The paradigmatic hearts of subjects which their ‘English’ flows through

Much research into the use of corpora and discourse to support higher education students on pre-sessional and in-sessional courses champions subject specificity. Drawing on the work of writers such as Bakhtin [(1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays by MM Bakhtin (M. Holquist, Ed.; C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press] and Voloshinov [(1973). Marxism and the philosophy of language (L. Matejka, & I.R. Titunik, Trans.). New York: Seminar Press. (Original work published 1929)], in this article we extend this research by showing how the specific subject ‘context’ is fundamentally linked with the ‘English’ used within it. We first detail some of the literature related to corpus and genre studies and discuss some of the literature related to the importance of providing a context for language. We then present and discuss data from 21 interviews and five focus groups with subject lecturers to illustrate how the ‘English’ used in the subject areas of ‘Design’, ‘Nursing’, ‘Business’ and ‘Computing’ subjects flows through what we term their ‘paradigmatic hearts’. By ‘paradigmatic heart’ we mean the set of values, beliefs and perceptions that represent the central or innermost engine of the subject, through which its ‘English’ flows. In ‘Design’ the paradigmatic heart is ‘visual’, ‘philosophical’ and ‘persuasive’; for ‘Nursing’ it is ‘emotional’ and ‘empathetic’, yet also ‘technical’; for ‘Business’ subjects it is ‘income generating’, ‘numerical’ and ‘persuasive’; and for ‘Computing’ it may be ‘visual’, ‘numerical’ or ‘code-based’. We demonstrate how ‘English’ flows through the paradigmatic heart of its subject and that to remove the ‘English’ from its subject paradigmatic heart changes its nature. Thus, we argue that if students are not being taught ‘English’ in the context of the subject, the ‘English’ we are teaching them will be different, and that preparation and support needs to be undertaken in the subject itself.     

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Abstract

The growth in importance of performance assessment in education over recent years has been linked with a concern to ensure that the service represents ‘value for money’. To date the absence of a satisfactory analytical framework has meant that questions of ‘effectiveness’ and ‘efficiency’ have been kept separate. An additional problem has been that, whilst there are many different outcomes which are appropriate for education authorities to pursue, conventional models handle these only one at a time.

In this paper we use data on the 96 English LEAs to show how an underlying model allows authorities to be compared in terms of ‘efficiency’ when facing different environmental circumstances and utilising different resource inputs. The technique of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is first described in the context of an explanatory model, and then the results of applying this to the English LEAs are presented.

As distinct from a league table’ analysis, DEA gives some indications of where improvements are to be sought. It allows for ‘trade‐offs’ between outputs of different types and provides a small but distinct peer group of ‘efficient’ authorities to which an ‘inefficient’ LEA can be compared.

The efficiency measure used is ‘relative efficiency’ which arises from comparing the actual performance of an inefficient authority with that of others which can be used to model its environmental circumstances and resource inputs.

A number of case studies are described. The limitations of the technique, and the caution required in interpretation, are discussed.     

Graphophonological processes in dyslexic readers of French: A longitudinal study of the explicitness effect of tasks

Given the well-acknowledged phonological deficit found in dyslexic children, this study was aimed at investigating graphophonological processes in dyslexic readers of French over a 1-year period. Among the different types of phonological processing can be distinguished those related to phonological awareness based on knowledge of the oral language and graphophonological processes based on correspondences between the oral and the written language. In this study, we evaluated graphophonemic and graphosyllabic processes using, in each case, two different tasks varying in the degree of cognitive constraint associated with the task (CC- vs CC+). Twenty 11 year-old dyslexic students were compared with younger normal-readers of the same reading level (RA, n=26) and to normal-readers of the same age (CA, n=24). Two variables were considered in the analyses: accuracy and response latency. Results show that dyslexic readers do process written items at the graphophonological level. Also, results indicate main effects of task (CC- vs CC+), time (T1 vs T2), and group (DYS vs RA vs CA). In general, dyslexic participants' performances are comparable to those of RA and differ from those of CA.     

Motor Skills and Executive Function Contribute to Early Achievement in East Asia and the Pacific

Research Findings: This study examined the contributions of motor skills and executive function (EF) to early achievement. Participants were 7,797 children (3,889 girls) between 36 and 72 months of age from 6 countries in East Asia and the Pacific. Fine and gross motor skills, EF, language and literacy achievement, and mathematics achievement were evaluated using the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales, a tool that assesses child development in 7 domains. Children’s caregivers provided demographic information. There were 3 salient findings. First, gross and fine motor skills predicted both language and literacy and mathematics achievement. Second, in general, fine motor skills contributed more to the prediction of early achievement than gross motor skills. However, there were no differences between the contributions of fine and gross motor skills to the prediction of early language and literacy in Papua New Guinea or early mathematics in Timor-Leste. Third, EF partially mediated the relation between both early achievement and gross and fine motor skills in the overall sample, Cambodia, and Timor-Leste and fully mediated the association of gross motor skills and early achievement in China, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu. Practice or Policy: Implications of the findings for early childhood education are discussed.     

‘Shit shows’ or ‘like-minded schools’: charter schools and the neoliberal logic of Teach For America

Over the past three decades, two neoliberal educational reform efforts have emerged in tandem – the charter school movement and Teach For America (TFA). This paper critically examines the relationship between these entities through the lens of TFA corps members placed in charter schools, and explores two types of schools described by interviewees, namely, ‘shit shows,’ and ‘like-minded schools.’ Grounded in corps members’ teaching experiences, this paper argues that even at its best, the close partnership between TFA and charters can create a mutually reinforcing educational subculture that is isolated from broader educational discourses and practices. At its worst, this partnership can result in the ill-advised ‘propping up’ of under-funded, mismanaged, ill-equipped charters that might otherwise struggle to find adequate staffing and, consequently, close. This paper suggests that these two tendencies – toward corps members’ insularity and poor placement – have the potential to conflict with the charter movement’s and TFA’s stated purposes of improving the quality of schooling for disadvantaged and marginalized students.     

Curriculum and pedagogy in Key Stage 2: a survey of policy and practice in small rural primary schools

ABSTRACT

Small primary schools have often been criticized for their staff's inevitably limited cur‐ ricular expertise and consequent difficulty in providing a full National Curriculum for their pupils. Yet in terms of standards of attainment and quality of teaching such schools are rated rather more favourably than larger ones in OFSTED inspections. Based on an investigation of policy and practice in thirteen small primary schools this article attempts to examine the reality of small schools’ planning and implementation of National Curriculum requirements at Key Stage 2 and suggests possible reasons for their ‘better’ performance, at least as judged by OFSTED inspectors.