Child Development and Public Policy: Toward a Dynamic Systems Perspective

Little theoretical work exists that proposes general mechanisms for how public policies may influence child development. This article argues that dynamic systems theories may be useful in illuminating such processes, as well as highlighting gaps in current research at the intersection of public policy analysis and developmental science. A brief review of dynamic systems theories as they are currently utilized in other areas of developmental science is provided, as well as a statement of why they may help advance research in public policy and child development. Five principles of dynamic systems theories are presented and discussed using examples from research that address the question, "How do current antipoverty and welfare reform policies affect children?" Also presented are examples of hypotheses and research questions that each principle may generate for future work. The concluding section presents challenges that each principle poses for research methodology, and potential uses of the dynamic systems approach for developing and integrating policy and program initiatives.     

National/Global Synergy in the Development of Higher Education and Science in China since 1978

The paper reviews the rapid development of higher education and science in China in the last forty years. It discusses the conditions and strategies of that development, including the ways that it embodies a distinctive Chinese approach to higher education. In particular, the paper reflects on the policies whereby China coordinated with globalization in higher education and science after 1978, in building national capacity and global influence. Scale, nation-state policy goals and accelerated investment on their own are necessary but not sufficient (otherwise Saudi Arabia’s research universities would be stronger than they are). The effective national/global synergy developed by China, made possible by the international openness and part-devolution to science communities that was implemented in the Deng Xiaoping era, has been crucial in the rapid rise of China’s universities and science. This national/global synergy—and its potentials, tensions and limits—in turn has determined the nature of the achievement and will shape its future evolution.     

The Structure and Substance of Teachers’ Opportunities to Learn about Teacher Evaluation Reform: Promise or Pitfall for Equity?

Despite growing momentum to overhaul teacher evaluation policies and practices, scant research examines how educators at the street level of such reform—principals and teachers—make sense of them, and almost no research examines the implications of current evaluation reforms for equity. This article provides findings based on a study of 14 districts implementing a new teacher evaluation policy in Connecticut. It focuses on how principals shaped teachers’ opportunities to learn about the new policy. We find that the majority of teachers’ opportunities to learn were formal and in whole group or one-on-one formats. We find important differences in the quantity and quality of learning opportunities at the district level, with districts serving greater shares of low-income students, students of color, and English language learners generally offering teachers fewer and lower quality opportunities to learn about the new reform than their counterparts. As such, this article builds on prior research illustrating the potential of new evaluation systems to exacerbate inequities and raises important cautions regarding the extent to which the unprecedented teacher evaluation reforms (currently underway) may exacerbate inequities among school districts.     

Cross‐field effects and temporary social fields: a case study of the mediatization of recent Australian knowledge economy policies

This paper utilizes Bourdieu’s conceptual frame to examine the mediatized effects of policy processes concerned with the growth and support of knowledge industries in Australia. These policies span education, science, research and other knowledge industries (such as venture capital firms and intellectual property law). The paper argues that some policy processes are best represented as temporary social fields. The nature of these fields can be described by the kinds of cross‐field effects that they produce. A case study of an Australian knowledge economy policy, The chance to change, and associated policy processes demonstrates the broad analytic capacities of Bourdieu’s conceptual frame for policy analysis, when combined with the concepts of cross‐field effects and temporary social field developed here.     

State-mandated accountability as a constraint on teaching and learning science

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of state-mandated policy, emphasizing control through performance-based instruction and student test scores as the basis for determining school accreditation, on the teaching and learning of science. The intended consequence of instigating the rational theory of management by one state is to improve their current level of student literacy. However, some contend that the implementation of the policy has results that are not intended. The identification of the tension between the intended and unintended results of centralized policy making is the basis for examining a specific case in which the rational model is implemented. One hundred and sixty-five seventh-grade science students and four teachers are participants in the study. Qualitative analysis is the research methodology used as a means to provide detailed information about the contextual nature of the classroom processes. The intention is to identify and describe features of the behavior setting that influence the behavior of the teachers and their students. Three assertions generated during the field work were: Teachers redefine the goals of science instruction as the acquisition of facts and isolated skills, teachers alter their usual instructional behavior to implement uniform instructional procedures, and the teacher/student classroom interaction constrains students' opportunities to learn science. The implications of the study indicate that the state-mandated policy has results that are in opposition to the intended results. Instead of improving the practices of teachers, the implementation of the policy constrains and routinizes the teachers' behavior, causing them to violate their own standards of good teaching. They feel pressured to “get through” the materials so students will score well on tests. The classroom interaction is structured in such a way as to inhibit students from asking questions of their own. As a result, students' opportunity to express curiosity and inquiry—central processes in scientific thinking—are constrained. These unintended consequences of the implemented state policy, instead of improving science teaching and learning, continue to reduce science instruction to the literal comprehension of isolated facts and skills.     

教育信息化管理实践中的领导力研究

教育信息化管理是国家教育信息化中各要素的有序运行,进而实现教与学的变革目标的支撑与保障。近几年来．各国在其教育信息化政策文件中都将教育信息化管理视为重要领域。本文从宏观、中观和微观三个层次出发．重新认识教育信息化管理：并将关注点聚焦于中观层次——学校层面的教育信息化管理,在分析、反思国内目前发展状况的基础上,指出我国在面向信息化的学校领导力方面同国际先进水平存在较大差距;接着重点分析澳大利亚教育信息化管理中的政策,以资为信息化管理政策制定者提供借鉴。最后文章通过分析多国的发展经验、教训来寻找教育信息化管理的新动向,预测我国教育信息化管理的下一步发展是走向管理职责和领导艺术的融合。     

Development of an Instrument Designed to Investigate Elements of Science Students’ Metacognition,Self‐Efficacy and Learning Processes: The SEMLI‐S

The development and evaluation of science students’ metacognition, learning processes and self‐efficacy are important for improving science education. This paper reports on the development of an empirical self‐report instrument for providing a measure of students’ metacognition, self‐efficacy and constructivist science learning processes. A review of the range of literature related to metacognition, self‐regulation and constructivist learning processes resulted in the development of an initial bilingual (English and traditional Chinese) instrument composed of 72 items. This instrument was completed by 465 Hong Kong high school students. The data collected were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and Rasch analysis. The subsequent refinement process resulted in a final version of the Self‐Efficacy and Metacognition Learning Inventory—Science (SEMLI‐S) consisting of 30 items that can be used for either analysing and focusing on any or all of its dimensions or for assigning scores to individuals that enable comparison between them in relation to their metacognitive science learning orientations.     

Learning theories for artificial intelligence promoting learning processes

This paper discusses a three-level model that synthesizes and unifies existing learning theories to model the roles of artificial intelligence (AI) in promoting learning processes. The model, drawn from developmental psychology, computational biology, instructional design, cognitive science, complexity and sociocultural theory, includes a causal learning mechanism that explains how learning occurs and works across micro, meso and macro levels. The model also explains how information gained through learning is aggregated, or brought together, as well as dissipated, or released and used within and across the levels. Fourteen roles for AI in education are proposed, aligned with the model's features: four roles at the individual or micro level, four roles at the meso level of teams and knowledge communities and six roles at the macro level of cultural historical activity. Implications for research and practice, evaluation criteria and a discussion of limitations are included. Armed with the proposed model, AI developers can focus their work with learning designers, researchers and practitioners to leverage the proposed roles to improve individual learning, team performance and building knowledge communities.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Numerous learning theories exist with significant cross-over of concepts, duplication and redundancy in terms and structure that offer partial explanations of learning.
• Frameworks concerning learning have been offered from several disciplines such as psychology, biology and computer science but have rarely been integrated or unified.
• Rethinking learning theory for the age of artificial intelligence (AI) is needed to incorporate computational resources and capabilities into both theory and educational practices.

What this paper adds

• A three-level theory (ie, micro, meso and macro) of learning that synthesizes and unifies existing theories is proposed to enhance computational modelling and further develop the roles of AI in education.
• A causal model of learning is defined, drawing from developmental psychology, computational biology, instructional design, cognitive science and sociocultural theory, which explains how learning occurs and works across the levels.
• The model explains how information gained through learning is aggregated, or brought together, as well as dissipated, or released and used within and across the levels.
• Fourteen roles for AI in education are aligned with the model's features: four roles at the individual or micro level, four roles at the meso level of teams and knowledge communities and six roles at the macro level of cultural historical activity.

Implications for practice and policy

• Researchers may benefit from referring to the new theory to situate their work as part of a larger context of the evolution and complexity of individual and organizational learning and learning systems.
• Mechanisms newly discovered and explained by future researchers may be better understood as contributions to a common framework unifying the scientific understanding of learning theory.

     

Eco-Driven Chemical Research in the Boundary Between Academia and Industry

This paper examines and discusses the views on science and society held among PhD students working in two different industrially and environmentally driven research programmes in the broad area of green chemistry. It is based on thirteen in-depth interviews. The analysis shows three main ways of handling the situation as “post-academic” PhD student: (1) the student sees the PhD work mainly as a job and does not reflect about his/her research or the research funding, (2) the student is satisfied with the post-academic situation, accepts the established innovation policy discourse and is sceptical to traditional academic research, and (3) the student sees collaborative research programmes as a way to get funding, which can be used for secretly done basic research. Most PhD students either emphasise usefulness—in line with the dominating research policy discourse—or they adopt the positivistic view of science as objective and independent of the surrounding society. However, there are only a few signs of “double problematisation”, that is a critical view where both disciplinary-oriented and industry-dependent research are problematised.     

Diverging or converging trends: an investigation of education policies concerning the incorporation of ethnic minority children in England,France and Germany

This article focuses specifically on the incorporation of ethnic minority children within the education systems of England, France and Germany. The trends in policy development after World War II in these countries are examined through the prism of three ideal-typical incorporation strategies – integration, assimilation and separation. This is done to test the theories of universalism, parallel development and particularism, which anticipate different trajectories with regard to these strategies. The paper finds evidence for convergence towards integration with regard to provisions for extra support in the host country’s language. This supports the theory of universalism. However, no evidence of convergence towards integration is found in four other policy areas. For instance, country-specific trends emerge on minority religious education and enrolment into mainstream schools, which is consistent with the particularist perspective. As there is little evidence of the three countries drawing closer in terms of all three adopting a strategy of incorporation promoted by transnational agencies, the expectation that national states can borrow in a straightforward fashion from internationally advocated models of ethnic minority incorporation appears unfounded. The paper further finds that local practices are sometimes significantly at odds with national educational policy, suggesting that future research should be directed more at the local level to determine the policies affecting ethnic minority children.     

Critical policy sociology: key underlying assumptions and their implications for educational policy research

In recent decades, educational policy researchers have considered critical policy sociology, mostly known as ‘policy sociology’, as a useful research methodology for analysing educational policies. However, despite its increasing popularity, policy sociology has been a confusing concept hence it is often used interchangeably with other terms such as policy analysis. In the main, there is a dearth of literature outlining its key underlying assumptions and how this methodology helps policy researchers to analyse social, political and economic issues related to educational policy. By reviewing current body of literature in the field, this paper identifies policy sociology as one of the four major traditions in the policy analysis field. The paper presents six key underlying assumptions of policy sociology – value based study, political study, historical study, multidisciplinary study, assemblage study, and discourse study – and discusses how researchers have used policy sociology as a research methodology for analysing educational policies.     

Analysis of policies for allocating university resources in heterogeneous social systems: a case study of university admissions in Sri Lanka

This paper focuses on the complex nature of designing andeffectively implementing policies, assuring fair access to universityeducational opportunities in heterogeneous societies. First, the universityadmission problem is modeled as a load balancing, scheduling and resourceallocation problem in a heterogeneous distributed system with policies toallocate student loads in university resources. Then the paper analyses thedifferent policies implemented in Sri Lanka for the last three decades todistribute the limited university level training resources in theengineering and medical faculties equally among the citizens.It is observed that in Sri Lanka, the schools in thirteen out of twentytwo districts did not produce a single engineering or medicine student until1974. Two districts enjoyed several times their fair share. Other districtshad less than their fair share in access to free higher education resources.It is also observed that no standardisation methods have been used in bothadding and comparing the marks received in multiple-language examinationsfor different subjects.The policy changes helped the talented low-income students who live indisadvantaged areas to set access, to begin, complete and get ahead on theirown. Furthermore, it generated a new wave of regional economic development.The same policies badly affected the happy few who enjoyed more than theirfair share of the university resources. Dube claimed the policy wasdiscriminatory and contributed to the on-going civil war (1995) .     

全球治理与教育变革:跨国与国际教育政策过程研究的重要性

大多数教育政策研究仍然把教育政策主要放在国内政治而非国际政治的舞台中进行研究。本文吸收了政治科学、国际关系和公共管理领域最近的研究成果,指出国际的、地区的和跨国的行为主体及其政策过程的影响力正在增长,理应得到教育政策研究界的高度重视。政治科学中的全球治理研究或许能为关于跨国和国际的行为主体及其政策过程的教育政策研究提供新的方法,同时,提醒我们更多地关注新的国际行为体和新的组织与协调方式,更加深入地思考规范化的过程在多大程度上塑造了民族国家对教育中的共同国际利益的认同方式。     

Changing higher education: converging policy-packages and experiences of changing academic work in Sweden

The past two decades of international higher education reform are often described by researchers as having produced new managerial and neoliberal policy turns that have brought about a fundamental global shift in the way institutions of higher education are defined, run and justify their institutional existence and practices. Universities in Sweden were felt able to offer some possible resistance and based on ethnographic research at three Swedish universities this idea is explored in the present article. The article suggests however that resistance has been circumscribed through a coordinated collection of policies and that as elsewhere, the proliferation of competition based on quasi-markets and the standardisation of quality assurance through new accountability systems predominates, with significant effects on universities, their interactions and agents, and the relative social positions, influence, status and relationships of these agents.     

National modernisation and global science in China

The paper reviews the rapid growth and improvement of science in China since Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in the 1980s and especially in the last two decades, situating the achievement and its limitations in the contexts of both the global science system, and national policy and strategy. The key is the effective combination of national science with global science. Science in China has worked to global norms while remaining nested in national government and Sinic governance, in which Confucianism and Legalism are combined with Leninism. The paper reflects on trends in investment in R&D, the number of published papers, discipline balance, national and global networking, and policies on cross-border partnerships and mobility. China has established a strong autonomous position at world level in science that is partly separated from the intensively networked Euro-American systems but has benefitted especially from a mutually productive relationship with the United States. However, that relationship is now in question.     

School decentralization as a process of differentiation,hierarchization and selection

The Austrian ‘school autonomy policy’, which allowed schools to develop specific ‘curricular profiles’, is taken as an example for discussing processes and effects of school decentralization policies. Data from school case studies (based on qualitative interviews and document analysis) are used to analyse and interpret the processes by which schools and teachers take up policy innovations and translate it into action and structures on school and classroom level. These policy changes and the resulting governance regimes are examined from a perspective on changing modes of ‘action coordination’ between actors on different levels of a school system and from an attention to processes of ‘re-contextualization’ in multi-level governance systems. The main result is that the Austrian decentralization policy – although not explicitly based on a market approach – boosted principles of competitive coordination between schools. In consequence, it resulted in processes of differentiation and hierarchization of schools and classes and offered new legitimatory and practical opportunities for student selection.     

The International Education Index: A global approach to education policy analysis,performance and sustainable development

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world struggled to address growing educational inequalities and fulfil the commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The pandemic has exacerbated these inequalities and changed how education functions, moving to online and hybrid methods. The challenges in global education highlighted and worsened by the pandemic make it necessary to re-evaluate education systems and the policies in place to support access, quality and equal opportunity. This article focuses on analysing education policies at a national level. It tests a pilot policy analysis tool, the International Education Index (IEI), developed as a starting point to begin this reconsideration and create an accessible and comprehensive way to evaluate national education systems to inform decision-making and policies in the new context. This research uses Ireland and Northern Ireland to test the IEI pilot tool. The IEI consists of 54 questions across nine indicators, including institutional frameworks, education strategies, digital skills and infrastructure, twenty-first century skills, access to basic social services, adherence to international standards, legal frameworks, data gathering and availability and international partnerships. Countries can score 108 points to be categorised as having developed, emerging or nascent national education systems. Ireland scored 94 and Northern Ireland 81, indicating that they have developed national education systems.     

Exploring the interweaving of contrary currents: transnational policy enactment and path-dependent policy implementation in Australia and Japan

This article explores the neo-institutional theory of global policy convergence, or ‘isomorphism’, by comparatively examining one of its most recent manifestations – the global diffusion of national standardised testing – in Australia and Japan. By understanding the particular configurations of national testing as being conditioned by both nations' institutional frameworks and historical legacies of education policy development, this study illuminates how the conditioning effects of these frameworks and legacies resulted in the divergent ways in which a policy model circulating at the transnational level became translated into assessment policies that are ‘simultaneously similar and different’. These findings are related to the concept of ‘path dependency’, emphasised in particular by political science and historical institutionalism. The theoretical conclusions drawn on this basis indicate a promising direction of comparative education research, one that recognises global convergence and national divergence as processes that simultaneously shape the globalisation of education policy. In so doing, they summarise the implications of the study for the ongoing debate on the neo-institutionalist theory in comparative education.     

Comparing HE policies in Europe

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for a comparative analysis of Higher Education policies that enables us to investigate the explanatory power of structural characteristics of politico-administrative systems. The policies that are studied aim at improving the efficiency and quality of institutional performance. The paper focuses on policy trends in higher education in the eight countries in the study. It discusses how the literature on comparative political and administrative systems can help formulate assumptions about public policy making and policy change. The ideas that are developed are then applied to public reform policies in general and in the area of higher education in particular, followed by a test of the assumptions on available data on reform outcomes in the countries involved. The data indicate that a comparative politico-administrative perspective is potentially useful with regard to explaining cross national variation in higher education reform policies in Europe.