‘Soft power’, educational governance and political consensus in Brazil

This paper is concerned with the longstanding question of policy for those referred to nearly half a century ago by the Crowther Report as the ‘bottom half’; those mainly working class children who, in a sense, are ‘selected for failure’. The issue of selection is a matter of concern in countries around the world and has been at the centre of renewed political debate in Britain during 2005–2006. Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair has been keen to advance a policy of ‘freeing‐up’ secondary schools so as to provide ‘diversity’ and ‘more choice for parents and pupils’. Critics regard such a policy as involving ‘selection by other means’. This paper discusses questions of social class and inequality that are bound‐up with the issue of selection. The paper provides an account of ‘Blairite’ New Labour policy and discusses its closeness to new right education policy. The paper concludes with a discussion of radical proposals and observations on the prospects for the future.     

Disruptive Pupils and Teacher Stress

Teachers have identified a number of stress situations in their work with disruptive children. They experience insecurity because of the unpredictability of the children's behaviour. They feel vulnerable as they doubt the effectiveness of their coping resources. They are frustrated in their attempts to establish good communications with each other and with the professional workers outside their schools. Residential workers report additional demands because of their feelings of isolation and limited social relationships.

Staff responses to these stress situations can be grouped into three main categories: (i) behavioural; (ii) emotional; (iii) psychosomatic. Their recommendations for the reduction of stress emphasize the importance of group support and good inter‐professional communications. Some suggestions have been made to promote the development of healthy schools in which staff can find opportunities for personal and professional growth. Further explorations need to be made in the identification and development of inter‐professional teamwork skills.     

Confucius,Mao and modernization: social studies education in the People's Republic of China

Around the middle years of this century, American progressive educators formulated a vision of general education for the secondary school that would afford all youth common opportunities to integrate and apply knowledge toward the resolution of personal-social problems. This progressive vision of general education was consistent with principles of the US common school ideal and predated the heyday of general education at the college level. This progressive vision of general education can serve today both as a conceptual tool to analyse and as a practical alternative to the national standards movement in the US. This vision of general education also provides common ground for deliberation among reconceptualist-social reconstructionist and progressive-experimentalist curriculum theorists.     

A Graphical Method for Computing the Standard Error of Biserial r

Marsh and Hau reply briefly to remarkably diverse comments by Sivo and Willson (1998), Hoyle (1998), Markus (1998), Mulaik (1998), and others to their earlier article (Marsh &; Hau, 1996). Sivo and Willson provided a discussion of alternative–moving-average and autoregressive-moving-average–models that seemed only tangentially related to the Marsh and Hau article. Hoyle largely accepted Marsh and Hau's major contentions, but proposed an alternative representation of parsimony. Markus provided a highly literary and entertaining looking-glass perspective as a dialogue involving himself, Tweedledum, Tweedledee, the Cheshire Cat, and the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll's Wonderland in which he compared SM (Stan Mulaik) and SM (Straw Man) propositions. This was followed logically by Mulaik's righteous outrage with Marsh and Hau's total lack of understanding of parsimony as espoused by Mulaik and his (Occam's) razor gang, all but threatening “Off with their heads,” in the vein of yet another Lewis Carroll character, to which Marsh and Hau respond with an analogy from another literary work–The Emperor's New Clothes–and a rapprochement/compromise.     

Caring for the Pastoral Carers

Kevin McCarthy sees a slight irony in the idea of inspecting the spiritual dimension of education. Nevertheless, he argues strongly that schools' response to this should be creative. The resulting policy must be a whole-school one that involves both horizontal and vertical curriculum development. In the second part of his paper he describes how, in his own school, a programme is being developed which goes beyond the mechanistic approach to science typically found in examination syllabi. Starting from the students' own perceptions, this programme considers the big issue which underlies science: that of ‘the spiritual dimension’.     

KNOWING GOD: REVELATION AND THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

The author describes a public vision and task for religious education and Christian religious education. Using personal experience and the insights of ethnographic research and congregational studies, the author describes how religious education is grounded in a community, its story, and its practices. He illustrates how religious education often conflicts with the education that occurs in public life, and raises questions about how individuals negotiate the differences and build a religious education that nurtures public life and public conversation.     

A structural model of algebra achievement: computational fluency and spatial visualisation as mediators of the effect of working memory on algebra achievement

The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate a structural model of the relations among cognitive abilities and arithmetic skills and college students’ algebra achievement. The model of algebra achievement was compared to a model of performance on the Scholastic Assessment in Mathematics (SAT‐M) to determine whether the pattern of relations is similar for different types of higher level maths achievement. Structural equation modelling was used to test the effects of working memory, 3D spatial ability, and computational fluency on both types of higher order maths achievement. Computational fluency had the strongest effect on algebra achievement, with 3D spatial ability and working memory showing moderate effects. In contrast, 3D spatial ability had a stronger effect on SAT‐M scores than did computational fluency. Computational fluency and 3D spatial ability completely mediated the effect of working memory for both algebra and SAT‐M achievement.     

Changes in depressive symptoms in first time mothers in home visitation

ObjectiveThe expansion of Home Visitation Programs for at-risk, first-time mothers and their young children has drawn attention to the potential impact of depression on program outcomes, yet little research has examined depression in the context of home visitation. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of and changes in depressive symptoms in mothers enrolled in home visitation and identify predictors of change in symptoms over the first 9 months of service.MethodsSubjects consisted of 806 at-risk, first-time mothers enrolled in a Home Visitation Program. Self-reported depression was measured at enrollment and again 9 months later. Established clinical cutoffs were used to identify clinically elevated levels of depression. Additional measures were taken of interpersonal trauma history, concurrent intimate partner violence, and social support.ResultsResults indicated that: (1) 45.3% of mothers had clinically elevated symptoms of depression at some point during the first 9 months of service, (2) 25.9% of mothers had elevated symptoms at both time points or at the 9-month assessment, and (3) 74.1% experienced an interpersonal trauma prior to enrollment. Lack of improvement or worsening of depressive symptoms from enrollment to 9 months was best predicted by pre-enrollment interpersonal trauma history, young maternal age, being African American, and symptoms severe enough to have led to mental health treatment.ConclusionsFindings suggest that maternal depressive symptoms are a significant problem in home visitation. The role of interpersonal trauma in depressive symptoms, and how to best address these clinical issues in home visitation, warrants further examination.Practice implicationsMaternal depression is prevalent in Home Visitation Programs, and many mothers exhibit elevated symptoms at multiple time points over the first year of service. Interpersonal trauma history is also prevalent, and is predictive of increased depressive symptoms over time. Home Visitation Programs should note that mothers with interpersonal trauma history, young maternal age, and being African American have an increased likelihood of persistent depressive symptoms, which may in turn pose significant challenges to providing services.     

Using Clicker 5 to Enhance Emergent Literacy in Young Learners

Best practices in emergent literacy instruction for young children acknowledge and facilitate the smooth progression between children’s early engagement with print materials and subsequent fuller literacy mastery. In so doing, model programs target five key emergent literacy skills. The rapid rise in the breadth and depth of educational technology, including computer software, is offering early childhood education professionals new and powerful tools in teaching early literacy. This paper offers a brief review of best practices in emergent literacy, notes the growth of technology in this instruction, and examines the potential contributions of one specific software program, Clicker 5, in helping diverse emergent literacy learners acquire and practice initial reading and writing skills.