A reaction to educational reform: Implications for educational psychologists

Issue is taken with Benton and Hoyt's (1990) study of three groups as to their agreement or disagreement with the Holmes Group report Tomorrow's Teachers (1986), and the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy's Report, A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century (1986). The three groups studied were volunteer respondents from the initial Holmes Group, Division 15 of the American Psychological Association, and the Teacher Education Council for State Colleges and Universities. Questions are raised regarding the Benton and Hoyt study's general assumptions, selection of documents for study, selection of and generalization about group responses, and general implications for all educationists as well as educational psychologists.     

Educational reform: Implications for educational psychologists—A comment on Benton and Hoyt's study

Stephen L. Benton and Kenneth B. Hoyt have studied the reactions of TECSCU members contrasted to those of Holmes Group Members to the recommendations made in the Holmes Group and the Carnegie reform reports. This paper agrees with several observations made by these authors, including the elitist nature of the Holmes Group and the ignoring of educational psychology and other teacher-education faculty, but it disagrees with some of the causes behind these accusations, some attributed to naivety of the Holmes Group leaders and others attributed to their purposeful, self-serving goals. This paper has focused on those report recommendations that are educationally unsound and it has offered explanations with supportive information.     

Educational psychology and the reform of teacher education

Benton and Hoyt (1989) perform a service for educational psychology by obtaining empirical evidence about educational psychologists' reactions to changes in teacher education proposed by the Holmes Group and the Carnegie Commission. Their paper should serve to stimulate debate about the proper role of educational psychology in teacher education. In this paper, we challenge the empirical findings reported by Benton and Hoyt and suggest reasons why the findings may misrepresent educational psychologists' interest in teacher education. We argue that some of the Holmes and Carnegie recommendations contradict the emerging consensus among cognitive psychologists about the contextually bound nature of knowledge. Benton and Hoyt conceptualize educational psychology according to the traditional middleperson viewpoint and make recommendations with respect to educational psychology that presume this conceptualization. We counter that the middleperson viewpoint is being made obsolete by changes in psychology, and describe an alternative conception of educational psychology. This alternative conception leads to a set of alternative recommendations about the appropriate role of educational psychology in the reform of teacher education.     

Educational reform and the educational psychologist: Another perspective

In responding to the work of Benton and Hoyt, Kowalski argues that an adequate analysis of reform efforts is incomplete without an examination of underlying purposes. Questions are raised regarding the motives of those who promote extended teacher education programs and the Carnegie Forum proposal for national certification. The author suggests that educational psychologists can contribute to reform efforts by helping to explore values, beliefs, motivations, and needs as they relate to change proposals in teacher education.     

Educational reform in teacher preparation: Proposals,reactions, and implementation

The article by Benton and Hoyt provides data that creates an opportunity for a significant discussion concerning the role of educational psychologists in education reform. Education reform in teacher education has three identifiable stages. The first stage is the series of proposals that have been generated by a number of groups implying that education reform efforts will bring about positive change. The second component has been reactions or debates surrounding the proposals and significant changes proposed by national reports. Finally, there have been component parts of the proposals implemented in experimental ways in schools and colleges of education. Clearly, a segment of the educational psychology academic community has been involved in all three phases of education reform, and the need for maintaining a research posture and a demand for documentation of improvement is necessary from all educators—and in particular educational psychologists. The 1980s were the years for proposing and reacting. The years between now and the twenty-first century will be the time of implementation and evaluation of changes. The opportunity is present for active involvement of all interested educational psychologists. The article by Benton and Hoyt is a meaningful article for educational psychologists because it points out our differing opinions and provides some basis for us to understand our differences concerning specific issues in teacher education reform.     

藏族大学生数学学习心理及其相关因素调查报告

藏族学生数学教育是目前教育教学改革研究中的一个重要研究课题,国内好多致力于民族教育事业的教育专家对中学藏族学生的数学教育及学习心理做过深入地调查研究,总结出一些行之有效的教学改革方案,但对藏族大学生的数学学习未做过调查,尤其是藏汉双语数学教育专业大学生的数学学习及心理未做过实际的调查研究。为了提高藏族地区的数学教学质量,提高藏民族的整体科技文化水平,通过对合作民族师范高等专科学校藏汉双语理科教育系的藏汉双语数学教育专业八个年级的153名学生逐年进行问卷调查,总结提出了六条改进和提高教育教学质量的建议。     

Analysis and implications of educational reform proposals for educational psychologists: A comment on Benton and Hoyt

The design of Benton and Hoyt's study is discussed, as well as their data analysis. The limitations of the study, including the possible bias toward economic issues of the items and of data interpretation and nonrandom sampling of the subjects, are noted. Benton and Hoyt's discussion of how educational psychologists are affected by the educational reform movement is considered within the larger framework of the shift in educational research from a static normative to a dynamic interactionist approach. This shift has not only affected specific reform proposals, but also shows promise of resolving perceived conflicts in the proposals between excellence and equity and educational psychologists and teacher educators.     

The Holmes reports: perils and possibilities

There has not yet been an attempt to categorize or critique the substantial body of literature that has arisen around the Holmes Group’s three reports regarding the treatment of teaching and teacher education: Tomorrow’s Teachers (1986), Tomorrow’s Schools (1990) and Tomorrow’s Schools of Education (1995). This article represents an initial attempt to do so, as well as to discuss what impact, if any, the Holmes suggestions have had on current practice. This literature revolves around the themes of gender, professionalism, and epistemology—themes which have dominated discussions of American teacher education for at least 150 years. Criticism of the reports accuses the Holmes Group of covering over and even perpetuating dilemmas related to thee issues with politically calculating pseudo-solutions. Favorable responses to the Holmes reports generally claim that they ‘professionally’ empower teachers by showing increased respect for teachers’ ways of knowing and doing in the classroom.     

A “model” proposal for reform in teacher training

The present paper uses as a point of departure two of Benton and Hoyt's (1990) survey items concerning undergraduate teaching and their finding that Holmes Group and Division 15 members favored more sweeping changes in teacher education whereas TESCSU members favored more incremental changes. It: (a) suggests that reform is unlikely to succeed without change in the behavior of those who teach prospective teachers; (b) suggests ways in which educational psychologists can improve the effectiveness of teachers and teacher training; and (c) questions whether moving teacher training to the graduate level will in fact improve such education.     

Review

This essay offers a historical commentary on Turning Points: Preparing Youth for the 21st Century, the 1989 report on middle school education by the Carnegie Council's Task Force on Education of Young Adolescents, The report's opposition to tracking and its advocacy of teacher empowerment, initiatives that have been popular with school reformers of the 1980s, does distinguish Turning Points from earlier proposals for educational change. Most of the report, however, seems to recommend policies that bear a striking similarity to the kind of changes promoted by the advocates of efficiency oriented school reform earlier in the century. The essay examines the historical antecedents for two of these policy recommendations, curriculum integration and school‐based health services. In considering these earlier attempts at reform, this essay identifies flaws that may mitigate the effectiveness of the policies recommended in Turning Points but which the authors of the report fail to mention .     

Development of an Instrument to Assess Prospective Elementary Teacher Self-Efficacy Beliefs about Equitable Science Teaching and Learning (SEBEST)

This paper presents an overview of the procedures used to develop and validate an instrument to measure the self-efficacy beliefs of prospective elementary teachers about equitable science teaching and learning. The instrument, titled the SEBEST, was based on the work of Ashton and Webb (1986a, 1986b) and Bandura (1977, 1986). It was modeled after the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) (Riggs, 1988) and the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument for Prospective Teachers (STEBI-B) (Enochs & Riggs, 1990). Based on the standardized development procedures used and associated evidence, the SEBEST appears to be a content and construct valid instrument, with high internal reliability qualities. "Most probable response" plots are introduced and used to bring meaning to SEBEST raw scores.     

Reform: Why? What? By whom?

Benton and Hoyt have surveyed educational psychologists regarding their views on reform of teacher-training programs. Ostensibly based on the results of their survey, Benton and Hoyt have called for a greater role of educational psychologists in shaping the reform of teacher training. The present article questions: (1) whether educational psychologists have skills that would contribute to reform as it is being conceptualized; (2) whether the reform movement is focusing on aspects of the educational system that will result in improved student outcomes; and (3) whether it is the educational system that needs reform or our expectations for the educational system.     

师范英语专业通识教育与专业教育之融合观

2010年《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要》,2011年《教育部关于大力推进教师教育课程改革的意见》和《教师教育课程标准（试行）》明确了我国培养高素质教师的标准。未来的教师不仅需要具备优秀的教学能力,还需掌握广博的科学文化知识、具有良好的科研能力与创新能力。这些都要求在英语专业师范生的培养过程中不仅要注重英语基础与英语教学能力的提升,同时要强化通识知识的获取。     

A Survey of Educational Psychologists’ Views on the Delivery of Behaviour Modification

The survey reported here was principally aimed at exploring the views of practising educational psychologists in the United Kingdom as to their implementation of behaviour modification. Approximately 10‐15 questionnaires were sent to each of 22 Psychological Services randomly selected from the Directory of School Psychological Services and Child Guidance Services. Seventy‐eight questionnaires (nearly 31% of those sent out) were received in time for their contents to be analysed. Two findings of the present survey are that an overwhelming majority of practising educational psychologists do not recommend behaviour modification in its traditional form, and that few educational psychologists believe that traditional behaviour modification can or should be implemented without any adaptation. An interesting, and somewhat unexpected finding, is that a vast majority of the respondents hold somewhat ‘and’ attitudes towards the traditional form of behaviour modification, although more experienced educational psychologists are somewhat less antagonistic.     

美国PDS政策述评

美国在20世纪80年代以后逐步形成了“建立PDS（Professional Development Schools,专业发展学校）促进教师专业发展的政策”（简称PDS政策）。一些有影响的政策制定部门,例如霍姆期小组、美国教师教育鉴定委员会、全国教学和未来委员、美国教育部会等都就PDS的有关问题制定了相应政策。这些政策的颁布和实施,有效地促进了教师专业发展,促进了教师专业发展的一体化、终身化,促进了大学与中小学的联合,强化了中小学促进教师专业发展的功能,推动了积极探索实现教师专业发展途径的尝试。     

高等特殊教育师范院校公共课程的问题分析与调整对策

高等特殊教育师范院校的培养目的是培养合格的特殊教育教师,以其师范性而存在,伴随着师范性的消失而消亡。高等特殊教育师范院校师范性不强,学生师范素质不高,是近年来困扰我国高等特殊教育师范院校教育的一大难题。因此,近年来关于高等特殊教育师范院校教育课程改革的呼声颇为强烈。本文立足高等特殊教育师范院校公共教育课程的现状,结合新的课程理论,有针对性地提出一些改革建议。     

Consulting with groups of teachers. Evaluation of a pilot project in Ireland

This article reports on a two year project in which educational psychologists offered consultation to groups of teachers, to help them find solutions to school-based problems. Teachers were drawn from within individual schools and from across a number of schools. Typically, teachers were trained by educational psychologists in group consultation processes. Group consultation sessions were usually offered on a termly basis (three times per year). The group consultation sessions were facilitated by two psychologists. A formal process was followed, using a problem-solving structure. A pilot project ran for two years and was evaluated using quantitative and qualitative methods. Data were collected from teachers, school principals and psychologists. Findings indicate that group consultation is an effective method of service delivery, particularly for clusters of small, rural schools. The evaluation considers aspects of group consultation that could be further developed and new directions for this model of working.     

Predictors of Hispanic School Teachers' Self-efficacy in the Pedagogical Uses of Technology

A study to predict teachers' self-efficacy in using technology for pedagogical purposes was conducted in a predominantly Hispanic school district in south Texas; 438 elementary teachers completed a 32-item survey aligned to the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers. Findings suggested that the instrument is highly reliable in measuring Hispanic school teachers' self-efficacy when they are asked to rate their confidence in their ability to perform technology tasks for educational purposes. An exploratory factor analysis (orthogonal and nonorthogonal) allowed the derivation of composite measures. Three subscales regarding issues of pedagogy composed the dependent variable. Regression analyses (OLS and 2SLS) revealed that two derived composite measures and two contrast variables listed in the general information of the survey strongly predicted the response variable.     

New Carpets for Old Brooms? Training teachers for the education industry

This article is a critique of the document The Education Industry and The National Competency Agenda, which was produced by members of the Schools and Curriculum Division of the federal Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) in April 1992. The authors examine the policy context in which the document was produced. They then go on to analyse the case for reform argued in this document, drawing attention to the mechanisms by which the document seeks to inform and persuade its educational audience. A detailed analysis and critique is made of its central assumptions in relation to teacher education, with a more appropriate agenda for reform of teacher education subsequently outlined.     

Education for liberal democracy: Fred Clarke and the 1944 Education Act

Fred Clarke (1880–1952), an English educationist, emerged as a leading figure with his liberal approach alongside such key figures as R. H. Tawney and Cyril Norwood in the reform leading to the 1944 Education Act. Many of his reform proposals, which were provided by the new Act, reflected his ideals of liberal democracy. Nevertheless, his contribution to the process of the legislation has not been examined thoroughly. Therefore, this paper explores his positions on educational issues in various debates and his approaches towards the reform. It also evaluates the extent to which the 1944 Education Act was in line with Clarke’s ideals and proposals so that a comprehensive assessment of Clarke’s contribution to the legislation can be made.