Primary education in BrazilEnseignement primaire au BresilEducacion primaria en el Brasil

It is not the purpose of this paper to investigate the role of education in the process of development in Brazil but merely to examine the development of the Brazilian primary education system since the 1800's. The theme of this paper is the analysis of just some of the issues, conflicts and problems that have influenced and fashioned the development of that system. It is the goal of the Brazilian government to provide ‘universal obligatory education’. Certain obstacles have appeared which have made attainment of that goal very difficult. Two of the most important obstacles are spatial inequalities and functional difficulties. Presented here is a brief explanation of these two issues.     

An International Resource for Learning and Teaching

This article compares the national curriculum data‐handling specifications of the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand and shows how data from the CensusAtSchool project can be used to enhance the data‐handling capabilities of pupils in those countries. These data can also provide enhanced opportunities for the integration of ICT into core curriculum activities. Some ideas to enable teachers of statistics to create classroom teaching material with an international flavour are also provided.     

Pitfalls in the evaluation of principals

This paper describes the characteristics of a statewide principal evaluation system. Present empirical knowledge of the ways school principals are evaluated is almost nonexistent (Harrison, 1985); because of this we will employ a design drawn from studies of evaluation in other settings (Dornbusch and Scott, 1975), of teachers (Natriello and Dornbusch, 1981) and control of principals (Peterson, 1984). A questionnaire was used to gather information about the ways principals are evaluated as reported by principals and superintendents. The authors find that even when an evaluation system is detailed, specific, and statewide, inconsistencies develop because of the special nature of principals' work. The systems appear to break down in the sampling of performance and outputs and in the communication of negative feedback-key areas if principals are to improve their performance. Suggestions for research and practice are presented.Presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco, 1986.     

The dissertation examination: identifying critical factors in the success of Indigenous Australian doctoral students

Indigenous Australians represent 2.2% of the working age population, yet account for only 1.4% of all university enrolments. In relation to higher degree research students, Indigenous Australians account for 1.1% of enrolments, but only 0.8% of all higher degree research completions. This paper reports on findings that emerged from an Australian Research Council-funded study which aimed to establish a model of best practice for the supervision of Indigenous doctoral students. The project identified the dissertation examination as one of the critical factors underpinning the success of doctoral candidates. Whilst research into the examination process for doctoral students is limited, the research that specifically explores the examination of dissertations submitted by Indigenous students is entirely inadequate. Our research identified key epistemological concerns that impact approaches to the examination process, to demonstrate how the dominance of Western methods of research impact the examination process for Indigenous doctoral students. This paper explores the experiences of 50 successful Indigenous Australian doctors with a specific focus on their examiner preference and disciplinary requirements. It highlights the limitations that some Indigenous students and their supervisors experience in finding an appropriate examiner.     

Making practical work work: using discussion to enhance pupils’ understanding of physics

Background: Practical work is widely seen as a necessary part of a good physics education, but convincing evidence that it impacts positively on pupils’ learning is scarce. Recent work suggests the use of talk and discussion might hold the key to making practical work more educationally productive.

Purpose: The research question that this study aims to answer is: Can the use of targeted discussion improve learning through practical work?

Sample: The study took place in a medium-sized (700-pupil, Years 7–13 (ages 11–18)) mixed-gender independent (fee-paying) day school in southern England. It is academically selective and public examination results are above the national average. The activities were carried out with three teaching groups (n = 73) with a fourth being used occasionally for comparison purposes (giving n = 97).

Design and methods: Pupils were given a number of practical tasks – some from the usual scheme of work, some devised for this project – and given specific time to discuss with a partner the various aspects of the practical such as predictions, devising methods, problem-solving, conclusions or explanations of phenomena. Questionnaires and booklets were used to gather pupil responses. Some audio recording and analysis of pupil-pupil discussion was also done.

Results: There was evidence from booklets pupils filled in during the practical that prescribing the use of discussion at various points in a practical task led to improved outcomes, particularly on the more cognitively challenging tasks. In particular, discussion was seen to turn incorrect responses into correct ones much more frequently than the reverse. In a later exam, pupils who had participated in the discussion activities performed better than a control group on questions which directly related to practical concepts, but performed similarly on the remaining exam questions.

Conclusion: Evidence gathered suggests a more nuanced pattern than that reflected in previous literature: that discussion during practical work can impact positively on pupils’ understanding of ideas related to practical work, but does not necessarily have a positive impact on their wider understanding.     

Web‐Based Project and Key Skills Work

Pupils in England and Wales are increasingly being asked to undertake investigative‐type work, be it the new compulsory projects in data handling for GCSE Mathematics (age 14–16) (see Browne 2002 ) or the Key Skills topic application of number. This article shows how teachers can generate realistic project scenarios using real data and produce indicative model solutions from the same data. The projects range from simple presentational problems for data, through hypothesis testing to complex modelling scenarios.     

Implications of the Delphi method in the evaluation of sustainability open education resource repositories

To better understand the sustainable development of open educational resources (OER), this paper aimed to break through the original ‘fixed’, highly structured evaluation system and develop an open and flexible “1?+?X” evaluation framework of OER by using the modified Delphi method. “1” refers to the mandatory basic criteria that the repository must reflect essential attributes and core functions, which are consist of four components: information content, learning process, system technology, and user experience. “X” refers to optional distinctive criteria that the repository shall focus on one or more developmental orientations, which may include: resource evolution, international collaboration, inclusiveness and equality, open educational practices, and value-added services. Optional “X” criteria, in line with the criteria’s diversity aims, can lead to the sustainable development of OER and globalized lifelong learning. The framework of this study provides a basis for the evaluation and optimization of existing OER repositories, and also serves as functional scaffolding for the construction of new repositories.

     

Curiosity, forbidden knowledge, and the reformation of natural philosophy in early modern England

From the patristic period to the beginning of the seventeenth century curiosity was regarded as an intellectual vice. Curious individuals were considered to be proud and "puffed up," and the objects of their investigations were deemed illicit, dispute engendering, unknowable, or useless. Seventeenth-century projects for the advancement of learning had to distance themselves from curiosity and its dubious fruits or, alternatively, enhance the moral status of the curious sensibility. Francis Bacon's proposals for the instauration of knowledge were an integral part of a process by which curiosity underwent a remarkable transformation from vice to virtue over the course of the seventeenth century. The changing fortunes of this human propensity highlight the morally charged nature of early modern debates over the status of natural philosophy and the particular virtues required of its practitioners. The rehabilitation of curiosity was a crucial element in the objectification of scientific knowledge and led to a gradual shift of focus away from the moral qualities of investigators and the propriety of particular objects of knowledge to specific procedures and methods.     

The Relative Merits of Different Types of Overall Evaluations of Teaching Effectiveness

An unresolved issue in student evaluations of teaching effectiveness (SETE) literature is what type of overall evaluation of teaching effectiveness should be used in personnel decisions. The objective of this study is to compare the merits of: (a) an overall evaluation made by students, (b) a weighted average overall evaluation with the weights determined by students, (c) a weighted average overall evaluation with the weights being determined by the individual instructors teaching their respective classes, (d) an unweighted average overall evaluation, and (e) a second-order factor that proxies for an overall evaluation. Our results indicate that: (a) all of these overall evaluations were very highly intercorrelated, (b) the unweighted and weighted average overall evaluations measured virtually the same thing, and (c) the second-order factor that served as an overall evaluation was most highly correlated with the other overall evaluations and had the advantage of being most understandable to the faculty.