Successful journal publishing on the Internet: hit or myth?

If publishers of learned journals are going to make a success of their web publishing, they should not forget all the skills they have developed in publishing in print. This paper reviews the application of familiar journal publishing skills in the context of electronic journals or electronic editions of printed journals, and pinpoints areas where these skills apply in web publishing and where new skills are necessary.     

The PISA mathematics regime: knowledge structures and practices of the self

Within mathematics education research, the responses to the Programme for International Student Assessment’s (PISA’s) international testing regime tend to accept its framework and results as necessary points of reference, even when offering a critical reinterpretation or challenging national policy discourses based on PISA. In this article, we offer a different approach to the critique of PISA, drawing on theoretical tools provided by Bernstein and Foucault, to ask what the PISA regime achieves. Our understanding of this achievement encompasses both the production of knowledge structures and the production of students, teachers and other agents as subjects. We propose that the theoretical approach we offer provides a methodological entry point into analysis of the texts comprising the PISA mathematics regime. Analysis of a single PISA item is used to illustrate the insights that may be gained from such a theoretical lens. Such insights into the logic of PISA have the potential to allow us better to understand and hence contest the role that PISA and other large-scale assessment regimes may play in global and local policy discourses.     

School Design: A Classificatory Framework for a 21st-Century Approach to School Improvement

As attention turns from restructuring to school design as a means of securing school improvement, a bewildering range of design programmes/models are available. How are schools to make informed choices about their relative merits? This article suggests a classification, based on 10 criteria, by which to categorize their features, and to draw comparisons between them. The particular design adopted by the case school is described and analysed in terms of the classificatory framework, and its implementation by the perspective of the school leader/change agent. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the usefulness of the framework as a heuristic “device” for characterizing school design models (SDM) and their implementation. It is argued that refinement of the classificatory framework would result from similar case studies and the perspectives of others – besides the school leader/change agent – involved in their implementation.     

The internship component of a teacher education program: Opportunities for learning

Abstract

Many preservice teacher education programs in recent years have increased the amount of time student teachers spend in field placements by adding an “internship “ component. An internship is typically longer than a practice teaching session and is designed as a bridge between being a student teacher and having full teaching responsibilities. This study explored the effect of an internship that had three key features: the interns were free to choose the nature of their field experience, no formal evaluation was involved, and the interns were attached to the school (or other institution) as a whole rather than a particular staff member. Under these conditions, the interns could (a) go more deeply into a specific teaching area; (b) gain greater knowledge of school culture; (c) become more familiar with school‐wide programs and activities; and (d) learn more about their distinctive interests and abilities as teachers.     

A School—University Collaborative Journey Toward Relevance and Meaning in an Urban High School Physical Education Program

The promise and potential for collaborative teams of school and university colleagues to address substantive issues in physical education were the focus of an international conference and a series of high-profile articles in the late 80s and early 90s. However, school-university partnerships have seldom focused on school reform. Few scholars address secondary school physical education, save for the occasional article describing its eminent demise. Successful implementation of innovative practices, such as curricular and instructional revisions, requires significant investments in teacher development. This paper details a specific collaborative effort in physical education that makes a case for systematic long-term commitments to improve young people's physical education experiences. Stories from a 4-year collaborative highlight the complexities and challenges faced by any subdisciplinary group that commits to connecting professional preparation and practice for the benefit of our respective constituencies.     

Students’ Use of Multimedia Activities in an Open University Introductory Science Course

Surveys of students studying an introductory science course at a distance indicated that they had very favourable attitudes to CD‐ROM multimedia activities that are an integral part of the course teaching package. The research reported here focused on how students actually studied as they worked through the activities. Most students worked on the activities at the place indicated in the course materials and they generally studied them in one session. The majority made notes and were satisfied with their value, though only a small number used on‐screen facilities for making their notes. The instructions for navigating through the sequences left only a small number of students unsure of how to proceed. A small number of students also reported being unable to answer the questions in the activities. The Approaches to Studying Inventory (Richardson, 1990) was included in the survey, and it was found that students who adopt a predominantly ‘meaning orientation’ to studying had significantly more favourable attitudes to the multimedia activities than those who adopt a predominantly ‘reproducing orientation’. The latter students had a significantly higher preference for printed material rather than multimedia activities. The limitations of the surveys are identified and suggestions are made for future evaluation and research into students’ experiences in using multimedia activities, and for setting it in a broader framework of students’ patterns of study and learning