurement model is confirmed in this nationwide sample of child welfare systems. In addition, caseworker responses to the OSC scales generate acceptable to high scale reliabilities, moderate to high within-system agreement, and significant between-system differences. Caseworkers in the child welfare systems with the best organizational culture and climate profiles report higher levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Organizational climates characterized by high engagement and functionality, and organizational cultures characterized by low rigidity are associated with the most positive work attitudes.ConclusionsThe OSC is the first valid and reliable measure of organizational culture and climate with US national norms for child welfare systems. The OSC provides a useful measure of Organizational Social Context for child welfare service improvement and implementation research efforts which include a focus on child welfare system culture and climate.     

Private vs public child welfare systems: A comparative analysis of national safety outcome performance

BackgroundEnsuring the safety of American children is one of the chief mandates of the U.S. Child Welfare System. Yet system differences, including privatization remain an area of concern for whether safety of children is achieved.ObjectiveThis study examined the effect of privatization policy on the performance of state child welfare systems in terms of achieving national safety outcome standards.Participants and SettingN₁ = 10 states systems (5 privatized and 5 public systems) with N₂ = 118,761 foster care cases located throughout the U.S.MethodUsing data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), safety outcome performance measures were assessed, as were child-/case factors to predict the likelihood of the system types meeting the national safety outcome standards.ResultsLogistic regression models of child, case, and system factors predicting the likelihood state systems met national safety outcome performance standards were statistically significant. Private systems, compared to non-private systems, were found to have lower odds of meeting the safety outcome 1 standard (OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.40–0.42), but greater odds of meeting the safety outcome 2 standard (OR = 6.79, 95% CI = 6.56–7.02).ConclusionsThe implementation of privatization policy in state child welfare/foster care service delivery was found to have mixed results in terms of the national safety outcome standards.     

International ‘benchmarking’ studies and the identification of ‘education best practice’: a focus on classroom teachers and their practices

The disproportionate focus on classroom teachers and their instruction—teacher effectiveness—in order to confront and address under-achievement and disadvantage appears as a contemporary education policy theme in Australia. Phrases such as ‘high performing schooling systems’, ‘the best teachers’, ‘high performing countries’, ‘quality teaching’, ‘under-performing schools’, ‘the right change’, ‘operationally feasible’, ‘targeting of reforms’, ‘degrees of under-performance’, ‘educational drivers’, ‘teacher quality and improved teaching’ and ‘external standards and governance’ are constantly mentioned and given continual attention and prominence by policy-makers. The paper questions and critiques a policy-making direction that uses teacher effectiveness research to force and steer reform in education. The distinctive and narrow concern with teacher effectiveness works to the specific exclusion of breadth and scope concerning debate about broader education related issues and questions, for example, matters of student achievement, exclusion and disadvantage. This article uses a qualitative research approach informed by critical theory to examine three influential private sector reports on education and schooling: The McKinsey Report ( 2007 )—How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top, The Nous Group ( 2011 )—Schooling Challenges and Opportunities and The Grattan Institute ( 2012 )—Catching up: Learning from the best school systems in East Asia. The article subjects the reports to close critical scrutiny and examination and finds that classroom teachers are positioned so that their specific and explicit instruction becomes the differentiating ‘variable’ in matters of student achievement and success.     

The development of children’s sensitivity to bigram frequencies when spelling in Spanish,a transparent writing system

The aim of this study was to collect data concerning the sensitivity of 2nd–6th grade Spanish-speaking children towards orthographic regularities. In a first experiment, children were asked to spell words that begin with /b/, a sound that is inconsistently spelled b or v, depending on the lexeme. Low frequency words were used to reduce the use of lexical information in spelling. In Spanish, the frequency of graphemes b and v depends on the following vowel; for example, in initial position, the bigram vi is more frequent than bi while vu is less frequent than bu. Evidence concerning the use of sublexical regularities in English and French—opaque orthographic systems—is already available. The question was whether such knowledge also applies in a more transparent system like Spanish, in which a phonologically based strategy is quite efficient. The main finding was that participants’ spelling strongly depended on the relative frequency of bigrams. This was already evident in second graders’ spelling and increased with schooling. In Experiment 2 these results were confirmed using pseudo-words. The results exclude a functional view of spelling, which supposes that orthographic resources are not used to spell in consistent orthographic systems, since phonologically based mechanisms are sufficient to override any others.     

Evaluation of education quality and neighbourhood well-being: a case study of Independencia,Peru

Information systems can play a vital role in supporting the planning and management of development programs and, as such, they are fundamental to improving people’s health, education, training, and enhancing the transparency of decisions and actions taken by public and private agencies in these and other domains. This paper examines how information systems in general, and geographic information systems (GIS) in particular, can contribute to an understanding of local educational contexts and needs through the provision of information tools that bridge national-level goals and policy to local-level action and outcomes. First, utilising the frameworks from global initiatives such as Education for All and A Framework for Action, direction is provided as to what types of data are required to evaluate education systems and education quality, especially given the absence of detailed local-level data. Second, the relationship between neighbourhood context and the quality of education is assessed. Third, the available educational and contextual information for a case study in the urban district of Independencia, Peru is described. Utilising information available at the local level and general international frameworks, a method is outlined for the analysis of education quality and neighbourhood well-being and is applied to the case of Independencia, Peru.     

Designs for learning about climate change as a complex system

This paper reports on a study in which students used agent-based computer models to learn about complex systems ideas of relevance to understanding climate change. The experimental condition used a Productive Failure (PF) learning design in which ninth grade students initially worked with agent-based computer models to solve challenge problems followed by teacher instruction about targeted climate and complexity ideas. In contrast, the comparison condition employed a Direct Instruction (DI) learning design in which the teacher instruction was provided initially, followed by the students working on the same computer models and challenge problems as the experimental group. The students in the PF group scored significantly higher on the post-test on measures of climate and complex systems explanatory knowledge and near and far knowledge transfer. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.     

Grading Multiple Choice Exams with Low-Cost and Portable Computer-Vision Techniques

Although technology for automatic grading of multiple choice exams has existed for several decades, it is not yet as widely available or affordable as it should be. The main reasons preventing this adoption are the cost and the complexity of the setup procedures. In this paper, Eyegrade, a system for automatic grading of multiple choice exams is presented. While most current solutions are based on expensive scanners, Eyegrade offers a truly low-cost solution requiring only a regular off-the-shelf webcam. Additionally, Eyegrade performs both mark recognition as well as optical character recognition of handwritten student identification numbers, which avoids the use of bubbles in the answer sheet. When compared with similar webcam-based systems, the user interface in Eyegrade has been designed to provide a more efficient and error-free data collection procedure. The tool has been validated with a set of experiments that show the ease of use (both setup and operation), the reduction in grading time, and an increase in the reliability of the results when compared with conventional, more expensive systems.     

From objects to subjects: Repositioning teachers as policy actors doing policy work

Within policy discourses, teachers are positioned as objects of reform who enact policies under rational systems of observation and accountability and are, therefore, situated as de-professionalized actors lacking expert knowledge. This research project asks relatively straight-forward questions: If practicing teachers were given a voice in political debates over urban education policy and reform, what would they say? What macro-level policy problems would they identify as being important? Findings indicate the primary policy problems include Systemic Inequity and Bad Policy. The primary policy solutions include, Schools as a Community Resource; Shared Decision-Making; Contextual Goals; and Time, Space and Resources.     

Review of serious events in cases of (suspected) child abuse and/or neglect: A RoSE by any other name?

Child abuse and neglect (CAN) cases presenting to health-services may be complex; when things go seriously wrong such as a child death or near miss, cases are reviewed and health-services and professionals subject to intense scrutiny. While there are a variety of mechanisms to review critical incidents in health-services no formal process for the review of cases where child protection is the primary concern exists in Australia. We aimed to develop a systematic process to review serious events in cases of suspected CAN across two health districts in Sydney, so that shared learnings could fuel system change. Drawing upon mapping, case review, literature findings and using quality improvement methodology, we developed a model named Review of Serious Events (RoSE), in suspected cases of CAN. The RoSE model has the key features of: being child focused; seeking to examine care over a period of time; using child protection staff as lead reviewers; involving health professionals/services in the review who have been involved with the child; and actioning systems change at local levels. The RoSE model was trialled through 2014–2015. Eight cases were reviewed using RoSE; cases were similar to those reviewed prior to having a model. Participant feedback from RoSE group processes was overwhelmingly positive; outputs were transparent and accessible to key stakeholders, there was mixed progress with implementation. The RoSE model is a serious case review process that is strongly child-focused, is both investigative and reflective, led by child protection experts; and can be adapted to other settings and systems.     

Equity in opportunity-to-learn and achievement in reading: A secondary analysis of PISA 2009 data

Using data from PISA 2009, the present study investigates firstly how equally students are exposed to opportunities to improve their reading skills (OTL) depending on the school they are enrolled in, and secondly the links between OTL in reading and achievement at the school level. A multidimensional within-item IRT is used to model the OTL. The intraclass correlation of both OTL dimensions issued from the IRT analysis – reading fiction and reading non-continuous tasks – is high, especially in differentiated education systems, showing an unequal exposure to OTL in reading according to the school. Robust correlations between the two OTL dimensions and reading achievement are observed at the school level. In addition, the results of a multilevel regression analysis show that a substantial proportion of the between-school variance in reading can be explained by OTL and by the school social intake. The proportion of between-school variance explained jointly by OTL and social intake is higher in differentiated education systems than in comprehensive ones.     

The escalation and maintenance of child abuse: A cybernetic model

A cybernetic model of child abuse is presented as a contribution to the theoretical literature on child abuse. The child's role in his or her own abuse is stressed; interaction between caretaker and child is emphasized. While the origins of abuse are discussed, the focus of the paper is on the maintenance and escalation of the pattern of abusive interaction. The author proposes to explain this pattern-maintenance through the application of Gregory Bateson's concept of schismogenesis, or regenerative feedback, a concept derived from cybernetics and family systems theory. Suggestions for intervention in this process are discussed in the conclusion.     

Teaching as mediation: The cogenerative dialogue and ethical understandings

The mediation by teachers of the many activity systems that constitute any given class has traditionally been an ignored aspect of teaching. In this paper we argue that the teacher's responsibility for this mediation exists and must therefore be accounted for in the praxis of teaching. In addition we argue for the cogenerative dialogue as one viable solution for teachers to mediate in an ethically responsive manner. We construct these arguments because teachers must be better prepared to understand their complex role in the classroom along with their ethical responsibility to the students for the effective negotiation of the systems they navigate each day.     

Investigating children's musical interactions within the activities systems of group composing and arranging: An application of Engeström's Activity Theory

This article applies Engeström's Activity Theory (AT) as an analytical lens to identify defining characteristics of the collaborative creative music making activities of composing and arranging. Attention is paid to the complex interrelationships among the various elements of interaction in children's collaborative creative music making as evidenced in group composing (where the activity features generation and revision of new musical material) and arranging (where the activity features creative use of existing musical material) are differentiated tasks. These include, for example, tool use in response to different tasks, the rules that govern peer collaboration, and the division of labour experienced among key players in the co-construction of decisions. Exemplary cases are sampled from data sets drawn from two separate sites one of which features a group composing task with fifth graders in a USA urban school and the other a group arranging task with eighth graders in a UK urban school. This micro-analysis is less concerned with the differences of collaborative interaction in varying cultural settings than with exploring the micro-analysis of social and language processes that characterise these differentiated creative tasks and the related activity systems. The activity system, or systems of social relations, is the unit of analysis applied across comparison-group cases using ethnographic observation, and discourse and event analysis. Analysis of the data indicates that composing and arranging involve differentiated activity systems. Important defining characteristics of the collaborative interactions, as outcomes of the children's approach to the task activities, are identified. Conclusions indicate that the application of an activity theory research perspective can provide a useful framework to make sense of the interrelated elements that characterise interaction in peer collaboration.     

Reclaiming an Important Teacher Competency: The Lost Art of Formative Assessment

We live in an era in which standardized assessments play a necessary and important role in the mission of our public schools to provide equal and equitable educational opportunity to all students. However, our focus on summative accountability measures often has an eclipsing effect on the equally important role of formative assessment practices in the classroom. This article describes why and how formative assessment should be integral to classroom teaching, and it suggests the importance of focusing on teachers’ instructionally-based, formative assessment competencies through our teacher evaluation systems.     

Variational Monte Carlo technique

In this article, I discuss the use of the Variational Monte Carlo technique in the determination of ground state energies of quantum harmonic oscillators in one and three dimensions. In order to provide a better understanding of this technique, a pre-requisite concept of Monte Carlo integration is also discussed along with numerical examples. The technique can be easily extended to study the ground state energies of hydrogen atom, particle in a box, helium atom and other complex microscopic systems involving N particles in d-dimensions.     

Measuring the quality of teaching practices in primary schools: Assessing the validity of the Teach observation tool in Punjab,Pakistan

Monitoring the quality of teaching practices of primary school teachers in low-and-middle-income countries is often hampered by the lack of freely available classroom observation tools that are feasible to administer, validated in their own setting, and can be used as part of national monitoring systems. To address this discrepancy, Teach, an open-access classroom observation tool, was developed to measure the quality of teaching practices of primary school teachers in low-and-middle-income countries. This paper uses data from Punjab, Pakistan to evaluate the validity of Teach. Results show that Teach scores were internally consistent, presented good inter-rater reliability, and provided sufficient information to differentiate low from high-quality teaching practices. Further, higher Teach scores were associated with higher student outcomes.