Choice, Diversity and 'Exit' in Schooling — A Mixed Picture

Traditionally, most systems have required that parents send their children to a school within the district of residence and close to the family home, sometimes with an elite private system co-existing alongside. In recent years, this basic model has been modified, with some countries witnessing more extensive changes than others. This article outlines the range of change that has taken place along the dual axes of promoting diversity and establishing room for the exercise of parental choice. The synthesis article draws on the material submitted by all the countries participating in the OECD study, and not only those which feature specifically in this issue.
The first section reviews the current situation regarding parental choice of school and evidence relating to how that choice is exercised by different groups of parents. For choice to be exercised, there must be alternatives to choose from, and hence there follows a review of some of the policies and practices for diversity. The article then examines diversity in more forms contrasting selective and non-selective schools, public and private schools, and formal and home schooling. Several countries have moved to greater diversification of public education, allowing for different types of schools accommodating different student ability levels or parents' educational preferences. The role of demand is clearly a central element in their emergence and differing fortunes. This in turn is closely, but not exclusively, related to the familiar factors of social advantage and reproduction as well as to issues of value choices and beliefs.     

TIME ALLOCATION AND PATTERNS OF ITEM RESPONSE

A measure of student patterns of item response is usually interpreted as a measure of carelessness or guessing. However, when aggregated to the class level, it was shown that the index identifies classes that have a poor match between test content and instructional coverage. In particular, Sato's (1980) caution index identified classes whose pattern of time allocation across content areas was atypical. In addition, it was found that the mean caution index for a class can best be interpreted knowing the within-class standard deviation of the index.     

An Attributional Approach to Counselor Supervision

The supervision process is examined from an attributional perspective. Counselor supervision is conceptualized as an interactional process in which trainees learn to describe and manage cause-effect relationships. Attribution theory from the social psychological literature is reviewed, and common biases and errors in the attribution process are discussed in terms of their relationship to supervision. Finally, several interventions are proposed to help supervisors minimize the influence of these attributional biases on their own and their trainees' perceptions and behaviors.     

第一次网络战争

驻伊拉克的美军正在进行一场史无前例的战争——一场网络化的战争。但是，对手也同样拥有自己的网络。[编者按]     

A Liminal Space: Challenges and opportunities in accreditation of prior learning in Judaic Studies

The accreditation of prior learning (APL) attests to the value of learning that takes place in a non-accredited institution. In the process of accrediting such learning, criteria have to be established and assessment methodologies selected. Accreditation deals with definitions, values, ideals, searches for equivalency, and similarities in the examined learning. However, such values and examinations are located within distinctive structures of learning: the greater the difference between these structures of learning the more problematic the accreditation process. While generally true, this proposition is highlighted in the evaluation of prior learning of Judaic Studies. Such accreditation brings into contrast the learning structures of both the rabbinical ('sacred') and Western liberal higher learning ('secular'). We review the difficulties of criterion selection, current accreditation techniques, and detail those elements of the ultra-Orthodox structure of learning that are salient and problematic in accreditations. Drawing metaphorically on the works of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, we encourage a more theoretical, humble, and sensitive exploration of the liminal space that lies beyond structures.     

Information and Communication Technologies Usage by Students in an Israeli High School: Equity, Gender, and Inside/Outside School Learning Issues

This study describes and analyses a survey that was conducted with 384 students from grades 7–12 in a typical urban High School in Israel. The students reported on the extent and characteristics of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage within and beyond school time and location. Its focus is on (a) equity issues regarding the extent, purposes and scope of ICT usage and students self perception in ICT proficiency; (b) gender and age differences in ICT use; and (c) relationship between inside/outside school learning processes. The findings show that 10% of the students are non-users of ICT, two thirds are common-users and only 25% are skilled users. About half of the students use the Internet to some extent. Major Gender differences were found: in general, more boys used ICT more extensively than girls did. Differences among age groups were found mainly with respect to the use of complex applications, but not regarding Internet usage. These results are discussed in the light of the three focal issues: equity, gender, and integration of learning processes taking place within and outside school.     

Understanding Clients and Their Environments: A Simulation

Counselors must be made fully aware of the impact of environmental and societal forces on their clients. Counselor education students need knowledge and skill to attend to the pressures and problems of minority groups. The simulation method described in this article encourages students to experience powerlessness, isolation, and few if any options in order to develop a clearer understanding of their clients and environments. The authors discuss applicability of the simulation beyond counselor education programs.     

Book Reviews

Book Reviews in This Article: Mastering Statistics Second Edition. From Cooperation to Coordination. Implications of New Technology for the School Curriculum.     

Knowledge and Truth in Religious Education

It is reasonable to expect, with regard to any traditional academic subject, that it should be capable of being made good sense of as a rational form of knowledge or enquiry focused upon the discernment of truths of one sort or another concerning the world or human affairs. One curriculum area which has generally been held to be problematic in this respect, for a mixture of epistemological, social, ethical and pedagogical reasons, is that of religious education. In the first place, then, this paper is concerned to expose some of the confusions which have been allowed to obscure the nature of religious enquiry as a viable rational enterprise, Second, however, the paper also attempts to develop a coherent und workable account of the nature and operations of knowledge and truth in religious enquiry.