Book Reviews – Buchbesprechungen – Analyses Bibliographiques

Book Reviews

Book Reviews – Buchbesprechungen – Analyses Bibliographiques     

Stichwort – Formatives Assessment

Formative assessment is considered one of the most effective frameworks to foster learning. It is defined as assessment of student performance aimed at providing diagnostic information to improve teaching and learning. Basic characteristics of formative assessment are the clarification of learning goals, the diagnosis of individual performance, as well as the provision of feedback and individual differentiation based on the diagnostic information. The design of formative assessment varies from spontaneous on-the-fly assessment to planned and formalized curricular-embedded assessment. Studies support the positive effect of formative assessment on learning with its impact varying depending on the concrete implementation. Although there are developments in politics, science, and schools contributing to the implementation of formative assessment, transfer into practice remains challenging. The present paper describes the current state of research by defining and characterizing the construct, presenting empirical results on its efficacy, and by addressing developments and challenges associated with its implementation.     

Gender – diversity – intersectionality: (New) perspectives in adult education

International Review of Education -     

Mentoring – rhetoric and reality

This study looks at the impact of the recent changes in teacher training at an East Sussex Secondary School where teachers have responsibility for mentoring initial teacher trainees (ITTs.) While this has provided an opportunity to become more involved in the preparation of new teachers, a chance to change focus and, to a certain extent, increase job satisfaction, the speed of change has presented some practical difficulties and problems in implementing and fulfilling the role. Specific reference is made to Physical Education as the nature of the work in this area can pose unusual problems. The 'partnership' between the school and the Higher Education Institution is examined to ascertain the extent to which mentors feel that they are being adequately supported.

The information gained was collected through informal interviews with colleagues in school and Higher Education Institutions. This information has been analysed and forms the basis for some recommendations for partnerships' in initial teacher training.     

The Man – Environment System Approach

ABSTRACT:

This paper synthesizes what the empirical literature reports regarding what can best be learned outdoors. The review suggests that the outdoors may be effective in stimulating critical thinking, increasing problem-solving skills, and developing concepts rather than rote memory. Little evidence was found to support claims for the superiority of teaching language development in the outdoors. The empirical literature offers qualified support to those who advocate the value of outdoor education in facilitating cognitive development in the areas of environmental education and general science, but the evidence must be regarded as tenuous and uncertain. Much of the research which has been reported falls short of the scientific standards necessary for it to make meaningful contributions to this debate.     

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy – an andragogical pioneer

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy's work related to andragogy is insufficiently discussed in adult pedagogical literature, although most of his work deals with this field, if we employ his own definition of andragogy. This paper makes visible his role as an andragogical pioneer, and clarifies his understanding of andragogy and basic perspectives in his andragogical approach. Rosenstock-Huessy was a leading force in the first theoretical, academic reflections on adult pedagogical issues in the 1920s, and he implemented his thoughts and ideas in different practical actions. He became a source of inspiration for adult educators in the inter-war and post-war period. A comparison with two central figures within adult education, Eduard Lindeman and Malcolm Knowles, is also included in this paper.     

Practice-based evidence – overcoming insecure attachments

This article examines educational psychologists’ (EPs’) engagement with evidence-based practice (EBP). In particular it considers the limitations of randomised controlled trials and the difficulties of obtaining sufficient evidence about the effectiveness of interventions. This means that there is a possibility that EPs continue to use psychological theories that have little or no evidence to support their use. The article then examines the implications of the paradigm shift from the EP as scientist to that of artist and the corresponding shift from EBP to practice-based evidence. The rationale for developing expertise through practitioner research rather than simply relying on experience is explored. Relying on experience becomes particularly difficult if the EP becomes attached cognitively, and emotionally, to particular perspectives and weaves, thread by thread, unfounded theories into their professional practice. Understanding how this tapestry is woven and how one clutches emotionally to it when one is stressed and challenged has fundamental implications for the general understanding and confidence of the public in the profession.     

Military mores – an institutional ethnography

ABSTRACT

Military education is for most people an unknown process that takes place behind closed doors. Based on text analysis, eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, and interviews at the Netherlands Defence Academy, this article seeks to understand military education as a dynamic process between the cadets’ experience and the institute. As such, this study can be understood as an institutional ethnography, intending to open the black-box of military education. This study shows that military education affects cadets in a powerful way. They quickly learn to navigate the ‘underlife’ of the institute by carefully avoiding confrontation with the official structures. In a final discussion, we identify two remarkable paradoxes – perfect imperfection and individual in the system – that we consider exemplary for the learning environment at the NLDA. We argue that the Defence Academy constitutes, in essence, a paradoxical learning environment that influences the character development of the cadets – sometimes in unintended ways.     

Berufliche Weiterbildung – Gelegenheits- und Teilnahmestrukturen

This contribution starts out from the assumption that participation in continuing professional education is realized in the context of different opportunity structures and an analysis of participation selectivity must take account of both self-selection and external selection processes. The different opportunity structures are described using approaches from segmentation and economic theory, which lead to the identification of three segments of continuing professional education. Participation structures in the three training segments are shown using logistic regressions, which take account of socio-demographic and individual characteristics of the social and employment environment. These predictors display segment-specific influences, which emphasizes the importance of differentiated perspectives on continuing professional education. Overall, participation is shown to be clearly influenced by external selection processes. The basis of the analyses is data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), cohort 2009/10.     

Comprehensive Object-Oriented Learning – An Introduction

With the proliferation of personal computers in the home and in the workplace, there is an ever increasing demand for the integration of computers into the curricula of educational institutions. Invariably, the approach taken to satisfying such demands involves the training of the current staff of educators in the use of personal computers as both a teaching and a research and administrative tool. This article will look at the educator's anxiety prior to training on the computer, and the changes in attitude brought about by continuous exposure to the computer in a classroom setting.     

Analysekompetenz von Lehrpersonen – Modellierung und Messung

This article reports on a project in which the analytical competence of teachers and trainee teachers is measured. The term analytical competence refers to the ability to assess and evaluate the quality of lessons which are observed. The sample consists of 800 teaching staff (200 students, 200 probationary teachers, 200 qualified teachers, 200 teacher training personnel). They are shown a video of a school lesson (in Physics) and then given a test in the form of a questionnaire in which they are asked to analyse the lesson. In the evaluation, the item scale of the test is checked for Rasch homogeneity. In the medium term, the results of this study should lead to consequences for the development of analytical competence in the various phases of teacher training.     

Student complainants – vexatious or vulnerable?

In December 2014, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) introduced the ‘Good practice framework for handling complaints and academic appeals’ which will inform external judgement on each university's approach to conflict management from the current academic year 2015–2016. The framework aims to improve the complaint process for higher education student complainants. However, based on the outcomes of one of the few empirical studies researching students’ complaints, the author argues that it is the wider experience for complainants that must be addressed and to do so effectively the sector must change the culture of concern surrounding complaints and recognise the vulnerability of a student body that expects guidance in all aspects of its engagement with the university. A positive institutional stance that seeks to learn from complaints and assumes a proactive approach to student communication will support both earlier conflict resolution and an improving experience for students in a scenario where academic failure now has lifetime ramifications in respect of future employment.     

Inclusive teaching strategies – dimensions and agendas

Inclusion has a high priority in education policy all over the world and teachers must be able to handle in practice increasing student diversity and the demands for creating an inclusive learning environment. In spite of the enhanced political focus, there is a lack of research focusing on how those teachers working with inclusion can be supported with more tangible and meaningful ways of understanding and developing inclusive classrooms. This article argues that seeing research in inclusion in close connection with research in effective teaching strategies and classroom management will contribute to an enrichment of the two research fields and give teachers and researchers new opportunities for developing more inclusive schools. Based on research focused on teaching strategies that support students’ opportunities for learning, four dimensions of inclusive teaching strategies are presented: a framing, a relational, a didactic and an organisational dimension. In addition, and in order to further understand teachers work with inclusive education in a more structural perspective, light is shed on the complexity that teachers are required to handle in practice. This complexity, among other things, entails dilemmas emerging from different agendas teachers often must handle themselves.