Global education in perspective: fostering a global dimension in an English secondary school

This article considers the issue of global education in schools by focusing upon the case of one particular English secondary school and exploring the pedagogic and curricular perspectives of its staff and students. It recognizes the strong normative and holistic dimension to global education and the challenges it faces in, and presents to schools. The sometimes mixed pedagogic and curricular messages of global education are characteristic of other adjectival and interdisciplinary educational forms working within the framework of the National Curriculum (11–16). Whilst raising more questions than it answers, this article goes some way to articulate the debates, tensions and dilemmas being discussed in the field of global education—a field including teachers, schools, non‐Governmental organizations and Governmental officials working to promote a global dimension in schools.     

An Evaluation of the Use of the Behaviour Questionnaire

Effective and efficient assessment is essential to support school improvement, the progress of individual pupils and teachers’ classroom management. A group of educational psychologists used the items for measuring pupils’ emotional and behavioural development found in Supporting school improvement: Emotional and behavioural development (2001 Department for Education and Skills. 2001. Supporting school improvement: Emotional and behavioural development, Sudbury: QCA.  [Google Scholar]) to develop a questionnaire for use in their schools. Following the introduction of the Behaviour Questionnaire (BQ) its usefulness, ease of completion and potential as a tool to monitor intervention were evaluated. Most users found the Behaviour Questionnaire useful and easy to complete. Changes in the behaviour of pupils were identified indicating that the Behaviour Questionnaire has potential for use in monitoring and evaluating interventions.     

Canonical Relationships among Perceptual-Motor,Perceptual, and Cognitive Behaviors in Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature and extent of relationships among perceptual-motor, perceptual, and cognitive behaviors in 189 young, normal children. An extensive battery of tests was administered to 61 prekindergarteners, 63 kindergarteners, and 65 first graders. Canonical correlation analysis revealed that significant and high relationships exist between perceptual-motor and perceptual behaviors at the two younger age levels, between perceptual-motor and cognitive behaviors at kindergarten only, and between perceptual and cognitive behaviors at all levels tested. In agreement with the literature, the magnitude of the relationships and amount of shared variance diminished with age from kindergarten to first grade, except for the cognitive and perceptual behaviors relationship. Visual behaviors were more important contributors to the perceptual-motor relationships than were auditory behaviors, while the reverse was found for contributors to the cognitive relationships. Fine perceptual-motor behaviors were more important for describing relationships than were gross perceptual-motor behaviors. In general, gross perceptual-motor behaviors were of little importance in explaining any significant relationship found in this study. Overall, the most consistent and important contributors to significant relationships among the various behavioral domains and subdomains included the Bender (fine), Shape-O-Ball (fine), discrimination (auditory perception), figure-ground (visual perception), alphabet, word recognition, and number-related tasks (cognitive). The single most consistent and important contributor was the fine perceptual-motor task, the Bender test.     

On the Shoulders of Giants by Robert K. Merton. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,vicennial edition, 1985, 300 pp., hardcover.

Abstract

This article describes possibilities afforded by using social media, specifically Twitter, as a way to encourage students to join political conversations across the United States and around the world. In this study, we describe a project in which students used Twitter to share commentary about the state of the 2012 presidential election. The experiences of these students illustrate both the potential strengths and limitations of using social media as a tool for political engagement.