Testing virtual classroom in the school context

The development of information and communication technologies has made it possible for schools to establish inter‐institutional electronic networks to enhance the quality of education in small schools in sparsely populated countries like Finland. Along with this development, new kinds of virtual classrooms have emerged in symbiosis with conventional schools. A virtual classroom in a school context is a new, mostly uninvestigated, phenomenon. In this article we discuss some theoretical aspects of a virtual classroom in the school context. We also report results of a Finnish project which links two lower secondary school classrooms with the use of video‐conferencing.     

A Review of the Empirical Research on Private School Choice

Parents in the United States have had the legal right to choose the school their child attends for a long time. Traditionally, parental school choice took the form of families moving to a neighborhood with good public schools or self-financing private schooling. Contemporary education policies allow parents in many areas to choose from among public schools in neighboring districts, public magnet schools, public charter schools, private schools through the use of a voucher or tax-credit scholarship, virtual schools, or even homeschooling. The newest form of school choice is education savings accounts (ESAs), which make a portion of the funds that a state spends on children in public schools available to their parents in spending accounts that they can use to customize their children's education. Opponents claim that expanding private school choice yields no additional benefits to participants and generates significant harms to the students “left behind” in traditional public schools. A review of the empirical research on private school choice finds evidence that private school choice delivers some benefits to participating students—particularly in the area of educational attainment—and tends to help, albeit to a limited degree, the achievement of students who remain in public schools.     

Can virtual schools thrive in the real world?

Despite the relatively large number of students enrolled in Ohio’s virtual schools, it is unclear how virtual schools compare to their traditional school counterparts on measures of student achievement. To provide some insight, we compared the school performance from 2007-2011 at Ohio’s virtual and traditional schools. The results suggest that Ohio’s virtual schools have grown rapidly, but also have experienced much lower levels of school performance than traditional schools. In light of these findings, we discuss factors that may be contributing to the large number of low-performing virtual schools in Ohio. Considering the lack of sufficient evidence that Ohio’s virtual schools are effective, we conclude that the relentless pursuit to expand virtual schools is problematic.     

Socioeconomic school segregation in a market-oriented educational system. The case of Chile

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the socioeconomic status (SES) school segregation in Chile, whose educational system is regarded as an extreme case of a market-oriented education. The study estimated the magnitude and evolution of the SES segregation of schools at both national and local levels, and it studied the relationship between some local educational market dynamics and the observed magnitude of SES school segregation at municipal level. The main findings were: first, the magnitude of the SES segregation of both low-SES and high-SES students in Chile was very high (Duncan Index ranged from 0.50 to 0.60 in 2008); second, during the last decade, SES school segregation tended to slightly increase in Chile, especially in high schools (both public and private schools); third, private schools – including voucher schools – were more segregated than public schools for both low-SES and high-SES students; and finally, some market dynamics operating in the Chilean education (like privatization, school choice, and fee-paying) accounted for a relevant proportion of the observed variation in SES school segregation at municipal level. These findings are analyzed from an educational policy perspective in which the link between SES school segregation and market-oriented mechanisms in education plays a fundamental role.     

Homeschooling,Virtual Learning,and the Eroding Public/Private Binary

ABSTRACT

Regulators ubiquitously dichotomize schooling into two discrete sectors: public and private. Although homeschooling is regulated in some contexts as a third sector, the general approach is to treat it as a species of private education by subjecting it to public regulation while simultaneously denying it public funds. But the public/private binary is increasingly difficult to sustain as charter schools multiply and, especially, as virtual schooling increasingly penetrates primary and secondary education. Public school systems are deploying virtual education in ways that erode once impermeable walls between public and private. Many obstacles to homeschooling will fall with those walls—particularly obstacles related to government financing of homeschooling activities.     

Computer Innovation in Schools: a review of selected research literature

Abstract

The development of information and communication technologies has made it possible for schools to establish inter-institutional electronic networks to enhance the quality of education in small schools in sparsely populated countries like Finland. Along with this development, new kinds of virtual classrooms have emerged in symbiosis with conventional schools. A virtual classroom in a school context is a new, mostly uninvestigated, phenomenon. This article reports on the results of a Finnish project that linked two lower secondary classrooms to make one virtual classroom. The article reports on an exploratory case study of the virtual classroom and discusses justification of its establishment and practice, within the social contexts embedded in the project.     

Access to Equal Opportunities: building of a virtual classroom within two ‘conventional’ schools

The development of information and communication technologies has made it possible to establish inter‐institutional electronic networks to enhance the quality of education in small schools in sparsely populated countries like Finland. Along with this development, new kinds of virtual classrooms have emerged in symbiosis with conventional schools. A virtual classroom in a school context is a new, mostly uninvestigated, phenomenon. This article reports results of a Finnish project which linked two lower secondary classrooms to one virtual classroom. The article presents five practical settings in which the virtual classroom took place: Classroom ‐, school ‐, local ‐, regional ‐, and state contexts

The rapid development of pragmatism, together with intellectual and social partnership were considered as major pedagogical advantages of the virtual classroom. Two major disadvantages are also analyzed: First, pupils inability to tolerate the electronic lack of intimacy, and second, the difficulties some pupils had with self‐discipline and self‐monitoring in the face of learning tasks in the virtual classroom     

Finding the Customers: Challenges and Experiences Marketing K-12 Full-time Virtual Schools

Full-time virtual schooling is a growing alternative to traditional schools, although it is an option still unknown to many students. The ability to inform students through marketing is thus foundational to the success of virtual schools. Using a qualitative case study methodology, this article examines marketing patterns for nonprofit virtual schools, including how students find out about virtual schools; the ways in which school leaders market their schools; and changes reported in schools’ marketing and recruitment needs and strategies. This analysis suggests that students find out about virtual schools in many ways, including being referred, rejected, and urged by their local schools. Implications include issues around socioeconomic equity, especially in terms of school access, funding, and educational quality.     

Do low-cost private school leavers in the informal settlement have a good chance of admission to a government secondary school? A study from Kibera in Kenya

There are growing numbers of low-cost private schools in urban informal settlements in developing countries. It has been argued that these institutions may constitute alternatives for government schools, as they are able to meet the educational needs of children in urban informal settlements. This study explores the question of whether low-cost private schools can meet their needs, not only in terms of primary education but also with regard to access to further education. The study selected 12 private schools in Kibera and 2 government schools neighbouring Kibera, asking head teachers which secondary school each primary school leaver had joined. The findings show that whereas over two-thirds of primary school leavers in general went on to secondary school, pupils graduating from government primary school were more likely to be enrolled in government secondary school than those pupils who completed the low-cost private primary school in Kibera. Moreover, performance in national examinations was lowest among girls attending the school in Kibera. The study thus argues that while the low-cost private primary school can meet the educational needs of children in the informal settlement to some extent, it cannot represent an alternative to the government primary school.     

Virtually Forgotten: Special Education Students in Cyber Schools

The area of online K-12 education is experiencing rapid growth, yet practice has greatly surpassed the research. This article looks to add to the field by examining special education students enrolled in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. There were over 2600 students in the state that were identified as special education students and enrolled in virtual schools in 2009 according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The population of special education students in cyber school mirrors the population of special education students in brick and mortar classrooms, thus it is important to understand the characteristics associated with special needs learners as current research and practices are not designed to serve this population. Understanding the characteristics of this group is fundamental for instructional design and educational practice to serve the needs of these diverse learners.     

中小学法治教育存在的问题及对策刍探

虽然中小学法治教育取得了一些成果,但距离目标还较远,还需要积极探索,进一步提高中小学法治教育质量。针对当前中小学法治教育存在的问题,文章从构建合理的法治教育工作机制、逐步完善学校各项规章制度、设置合理的法治课堂教学内容和教学时间、注重优化网络空间法治环境等方面,探讨提高中小学法治教育质量的有效策略。     

Mining social media divides: an analysis of K-12 U.S. School uses of Twitter

This study utilizes public data mining to explore participation divides of all available K-12 institutional Twitter accounts in the U.S. (n?=?8275 accounts, n?=?9,216,853 tweets). Results indicated that U.S. schools used Twitter to broadcast information on a variety of topics in a unidirectional manner and that hashtags included a variety of intended purposes, including affinity spaces, education topics, emotive language, and events. Those schools in wealthier, more populated areas were more likely to use Twitter, with wealthy, suburban schools being the most likely to use it and poor, rural schools being the least likely. Furthermore, factors such as charter school status and urbanity influenced the content of school tweets on key issues, with schools in more populated areas tweeting more about coding and college than schools in less populated areas and charter schools tweeting more about college and the politicized educational issue of common core than non-charters. These results reveal participation differences between schools based upon demographics and provides a basis for conducting future large-scale work on publicly available artifacts, such as school tweets, that may be meaningfully used as education research data.     

Policy and Practice of the Decentralization of Basic Education in China: The Shanghai Case

This paper is aimed at exploring distinctive features of the decentralization of basic education in Shanghai by drawing on data from Shanghai Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) 2012. While doing the research for this paper, the author found that from a policy perspective, Shanghai had launched a reform policy aimed at transforming the highly centralized education system. This included a devolution of the decision-making authority to local departments of education and a reduction of control over schools. Private school policies were also initiated with the understanding that private schools ought to enjoy autonomy in almost every aspect of decision-making. From the perspective of practice, decentralization of basic education could be categorized as county-based school decentralization. In such a situation, the county bureaus of education wielded decision-making authority over a number of areas in the public school sector, while gradually devolving some decision-making authority to the public schools themselves; and the private schools enjoyed autonomy within their major decision-making areas. Given both the policy and practice of the decentralization of basic education in Shanghai, some suggestions are provided regarding: (1) how to promote school decentralization, and (2) how to balance it with accountability.     

论近代工业与唐山教育事业的发展

近代工业对唐山教育事业的发展做出了突出贡献,主要是:它最先开办职业教育,为企业自身的发展提供专业技术人才;它直接开办中小学教育,在为自己企业职工子弟提供上学机会的同时,把招生范围扩大到全社会;它是唐山高等教育的先行者,最先实现职业教育与高等教育的结合;它还是热心的助学者,对其他社会办学力量给予资助。     

光荣的荆棘路——绍兴县柯桥小学二十年发展纪略

柯桥小学是一所百年老校,二十年来,在“柯桥实验”思想的引领下,走出了一条“科研兴校”“文化理校”的特色办学之路,在探索素质教育的实践中,不仅作为先行者取得了实践上的突破,更在规范实施素质教育乖校本化实施素质教育方面进行了尝试并取得了一定的经验。     

The effect of formal teacher education on reading achievement of 3rd‐grade students in public and independent schools in Sweden

This study investigates the influence of teacher competence on 3rd‐grade students’ reading achievement in public and independent schools in Sweden. The data come from the Swedish participation in PIRLS 2001 (Progress in Reading Literacy Study 2001) and comprise some 10,000 students. Students in independent schools achieved better on the reading test than did students in public schools, but when parents’ education was controlled for, the effect on students’ achievement of school type disappeared. Teacher certification for teaching in the early grades had a strong effect on students’ mean reading test scores in both school types, while no significant effects of teacher experience, age, gender, in‐service training or cooperation could be established. Though school type had no influence of itself, it was a mediating factor for both parents’ education and teachers’ education. These effects, however, worked in opposite directions.     

少数民族贫困地区大龄女童辍学问题追踪研究

近几年,少数民族贫困地区女童教育研究转向了对大龄女童(10～12岁)辍学问题及辍学的多因素综合治理方面.少数民族大龄女童辍学率高,主要原因是她们已经成为家里的劳动力或后备劳动力,通过她们的劳动或外出打工来支撑贫困的家庭及继续弟妹的学业.农村实行"两免一补"政策后,这一问题有了一定的缓解,但不能从根本上解决.为此,建议通过设立民族教育发展专项基金或发展特区的政策,从根本上解决民族教育的这一难点问题.     

Exzellenz und Elitenbildung in Gymnasien. Traditionen und Innovationen

Even after the leveling of the three types of German ‘Gymnasien’, there are still traditional ways of gaining excellence: Latin in addition to English from the 5th school year, the bilingual models and the elite schools for particularly talented students in sports, music or art. Accelerated by the ‘PISA shock’ since the upper secondary school system in Germany has been differentiated and hierarchized by highly selective gifted classes, special schools and boarding schools for high performance at a level above the regular secondary schools.This kind of exclusivity generated by the German ‘Gymnasium’s’ performance excellence is supplemented to an exclusivity through school choice in the currently greatly expand of the German private school system. In addition to the church- and denominational-funded ‘traditional schools’ and schools based on concepts of progressive education, new all-day school complexes with bilingual education, international curricula and qualifications are, especially in the “global cities” (eg Frankfurt) emerged. They mainly serve a wealthy and education-oriented parenthood, distinguishing their selves by internationality and contributing to further diversification of higher education by choosing such schools.     

A virtual learning environment for the continuation of education and its relationship with the mental well-being of chronically ill adolescents

Research has shown that the continuation of education by chronically ill adolescents is an important way to avoid social isolation, psychosocial problems and the accumulation of learning difficulties. In this light, virtual learning environments (VLEs), which connect sick adolescents to their schools, play an important role in ensuring that the sick adolescents continue their education, and in contributing to their mental well-being. This study investigated the extent to which a VLE supports the continuation of education and school interactions among sick adolescents and how it is related to their mental well-being. The results show that the VLE had a positive impact on supporting the continuation of education and school interactions among chronically sick adolescents and was considered very helpful to their mental well-being.     

What Islamic school teachers want: towards developing an Islamic teacher education programme

In the 70 year history of Islamic schools in North America, there is yet to be an accredited teacher education programme to train and professionally equip Islamic school teachers with an understanding of an Islamic pedagogy. Arguably, there has been an imbalance of energy placed on curriculum development projects over the considerations of teacher training. From my experience working as a teacher trainer/education consultant for Islamic schools for the past 10 years, it is evident that the underlying assumption for many school administrators is that a State/Ministry certified teacher who is Muslim will know how to teach ‘Islamically’. The aims of this paper are to first establish some semblance of what it means to teach Islamically or, more accurately, to teach through an Islamic pedagogy. From this framework, the crux of the paper is to present findings from a series of focus groups with Islamic school educators about their teacher training needs. The findings of this study establish the need for a formal teacher education programme in Islamic pedagogy within an established faculty of education. Such a programme would achieve three major ends in cultivating the stewardship of Islamic schools in North America: 1. Define and establish Islamic education as a valid and relevant pedagogical model that can contribute to the broader discourse of alternative, faith-based education;

2. Standardise the pedagogy and curriculum of Islamic schools based on the principles of education in Islam and to make both contextually relevant;

3. Contribute to raising the standards of Islamic schools through a teacher education programme at credible faculties of education where ongoing research and development will also be supported.