The role and effects of teaching assistants in English primary schools (Years 4 to 6) 2000–2003. Results from the Class Size and Pupil—Adult Ratios (CSPAR) KS2 Project

It is widely assumed that increasing the number of teaching assistants (TAs) in the classroom will be beneficial to children, and this is one important aim of the recently implemented Workforce Agreement. But there are still significant gaps in knowledge about many aspects of their deployment and impact. The Class Size and Pupil—Adult Ratios (CSPAR) KS2 study built on earlier findings when the pupils were in reception and Key Stage (KS) 1, and investigated: (1) the deployment of TAs in classrooms and how key parties involved perceived this; and (2) the effect of TAs on interactions involving pupils and teachers in the same classrooms, and on pupil attainments. The study had a longitudinal, mixed method and multi‐informant design. Methods of data collection included: (for the whole sample) questionnaires completed by TAs, teachers and head teachers, assessments of pupil attainments in mathematics, English and science, data on pupil background, and (for a sub‐sample) case studies and a systematic observation study. This study found that the TA's role in KS2 is predominantly a direct one, in the sense of face‐to‐face interactions supporting certain pupils. There was no evidence that the presence of TAs, or any characteristic of TAs, had a measurable effect on pupil attainment. However, results were clear in showing that TAs had an indirect effect on teaching, e.g. pupils had a more active form of interaction with the teacher and there was more individualised teacher attention. This supported teachers' views that TAs are effective in supporting them in this way. The authors conclude that more attention needs to be paid to what they call the pedagogical role of TAs so that they can be used effectively to help teachers and pupils, particularly in the context of the enhanced roles for TAs being introduced as part of the Government's remodelling agenda.     

Teachers' attributions and beliefs about girls,boys, and mathematics

Thirty-eight first grade teachers were asked to identify their two most and least successful girls and boys in mathematics, to attribute causation of these students' successes and failures, and to describe their characteristics. Teachers' choices of most and least successful students were compared to mathematics test scores of their students. Teachers were most inaccurate when selecting most successful boys. Teachers tended to attribute causation of boys' successes and failures to ability and girls' successes and failures to effort. Teachers thought their best boy students when compared to their best girl students, were more competitive, more logical, more adventurous, volunteered answers more often to mathematics problems, enjoyed math more, and were more independent in mathematics.     

Educational technology's metaphors

This article starts from an assumption that the essence of technology is a realm of discovery. Within this realm, humanity and the tools of technology are engaged in a dialogue. The author challenges the objectivism of technical rationality which fragments this dialogue and replaces people's creativity with rigorous, but often useless, propositions. It suggests that, at least in the field of education, it is time to break away from technical rationality and its accompanying focus on mastery of information.
The author looks at some of educational technology's metaphors and discusses how they reflect determinism and consumerism. She explores an alternative approach, the musical metaphor (Hlynka & Nelson, 1986), which encourages both rigour and creativity. She concludes with an appeal to researchers in the field of educational technology to grapple with new metaphors to help us cope with the exponential growth of information. She further suggests that educational technology need not be limited by the legacy of positivism, but can ally itself with communications technologies and the fine arts.     

Developing observational skills and knowledge of anatomical relationships in an art and anatomy workshop using plastinated specimens

One of the strong trends in medical education today is the integration of the humanities into the basic medical curriculum. The anatomy program is an obvious choice for using the humanities to develop professionalism and ethical values. They can also be used to develop close observational skills. Many medical schools have developed formal art observation training in conjunction with nearby art museums to enhance the visual diagnostic skills of their medical students. We report here on an art and anatomy workshop that paired medical and art students who did drawing exercises from plastinated anatomical specimens and the animated face to hone observational skills. Each member of the pair brought a different perspective and expertise to the work that allowed each to be a mentor to the other. The workshop had three sessions: the first involved drawings of plastinated specimens that allowed an intimate experience with authentic human material; the second involved drawings of the human face; and the third included examination of anatomical texts of important anatomist-artists, a lecture on contemporary artists whose work involves anatomy, and a film demonstrating the facial muscles. We propose workshops such as these will help students increase their ability to detect details. This will assist the medical student in developing diagnostic skills for identifying disease and the art student in using the human body as subject. We further propose that these programs will help students develop humanistic sensitivities and provide an outlet for expression of the emotional aspects of dealing with disease and mortality.     

A Web adaptive educational system for people with hearing difficulties

In this paper we present a web adaptive educational tool for the Greek Sign Language. The design and the implementation of the tool were partially funded by national bodies. The paper presents the architecture of the tool, in an abstract way and briefly describes its functionality. The interaction process followed is also presented.     

Editorial

In this article the authors explore a language and literacy community mapping project carried out by public school teachers in southern California. They chronicle the knowledge produced by teachers about the depth and diversity of language and literacy resources present in the neighborhoods surrounding their various urban school sites.     

Editorial

This article reports on a narrative inquiry with two teacher-researchers of opposite ethnic, social class, and gender backgrounds about how their oppositions became an asset for their multicultural education. The study calls for educators to consider cultural creativity as a pertinent feature of multicultural education in today's polarized culture.