City of London School and Communities that Care: Researching Pupil Experience to Inform Policy and Practice in the Independent Sector

This article is an account of the decision by an independent school to participate in its local Healthy Schools Scheme. One of the factors that influenced this decision was the value the school gained from a pupil survey. The same survey was used to track the impact of the school's Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum and pastoral work on pupils' experience of the school, and academic achievement. In particular, the authors explore the role of survey analysis and consultancy advice in interpreting survey results and developing school practice. The survey contributed to pupil participation in school development. The use of an external consultant as critical friend was perceived as an aid to school reflection and self-review.     

"动摇概念的根基":下一代信息服务需要将研究和技术支持相结合

近几十年里,尽管图书馆的用户需求及服务技术发生了显著变化,图书馆的很多方面都在转型,但是参考服务的基本方式并未改变。信息服务应该考虑在获取技术支持方面寻求新的伙伴,切实地承担起利用新的技术手段开展本地和网络服务的任务,更多地开展资源利用充分、复杂程度较高的多层次的试验性服务。要改变当前的处境,可以通过机构重组,将图书馆员和技术专家组合到一起,使他们在一个服务环境里共同工作,以保证信息服务机构可以更充分、更灵活地介入网络,更有效地满足用户的需要。     

Teaching Method,Memory and Learning: an enquiry with primary school children

The problem of different teaching methods is briefly discussed in the context of Bennett's work. An experiment involving four different teaching strategies carried out with about 200 senior primary school children is described. Results obtained on two appropriate tests are presented and analysed. The analysis suggests that there is no one uniformly best teaching method, though one appears to be uniformly weak. The other three are effective, or ineffective, insofar as they do, or do not, satisfy the criteria for memory set out by Craik.     

Publishing papers in international journals

Conclusions It is not going to get any easier to publish internationally. However, if you do good work, with new information, and can present it acceptably, then you should get published. Thus the key to getting published lies in the research more than in writing the paper. Conversely, good writing and presentation will not hide bad research in these competitive days.     

EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION: CONTENT AND CONTEXT

The author describes her work as Education Officer for Thames Television. Broadcast ETV has failed to make as much impact as it should because of teachers’ difficulties in finding time to integrate television into their teaching, and producers’ difficulties in discovering programme styles which work for children familiar with adult viewing. There is a real need for greater D.E.S. involvement both in sponsoring research on children's media comprehension and in encouraging teacher training in television use.     

Intergroup Attitudes among Ethnic Minority Adolescents: A Causal Model

To examine the influence of ethnic idenilty and intergroup contact on adolescents' attitudes toward other ethnic groups, we studied eighth and eleventh graders from 2 predominantly non-white school districts. Surveys completed by 547 adolescents from 3 ethnic groups (133 African Americans, 219 Latinos, and 195 Asian Americans) assessed in-group and out-group attitudes, out-group interaction, out-group contact, and ethnic identity. A causal model suggested 2 pathways leading to positive out-group attitudes. In one pathway, ethnic identity increased with age and predicted positive in-group attitudes; these attitudes contributed to positive out-group attitudes. In a separate pathway, ethnic diversity outside of schcool led to more out-group interaction in school, which in turn predicted positive out-group attitudes. The results support developmental and multiculturalism views of intergroup relations.     

‘It’s not about punitive’: exploring how early-career teachers in high-poverty schools respond to critical incidents

ABSTRACT

This article explores how early-career teachers working in high-poverty schools in Australia account for their decision-making during critical classroom incidents. Classroom management solutions are problematized by investigating how two teachers take up particular positions, make decisions, and enact what they believe to be ‘quality teaching’ in context. Through a combination of interviews and observations of teachers ‘in situ’, we examine what these teachers do, why they do it, what informs their decisions, and how they reflect on their actions. The complexity of teachers’ work in schools located in high-poverty areas is highlighted. We argue that both early-career teachers prefer to position themselves within ‘pastoral’, in contrast to ‘disciplinarian’, discourses, as part of constituting the school as a site of possibility and teachers who advocate for youth growing up in poverty.     

Improving methods of consulting with young people: Piloting a new model of consultation

National and international legislation has increasingly placed a duty on professionals to consult with young people about matters affecting their lives. Consequently, conducting consultation exercises with young people in order to improve the quality of services available is becoming established practice in many areas. Following on from previous research which asked children and young people about ways they prefer to be consulted, this study developed a new model of consultation to enhance the effectiveness of meetings that young people attend in order to discuss their additional support needs. This model was implemented in a series of consultation meetings in three secondary schools, and was evaluated by examining the views of the key stakeholders (pupils, parents, school staff, visiting professionals) through questionnaires and interviews. The findings suggest that this new model did have a positive impact on the young people who were involved and was perceived positively by all stakeholder groups. This model can provide guidance for EPs and other professionals who wish to effectively involve children and young people in the consultation process.