Doing a Jigsaw Without the Picture

This paper is one teacher's account of an attempt to confront his own professional concerns through a process of critical reflection and classroom‐based self‐evaluation. The writer examines his own motives, as well as the pedagogical issues he faces teaching English to a low‐ability class. The account chronicles the writer's exploration of these issues through an experimental all day workshop on Romeo and Juliet, and concludes with some insights Into the process of curriculum change and the culture of the Institutions within which it takes place.     

Towards an understanding of the use of an institutional repository with integrated social networking tools: A case study of PocketKnowledge

Transaction log analysis (TLA), content analysis, and grounded theory procedures were used to explore the use of an institutional digital repository and social networking website by the academic community of a graduate school of education in the northeastern United States. Three successive years of usage records were gathered and analyzed to determine: (a) the numbers and categories of persons signing up to use the repository during each school semester, (b) the type of content being archived and its rate of growth, and (c) the possible influence of the repository on collaborative, online and open access scholarship within the institution. Findings show a steady increase in the usage of the repository for archiving and sharing digital resources, and an item-tagging scheme that suggests user preference of the resource as a platform for enhancing professional rather than personal interests. User interactivity by way of textual scholarly discussions on the repository platform is however almost nonexistent.     

Correction equations to adjust self-reported height and weight for obesity estimates among college students

The purposes of this study were to generate correction equations for self-reported height and weight quartiles and to test the accuracy of the body mass index (BMI) classification based on corrected self-reported height and weight among 739 male and 434 female college students. The BMIqc (from height and weight quartile-specific, corrected self-reported measurements) provided a more accurate estimation of BMI classification than BMIc (from corrected self-reported measurements) and BMIs (from self-reported measurements) by showing a greater ability to predict cases with either a high or a low BMI category while still maintaining a high specificity. However, the equations are applicable only to Caucasian college student populations, so cross-validation in similar populations is needed before they are used more broadly.     

Reinventing the Past: the Case of the English Tradition of Education

This paper explores the linkages between national identity and educational traditions, and the range and flexibility of the incarnations of tradition. It investigates in detail three versions of a specifically English tradition in education that have been generated at different times in England over the past century. These are Cyril Norwood's account of the English tradition in the 1920s, Fred Clarke's portrayal of education and social change in the 1940s, and the ideals of teachers' professional autonomy as they were articulated in the post-war period. In each instance the 'tradition' developed as responses to contemporary challenges and threats, and asserted particular images of the past to justify a given approach to present and future changes. These representations of the national tradition have thereby established sets of values and principles drawn from idealised versions of the educational past that provided guidelines for reform, and the direction and guide-lines of change.     

Discussion Paper--Are Eggs the Right Size for Egg Cups Because of Good Planning by Hens? Where is Reading Research Going?

Research effort in special education often seeks explanation for children's learning difficulties in hypothetical cognitive processes that are assumed to underpin competence. This is particularly the case with reading difficulty. Despite disappointing empirical evidence about the significance of such constructs, repeated efforts are made to discover them. An argument is made here for the case that the reasoning that lies behind these efforts relies on an artificial distinction between performances (such as reading) and supposed faculties (such as memory or awareness). The construction of this distinction means that illegitimate cause-effect inferences are made about simple associations. The result of this sort of reasoning is a raft of assessments and special pedagogies whose benefits are, at best, dubious and whose ultimate effect is to exaggerate differences between children. The end product of the process is the logic of separating and segregating out those who supposedly need such different treatment.     

Privatising the Past? History and Education Policy in the 1990s

A fundamental shift has taken place in the relationship between images of the past and educational policy making. In the 1930s and 1940s, a shared public past was incorporated in State policy to denote gradual evolution towards improvement in education and in the wider society. This consensual image has become fractured and less comforting especially since the 1970s. In particular, it has divided into a largely alienated or estranged public past, and personalised images of a reassuring and nostalgic 'private past'. This privatising of the past has exerted an increasing influence in education policy in the 1980s and 1990s, reflecting the concurrent trend towards an emphasis on 'choice and diversity' in education.