The disaster of the ‘self‐managing school’ – genesis,trajectory, undisclosed agenda,and effects

Sometimes an educational idea is inexplicably adopted around the world with remarkable speed and consistency and in the absence of a proper evidence base or with little regard or respect for teachers, students or learning. This paper examines what has arguably been the most contentious and virulent educational reform of the past half‐century. Variously labelled, in what amounts to the self‐managing school, what this reform has done is virtually dismantle public education and privatise it without public debate or proper scrutiny. This paper considers the alleged claims by the enthusiastic proponents and examines what has subsequently transpired, particularly in respect of the most disadvantaged students and the broader mission of improved learning.     

Student engagement: rhetoric and reality

Recently, there has been much interest in higher education literature and policy on the concepts of student engagement and disengagement. While most academic writings recognise the significance of student engagement, they have tended to concentrate on it in relation to academic activities. Increasingly, universities are ‘cascading’ down the need to improve student engagement to schools and ultimately to individual academics. This article asserts that ideas about student engagement in the university context are often fragmented, contradictory and confused. Even the meaning of the term ‘student engagement’ is uncertain. Further, while government and universities urge attention to student engagement, many of their actions, it may be argued, have contributed to greater student disengagement. Relying on the available literature, we argue that the student experience as a whole is the key to engagement and, thus, efforts to re-engage students cannot be successful until a ‘whole-of-university’ approach is adopted.     

Pupil Performance,Absenteeism and School Drop-out: A Multi-dimensional Analysis

This article assesses whether second-level schools in Ireland, typically covering pupils 12 to 18 years of age, are equally effective in relation to three different outcomes: examination performance, absenteeism and potential drop-out among pupils. The article uses data from a large-scale survey of second-level pupils in 116 schools in Ireland. Analysis is restricted to one cohort: pupils aged 15-16 years who took a nationally standardised examination, the Junior Certificate, in 1994. Multivariate multi-level modelling techniques are used to assess the impact of pupil background and schooling factors on overall examination performance, on absenteeism levels and on intentions to leave school after the exam. Some consistency is found among these different dimensions of school effectiveness: pupil absenteeism and potential drop-out rates are lower in schools which enhance academic progress among pupils. These outcomes are associated with more positive teacher-pupil relations and a more positive academic climate within the school.     

Child, Program, and Family Ecological Variables in Early Intervention

This study is based on a conceptual framework which emphasized the importance of viewing early intervention outcomes in relation to both program and nonprogram variables. Three broad classes of independent variables were included in the framework child, program, and family ecology. The unique and combined contributions of these three sets of variables to the prediction of three indices of intervention outcome was assessed through regression techniques. As much as 68% of the variance in children's post-intervention developmental age (DA2) was explained by the combined influence of all three classes of variables. All three classes of variables again contributed uniquely to the prediction of parental satisfaction with the intervention, explaining 45% of the variance. The three classes of variables explained 36% of the variance in children's rate of development during the intervention (RDI), although the contribution of the program class was very minimal. In addition to ascertaining the contributions of sets of variables, the importance of individual variables within sets was also examined. Results from both types of analysis underscored the important role of nonprogram variables in the determination of both child and parental outcomes. The implications of these findings for the design and evaluation of early intervention are discussed.     

An Investigation of the Feeding,Sleeping, Crying,and Social Behavior of Infants

A randomized experiment was performed in seventeen junior high schools in which students in the experimental group received a special six-week library oriented treatment designed to improve students’ understanding of, attitudes toward, and use of the school library. The treatment was found to have a significant effect on library use and library/librarian attitudes but no effect on reading attitudes. Although there were large differences among the librarians, there was no significant interaction between treatments and librarians.     

Public speaking in the Philippines

Although several writers have stressed the importance of the discussion process in producing risky shifts in small‐group decision making, no researchers have attempted to discover the communicative processes of groups whose deliberations culminate in such shifts. This study examines the communication processes of risky‐shift and cautious‐shift groups in terms of the diffusion‐of‐responsibility theory (i.e., groups shifting toward risk tend to diffuse or share responsibility for the decision among group members or among elements outside the group). The results indicate that the communicative processes of risky‐shift and cautious‐shift discussion groups differ according to their handling of decisional responsibility as expected from the diffusion‐of‐responsibility theory. This finding provides warrant for additional studies examining the communicative processes of discussion groups from the vantage of other competing theories of the risky‐shift phenomenon.