Effects of a Developmentally Based Intervention With Teachers on Native American and White Early Adolescents’ Schooling Adjustment in Rural Settings

This study reports the effectiveness of a developmentally based, teacher professional development intervention aimed at improving early adolescent school adjustment. Teachers in rural schools in a Northern Plains state took part in professional development activities across a year. Following a randomized control trial design, Native American and White students’ (N = 165) social, behavioral, and academic adjustment was assessed in intervention compared with control schools. Regression analyses, controlling for baseline and demographic variables, indicated that students in intervention schools improved in achievement, and improved or sustained beginning-of-year schooling dispositions, and perceptions of the school social/affective context, in comparison with evident declines for students in control schools. Native American students more so than White students evidenced particular gains in achievement and perceptions of the school social/affective context.     

The national vocational education plan for unqualified young people (16–18 years old): The French experience (1982–1984)

In 1982, the French Government instituted a new National Vocational Education Plan (NVEP) to combat the nationwide problem of students leaving the school system prior to receiving adequate vocational preparation. This plan affects 100,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 18 years. The NVEP gave to each Regional Government the opportunity to create its own programmes and curricula; it renewed counselling and individual assessment facilities; it established new tracks within the education system; it also established co-operative education (linking education to the world of work). Concurrently, an Assessment and Observation System was created.During the first assessment year (1982–1983), information was gathered about existing local educational resources, counselling facilities, characteristics of the 16 to 18 year-old population, functioning of the educational tracks and co-operative education system. During the second year (1983–1984), the assessment provided quantitative statistical results. The most striking result concerns the configurations of educational and employment experiences which seemed to determine the ability of students to find employment. Students with a background of job intensive experiences were more successful in finding subsequent employment than those without. Students with education intensive experiences entered an educational programme because they were unable to find a first job.While the benefits of the NVEP were not immediately apparent, it nevertheless became evident that at this level of training, education was not necessarily the royal road to employment. However, employment criteria cannot be the only way to assess a vocational education system.

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Zusammenfassung 1982 setzte die französische Regierung einen neuen Nationalen Berufsausbildungsplan (NVEP) inkraft zur Bekämpfung des landesweiten Problems des Abgehens der Schüler von den Schulen, bevor sie durch eine entsprechende Berufsausbildung vorbereitet sind. Dieser Plan betrifft 100.000 junge Leute im Alter von 16 bis 18 Jahren. Der NVEP gab jeder Region die Möglichkeit, ihre eigenen Programme und Curricula zu entwickeln; er erneuerte die Möglichkeiten zur Beratung und individuellen Bewertung; er bahnte neue Wege innerhalb des Erziehungswesens und führte die kooperative Erziehung (Verbindung von Schulbildung und Arbeitswelt) ein. Gleichzeitig wurde ein Bewertungs- und Beobachtungssystem geschaffen.Während des ersten Jahres der Bewertung (1982–1983) wurden Informationen zusammengetragen über bestehende lokale Bildungsressourcen, Beratungsmöglichkeiten, typische Merkmale der Bevölkerungsgruppe der 16 bis 18jährigen, über die Auswirkung der neuen Wege im Erziehungswesen und über das kooperative Erziehungs-system. Während des zweiten Jahres (1983–1984) wurden durch das Bewertungs-system statistische Ergebnisse quantitativer Art bereitgestellt. Das beeindruckendste Resultat betrifft die Konfigurationen von Schul- und Berufserfahrungen, die anscheinend die Fähigkeit der Schüler, eine Anstellung zu finden, bestimmen. Schüler mit einem Hintergrund intensiv berufsbezogener Erfahrungen waren erfolgreicher später eine Anstellung zu finden, als Schüler ohne solche Erfahrungen. Schüler mit intensiv schulbezogene Erfahrungen meldeten sich zu einem Weiterbildungsprogramm an, da sie nicht in der Lage waren, eine erste Anstellung zu finden.Während die Vorteile des NVEP nicht sofort offenkundig waren, wurde dennoch ersichtlich, daß auf dieser Ausbildungsebene Schulerziehung nicht notwendigerweise ein Tor zur Anstellung öffnet. Gleichwohl können berufliche Einstellungskriterien nicht der einzige Weg zur Bewertung eines Berufsausbildungssystems sein.

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Résumé En 1982, le gouvernement français a inauguré un nouveau Plan National d'Enseignement Professionnel (PNEP) afin de combattre à l'échelle nationale le problème des élèves qui quittent le système scolaire avant d'avoir acquis un niveau adéquat de formation professionnelle. Ce plan concerne 100.000 jeunes gens âgés de 16 à 18 ans. Le PNEP donnait la possibilité à chaque Région de créer ses propres programmes et curricula; il renouvelait les possibilités de consultation et d'évaluation individuelle; il ouvrait de nouvelles voies au sein du système d'éducation; il jetait également les bases d'une éducation coopérative (entendue dans le sens d'une liaison éducation—travail).Au cours de la première année d'évaluation (1982–1983), des informations furent compilées sur les ressources éducatives locales disponibles, les possibilités de consultation, les caractéristiques de la tranche d'âge des 16 à 18 ans, le fonctionnement des voies éducatives et du système d'éducation coopérative. Lors de la seconde année (1983–1984), l'évaluation fournit des résultats statistiques quantitatifs. Les résultats les plus significatifs concernent les configurations des expériences éducatives et relatives au travail qui déterminaient apparemment la capacité des étudiants de trouver un emploi. Les apprenants aux expériences intensives de travail avaient plus de facilité à trouver un emploi par la suite que ceux qui n'en avaient pas. Les étudiants aux expériences intensives d'apprentissage commençaient un nouveau programme d'étude parce qu'ils n'arrivaient pas à trouver un premier emploi.Si les résultats positifs du PNEP n'ont pas été immédiatement apparents, il est cependant apparu évident qu'à ce niveau de formation, l'éducation ne représentait pas la voie royale conduisant à un emploi. Toutefois, les critères relatifs à l'emploi ne peuvent constituer le seul moyen d'évaluation d'un système d'enseignement professionnel.

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The Assessment and Observation System was supported by the French Ministry of Vocational Education and directed by Dr. G. Malglaive. The assessment of the National Vocational Education Plan was conducted by the National Assessment Team (S. Aubrun, E. Beauvallet, P. Chevalier, D. Colardyn, A.-M. Lucas, J.-G. Meilhac) with the effective contribution of 15 regional teams.

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We are specially grateful to Jessie Miller, graduate student in Psychology, Boston University, whose co-operation and helpful comments on a previous draft made this paper possible.     

Am I still too Black for you?: Schooling and secular change in skin tone effects

Analysts disagree about whether the Civil Rights/Black Power eras lessened the influence of skin tone on education. The paper finds that, holding family background constant, the educational disadvantages of dark and very dark blacks persisted between younger and older age cohorts. On the other hand, younger medium skin blacks no longer achieved less schooling than their lighter skin counterparts. This paper implies that, without the decline in skin tone effects for medium brown blacks, the racial gap between age cohorts would have remained larger.     

Teachers’ and researchers’ collaboration in analysing mathematics teaching: A context for professional reflection and development

The study reported here concerns 4 years of collaboration between secondary school teachers and academic researchers, constituting an emerging community of inquiry into mathematics teaching. In the article, the process of the forming of this community is discussed, focusing on the reflective activity developed by its members as well as the tensions and conflicts that emerged in the shaping of an inquiry identity by them. Furthermore, shifts in the mode of participation in the community and thus learning gains of all members are identified, with the teachers gradually developing an awareness of teaching practice in general, and the researchers becoming progressively acquainted with the reflexive relationship between inquiring into teaching practice and teachers’ professional development.     

The relationship between empathy‐related constructs and care‐based moral development in young adulthood

This study examined the link between care‐based moral reasoning and three different aspects of empathy—perspective taking, sympathy and personal distress. Participants were 30 female and 28 male students, ranging in age from 20 to 42 years. As expected, results showed that perspective taking uniquely predicted care‐based moral reasoning levels (positively), as assessed by Skoe’s Ethic of Care Interview (ECI). Personal distress, in contrast, was uniquely negatively related to the ECI. There was a curvilinear relationship between sympathy and the ECI for women only; women at ECI Level 2 (self‐sacrificing care for others) scored higher on sympathy than did all others. Moreover, women scored significantly higher than did men on the emotional aspects of empathy (i.e. sympathy and personal distress) but not on cognitive perspective taking or on the ECI. These findings support the theory that empathy plays a significant (and positive) role in adults’ moral reasoning. They also highlight the complexity of sex differences in the area of moral affect and cognition. Implications for moral education are discussed.     

The epos of euclidean geometry in Greek secondary education (1836–1985): Pressure for change and resistance

The study of geometry as a school subject generally presents pedagogical and epistemological interest because it brings to light the developmental trends and characteristics of this most ancient branch of mathematics, as well as the factors which contributed to the shaping of its educational value. These factors may be economical, political, social and scientific and they manifest themselves either locally or at a wider range each time.In this paper we try to present the development of school geometry in contemporary Greece, since the era in which the secondary education system was established (1836), up to today. The main purpose, of course, is not to describe facts but to identify and interpret the phenomenon of the incredible endurance which Euclid's Elements have presented, during the last 150 years, as the basic component of school geometry in Greece.School geometry in Greece presents special interest and it can be considered an exceptional phenomenon. Its changing in accordance with modern educational and pedagogical considerations and the removal of the Elements was confronted with powerful barriers up to the present. Every time an effort was made to revise the content of school geometry, those who exercised control over the mathematics curriculum reacted strongly against the new innovations, providing educational, philosophical and ethnic arguments.     

The national in‐service courses for science teachers and their effect on educational reform in Mexico

The educational system in Mexico has undergone important changes in recent decades. One of the most important took place in 1993, when the compulsory character of secondary school (ages 12–15) was established. National In‐service Courses (NICs) were established as a way to bring curricular changes proposed in the reform near to the teachers. The results, according to the National Certification Exams, have not been satisfactory. In this paper, we describe the general context of education in Mexico, putting emphasis on teacher initial preparation and the reform that took place as well as the way in‐service courses are implemented, analyzing their possibilities to bring about real changes in science teaching and learning.     

A blueprint for educational development in China: A review of “The National Guidelines for Medium- and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development (2010–2020)”

Frontiers of Education in China -     

Cultural adaptation,translation and validation of the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool – Retrospective Version (ICAST-R) for young adults in Sri Lanka

The aim of the present study was to adapt and validate the ISPCAN child abuse screening tool-retrospective version (ICAST-R) in Sri Lanka with a view to investigating the experiences of physical, sexual and emotional abuse during childhood.The adaptation was performed using qualitative research methods with young adults, parents, teachers, and a multidisciplinary group of experts. The translation to Sinhala (the local Sri Lankan dialect) was carried out by a nominal group technique. A multidisciplinary team of experts assessed the Sinhala ICAST-R (SICAST-R) for its content validity. Moreover, acceptability, reliability and construct validity were determined by conducting a validation study among 200 schooling young adults. The principal component analysis (PCA) technique was used to assess the construct validity. Response rates for each item were taken as evidence of acceptability. The internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha, and test-retest reliability after two weeks was assessed using Cohen's kappa coefficient.The adaptation of ICAST-R included the introduction of an objective manner by which to measure severity of abuse and the inclusion of a set of questions regarding help-seeking behavior following physical and emotional abusive experiences.The SICAST-R showed adequate content validity and high acceptability, with response rates ranging from 90.3% to 99.5%. The minimum Cohen’s kappa coefficient was 0.76, indicating good test-retest reliability. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) for the total tool was 0.708, with the three constructs being 0.398, 0.844 and 0.637 for physical, sexual and emotional abuse, respectively. The PCA demonstrated good reproducibility for sexual and emotional abuse with the hypothesized structure.Overall, the SICAST-R showed adequate validity for the assessment of experiences of physical, sexual and emotional abuse during childhood among Sri Lankan young adults.     

Conditions for Choice? The context for implementation of curricular pathways in the curriculum, 14‐19, in England and Wales

The Dearing reviews of 1993 (the National Curriculum and its assessment) and 1996 (Qualifications for 16‐19 year olds) have created the context for a renewed discussion of educational ‘flexibility’ and ‘choice’. This article seeks particularly to analyse ‘choice’ within the educational and wider social contexts and to identify how far the conditions for choice exist. It suggests three main areas of difficulty: (1) contradictions in education policy, which is a site of contestation rather than coherence at a national level, and provides therefore an unstable context for choices; (2) ambivalence in the social context, in so far as ‘autonomy’ is now both the goal of education and also a prerequisite for access to education; (3) specific characteristics of educational provision which offer limited evidence of the capacity to adapt to the kinds of support and guidance for ‘choice’ which are the pre‐requisites of any meaningful implementation of the Dearing proposals.     

Measuring Teachers’ enjoyment,anger, and anxiety: The Teacher Emotions Scales (TES)

The emotions of teachers are considered relevant not only for their own well-being but also for the functioning of classrooms. Nevertheless, research on teacher emotions has been slow to emerge, and scales for their assessment via self-report are generally lacking. In the present research we developed four-item scales for three emotions considered most relevant in the context of teaching: enjoyment, anger, and anxiety (Teacher Emotions Scales, TES). Based on data of 944 teachers, we tested German and English language versions of the TES for reliability, internal and external validity, and cross-language equivalence, while exploring the utility of both a general and a student-group specific variant. All scales proved to be highly reliable, and confirmatory factor analysis supported internal validity by showing that three-factor models (enjoyment, anger, and anxiety) were superior to single-factor or two-factor (positive vs. negative affect) models. The external validation analyses provided consistent evidence for theoretically meaningful relations with teachers’ general affect, burnout, job satisfaction, and teacher self-efficacy. These findings were robust across multiple studies. In addition, consistent relationships with student ratings of teaching behaviors were found. Analyses of measurement invariance revealed that the English and the German language versions were fully structurally equivalent und displayed metric invariance.     

Teacher–Student Conflict and Preschoolers’ Adjustment in the Transition to Primary School: The Role of Child Self-Regulation and Parents’ Positive Relations With Others

Research Findings: This study examined the contribution of teacher-student conflict at kindergarten to the child’s school adjustment in primary school using a Hong Kong sample. It investigated self-regulation as a mediator and parents’ positive relations with others as a moderator in that transition. At Time 1 (T1), kindergarten teachers reported their levels of conflict with individual children (N = 324, 168 girls), whereas children’s self-regulation was assessed with a Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders Task. Fathers and mothers also rated their positive relations with others. At Time 2 (T2; 8 months later), when children were enrolled in primary school (N = 247, 126 girls), primary school teachers rated how well they adjusted to the new school. Moderated mediation analyses showed that although the direct effect of T1 teacher-student conflict on T2 school adjustment was not significant, the indirect effect of self-regulation was. T1 teacher-student conflicts were negatively related to children’s self-regulation, which in turn predicted subsequent school adjustment. Interestingly, this indirect effect was significant only when parents’ positive relations with others were low rather than high. Practice or Policy: The findings highlight the importance of both a warm and caring relationship in the home and self-regulation to successful school transition.     

The Informational Text Structure Survey (ITS2): An exploration of primary grade teachers’ sensitivity to text structure in young children's informational texts

There has been no research reported about if or how well primary grade teachers can identify information text structures in children's authentic informational texts. The ability to do so accurately and reliably is a prerequisite for teachers to be able to teach students how to recognize and use text structures to assist them in comprehending informational texts. The authors report the development of the Informational Text Structure Survey (ITS²). Prior to training, primary grade teachers demonstrated low accuracy and reliability in identifying traditional expository text structures in well-structured children's grade level–appropriate informational texts. Results after training with the ITS² instrument showed significant improvements in the teachers’ accuracy and reliability in identifying traditional informational text structures in well-structured children's grade level–appropriate informational texts after training with the ITS² instrument.     

Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) – The case for Recognition of Prior Learning sites and knowledges in South Africa's transforming education system

By definition and purpose, education is the development of human capital towards meeting the individual and social needs of learners and their societies. This transdisciplinary collaboration parallels the underpinning principle of Lave and Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger, 1990) to South Africa's post-colonial legitimation of alternative sites and enskilment canons. Central to both is legitimation of knowledge acquisition from communities of practice or sites and ‘knowers’ (Mphahlele, 1992) ‘outside formal institutions’ of teaching/learning. Considered and termed ‘informal’ and by deduction, less legitimate for meritorious enskilment, the 62 and 65 decrees a transformative paradigm and method of validating these sites and their skills production. SAQA highlights the fact that the pedagogical approach of such sites is context- and learner-centred with demonstrable socially valuable skills. This post-colonial mandate thus centres the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as an acknowledgement of multiple foci of skills production, decreeing their overdue certification, as in our case study of the Van Wyk situation. The approach confronts and deconstructs the colonial marginalisation of human capital from outside ‘formal’/official institutions. It is part of the ideological framework of redressing the race and class exclusion mechanisms of artisans and others from the landscape of skills possession. It subscribes therefore to the canon of different ‘ways of knowing’ (Mosala, 1998). Van Wyk's narrative exemplify the merits of ‘outside-institutions’ learning and enskilment to various levels of complexity. The objective of such legitimation is that certification provides credibility and legitimacy, thereby widening the marketability of apprentices' skills. The social recognition and accorded certification thereof carries uncontested confirmation of expertise.     

Self and the other in the Confucian cultural context: Implications of China’s higher education development for comparative studies

The central purpose of China’s modern higher education has been to combine Chinese and Western elements at all levels including institutional arrangements, research methodologies, educational ideals and cultural spirit, a combination that brings together aspects of Chinese and Western philosophical heritages. This, however, has not been achieved. There is an urgent need for critical examination of the long-term consequences of grafting American academic practices onto a Chinese base. This article examines the tensions in the interactions in higher education between the traditional Chinese and the imposed Western modes of thinking. Borrowing a definition of the structure of culture, this paper reveals the various extents to which layers of Chinese higher education have achieved any degree of success. It finds that with a strong catch-up mentality, China’s contemporary higher education policies are responsive to Western influences. These are however only applied as panic-stricken and expedient band-aid remedies, rather than as strategies based on systematic understanding of cultural contexts. Accordingly, Chinese universities are uncritical towards the European-American model and its variants. This article warns that without an infusion of traditional education values, universities in China risk losing touch with their cultural contexts in their quest for world-class status.     

Self and the other in the Confucian cultural context: Implications of China’s higher education development for comparative studies

International Review of Education - The central purpose of China’s modern higher education has been to combine Chinese and Western elements at all levels including institutional arrangements,...     

Validation and development of norms for the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language‐Revised (TACL‐R) in Lebanon

Assessment of auditory comprehension is necessary for therapeutic clinical intervention as well as remedial and special education services. In this study, the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language‐Revised (TACL‐R), developed by Elizabeth Carrow‐Woolfolk in 1985 Carrow‐Woolfolk, E. 1985. Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language‐Revised, Allen, TX: DLM Teaching Resources.  [Google Scholar], was translated and adapted for use in the Lebanese culture. The adapted test was administered to 350 Lebanese children aged 3:0–9:11 selected on the basis of grade and school type. Norms were reported for each age and grade level. Reliability analysis showed that the adapted test provides consistent, stable and precise estimates of auditory comprehension ability. The test's construct validity was examined using several indices. In addition, evidence for concurrent validity was provided by examining the relationship between scores on the adapted test and teachers' ratings of students' language abilities. Obtained results were compared with those on the TACL‐R and were discussed in terms of their practical implications. Recommendations for further research were proposed.