The participation of schools in the recruitment of teachers: evaluating new procedures in Germany

Traditionally, in Germany, the centralized state school administration oversees the staffing of its schools. Specifically, the administration assigns new teachers to designated schools. During the last decade, some German Bundesländer have established new procedures for hiring new teachers. Since 1997 the Bundesland Nordrhein‐Westfalen (NRW) has implemented a new recruitment system. Now local schools can advertise their own teacher vacancies and select among candidates. The purpose of this is to support the school in developing and realizing a special ‘school profile’: a certain pedagogical programme that is distinctive for a school. The results of the empirical study show that the schools in general appreciate the new staffing procedure very much. They like it because now the school has the opportunity to select among different candidates on the basis of a personal appraisal. Support for the school profile seems to be not so important. So this innovative procedure is very well accepted—but not for the reason it was originally installed for.

En Allemagne le processus de sélection et d'embauche d'enseignants est traditionnellement géré par la commission scolaire. L'inspection scolaire attribue les instituteurs aux écoles à partir de listes de candidats. Au cours des dix dernières années, quelques Bundesländer ont toutefois introduit une nouvelle forme d'embauche. Le Bundesland Rhénanie‐du‐Nord‐Westphalie (NRW) a également établi un nouveau système de recrutement en 1997. Les écoles elles‐mêmes peuvent mettre en concours leurs postes libres et faire leur choix parmi les candidats. Cette procédure vise à soutenir les écoles dans leurs efforts à développer un profil pédagogique particulier et de le réaliser. Les résultats d'évaluations montrent que les écoles apprécient beaucoup cette nouvelle forme d'embauche, puisque elles ont désormais la possibilité de faire leur choix à partir d'une impression personnelle. Par contre, l'aspect de soutien du profil pédagogique ne semble pas avoir autant d'importance pour les écoles. Cette nouvelle forme est donc très appréciée— mais pas forcément pour les raisons pour lesquelles elle a été introduite.

Tradicionalmente son las autoridades escolares en Alemania quienes realizan el procedimiento de la selección y contratación del cuerpo docente. A base de las listas de los solicitantes, las autoridades reparten a los docentes capacitados entre los centros educativos. Sin embargo, algunos estados federales han implementado, en los últimos diez años, un nuevo procedimiento de contratación del profesorado. Desde 1997, el estado federal alemán de Renania del Norte‐Westfalia (NRW) ha establecido un nuevo sistema de ingreso en la función pública docente. En consecuencia de ello, los mismos centros educativos ahora ya tienen toda la autonomía para ofrecer un empleo y eligir a sus candidatos. El objetivo de este procedimiento es de apoyar los centros educativos tanto en el desarrollo del perfil escolar específico como en la realización del mismo en la práctica. Las investigaciones empíricas demuestran que los centros estiman en mucho este nuevo procedimiento de empleo. Lo aprecian porque tienen la posibilidad de escoger, en virtud de una impresión personal, el candidato apropiado. Si éste apoya o no el perfil escolar les parece ser de menos trascendencia. De modo que se aprecia mucho este nuevo procedimiento de empleo aunque no sea por la razón pensada.

Traditionell wird in Deutschland der Prozess der Auswahl und Einstellung von Lehrern durch die Schulbehörden vollzogen. Auf der Basis von Bewerberlisten weist die Schulaufsicht ausgebildete Lehrer den Schulen zu. Im Laufe der letzten zehn Jahre haben jedoch einige Bundesländer ein neues verfahren der Lehrereinstellung eingeführt. Seit 1997 hat auch das Bundesland Nordrhein‐Westfalen (NRW) ein neues Rekrutierungssystem etabliert. Jetzt können Schulen selbst ihre freien Lehrerstellen ausschreiben und zwischen Bewerbern auswählen. Der Zweck dieses Verfahrens ist es, die Schulen in der Entwicklung und praktischen Realisierung ihres besonderen Schulprofils zu unterstützen. Die Ergebnisse der empirischen Untersuchungen zeigen, dass die Schulen dieses neue Einstellungsverfahren sehr schätzen. Sie schätzen es, weil die Schule nunmehr die Möglichkeit hat, zwischen geeigneten Bewerbern aufgrund des persönlichen Eindrucks zu entscheiden. Die Unterstützung des Schulprofils scheint für die Schulen weniger bedeutsam zu sein. So wird dieses neue Verfahren also sehr geschätzt—aber nicht aus dem Grund, weswegen es eingeführt worden ist.     

Evaluation of the KA24 (Knowledge Access 24) service for health and social care staff in London and the south-east of England. Part 2: qualitative

AIM AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this two-part paper is to identify the main transferable lessons learned from both the quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the KA24 (Knowledge Access 24) service of online databases and selected full-text journals for health and social care staff in London and the south-east of England. The objectives of the qualitative evaluation were to assess the enablers and barriers to usage, and to assess the impact of the service on patient care. METHODS: Telephone interviews (n = 65) and a questionnaire survey (n = 296) were conducted with various types of user, in various Trust settings. Some non-users were also contacted. Selection of interviewees and questionnaire recipients was not random, and aimed to cover all groups of users representatively. RESULTS: Results show that policy goals were being delivered, with indications of changes to clinical practice, and improved clinical governance. Promotion, training and support needs to be extensive, and tailored to needs, but users are not always aware they need training. The sharing of passwords cast doubts on the reliability of some usage data. CONCLUSIONS: Digital health library services, delivered at the point of care, are changing the way some clinicians practise. A combination of qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods are needed to assess digital library services.     

Young girls’ arithmetic and spatial skills: The distal and proximal roles of family socioeconomics and home learning experiences

The present study addressed girls’ (N = 127) early numerical and spatial reasoning skills, within the context of a critical environment in which these cognitive skills develop, namely their homes. Specifically, proximal links between distal family socioeconomic conditions and first-grade girls’ arithmetic and spatial skills were examined (mean age = 6.72 years; SD = .34). The proximal roles of two factors were considered: the general learning characteristics of girls’ homes, and the kinds of math and spatial learning activities in which girls participated. General quality of the home learning environment and specific math activities mediated the relation between family socioeconomics and girls’ arithmetic skills. In contrast, socioeconomics and home learning experiences were related to girls’ spatial skills indirectly only through their verbal skills; spatial activities were not proximal predictors of spatial skills. For both arithmetic and spatial skills, mothers’ spatial skills were a strong predictor. Future research and intervention implications of these findings are discussed.