Computer science in K-12 school curricula of the 2lst century: Why,what and when?

In this paper we have examined the position and roles of Computer Science in curricula in the light of recent calls for curriculum change and we have proposed principles and issues to consider in curriculum design as well as identifying priority areas for further research. The paper is based on discussions within and beyond the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Education Community since 2012 as well as an analysis of curriculum developments in five different countries. Emerging themes have been discussed with reference to important perspectives from curriculum theory including “powerful knowledge” as a key element of entitlement and management of the growth of expertise. Based on this analysis we have identified areas of consensus as well as constraints, risks and issues that are still subject to controversy. There is an emerging consensus of the importance of Computer Science and the nature of its “powerful knowledge”. Furthermore current understanding of the opportunities and benefits for starting to learn Computer Science early in primary schools has identified this early start as an entitlement and equity issue. There is a strong consensus that teacher professional development in Computer Science Education is critical for supporting curriculum change and is currently a major challenge in many countries. Other key issues include understanding how the growth of expertise affects potential structure and sequencing in the curriculum and the balance of content. Further considerations include how new technological opportunities interact with pedagogical approaches and can provide new potential for the growth of expertise.     

The impact of national educational policies on student achievement: a European study

This paper investigates the impact of national policies for improving teaching and the school learning environment (SLE) on student achievement. In each participating country (i.e., Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 schools was drawn and tests in mathematics and science were administered to all Grade 4 students (N = 10,742) at the beginning and end of school year 2010–2011. National policies were measured through (a) content analysis of policy documents, (b) interviews with policymakers, and (c) head-teacher questionnaires. Multilevel analyses revealed that most aspects of national policies for teaching and SLE were associated with student achievement in each subject irrespective of the source of data used to measure them. Implications are, finally, drawn.     

Similarity grouping of Australian universities

The Unified National System of Australian Universities was created out of universities, institutes of technology and colleges of advanced education. In this study similarity clustering of universities within this system is attempted based on two data sets: one based on evaluative ratings and the other on quantitative performance indicators. With the exception of three traditional universities that tended to cluster together across data sets no consistent clustering emerged. Within data sets there was no tendency for the emergent clusters to reflect the origins of the institutions in any consistent manner. It is suggested that the Unified National System has not reduced diversity.     

British school improvement research: the contribution of qualitative studies

Abstract

This article recounts the development of a relationship between a university researcher and a public school practitioner, and describes how changes in this relationship affected the research process itself. The article addresses three issues central to qualitative studies in education: the attempt to have research benefit practice; the formation of reciprocal relationships between researchers and those researched; and the writing of ethnographic accounts. The story is told in separate voices, alternating between the person researched and the researcher. Each voice describes how the relationship moved through six distinct, yet related, phases. Beginning with caution and skepticism, moving toward trust and self‐disclosure, each of these phases affected the conduct of the research study and its findings.     

Visual Attention to Global and Local Stimulus Properties in 6‐Month‐Old Infants: Individual Differences and Event‐Related Potentials

Event‐related potentials (ERPs) were utilized in an investigation of 21 six‐month‐olds’ attention to and processing of global and local properties of hierarchical patterns. Overall, infants demonstrated an advantage for processing the overall configuration (i.e., global properties) of local features of hierarchical patterns; however, processing advantages were found to vary based on individual differences in look duration. Short‐looking infants showed differences in the negative central ERP component and the late slow wave (LSW) indicating greater attention to and discrimination of changes in global properties. Analysis of the LSW revealed that long‐looking infants discriminated changes in local features, but did not discriminate changes in global properties of visual stimuli. These findings indicate that short‐ and long‐looking infants utilize different approaches when processing hierarchical patterns.     

Briefly noted

THE ART OF RHETORIC IN THE ROMAN WORLD. By George Kennedy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972; pp. xvi+658. $18.50; paper $9.75.     

Just like home: Review of Partnerships in Educational Development

Despite the dominance of instrumental, psychological approaches to educational theory and practice in North America, a different understanding of the value and dynamics of education is often articulated informally in cultural representations (e.g. fiction and feature films) and in personal recollections. This alternative understanding is one in which the personal characteristics of a teacher or professor, and the relation between student and teacher are often paramount. Through reference to existing research and to examples drawn from real‐life practice, this paper presents a broadly existential and explicitly relational way of understanding education, or, rather, pedagogy. It gives special emphasis to the way that such an understanding has been articulated in the text Vergessene Zusammenhänge: über Kultur und Erziehung [Forgotten Connections: On Culture and Education] by Klaus Mollenhauer. The paper describes how the insights of Mollenhauer and other writers regarding an existential and relational pedagogy were translated and adapted for a North American course in teacher education, and how such a course can serve as an important ingredient in nurturing undergraduate students who are becoming teachers.