Comparative education,the ‘New Paradigm’ and policy borrowing: constructing knowledge for educational reform

Education reform in England is increasingly portrayed as a quest to create ‘world class’ schools through the transfer of features of ‘high performing’ school systems. The demand for evidence to support policy borrowing has been serviced by an influential intermediary network, which uses international data banks to compare education systems, and to identify and promote evidence of ‘what works’. The approach to comparisons has been portrayed as a ‘New Paradigm’ by its advocates, and whilst the network has been extensively critiqued, this has largely focused on its deviation from the norms of academic comparative education. This article explores how the ‘New Paradigm’ operates, identifying its inherent features and the strategies used to overcome the methodological issues associated with policy borrowing. This is pursued through an analysis of the rationale; assumptions; underlying ideology; methodology; omissions and silences; dealing with critics; and language and presentation of four of its influential publications.     

Assessment of Preschooler’s Scientific Reasoning in Adult–Child Interactions: What Is the Optimal Context?

In educational settings, continuous assessment of the child’s level of understanding is necessary to effectively utilize the principles of scaffolding and to create contexts that can advance the scientific reasoning of the child. In this article, we argue that a child’s performance is a dynamic notion that is created by all elements in an interaction, including the task. Therefore, we studied preschoolers’ levels of scientific reasoning varying different properties of the assessment context. Young children were interviewed about four scientific tasks using one out of four different protocols (varying in the degree of flexibility and adaptiveness) by an adult. In the first study, different task contents resulted in different performance levels. The second study indicated that the most structured protocol elicited the highest maximum level of reasoning in children and the highest percentage of correct predictions. The third study showed differences between the protocols in the adult’s verbal behavior. Adaptation in verbal behavior to different children by the adult did not result in higher scientific understanding by the children, whereas a higher degree of task structure did. Combined, the studies emphasize the importance of context, which has implications for assessment and teaching situations.     

Preferences for Team Learning and Lecture-Based Learning Among First-Year Undergraduate Accounting Students

This study investigates students’ preference for team learning and its effectiveness, compared to lecture-based learning. A quasi-experiment was set up in a financial accounting course in the first-year undergraduate of the Economics and Business Administration Program, where students had to choose between one of the two learning methods (team learning or lecture-based) and subsequently followed their preferred method of pedagogy. The quasi-experiment was administered for a first-year undergraduate class, with data for 291 students. The first objective of this study is to investigate students’ preference in relation to their gender, ability, motivation, and learning strategy. The second objective is to explore whether a team-based approach is more effective than lecture-based learning, when students participate in their preferred method. The results show that female students had a higher preference for team learning than male students. Furthermore, students with a preference for team learning had a lower ability level, were more intrinsically motivated, had less control of their learning beliefs, were more help seeking, and were more willing to share their knowledge with peers. The team learning approach resulted in increased performance, compared to the lecture-based setting, while controlling for differences in gender and ability. This beneficial impact of team learning on performance was not found for other courses (in which team learning was not implemented), leading to the conclusion that team learning offers an appropriate learning method at the university level for a first-year course. Implications for student learning, faculty members, and institutional policy are discussed.     

The emergence of reading literacy in post-primary teacher education: from the background to the foreground

While recognising the fact that historically teacher education and adolescent literacy are two fields that have had limited intellectual contact, the development of reading literacy is increasingly now accepted internationally as a core responsibility of all teachers and teacher educators. Adopting a socio-cultural perspective, this paper, drawn from the Learning to Teach Study, focused on the beliefs, knowledge and experiences regarding reading literacy of Irish post-primary student teachers on one initial teacher education (ITE) programme. The data were collected through three interviews with each of 17 student teachers. Results suggest that the surveyed student teachers had some concerns about their own literacy, had narrow conceptions of literacy, tended not to see it as their responsibility, held a minimal threshold view of literacy and viewed new digital technologies as a resource and motivator for their students’ literacy learning. Results are discussed in terms of how student teachers’ knowledge of literacy in ITE programmes could be reframed, extended and deepened.     

Social moderation,assessment and assuring standards for accounting graduates

Evidencing student achievement of standards is a growing imperative worldwide. Key stakeholders (including current and prospective students, government, regulators and employers) want confidence that threshold learning standards in an accounting degree have been assured. Australia’s new higher education regulatory environment requires that student achievements are benchmarked against intended programme learning outcomes, guided by published disciplinary standards and a national qualifications framework, and against other higher education providers. Here, we report on a process involving academics from 10 universities, aided by professional practitioners, to establish and equip assessors to reliably assure threshold learning standards in accounting that are nationally comparable. Importantly, we are learning more about how standards are interpreted. Based on the premise that meaning is constructed from tacit experiences, social interactions and intentional reflection on explicit information, we report outcomes of three multi-part calibration interventions, situated around judgements of the quality of the written communication skills exhibited in student work and their related assessment tasks. Qualitative data from 30 participants in the calibration process suggest that they perceive that the process both assists them both in developing a shared understanding of the accounting threshold learning standards and in the redesign of assessment tasks to more validly assess the threshold learning standards.     

Teaching writing to middle school students: a national survey

A random sample of language arts, social studies, and science middle school teachers from the United States were surveyed about their preparation to teach writing, beliefs about responsibilities for teaching writing, use of evidence-based writing practices, assessment of writing, use of technology, and adaptations for struggling writers. The findings from this survey raised concerns about the quality of middle school writing instruction. Many teachers believed their preservice and inservice preparation to teach writing was inadequate. Middle school students spend little time writing or being taught how to write. While most teachers used a variety of evidenced-based writing practices and made adaptations for struggling writers, such methods were applied infrequently. Most teachers did not appear to use assessment data to shape how they taught writing, and computers played a relatively minor role in middle school writing instruction. Even though teachers generally agreed that writing was a collective responsibility, language arts teachers placed a greater emphasis on writing instruction than social studies and science teachers.     

Developing and validating test items for first-year computer science courses

We report on the development, validation, and implementation of a collection of test items designed to detect misconceptions related to first-year computer science courses. To this end, we reworked the development scheme proposed by Almstrum et al. (SIGCSE Bulletin 38(4):132–145, 2006) to include students’ artifacts and to simultaneously incorporate think-aloud interviews and flash tests. We also investigated to what extent the practical efficiency of detecting certain misconceptions could be increased without significantly affecting the sensitivity of the instrument, and present positive and negative results regarding this goal. The results of a first transfer and implementation study suggest that it is indeed possible to use the test items in a large-scale practical setting – both as diagnostic instruments and as interventions.     

The role of teacher behavior in adolescents’ intrinsic reading motivation

Given the weak intrinsic reading motivation of many adolescents on the one hand and the importance of this type of motivation for reading competence on the other hand, the aim of the present study is to identify the related role of teacher behavior. To pursue this aim, a secondary analysis was carried out on PISA 2009 data. More particularly, data of a subsample of 4,269 Flemish 15-year olds were examined by means of multilevel modeling. In line with self-determination theory, the results provide evidence for the significance of perceived autonomy-supportive, structured, and involved teacher behavior. Teacher involvement was most strongly associated with adolescents’ intrinsic reading motivation. Further, students’ perception of teachers’ autonomy support was particularly related to girls’ intrinsic reading motivation.     

Using communities of practice to enhance interdisciplinary teaching: lessons from four Australian institutions

We report on the establishment of communities of practice at four Australian institutions and evaluate their effectiveness and durability as a means of building staff and institutional capacity for interdisciplinary teaching. A community of practice approach is a potentially valuable methodology for overcoming dynamics of fragmentation, isolation and competition within universities. The communities we established were anchored by a shared focus on the topic of climate change and they worked collaboratively to build relationships of trust and reciprocity between teachers in a wide range of disciplines. The aim of each community was to improve the teaching of climate change through enabling members to integrate diverse disciplinary perspectives, to teach collaboratively, to promote innovation through exchange and to demonstrate leadership within their institutions. The key factors that made our communities effective and durable are: (1) designation of two leadership roles, activator and facilitator, (2) provision for institutional autonomy in domesticating the model to fit local circumstances and (3) a pragmatic emphasis on opportunities for teaching innovation and leadership within existing administrative structures, teaching programs and workloads. We conclude that suitably designed and resourced communities of practice are a viable means of improving interdisciplinary teaching of complex problems by facilitating both staff development and institutional learning.     

Off the bookshelf

INTRODUCTION TO RADIO AND TELEVISION, David C. Phillips, Professor and Head of the Department of Speech and Drama, University of Connecticut; John M. Grogan, William Esty Agency, formerly Program Manager, WNBC, and Production Manager, WNBT‐TV; and Earl H. Ryan, Assistant Professor of Speech, Supervisor of Radio and Television, College of the City of New York. 1954. 423 pages, 28 illustrations. $5.00. The Ronald Press Company.

THE TELEVISION MANUAL by William Hodapp … 296 pages, $4.50 … Farrar Straus.

READING ALOUD, by Wayland Maxfield Par‐rish: Professor of Speech, University of Illinois … Third Edition, 1953, 572 pages, $4.25 … The Ronald Press Company.

PRACTICAL PUBLIC SPEAKING, by Eugene E. White: Associate Professor, Department of Speech, University of Miami, Florida, and Clair R. Henderlider: Associate Professor, Department of Speech, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 1954 … 365 pages, 5 3/4 × 8½, $3.50 … The Macmillan Company

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE MADE EASY, by Rheva Ott Shryock: registered parliamentarian … Deluxe Third edition—spiral bound, 5” × 8½” pocket fitting. Based on Roberts … Box CSSR, College Institute, Ellen‐ton, Florida.

AID, TRADE, AND TARIFFS, by Clifton H. Kreps, Jr.: Chief. Public Information Division, Federal Reserve Bank of New York … 202 pages, 5 ¼ × 8, $1.75 … The H. W. Wilson Company.

HOW TO SAY A FEW WORDS, by David Guy Powers, 160 pages, 5 ¼” × 8 ½”, $2.50 … Doubleday &; Company, Inc.

TEACHING SPEECH IN HIGH SCHOOLS, by Willard J. Friederich: Head, Department of Speech and Drama, Marietta College, and Ruth A. Wilcox: Associate Professor of Speech, Marietta, 1953 … 487 pages, 5 ¾ × 8 ½, $4.75 … The Macmillan Company.

SPEECH AND HEARING IN COMMUNICATION by Harvey Fletcher … Second Edition, 480 Pages, 6 ½ × 9 ½, Illus., $10.50 … D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE SIMPLIFIED, by Melanie F. Menderson: Lecturer, teacher, parliamentarian of numerous organizations ... 148 pages, $2.75 … The Dale Press, 3800 Reading Road,Cincinnati 29, Ohio.

PRODUCING AND DIRECTING FOR TELEVISION, by Charles Adams … 282 pages, illustrated, 1953, Text Edition $3.00 … Henry Holt and Company, Inc.

BEYOND CRITICISM, by Karl Shapiro: Editor of Poetry ... 73 pages, 5½ × 8½, $3.00 … University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

CLEVER INTRODUCTIONS FOR CHAIRMEN, compiled by Lawrence M. Brings: formerly instructor in Speech at the University of Minnesota … State Teachers College, Aberdeen, S.D., Luther Theol. Seminary, St. Paul, Northwestern Luth. Theol. Semi., Minneapolis, etc. 410 pages. $4.50. Publication date, Nov. 1, 1954 … T. S. Denison &; Co., Minneapolis, Minn.

HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL EMCEE, by Le Roy Stahl. 256 pages. Cloth. $2.75. T. S. Denison &; Company, Minneapolis, Minn.