Conscientious withdrawal from religious education in Scotland: anachronism or necessary right?

This paper considers the right of parental withdrawal from the statutory subject Religious Education (RE) in Scottish primary and secondary schools. The background, history and current legislative situation relating to this right are considered, as well as current discussions and debates about this issue. The intentions are to establish how often and for what reasons parents opt to withdraw their children, as well as to investigate how schools and local authorities respond to requests for withdrawal. This research is informed by a survey of primary and secondary schools within two local authorities in particular. It emerges that there are relatively few cases of withdrawal. A majority of participating schools argued for the abolition of this right.     

Developing an inclusive learning environment for students with visual impairment in higher education: progressive mutual accommodation and learner experiences in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Drawing on the findings of a unique longitudinal qualitative study, this article investigates the experiences of 32 young people with visual impairment (VI) in higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom (UK) to explore how well they were able to participate on their courses. We propose and apply a Bioecological Model of Inclusive HE to interpret these experiences and examine how accommodations were made to facilitate participation. Focusing specifically on ‘curriculum access’, the results highlight the importance of accommodations that are progressive and mutual. The accommodations come in many forms and include: the provision of resources through nationally based schemes (e.g. the Disabled Students Allowance in the UK); the support, adjustments and anticipatory adjustments HE institutions should provide; and the study skills and independence skills individual students should be able to act upon. The findings showed that while the majority of participants reported that their HE institution made some adjustments to enable them to access their course, a lack of anticipatory adjustments created barriers. The most common compensation for this barrier was to provide deadline extensions, often resulting in additional pressure on other aspects of the course. Interviews with university staff highlighted limited specialist knowledge and resources within their institutions to enable accommodations for students with VI and, more broadly, understanding of how to develop an inclusive learning experience. The findings also highlighted expectations made of the learner, particularly being able to explain their required adjustments and having well-developed independent study skills. The paper has particular relevance to HE institutions in that it provides a model to aid interpretation of their role in creating an inclusive learning experience for students with VI. It also offers a reference point for professionals supporting young people with a broader range of disabilities in considering how best to prepare them for life after compulsory education.     

Moderation of peer assessment in group projects

It is shown here that a grade distribution scheme commonly used to moderate peer assessments where self assessment is excluded is based on a false premise and will give an erroneous ranking in the situation where the best performer in a student group ranks the second best performer much higher than the other group members. An alternative to normalisation is proposed based on the idea that the rank order of peer grades should be preserved and should as far as possible be consistent between assessors. It is shown that the method correctly recovers the rank order of students within the group for all cases examined, while still eliminating biases that can result from differences in marking standards in the group. It is suggested that the approach could also be used to check for bias when self assessment is included.     

Cognitive Style and Gender Differences in Drawing from Memory Versus Copying in 11‐year‐old Children

A total of 71 11‐year‐old children were asked to draw two pictures: one by copying and one from memory. The quality of each of their drawings was assessed on a five‐point scale by four adult judges rating independently. The cognitive style of each child was assessed by means of the Cognitive Styles Analysis. A significant effect of Verbal‐Imagery Style was observed in which Verbalisers were superior to Imagers in overall drawing performance. There was also a significant interaction between drawing task‐type and gender in which females were superior to males, particularly in drawing from memory. These findings were discussed in terms of the representation of information in memory.     

Buffer,coupling, and broker: Reflections on 60 years of the UGC

The main conclusion of this survey of the way in which the British University Grants Committee (UGC) has acted as an intermediary between government and universities is that the UGC secures the maximum degree of self-government possible at any given time. How great that “maximum” is depends essentially on the power and purposes of the two principals (government and universities) rather than on the limited powers of the go-between (the UGC). Whereas for the first 45 years of its existence the relations between the principals were such as to focus attention on the UGC as “buffer,” changes in those relations since 1963 have emphasised the fact that the UGC is also a “coupling” between state and higher education. The pressures of economic circumstance and government action have suppressed the “euphoria” that accompanied the expansionist fifties and sixties, but to kill the messenger would be inappropriate.     

Using new vocabulary in writing: Exploring how word and learner characteristics relate to the likelihood that writers use newly taught vocabulary

Understanding academic vocabulary is essential to student success in school. Use of academic vocabulary words in writing is considered one of the strongest measures of how well a reader understands a given word. In theory, willingness to use academic vocabulary in writing indicates the complexity of acquiring representations of the word’s orthography, phonology, and semantics based on the word’s characteristics. In addition, a learner’s overall literacy skills should relate to whether they attempt to use words. In the present study, sixth graders (n = 66), seventh graders (n = 60), and eighth graders (n = 41) learned 25 academic vocabulary words in a supplementary academic vocabulary intervention and were then asked to use those words in short persuasive essay drafts. We measured whether these students attempted to use a word (a binary uses outcome) and the number of times a student used a word (a continuous attempts outcome) and used cross-classified random effects models to examine how (a) the orthographic, phonological, and semantic characteristics of words and (b) the students’ literacy-related characteristics related to their uses and attempts. For word characteristics, students were more likely to use and attempt high frequency than low frequency words. For student characteristics, students proficient on the state exam were more likely to use and attempt the words, and students learning English were less likely to attempt the words. Implications for vocabulary intervention and writing instruction are discussed.     

Does science education need the history of science?

This essay argues that science education can gain from close engagement with the history of science both in the training of prospective vocational scientists and in educating the broader public about the nature of science. First it shows how historicizing science in the classroom can improve the pedagogical experience of science students and might even help them turn into more effective professional practitioners of science. Then it examines how historians of science can support the scientific education of the general public at a time when debates over "intelligent design" are raising major questions over the kind of science that ought to be available to children in their school curricula. It concludes by considering further work that might be undertaken to show how history of science could be of more general educational interest and utility, well beyond the closed academic domains in which historians of science typically operate.     

Information Technology in Initial Teacher Education: preconceptions of history and geography interns,with reflections of mentors and tutors

ABSTRACT

The results of a survey of experiences, feelings and preconceptions concerning information technology (IT) that University of Oxford history and geography interns bring to the one year secondary teacher training course are reported. A notable finding was the significantly greater importance attributed to the use of computers in subject teaching by geography interns compared with historians, and the relatively large numbers of the latter ascribing little or no importance to the use of computers in the teaching of history. Analysis of the qualitative data provided by this study provided a range of insights into the ways in which geography and history interns viewed information technology. There was a marked difference between the two groups not only in their feelings about IT but in the degree of sophistication with which they articulated IT issues. The geographers were more positive and were able to support their views with specific examples of software and applications. Their level of knowledge and understanding was often well developed. The historians, in contrast, rarely exhibited the same level of specificity. They viewed IT in a more generalised way. It was often assumed to be ‘a good thing’ and something that might be useful, but there was a marked degree of uncertainty. There was however a distinct group within the historians who exhibited a high degree of anxiety about IT and where views were expressed in very emotive terms. Reflections of a group of school mentors and university curriculum tutors on the findings are also described, and a number of issues and dilemmas for initial teacher education partnership schemes are identified.