Teacher Consultation to Enhance Implementation of School-Based Restorative Justice

ABSTRACT

Restorative justice (RJ) is an alternative approach to school discipline that has been gaining recognition in the public and academic spheres as a way to engage students who misbehave in school. RJ has promise to address racial/ethnic, gender, and disability disproportionality in school discipline. One aspect of school-based RJ that has received almost no attention in the literature is the professional development and ongoing support of teachers in schools using RJ. This article provides a review of extant literature on school-based RJ, teacher training, and consultation methods. Integrating the empirical literature on school consultation and teacher professional development, we argue that schools should implement a multitiered model of professional development to build teacher competency in RJ, specifically including the use of targeted teacher consultation. The proposed model is complementary to an RJ framework, systematic, and capable of evaluation; future research is needed to evaluate its effectiveness in practice.     

Gender Effects in School Subject Preferences: a research note

Rankings of liking for nine curriculum subjects were obtained from 93 middle school pupils aged 11‐13 years, who also completed the Children's Sex Role Inventory. Statistically significant gender differences in the rankings of English and humanities were found, which were both preferred by girls, and for physical education (PE) and science, which were preferred by boys. Some statistically significant associations between subject rankings and sex typing measures also emerged. Higher rankings of music and humanities were associated with higher Femininity scores, while higher rankings for PE were associated with lower Femininity scores. The only significant association with Masculinity was for English, where higher rankings were associated with lower Masculinity. No significant associations with Masculinity or Femininity were found for science, a traditionally male‐stereotyped curriculum area. Associations found between the rankings of the different subjects indicated a tendency for pupils to prefer either more academic or more practical subjects, but there was no indication from the limited data available on their performance that this could be related to their academic ability. The implications of these preliminary findings for future investigations are discussed.     

Improving the quality and effectiveness of computer-mediated instruction through usability evaluations

Brigham Young University's Center for Instructional Design (CID) creates online courses and multimedia instructional applications for university faculty. This paper asserts that including usability testing as a part of evaluation improves the quality and effectiveness of computer‐mediated instruction. The paper describes the fundamental purpose and functions of usability testing, and also distinguishes between different forms of evaluation: accessibility, quality assurance (QA), usability and implementation. Through a detailed case study, we describe how usability testing improved the quality of a computer‐based chemistry course and facilitated a clearer analysis of the learning effectiveness of this course.     

Achievement effects of multigrade and monograde primary schools in the Turks and Caicos Islands

This article reports on a study that compares the reading progress of students in multigrade schools with the reading progress of students in monograde schools. The research was conducted in a small island state in the Caribbean. The results of the study indicate that multigrade schools are particularly effective at promoting the reading progress of low-achieving students. It is hypothesised that this is partly because of differences in the approach to instruction in multigrade and monograde classrooms. Whereas monograde classrooms tend to be characterised by undifferentiated whole-class teaching, in multigrade classes students have more opportunity to engage in small-group work. The implications of the findings are explored for policy, practice and research.     

Re-assembling knowledge production with(out) the university

ABSTRACT

As an introduction to the themed issue, this paper interrogates the idea of university unbundling through a critical reading of Ronald Coase’s theory of transaction costs. Coase, who was initially interested in the structure of firms, later applied his transaction cost theory more broadly to anything that might be defined as ‘welfare’. Not unlike other abstract economic theories, in the age of market discipline, Coase’s ideas have been widely employed to regulate the provision of public goods. Read through Coase, the main effect of the unbundling discourse has been to rationalise the university – to make it subject to a logic of efficiency as an end, and ultimately we suspect, to do damage to universities as important institutions for the cultivation of democratic values and socio-economic justice. After a brief summary of the other six papers included in the issue, the paper concludes with a discussion of the possibility of maintaining a public university in light of the neoliberal discourse of unbundling.     

Combining the best of two worlds: a conceptual proposal for evidence-informed school improvement

Abstract

Background: Data-based decision-making (DBDM) and research-informed teaching practice (RITP) are key to teacher and school improvement. Currently, however, DBDM and RITP represent two distinct approaches to developing evidence-informed practice (EIP) and do not correspond to the all-encompassing notion of EIP envisaged by many academics and commentators.

Purpose: DBDM and RITP are usually employed independently of each other. Each is associated with its own theoretical perspectives and research base, and each has its own pitfalls and strengths. Yet the approaches employed appear to be complementary, suggesting that there might be value in combining DBDM and RITP into one overarching process for achieving EIP. This paper presents the conceptual analysis and arguments for this proposal.

Sources of evidence: Drawing from literature and previous research in the fields of DBDM, RITP and EIP, we describe both DBDM and RITP, before comparing and contrasting the integral aspects of each.

Main argument: Our analysis leads us to suggest that not only is there overlap between these two approaches, but the strengths of each appear to mirror and compensate for the weaknesses of the other. As such, we argue that it is important that decisions in education are based on a combination of personal judgement, research evidence and local school data. This is because such a combination is likely to lead to equitable, effective and efficient decisions that are informed by values and preferences, grounded in context and steeped in practices that have been shown to be effective elsewhere.

Conclusions: We suggest that an effective strategy for EIP might be to achieve ‘the best of two worlds’ by integrating DBDM and RITP. In line with evidence-informed practices in medicine and management, this means EIP in education can finally be engaged in as a holistic approach to educational decision-making that critically appraises different forms of evidence before key improvement decisions are made. Our proposed approach, Evidence informed School and Teacher Improvement, is thus designed with the aim of enhancing the quality of educational provision by employing these evidence types as part of a systematic cycle of inquiry, focused on continuously improving the quality of learning in schools.     

Perceptions in Role Change from Teacher to Counselor: Intra-Role Conflict and Motivation for Change1

Twelve former teachers who had been counseling for no more than two years were interviewed on how they experienced the processes of role change from teacher to counselor. This article extends the findings reported in an earlier paper and deals with intra-role conflict and with the motivation for changing roles. The following hypotheses emerged from the study: (a) if teaching experience heightens the conflict in perceived incompatibility of role expectations, then it is dysfunctional to becoming a counselor; and (b) teachers enter counseling primarily because they seek to fulfill an inner desire for growth toward what they perceive as their ideal role in education. The implications of the testimony given by the counselors for counselor preparation programs and for the structure of roles in schools were examined.