The Italian adaptation of courage measure

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This project developed and examined the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the Courage Measure, the reduced version...     

Reading: What Children need to learn and how teachers can help them

Note A fuller version of this paper, entitled Words and Worlds: Reading in the early years of school is published in booklet form jointly by the National Association of Advisors in English and the National Association for the Teaching of English, and is available from NATE at 50 Broadfield Road, Sheffield S8 OXJ for £3.50 to non members and £2.95 to members.     

Children in care or in need: educational progress at home and in care

ABSTRACT

By age 16 the attainment of most children in or on the edge of out of home care has fallen well behind the average for their age. This paper uses the English National Pupil Database to examine how much of this falling behind occurs before the age of seven, and how any subsequent decline relates to time in care as against time outside it. We compare the previous progress of three groups of 16-year-olds: 5175 looked after by the state (CLA), 17,392 in need but not in care (CIN), and 22,567 children matched with the CLA or CIN on initial attainment, special educational needs, and eligibility for free school meals. We found that the attainment of the CIN and those CLA not yet in care was around one standard deviation below the cohort average at age seven. It then fell relative to their peers while their rate of unauthorised absences and exclusions grew. Removal from home to care appeared to halt or greatly reduce this decline but did not, on average, reverse it. We conclude that educational interventions for CLA should also include CIN, start before seven, target both school and family, and exploit the educational opportunity which care provides.     

改进实验教学方法 促进高校创新人才的科学培养

根据目前高校实验教学存在的问题,提出培养创新人才必须从改进实验教学方法入手,提高大学生的心理素质和思想素质、优化大学生的知识结构和思维结构、培养大学生的独立性、培养大学生的责任意识抓起等措施,达到了提高学生创新能力的目的。     

Resilient principals in challenging schools: the courage and costs of conviction

The work of leaders in schools takes place in shifting and sometimes conflicting reform contexts which tend to increase and intensify their professional work and personal lives as they seek to influence a range of stakeholder groups and individuals in processes of school improvement. Such diverse and sometimes competing demands of policy, local context and educational values not only challenge the breadth of qualities, knowledge and skills possessed by leaders, but also test their adaptivity, flexibility and intellectual, and emotional energy on an everyday basis. Although much of the literature on resilience suggests that it is a necessary quality in extreme adverse circumstances – for example, physical or emotional trauma as a result of conflict – it seems obvious that everyday resilience will be an essential quality and a necessary capacity for leaders to lead to their best. However, this may be sorely tested as the range of their roles and responsibilities expands and their space to exercise ‘responsible agency’ at work shrinks, together with personal space outside the workplace – traditionally viewed as a time to reflect, recover and renew. A recent survey showed that, in England, for example, only 7% of secondary heads perceived that they had any time to engage in interests outside their work; it is unlikely that much will have changed in the years since then, as more recent root-and-branch reforms in the governance and curricula of schools in England and Wales demonstrate. How leaders of schools, which serve high-challenge communities of socio-economic disadvantage, sustain their resilience and the costs of doing so in raising and sustaining their levels of success has received only scant attention in the research literature. This paper reports the outcomes of research into the work of 12 successful principals who work in schools in challenging environments in different countries and were asked to talk about their contexts and the challenges which they had overcome in order to achieve their success. It uses one of these as an illustration of the role courage and conviction plays in all their lives.     

The courage to be: the impact of Lebensphilosophie on Danish RE

The article deals with the impact of Lebensphilosophie on Danish RE in the elementary and lower secondary school – an impact which is subjected to a critical analysis with special attention given to anti‐intellectualism, criticism of reason and criticism of modernity as well as the romantic view of the child. The thesis of this article is that there is reason to be critical of the use of Lebensphilosophie in RE. The Danish Lebensphilosophie is primarily based on the thinking of K.E. L?gstrup – a thinking where the concept of creation is central. This means that there will often be connotations of the theology of creation in Danish RE, which is problematic given that the subject, since 1975, must be non‐preaching. In order to shed light on Danish Lebensphilosophie, I will start with the pioneer of Danish Lebensphilosophie, the theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig, who influenced L?gstrup. The article introduces some of the central themes of L?gstrup’s thinking. Following this is an exploration of his educational thinking and its influence on RE. The last part of the article deals with the recontextualisation of Lebensphilosophie within RE.     

生命的狂野与自由——解读现当代文学中的原始生命意识

文学是人学,生命意识是非常重要的文学审美对象。在中国文学主流中,文学审美生命意识以文明化后的阴柔意识为主,而生命原始血性的狂野和自由却很少进入到文学审美领域。本文从生命的原始野性角度粗略探讨一下中国现当代文学中狂野与自由的生命意识。     

对马克思主义：要信仰，更要信服!

共产党员对马克思主义不能仅仅只是信仰，而必须信服。因为信仰容易改变，而信服了的东西才能转化成人的世界观。从理论上看，马克思主义不需要信仰。以前强调信仰马克思主义是因为对马克思主义还没有完全搞清楚。邓小平讲信仰马克思主义都是指在革命时期，而在建设时期则强调必须把它当作科学来学习。要把马克思主义由信仰变为信服，关键是要加强马克思主义理论教育。     

“把孩子看成孩子”——也谈小学生操行评语写作

有关小学生操行评语写作方面的论文,频频出现在各类教育刊物上,促进、推动了小学生操行评语写作的科学化、规范化。然而,从小学生的性格、心理特征方面研究小学生操行评语写作的论文,却并不多见。因此,本文试图从这方面加以论述。     

A curious courage: the origins of gay rights campaigning in the National Union of Students

In 1973 the national conference of the National Union of Students (NUS) voted to campaign for gay rights, making NUS the first national organisation in the UK to make such a public commitment. Using archive material, this article outlines how NUS came to this decision, and the initial challenges it faced in taking up this work. It explains that NUS was influenced by early liberation politics, but faced difficulties when this clashed with the belief of some on the Left in the primacy of the class struggle. Nevertheless, some important progress was made in these early years, even if some of the wider societal change was still elusive.     

The need for research

Participants frequently must sustain counterpoised definitions of the situation in which they participate. This study reports an analysis of reporters’ efforts to sustain both a “presidential” and “press” definition of the presidential press conference by balancing deference for the President with critical confrontation.