Disrespecting teacher: The decline in social standing of teachers in Cape Town,South Africa

This paper examines the declining levels of respect for teachers in two communities in Cape Town, South Africa. Education has been identified as a key area of reform and redress, but a critical skills shortage and under-resourced schools are hindering progress. Data from current and former teachers illustrate how the social and institutional capital of education is being replaced by a focus on economic capital, undermining the prestige of teaching as a career. These problems reflect trends elsewhere in the world and require action to prevent further shortages in education.     

Interview and Concours: teacher appointment procedures in England and Wales and France,and what they mean

The paper compares and contrasts two methods or styles of selecting and appointing teachers. In England and Wales, teachers are invariably appointed by interview to particular posts in particular schools; in France, teachers are appointed to life‐long Civil Service positions as a result of a competitive examination or concours. Each of these procedures reflects different assumptions about the education system in general and about the work of teachers in particular. These differences flow from the very different histories of the nation‐states concerned. Recent changes, especially in the French system, are described and discussed. The author points to the tension between pressure from the European Union to integrate and harmonise national qualifications, and the deeply rooted character of distinct national cultures of schooling, teaching and learning and assessment.     

A developmental look at award-winning software

Daniel D. Shade is Assistant Professor, Department of Individual and Family Studies and Director of the Computers As Partners Project, University of Delaware, Newark, DE.     

Round or rectangular tables for collaborative problem solving? A multimodal learning analytics study

The current knowledge of the effects of the physical environment on learners’ behaviour in collaborative problem-solving tasks is underexplored. This paper aims to critically examine the potential of multimodal learning analytics, using new data sets, in studying how the shapes of shared tables affect the learners’ behaviour when collaborating in terms of patterns of participation and indicators related to physical social interactions. The research presented in this paper investigates this question considering the potential interplay with contextual aspects (level of education) and learning design decisions (group size). Three dependent variables (distance between students, range of movement and level of participation) are tested using quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected using a motion capture system and video recordings. Results show that the use of round tables (vs rectangular tables) leads to higher levels of on-task participation in the case of elementary school students. For university students, different table shapes seem to have a limited impact on their levels of participation in collaborative problem solving. The analysis shows significant differences regarding the relationship between group size and the distance between students, but there is no substantial evidence that group size affects the level of participation. The findings support previous research highlighting the importance of studying the role of the physical environment as an element of learning design and the potential of multimodal learning analytics in approaching these studies.     

Models of Treatment for the Autistic Child: An Evaluation of Intervention Efficacy

This paper makes reference to three variables concerning autism; namely, diagnostic, aetiological and type of treatment. Diagnostic variables provided, through broad definition, for some communality of findings among the research. Aetiological variables provided little, if any, communality. Treatment programs have also differed but parameters for their evaluation have been suggested. These parameters are (a) a delineation, in an educational context, of presenting behaviours, (b) an analysis of what measurable variables maintain these behaviours, (c) procedures should have high levels of reproducibility and generalisation, and (d) treatment programs should aim for community maintenance for the child through educational and parental intervention. With these parameters in mind, the efficacies of psychogenically oriented programs have been discussed with reference also having been made to formulations of mental retardation and perceptual deficit. Only behaviour management programs met all four criteria.