Emerging local schooling landscapes: the role of the local authority

The school system in England is undergoing rapid change, with the government creating more than 4000 ‘independent publicly funded schools’, known as academies, since 2010. The potential for fragmentation is considerable with diversity of governance emerging as a key feature of the new schooling landscape. Consequently, a major and widely recognised issue to which these reforms give rise concerns the future of the ‘middle tier’ –that layer between individual schools or groups of schools and central government. There are competing visions of how a future middle tier might evolve: one focuses entirely on a middle tier of individual schools and chains as a ‘self-improving system’; others conceive a continuing but revised role for the local authority (LA). The aim of this paper is to begin to explore the latter position, and in particular the potential role of the LA as a ‘broker’ of new patterns of school organisation. Drawing on interview data from three very different LA areas, the findings show that LAs differ in how they conceive their role and, consequently, on the strategies that they pursue.     

Pre-service teachers’ personal epistemic beliefs and the beliefs they assume their pupils to have

In their workaday life, teachers are faced with multiple complex tasks. How they carry out these tasks is also influenced by their epistemic beliefs and the beliefs they assume their pupils hold. In an empirical study, pre-service teachers’ epistemic beliefs and those they assume of their pupils were investigated in the setting of teacher education for vocational schools in Germany. Results of the empirical study point at significant inconsistencies between pre-service teachers’ beliefs, the beliefs they assume of their pupils and beliefs conducive to the curricular and didactic concept preferred for vocational schools. Partly, these inconsistencies can be explained by pre-service teachers’ learning experiences in school and university. It seems important that the education of teachers in vocational education aims at scaffolding pre-service teachers in developing beliefs that are conducive for their future profession.     

All in the Family: Connecting Home and School with Family Literacy

Family literacy has come of age during the past quarter of a century. This article provides a brief review of family literacy history and components. Pedagogical implications for teachers of primary grade students are considered, and suggestions given for increasing home–school literacy involvement through the following types of initiatives: sharing information, increasing access to materials, and implementing strategies that invite family involvement.     

Within- and between-subjects partial reinforcement effects with an autoshaped response using Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Animals exposed to schedules of partial reinforcement are typically more resistant to extinction than are animals trained with continuous reinforcement. This is the partial reinforcement effect (PRE). Animals experienced with both partial and continuous schedules are often more persistent on the continuous schedule, yielding a reversed PRE. Both conventional and reversed PREs have been elusive with classical conditioning paradigms. The present experiment attempted to demonstrate between- and within-subject PREs using 50% and 100% autoshaping schedules. Presence or absence of a PRE depended on the behavioral measures used. Marked terminal group differences in acquisition produced a between-subjects PRE with absolute response levels but not with rate-of-change measures. Within subjects, only choice trial comparisons were sensitive enough to differentiate the two schedules. Acquisition data were inconsistent with most of the classical conditioning PRE literature, but consistent with results reported in the autoshaping literature. These discrepancies may reflect the operant-classical interaction in autoshaping.     

Influences of family based prerequisites,reading attitude,and self-regulation on reading ability

This study investigated the effect of self-regulated learning, as indicated by academic self-concept, motivation and learning strategies, reading attitude and family based prerequisites on reading ability. Students (n = 4018) in the eighth grade answered the IEA reading literacy test, the self-regulated learning questionnaire and a student questionnaire about their background. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed that the self-regulated learning questionnaire did not measure the intended three dimensions, but only two: Verbal/General academic self-concept and a new dimension called Goal oriented strategies. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with a cross-validation sample was conducted to determine the effects in the final model. The strongest effect on reading ability was from Verbal/General academic self-concept (β = .43 for final and β = .56 for cross-validation model). Gender differences revealed that girls read better on narrative and expository texts, had a more positive reading attitude, and more positive verbal self-concept, whereas boys had a higher academic self-concept (not domain-specific), self-efficacy, control expectation, reported more memorising, elaboration, and instrumental motivation (all differences p < .001).     

Is There Anything Specific about Early School Leaving in Southeast Europe? A Review of Research and Policy

Studies on early school leaving (ESL) from countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia have been missing from the international early school leaving research map. As a contribution to remedying this, the article reviews research papers and strategic documents from these countries, guided by the general question whether there is anything specific about ESL in this region in comparison to the wider European research and policy context. The aspects of ESL examined include definitional similarities and differences, extent of ESL, dominant theoretical and methodological approaches, factors identified as impacting ESL as well as policy solutions. We find that Croatia and Slovenia are among the countries which have the lowest ESL rates in Europe. The findings of the reviewed research studies correspond to international research papers in terms of the following frequent risk factors for ESL: low economic and cultural family background, ethnic minority and migration status, type of school enrolled and motivation and academic achievement. There is a strong focus on Roma children early school leavers in all of the countries examined and Bosnia and Herzegovina stands out in the broader European context with the finding that girls from large, low socio-economic status families, who live more than three kilometres away from school, are at particular risk of ESL. In discussing ESL, the reviewed studies tend to emphasise individual and family characteristics rather than also broader social constraints as ESL determinants, a practice also reflected in policy documents which do not mention the role of broader social and economic conditions shaping early school leaving.     

Motivators and Inhibitors for University Faculty in Distance and e-learning

This article reports on four United States studies of how rewards systems, extrinsic and intrinsic, could play an important role in providing incentives for university faculty to teach (or remain teaching) electronic and distance education courses. The first three studies conducted prior to 2003 reported faculty were inherently motivated to teach e-learning and distance education. The fourth study in 2003 reported key findings that differed from the earlier studies. Using a principal components analysis, the researchers found nine indicators of motivation to participate or not participate in electronic or distance education. The implications from the fourth study indicated that, while faculty members were inherently committed to helping students, faculty members wanted their basic physiological needs met by university administration through extrinsic motivators, such as salary increases and course releases.     

Promotion to Full Professor: Moving Beyond Tenure and Associate Professorship

Although there has been great discussion and numerous workshops on obtaining tenure and promotion to associate professor, there has been little exploration of the expectations regarding the next step—promotion to full professor. To fill this void, this study gathered information from full professors teaching in 33 US doctoral programs in criminology and criminal justice. Survey questions asked subjects to note what they believe are the most important criteria for promoting a candidate to full professor. The study found that journal articles were critical for promotion, while grants, publishing a book, and service were not. Furthermore, individual variables such as gender, degree field, prior work as a criminal justice practitioner, and the department context such as program rank, the percentage of women, and number of full professors had significant impacts on the ranking of a candidate’s contributions, and the recommendation for promotion. The findings and implications are discussed.