The role of external experts’ intervention in higher education institutions for radical change

This paper focuses on the way lecturers observe, feel restrained by and cope with quality management systems that have been implemented in the higher education systems of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. As two sides of the same coin, quality enhancement and quality control are of increased significance in European Higher Educaction Institutions (HEIs), particularly through the Bologna Process. We are interested in the way that both enhancement and control blend into the current systems, and we are concerned for too much dominance of control, as has been suggested in recent managerial literature. Analysis of 40 interviews in both countries among researchers and lecturers in traditional and universities of applied sciences showed many similarities. It is not so much the general idea of quality management that is being turned down by the respondents. They see the benefits quite clearly. Still, the general belief is that quality management in its current shape and character does not fit with the work of the individual academic, neither their teaching nor their research. The respondents worry for and resent the consequences of increased emphasis on quality assurance and control. The developments concerning the quality management of their HEIs are perceived in terms of quality assurance by the UK respondents. Instead, the Dutch are more occupied with finding ways to “how to deal with” such developments.     

Influence of teacher preparation programmes on preservice teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion

With the increased implementation of inclusive education, teacher educators have been challenged to make changes in programmes to prepare preservice teachers to educate diverse learners. These changes are reflected in various types of teacher preparation programmes that are transformations of traditional general education and special education programmes. However, little is known about the ways in which these transformed teacher preparation programmes influence preservice teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education as future inclusive educators. To investigate the influence of teacher preparation programmes on preservice teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion, a survey method was used to collect data from preservice teachers in ten teacher preparation programmes. The responses from 110 preservice teachers were analysed according to the type of teacher preparation programme (i.e. combined, separate, or general teacher preparation programmes). The results indicated that preservice teachers from combined teacher preparation programmes in which general education and special education teacher preparation curricula were infused had significantly more positive attitudes toward inclusion than preservice teachers from separate programmes (p < 0.05). The implications of this study for practice and future research are discussed.     

Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) — Listserver/ Electronic Journal

This paper examines quality assurance in School Based Teacher Education Partnerships (STEPs) draws on the perspectives of different participants and reveals some issues which require attention in order to achieve quality. Based on this evidence, suggestions are made as to how those involved can work towards enhancing and maintaining quality.     

Editorial

Initial teacher training courses throughout the United Kingdom at present have been or are being changed in various ways which enlarge the role of schools and make new demands on the school teachers who act as mentors to student teachers in the schools. Despite the size of this change, it can be quite difficult to find evidence about its effects. Edwards (1994) suggested that one reason for this lack of evidence is that there has been little government support for obtaining it. As Edwards points out, however, the government in one part of the United Kingdom, namely Scotland, did ensure that evidence about the mentor teacher idea was obtained before there was a decision about applying the scheme across the country. The decision that it should be nationally applied was reported in this journal's ‘Notes and News’ section in Spring 1995, under the heading of ‘Introduction of a mentor scheme in Scotland’. This paper summarises the main outcomes of the pilot study which informed that decision. The paper concentrates on the pilot's second and final year (Cameron‐Jones and O'Hara 1994).     

Mentoring support and the professional development of beginning teachers: a Chinese perspective

For a long time, there has been a tradition in China of experienced teachers helping beginning teachers. This empirical school study investigates the kinds of support that are provided by eight dyads of mentoring teacher and first‐year secondary school teachers in Guangzhou of southern China and the major factors affecting mentoring support. In addition, this research focuses on the professional development of first‐year teachers in areas of subject knowledge, student, teaching and classroom management. The findings reveal that mentors provide four forms of support: provision of information, mutual lesson observation, collaborative lesson preparation and discussion in the office. Factors affecting mentoring support include teaching workload, grade and subject, style of mentor–protégé interactions, relationships between mentor and mentee, incentives for the mentors, and collegial culture in the case study schools. It is notable that there are positive and negative developments perceived by the protégé and the foci of mentoring tend to be the teaching of content rather than curriculum and pedagogy.     

Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers: An Exploratory Study of Students’ and Professors’ Perceptions

Mentoring is believed to be one of the most influential factors in US efforts to encourage college‐aged students to seek careers in science, yet the role that mentoring plays in this process has not been elucidated. The researchers were interested in understanding whether the long‐held beliefs about the importance of mentoring would be revealed as what actually occurs in an undergraduate research program. They describe students’ perceptions of the mentoring process and students’ beliefs about how it impacted their experiences as undergraduate researchers and their development as scientists. Also described are professors’ perceptions of their roles and effectiveness as mentors in students’ development as scientists. A multi‐case narrative analysis was conducted of two groups, undergraduate science scholars (n=5) and mentoring professors (n=5), who were each interviewed on two occasions at the beginning and end of the first year of a funded research program. As this grounded research study shows, students and professors described student gains as increased technical expertise and communication skills. Professors suggested that they were available to students on a regular and frequent basis. However, students’ experiences suggested a contradiction. They were often mentored by postgraduates, technical assistants, and other students; their meetings with mentoring professors were infrequent and at times distant. With respect to mentoring, this finding highlights the differences between beliefs and the reality of what was delivered. Professors discussed the challenges associated with mentoring including the recruitment of and difficulty of working with students whose first language was not English and concerns about the quality of instruction from graduate students.     

DEALING WITH AD/HD IN THE CLASSROOM: ONE TEACHER'S EXPERIENCE 1

In this paper some of the fantasies that arise around the role of the counsellor in schools and how these fantasies, being a measure of the psychic health of the school, impact upon both the referral procedure and the counselling process, are discussed. Illustrated by case studies, ways in which teacher and counsellor are able to combine therapeutic and educational skills to challenge these fantasies and so more efficiently tackle emotionally based learning difficulties are considered. The title refers to the case of a 7 year old boy whose failure to make academic progress could be understood as an emotional refusal to take on further responsibilities of a premature adulthood.     

Attachment security and the school experience for emotionally disturbed adolescents in special education

Adolescents with disabilities are at increased risk for school failure, and those in special education as the result of emotional disturbances consistently have the highest dropout rate of any disability. This paper discusses the importance of feelings of security in relationships for these adolescents and the results of a study designed to determine the effects of these feelings on their educational experience. The impact of several relationships in the home and school life on the school experience of the emotionally disturbed adolescent is explored. These relationships include those with mother, father, teachers, social workers/therapists and peers. All of these figures are potentially ‘secure bases’ for adolescents, providing the experience of emotional safety necessary to engage in the challenges of the academic environment. The resources need to be provided to enhance feelings of emotional safety in the school setting, including the services of social workers and other mental health professionals.