Rethinking assessment and inequality: the production of disparities in attainment in early years education

Despite decades of research and debate, the issue of unequal outcomes continues to be a concern in educational systems worldwide. In England, published data relating to pupils’ attainment across ethnic groups and by class indicators has been used to demonstrate continued inequalities in schools. This article attempts to deconstruct the relationship between assessment results and inequality by questioning the assumption that results only record inequality, rather than being implicated in its production. Interview data related to the case of a statutory teacher assessment system in early years education are used to show how assessment results may be influenced by pressure from external advisors, who only recognise certain patterns of results as intelligible. These recognisable patterns, it is argued, relate to wider discourses of class, race and the ‘inner city’, through which the pupils in these schools are constituted as inevitably low attaining. In addition, monitoring systems based on ‘value added’ methodologies provide an incentive to deflate assessment results in this first year of school. The article concludes that we need to rethink exactly what apparent disparities in assessment results actually represent, particularly given the increasing use of teacher assessment in the school system in England.     

法兰克福：美因河畔的魅力之城

位于欧洲心脏的大都会法兰克福,以鲜明的个性带给人独特的体验：传统与现代、贸易与文化、忙碌与安逸。法兰克人的基督教主教会议所在地最初位于美因河惟一的渡口,而法兰克福这一城市的名字也正因此得名——它源自于拉丁文“Franconofurd”,     

在雷峰塔颠覆和重建当代艺术

说起雷峰塔,有人会想起《白蛇传》里的神话传说,有人会想起鲁迅先生那篇刊登于中学课本的杂文《论雷峰塔的倒掉》。始建于五代十国的雷峰塔曾是西湖的地标建筑,“雷峰夕照”是著名的西湖十景之一。1924年9月25号雷峰塔轰然坍塌。2002年10月25日,雷峰塔重建竣工。2008年4月18日至2009年5月31日,“刀锋——重建雷峰塔”实验艺术展在北京圣之空间展出,宣誓着来自西湖边的艺术理想和精神之塔的重建。     

Adaptive expertise – a characteristic of expertise in outdoor instructors?

ABSTRACT

Background: Over the past 10 years, research has started to investigate the pedagogic practices of instructors and coaches working in adventure sports settings. Outdoor instructors face particular challenges regarding the impact the dynamic environment has on the coaching process and their students. This challenging combination of factors obliges the instructor to be agile in response. We propose that this adaptive expertise is characteristic of these factors and that adaptability may be a beneficial focus of outdoor instructor training and education.

Purpose: The major aim was to identify if adaptive expertise is an attribute of outdoor instructors? And if so, what are its characteristics in this context?

Research design and data collection: We applied a mixed methodology to a sample of outdoor instructors (n?=?64). The instructors were asked to complete a quantitative adaptive expertise inventory. We then interviewed a selected sub-sample (n?=?12).

Participants and setting: Quantitative data was collected from outdoor instructors working in the UK (n?=?64). The sample consisted of instructors qualified to work independently with groups in adventurous settings in a range of activities. Qualitative data was collected from a smaller sample (n?=?12) via a series of thematically analysed semi-structured interviews.

Findings: Results suggest that the participating outdoor instructors have high levels of adaptive expertise. A characteristic of that adaptive capacity is a combination of skills revolving around reflection, metacognition, and situational awareness. There were differences, however, between less and more experienced outdoor instructors in their adaptive capacity, with less experienced instructors being adaptive to a lesser extent.

Conclusions: The implication is that further research is worthwhile to examine the development of instructors’ adaptive capacity. The training and education of outdoor instructors requires pedagogic approaches that facilitate and engender adaptability, flexibility and agility in neophyte instructors.     

“Tightening the Knots” of the International Drugs Trade in Brazil

Much academic analysis of media representations of drugs-related violence in Brazil has focused on their role in perpetuating violence and societal divisions. There is less research on how the country’s traditional news media can shape information in order to foster dialogue between people and potentially resolve conflict. This article aims to address this gap by exploring the possibilities and challenges for printed news media to acquire “mediated” social capital. The concept is understood here as a specific resource of power that has the potential to connect people from diverse social, cultural and economic backgrounds. In order to do so, we analyse how a popular Rio newspaper has used its symbolic power to produce social capital with an investigative series about Brazil’s involvement in the international drugs trade. It is argued here that the series paints a complex picture of its causes and consequences and is an important step towards a deliberative process about possible solutions to drugs-related violence in Rio and beyond.