Towards Research-based Innovation and Reform: Singapore schooling in transition

The challenges facing the Singapore education system in the new millennium are unique and unprecedented in Asia. Demands for new skills, knowledges, and flexible competencies for globalised economies and cosmopolitan cultures will require system-wide innovation and reform. But there is a dearth of international benchmarks and prototypes for such reforms. This paper describes the current Core Research Program underway at the National Institute of Education in Singapore, a multilevel analysis of Singaporean schooling, pedagogy, youth and educational outcomes. It describes student background, performance, classroom practices, student artefacts and outcomes, and student longitudinal life pathways. The case is made that a systematic focus on teachers' and students' work in everyday classroom contexts is the necessary starting point for pedagogical innovation and change. This, it is argued, can constitute a rich multidisciplinary evidence base for educational policy.     

University Practicum Supervisors: marching to a different drummer?

The roles and responsibilities of university supervisors in the practicum have changed during the last ten years. Once, the routine tasks of observation and feedback of student teaching performance were the main responsibilities associated with visits to the school. Lecturers in this role also determined, with the school personnel, the assessment rating of the student teacher. Presently, there is considerable variation in the part played by university supervisors of the practicum. Against this background, this paper examines the actual and ideal characteristics of university supervisors from their own viewpoint and from the perspective of teacher supervisors, principals and student teachers. The reasons for the actual‐ideal discrepancies are discussed, and suggestions are made in relation to addressing the matter.     

An Exploration of the Relationship Among Teacher Efficacy,Collective Teacher Efficacy,and Goal Consensus

This study explored the relationships among individual teacher efficacy, collective teacher efficacy, and goal consensus/vision. Participants included 113 teachers of a high school located in the southwestern USA. During a teacher inservice meeting, teachers completed three surveys that measured the variables under study. Correlational and regression analyses were performed to examine the relationships among individual teacher efficacy, collective teacher efficacy, and goal consensus/vision. Collective teacher efficacy was found to be correlated with all of the other variables examined, but was most highly correlated with goal consensus/vision. Individual teacher efficacy, while related to collective teacher efficacy, was not found to be related to goal consensus/vision. Findings from this study suggest that, because individual teacher efficacy, collective teacher efficacy and goal consensus/vision are related, changing one could have an impact on the others. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Fees,flows and imaginaries: exploring the destination choices arising from intra-national student mobility

ABSTRACT

Are intra-national student flows driven by the same forces as international student mobility? This paper addresses this question by analysing cross-border student mobility in the UK. The paper identifies four principles that one might expect to drive the destination choices of students from Scotland enrolling in English universities. Following a statistical analysis of student destination choices, it is argued that cross-border moves from Scotland to England are stimulated by some of the same global forces as international student mobility (such as a desire to accumulate cultural capital), but in terms of destination choice the imaginaries held by Scottish students of ‘good’ places to study in England to accumulate cultural capital are constructed differently from the imaginaries of international students.     

钮琇《觚剩·睐娘》本事考

本文对清代作家钮琇所撰《觚剩》中的名篇《睐娘》进行考证,包括故事的发生地、人物原型、姓氏、家族关系、作者与故事人物的关系、历史背景等。另外,本文也对《睐娘》中的虚构成分作出适当的评介。     

Concurrent validity of the Stanford-Binet: Fourth edition and Kaufman assessment battery for children with learning-disabled students

This study examined the concurrent validity of the composite and area scores of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition (SBIV) and the Mental Processing Composite and global scale scores of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). The tenability of interpreting the SBIV using the fluid/crystallized model, as suggested by the authors, was also considered. The subjects were 30 Black, learning-disabled elementary school students. Results of a t test indicated that the Mental Processing Composite score of the K-ABC was significantly higher than the SBIV Composite score. Moderate to high correlations were obtained when SBIV composite and area scores were compared to K-ABC composite and scale scores, reflecting a positive relationship between the two tests. The measures of fluid abilities (K-ABC Composite score; SBIV Abstract/Visual Reasoning) were highly correlated. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicated a moderate degree of correlation among the measures of crystallized ability (K-ABC Achievement; SBIV Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning). The findings of this study demonstrated adequate concurrent validity for the SBIV. In addition, the results provided limited support for describing test results utilizing the fluid/crystallized interpretation model. Further research is suggested in order to examine other validity issues, such as classification of special education students and the SBIV's relationship to other similar instruments.     

Concurrent validity of the WISC-R using deaf norms and the Hiskey-Nebraska

Using a sample of 49 prelingually deaf youths, test results of the Hiskey-Nebraska Test of Learning Aptitude (H-NTLA) and the WISC-R Performance Scales for Deaf Children were compared. The H-NTLA was administered using the standard demonstration and/or pantomine instructions, while a total communication directional set was used with the WISC-R. A Pearson product-moment correlation of .913 between the two instruments demonstrated overwhelming commonality and supported the hypothesis that the WISC-R Performance IQ may provide a conveneint alternative to the Hiskey-Nebraska when the score is computed using the Anderson and Sisco deaf norms and a total communication approach for administration.