Measuring the quality of education at two levels: A case study of primary schools in rural Ethiopia

This paper constructs two measures of the quality of education. The first one is a quality measure on the institutional level, it is derived inductively from the answers provided by school directors from rural Ethiopia on several interview questions. A cornerstone in my definition of school "quality" in a resource constraint environment is the degree of responsiveness to household needs. The second one is a measure of the quality of teaching at the individual level based on teaching attitudes and teaching behaviour of teachers. Pearson correlations show that school quality is positively correlated with increased enrolment but also that the quality of teaching is negatively correlated with increased pupil/teacher ratios. Schools in rural Ethiopia thus make a quantity-quality trade-off. Evidence suggests that class size is not the relevant variable in the quality debate, but time allocation of teachers is.     

Body image perception, satisfaction and somatotype in male and female athletes and non-athletes: results using a novel morphing technique

Thirty-six adults (24 males, 12 females) were assessed for anthropometric somatotype and body image (perception and satisfaction) by a novel technique using quantitative distortion of a digital still image. Software produced random distortions in nine body regions. The participants manipulated interactive slider controls to adjust each body feature in turn, recreate their perceived image and indicate their desired image. There were no differences in perception between the sexes. However, the ideal-actual differences (i.e. satisfaction) indicated that males desired larger and females smaller features, respectively, in the chest and thighs (P < 0.001) and arms and calves (P < 0.01). When the male-derived data were partitioned by sport (strength, endurance, team-sport and controls), differences were found in the perceived image size in the chest and rib regions (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). Strength athletes perceived these areas to be smaller and the control group perceived these areas to be larger than the true values. Somatotype analysis indicated that the physique associated with minimal dissatisfaction was 2.0-5.0-3.0 for males and 3.0-2.5-3.0 for females. Cluster analysis, combining anthropometric and satisfaction data, revealed seven distinct subgroups distinguished by particular attributes of physical appearance. We conclude that the method is reliable and that body image includes sex-specific, anthropometric, perceptual and personality-related components.