Elementary Teachers' Knowledge and Self-Efficacy for Measurement Concepts

Educational standardized testing impacts millions of children and educational professionals each year. In the current accountability climate, an effective educational system depends on professionals who are literate in assessment and can take the appropriate actions in response to test results. Measurement researchers should begin to focus more attention on how teachers use assessment results, what skills teachers possess, and what teachers believe they can do in working with test results. This study examined elementary teacher knowledge and self-efficacy in measurement concepts through a random sample of teachers in the state of Washington. Teachers had greater success with skills related to basic measurement concepts compared to using test scores for informed decisions. No relationship was found between years of teaching and measurement knowledge or self-efficacy. However, teachers showing interest in resources for communicating test results to parents had lower self-efficacy compared to teachers not interested in resources.     

Self‐harm through cutting: evidence from a sample of schools in the north of England

This project explored the prevalence of self‐harm by cutting in a geographically circumscribed area of the North of England, using a school‐based survey. Twenty‐three per cent of the young people reported they had cut themselves at least once, with no major changes evident at different age groups or with gender. There were clear differences in rates between schools, and statistically significant differences when comparing the coping mechanisms used by young people who cut themselves with those of their peers.     

A Constructivist Perspective for Integrating Spirituality Into Counselor Training

Significant efforts have been made in recent years to integrate training in spirituality and religion into counselor training programs. This article highlights issues that may be encountered by some trainees and suggests that constructivist teaching principles be used to mitigate these concerns. The authors present recommendations and activities in the context of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (2009) Spiritual Competencies.     

Halting progress: some comments on recent British educational policy and practice

The Thatcher governments have invented very little in respect of current educational policy. Long standing struggles over central‐local control and the ‘naturalness’ of academic selection are central features around which policies advance and retreat. The economic and social policies of Thatcherism have, however, accentuated the rhetoric and reality of vocationalism as a widely acceptable counterpoint to an expansion of de facto selective provision which rewards the fractions of capital and class from which it expects support. There are few grounds for expecting an early reverse to these tendencies.     

Rendering the Body: The Implicit Lessons of Gross Anatomy

This paper explores the role played by gross anatomy courses in university physical education curricula in developing objectifying attitudes toward the body in professional physical education practices. Calling on postmodern analyses of the politics of knowledge and the production of bodies, it is argued that students' experiences of the gross anatomy laboratory is actually an educational rite of passage in coming to see the body as a mechanical object, a useful resource in the production of physical capital. This professional attitude toward the body contributes to the abuse of the body in consumer culture, high performance sport, and the production of gendered bodies.     

Scenarios for Leadership and Abandonment in the Transformation of Schools

Starting from developments at the turn of the century, this article describes how events in the early years of the new millennium lead to quite different outcomes for schools. Decisions in the next 5 years will determine which shall prevail. Scenarios are tested against a view of 'world class schools' that calls for a balance of enduring values in the classical formulation of liberty, equality and fraternity, the realisation of which depends on two contemporary values of efficiency and economic growth. Domains for leadership to 2020 and beyond are described. Peter Drucker's challenge to see 'abandonment' as an aspect of leadership is taken up.     

Higher Education as a System: The English Experience

With particular, although not exclusive, reference to England, this article explores the appropriateness of describing higher education as a system. It has two main purposes: to explore the grounds for labelling English higher education as a system and to argue that, because this is no longer an appropriate label, a different conceptualisation is required. The central argument is that the structure of higher education is formed through the interaction of the state, market and higher education institutions and is, therefore, a shifting political construct. Furthermore, it will be hypothesised that the English (indeed, the British) model of higher education is better described as an increasingly internally differentiated network of sectors rather than as a system.