Getting out the most of the combination of working and learning: the case of teachers-in-training in Flanders

The current study investigates the learning of student teachers in alternative programmes in which they combine a teaching job with an in-service teacher-training program at the university. The aim of this paper is to explore which work-related and training-programme related factors facilitate the learning of these teachers-in-training in the workplace. Starting from the framework of the Job-Demands-Control-Support model, a total of 11 teachers were interviewed. Results of the qualitative analyses indicated that high levels of job demands, autonomy and social support were important for in-service student teachers’ learning in the workplace. Social support and guidance from colleagues in the workplace seemed more relevant for learning than the support and guidance from the supervisors from the teaching program at the university. Implications for practice and for further research are discussed.     

Roma Undergraduates’ Personal Network in the Process of College Transition. A Social Capital Approach

Roma university students’ personal networks become unstable in the process of college transition. We describe the personal networks of these students using the model set up by Brandes et al. (in: Proceedings of the IEEE pacific visualization symposium (Pacific Vis’08), IEEE Computer Society Press, 2008) and analyse the identified groups utilizing the social capital approach. We mapped seventy-six students’ networks applying contact diary. Origin, host and fellow groups significantly differ in their composition; they provide different (‘bonding’ or ‘bridging’) type of resources, and their availability to the Roma students is also different. We found significant differences between the students in their tendency to rely on certain groups in the process of academic adjustment.

     

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) assistants in Europe: Pathways towards continuous professional development (CPD) and qualification

There is broad consensus amongst researchers and international organisations that the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC), which means the wellbeing of children and families, depends on well-educated and competent staff. This remains a challenge in Europe, since part of the workforce is also represented by low-qualified ECEC assistants in many EU countries. In the CoRe study (2011), assistants are defined as ‘invisible workers’, meaning that their presence is usually not taken into account in policy documents and that they have far fewer possibilities of qualification and professional development than core practitioners. Building on the findings of the CoRe study, a recent NESET II report reviewed the profiles of ECEC assistants in 15 European countries and their professionalisation opportunities. This article describes the report's findings, with a focus on the roles of assistants and on how to create coherent pathways towards their qualification and continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities. The latter is shown through the examples of three case studies carried out in Denmark, France and Slovenia. Recommendations for policy makers are included in the conclusions. The framework of the article is the ‘competent system’: as pointed out in the CoRe study, individual competences alone are not sufficient to create quality. A ‘competent system’ is needed which includes collaboration between individuals, teams and institutions and has competent governance at policy level. This means working within a holistic ‘educare’ approach that is able to value the educative role of caring and the caring role of education.     

香港高等体育教育课程体系简析

通过对香港中文大学体育运动科学系和香港浸会大学体育系为代表的香港体育高等教育课程设置的比较分析,探讨了香港体育高等教育课程体系的特点。     

Towards continuous professional development: Experiencing group reflection to analyse practice

Researchers and international organisations recognise that the quality of ECEC services is related to a professional and competent workforce. The latter should be part of a ‘competent system’ that is capable of linking staff's initial good education to the possibility of constantly reflecting on ideas and practices. Continuous professional development initiatives (CPD) are crucial in this discourse. This article explores possibilities for CPD paths, with a focus on group-reflection methods in which the team/group reflects on its own practice. More specifically, it presents the Wanda method which was developed by VBJK and Artevelde University College in Belgium (Fl.) through a European Social Fund (ESF) project and then adapted to the contexts of four European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia) within the ISSA (International Step by Step Association) network. In 2016, VBJK was appointed by Unicef to offer a Training of the Trainers (TOT) on CPD in Albania with the possibility of re-adapting the Wanda method to the Albanian preschool context. The article ends by presenting this Albanian experience in greater detail.     

A split-list approach for relevance feedback in information retrieval

In this paper we present a new algorithm for relevance feedback (RF) in information retrieval. Unlike conventional RF algorithms which use the top ranked documents for feedback, our proposed algorithm is a kind of active feedback algorithm which actively chooses documents for the user to judge. The objectives are (a) to increase the number of judged relevant documents and (b) to increase the diversity of judged documents during the RF process. The algorithm uses document-contexts by splitting the retrieval list into sub-lists according to the query term patterns that exist in the top ranked documents. Query term patterns include a single query term, a pair of query terms that occur in a phrase and query terms that occur in proximity. The algorithm is an iterative algorithm which takes one document for feedback in each of the iterations. We experiment with the algorithm using the TREC-6, -7, -8, -2005 and GOV2 data collections and we simulate user feedback using the TREC relevance judgements. From the experimental results, we show that our proposed split-list algorithm is better than the conventional RF algorithm and that our algorithm is more reliable than a similar algorithm using maximal marginal relevance.     

Managing change in an integrated school--a Hong Kong hybrid experience

Following the world trend of inclusion in education, many schools in Hong Kong have started including students with special needs in the regular classrooms. Given the unique educational context of Hong Kong as 'East meets West', and given that inclusion is essentially a concept from the West, this paper argues that Hong Kong's integration has its unique hybrid features. This paper reports the experience of one primary school in the process of change in areas of stages of integration, leadership and whole school approach, during a two-year implementation period. Change processes at the school, classroom and individual levels are discussed. A case study methodology is used so that unique characteristics of the school in its naturalistic settings can be captured. Data were obtained from observation, documentary analysis, individual and group interviews of different school stakeholders: the principals, parents, teachers, resource teachers, and guidance personnel. Implications of findings to schools in Hong Kong and other countries facing similar issue in parallel and mixed cultural settings are discussed.     

The influence of temperature and humidity on swelling and surfactant migration in acrylic emulsion paint films

It has often been observed anecdotally and implied through experimentation that acrylic emulsion paintings accumulate and entrain soils over time due to the inherent mechanical softness in artist's acrylic paint films, through the presence of hydrophilic film components, and by virtue of the ubiquitous presence of surfactant moieties on these film surfaces once they dry. In the present study, it has been this last effect that we have sought to describe more fully in terms of surfactant responsiveness to both temperature and relative humidity (RH). Surfactant hydration and dehydration under varying temperature and RH conditions affects the ultimate partitioning of the surfactant at the paint–air interface, as well as the inherent size, aggregation tendencies, and solubility of surfactant in the bulk paint materials which contain components that are highly responsive to changes in temperature and RH (e.g. polyacrylic or polymaleic anhydride-type dispersal materials). In this work, analytical techniques including three-dimensional microscopy and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation were used to add to and reinforce current understanding of the physical and mechanical changes to acrylic paint films with temperature and RH. The migration of surfactant at the film surface was studied using desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared microscopy.     

Parental involvement and adolescent school achievement: the mediational role of self-regulated learning

Both parental involvement and self-regulated learning are important predictors of students’ study success. However, previous research on self-regulated learning has focused instead on the school environment and has not focused on the home situation. In particular, investigations into the role of parents in self-regulated learning when children enter middle school have been limited. The present study examined the relationship among students’ perceptions of parental involvement, their self-regulated learning and school achievement in the first year of middle school. Survey data from 5939 Flemish students were processed using mediation analyses and revealed that students’ perceptions of parental involvement in school work was associated with students’ self-regulated learning and their school achievement. Moreover, how students perceived parental involvement was associated with students’ achievement through the self-regulated learning factors. These results underpin the importance of parents in education at the middle-school age. Schools should be aware of this and enhance parents’ educational involvement and the stimulation of self-regulated learning in the home environment.

     

The Education and Care Divide: the role of the early childhood workforce in 15 European countries

International reports on early childhood education and care tend to attach increasing importance to workforce profiles. Yet a study of 15 European countries reveals that large numbers of (assistant) staff remain invisible in most international reports. As part of the CoRe project (Competence Requirements in Early Childhood Education and Care) we conducted a cross-national survey among experts in Belgium (Flemish- and French-speaking communities), Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK (England and Wales). The survey explored professional and training profiles not only for formal ‘teaching’ staff, but also for the entire workforce, making visible the assistants who are often omitted from international reports. The proportion of assistant staff varies from a very small percentage in some European countries to half of the entire workforce in many others. Whereas job profiles for higher qualified staff often focus on ‘education’, profiles for assistants typically focus on ‘care’. Consequently a divide between care and education can be observed, both in split systems and in integrated systems. In these cases, the concept of ‘education’ may be narrowed down to schoolified learning and ‘care’ may be regarded as subordinate to education. In several cases, assistants also have less entitlement to ongoing professionalisation than educational staff. Consequences of the findings for practice as well as policy are discussed.