The OECD and the local: PISA-based Test for Schools in the USA

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently piloted the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)-based Test for Schools in the USA. In this paper, I contend that by connecting directly with local school boards this new initiative has the potential to further promote the OECD's educational agenda in local policy debates. I begin to develop this argument by providing an overview of the OECD and its work. I then lay out a theoretical framework around global governance and knowledge production within the context of the OECD. Next, I provide a brief overview of the traditional PISA study and compare it to the new PISA-based Test for Schools initiative. This context provides the foundation for a discussion of the ways in which a school-based international assessment can operate as a governance tool, allowing international organizations to have greater influence in the formation and implementation of local educational policies.     

Epistemic trajectories: mentoring in a game design practicum

Innovative professionals rely on a specific ways of thinking to solve the nonstandard problems that come up in practice (Goodwin, Am Anthropol 96(3):606–633, 1994; Schön, The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action, 1983; Educating the reflective practitioner: toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions, 1987; Sullivan, Work and integrity: the crisis and promise of professionalism in America, 1995). The professions have reproductive practices for transmitting these ways of thinking, such as practica (Schön, Educating the reflective practitioner: toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions, 1987). In this paper, we examine the learning relationship between a mentor and team of college students through an ethnographic study of a game design practicum at a European arts school. To examine the role that the mentor played in this practicum, we use two theoretical constructs. Epistemic frames—the configurations of the skills, knowledge, identities, values, and epistemologies that professionals use to think in innovative ways—provide a model for examining professional expertise (Shaffer, Comput Educ, 46(3):223–234, 2006a). Epistemic network analysis (ENA) (Shaffer et al., Int J Learn Media, 1(2):33–53, 2009) is a method for quantifying changes in epistemic frames (Shaffer, The bicycle helmets of “Amsterdam”: computer games and the problem of transfer, 2010). Our results here suggest that the mentor leads the team on a path that illuminates the nature of learning to think professionally, as well the function of a mentor in that process. We argue that the mentor, rather than providing a direct map to a professional vantage point, scaffolds aspects of the epistemic frame of game design that, in turn, aid in the development of a more professional frame. Using ENA to understand the way that mentors help coach learners to develop epistemic frames should be useful for further studies of professional education, as well as for studies of apprenticeship-based programs for youth.     

Development of Adjustment Problems in Girls: What Syndromes Emerge?

The development of a broad spectrum of adjustment problems in girls was studied longitudinally from late childhood to early adulthood. A specific interest concerned how well the externalizing-internalizing distinction could explain the data. The sample consisted of about 500 Swedish girls, reasonably representative of the general population. Variable-oriented methods were complemented with person-oriented methods to study syndrome formation at the level of the individual. The results suggested a rather diversified pattern of multi-problem syndromes in late childhood, whereas the syndrome structure in early adolescence was organized around a differentiation between girls with externalizing adjustment problems and girls with peer problems. An externalizing syndrome was found to be stable between late childhood and early adolescence, increasing the risk of severe maladjustment in adulthood. Internalizing problems showed no clear-cut continuity with adult maladjustment. Results are discussed in relation to the externalizing-internalizing distinction, which to some extent is called in question.     

Educational quality in economic development: Ten propositions and an application to the South Pacific

Over the last two decades, research into the role of education in economic development has begun to pay attention to educational quality and its effect on learning outcomes. In this paper recent research on educational quality is reviewed and its application to the island economies of the South Pacific is assessed. While there is considerable variation among the countries, the paper demonstrates the pervasive nature of school quality problems in the region. Those factors which have the greatest bearing on school quality in the region are isolated. These factors are: the quality of teachers; the availability of learning materials; initial instruction in the mother tongue; the quality of educational management; and curriculum reform. The paper concludes by arguing that strategies to improve quality will fail unless they recognise important complementarities between the factors determining quality.

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Zusammenfassung In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten hat man begonnen, die Forschung über die Rolle des Bildungswesens in der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung eines Landes auf Bildungsqualität und ihren Einfluß auf die Lernergebnisse auszudehnen. In diesem Artikel werden die neuesten Forschungen über die Qualität der Bildung aufgegriffen und eine mögliche Anwendung für die Inselwirtschaften im Südpazifik diskutiert. Dieser Artikel weist auf die überall gegenwärtige Problematik der Schulqualität in dieser Region trotz erheblicher Unterschiede zwischen den Ländern hin. Man fand folgende dafür verantwortliche Gründe heraus: Lehrerqualität, Erhältlichkeit von Lernmaterialien, Erziehung in der Muttersprache, Qualität der Schulleitung und Reform der Curricula. Der Artikel schließt mit dem Argument, daß Strategien zur Verbesserung der Qualität keinen Erfolg haben werden, solange wesentliche Zusammenhänge zwischen den qualitätsbestimmenden Faktoren nicht erkannt werden.

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Résumé Au cours des vingt dernières années, la recherche sur le rôle de l'éducation dans le développement économique a commencé à prêter attention à la qualité de l'éducation et à ses effets sur les rendements de l'apprentissage. Dans le présent article, on procède à l'examen de la recherche entreprise récemment dans ce domaine et à l'évaluation de son application aux économies des îles du Pacifique sud. Tandis qu'on note une variation considérable entre les pays, on démontre la nature diffuse des problèmes relatifs à la qualité des écoles dans cette région. Les facteurs qui ont la plus grande influence sur la qualité de l'école dans la région sont isolés: qualité des enseignants, existence de matériels d'apprentissage, enseignement initial dans la langue maternelle, qualité de la gestion de l'éducation, réforme du curriculum. Cet article conclut en arguant que les stratégies devant améliorer la qualité dans ce domaine échoueront à moins qu'elles reconnaissent les complémentarités importantes entre les facteurs qui déterminent la qualité.

     

The elaboration theory of instruction: A model for sequencing and synthesizing instruction

This paper describes a novel instructional model for sequencing, syntheizing, and summarizing subject-matter content. The importance of such models is discussed, along with the need for a significant change in the role of subject-matter structure in instruction. A zoom-lens analogy is presented to facilitate an understanding of the elaboration model of instruction. Some basic concepts and principles upon which the model is based are described. The basic unvarying components of the elaboration model are described. And finally, some variations in the model for different kinds of goals are described. The elaboration model follows a general-to-detailed pattern of sequencing, as opposed to the hierarchically based sequences derived from Gagné-type task analyses.Many of the ideas described in this paper were developed under two projeets, one funded by Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and the other by the Navy Personnel Research and Development Center in San Diego, California; however, the ideas expressed do not necessarily constitute the opinions of the funding institutions.     

How stable is the stratification of higher education in England and Scotland?

This paper asks whether the institutional hierarchies defined by ‘golden triangle’, other Russell Group, other pre-1992 and post-1992 universities in England, and by ancient, old and new universities in Scotland, have become weaker since the 1990s. Using indicators constructed from Universities and Colleges Admissions Service data for 1996–2010, the article finds a stable hierarchical relationship among the sectors within each country, with some indicators showing a slight widening of status differences between sectors towards the end of the period. The main exception was a slight ‘upgrading’ of new (post-1992) universities in Scotland early in the period. There was little change in the association of institutional sector with social class, but in England the association with private secondary schools became slightly stronger and the association with ethnicity weakened.     

El ordenador como instrumento de la mente

El discurso argumentativo escrito tiene intrínsecamente un carácter dialàgico. Esta característica se pone de manifiesto en la contraargumentación, uno de los aspectos que mayor dificultad presenta para los aprendices, tanto en la comprensión como en la producción de textos escritos. Esta dificultad se hace patente en las actividades desarrolladas en el curso de una secuencia de enseñanza y aprendizaje sobre este tipo de discurso con alumnos de los primeros niveles de enseñanza secundaria. De ello se desprende la necesidad de su enseñanza específica.     

Effects of Restructuring Training and Cognitive Style

Herman Witkin's research in differentiation theory proposed a conceptual framework describing the cognitive style known as field dependence‐independence. The operational measures of this construct are restructuring skills and interpersonal competencies, and were originally conceived to be fixed in an individual. A recent reconceptual‐isation, however, suggested that there may be some malleability in learning strategies that flow from cognitive style. Learners predisposed to field dependence might gain access to restructuring skills brought to problem‐solving situations by field independents. This study undertook to examine the effects and practicability of restructuring training as a means of addressing individual learner differences. Field independent subjects significantly out‐scored field‐dependent subjects on all three test tasks in the control group. Experimental group field independents did not significantly outscore experimental field dependents. Training enhanced field dependent subject performance on two dependent measures tasks. There was interaction across treatment and field dependence on all three dependent measures.