Elite und Exzellenz aus der Perspektive von Jugendlichen und ihren Peers an exklusiven Schulen

Against the backdrop of the recent political discourse on elite and excellence in the German education system, this paper examines how such constructions manifest themselves in programmatic concepts of schools and in the orientations of their pupils and their peers. They are reconstructed on the basis of a qualitative research project on educational careers of young people. This paper focuses on pupils and their peers at an elite school of sports and an international school. Firstly, the state of research on those types of school as well as on educational careers of their pupils will be presented. Secondly, the theoretical reference points and the methodological design of the study will be introduced. At the core of the paper is the analysis of the education related orientations of selected cases of young people and their peers: How do they position themselves towards elite and excellence in their individual and collective orientations and how is this relevant for processes of distinction and coherence building in the groups? In the resuming part of the paper, the results will be summarised and related to the state of research and the scientific discourse on elite and excellence.     

An Instructional Strategy to Introduce Pedagogical Content Knowledge Using Venn Diagrams

This paper describes the use of a three-circle Venn diagram as a vehicle for introducing pre-service elementary teachers to pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Each circle of the diagram represents pedagogy, content and context individually. The overlap of any two circles represents the interaction between the circles. For example, the overlap of pedagogy and context relates to the ways that each of these general topics influences the other. The overlap of all three circles represents a complete lesson that is an integration of the three major components of PCK. The Venn diagram is an easily remembered graphic illustration of PCK that can be useful in planning lessons. The use of this graphic organizer in a science capstone course required of all pre-service elementary teachers is described.     

Government policy and technical choice in the West German reactor programme

This paper gives a concise historical account of government policy in the development of nuclear power reactors in West Germany. In addition to published sources, information is drawn from the minutes of government advisory bodies and from interviews with individuals involved in policymaking. It is found that the decentralization of decision-making was a key factor in the relative success of the West German reactor programme. Government support was given in a way that left the essential technical and commercial decisions with manufacturers and utilities. The development work for the eventual successful light-water reactor was a largely self-financed effort of firms commanding a strong technical and commercial tradition in power plant construction. The utilities based their decisions on the basis of internationally available technology independent of, and initially even against, the programmes devised by the government. In the period up to the year 1972, less than ten percent of government expenditure for reactor development was spent on types that are now in commercial use, i.e. on light-water reactors, while the bulk was given to reactor types that have a chance for commercial application only in the longer term, such as the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor and the fast breeder reactor.     

Book reviews

International Review of Education -     

Some observations on dropping out in distance education

This paper is an appraisal of drop‐out from a German perspective. This perspective is refreshingly and challengingly different — even to the rather casual German expression, ‘Karteileiche’, which means literally ‘file corpse’. The paper argues that drop‐out cannot and even should not readily be compared across systems, since significant parameters differ. The paper offers different professional viewpoints then moves to consider solutions to the problem. For die FemUniversitat the solution is not pragmatically driven but rather requires a theoretical research base.     

Spiritual Formation Within Christian Higher Education

The Christian university has a distinct responsibility to provide an environment devoted to the spiritual formation of students. Spiritual formation is not to be viewed as the only important goal of the university, thereby sacrificing intellectual or relational development, but rather spiritual formation is the aggregate “product” of the Christian college. It is a culminating attribute produced holistically from the collection of experiences gained while attending the Christian college. Christian higher education has distinct advantages in its history of spiritual formation while also facing significant challenges. Yet as the Christian colleges are true to their calling, there are few institutions better positioned to examine the spiritual formation of their students. This article reviews various aspects of this spiritual formation.     

Development and Evaluation of an Inquiry-Based Elementary Science Teacher Education Program Reflecting Current Reform Movements

The National Science Education Standards (National Research Council 1996, National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press) and various other national and state documents call for teachers who possess science content knowledge, employ an inquiry approach in teaching, and engage in reflective practices. This paper describes a rationale for choosing particular recommendations to implement and how we incorporated those as we revised our elementary science education program. An analysis of the impact of the reformed inquiry-based content courses revealed that students who take more than one reformed content course improve their science content knowledge and efficacy towards teaching science significantly more than students who take fewer courses.