Wirkungen des Lernens mit Videofällen bei Lehrkräften

Case-based learning with videos is regarded as a promising way to promote the analytical abilities of teaching staff as a basis for their professional actions. For that purpose, the competence to assess and diagnose situations of learning and instruction is crucial, i.e., especially the ability to apply conceptual knowledge to pedagogical cases and to take teacher as well as learner perspectives into account. The article reports on the results of an experimental field intervention study aimed to convey this competence effectively by providing different forms of instructional support to over 100 students of English Studies (2?×?2 design, conceptual knowledge: present/not present; teacher and learner perspectives: present/not present). The central focus is on identifying further effects that personal characteristics (individual learning conditions, e.g., prior knowledge, tolerance of ambiguity) and process characteristics (cognitive load; cognitive, emotional, and motivational activation) have on the development of this competence, and how strong these effects are. Multiple linear regression analyses show that this type of learning with case-based videos places less demand on personal factors, and that the quality of the learning process plays a decisive role.     

Praxis und Verhältnis interner und externer Evaluation im Schulsystem im internationalen Vergleich

The overview article deals with the interaction of internal and external evaluation within the current paradigm of school governance. The actual practice of both approaches and the current state of research about the effects on school development is described. Both evaluation approaches are less focused on aspects of school output such as student performance, and more on school processes such as school management or the quality of teaching. External evaluation in the form of school inspection mainly fulfills the function of accountability and the identification of weak schools. Internal evaluation is probably a better way to achieve school development. However, the necessary competence to use internal evaluation as a systematic process of quality management for which each individual school takes responsibility is currently underdeveloped. Considerations about the future relationship between internal and external evaluation focus on using external evaluation as a kind of “meta-evaluation”. But before external evaluation can build on results of internal evaluation in this way, a broad capacity building in schools and a different understanding of the role of inspectors are necessary.     

Classroom Management jenseits des Schulunterrichts

To enable teaching to take place as a teacher-learner interaction, the participants must mutually coordinate their behaviour. The teaching staff in particular are expected to take responsibility for the results of such coordination processes, i.e. for the sequence of activities which take place from one moment to the next in lessons. But how do they manage to control the actions of the learners and thus create (dis)continuity in the lessons? This question, which is rooted in the tradition of classroom management, is all the more relevant if the learners cannot be assumed to be willing to comply or if compliance cannot be easily demanded—which applies to some extent to teaching events for adults. In this article, the results of a microethnographic video study are presented to show the methods which the participants use at the beginning of adult and vocational education courses to influence the actions of other persons. A case study is used to illustrate how the teacher deals with problems in classroom flow control by the contextually appropriate use of various regulation methods, and thus plays a role in creating the (dis)continuity which shapes the sequence of events in the lessons. This especially underlines the potential of non-verbal forms of expression to herald a change of activities. This approach to research involves a shift in the perspective of adult education professionalism research from the ex-post analysis of professional knowledge to the in-situ observation of professional skills. With the aid of video-based (micro-)ethnographic approaches, the forms which the teaching staff routinely use to deal with specific action requirements are made visible with a high degree of empirical resolution. This extends the application of ethnographic methods. The classroom management discourse from school teaching is brought into a theoretical and empirical dialogue with course and interaction research in adult education. And finally, this creates a basis which enables the appropriateness of educational action variants to be discussed in an empirically meaningful way in the light of normative teaching theories.     

THE FUTURE OF CENTRAL AGENCIES FOR JEWISH EDUCATION

It is generally agreed that the central agencies for Jewish education (BJEs) are caught between the changes that have taken place in the Jewish educational system in the United States and the growing role of the federations in the field. The decline of supplementary schools in spread, scope, and intensity, and the rise of the day schools as the principal foci and loci of meaningful Jewish education, have left the BJEs caught in a bind.     

PROTECTING THE PAST OR FACING THE FUTURE?

The establishment in 1910 of the Bureau of Jewish Education in New York was a turning point in the growth and development of Jewish education in North America. That bureau, arguably the most lasting legacy of the failed New York Kehillah, gave concrete expression to the idea that education was the responsibility of the entire community, an activity too important to be left to the efforts of partisan groups of limited reach and capability. The example of the New York agency spurred the founding of similar offices in cities throughout the United States and Canada. We are able today to record eight decades of educational programs guided by the assumption that a bureau or its equivalent is the preferred instrument of communal educational activity.     

Does the MBA Experience Support Diversity? Demographic Effects on Program Satisfaction*

Using data provided by graduates from 128 MBA programs, we examined the extent to which age, gender, and ethnicity predicted student perceptions of the MBA experience. We found that women and minorities were more likely to see program costs and the availability of financial support as significant factors in their program enrollment decisions than were Caucasian males. The most consistent predictor of students’ perceptions of their educational experience was whether the MBA program was full time or part time, with full‐time programs generally perceived more favorably. Our findings suggest that because diversity measures of age, gender, and ethnicity were not consistent predictors across the different perception areas, at minimum, MBA programs presently do not consistently inhibit diversity. However, given the increasing percentage of women and minorities that comprise the undergraduate population, maintaining the present path in program accessibility may create enrollment problems for MBA programs perhaps in the very near future. Therefore, we conclude with a discussion of the changing demographics in higher education and their potential implications for MBA programs and suggestions for how MBA programs might respond.