Why the Computer is not Dominating Schools: a failure of policy or a failure of practice?

Despite the hyperbole that has continually surrounded the area of educational computing, for the last 20 years the computer has noticeably failed to permeate the school setting. This has traditionally been attributed to a failure of educational practice to adapt to, and provide for, the educational ‘IT revolution’. However, this article argues that a wider critique of educational computing should be adopted if‐we are to really understand the apparent failure of computers to be integrated into the compulsory educational setting. By examining how educational computing has been, and continues to be, constructed in both educational policy and discourse, the article considers how this ‘writing’ of educational computing is fundamentally at odds with the structure of the school organisation it is meant to merge with     

Yaffa: a school of their choice?

This article is a product of in‐depth research in Yaffa, The Arab Democratic School that was carried out in 2004/05, as part of a study on alternative Arab education in Israel. Its aim, beyond telling the story of Yaffa, is to explicate the motivations that underlay this initiative, and to examine parental choice amongst the disadvantaged. We ask how the Arabs’ parental choice is affected by their (marginalised) social location, by how far they are from the dominant culture, and by their (in)capacity to make a difference. Apparently, to make a choice is a multidimensional act, reflecting the Palestinian citizens’ resistance to their marginalisation and unwillingness to be subjugated through non‐democratic educational perceptions. Their positionality resonates in Yaffa, as an act of intervention, and their search for an alternative reality where democratic education is not and cannot be separated from the Palestinian citizens’ need to imagine themselves as Arabs.     

The school meals service: a necessity or a luxury good?

This article looks at the school meals service and argues that it is an important topic which lies at the interface of educational and social policy. It reviews the history of the service as one of changing ideas and emphases, particularly, but not exclusively, influenced at various times by changing knowledge about the relationship between nutrition and health. It discusses when, and under what circumstances, school meals are seen as a legitimate part of social and educational policy. It discusses the impact of current policies in relation to nutrition and health, with particular reference to changing modes of provision. Finally, using a small piece of empirical research done in Yorkshire, it discusses the impact on the domestic economy of family households of policy since the 1980 Act.     

Fostering parents-professional collaboration for facilitating the school inclusion of students with ASD: design of the “ToGather” web-based prototype

Educational technology research and development - In recent years, many psycho-educational technologies were studied to address the school-related difficulties encountered by students with autism...     

Are success and failure experiences equally motivational? An investigation of regulatory focus and feedback

The present study extended regulatory focus theory (Idson & Higgins, 2000) to an educational setting and attempted to identify individuals with high motivation after both success and failure feedback. College students in Hong Kong (N = 180) participated in an experiment with a 2 promotion focus (high vs. low) × 2 prevention focus (high vs. low) × 2 feedback (success vs. failure) design. The results showed that after success feedback, the students with promotion focus were more motivated than their counterparts with prevention focus. This pattern was reversed after failure feedback. However, the results failed to show that students high in both regulatory focuses were motivated after success as well as failure feedback. The findings are discussed with reference to the literature on flexibility of regulatory focuses. Practical and theoretical implications of feedback are also discussed.     

Can learning of basketball be enhanced through a web-based multimedia course? An experimental study

This study’s aim is the creation of a web-based multimedia course for Physical Education (PE) students’ familiarization with the teaching of basketball, and the evaluation of its use as a complementary tool to conventional instruction, in terms of learning effectiveness and student acceptance. The course includes multimedia learning material as well as interactive learning activities and quizzes on the cognitive components of basic basketball skills and on other basketball-related topics (history of the sport, referee’s signals, training aids, basketball court). The study involved 88 undergraduate students during one semester. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a group that used the web-based multimedia course and also attended a conventional face-to-face course on the teaching of basketball (N?=?45), and another group that only attended the conventional face-to-face course (N?=?43). A pretest/posttest research design was followed. For both groups basketball knowledge was measured at the beginning and at the end of the semester through written questionnaires. The responses of the students of the first group towards the web-based course were also assessed, at the end of the semester, through a written feedback questionnaire. Within both groups, significant increases in students’ basketball knowledge were found. However, the web-based multimedia course in combination with conventional face-to-face instruction was significantly more effective than conventional face-to-face instruction alone in increasing students’ cognitive learning regarding the sport of basketball, at the same time being well-accepted by the students. These findings support the effectiveness of blended learning for PE at higher education level as well as the acceptance of this mode of learning by PE students.     

Inability of five-month-old infants to retrieve a contiguous object: a failure of conceptual understanding or of control of action?

Infants of 5 to 6 months of age can retrieve a free-standing object, but fail to retrieve the same object from atop a slightly larger object. The accepted explanation has been that the infants do not understand that an object continues to exist independently when placed upon another. Predictions based on that explanation were tested against the hypothesis that infants' problem consists of lack of precision in visually guided reaching and lack of ability to inhibit reflexive reactions to touch. Twelve infants each at 5 and 7 months of age were tested on 16 trials. More 5-month-olds succeeded, in less time, and with fewer touches to an edge of the base, on trials more forgiving of an imprecise reach than on less forgiving trials. Success in retrieving objects close in size and fully contiguous with their bases was seen even at 5 months when the demands on skill in reaching were reduced. It is proposed that when 5-month-old infants fail to retrieve one object placed upon another, it is not because of a lack of conceptual understanding, but because they lack the skill to reach to the top object without accidentally touching an edge of the base en route.     

Negotiating and contesting ‘success’: discourses of aspiration in a UK secondary school

The need to ‘raise aspirations’ among young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds has been prominent in UK policy debates over the last decade. This paper examines how this discourse is negotiated and contested by teachers and pupils in a Scottish secondary school. Interviews, group discussions and observations were analysed by drawing on Foucauldian discourse analysis. The analysis exposes contradictions and silences inherent in dominant discourses of aspiration, most notably the tension between the promise and the impossibility of ‘success’ for all. It is argued that attempts to reconcile this tension by calling on young people to maximise individual ‘potential’ through attitude change silence the social construction of ‘success’ and ‘failure’. The paper concludes with suggesting ways in which schools could embrace the contradictions underpinning dominant ‘raising aspiration’ discourses and adopt a more critical-sociological approach in working with young people.     

An Australian perspective on school leadership preparation and development: credentials or self-management?

This paper provides a review of school leadership preparation and development in Australia through considering the requirements for becoming a principal, how leadership preparation and development occurs, and consideration of recent developments to provide an Australian standard for school leaders. Australian educators have relied mostly on a self-identification and self-managed system in which individuals decide that they want to pursue leadership opportunities and then seek out the support and experiences to help them. Support is available and provided through system, university, and service organization programmes, and the support of colleagues and senior leaders in schools. Whilst there is an extensive range of support provided by systems, universities and service organizations, there is little evidence of their impact on schools. At the school level there needs to be far greater support in identifying and developing leaders. Developments in creating a national leadership standard might lead to some type of credentialing programme that could allow individuals to benchmark their development, and ensure that preparation and support programmes are of the highest quality. An alternative view is to reinforce greater individual responsibility for leadership development and career progress, encourage schools and systems to focus less on individual leadership and more on collective leadership, and consider more innovative ways of providing leadership development.     

A latent profile analysis of teachers’ causal attribution for academic success or failure

European Journal of Psychology of Education - In educational contexts, interpersonal attributional theory (Weiner, 2019) posits that teachers’ beliefs about the causes underlying their...     

The Bat'a Company in Zlín: a shoe company or a school company?

The first part of the study focuses on the characteristics and analysis of Zlín as an example of a company town. Life in the company town is characterised as a means of forming ‘a new man’ in Bat'a’s Zlín. The second section analyses the aims of worker education in Bat'a’s Zlín (in the so-called Bat'a school of work) and highlights the methods and conditions of education for young men and women, focusing on the area of company education. The third part deals with the question of rationalisation (or scientific management) – an extended concept in the production, social and economic areas of interwar Czechoslovakia – in the context of Bat'a’s Zlín. Attention is given to the technocratic movement and to the problems of psycho-technology and its application in the production process and employee selection in the Bat'a Company.     

Contingent Instructors and Student Outcomes: An Artifact or a Fact?

This study addresses methodological problems surrounding existing research on exposure to contingent instructors and student outcomes. By applying non-aggregated and aggregated measures of exposure to contingent instructors to the same data, this analysis demonstrates that effects of commonly used measures of exposure to contingent instructors have little to do with actual contingent instructor effects on student outcomes. Two multi-level approaches—cross-classified and multiple membership models—are applied in the single-institution analysis of faculty status effect on student outcomes—grades and first year retention. The analysis showed no variability in student retention and a significant variability in grades by faculty characteristics. Compared to their tenured and tenure-track peers, contingent instructors are more likely to assign higher grades, which may lead to lowered levels of academic challenge and student motivation to do their best work.     

An empirical study of using history as a ‘goal’

This article discusses an empirical study on the use of history as a goal. A historical module is designed and implemented in a Danish upper secondary class in order to study the students’ capabilities at engaging in meta-issue discussions and reflections on mathematics and its history. Based on videos of the implementation, students’ hand-in essay assignments, questionnaires, and follow-up interviews, the conditions, sense, and extent to which the students are able to perform such discussions and reflections are analyzed using a described theoretical framework.     

Male primary school teachers: Helping or hindering a move to gender equity?

Despite research linking dominant masculinities to the disengagement of some boys from schooling, men teachers appear to be either unaware of the related literature, or reluctant to engage in behaviours that have increased their vulnerability to accusations of sexual abuse or homosexuality. A small study of men teachers in England, Sweden and New Zealand investigated the extent to which the men believed their teacher education had prepared them to teach in the gendered environment of the primary school. Teachers were also questioned about their views on gender differences in students and in the teaching practices of male and female teachers. Although the size of the study restricts the validity of data, the differences between the teachers in England and New Zealand, and those interviewed in Sweden, suggest that further research is warranted. A societal emphasis on gender equity in Sweden was reflected in the commentaries of Swedish men teachers on their pedagogical attitudes and actions relative to gender-based issues in schools. This emphasis was not evident to the same extent in England and New Zealand.     

Teaching in a natural history museum: what can we learn from Estonian elementary school teachers?

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Natural history museums are great places for learning new concepts and enhancing social skills and motivation. However, it is often difficult for teachers to...     

Comparative learning in partnerships: control,competition or collaboration?

This paper examines the quality and development of relations between organisations and the ways in which these are informed by incidental learning experiences in two projects. The paper conceptualizes instances of inter‐organisational learning (IOL) applying theories such as principal‐agent, prisoners' dilemma and women's place in community development. The main results are (a) that IOL can be used to maintain and modify relations of control and dominance in partnership hierarchies; (b) that IOL serves as a spin‐off of horizontal relationships and can be increased or reduced in the competition between partners for resources and identity; and (c) that IOL at the community level, when delivering outsiders' intervention, can be promoted by involving local authorities and operating within the existing household hierarchy. The paper shows that the influential role of individuals, beyond organisational boundaries, becomes critical through social networks and the establishment of trust‐based relations and resistance to learning as consequences of personal conflict. However, structural constraints in the aid system, such as asymmetric access to resources, expertise, knowledge, status and networks, ultimately determine the quality of funding management schemes and the emergence of an environment that stimulates mutual individual learning, which in turn may lead to organisational learning and inter‐organisational learning.