Preschool/Kindergarten teachers’ conceptions of standardised testing

ABSTRACT

Standardised tests play an important role in early childhood (EC) education in many countries. Although teachers’ conceptions largely determine whether and how these instruments are used, research on this topic is scarce. As a result, factors that influence conceptions of standardised testing have remained largely unexplored. To examine teachers’ conceptions of standardised testing and aspects that may influence these conceptions, Brown’s CoA-III-A questionnaire was distributed to 97 EC educators. Based on their responses, a selection of six preschool/kindergarten teachers participated in a series of semi-structured interviews. Analyses of the questionnaire and the interviews indicated that the teachers did not see these tests solely as instruments for accountability or improvement. While some perceived the test as pleasant confirmation, others perceived the results as negative opposition to their own observations. The teachers’ conceptions were influenced by classroom population, management team, and the ascribed purpose of the test.     

The development of strong career learning environments: the project ‘Career Orientation and Guidance’ in Dutch vocational education

Schools are increasingly acknowledging their responsibility to guide students in their career development. However, the guidance that is provided in the Netherlands, as well as in other Western countries, focuses for the most part on helping students towards their academic achievement, and not on helping them to develop competencies to manage their own career. In order to promote this type of career guidance, 37 secondary vocational schools in the Netherlands participated in a project that offered a training programme, aiming to teach teachers how to conduct career dialogues with students. The programme offers expert guidance to integrate a dialogical approach to career guidance and a more enquiry- and practice-based curriculum in the school’s vision and policy. In this article, the results of semi-structured interviews with 50 teachers who participated in the project are presented. These interviews were conducted right after the start of the project, to study how teachers perceive the initial situation regarding career development in their schools, as well as their perception of the initiated plans and ambitions for development, both in their own learning environment and the learning environment of their students.     

Negative incentive steering in a policy network

In this article the process of developing a policy for the recent comprehensive retrenchment operation in the Dutch university system is analysed from a theoretical point of view on decisionmaking. The article especially addresses the question whether some empirical evidence can be found for the rationalist view of collective decision-making, which states that a process of social communication should eventually lead to a unanimous and rational consensus concerning the selection of the optimal policy.The actual analysis concerns the way a retrenchment policy has been developed in a process of social communication between the most important actors: the Minister of Education and Science and the thirteen Dutch universities. It is assumed that the various communicative linkages between these actors can be interpreted as a policy network in which both governmental and non-governmental actors operate.The article concludes that in the Dutch university policy-network a complicated balance of interdependencies exists and that several sub-networks can be distinguished. It is also concluded that the Minister, while recognizing the interdependencies in the network, was able to use a special kind of (negative) incentive, inducing the universities to act as he wished.This negative incentive steering, however, also persuaded the universities to go to the utmost in their consultation efforts, thus trying to reach the rationalist ideal of collective decision-making. The final conclusion therefore is that the rationalist view of collective decision-making does not appear to be unrealistic. The article ends with a warning against a common mistake made regarding the normative appearance of the rationalist perspective.The case of the policy development process concerning the retrenchment operation in the Dutch university system in 1982 and 1983.     

Stimulus- and feeder-directed behavior in a long-box: Effect of fixed versus variable time schedules of food presentation

Two groups of 6 pigeons were exposed to either a fixed-time (FT) or a variable-time (VT) schedule of response-independent food presentation. The interval between two successive food presentations (food-food [FF] interval) was either 20 or 40 sec. The duration of stimulus presentation (stimulus-food [SF] interval) was varied relative to the FF interval. All subjects were exposed to different information ratios (IRs; IR = SF/FF; IR = 1.00, 0.50, 0.15). To study the relative contribution of sign- and goal-tracking behavior to keypecking observed in standard autoshaping procedures, pigeons were autoshaped in a long-box. In the long-box, the stimulus key and the feeder are located 60 cm apart. Stimuli were always presented at one end of the box, and food was presented at the other end. Locomotor behavior and keypecks were recorded. Pigeons engaged in sign-tracking behavior when IR = 0.15, but only when presentation of the food was unpredictable on the basis of other variables (e.g., the passage of time since the last food presentation, as in FT schedules). In the case of FT schedules, subjects engaged in feeder-directed activities. No effects of varying the FF interval were found. Keypecking was observed only when the SF interval was short (IR = 0.15) and food was presented on a VT schedule.     

The prevalence,development and domain specificity of elementary school students’ achievement goal profiles

This study’s aim was to examine the prevalence, development and domain specificity of fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students’ achievement goal profiles. Achievement goals were measured for language and mathematics among 722 pupils at three points in time. These data were analysed through latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis. Results indicated that three similar goal profiles could be discerned at all measurement waves for both language and mathematics. Profiles were labelled ‘multiple goals’, ‘approach oriented’ and ‘moderate/indifferent’. In both mathematics and language, around 80% of the participants remained stable in their goal profiles across measurements. Students who transitioned between goal profiles mostly moved from less to more favourable profiles. Profile membership and transitions between profiles were found to be relatively domain general with 60% overlap between domains. The high level of stability over time and across domains suggests that students’ goal profiles represent relatively stable personal dispositions.     

Danish and Finnish PISA results in a comparative, qualitative perspective: How can the stable and distinct differences between the Danish and Finnish PISA results be explained?

The research project presented in this article was designed to provide a better understanding of the stable and significant differences in the PISA results between two otherwise very similar Nordic welfare states, Denmark and Finland. In the PISA studies, Finnish students repeatedly achieve the highest Nordic (and partly worldwide) scores in e.g. reading, science and math, while Danish students score lower. Even though Denmark has one of the world’s most expensive educational systems, the OECD ranks the Finnish school system as the world’s best both in terms of quality and equity (OECD 2004). The basic research question is why these differences continue to persist. The case study methodology was mainly inspired by Kirsti Klette’s classroom research (Klette 2003) which involves both interviews and observations. Thus, the overall design could be labeled mixed methods (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie Educational Researcher, 33(7): 14-26, 2004). Five regular public schools in each country were sampled for the comparative classroom studies. The basic theoretical approaches follow Hundeide’s theory of pedagogical communication and relations (2003) and Csikszentmihalyi’s flow-theory (1992). Both this study and statistical studies (S?rensen 2008) show that the difference in the Danish and Finnish PISA results mainly consists in the relatively better score by the lowest scoring 25% of the Finnish pupils compared to the lowest scoring Danish quartile. The results of this study point to a number of possible classroom related reasons why the Finnish school system can produce a better outcome for the lowest scoring quartile of pupils. These reasons are presented and discussed in the article. The study underlines the need to focus more on good classroom management in Denmark—and recommends further international, comparative research in order better to understand the huge differences shown in large scale international programmes such as PISA, PIRLS and TIMMS. The study also reveal the need for more knowledge about inclusive classroom practices, the use of teacher assistants and free, healthy school meals for all pupils.     

A PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PERSPECTIVE ON THE STUDY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

This article explores the relationship between higher education research and the study of public administration, the concpetual perspectives of which are useful for understanding the links between government policy‐making and higher education. A short introduction to the study of public administration is followed by the presentation of six newly evolved concepts of public administration which are labeled as follows: comprehensive rationality, the community action approach, the public choice approach, political systems theory, policy sciences, and contingency and inter‐organizational approaches. All of these have contributed to the eclecticism and the conceptual pluralism of the discipline of public administration as a whole. Having been adapted to the theoretical underpinnings of the administration of higher education, these six concepts have stimulated the development of four theoretical models for the analysis of decision‐making processes in higher education: the analytical or rational actor model, the garbage can or organized anarchy model, the collegiality model, and the political model. Specific problems in higher education administration have been addressed, as they have arisen, with reference to one or more of the six concepts and the four decision‐making models. For the future, the public administration approach to higher education will be most likely to draw upon the study of co‐ordination mechanisms in collective decision‐making processes and the comparative analysis of the external functions and performances of government.