The management of child abuse and neglect cases in schools: The Toronto model

School staffs have a major role in the prevention, identification and referral of cases of child abuse and neglect School administrators, teachers and school support staffs require knowledge about abuse and neglect, as well as a clear set of guidelines and procedures for dealing with it if they are to carry out these responsibilities effectively.The Toronto Board of Education has developed a program that has involved superintendents, principals, teachers, pupil personnel staff, caretakers, secretaries and community resources in an educational program oriented to the management of child abuse cases in their schools. The Board's Child Abuse Committee has developed a document which outlines employees' responsibilities under the legislation, provides assistance in the identification of child abuse and neglect cases, and outlines procedures for referral both internally and to the community. The document was used as the base for an extensive staff development program during the school year 1979–1980, in which all of the system's 6,000 school based employees participated.The Toronto Board's Child Abuse Program incorporated the establishment of the position “Resource Person, Child Abuse” for the purpose of consultation with school staffs, as well as the ongoing provision of resource material and staff training.The paper outlines the development of the program, includes guidelines and procedures for school staffs, the legislation under which it operates, the content of the training program, and an evaluation of the program with suggestions for replication.     

Language Games and Schooling: Discourses of colonialism in Kiribati education

The present secondary education system in Kiribati is little changed from its establishment and growth through the colonial years when the island group was known as the Gilbert Islands. It is marked by a heavy emphasis on English language and a curriculum geared to place students in a limited labour market. It is also marked by an uneven distribution of privilege across the population it serves. This article suggests a theoretical basis for critiquing the dominant voices in the educational and colonial past and their representations of Kiribati others. In such a critique, the legitimising technologies and discursive practices that have helped shape these educational practices are exposed. The act of exposing “how they did it” in turn creates the conditions for more equitable educational futures. This article presents a critical postcolonial discourse analysis of some language and language teaching policies from the Kiribati educational and colonial past. Though focused on Kiribati, the ideas here have relevance across the Pacific region.     

Active older adults in adventure education: how their experiences can influence outdoor adventure education program opportunities

ABSTRACT

By 2029, 20% of the U.S. population will be ≥65-years-old. American demographics are changing, understanding of the ≥65-year-old demographic has not. We investigated expectation variables of participants born between 1946 and 1964 in the United States, and identified how expectation trends have changed over time also describing gender differences. We used secondary data from a motivation study published in 2015 to identify the expectations of active older adults. Four years of data were used (n = 71) in a self-selection of four adventure activities (rock climbing, flat-water canoeing, white water kayaking and sea kayaking). Older adults expected experiences in the natural environment, with social factors, and where they were either starting a new activity, or honing acquired skills. They were not focused on danger or the use of personal gear. We recommend programming that caters to an aging population, as well as considerations for gender.     

A Practical Way of Structuring Teaching for Learning

Over recent years there has been a convergence of ideas about how students learn. This is useful information for developing teaching methods that make effective learning more likely. An attempt to put this into practice in an introductory education subject is described in detail. It involved making decisions about issues that are common to different approaches to teaching in higher education. These included the way activities were structured, how experiences were used, the sorts of choices students could exercise and how learning was distributed. It is argued that learning in higher education depends on the balance that is struck in terms of these and related decisions.     

Using Interviews to Predict the Success of Teacher‐education Students

In November 1987, the School of Education at the University of Tasmania at Launceston (then the Tasmanian State Institute of Technology) commenced a programme of pre‐entry assessment of BEd applicants with a view to conducting an ongoing research programme aimed at improving the quality of trainee teachers. Pre‐entry data gathering included English and mathematics skills, learning style, Higher School Certificate (HSC) aggregate scores and interview assessments of each applicant by a panel of at least two academic staff of the School. This paper reports findings from the interview data gathered on students who entered the BEd programme in 1989. In particular, the evidence from this cohort of students suggests that interview ratings by academic staff are successful predictors of future practice‐teaching performance, whereas HSC aggregate scores are not at all predictive. In addition to this finding, the data indicate that staff interview assessments are only marginally weaker than HSC aggregate scores as predictors of academic performance on the BEd course.     

Toward an international measure of global competence? A critical look at the PISA 2018 framework

This paper focuses on the OECD’s PISA 2018 international framework for global competence. Given the growing national and international attention on educating for global competence, and absent of other measures, there is a need to scrutinise this framework. Our critical analysis is conceptually framed by academic literature related to (a) the OECD’s influential role in facilitating neoliberal education policy trends, (b) disjuncture and debate surrounding global competence, and (c) how influence is garnered through measurement technologies. We conclude by encouraging the OECD to be transparent in the reporting of results and educational stakeholders to be cautious interpreters of forthcoming results and rankings.     

Implications for instruction arising from the relationship between approaches to studying and academic outcomes

The study used the Approaches to Studying Inventory of Ramsden and Entwistle (1981) on a sample of 1095 internal and external students at the Capricornia Institute and the Tasmanian State Institute of Technology in Australia. The inventory yields scores for sixteen sub-scales relating to approach to study. Discriminant analyses were performed separately for external and internal students, using the sub-scale scores as discriminating variables. The variables distinguished significantly between those who persisted with a course and those who withdrew or failed. Discriminant functions were also produced to distinguish students receiving pass grades from those achieving a higher grade. A different set of variables appeared in this discriminant function showing that withdrawal or drop-out could not be treated as part of a continuous scale of grades awarded. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between input variables (eg, curriculum, instructional design and learning environment), process (approach to studying) and the output or course outcomes. Surface approach was the major discriminator between withdrawal, or failure, and persistence. The effect of study skills programmes and curriculum changes on surface approach and hence persistence is discussed.     

Convergent validity of group tests of cognitive development

This study was designed to investigate the convergent validity of individual clinical task interviews as presented by Piaget and Inhelder paired with three widely used group tests of cognitive development. These tests are designed to assess the acquisition of cognitive abilities. The three group test raw scores paired with summed raw scores on four concrete-formal task interviews yielded the following Pearson product-moment correlations: Reasoning Test (Ankney and Joyce), 0.43; Logical Reasoning Test (Burney), 0.61; Classroom Test of Formal Operations (Lawson), 0.37. The raw data was then ranked into cognitive level groups and presented on contingency tables. The following contingency coefficients were determined: Logical Reasoning Test, 0.52; Logical Reasoning Test (adjusted), 0.61; Classroom Test of Formal Operations, 0.50. This study reflects that the Reasoning Test tends to indicate lower cognitive levels of subjects when paired with summed scores on the clinical task interviews, whereas the Logical Reasoning Test and the Classroom Test of Formal Operations tend to indicate higher cognitive levels of subjects when paired with summed scores on the clinical task interviews. In each case the correlations do not appear to be sufficiently strong to warrant selection or categorization of an individual student based on his/her test performance.