International Approaches to Whole-of-School Physical Activity Promotion

Increasing physical activity opportunities in schools has emerged as a global priority among school-aged youth. As a result, many countries have designed and implemented whole-of-school physical activity initiatives that seek to increase physical activity opportunities that are available to school-aged children before, during, and after school. Considering the comprehensive school physical activity program conceptual framework, this article includes a discussion of the initiatives from four countries: Finland (Finnish Schools on the Move), Ireland (Active School Flag), Poland (PE with Class), and the United States (Let’s Move Active Schools). Background information, implementation strategies, best practices, development opportunities, and relevant research from each country will be presented. Exploring different perspectives sheds some light on the international landscape relative to whole-of-school physical activity promotion and provides direction for future and continued research and practice.     

Heuristic maximization of the number of spanning trees in regular graphs

This paper deals with the problem of finding graphs (directed and undirected) maximizing the number of spanning trees among the regular graphs with the same number of nodes and edges. The approach is based on heuristic algorithms such as k-optimal and evolutionary. The emphasis is rather on checking whether these techniques are applicable to solving extremal graph problems than investigating generic structures of optimal graphs. For this reason circulant graphs, for which computationally effective tree counting formulas exist, are discussed first and then the results extended to cover the class of regular graphs.     

Education policy in Poland: The impact of PISA (and other international studies)

The impact of the PISA study on Polish education policy has been significant, but probably different from any other country. Poland has not experienced the so‐called ‘PISA shock’, but its education system has been benefiting considerably from PISA. For experts and policy makers, it has been a useful and reliable instrument that has made it possible to measure the effects of consecutive reforms of the school education system. Moreover, PISA and other international studies have influenced the perception of education policy in Poland. The latter has shifted from an ideology‐driven, centralised policy to an evidence‐informed policy, developed with the involvement of multiple stakeholders, although this has mostly affected the thinking of experts and policy makers rather than the general public. The new government (in power from 2015), following public opinion polls, has reversed most of the previous education reforms, eliminating lower secondary schools introduced in 1999.     

Goals and Policies of Higher Education Reform

If the university as an institution is to achieve its aims with increased effectiveness, it must modify its structures by organizing both teaching and research in a more flexible manner and also by ensuring raised standards in these two areas. This reorganization should be marked by a greater supervision and a more thorough exploitation of the teaching and research resources at the disposal of the institution. The following discussion centers on two questions: (i) the need for agreement between the university and its employees concerning their mutual obligations in terms of a regulated work contract; (ii) the creation of separate structures for teaching and research, which by relying on market mechanisms both internal and external to the university would enable the latter to tackle its educational and research tasks more efficiently and flexibly.     

Computers and Traditional Teaching Practices: Factors influencing middle level students’ science achievement and attitudes about science

The purpose of this study was to examine the association of middle school student science achievement and attitudes toward science with student-reported frequency of using computers to learn science and other classroom practices. Baseline comparison data were collected on the frequency of student-centred teaching practices (e.g. the use of group experiments during science class) and traditional teaching practices (e.g. having students copy notes during science class) to learn science. The student sample was composed of 294 seventh-grade students enrolled in middle school science. Multiple regression was used to investigate the association of attitudes toward science, student-centred teaching practices, computer usage, and traditional teaching practices with science achievement. Both attitudes toward science and student-centred teaching practices were positively associated with science achievement, and student-centred teaching practice was positively associated with attitude toward science. Computer usage was found to have a negative association with student achievement, which was moderated by traditional teaching practices.     

Teaching the nation: history and nationalism in Polish school history education

This article aims to analyse Polish history teachers’ understanding of the role of teaching history. Drawing on the results of qualitative research conducted in Wroclaw, we argue that teachers see history education through the prism of nationalism. Teachers construct the past in equivocally nationalist terms. They regard nationalist representations of the past as taken for granted. Moreover, teachers reproduce a dominant nationalist discourse by using history to promote the idea of the homogeneous nation. We argue that teachers see their role primarily in terms of imposing the dominant structures of collective memory on the pupils. We also discuss the differences between teachers pertaining to the understanding of the concept of the nation, the way of teaching Polish history and the type of obligation towards the nation. We also demonstrate that teachers do not see a contradiction between history defined as an objective science and history understood as a ‘nationalising’ tool.     

Educational research and Polish perestroika

Deputy to the Diet and Vice-chairman of the Diet's Commission for Education and Youth. Chairman of the Polish Pedagogical Society. Vice-chairman of the Franco-Polish parliamentary group. Author of a number of publications on youth and education.