Conflicting issues in the Design of Safety Courses in Technology Partnership Schemes

The very short time now available in higher education institutions for the coverage of subject‐specific content in PGCE courses gives problems in ensuring adequate time for effective workshop safety training, especially for those students who will be responsible for the management of pupils in resistant materials workshops. The schedule prescribed by the National Association of Advisers and Inspectors in Design and Technology (NAAIDT) provides a recognised base for the content of such courses. This paper examines the theoretical issues involved, weighs conflicting demands and describes one solution found workable under the current NAAIDT scheme.     

Grading as a Reform Effort: Do Standards‐Based Grades Converge With Test Scores?

Standards‐based progress reports (SBPRs) require teachers to grade students using the performance levels reported by state tests and are an increasingly popular report card format. They may help to increase teacher familiarity with state standards, encourage teachers to exclude nonacademic factors from grades, and/or improve communication with parents. The current study examines the SBPR grade–state test score correspondence observed across 2 years in 125 third and fifth grade classrooms located in one school district to examine the degree of consistency between grades and state test results. It also examines the grading practices of a subset of 37 teachers to determine whether there is an association between teacher appraisal style and convergence rates. A moderate degree of grade–test score convergence was observed using three agreement estimates (coefficient kappa, tau‐b correlations, and classroom‐level mean differences between grades and test scores). In addition, only small amounts of grade–test score convergence were observed between teachers; a much greater proportion of variance lay within classrooms and subjects. Appraisal style correlated weakly with convergence rates, but was most strongly related to assigning students to the same performance level as the test. Therefore using recommended grading practices may improve the quality of SBPR grades to some extent.     

Research in Education–Federal Support

This article summarizes the areas of educational research sponsored by the federal government and describes some projects of special significance.     

Exploring the roles of grief and grieving in coping with lifelong change

This paper explores the value of the concept of grief as one way to make sense of individual's reactions to change. The discussion acknowledges that change is always from something, not just to something. In an environment that is increasingly expected to involve lifelong change, there is an urgent need for individuals to develop capacities to ‘move with’ change. The paper identifies a number of strategies to assist individuals and groups acknowledge and grieve change-included loss, strategies which support sustainable ‘moving on’.