Assessment in a Pre-service Teacher Education Programme: The rhetoric and the practice of standards-based assessment

This paper presents findings that reflect one of several themes from a field-based project carried out in a large metropolitan College of Education in New Zealand. Assessment policy statements in the college's School of Primary Teacher Education Handbooks (1993- 1996) gave the impression that a robust system was in place: one in which student teacher performance on required tasks and assignments was compared with clearly prescribed criteria/standards. However, observations in the field identified a significant discontinuity between the rhetoric and practice. Rather than basing judgements on published criteria and standards, a group of assessors grounded their judgements in a different set of 'rules'. These rules suggested a strong commitment to notions of professional and personal autonomy.     

Teacher stress interventions: A systematic review

Due to the increased pressure from test‐based accountability practices, teachers have reported high levels of stress and burnout. High teacher stress has an impact on school outcomes, including links to absenteeism, burnout, school climate, and teacher behavior management. Teacher stress interventions may be an important first step toward reducing these negative outcomes. Although there have been several recent intervention studies in the domain of teacher stress, there has been no systematic review to compare the type and effectiveness of teacher stress interventions. Included within this review are interventions from a variety of modalities such as knowledge‐based, behavioral, cognitive‐behavioral, and mindfulness approaches. Results indicated that the most effective interventions were in the mindfulness, behavioral, and cognitive‐behavioral domains. Interventions which delivered solely informational content were among the least effective.     

Caught Between Parents: Adolescents'' Experience in Divorced Homes

This study examined adolescents' feelings of being caught between parents to see whether this construct helps to explain (1) variability in their postdivorce adjustment and (2) associations between family/child characteristics and adolescent adjustment. Adolescents 10 to 18 years old (N = 522) were interviewed by telephone 4 1/2 years after their parents' separation. Feeling caught between parents was related to high parental conflict and hostility and low parental cooperation. Being close to both parents was associated with low feelings of being caught. The relation between time spent with each parent and feeling caught depended on the coparenting relationship. Adolescents in dual residence were especially likely to feel caught when parents were in high conflict, and especially unlikely to feel caught when parents cooperated. Feeling caught was related to poor adjustment outcomes. Parental conflict was only related to adjustment outcomes indirectly, through adolescents' feelings of being caught.     

The consequences of being labelled ‘looked‐after’: Exploring the educational experiences of looked‐after children and young people in Wales

The educational experiences and attainment of looked‐after children and young people (LACYP) remains an issue of widespread international concern. Within the UK, children and young people in care achieve poorer educational outcomes compared to individuals not in care. Despite proliferation of research documenting the reasons for educational disadvantage amongst this population, there remains limited empirical consideration of the lived experiences of the educational system, as perceived by LACYP themselves. This paper draws upon qualitative research with 67 care‐experienced children and young people in Wales. The sample was aged 6–27 years, and comprised 27 females and 40 males. Participants had experienced a range of care placements. Findings focus on how educational policies and practices alienate LACYP from dominant discourses of educational achievement through assignment of the ‘supported’ subject position, where children and young people are permitted and even encouraged not to succeed academically due to their complex and disrupted home circumstances. However, such diminished expectations are rejected by LACYP, who want to be pushed and challenged in the realisation of their potential. The paper argues that more differentiated understandings of LACYP's aspirations and capabilities need to be embedded into everyday practices, to ensure that effective educational support systems are developed.     

The dominant role of users in the scientific instrument innovation process

A sample of one hundred and eleven scientific instrument innovations was studied to determine the roles of instrument users and instrument manufacturers in the innovation processes which culminated in the successful commercialization of those instruments. Our key finding was that approximately 80% of the innovations judged by users to offer them a significant increment in functional utility were in fact invented, prototyped and first field-tested by users of the instrument rather than by an instrument manufacturer. The role of the first commercial manufacturer of the innovative instrument in all such cases was restricted, we found, to the performance of product engineering work on the user prototype (work which improved the prototype's reliability, ‘manufacturability’, and convenience of operation, while leaving its principles of operation intact) and to the manufacture and sale of the resulting innovative product. Thus, this research provides the interesting picture of an industry widely regarded as innovative in which the firms comprising the industry are not in themselves necessarily innovative, but rather — in 80% of the innovations sampled — only provide the product engineering and manufacturing function for innovative instrument users.We term the innovation pattern observed in scientific instruments a ‘user dominated’ one and suggest that such a pattern may play a major role in numerous industries.     

A dynamic analytic approach to national innovation systems: The IC industry in Taiwan

The paper attempts to develop a mathematical model of the national innovation system (NIS) of Taiwan, particularly with regard to its integrated circuit (IC) industry. The method utilised is that of system dynamics (SD). Drawing on both questionnaire/in-depth interviews and computer simulation, the paper aims to increase insights into the dynamic processes of the Taiwanese IC industry system of innovation and understand the interdependence and interaction among capital flows, human resource flows, knowledge and technology flows, and product flows in the NIS. The paper concludes with some simulations of policy alternatives confronting the IC industry and the Taiwanese government.     

Imaginary subjects: school science,indigenous students,and knowledge–power relations

The perspectives of indigenous science learners in developed nations offer an important but frequently overlooked dimension to debates about the nature of science, the science curriculum, and calls from educators to make school science more culturally responsive or ‘relevant’ to students from indigenous or minority groups. In this paper the findings of a study conducted with indigenous Maori children between the ages of 10 and 12 years are discussed. The purpose of the study was to examine the ways that indigenous children in an urban school environment in New Zealand position themselves in relation to school science. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein, we argue that although the interplay between emergent cultural identity narratives and the formation of ‘science selves’ is not as yet fully understood, it carries the potential to open a rich seam of learning for indigenous children.     

Observed Emotional and Behavioral Indicators of Motivation Predict School Readiness in Head Start Graduates

Emotions and behaviors observed during challenging tasks are hypothesized to be valuable indicators of young children's motivation, the assessment of which may be particularly important for children at risk for school failure. The current study demonstrated reliability and concurrent validity of a new observational assessment of motivation in young children. Head Start graduates completed challenging puzzle and trivia tasks during their kindergarten year. Children's emotion expression and task engagement were assessed based on their observed facial and verbal expressions and behavioral cues. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that observed persistence and shame predicted teacher ratings of children's academic achievement, whereas interest, anxiety, pride, shame, and persistence predicted children's social skills and learning-related behaviors. Children's emotional and behavioral responses to challenge thus appeared to be important indicators of school success. Observation of such responses may be a useful and valid alternative to self-report measures of motivation at this age.     

Classroom dimensions predict early peer interaction when children are diverse in ethnicity, race, and home language

The purpose of this study was to test a model for predicting preschool-age children's behaviors with peers from dimensions of the classroom and teacher-child relationship quality when the children were from diverse race, ethnic, and home language backgrounds. Eight hundred children, (M = age 63 months, SD = 8.1 months), part of the National Evaluation of Early Head Start, participated in this study just prior to entering kindergarten. We observed children with peers in their classrooms and rated classroom peer group size, affective climate for peer interaction, teacher management of the classroom, and materials for dramatic play. Teachers reported on teacher-child relationship quality. Children from Spanish-speaking homes played similarly in classrooms where Spanish was and was not spoken. After control variables and receptive vocabulary scores were entered into the model, classroom dimensions and teacher-child relationship quality significantly predicted pretend play, anxious-withdrawn, aggressive, and victim of peer aggression behaviors with peers. Children engaged in more pretend play and received lower ratings of being the victim of peer aggression when classroom groups were smaller. When teachers perceived teacher-child relationships as lower in conflict and higher in closeness, children's anxious-withdrawn, aggressive, and victim of aggression ratings were lower. Children's ratings of being the victim of peer aggression were higher when ratings of classroom positive peer climate were lower. Child-teacher ethnic or racial match did not moderate these predictions.     

The Orientation to Life Questionnaire: Validation of a Measure to Assess Older Adults’ Sense of Coherence

Increasingly, the literature suggests that the sense of coherence (SOC) positively influences well-being in later life. This study reports the assessment of the following psychometric properties: distributional properties, construct, criterion and external-related validities, and reliability of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OtLQ) in an cross-national population of older adults. We recruited 1291 community-dwelling older adults aged between 75–102 years (M = 83.9; SD = 6.68). Convenience sampling was used to gather questionnaire data. The construct validity was asserted by confirmatory factor analysis and convergent and discriminant validity. Moreover, criterion and external-related validities, as well as distributional properties and reliability, were also tested. Data gathered with the 29-items OtLQ scale showed overall good psychometric properties in terms of distributional properties, construct, criterion, and external-related validities, as well as reliability. Three factors were validated for the OtLQ scale: (a) comprehensibility; (b) manageability; and (c) meaningfulness. We validated the three-factor OtLQ scale, which produced valid and reliable data for a cross-national sample with older adults. Hence, it is an adequate instrument for assessing sense of coherence among older people in health care practice and program development contexts.