Counselling in Educational Settings: Past Experience, Current Practice and Future Implications

In this paper, Jean Wright and Ann Beynon discuss their past and present experience of counselling in schools and colleges. They reflect on the way counselling in schools has declined whilst at the same time growing significantly in sixth forms and colleges of further education. Drawing on these experiences and one of the writers' recent experience of the approach to counselling in the USA, they argue that a reconsideration is needed of the value of counselling approaches in schools.     

Ethical and Supervision Issues in the Use of Counselling and Other Helping Skills with Children and Young People in School

This paper explores the use of counselling and other helping skills with young people in schools, focusing on how teachers, who may not be formally trained, work in this area. The author argues that counselling in schools may not be common but that teachers’ use of counselling skills and the involvement in intensive case work is much more so. The ethical issues in this work are identified. It is argued that schools should draw up their own ethical position statements and that staff who are involved in intensive support work with pupils should receive supervision.     

Towards an Understanding of the Social Issues in Information Technology: concerning computers,intelligence and education

ABSTRACT

Information technology has numerous social and political implications. This paper is primarily concerned with beginning to outline some of the more important issues for teacher educators. An understanding of these implications is required before we, as teacher educators or as teachers in schools, can begin to address the issues in our work around information technology in colleges or in the classroom. This article outlines the issues rather than exploring how to present them in colleges.

There are important debates occurring around information technology, the nature of intelligence, and education, which have profound implications for society. This article argues that the kind of work done in schools on computers, and generally on information technology, supports implicitly the more traditional ideas in education. In order to take a more balanced position, and to give students a chance to realise how their futures may be affected, it is argued that the social implications of information technology must be addressed centrally in colleges of education.     

Pump‐Priming Post‐16 Schooling: City Challenge Funds in a Secondary School Consortium

Abstract

Currently, great changes are occuring in 6th form education and in the way schools are being funded. The government is committed to increasing the staying‐on rate of post‐16 year old students. At the same time, the standard sources of funding to facilitate this are diminishing. Given the autonomy of schools over their own budgets, schools find themselves in competition with each other and with 6th form colleges for students and for resources to teach them. This paper examines what influence these changing circumstances are having on the students, the staff and the way the schools are run. It uses the cases of two schools receiving external funds in the inner‐city of Southeast London.     

Environmental Education for the Nonenvironmental Engineering Student: An Imperative for the Next Generation of Engineers

Abstract

Environmental education is “coming of age” at U.S. universities and colleges. Baccalaureate, master's, and PhD programs in environmental engineering, environmental science, and civil-environmental engineering are now available in U.S. colleges and schools of engineering. A rich program of research supports environmental graduate students and faculty at many engineering colleges and schools. Although specialists are trained in environmental subjects, the multiplication effect of “greening” all engineering students is nascent. Deans of leading engineering schools were surveyed to determine the level of environmental curriculum offered to nonspecialist engineering students. The purpose of the research was to provide educators with a baseline of approaches to environmental education for nonenvironmental engineering students. The survey determined the scope of environmental programs offered as special programs: minor, general education, concentration, special interest, and degree core requirement. Analysis of the survey responses and suggestions on program implementation are presented.     

Principals’ Responses to Incorporation: A Window on their Culture

Abstract

Drawing upon the narrative accounts provided by fifteen college principals in England and Wales this paper looks into the ways in which incorporation has changed the culture of further education colleges. Principals’ accounts reveal their views on how the sector has changed and identify a number of concerns including how the adoption of a market driven approach to the provision of further education now shapes their work. Data is presented and discussed on how principals experienced the process of incorporation, its impact on relationships with schools, other colleges and LEAs and on how colleges were to be viewed as businesses. It is suggested that since colleges are now widely perceived as independent businesses there is a need to reassess the understanding of business practice as applied to the college setting.     

Survey of Developmental Mathematics Courses at Colleges in the United States

Abstract

This study reports the results of a national survey of two and four-year colleges in 21 states in the United States. The study was undertaken at the direction of the Developmental Mathematics Committee of the American Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC). The purpose of the study was to establish the state of the art of developmental mathematics. The results indicated that many colleges recognized the problem of underprepared students and had developmental mathematics programs. However, with the exception of a few schools, the colleges reported no formal evaluation of their programs.     

Facilitating student well-being: relationships do matter

Background: Alongside academic and vocational goals, schools are increasingly being called upon to address student well-being. Existing evidence suggests that strong relationships and a sense of connectedness in school communities are important for fostering subjective well-being. However, identifying the specific nature of such relational dynamics, and accommodating the ‘personal’ within school cultures increasingly dominated by ‘performance’ narratives, remains a problematic task.

Purpose: This paper draws on Honneth’s recognition theory to offer fresh insight into how relationships act to facilitate and limit the experience of well-being at school. We suggest that such an approach holds considerable potential for developing teachers’ understanding of the tacit and explicit ways they and their students experience being cared for, respected and valued and the ways in which such actions impact on well-being.

Design and methods: The paper reports the qualitative findings from a large mixed-method study, involving students and staff across primary and secondary schools in three regions of Australia. The qualitative phase involved focus groups with 606 primary and secondary students and individual interviews with 89 teachers and principals.

Results: Across the focus groups and interviews, students and teachers placed substantial emphasis on the importance of relationships, while reporting differences in their views about which relationships support well-being. Alongside this, there were differences in the importance teachers and students placed on each of the three strands of Honneth’s recognition theory (translated for this study as being cared for, respected and valued) for influencing student well-being.

Conclusions: The findings affirm the critical role that relationships play in promoting well-being in the context of schools. Using recognition theory to analyse students’ and teachers’ views and experiences of well-being provides much greater insight into how these relationships are enacted – this being through the mutual experience of being cared for, respected and valued – within the context of schools.     

Balanced Development for Provincial-Level Coordination and Higher Vocational Education

Abstract

In the rapid development of Chinese higher vocational education, large gaps have appeared in the scale of development and resource generation among the provinces, among regions in the provinces, and among higher education institutions in the provinces. Balanced regional development and provincial-level coordination have become policy focal points, but a discussion of the relationship between the two has been lacking in the academic world. Based on 2009 data on vocational colleges in China, the quantitative analysis in this paper shows that there is a tension between the governance models of higher vocational education and balanced development of vocational colleges within provinces. Research findings show that school affiliation is related to the ability to attract public funding, appropriations for public schools are significantly higher than for private schools, and tuition for private schools is significantly higher than for public schools; school affiliation is related to output, and the new student registration rate and number of cooperating enterprises is higher for public schools than private schools; and there is a significant positive correlation between the ratio of prefecture-level city schools and the average number of cooperating enterprises for schools in a province, and a significant positive correlation between the ratio of private schools and the average tuition of schools in a province. This paper suggests that to achieve the dual objectives of balance and development, provincial-level governments should adjust their administrations and financing for higher vocational education and decentralize their authority to local governments, in order to build a diverse and flexible new model for higher vocational education governance.     

Perspectives on a zero-tolerance approach to discipline: towards maintaining a nurturing and secure school environment

Abstract

This article reports on inquiry into school managers’ and teachers’ views on a zero-tolerance approach to managing learner discipline in schools. The study was conducted by way of multiple focus group interviews with selected participants from six inner city schools. Additional (secondary) data were obtained from schools’ code of conduct journals. The data were analysed in grounded theory mode and the main themes of the findings show that the participants are deeply concerned about the way in which disciplinary problems are affecting everyday school life. The participants struggle with applying the democratic principles of the law and reflect on times past when order was supposedly maintained by way of corporal punishment. The study included a section in which participants were asked to converse about the “zero-tolerance” approach to maintaining school discipline. It appears that this is seen as a viable option. Having introduced the notion, the principal researcher, with the other authors, caution such an introduction without coupling it with a school renewal drive that includes counselling and the development of an ethic of care.     

Teaching under Lockdown: the experiences of London English teachers

ABSTRACT

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, on 18 March 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the immediate closure of schools in England. (The closure was not absolute: schools would remain open for vulnerable children and the children of key workers. In practice, though, very few children have continued to attend.) In what follows, nine English teachers reflect on their experience of teaching under lockdown.     

Supporting the kindergarten–primary school transition in Hong Kong: reform in a teacher training programme

ABSTRACT

The conflicting education values in Hong Kong kindergartens and primary schools pose various challenges to kindergarten teachers in providing pupils with a smooth transition to primary school which requires collaboration from schools and families. This study explored these challenges as well as the benefits of a professional teacher training programme. In-service teachers (N?=?35) and tutors (N?=?2) engaged in the module ‘The Social and Emotional Aspects of Teaching and Learning’ participated in this study. The trainees’ weekly reflective journals throughout the 22-week module were subjected to documentation analysis. Group interviews with the in-service teachers and individual interviews with the tutors were conducted on completion of the module. Findings reveal a gap between teacher training and providing pastoral care for pupils through supporting the social and emotional aspects of their families in Hong Kong, and indicated that traditional beliefs associated with the teaching profession should be widened. Meanwhile, counselling knowledge and skills should be contextualised and integrated into teacher training programmes.     

Influencing Educational Practice through Performance Indicators

ABSTRACT

School effectiveness research has provided us with the knowledge and techniques to produce fair performance indicators. But under what circumstances do performance indicators have the most influence? For ten years the A Level Information System (ALIS) has been feeding back quantitative summaries of educational performance to schools, department by department, in an effort to improve educational provision. During that time the feedback has regularly been accompanied by dissemination meetings at which the measures and methodology have been explained and discussed. This paper reports a survey and two experiments conducted within the framework of ALIS which were designed to gauge the relative importance of a range of factors on the impact of performance indicators on teachers from 70 schools and colleges. It compares the attitudes towards and the use of the system by: Heads of departments and members of the department; teachers from different curriculum areas; teachers with varying lengths of involvement with ALIS; teachers who had attended in‐service; and teachers of varying experience. The conclusions are linked to theories of change, cybernetics and a view of education which places researchers and other experts in a co‐investigator role with respect to teachers. The paper also argues that experimentation within school effectiveness research becomes a real possibility once credible monitoring systems have been established.     

Peer Support: A Strategy to Help Bystanders Challenge School Bullying

In this article, the authors first discuss the nature of peer support and some of the ways in which it has evolved over time, particularly in the UK. Under the umbrella of peer support they include activities such as befriending, peer counselling, conflict resolution or mediation and intervening in bullying situations. Secondly, they describe research studies of peer support and discuss their relevance to bystander behaviour. Thirdly, they draw some conclusions that relate to the wider context of the developing role of peer support in schools today. These include the benefits to peer supporters and the key processes of flexible monitoring and clear observation of the needs of the potential users.     

Mini‐Enterprise in Schools: The Pupils’ Experience

Abstract

Mini‐enterprise in schools is the most tangible manifestation of ‘education for enteprise’. Despite its growing presence in schools, and diverse views about its potential impact, little is known about how pupils experience such activity. Findings suggest that interpersonal learning objectives are achieved effectively through mini‐enterprise but more narrow economic goals (such as fostering positive attitudes towards self‐employment) may not be. This paper sets out the pupils’ perspective on mini‐enterprise in schools and raises questions about current models of practice.     

GNVQ: some implications for higher education

The speed of change at 16+ shows little sign of slowing down, whether in terms of the organization, funding and governance of colleges, or of the structure and delivery of the curriculum both in schools and in colleges. One of the more recent innovations, the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ; GSVQ in Scotland), has taken off in a very big way and anyone who is concerned with vocational education, and indeed in 16+ education generally, needs to know about it. This group includes admissions tutors in higher education, who will have received in the autumn of 1993 the first applications from people with the new qualification.     

An analysis of efficiency in Senior Secondary Schools in the Gambia 2006 – 2008: Educational inputs and production of credits in English and Mathematics subjects

Abstract

This paper employs a stochastic production frontier model to assess the efficiency of the senior secondary schools in the Gambia. It examines their efficiency in using and mixing the educational inputs of average teacher salary, average teacher education, average teacher experience and students to teacher ratio in producing the number of students scoring credit and above in English and Mathematics. The schools are categorized into three types: the Government schools, the subsidized schools and the private schools. The paper finds no evidence that the private schools are different from the subsidized schools, but there is robust evidence that the private schools are significantly different from the Government schools. The average teacher salary is found to be irrelevant to the student performance, whereas high average teacher experience significantly improves student performance, and high student-to-teacher ratio significantly negates the student performance. Private schools appear to be the most efficient in 2006, but from 2007 to 2008, the performance of the schools in general is found to be highly volatile and unpredictable. Only one school emerges to consistently maintain a superior efficient performance throughout the three years studied.     

Mixed‐Ability Science Teaching in England

Summaries

English

In this short paper, the author looks back over the past few years at the experience gained in English schools of mixed‐ability teaching in science, and makes some personal interpretation of the lessons to be learned from that experience. It is hoped that some of these issues will be of relevance to other countries too.     

Teachers’ use of research evidence in practice: a pilot study of feedback to enhance learning

Background: There is worldwide interest in improving the effectiveness of teachers and teaching. This paper considers two strands of that interest. It revisits the impact of using enhanced feedback from teachers to pupils as a way of improving attainment, and it looks at the feasibility of teachers using research evidence to create their own interventions. Current evidence on the causal impact of effective feedback on learning is unclear: many studies have mixed results, are small in scale, lack randomisation or are not conducted in real classroom conditions. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to describe the experience of schools as they engage with research evidence to support their own enquiry into the effectiveness of feedback in the classroom. Research design: This study took place over one academic year, involving nine treatment schools in one local authority. The study involved teachers themselves using research findings to create an intervention, which took, as its focus, enhanced feedback in the classroom. Test results from these schools were compared to the results in 5 participating comparator schools, to the 49 other schools in the borough and to all state-funded primary schools in England. Results: Although teachers showed that they could engage with research evidence, the study indicated that the process was complex in practice. In addition, the independent impact evaluation suggested that enhanced feedback in itself does not necessarily lead to improved pupil test performance. Discussion and conclusions: The paper considers some of the challenges faced by teachers as they attempted to use research evidence, and discusses implications for schools wishing to use research evidence in practice. The findings of the study suggest that it may be feasible for practitioners to use research evidence to inform their own practice. However, to do it well would require clearer guidance, professional development and modelling of any strategies suggested. These findings have implications for policy on teacher development, and for the research community to make research outputs more comprehensible and accessible to research users.