Assessment of Art Education in Hungary: Historical Problems in Contemporary Perspective

Although art teachers are mostly unwilling to undertake assessment procedures or examinations, the history of art education suggests that even the earliest art programmes ended in rather rigid trials of draughtsmanship. A group of researchers including the author of this paper was commissioned to develop new methods for final examinations and, after surveying the existing methods and work done during the 1980s when art became one of the electives at the school-leaving examinations of the secondary grammar school, we were struck by the similarity between current tasks and solutions and 19th century works and models. Changing the methods of examinations in our case will certainly involve the reinterpretation of the academic heritage that at the same time elevates and cripples Hungarian art education at the secondary school level. This paper illustrates and interprets the philosophy of the examinations and art concourses from important periods of Hungarian educational history and outlines the passage of the Hungarian art teacher from the supposedly ‘eternal’ world of the Academia to the ‘banal’, ‘transitional’, ‘vulgar’ realms of contemporary visual communication.     

Empowering and Enabling or Patronising and Pressurising?: Opening dialogues between staff and students

In this article we reflect on the process and experience of our attempts to open dialogues between Women's Studies staff and students on the topic of feminist teaching practices. The article provides biographies of the staff and students concerned, discusses what is meant by empowerment and delinates the debates regarding the Women's Studies teaching model. By reflecting on the responses made to the points in an earlier conference paper on teaching practices we address the contradictions and conflicts inherent in attempting 'empowering' education and opening dialogues.     

Written emotional expression as an intervention for asthma

This investigation employed a multiple baseline design across five participants to examine written emotional expression as an intervention to improve lung function in high school‐aged students, college students, and adults with asthma. The predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁ measure of large airway functioning) and forced expiratory flow (FEF_25–75 measure of small airway functioning) were evaluated using spirometry. In addition, anxiety was measured using state and trait anxiety self‐report scales. Generally, results were effective. Individuals with asthma are at higher risk for increased hospitalization and death. For the school‐aged population, asthma is associated with increased absenteeism, restriction of various class activities such as physical education, and poor relationships with peers. Therefore, adults and children with asthma are in need of services and school psychologists appear uniquely qualified to intervene. More recently, the role of the school psychologist is diversifying with corresponding training (e.g., wellness, consultation, prevention, assessment and treatment of health issues) in the areas of health‐related disorders that involve a psychological component. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 193–207, 2003.     

The Effect of Inference Training on Skilled and Less Skilled Comprehenders

This paper assess the impact of introducing inference training to skilled and less skilled comprehenders. Children aged between 6 years 6 months and 9 years 11 months, classified as skilled or less skilled comprehenders, were instructed on how to make inferences from and generate questions about a text over a period of six sessions. Comparison groups of skilled and less skilled comprehenders were trained in standard comprehension strategies. The less skilled group showed a significantly greater improvement than the skilled group, regardless of the training given, but inference training was significantly more effective than standard comprehension strategies in the less skilled group. Seven out of ten less skilled readers who were inference trained increased their performance sufficiently to become classified as skilled comprehenders, whilst four out of ten less skilled comprehenders taught standard comprehension strategies improved to the same level. It is concluded that the value of explicitly teaching children inferential skills is that the enjoyment of the task of reading is enhanced and is therefore more likely to be undertaken readily, even by pupils who may have initially found reading difficult.     

An Evaluation of Disposable Pens for Permanent Museum Records

Several brands of disposable black ink pens are commercially available, and some are advertised as suitable for archival purposes. The cost and convenience of using disposable pens made it worthwhile to investigate their value for permanent records. Characteristics compared included lightfastness, resistance to fluids, resistance to smearing and flaking, and utility. Results indicate certain types of disposable porous-plastic-tipped pens and roller-ball-tipped pens have qualities that fulfill some museum needs.     

Student-centred inquiry as curriculum as a model for field-based teacher education

This research project focuses on teacher education in a field-based methods course. We were interested in understanding what could be when we worked with pre-service teachers in a high school physical education class to assist them in the process of learning to listen and respond to their students in ways that might better facilitate young people’s interest, motivation and learning. To develop a theoretical understanding of what happened in this field-based methods course designed to promote listening and responding to students as a way to guide curriculum, we utilised grounded theory. In this paper, we describe a model, student-centred inquiry as curriculum, which includes a cyclical process of building the foundation, planning, responding to students, listening to respond and analysing the responses. Student centred-inquiry as curriculum is a blending of action in the historical, localised and particular lived realities of students and teachers illuminated through inquiry with the simultaneous engagement of autobiographies, the negotiation of student voice and the social construction of content. We discuss this model as a possibility for transforming the status quo of teacher education and K-12 schools.     

Religious schools in London: school admissions,religious composition and selectivity

While policy makers and school effectiveness researchers often insist that schools can make a substantial difference to student achievement, it is less clear whether school staff themselves really believe this. This paper draws on qualitative research in New Zealand schools where teachers, principals (heads) and trustees (governors) were asked how accountable they felt school staff could actually be for student outcomes. In contrast to official discourses about the responsibilities of teachers, the often complex responses of those interviewed illustrated relatively modest expectations of the ability of schools to affect student outcomes. The findings suggest that school staff have yet to take to heart the school effectiveness research catchcry that ‘schools can make a difference’ but that they also struggle to avoid a deficit approach without a stronger sociological understanding of the reasons for student failure.     

THE CONCURRENT VALIDITY OF STANDARDIZED ACHIEVEMENT TESTS BY CONTENT AREA USING TEACHERS' RATINGS AS CRITERIA

To assess the concurrent validity of standardized achievement tests using teachers' ratings (and rankings) of pupils' academic achievement as criteria, 42 teachers evaluated each of their students (n = 1,032) in each of five major curricular areas prior to the administration of a battery of standardized achievement tests. The teachers were directed to rate each student's proficiency disregarding attendance, attitude, deportment, and so on. Within-class correlation coefficients were computed to eliminate rater leniency bias. The standardized achievement tests were found to have substantial concurrent validity in reading, math, language arts, science, and social studies. The normalized teacher ranks yielded significantly higher validity coefficients than did the ratings, although the magnitude of the difference was small. The concurrent validity coefficients for language arts, reading, and math were significantly higher than those in science and social studies.