Vocational and academic secondary education in Greece: Public and private costs compared

Much of the debate on the relative merits of vocational and academic education has focused on the costs of such schooling. The issue has usually been argued in terms of the public costs involved while the private costs have been ignored. This article compares both the public and private costs of technical-vocational and of academic upper secondary education in Greece. For the Greek case, the private costs of education are much higher for academic than for vocational education while the public costs are similar. The implications of this observation for educational policy are discussed.     

Commentary: How readily can findings from basic cognitive psychology research be applied in the classroom?

The commentary discusses phenomena highlighted in the studies of the special issue such as the hypercorrection effect, overconfidence, and the efficiency of interventions designed to increase monitoring accuracy. The discussion is based on a broader theoretical framework of self-regulation of learning that stresses the inferential character of metacognitive experiences, as posited by the cue utilization approach, the interrelations of metacognition with affect, and the influence of prior knowledge and individual differences factors on monitoring accuracy. The implications of the findings of the studies for learning in the classroom are also pointed out.     

A Quasi-Experimental Study of Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Offspring Academic Achievement

The current study, based on all births in Sweden from 1983 to 1991 ( N  =   654,707), explored the processes underlying the association between smoking during pregnancy (SDP) and offspring school grades and mathematic proficiency at age 15. The analyses compared relatives who varied in their exposure to SDP and who varied in their genetic relatedness. Although SDP was statistically associated with academic achievement (AA) when comparing unrelated individuals, the results suggest that SDP does not cause poorer academic performance, as full siblings differentially exposed to SDP did not differ in their academic scores. The pattern of results suggests that genetic factors shared by parents and their offspring help explain why offspring exposed to SDP have lower levels of AA.     

Luminal androgen receptor (LAR) subtype of triple-negative breast cancer: molecular,morphological, and clinical features

According to the classification presented by Lehmann BD (2016), triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous group of malignant tumors with four specific subtypes: basal-like (subtype 1 and subtype 2), mesenchymal, and luminal androgen receptor (LAR) subtypes. The basal-like subtypes of carcinomas predominate in this group, accounting for up to 80% of all cases. Despite the significantly lower proportions of mesenchymal and LAR variants in the group of breast carcinomas with a TNBC profile, such tumors are characterized by aggressive biological behavior. To this end, the LAR subtype is of particular interest, since the literature on such tumors presents different and even contradictory data concerning the disease course and prognosis. This review is devoted to the analysis of the relevant literature, reflecting the main results of studies on the molecular properties and clinical features of the disease course of LAR-type TNBC carcinomas.     

Special educational needs: a public issue

This article explores the contribution of sociological scholarship to understanding and analysing the notions of ‘special educational needs’ and ‘disability’ and the ways in which the two notions have been reconfigured and theorised as ‘public issues’ rather than ‘personal troubles’. Barton's contribution is signified both in terms of his contribution to the evolution of the ‘sociological imagination’ – as a powerful theoretical tool for unravelling the highly political and contested nature of disability and special educational needs – and also in terms of his analysis of the emergence and development of sociological theorising in the field. The parochial obsession with deficit and medical‐oriented approaches to dealing with ‘difference’ and ‘need’ have been significantly challenged through the ‘sociological imagination’ aimed at pointing up the highly political and complex nature of disability and ‘special educational needs’. Times have changed and sociological theorising has evolved, but presumed ‘personal troubles’ are still not unequivocally conceptualised as being intertwined with, resting upon and emanating from ‘public issues’ embedded in the social, cultural and political edifice of educational, social and national communities. The ‘sociological imagination’ should be constantly invoked and deployed in order to expose and challenge the sophisticated ways in which individual pathology accounts and special educational imperatives re‐invent themselves through more inclusive linguistic veneers.     

A special teacher for a special child? (Re)considering the role of the special education teacher within the context of an inclusive education reform agenda

Notwithstanding the recent signing and ratification by Cyprus of another International Convention on the rights of students designated as having special educational needs and/or disabilities to attend mainstream schools on an equal basis with their peers, local policy and practice promote an ‘exclusionary inclusion’ that draws a discernible line between general and special education. This paper concentrates on exploring the role of special education teachers in Cyprus in the light of policy concerns about providing the ‘least restrictive’ learning environment for this group of students and enabling them ‘to reach their full potential’. It is suggested that the role of special education teachers embodies and reflects reductionist forms of inclusion informed by deficit-oriented and assimilationist special education perspectives, while there is also evidence of a lack of professionalism and accountability. The paper draws on head teachers’ and special education teachers’ interviews in order to portray the ways in which they view and experience the role of special education teachers in mainstream schools in Cyprus. New objectives and future directions are identified and discussed.     

Politics of inclusive education policy‐making: the case of Cyprus 4784 (excluding references)

ABSTRACT

There has been little empirical study within low- and middle-income countries on how to effectively prepare teachers to educate children with disabilities. This paper reports on the impact of an intervention designed to increase teaching self-efficacy, improve inclusive beliefs, attitudes and practices, and reduce concerns around the inclusion of children with disabilities within the Lakes region of Kenya. A longitudinal survey was conducted with in-service teachers (matched N?=?123) before and after they had participated in a comprehensive intervention programme, delivered in the field by Leonard Cheshire Disability. Results showed that the intervention increased teaching self-efficacy, produced more favourable cognitive and affective attitudes toward inclusive education, and reduced teacher concerns. However, there was little evidence regarding the impact on inclusive classroom practices. The increase in teaching self-efficacy over the intervention period was also found to predict concerns over time. Results are discussed in terms of implications for international efforts, as well as national efforts within Kenya to promote inclusive education.     

The Assessment of Mathematics and Science Teacher Quality

The purpose of this study was to examine the types of instruments being used to document mathematics and science teacher quality characteristics in 48 nationally funded mathematics and science education awards. Each of the 48 projects operationalized teacher quality and determined how to assess it. The main research questions examined the instruments awardees used to gather data on mathematics and science teacher quality, and the main characteristics of teachers examined by awardees. Results showed that awardees most frequently used surveys or questionnaires to assess characteristics of mathematics and science teacher quality. The most common teacher characteristics examined by awardees' included teacher behaviors, practices, and beliefs, followed by the assessment of subject and pedagogical knowledge, and the documentation of mathematics and science teachers' certification. A few new instruments were under development and in use to assess characteristics of teacher quality. Detailed information on the development and psychometric properties of the instruments used for these examinations was not available from the reports. Because awardees were at different stages in their funded activities and data collection efforts were ongoing at the time of this analysis, this study offers a preliminary and formative review of the use of assessments to document mathematics and science teacher quality characteristics among these awards.