A winding road – professional trajectories from higher education to working life: a case study of political science and psychology graduates

This qualitative and longitudinal study focuses on graduate employment and the development of graduate employment paths. The aim of this article is to explore the present professional trajectory from higher education to working life, with particular reference to graduates from two different study programmes at Linköping University in Sweden: Political Science and Psychology. More specifically, the article focuses on how graduates construe their professional trajectories in terms of their envisaged future work as senior students, and later as novice and early-career professionals with 18 and 34 months of work life experience. The results indicate that graduates’ professional identities and vision of their future work change over time. The set of categories, depicting the graduates’ vision and experiences of their professional trajectories, do not seem to follow a specific temporal and logical progression in their career. Rather, they appear in different order and at different points in time after graduation. The results, instead, endorse the discourse of lifelong learning and the need for flexibility and employability on the labour market.     

Creating a ‘world class’ programme: reciprocity and constraint in networked global collaboration

The article reflects on the construction of a common Master’s programme across four universities located on four continents, in order to explore the role of networks in international educational collaboration. The study draws on the documented processes of the principal members of the programme team. It is presented as a case study of the development of the programme that uses ideas drawn from actor‐network theory to draw attention to the conjunction of human and non‐human actors that shaped the resulting web‐based courses. Constraints arising from major institutional and systemic obstacles were addressed through the effects of the actor‐network. The reciprocity of action and de‐centring of individual activity made possible through the collaboration enabled the human actors to sustain a level of innovation within their own institutions that would not have been possible through them acting alone.     

Urban neighbourhood quality and school leaving age: Gender differences and some hypotheses

This study used longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to examine the role of neighbourhood quality, assessed when cohort members were aged five, in boys’ and girls’ school leaving age. It was expected that, since context is in general more strongly predictive of boys’ rather than girls’ behaviour, neighbourhood quality would be more strongly related to men’s than women’s school leaving age. Results showed that, as expected, even after controlling for cognitive ability, parental socio‐economic disadvantage and social class, family structure, and maternal education, age and depressed mood, neighbourhood quality was more strongly related to men’s than women’s school leaving age. To rule out the possibility that neighbourhood quality is simply picking up individual level social class the study also explored the interaction of neighbourhood quality with parental social class. It was found that, compared to cohort members of high social class groups, cohort members of lower social class groups were less likely to stay in education after the minimum school leaving age in both neighbourhood groups, but being in the lower social class groups was more of a disadvantage for children living in well‐to‐do rather than average or poor neighbourhoods at age five.     

Streaming in Flemish secondary schools: exploring teachers’ perceptions of and adaptations to students in different streams

A rich body of research on streaming or tracking conducted mainly in the USA and UK suggests that teachers have lower expectations of students in lower education streams and adapt their curriculum and pedagogy in line with such expectations. Recent large‐scale quantitative research conducted in Flanders (Belgium) shows that teachers teaching in lower status technical/vocational streams share a lower ‘study culture’ and perceive their students as less teachable than teachers teaching higher status general education students, which in turn influences students’ educational outcomes. This research builds on these studies by using data from qualitative interviews with secondary school teachers in two Flemish secondary schools to explore teachers’ perceptions of students in different streams and their adaptations in terms of curriculum and pedagogy. In addition, the relationship between students’ educational achievement and stream allocation is analysed using survey data collected in these two Flemish schools. The results further support the findings of research in this area but also suggest that stratification occurs within streams. Furthermore, students from different streams are perceived to value different forms of cultural and social capital, suggesting the prevalence of social class cultures in different streams. The conclusions discuss implications for further research on streaming or tracking in (Flemish) secondary schools.     

A reconstruction of the gender agenda: the contradictory gender dimensions in New Labour's educational and economic policy

This article reviews current interpretations of Labour's education policy in relation to gender. Such interpretations see the marginalisation of gender equality in mainstream educational policy as a result of the discursive shift from egalitarianism to that of performativity. Performativity in the school context is shown to have contradictory elements ranging from an increased feminisation of teaching and the (re)masculinisation of schooling. Also, whilst underachievement is defined as ‘the problem of boys’, the production of hierarchical masculinities and ‘laddishness’ by marketised schools is ignored. The policy shift towards performativity also masks girls' exclusion and the disadvantages working‐class girls face within the education system. The rhetoric of gender equality, although stronger in the field of post‐16 training and employment, is no less contradictory. The effects of New Labour are found in the aggravation of social class divisions within gender categories and the spiralling differences between male and female paths. Gender equality ideals in education are therefore shown to have a far more complex relationship to New Labour politics than previously thought.     

Are Multiple-choice Items Too Fat?

ABSTRACT

The evidence is mounting regarding the guidance to employ more three-option multiple-choice items. From theoretical analyses, empirical results, and practical considerations, such items are of equal or higher quality than four- or five-option items, and more items can be administered to improve content coverage. This study looks at 58 tests, including state achievement, college readiness, and credentialing tests. The evidence here supports previous assertions. The article also clarifies distractor functioning criteria and offers a typology of items via distractor functioning.     

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST DIAGNOSTIC DECISION‐MAKING: A PILOT STUDY

The current study examined the diagnostic decision‐making of school psychologists as a function of a student's disability and academic performance with three research questions using a randomly‐selected sample of school psychologists from the state of Texas. Results from the first research question indicated that school psychologists significantly differentiated between what diagnoses were considered most correct according to the DSM‐IV and what diagnoses would be in a child's best interest at school. Results from the second research question indicated that this differentiation in diagnostic decision‐making was present as significantly associated with academic performance. Results from the third and final research question indicated that school psychologists differed in their diagnostic decision‐making according to their perceptions about the particular disability.     

The Validity of the Sit-and-Reach Test and the Modified Sit-and-Reach Test in Middle-Aged to Older Men and Women

Abstract

A growing concern for the establishment of a national system of education was clearly evident in France during the last decades of the eighteenth century. Physical education was afforded an important role in the educational projections of the period. Beginning with La Chalotais' Essai d'éducation nationale (1763) authors began to express more and more support for the inclusion of a comprehensive program of physical education. Gabriel Coyer's De l'éducation publique (1770), Louis Philipon de la Madelaine's Vues patriotiques sur l'education du peuple (1783) and De l'éducation des collèges (1784), and Jean Ver dier's Maison d'éducation physique et morale (1772) and Cours d'éducation à l'usage des eleves (1777) all contributed significantly to the concept that physical education must constitute an important and integral part of any comprehensive and viable plan for national education. Among the most important deliberations of the various French revolutionary assemblies between 1789 and 1795 were those dealing with education as a concern of the state. Legislators tried valiantly to establish a sound national plan for education. The educational reports and projects presented to the various revolutionary assemblies by Talleyrand, Condorcet, Lepelitier, Lakanal, Romme, and Daunou are usually considered by educational historians to be the most significant. Each of these specified that due attention must be devoted to physical education for children and youth. The proposals, the decrees and the debates which they precipitated did much to attract attention to the importance of the subject. It seems most likely that the period from 1763 to 1795 in France witnessed the establishment of a precedent in modem times for the concept of state concern and support for physical education.     

The Reliability and Validity of Protocols for the Assessment of Endurance Sports Performance: An Updated Review

Sports performance testing is one of the most common and important measures used in sport science. Performance testing protocols must have high reliability to ensure any changes are not due to measurement error or inter-individual differences. High validity is also important to ensure test performance reflects true performance. Time-trial protocols commonly have a coefficient of variation (CV) of <5%, however, familiarization, well-trained subjects and/or conducting the trial outdoors in the athlete’s most familiar environment can lead to CVs of < 1%. Long duration time-trials or the inclusion of sprints within a time-trial appears to not negatively influence reliability. Few studies have assessed the validity of endurance performance tests, and as such more research should evaluate different ways of simulating outdoor performances in the laboratory. The use of warm-up, simulation of convection load, and implementation of race specific hydration practices are important considerations for researchers regarding test validity.