Instructional Leadership in Compulsory Schools in Iceland and the Role of School Principals

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a study of instructional leadership in 20 Icelandic compulsory schools. More specifically, the perceptions of staff concerning supervision of instruction, and the views of principals regarding their role as supervisors of instructional development. Data was collected with questionnaires from staff and interviews with principals. The approach was based on a mixed-methods design. The findings indicate that supervision of instruction differs between the schools. Principals provide for little direct supervision of teachers, however, they provide considerable indirect supervision. The supervision of instruction suggests that collegial supervisory emphasis is considerable in most of the schools. The collegial model, however, emphasizes systematic collection of data on what happens in classrooms, an important element that is largely neglected in the Icelandic schools.     

ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool Children's Version (ICAST-C): Instrument development and multi-national pilot testing

ObjectiveTo develop a child victimization survey among a diverse group of child protection experts and examine the performance of the instrument through a set of international pilot studies.MethodsThe initial draft of the instrument was developed after input from scientists and practitioners representing 40 countries. Volunteers from the larger group of scientists participating in the Delphi review of the ICAST P and R reviewed the ICAST C by email in 2 rounds resulting in a final instrument. The ICAST C was then translated and back translated into six languages and field tested in four countries using a convenience sample of 571 children 12–17 years of age selected from schools and classrooms to which the investigators had easy access.ResultsThe final ICAST C Home has 38 items and the ICAST C Institution has 44 items. These items serve as screeners and positive endorsements are followed by queries for frequency and perpetrator. Half of respondents were boys (49%). Endorsement for various forms of victimization ranged from 0 to 51%. Many children report violence exposure (51%), physical victimization (55%), psychological victimization (66%), sexual victimization (18%), and neglect in their homes (37%) in the last year. High rates of physical victimization (57%), psychological victimization (59%), and sexual victimization (22%) were also reported in schools in the last year. Internal consistency was moderate to high (alpha between .685 and .855) and missing data low (less than 1.5% for all but one item).ConclusionsIn pilot testing, the ICAST C identifies high rates of child victimization in all domains. Rates of missing data are low, and internal consistency is moderate to high. Pilot testing demonstrated the feasibility of using child self-report as one strategy to assess child victimization.Practice implicationsThe ICAST C is a multi-national, multi-lingual, consensus-based survey instrument. It is available in six languages for international research to estimate child victimization. Assessing the prevalence of child victimization is critical in understanding the scope of the problem, setting national and local priorities, and garnering support for program and policy development aimed at child protection.     

Understanding the prospect of success in professional training: an ethnography into the assessment of problem-based learning

One of the most fundamental innovations in higher education is the introduction of the method known as problem-based learning (PBL). While literature has largely focused on its learning goals and the transition from lectures to tutorials, little research has problematised why this is a successful methodology and what we consider as students’ success. Drawing upon various ethnographic techniques, the authors analyse PBL as a field of expectations in light of Expectation-Value Theory. Beyond merely showing that PBL is a culturally constructed practice, the article elaborates on how students’ expectations inform practices, performance and evaluation, which is important for assessing the successfulness of the method. By discussing students’ expectations, dynamics and power relations, the present article is a contribution to the research addressing what has come to be known as the ‘black box’ of PBL.     

Young science journalism: writing popular scientific articles may contribute to an increase of high-school students’ interest in the natural sciences

Far too few high-school students choose subjects from the natural sciences (NaSc) for their majors in many countries. Even fewer study biology, chemistry or physics at university. Those, that do, often lack training to present and discuss scientific results and ideas in texts. To meet these challenges the center for didactics of biology of Graz University has set up the program Young Science Journalism. This new workshop-based interdisciplinary concept was tested in an exploratory study with grade 10 students of one Austrian high school, engaging both the biology and the German teacher of the class. It was our aim to raise students’ interest in the NaSc by encouraging them to write popular scientific articles about self-chosen topics, and to help them improve their writing competence. In this paper we focus on interest development through writing. Results from this pilot study were promising. Using a mixed-method approach (comparing pre- and post-test questionnaires and semi-structured interviews from different time points analyzed qualitatively), we found that almost all students valued the project-related work highly. Most of them showed higher interest in the NaSc at project end with girls, in average, seeming to profit more from project participation. We thus recommend integrating such writing tasks into school curricula to increase students’ interest in NaSc or to even create new interest. Additionally, we introduce a network presentation of questionnaire data as a powerful tool to visualize the effect of an intervention on individual students and student profile groups.     

Psychological factors with an impact on orientation and mobility in blind children

Abstract

Instruction in orientation and mobility should provide knowledge and skills to enable a blind person to travel safely, efficiently, gracefully and independently. Several psychological variables which might have an impact on these abilities and skills are discussed especially as they are related to developmental aspects of blind children. Their importance should be considered when teaching or assessing orientation and mobility performances with blind and partially sighted children.     

Vocational education and training and transitions into the labour market of persons with intellectual disabilities

The aim of the study is to deepen the understanding of teacher’s perspective on how to promote all children’s learning in reading and writing in grade 1 of primary school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in a Swedish context with 18 primary school teachers, representing a large collective experience from working as teachers in grade 1. The result shows there is a lack of sharing information and experiences, between preschool class and grade 1, concerning reading and writing activities and instructions. The teachers’ perspectives on reading and writing instruction can be described as pluralistic, in the sense that each teacher refers to several strategies and approaches to promote learning and development related to reading and writing. The variation of children appears to give meaning to the work of the teachers in the study, though it also is associated with challenges e.g. the experience of being alone and not sufficient to support children’s different abilities, experiences and needs. According to teachers in the study, the additional support in schools is more remedial than preventive since the resources are mainly invested in older students.     

Volunteers in college teaching

Volunteers have worked traditionally with individuals whom society identifies as in need of extra help, be they physically handicapped, emotionally impoverished, or culturally disadvantaged. Recently, however, some nontraditional programs in higher education have begun to use volunteers to teach college classes. A five-year experience of the Experimental Programs Division at Kent State University with the use of volunteers in college teaching suggests that there may be intrinsic advantages to volunteerism in higher education.Helga Kaplan has completed her doctoral dissertation in history and is presently working as Assistant Director in the Experimental Programs Division. She has previously published inThe Journal of College Student Personnel.Donald M. Hassler has been Director of the Experimental Programs Division for the same period of time. He has published two books on literature. This is his first publication in the field of education. The authors' address is c/o Experimental Programs Division, Honors and Experimental College, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242.     

Accurate DRL performance in the pigeon: Comparison between perching and treadle pressing

Homing pigeons were reinforced for emitting a perching response according to differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) schedules. The spacing requirement between successive perchings was progressively increased by 1-sec steps up to 70 sec and then abruptly decreased to 60, 40, and 20 sec. IRT/OP (interresponse time/opportunity) functions were maximal near the time of reinforcement. The coefficients of variation of the IRT distributions (ratio between the interquartile range and median IRT) fluctuated around .32, testifying for equivalent levels of adjustment throughout the critical IRT range. The ratio between reinforced and total IRTs ranged between .90 and .20. These data contrast with the performance of another group of pigeons reinforced for a treadle-pressing response according to DRL schedules (flatter IRT/OP functions, high coefficients of variation, and low efficiencies). Despite these differences in temporal regulation between perching and treadle-pressing DRL, response rates and reinforcement rates followed the same trend in both cases: they decreased as schedule value increased. The DRL perching results are similar to previous results obtained in the same species when perching duration was reinforced.