The Case for Restructuring the UK Secondary School

Chris Watkins was a member of the first NAPCE executive in 1982, and has continued on that committee and on the London committee ever since. He was chair of NAPCE from 1992 to 1994, and is currently chair of the Publications Committee. He has been a maths teacher in a large secondary school, a teacher in charge of a unit for pupils whose effect on school was disruptive, and a trained school counsellor.
He is now head of the academic group 'Assessment, Guidance and Effective Learning' at the University of London Institute of Education, where his current areas of work include school behaviour, mentoring, tutoring, personal–social education – all centrally linked to effective learning in classrooms and school. He is course tutor to the MA in Effective Learning and the MA in School Development, and is involved in consultancy to schools and training others in consultation. Current research projects include 'The Violence-resilient School' and 'Learning about Learning'.     

The Cross-Curriculum Manager: Maximizing the Potential of Learners

Mike Reading happened to visit the NAPCE stand at the Education Show, and commented that his school had found the NAPCE resource pack From Head of Year to Year Curriculum Coordinator? very useful in their developments. So a while later he was contacted to write an account for the journal!

This account gives a sense of the particular flavour of the school, which Mike himself suggests is unusual, and also the ways in which one role can become more highly connected and central to the school, especially if it is contributing to an explicit focus on learning.

Mike is Key Stage Manager at George Spencer Foundation School and Technology College. He trained at The University College of Ripon and York St John, and started his career in education as a Religious Education teacher in Oldham before being Head of Department in Grantham. From this position he was appointed to a senior role in his present school. He has studied the contribution which Quality Management makes to secondary school management and gained a Masters degree at Nottingham Trent University.     

Teachers’ Attitudes towards Disruptive Behaviour and their Use of Internal Referral

This study offers a very neat demonstration of something which conventional wisdom holds: that our actions reflect our beliefs. But the topic under investigation is a challenging one – teachers’ uses of ‘referral systems’ in school. The evidence suggests that referrals reflect teachers’ beliefs – not, therefore, the pupils’ behaviour. We do not know of a study of this sort anywhere in the literature on school behaviour, yet these findings have major implications for those pastoral systems which have become distorted into discipline systems. Michael examines these with care, taking pains not to be simply ‘pointing the finger’.

Michael Evans has been teaching physical education and mathematics in London for seven years. Currently in his second secondary post as Head of Year, Michael is working to complete his MA at the University of London Institute of Education. In his spare time he heads for the hills, wind and rain of Scotland.     

Towards a Seamless Web or a New Tertiary Tripartism? The Emerging Shape of Post-14 Education and Training in England

ABSTRACT:?

Government policy aims at a ‘seamless web’ of learning provision. This is exemplified in a local Learning and Skills Council supported by work on widening participation to higher education (HE) in another London sub-region. The emerging system described is comprehended as a whole from ‘Foundation Learning’ in compulsory schooling to post-compulsory ‘Lifelong Learning’ in further, higher and continuing education and training thereafter.     

Surveying Adolescent Worries: Development of the ‘Things I Worry About’ Scale

Steve Decker, Anglia Polytechnic University, Death and Loss: Compassionate Approaches in the Classroom, Oliver Leaman. London: Cassell, 1995. 160pp. hb ISBN 0 304 33087 6, pb ISBN 0 304 33089 2, price not available

Alan Dodds, The Ferrers School, Rushden, Northamptonshire, Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do, Dan Olweus. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. 140pp. pb ISBN 0 631 19241 7

Richard Smith, Elliott School, London, Combating Truancy in Schools, Edith Le Riche. London: David Fulton/ The Roehampton Institute, 1995. 112pp. ISBN 1 85346 337, £11.95

Ron Best, Roehampton Institute, London, Psychology in the Classroom: Reconstructing Teachers and Learners, Phillida Salmon. London: Cassell, 1995. 98pp. hb ISBN 0 304 33254 2, £40.00, pb ISBN 0 204 33256 9, £12.99

David Lambourn, NAPCE Base, Warwick, Primary Teachers at Work, R. J. Campbell and S. R. St.J. Neill. London: Routledge, 1994. 252pp. pb ISBN 0 415 08863 1, £14.99     

NewsLetter

Colin Conner, University of Cambridge Institute of Education, Learning: Principles, Processes and Practices, Rosemary J. Stevenson and Joy A. Palmer. London: Cassell, 1994. 216 pp. pb ISBN 0 304 32563 5, £12.99

Caroline Lodge, NAPCE National Committee, Life Goes On, Two training videos from St Margaret's Somerset Hospice. Taunton, Somerset: Emerald Films Production. £50 each, £75 for two +£1.75 p + p.

Caroline Lodge, NAPCE National Committee, Chasing Rainbows: Children, Divorce and Loss , by Brynna Kroll. Lyme Regis: Russell House Publishing Limited, 1994. 187pp. pb ISBN 1 898924 10 4, £14.95

Carrie Herbert, Carrie Herbert Consultancy, Cambridge, Bullying and the Dysfluent Child in the Primary SchoolA pack to help teachers with a dysfluent child in their class and speech and language therapists working with small groups of dysfluent children. Produced by Siobhan Mooney and Jim Lewis for The British Stammering Association, 15 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PJ. £18.90.     

The Cross-Curriculum Manager: Maximizing the Potential of Learners

Mike Reading happened to visit the NAPCE stand at the Education Show, and commented that his school had found the NAPCE resource pack From Head of Year to Year Curriculum Coordinator? very useful in their developments. So a while later he was contacted to write an account for the journal!
This account gives a sense of the particular flavour of the school, which Mike himself suggests is unusual, and also the ways in which one role can become more highly connected and central to the school, especially if it is contributing to an explicit focus on learning.
Mike is Key Stage Manager at George Spencer Foundation School and Technology College. He trained at The University College of Ripon and York St John, and started his career in education as a Religious Education teacher in Oldham before being Head of Department in Grantham. From this position he was appointed to a senior role in his present school. He has studied the contribution which Quality Management makes to secondary school management and gained a Masters degree at Nottingham Trent University.     

Reciprocal learning in teacher education between Canada and China

ABSTRACT

The Preservice Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Programme has been developed on a vision of bridging the East and West dichotomy by harmonising Eastern learning with Western knowledge. This programme is one of the two foundations for Xu and Connelly’s 7-year Canada-China Reciprocal Learning Partnership in teacher education and school education in 2013-2020. The Programme, ‘provide[s] an exceptional cross-cultural experience with international engagement … to broaden teacher candidates’ horizons for a society of increasing diversity in today’s globalized world’. This article’s purposes are to discuss how reciprocal learning is both a concept and an approach for international and cross-cultural teacher education and school education and to present the learning outcomes and educational significance of the East-West reciprocal learning programme in teacher education. The Programme has created opportunities for both pre-service and in-service teachers to understand and appreciate a culture and educational system different from their own, thereby reciprocally contributing to educational opportunities for those they teach. The research theory and method utilised in this work are found in a companion paper in this special series and are briefly discussed below in the project overview and later in a discussion of student outcomes. This work has implications for other school settings where increasing immigrant student population and cultural diversity have become the norm.     

The (mis)use of the Finnish teacher education model: ‘policy-based evidence-making’?

Abstract

Background: International achievement studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have an increasing influence on education policy worldwide. The use of such data can provide a basis for evidence-based policy-making to initiate educational reform. Finland, a high performer in PISA, is often cited as an example of both efficient and equitable education. Finland’s teachers and teacher education have not only garnered much attention for their role in the country’s PISA successes, but have also influenced education policy change in England.

Main argument: This article argues that the Finnish model of teacher education has been borrowed uncritically by UK policy-makers. Finnish and English philosophies of teacher preparation differ greatly, and the borrowing of the Finnish teacher education model does not fit within the teacher training viewpoint of England. The borrowed policies, thus, were decontextualised from the wider values and underpinnings of Finnish education. This piecemeal, ‘pick “n” mix’ approach to education policy reform ignores the fact that educational policies and ‘practices exist in ecological relationships with one another and in whole ecosystems of interrelated practices’. Thus, these borrowed teacher preparation policies will not necessarily lead to the outcomes outlined by policy-makers in the reforms.

Sources of evidence: Two teacher preparation reforms in England, the University Training Schools (outlined in the UK Government’s 2010 Schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching) and the Master’s in Teaching and Learning (MTL), are used to illustrate the problematic nature of uncritical policy borrowing. This article juxtaposes these policies with the Finnish model of teacher education, a research-based programme where all candidates are required to complete a Master’s degree. The contradictions exposed from this analysis further highlight the divergent practices of teacher preparation in England and Finland, or the disparate ‘ecosystems’. Evidence of educational policy borrowing in other settings is also considered.

Conclusions: Both the MTL and the White Paper reforms overlook the ‘ecosystem’ surrounding Finnish teacher education. The school-based MTL contrasts with the research-based Finnish teachers’ MA. Similarly, the University Training Schools scheme, based on Finnish university-affiliated, teaching practice schools, contrasts heavily with the rest of the White Paper reforms, which contradict the philosophies and ethos behind Finnish teacher education by proposing the move of English teacher preparation away from the universities. The analysis highlights the uncritical eye through which politicians may view international survey results, looking for ‘quick fix’ options instead of utilising academic evidence for investigation on education and education reform.     

Representation and safe space: conflicting discourses in RE teacher education supervision

ABSTRACT

This article explores supervision conferences in RE teacher education in Sweden. Two discourses that are often articulated in supervision conferences are ‘representation’ and ‘safe space’. These are investigated and presented as necessary components for becoming a competent teacher of upper secondary school RE in Sweden. The empirical material consists of observations of six RE supervision trialogues and interviews with the participants – student teachers, upper secondary school supervisors and university-based teacher educators. Based on the analysis of the empirical material, representation and safe space emerge as essential ‘RE teacher knowledge’. Furthermore, the antagonism between representation and safe space that emerges in the supervision trialogues is explored and highlighted. By way of conclusion, the presented discursive struggle is reflected on as a battle over power within the supervision triad.     

VII: Educating for citizenship and employment in Australia

Abstract

There is a long held belief in the teaching profession—a belief approximating the status of folklore—that when a teacher stays in a school for an extended amount of time, the enthusiasm for the job wanes and becomes less effective, turning into the ‘living dead’, awaiting retirement. In this folklore, then, teacher mobility is positioned as desirable—with positive outcomes for the profession and for students. Two recent studies and faculties in NSW government schools, however, suggest to us a need to problematise the notion of teacher mobility as an automatically desirable aspect of the profession. We think these studies suggest a greater degree of complexity around the issue of teacher mobility than simply viewing the ‘over stayer’ as a cynical quasi‐retiree or ‘shell back’. In fact, these studies of teachers who achieve outstanding outcomes in the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) and of faculties and programs achieving outstanding outcomes in years 7–10, suggest that length of time in a school may be directly correlated with outstanding outcomes (by underpinning a range of other factors probably more directly causative of those outcomes).     

Risky teachers: mitigating risk through high-stakes teacher evaluation in the USA

ABSTRACT

As a post-structural critique of US teacher evaluation policy, this paper aims to disrupt accepted conceptualizations of teachers by (1) identifying discursive constructions of teachers in political talk, action, and legislation; (2) unpacking the ways that these constructions operate to legitimize punitive accountability policies and practices; and (3) mapping the associated accountability practices used by one school district to understand how they function to manage teachers and shape teacher subjectivities. Drawing on data that include official federal- and state-level policy documents, policy supplemental materials, and local teacher evaluation materials, this analysis demonstrates how teachers have been discursively positioned as ‘risky’ subjects. By doing so, the means to mitigate such ‘risks’ are rationalized, insofar as high-stakes accountability policies and practices ‘make sense’ to protect the well-being of students and the country. This has enabled a set of intrusive and punitive mechanisms that assess and discipline teachers to behave as low-risk subjects.     

Breadth and the Core

Abstract

This article describes a staff development process aimed at promoting flexible approaches to ‘A’ levels and places it in the wider context of student achievement and teaching and learning styles. In addition to a number of Barnet College English Literature team INSET activities, staff and curriculum development has also involved a Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) funded collaborative project with Ravenscroft School in Barnet and involvement with the London Six Consortium for the AEB's ‘A’ level English Literature 660 Syllabus.     

Development and exemplification of a model for Teacher Assessment in Primary Science

ABSTRACT

The Teacher Assessment in Primary Science project is funded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust and based at Bath Spa University. The study aims to develop a whole-school model of valid, reliable and manageable teacher assessment to inform practice and make a positive impact on primary-aged children’s learning in science. The model is based on a data-flow ‘pyramid’ (analogous to the flow of energy through an ecosystem), whereby the rich formative assessment evidence gathered in the classroom is summarised for monitoring, reporting and evaluation purposes [Nuffield Foundation. (2012). Developing policy, principles and practice in primary school science assessment. London: Nuffield Foundation]. Using a design-based research (DBR) methodology, the authors worked in collaboration with teachers from project schools and other expert groups to refine, elaborate, validate and operationalise the data-flow ‘pyramid’ model, resulting in the development of a whole-school self-evaluation tool. In this paper, we argue that a DBR approach to theory-building and school improvement drawing upon teacher expertise has led to the identification, adaptation and successful scaling up of a promising approach to school self-evaluation in relation to assessment in science.     

An investigation of Taiwanese high school students’ science learning self-efficacy in relation to their conceptions of learning science

Background: Past studies have shown significant associations between students’ conceptions of learning science and their science learning self-efficacy. However, in most of the studies, students’ science learning self-efficacy has often been measured by a singular scale.

Purpose: Extending the findings of these studies, the present study adopted a multi-dimensional instrument to assess Taiwanese high school students’ science learning self-efficacy and investigate the relationships with their conceptions of learning science.

Sample: A total of 488 Taiwanese high school students (265 male and 223 female) were invited to participate in this survey.

Design and method: All the participants responded to the Conceptions of Learning Science (COLS) questionnaire regarding ‘Memorizing’, ‘Testing’, ‘Calculating and practicing’, ‘Increase of knowledge’, ‘Applying’ and ‘Understanding and seeing in a new way’ and the Science Learning Self-Efficacy (SLSE) instrument, including ‘Conceptual understanding’, ‘Higher-Order cognitive skills’, ‘Practical work’, ‘Everyday application’ and ‘Science communication’.

Results: The path analysis results derived from the structural equation modeling method indicated that, of all five SLSE dimensions, the ‘Understanding and seeing in a new way’ COLS displayed as a positive predictor, while the ‘Testing’ COLS was a significant negative predictor. The ‘Applying’ COLS item can only positively contribute to the SLSE dimensions of ‘Higher-Order thinking skills’, ‘Everyday application’ and ‘Science Communication’.

Conclusions: In general, students in strong agreement with learning science as understanding and seeing in a new way or the application of learned scientific knowledge are prone to possess higher confidence in learning science. However, students who consider learning science in terms of preparing for tests and examinations tend to hold lower science learning self-efficacy.     

Storylines in the physics teaching content of an upper secondary school classroom

ABSTRACT

Background: Physics is often seen as a discipline with difficult content, and one that is difficult to identify with. Socialisation processes at the upper secondary school level are of particular interest as these may be linked to the subsequent low and uneven participation in university physics. Focusing on how norms are construed in physics classrooms in upper secondary school is therefore relevant.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify discursive patterns in teacher–student interactions in physics classrooms.

Design and methods: Three different physics lessons with one class of students taught by three different teachers in upper secondary school were video-recorded. Positioning theory was used to analyse classroom interaction with a specific focus on how physics was positioned.

Results: We identified seven different storylines. Four of them (‘reaching a solution to textbook problems’, ‘discussing physics concepts in order to gain better understanding’, ‘doing empirical enquiry’ and ‘preparing for the upcoming exam’) represent what teaching physics in an upper secondary school classroom can be. The last three storylines (‘mastering physics’, ‘appreciating physics’ and ‘having a feeling for physics’) all concern how students are supposed to relate to physics and, thus, become ‘insiders’ in the discipline.

Conclusions: The identification and analysis of storylines raises awareness of the choices teachers make in physics education and their potential consequences for students. For example, in the storyline of mastering physics a good physics student is associated with ‘smartness’, which might make the classroom a less secure place in general. Variation and diversity in the storylines construed in teaching can potentially contribute to a more inclusive physics education.     

My cooperating teacher and I: how pre-service teachers story mentorship during School Placement

ABSTRACT

Set against a particular policy context in the Republic of Ireland, this study explores the stories of seven pre-service teachers’ experiences of being mentored during their final School Placement practicum. Their stories were prompted by videos of their School Placement practice and collected using narrative interview methods. Findings suggest the pre-service teachers view their mentors as models for future selves, based on a simplistic dichotomisation of good and bad practices. The results highlight how mentor teachers act predominantly as gate keepers of school culture rather than as a source of support for pre-service teacher learning. Findings are discussed from the perspective of local and international implications for teacher preparation.     

‘It didn’t really change my opinion’: exploring what works,what doesn’t and why in a school science,technology, engineering and mathematics careers intervention

Background: It is widely agreed that more needs to be done to improve participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Despite considerable investment in interventions, it has been difficult to discern their effectiveness and/or impact on participation.

Purpose: This paper discusses findings from a six-week pilot STEM careers intervention that was designed and overseen by a teacher from one London girls’ school. We reflect on the challenges for those attempting such interventions and the problems associated with evaluating them.

Sample: Data were collected from Year 9 students (girls aged 13–14 years) at the school.

Design and methods: Pre- and post-intervention surveys of 68 students, classroom observations of intervention activities, three post-intervention discussion groups (five or six girls per group) and a post-intervention interview with the lead teacher were conducted.

Results: Although the intervention did not significantly change students’ aspirations or views of science, it did appear to have a positive effect on broadening students’ understanding of the range of jobs that science can lead to or be useful for.

Conclusions: Student aspirations may be extremely resistant to change and intervention, but students’ understanding of ‘where science can lead’ may be more amenable to intervention. Implications are discussed, including the need to promote the message that science is useful for careers in and beyond science, at degree and technical levels.     

The zoning decision∗

During a period of intense school reorganization and closure in Reading C. M. S. Sutcliffe was was a member of Berkshire County Council, serving on the Education Committee. He was also a governor of two local schools, one of which was closed during this rationalization. He has addressed a number of academic conferences on the subject of school zoning. He now holds the Northern Society chair in the Department of Economics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

J. L. G. Board is now a member of the Department of Accounting and Finance at the London School of Economics. He has co‐authored a number of papers on the application of modelling techniques to social decisions.

The allocation of children to secondary school is both difficult and contentious. Although a balanced intake is desirable, it is, in practice, often not achieved. This paper discussed the use of goal programming models to achieve these allocation patterns and considers the results of the first large‐scale application of the technique to this problem. The subject of the allocation is Reading, Berkshire, whose allocation scheme proposed in 1978 was the subject of investigation under the Race Relations Act. The results clearly indicate the advantages of the method as a useful tool to help real‐world educational decision‐makers.