Training needs of rural school council members

School councils have operated successfully in non-government schools for many years. By contrast, the establishment of school councils in the government school sector has had a much shorter history. In New South Wales, school council members are elected representatives of the broader school community. This study focused on government schools in rural areas of southern New South Wales and specifically examined the professional development and training needs of these school council members. The findings indicated that school council members expressed concern about their inexperience as council members. Further, they identified the following areas within which they should specifically seek professional development and training: i) identifying and analysing the educational needs of the school and its community; ii) enhancing and facilitating better communication between the school and its community; iii) assisting the principal to understand local community politics; and iv) promoting public education within the local community. These priority training needs have relevance for policy makers and professional development leaders at the systemic or departmental level.     

Where have they gone? Issues in transition and progression for special school leavers

This paper reports on semi-structured interviews with 76 former special school students now aged between 16 and 25. These young people were 'disadvantaged' rather than 'disabled' and many were experiencing 'fractured' transitions from school. Although they were more positive about their schools than similarly disadvantaged peers who had attended mainstream provision, they nonetheless raised concerns about the quality and usefulness of their experiences. On leaving school they had, in many cases, moved from one unsatisfactory activity to another, without any obvious signs of progression. They displayed a high level of purposefulness but lacked personal and social resources to support their progression within somewhat unsupportive structures. The paper argues that an exclusive focus on transition from school is inadequate and that young people may need support well after this point, possibly from the Connexions service. It also suggests that the notion of 'resilience' may have more to offer than traditional special education discourses.     

Operation Bootstrap — Reflections of a Staff Developer

This article considers, from the point of view of an experienced staff developer, several aspects of tertiary education. It touches on the question of whether teachers are born and not made; some reasons for refusing to learn about learning; the continuing grip of the Middle Ages; the possibility of reorganisation so that students are dealt with as individuals and not in batches; the magic force of numbers; amateurs versus professionals in teaching and research; subject cultures; and the unique and parlous situation of many staff developers.     

Change Readiness among Teaching Staff at Anadolu University,Turkey

Turkey’s Anadolu University is one of the world’s largest mega‐universities. It is engaged in strategic planning in response to changes in the expectations of the Turkish Higher Education Council and the community at large. In re‐examining its vision and strategic directions, Anadolu University needs to be informed on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of its teaching staff, and the systems and support needed to assure their change readiness. This article examines the literature of organizational and educational change and its implications for the university. It reports on a study based on the relevant constructs from the literature and is designed to gauge the extent and nature of teaching staff knowledge, skills, practice, and research in educational and technological change, motivating and de‐motivating factors, change adopter types, and perceptions of the organizational climate for change. It considers the implications of these findings and draws conclusions about what would be needed to improve staff readiness for change.     

Using computer-delivered natural speech to assist in the teaching of reading

The findings of a pilot study designed to evaluate a computer system developed to assist in the teaching of reading to beginners are presented. The system uses digitised speech and the content is based upon a reading scheme already in use in the schools. Twenty children, ten in the intervention group and ten in the control group, in two schools were involved over a four-week period. Subjects were tested on a standardised reading test, a list of the 30 most frequently occurring words in written English, and on words from the published scheme. The experimental group improved their scores significantly more than the control group only on the standardised reading test. The results suggest the system can be helpful and that its effect goes beyond the words being practised.     

Development of an exchange format for the European Environmental Chemical Data and Information Network (ECDIN)

Increasing concern about the release of potentially harmful chemicals into the environment has led to efforts to collect data on such chemicals with a view to identifying and minimising the associated hazards. The collection and storage of such data requires cooperation and communication (both national and international) between partners in a general environmental data network. A format is described for the exchange of data between these network partners. This format is of general applicability. It is shown that a hierarchical tree structure best describes the situation. Rules are derived to identify and process the nodes in the tree such that information is neither lost nor degraded upon transfer between the network partners.     

Empowering parents of pre-school children

This paper describes a project undertaken with parents from an inner city primary school in Hartlepool, England. The main objectives of the project were to increase the self esteem of the parents, to give them an understanding of the pre-school curriculum and to enable them to develop their skills, knowledge and confidence to become involved in school life and to take ownership of their own children's education. The project focused around the production of a video to show nursery life in the school and this production was used as a vehicle to encourage the fulfilment of the objectives described above. The paper concludes by describing the successful outcomes of the project. Some of the outcomes were planned for, but we were equally delighted with the unexpected ones.