Privatisation, Decentralisation and Education in the United Kingdom: The Role of the State

Since the early 1950s, the axis centralisation–decentralisation, especially as thematised in the work of Isaac Kandel, has represented a major focus of comparative studies in education. Kandel argued that issues relating to the internal conduct of the classroom (interna) should, so far as possible, be decentralised, while issues relating to administration, school structure and organisation of the educational system (externa) might safely be centralised. After 1988, successive governments in the United Kingdom have undertaken reforms which have placed more central control on the curriculum and even methods of teaching (interna), while school finance and administration (externa) have been devolved to the school level. The present essay argues that a simplistic approach to centralisation and decentralisation is not likely to be fruitful. Instead, we should acknowledge the role of the State in creating a permissive framework for educational systems. Local action can then be seen as part of a policy accommodating or resisting the implications of that framework.     

Motivational interviewing as a positive response to high‐school bullying

Intervention approaches to bullying are largely preventive in nature, and even these have been shown to be ineffective, if not iatrogenic, with adolescents. Responses to bullying are limited to traditional punitive approaches or “no‐blame” approaches aiming to restore the relationship between the targeted students. Neither of these approaches may effectively engage the perpetrator of bullying at a motivational level, and we propose motivational interviewing (MI) as a means of promoting meaningful behavioral change among youths who bully. We provide a narrative review of MI and map its core features onto the extant literature on self‐reported motivations for bullying, highlighting the ways that MI fits with bullying and could serve as a potent solution that could be deployed by school psychologists and other student support staff members. Qualitative preliminary feedback and initial competency in MI from trained practitioners are presented as preliminary data from a cluster‐randomized control trial, documenting school staff perspectives on the integration of MI into their approach to bullying with recommendations for integrating MI into school settings.     

Enhancing the early student experience

This paper is concerned with identifying how the early student experience can be enhanced in order to improve levels of student retention and achievement. The early student experience is the focus of this project as the literature has consistently declared the first year to be the most critical in shaping persistence decisions. Programme managers of courses with high and low retention rates have been interviewed to identify activities that appear to be associated with good retention rates. The results show that there are similarities in the way programmes with high retention are run, with these features not being prevalent on programmes with low retention. Recommendations of activities that appear likely to enhance the early student experience are provided.     

The Development of Professional Learning Communities and Their Teacher Leaders: An Activity Systems Analysis

Professional learning communities can be effective vehicles for teacher learning and instructional improvement, partly because they help change professional culture. However, little is known about how these changes occur. We used activity systems analysis to investigate the development of professional learning communities and their teacher leaders (N = 9) based on interviews and observations over 2 years. Activity systems analysis enables researchers to understand change within complex qualitative data sets by finding systemic relations within the activity, specifying contradictions in the system, and explicating outcomes. The resulting activity system illuminates the transformation of a mostly private, autonomous, and egalitarian culture to one of nascent collaboration, reflection, and shared values, as well as teacher leaders’ development of agency.     

The Coach Consult Method: A model for sustainable change in schools

Project work and in‐service training are methods used by educational psychologists (EPs) to promote systemic change in schools. These have some disadvantages, which can limit the long‐term effects of new developments. This paper outlines and evaluates an alternative approach. A new coach consult method combines effective aspects of project work and in‐service training to enable schools to manage their own projects and to encourage sustainable change, embedded within the school system. The evaluation consists of a tiered approach and considers the impact at the levels of direct, training and general effects. Results indicate that the coach consult method for delivering project work in schools has a positive impact at all three levels.     

Development and Initial Validation of the Student Interest and Choice in STEM (SIC-STEM) Survey 2.0 Instrument for Assessment of the Social Cognitive Career Theory Constructs

Journal of Science Education and Technology - In response to a growing need for STEM professionals, this study reports the results of the initial validation of a refined survey instrument that...     

Encouraging Example Generation: A Teaching Experiment in First-Semester Calculus

Abstract

Mathematicians use example generation to test and verify mathematical ideas; however, the processes through which undergraduates learn to productively generate examples are not well understood. We engaged calculus students in a teaching experiment designed to develop skills in productively generating examples to learn novel concepts. This article presents three student case studies. These case studies are representative of our findings and serve to summarize the activities we found useful. They also serve as examples of various student experiences during the teaching experiment. One student expressed a continued negative view to using example generation. Two increased in skills and experience and expressed positive changes in views.     

Shorter notices

Thomas, Mike and Thomas, Sally (1981) On Our Own TWO Feet, Books 6 to 8 (Settling In, Safe and Secure, Around and About). Horton, M. (1980) The Second Reading and Writing Book. A Handbook for Teachers and Parents to Use with Children. Edwards Reading Test (1980) Heinemann Educational Books.