The transition from education to employment in the context of stratification in Japan – a view from the outside

In many industrial nations, the processes of transition from education or training to employment are very important. Using Japan as a case study, this article considers these processes from an external perspective. The main criterion used is the issue of stratification within the education and training system. A detailed analysis of the transition process demonstrates that there is little differentiation between school students in Japan, making Japan's a very homogeneous education system by comparison with its international competitors. However, a type of indirect and/or informal stratification results from a ranking system for educational establishments and employers, reinforced by cooperation between individual educational establishments and specific employers.     

Lehrerbildung und Praxiserfahrung im ersten Berufsjahr und ihre Wirkung auf die Unterrichtskompetenzen von Studierenden und jungen Lehrpersonen im Berufseinstieg

This contribution looks at the competency development during teacher training and entry into work. The multi-perspective research design makes it possible to collate data at five stages within this transition process: at the start (t₁), in the middle (t₂) and on completion (t₃) of teacher training for primary school level (year 1–6) student teachers in two education colleges in Switzerland, as well as novice teachers at the start (t₄) and on competition (t₅) of their first year of work. The data covers eleven topic areas. This paper will present findings of data analysis for two of these topic areas for all five stages of measurement: (a) knowledge of lesson planning was captured using case vignettes and (b) teaching practice during the study program and in the first year of work was recorded on video. The same data was collated from the teaching staff involved in the practical training of the student teachers. The statements on the case vignettes were studied using content-analysis. The lesson videos were analyzed using low-inference coding for the visible occurrences during teaching and with a high-inference rating on the quality of the lessons. The results, including those for a comparison of student teachers and novice teachers with practical teacher training staff, give insights into the effectiveness of teacher training and the impact of practical experience in the first year of work on knowledge of how to plan lessons and on the form and quality of teaching. Overall, the new training at both education colleges can be given a pleasingly positive appraisal in terms of professionalization. It is, however, also possible to recognize where and to what extent a need for further developing the standard of professionalization of teaching still exists.     

Complex dynamics in academics' developmental processes in teaching

Improving teaching in higher education is a concern for universities worldwide. This study explored academics’ developmental processes in teaching using episodic interviews and teaching portfolios. Eight academics in the context of teaching development reported changes in their teaching and change triggers. Thematic analyses revealed seven areas of change: participants most frequently reported changes in concepts about teaching, their teaching selves and teaching strategies. Triggers of change clustered into eight categories with teaching practices, teaching courses and metacognition reported most frequently. Analysing relations among areas and triggers of change indicated complex dynamics in academics' developmental processes in teaching. This suggests that teaching development should incorporate multiple change triggers to facilitate academics' development in teaching effectively.     

Reasoning and working memory as predictors of school grades

The present paper contributes to individual difference research in the field of working memory (WM) and reasoning and their contribution to the prediction of real-life criteria. Therefore, a broad WM test battery, a well-established measure of reasoning, and school grades were applied. It is argued that abilities as assessed with the WM component coordination are relevant for good performances at school, especially for science courses. The verbal task of the WM component storage in the context of processing was assumed to be relevant for the prediction of performance in language courses. As expected, reasoning turned out to be the best predictor of school grades. However, it was also confirmed that variance shared by coordination and reasoning can explain school performance, especially as concerns science courses. The verbal storage in the context of processing task significantly accounted for variance in language courses above and beyond reasoning. Thus, the present study provided further insights into the differential validity of different WM components.     

Sportlehrerprofessionalität: Ende einer Misere oder Misere ohne Ende?

This article provides an overview of the current status in the field of empirical research on professionalism and professionalization of physical education (PE) teachers. It aims to examine the thesis on the “misery” of the PE teacher profession. Therefore, different research approaches from the educational science field are taken into consideration. This might allow finding explanations for the postulated deficits in the professionalization of PE teachers. First, three different perspectives are introduced, including sociology of the profession, subject culture, and occupational biography. In a second step, professionalization of PE teachers is structured and modelled in alignment with longitudinal studies in the education science field. Based on this model, research findings and research desiderata on PE teachers professionalization are shown. This approach allows a differentiated view on the topic.     

Significant vs meaningful differences in the effects of tangible reinforcement on intelligence test achievement and reliability of tmr subjects

The effects of tangible reinforcement on a set of four different intelligence test measures for 72 trainable mentally retarded children was investigated. Performance under a standard and reinforced (M & M) condition, differences in split-half reliability, power estimates, as well as the effect size resulting from treatments, were considered. The Lorge-Thorndike vocabulary, WISC Arithmetic, Picture Arrangement, and Comprehension subtests were administered. Reinforced administration resulted in significantly superior performance on all but the Comprehension test, although magnitude of treatment effects was low. Reliabilities under the reinforced condition were higher for all but the Lorge-Thorndike measures. Confidence bounded effect sizes even at their maximal value did not result in “meaningful” differences in performance, however.     

Broadening the Learning in University Environment: Process Reengineering Through Information and Networking Technologies (BLUEPRINT 2000)

This paper presents the result of an extensive study funded by HEFCE HEFCE is UK government Higher Education Funding Council for England. and the European Commission (EC) for Broadening the Learning in University Environment: Process Reengineering through Information and Networking Technologies (BLUEPRINT 2000) model. In comparison to other existing models which are merely focusing on stand-alone computer-based learning environment, this paper describes a complete model covering all aspects of tertiary education, not only servicing but also administering in an all virtual and electronic manner. The model considers an asynchronous and synchronous part. The asynchronous part deals with the discovery of learning material, course work, institution, course and institution brokerage. It also describes learning material and course development tools, administration and tutorship. The synchronous part of the model focuses on the intercommunication between virtual university members to ensure that isolation of learners is prevented as much as technology is able to help. The aim of this paper is to establish a commercial operation for administering, operating, marketing, delivering and supporting online and all electronic higher education, using information and communication technologies (ICT). The system would eliminate student's techno phobia across the range of organizations and disciplines by ‘total immersion’ using groupware, desktop videoconferencing with application sharing and access to resources via the Internet. Furthermore, the system will enable a high degree of online interactions from student-to-student, student-to-tutor, tutor-to-tutor, administrator-to-administrator and institution-to-institution both on one-to-one and forum basis. The BLUEPRINT 2000 model develops new and cost-effective methodologies for teaching dynamic subjects whilst improving the quality of student support in general. The system will lead to a potentially global club of life-long learners with access to the ‘first and best’ sources of education. In addition, it supports dynamic role assignment, that is a student of one subject can be a lecturer or tutor of another subject. It therefore utilizes resources and allows knowledge sharing in an optimal way on both individual and institutional basis. Hence it offers significant commercial benefits to all partners involved in the venture. The business case allows modular implementation based on pilots which will both generate revenues in the short term but also instigate the setting up of a dedicated IT infrastructure to support many new telematics services thus the implementation would be low risk in respect of financial and administrative operations.     

Differently structured advance organizers lead to different initial schemata and learning outcomes

Does the specific structure of advance organizers influence learning outcomes? In the first experiment, 48 psychology students were randomly assigned to three differently structured advance organizers: a well-structured, a well-structured and key-concept emphasizing, and a less structured advance organizer. These were followed by a sorting task, a text study phase, and a posttest. The results indicated that differently structured advance organizers lead to different proto-schemata before and different learning outcomes after the text study phase. The second experiment replicated and extended these findings with 53 mathematics students. As in experiment 1, three differently structured advance organizers were used; but to rule out alternative explanations, the sorting task between the advance organizer and the text study phase was omitted. The results showed strong beneficial effects of well-structured advance organizers on near and far transfer tasks. Taken together, both experiments support the claim that the structure of advance organizers has an effect on preliminary schemata and learning outcomes. On a general level, the results indicate that advance organizers can support the generation of proto-schemata and thus can be more than the activation of “existing” concepts in long-term memory. With regard to education, this implies that educators should not only think about whether prior domain-specific knowledge is present, but also about how to scaffold the generation of proto-schemata at the beginning of instruction.