Prevention and Reduction of Behavioural Problems in School: An evaluation of the Respect program

Disobedient pupils, off‐task behaviour, and bullying are common problems in schools in many countries; they interfere with teaching, create an unsafe learning environment, and challenge the staff. Effective programs involving entire schools to prevent and reduce such problems have already been designed and implemented. However, most interventions target one type of problem behaviour, and their effects have only been evaluated in the short term. The Respect program ¹ 1. The program was run under the name “Connect” in the ConnectOSLO project. View all notes is broad in the sense that it targets not just one but several types of behaviour in order to prevent and reduce problem behaviour. The program was implemented among all the staff and pupils at three primary schools and one secondary school in Norway. A cohort longitudinal design was used in evaluating the program. Pupils in the four schools reported a decrease in the four areas of problem behaviour. This decrease was sustained or continued after the intervention period for some types of behaviour, even though the results differed between grade levels. In terms of effect size, the results were small to moderate for most grade levels. Although this analysis was non‐experimental in nature, it does document sustainable change resulting from intervention in an entire school and suggests that this could be maintained in the long term.     

Wer geht auf die Hauptschule? Primäre und sekundäre Effekte der sozialen Herkunft beim Übergang nach der Grundschule

It can be especially controversial when pupils are transferred to the “Hauptschule”, which is the lowest of three tracks in the German secondary school system. The acceptance of this type of school is very low for both parents and pupils. By contrast with the transfers of pupils to the high ability grammar school (“Gymnasium”), there are no recent studies on transfers to the “Hauptschule”. Analyses using data from the Bavarian partial sample in the KOALA-S study show that the discrepancy between the aspirations of parents and pupils on the one hand and the school type recommended by teachers and the pupil registrations on the other hand is particularly large when pupils are transferred to the “Hauptschule”. Discrepancies concerning transfers to the “Realschule” (intermediate track; commercial/technical secondary school) or “Gymnasium” are less severe. Unwanted attendance at the “Hauptschule” most frequently affects children from families with lower social or educational status. Analyses with an elaborated simulation procedure (counterfactual calculations) show that attendance at the “Hauptschule” mainly results from poor school achievements, whereas social selectivity due to parents decision making or transition regulations is far less important.     

The school as a workplace: Extending democracy to schools

The author has a thorough knowledge of the educational scene in the USA. His critical analyses of the “modern” educational theories developed by J. Holt, H. Kohl, Ch. Silbermann, I. Illich and others, and of their — as yet unresearched — application to institutionalized learning and socialisation processes provide very informative insights into the on-going discussion on reform, even outside his own country. Stopsky points to four factors which have had a pronounced influence on the objectives, direction and progress of curriculum reform:

1. The student movement and the stimuli it generated in the civil rights movement and the relations with the “Third World”.
2. The subculture of youth, accompanying this protest movement and partly caused by its lack of success, with its typical phenomena of drug consumption and social disintegration.
3. The disappointment at the failure of the propagated educational reform to establish, e.g., equality of chances and improve the quality of life, and the effects of raising the standards of performance demanded of under-privileged pupils by means of drastic restrictions on admission and entrance examinations implying social selection for higher educational courses.
4. The development of “anti-curricula” in the form and content of “open” or neohumanist education. The favourable reports on experiments with these “pupil-centred” curricula in British schools created a fascinating response from teachers and pupils in the USA, but most colleges rejected the innovation as being anti-intellectual and decided in favour of a “competency based” or “performance based” curriculum.

In this future-oriented paper F. Stopsky attempts to free school from the odium of suffering individual oppression and the resulting fear of the pupils, and to turn it instead into a place where children and adults will work without repression.     

Supporting primary-level mathematics teachers’ collaboration in designing and using technology-based scenarios

In this article, we address how the design of educational scenarios can support teachers’ adoption of both technology and open-ended projects indorsing creativity and innovation. We do that by describing how groups of teachers develop digital learning environments supporting using a combination of GeoGebra and Google sites. Both teachers and pupils work with the concept of “game” as something they design, and furthermore, the pupils immerse themselves into the scenarios that the teachers create in a way similar to “playing a game.” We investigate teachers participation in collaborative development and testing through qualitative means, aiming to describe the teachers’ appropriation of (1) GeoGebra as a tool for doing and teaching mathematics, and (2) game as a metaphor supporting open-ended projects addressing creativity and innovation in the classroom. The data from the project suggest that the notion of “game” can support collaborative scenario design is a viable way of introducing technology and open-ended projects to primary school teachers.     

儿童对等分概念的认知发展研究综述

分数作为基本的数字概念,是儿童学习的难点和重点。分数中将整体平均分成相同几部分的等分概念,则是认识和掌握分数的基础。儿童只有先掌握等分概念,才能清楚地了解分数概念并对分数进行运算。本文针对儿童对等分概念的认知发展,从儿童对整体与部分概念的认知、对等分概念的认知等方面进行综述研究,有助于系统地分析儿童对等分概念的认知发展情况,并为以后的研究提供理论依据。     

Representations of proportional relationships: Are children part-part or part-whole reasoners?

This research describes an intensive study undertaken to determine children's representational strategies for relational numbers (e.g. proportions, ratios, fractions). Relational numbers have three quantities associated with them: a whole and two parts. Given these three quantities, children can form a representation based on a part-whole relationship or on a part-part relationship. Fifteen children (6th, 7th, and 8th graders) solved fifteen probability problems which varied information content and quantitative relationships between the quantities expressed in the problems. A quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed that children prefer a part-part representation to solve problems with relational quantities.     

A comparison of teacher referral and pupil self-referral measures relative to perceived school adjustment

This study investigated the relationship between teacher referral and pupil self-referral relative to perceived school adjustment of 417 4th grade pupils. Two major questions were focused upon: (a) To what extent do teachers and pupils agree relative to perceived learning and/or adjustment problems within the classroom? and (b) What are the relationships between teacher referral and pupil self-referral relative to sex of the child and type of problem indicated? The results suggest that a significant relationship exists between teacher referral and pupil self-referral (p <,001). Further, a disproportionate number of males in the sample were referred by their teachers as compared to female students (38% to 12%). However, relative to pupil self-referral, a much higher percentage of females (33%) “referred themselves.” It is suggested that greater consideration should be given by local school districts to including a pupil self-referral component within their overall screening mechanism for the identification of children in need of special education services. Further, school personnel should consider the possibility that their screening results may reflect teacher bias relative to “pupil sex stereotyping” in that males may be over-referred and famales under-referred.     

CURRENT ARTICLES

In the post-pillarized society of the Netherlands, formal religious education still is structured according to religious dividing lines. “Religion” in confessional schools is a compulsory subject; in public schools, taking a so-called neutral position with regard to religious traditions, “Religion” is an optional subject (Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Islamic religious education or Humanistic World View Education), taught to pupils on parents’ request. Nowadays, due to processes of modernization, globalization, and individualization, the position of religion in society has changed and subsequently the position of “Religion” as a subject in classes has changed. These days for principals and teachers in public schools it is urgent to reflect on their positionality regarding (religious and secular) worldview education. In this contribution we present our findings from document analysis and from (focus group) interviews with principals, and from observations in public schools, resulting in a plea for “Life Orientation for all” as a compulsory subject in all schools for all pupils.     

Becoming a “Foreigner”: The Principle of Equality,Intersected Identities,and Social Exclusion in the Norwegian School

This article explores how some minority pupils’ self-definition as “foreigners” leads to their inability to also consider themselves diligent and talented pupils in the Norwegian school. The minority pupils’ self-definition as “foreigners” creates binary understandings of being a diligent and conscientious pupil, a definition that is often interpreted as being “Norwegian.” Through observations and conversations with young minority pupils in upper secondary school about their everyday lives, this article shows how the bodies and behavior of some minority pupils are excluded in a firm and often instinctive understanding of equality conceived as sameness. It is argued that even if the concepts of diversity and tolerance are important foundations in the Norwegian education policy, this principle creates a specific notion of a “normal pupil.” This tacit normality has different consequences for different minority pupils, creating complex intersected identities along the categories of gender, social class, and ethnicity. While the notion of a normal pupil creates social exclusion for some pupils with a minority background, this article argues that the entanglement of other categories provides opportunities for success for other minority pupils in the same educational system.     

Word Score: A serious vocabulary game for primary school underachievers

This paper describes a study of “Word Score”, a serious game designed to extend the vocabulary of pupils in upper primary school in the Netherlands. Word Score was used in one school community as part of the national project “Educational Time Extension” (ETE). In ETE class time is extended beyond normal school hours with the aim of improving the learning outcomes of under-performing pupils. The study showed that the use of Word Score can be effective during ETE. The vocabulary of the pupils who played the game outside the regular class time significantly increased. The experiences of both pupils and teachers were very positive. The pupils liked playing Word Score and the teachers were very enthusiastic about the game and the pupils’ results.     

Widening participation in higher education: constructions of “going to university”

Progress towards the British Government’s goal of 50% of young people undertaking higher education has been slow, particularly among pupils from working‐class backgrounds.

This study examines the range of viewpoints held by 53 Year 12 pupils in a former coalfield area, all of whom were eligible to apply for university. Each completed a Q‐sort on 60 statements concerning “going to university”. By‐person factor analysis yielded five viewpoints termed “positive”, “put off”, “perplexed”, “pragmatic” and “other plans”. Detailed analysis of these viewpoints provides new insights and practical implications for raising educational aspirations in disadvantaged areas.     

Assessing social participation of pupils with special needs in inclusive education: the construction of a teacher questionnaire

This study addresses the development of a teacher questionnaire to assess the social participation of pupils with special needs in regular primary schools and is divided into 2 parts. In the 1st part, the construction of the questionnaire is described. The questionnaire consists of 30 statements related to 4 key themes of social participation: “friendships/relationships”, “contacts/interactions”, “perception of the pupil”, and “acceptance by classmates”, yielding 4 subscales.

The 2nd part of the study addresses an empirical study in which the questionnaire's quality was examined. The outcomes of a confirmatory factor analysis largely supported the division of social participation into 4 key themes. The analysis revealed that 22 out of 30 statements correlated strongest with the subscale they were assigned to. The questionnaire as a whole turned out to be reliable, whereas the reliability of the subscales varied. The construct validity was found to be mainly acceptable.     

Social Metaphorical Mapping of the Concept of Force “CHI‐KA‐RA” in Japanese

This research focused on the concept of “force” (“CHI‐KA‐RA” in Japanese) in Newtonian mechanics. The primary objective was to develop a tool, based on metaphor, to interpret student thinking in learning scientific topics. The study provides an example of using the tool to trace the process of mutual changes in thinking during a dialog among students who have different perspectives on the same topic. “Social metaphorical mapping” was used to interpret a dialog between two groups of junior high school students with different epistemological paradigms with regard to the concept of force (CHI‐KA‐RA) in the learning environment of a computer simulation. Both source domains were recontextualized through social metaphorical mapping and the process of mutual changes in concepts was traced. Participants noticed that the Buridanian ¹ 1. Buridan was a French scientist in the fourteenth century who proposed a theory of impetus. concept of“force” differs from the Newtonian concept of “force,” differentiated between the concepts of “force” that use the same Japanese term “CHI‐KA‐RA,” and noticed that the Buridanian concept of “force” resembles the Newtonian concept of “momentum.”     

Stereotypes at Work in Classroom Interactions: Pupils Talk about the Police in School Cinema Activities in Sweden

The empirical investigation in this paper develops the perspective of media in education by focusing on how the use of film in education stimulates the production of cultural, societal and social values and norms in school when pupils talk about “the police” in school cinema activities in Sweden. “Police” is regarded as a keyword and stereotype and the analysis focuses on how difference is created and negotiated between pupils and between pupils and teachers. Moreover, the paper highlights how acknowledging or disavowing difference is used by the pupils to position themselves. The result suggests that pupils create the police as negative and positive sign to gain position as: (1) included in a welfare society and (2) as problem solvers in the classroom (and society).     

Behind the School Walls: The School Community in French and English Boarding Schools for Girls, 1810–1867

This article develops a comparative analysis of lay boarding schools for girls in France and England in the first part of the nineteenth century, demonstrating that the character of school life in the two countries differed markedly. Contemporary observers such as Matthew Arnold, Henry Montucci and Jacques Demogeot visited boys' schools on either side of the Channel and contrasted the “barrack‐life” of lycées in France with the more domestic arrangements of English public schools, but they did not visit the private boarding schools for girls that were multiplying in both England and France in the first half of the nineteenth century. Evidence collected from inspection records, school memoirs and pedagogical treatises, however, reveals differences between female establishments on either side of the Channel that echoed, but were not identical to, the contrasts between English and French boys' schools. Different ideas on the nature and role of women interacted with the separate educational traditions of the two countries to construct two distinct institutional models of female schooling which could be termed “domestic” for England, and “conventual” for France. The article compares female institutions in the two countries to uncover some of the key features of these distinct models of schooling. In highlighting the way ideas about gender shaped school communities, it points to differences in the prevailing conception of femininity on either side of the Channel.

English girls' schools tended to be small in size and self‐consciously familial and homely in atmosphere and organization. Many schoolmistresses deliberately limited the number of pupils they would accept in order to preserve the intimate and domestic character of their establishments. This reflects the influence of a conception of femininity emphasizing women's maternal nature and domestic role, and women teachers' need to conform to this ideal in order to preserve their middle‐class status. French schools, by contrast, were more often large, hierarchically organized establishments. Unlike their English counterparts, they tended to be housed in buildings specially adapted as schools. The institutional character of French schools owed much to the educational patterns of convent schooling and to the powerful position occupied by women in religious orders.

The differences between these two conceptions of the school affected the conditions of school life and relations between pupils and teachers in concrete ways. In England, schoolmistresses tended to cultivate warm relationships with their pupils, and often characterized their role in maternal terms. Naturally, in practice not all relationships between teachers and their charges were as harmonious as the language of motherhood might suggest, yet at a time when spinsters might be labelled “redundant” or “unnatural”, drawing on a maternal metaphor was one of the ways in which schoolmistresses, who were for the most part unmarried and childless, could reconcile their situation with prevailing ideals of femininity. At the same time, motherhood was the only socially legitimate position through which a woman could exercise authority. In keeping with the familial atmosphere, warm relations between pupils were also encouraged in English girls' schools, and girls often enjoyed considerable liberty in the collective “room of one's own” that school could offer. In France, schoolmistresses tended to maintain more distant relations with their pupils, drawing on the precedents established by women in religious orders to develop authoritative public personae. At the same time, pupils were strictly supervised and attempts were made to limit the intimacy of friendships between schoolgirls. Schoolgirl memoirs are peppered with references to “the school walls” that heightened pupils' sense of enclosure and contained them within a rigid system of discipline and order. In practice, girls at school were often able to establish warm friendships with their peers and to circumvent the rules, yet such intimacies and rebellions went against the grain. The school regulations preserved in the archives evoke strictly ordered days and continual supervision of pupils; they reveal a preoccupation with order and discipline and the same suspicion of female autonomy that Bonnie Smith and Gabrielle Houbre have identified in the work of Catholic educators whose central concern was the preservation of a feminine innocence.

The interaction of differing ideas about the nature and role of women with distinct inherited educational traditions and with contrasting ideas about the state's role in education resulted in the construction of two distinct models of female schooling in England and France. The effect was that if, in both countries, the stated aim of the education provided by girls' boarding schools was to educate girls for motherhood, behind the school walls the character of daily life in English and French establishments differed in significant ways. Comparing the structure of schools and experience of schoolmistresses and their pupils in these different institutions highlights the ways in which ideas about gender helped shape the school community and uncovers the roots of the contrasting evolution of female education on either side of the Channel.     

THE EFFECT OF RACE OF EXAMINER ON THE MENTAL TEST SCORES OF WHITE AND BLACK PUPILS1

An entire elementary school system with 60% white and 40% black pupils was given several abiity tests group-administered by 12 white and eight black examiners (Es). The tests measured verbal and nonverbal IQ, perceptual-motor cognitive development, “speed and persistence” under neutral and motivating instructions, listening-attention, and short-term rote memory for numbers. With the exception of the “speed and persistence” test, on which white Es yielded significantly and consistently higher mean scores than black Es for both white and black pupils across grades one to six, the results for the various cognitive ability tests showed that the race of the E did not produce large or consistent effects in the testing of white and black pupils.     

The Nature of Social Practice Among School Professionals: Consequences of the Academic Pressure Exerted by Teachers in Their Teaching

The purpose of this study was to measure teachers' views about trust between teachers, trust between the principal and teachers, peer collaboration, positive attitudes towards the school and how these antecedents influence the academic pressure teachers put on pupils with respect to learning and learning intensity and performance. The methodology involved was a cross-sectional survey of 234 teachers from 11 Norwegian schools. The structural equation analysis indicated that principal-teacher trust has a moderately high impact on such constructs as “teacher-teacher trust” and “academic pressure” and that “teacher-teacher trust” has a moderately high impact on teachers' “peer collaboration”. “Peer collaboration” has a lower impact on “academic pressure”, while the impact of “positive attitudes towards the school” was moderately high. The article concludes with a discussion of the knowledge basis for understanding how social practice among teachers and school leaders in school communities is mobilised for a sustained focus on pupil learning. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

Examining Changing Attitudes in Secondary School Science

This study, carried out in England, examined the variation of attitudes towards science over the first three years of secondary schooling and with gender. The study in question was part of an evaluation of the “Lab in a Lorry” project, and involved 932 pupils completing a pre‐measure questionnaire containing items looking at six separate attitude constructs. From these data, two main patterns emerged; pupils’ attitudes towards science declined as they progressed through secondary school, and this decline was more pronounced for female pupils. These conclusions are largely in agreement with previous studies in this field. However, in examining separate attitude constructs, we were also able to identify that the sharpest decline occurred specifically for pupils’ attitude towards learning science in school. Furthermore, using linear regression, we identified that, as pupils progress through school, this construct becomes a greater influence on attitudes towards future participation in science. Therefore, we also concluded that learning science in school is a particular area that needs to be concentrated upon, if we are to improve children’s attitudes towards science. In the final part of the paper, we drew on interview data obtained from 44 pupils involved in the Lab in a Lorry study. Pupils’ comments in these interviews provided further insight into why pupils are “switched off” by school science. We drew out the most prevalent themes that emerged in the interviews, in order to provide further insight into why pupils do not enjoy science in school.     

“… We have learnt not just to sit back,twiddle our thumbs and let them take over.” Single‐sex settings and the development of a pedagogy for girls and a pedagogy for boys in Danish schools

Teachers in the Danish co‐educational elementary school system (the ‘folkeskole’ with pupils from 7 to 16 years) who are involved in innovative pedagogical projects have used segregation as an organisational method in introducing and developing equal opportunities and anti‐sexist pedagogical initiatives. The idea of arranging single‐sex settings started out as a means to provide space for girls and to enhance their competence professionally as well as to empower them personally. In setting up ‘Project Girls’ Class—Boys’ Class’, an ongoing developmental project about gender equity, the teachers, a woman and a man, have mixed their two classes and segregated the girls and the boys for longer or shorter periods or for a whole term in certain subjects, thus giving them space and tutoring on their own terms. It started in 1987/88, when the pupils were 10‐11 years old. Here for the first time they were segregated for 2 months. The involved girls developed self‐confidence and prefer to be in their girls‐only setting whereas it is the teachers (more than the involved boys themselves) that find that the boys’ class can provide important learning experiences for boys in raising their awareness of values and attitudes—both among the boys themselves and in relation to the girls. From the point of view of educational theory and how learning can become true learning, affecting the cognitive, emotional as well as moral and behaviourial attitudes, the paper reflects on why the segregation projects have given such clear results, whereas much other excellent tutoring by committed teachers seems not to have had the same impact. It comes to the preliminary conclusion that, in the hands of devoted teachers (people committed to the issues of gender equity and anti‐sexism and who are close to their pupils) the technique of polarising can be very effective.