Culture,Literacy, and Power In Family–Community–School–Relationships

For too long, educators have held diminishing beliefs about Latino students' home life. Such beliefs are irrelevant except for the fact that students do not leave their culture at home; rather, home life is closely intertwined with their learning. Language and culture play a major role in students' learning and parents figure prominently in their children's academic success. In Latino communities, parents often feel disempowered because of their limited English language skills and their limited knowledge of the educational system. This inequality prevents Latino parents from advocating for their children in schools. However, balanced power relations between schools and Latino families are possible. The Carpintería research study reveals the transformation that is possible for parents and students when the family's language, culture, and literacy are acknowledged, appreciated, and utilized to empower students, families, schools, and communities.     

Profession, “performance”, and policy: teachers,examinations, and the state in England and Wales, 1846–1862

Abstract

When historians discuss the impact of examinations on elementary education in mid-Victorian England and Wales they typically focus on the Revised Code of 1862. The Revised Code is famous for instituting a policy of “payment-by-results” for teachers in state-supported voluntary schools. “Payment-by-results” made government grants to schools – and, by extension, for teachers’ salaries – contingent upon student attendance and pass rates in reading, writing and arithmetic. As this article emphasises, however, “payment-by-results” was not the first, or even the most significant, instance in which competitive examination was used by the state as an instrument for establishing the pedagogical fitness and salaries of teachers. Less often explored by historians is the formative role that state-mandated competitive examinations for teachers played in developing a professionally aspirant body of schoolteachers and, consequently, the schoolteachers’ later role in developing competitive examination as a broad-scale national accreditation apparatus. But while the use of competitive examinations came to shape modern British academic and professional life in fundamental ways, the strengthening effects that they had for certain occupations and institutions, such as physicians, civil servants and middle-class secondary schools, were in fact ultimately denied to state teachers and the elementary education sector generally. With the introduction of “payment-by-results” in 1862, competitive examinations were converted into an instrument that weakened rather than strengthened teachers’ professional identity and policy influence. This article explains how the nineteenth-century English state structured examinations and examination results to manipulate the professional status of teachers in order to suit state priorities during different stages of national development. This historical narrative is framed in reference to present-day examination-based reforms of teacher compensation systems such as performance-related-pay and value-added modelling.     

Learner presence,perception, and learning achievements in augmented–reality–mediated learning environments

Although research has indicated that augmented reality (AR)–facilitated instruction improves learning performance, further investigation of the usefulness of AR from a psychological perspective has been recommended. Researchers consider presence a major psychological effect when users are immersed in virtual reality environments. However, most research on learner presence has focused on measuring it rather than the factors influencing it. This study explored the relationship between learner perception and presence in an AR-facilitated learning environment. A game-type AR learning process was developed and an experiment was implemented employing a one-group pretest–posttest method. Three sets of research instruments were developed, comprising a learning achievement test, a learner's presence inventory, and a questionnaire on learners’ perception of the AR-mediated environment. A total of 60 validated data samples were collected and statistically analysed. The researchers determined that learner presence closely relates to learning achievement and AR learning perception. These results indicate that a more satisfactory AR perception leads to a higher level of learner presence in the AR environment, thereby resulting in more beneficial learning outcomes.     

The Andersonians and progressive education, 1930–1968

Strategic Uncertainties: Ethics, Politics and Risk in Contemporary Educational Research. Phyllida Coombes, Mike Danaher, Patrick Alan Danaher (Editors) Post Pressed, Flaxton Qld, 2004, pp.210 ISBN: 1876682728 (paperback) AUD$29.50

Making Hope Practical. School Reform for Social Justice. Peter McInerney. Post Pressed, Qld, 2004, 244pp. ISBN 187668271X AUD$45.00     

Urban–Rural Excellence Gaps: Features,Factors, and Implications

The purpose of this study was to examine the presence of excellence gaps (i.e., differences between subgroups of students performing at the highest levels of achievement) in a sample of 563 students nominated as gifted by their teachers in urban, semi-urban, and rural settings in Spain. In general, the results suggested the existence of excellence gaps between urban and rural students, with urban students outperforming rural students in verbal and numerical reasoning, as well as in all divergent thinking dimensions (i.e., fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration). Differences across geographic locations were likely to be attributed to the limited opportunities available to high-achieving students to develop their talents and achieve excellence in rural schools. Limitations of the study, directions for future research, and educational implications of the study are provided.     

Continuity of Care,Caregiver–Child Interactions,and Toddler Social Competence and Problem Behaviors

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Continuity of care is a recommended practice in child care intended to promote secure and supportive relationships between infants and toddlers and their caregivers. Toddlers (N = 115) between 12 and 24 months were observed in 30 continuity and 29 noncontinuity classrooms. The average duration of care for toddlers with caregivers was 14 months in the continuity rooms and 5 months in noncontinuity rooms. Toddlers observed in continuity rooms experienced higher levels of interactive involvement with their caregivers and were rated by their caregivers as having fewer problem behaviors compared with the toddlers in noncontinuity rooms. Toddlers in rooms with higher staff–child ratios also experienced more involved caregiving. We did not find evidence that the level of involved caregiving mediated the association between continuity of care and toddlers’ social competence or problem behaviors. Practice or Policy: Continuity of care may be a promising practice for programs that strive to provide high-quality care for infants and toddlers.     

Race,Education, and Joblessness in the Inner City, 1970–1990

In When Work Disappears, William Julius Wilson argues that the difficulties black inner-city residents face in finding work has more to do with their failure to acquire the kinds of education, skills, and work habits required by changes in the urban labor market than with racial discrimination. In this essay, I argue that this notion tends both to obscure the substantial gains African-Americans have made in education and to discount the degree to which race continues to mediate the relationship between educational achievement and labor market outcomes. Although there is no question that the economic position of those with little education has deteriorated badly over the last two decades, absent policies that address the persistent racial disparities in employment, reforming education by itself will not substantially improve African-American employment opportunities or reduce black joblessness in the inner city.     

Social-Emotional Development,School Readiness,Teacher–Child Interactions,and Classroom Environment

This article investigates the effectiveness of a statewide 6-month early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) model on teachers’ emotional support of children and classroom organization. We provide a brief historical and theoretical background of the field of ECMHC, present the logic model for our ECMHC intervention, and discuss the existing research that supports this logic model. Research Findings: Participants included 445 teachers from 158 child care centers statewide. The mental health consultation improved the quality of early childhood teachers’ interactions (e.g., emotional support and classroom organization) with children in their care. Teachers with more experience and more than a high school degree tended to score higher on many of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (R. C. Pianta, K. M. La Paro, &; B. K. Hamre, 2008 Pianta , R. C. , La Paro , K. M. , &; Hamre , B. K. ( 2008 ). Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) manual, Pre-K . Baltimore , MD : Brookes . [Google Scholar]) dimensions. Practice or Policy: This study demonstrates that mental health consultants can partner successfully with early childhood educators and provide support that enhances classroom variables associated with high-quality care and positive child outcomes. Even with a high rate of teacher turnover (35%), significant differences were found; this demonstrates the robustness of the ECMHC model in that the effectiveness of this model was not undermined by the chronic problem of staff turnover.     

Teaching–research relations,cross-disciplinary collegiality and student learning

University students experience of cross-disciplinary collegiality and interaction with research-active teachers are explored using the results from two separate, but related, studies. In the first study, variation in students understanding of collegiality and how it is experienced is investigated. The second (quantitative) study explores the relations between students perceptions of collegiality in their learning environment and their learning outcomes and satisfaction. Within the collegiate system of the University of Oxford, students describe collegiality as encompassing a sense of allegiance and as a set of interactions with important others. Interactions were common between students in one disciplinary area and those in other disciplines. They are also found between students in one subject and other students in the same discipline, in the same and a different year of study and, in terms of learning, most effectively between students and research-active teaching staff. Where engagements of these sorts are described as beneficial to learning, students self-report that they adopt deeper approaches to learning, with the strongest correlations being between approach to learning and feelings of benefit derived from being in contact with active researchers. This result, from a student perspective, is a significant contribution to the debate on teaching–research relations in higher education within and beyond Oxford University as it bypasses teaching and focuses on the more important relations between university research and student learning.     

Efficiency,technology and productivity change in Australian universities, 1998–2003

In this study, productivity growth in 35 Australian universities is investigated using non-parametric frontier techniques over the period 1998–2003. The five inputs included in the analysis are full-time equivalent academic and non-academic staff, non-labour expenditure and undergraduate and postgraduate student load while the six outputs are undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D. completions, national competitive and industry grants and publications. Using Malmquist indices, productivity growth is decomposed into technical efficiency and technological change. The results indicate that annual productivity growth averaged 3.3% across all universities, with a range from −1.8% to 13.0%, and was largely attributable to technological progress. However, separate analyses of research-only and teaching-only productivity indicate that most of this gain was attributable to improvements in research-only productivity associated with pure technical and some scale efficiency improvements. While teaching-only productivity also contributed, the largest source of gain in that instance was technological progress offset by a slight fall in technical efficiency.     

Secularists,Humanists and religious education: religious crisis and curriculum change in England, 1963–1975

With particular reference to religious education, this article provides an account of the campaigns of Secularists and Humanists in England in the 1960s and 1970s and locates them within their broader religious context. These campaigns, which have been both underplayed and overstated in the existing historiography, failed to garner the levels of support required to fulfil their ultimate aims. Nevertheless, Secularists and Humanists did make a significant contribution to public and political discourses at the time and created opportunities with the potential to exert influence over the development of religious education, collective worship and moral education. Their involvement was welcomed, indeed fostered, by many leading Christians and religious educationists. Secularist and Humanist campaigns also precipitated parliamentary discussion and provoked considerable opposition from Christians in other quarters. Finally, some observations are made about the ways in which this episode in the religious history of education can contextualise comparable contemporary debates.     

Teaching and Learning Science in Hungary, 1867–1945: Schools,Personalities, Influences

The article provides an overview of the development of teaching science in Hungary during both the time of the dual monarchy and the newly established independent Hungary after 1920. The integration of Hungary into the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1867–1918) strengthened the effect of German speaking European science, the results of which were quickly channelled into the Hungarian school system at all levels. The Hungarian Academy as well as the University of Budapest (today Eötvös Loránd University) played a leading role in the ?nationalization” of European science in the educational system. Scientific developments in Hungary strengthened the position of rational and secular thinking in a highly religious society and contributed to the erosion of the mental power of the church tradition, particularly that of the Roman Catholic Church. Toward World War I, influenced by the Protestant Churches, the Jewish tradition, and agnosticism, the public picture of science became more international, occasionally ready to consider challenges of the accepted world view, and sometimes less dogmatic. Leading Hungarian figures with an international reputation who played a decisive role in making science part of Hungarian thinking included the physicists Baron Loránd Eötvös and Sándor Mikola, the mathematicians László Rácz and George Pólya as well as a host of others in related fields. Emigration, mostly Jewish, after World War I, contributed to the curtailment of efforts to teach science effectively as some of the best people left Hungary for, mostly, Germany, Britain, and the United States. However, the interwar school system, the Hungarian version of the German Gymnasium, continued to disseminate scientific thought in Hungarian education. Much of the information was foreign and appeared simply in translation—but an impressive array of indigeneous scientific results paved the way to a larger educated middle class then in the making.     

Reflective Functioning,Limit Setting,and Emotional Availability in Mother–Child Dyads

Objective. There is a need for better understanding the relation between parents’ mentalizing about their child and their actual behavior toward the child. Specifically, it is important to understand the significance of mentalization about discrete parental challenges in comparison with mentalization about the relationship in general in relation to their interaction with the child. This study aimed to examine parental mentalization and observed emotional availability. Design. Forty mothers were observed in a play situation with their children (aged 3–10 years) to rate the emotional availability in the interaction. Mothers were also interviewed with the parent development interview and about parental limit setting to assess parental reflective functioning. Results. Analyses showed moderate correlations between the reflective functioning scores and the emotional availability dimensions. Approximately 15% of the variance in emotional availability scales could be accounted for by the reflective functioning ratings. Conclusions. The results suggest that parents’ ability to mentalize about limit setting behaviors may affect interactions between the parent and child.     

Teachers,tasks, and tensions: lessons from a research–practice partnership

How teachers make sense of new academic standards significantly shapes the implementation of those standards. Professional development organized around the analysis of mathematical tasks has potential to prepare teachers for standards implementation by helping them develop common understandings of standards and how to help students meet ambitious new learning goals. In practice, however, designers and participants bring different goals to the professional development context, which becomes evident when teachers engage in task analysis. In this article, we use the design tensions framework (Tatar in Human Comput Interact 22(4):413–451, 2007. doi: 10.1080/07370020701638814) to analyze these tensions within a research–practice partnership comprised of five university researchers, three district curriculum leaders from a large urban school district, 12 high school Algebra 1 teachers from nine schools in the district, and a small team of Web engineers. Primary data for the study consist of participant observation and field notes of meetings in which project stakeholders negotiated the design of the professional development, as well as interview and survey data. An analysis based on the design tensions framework helped our partnership surface, both in the moment and retrospectively, the need for designers of professional development focused on standards implementation to be adaptive and willing to evolve activities to satisfy multiple stakeholders’ goals for participation.