Can 'ears-on' help hands-on science learning for girls and boys?

The primary objective of the research was to establish whether the use of the newly developed audiopilot (a personalized auditory commentary system) facilitates both hands-on exploration and the understanding of scientific principles in a science centre. Twenty-four ten year-old children used the AudioPilot while they interacted with a set of pendulum experiments. A control group of 28 children from the same classes experienced the same experiments but without the Audio-Pilot. Videos were made of all the children and their behaviours were later coded. They completed a questionnaire about pendulums before and after going to the science centre. A gender effect emerged. The audio-pilot greatly facilitated the girls' hands-on activity and improved their questionnaire scores, which was highly statistically significant. This suggests that auditory commentaries are a good way of communicating difficult scientific concepts, especially to girls. Further research is needed to confirm whether this finding can be generalized over different schools.     

‘We are like dictionaries,Miss, you can look things up in us’: evaluating child-centred research methods

Research concerning children is often presented with only a brief comment on the research methods adopted. This paper takes a ‘behind the scenes’ view and I discuss my adoption of a non-hierarchical ‘least adult role’ adapted from Mandell's work in 1991 to undertake qualitative research in the sensitive area of children's multicultural awareness in two high-proportion minority ethnic schools and two schools with a predominantly white intake. I discuss my approach as a ‘traveller’ rather than a ‘miner’ and the use of jelly beans and Bean Sheet to gauge the children's perceptions of their multicultural awareness. The value placed on the role of the child in the research design and implementation is examined, and I evaluate the advantages and limitations of adopting such child-centred approaches for the teacher researcher.     

The mainstreaming of charities into schools

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ‘mainstreaming’ of charities into schools. There have been growing concerns about the permeation of business and business values in education, but relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which schools are increasingly engaged in the ‘business’ of fundraising for charities. Drawing on survey data from the WISERDEducation Multi-Cohort Study (WMCS), the paper outlines young people’s relationship with charities. The data show that young people have a high degree of engagement with charities, in which schools play a significant part. There are likely to be many positive aspects to this engagement, inasmuch as it fosters and reflects young people’s sense of collective responsibility. However, there are also issues about the extent to which this high level of involvement marginalises other approaches to promote the social good and increases the permeation of business values and business into school. The paper concludes that the current mainstreaming of charities into schools is not necessarily a self-evident ‘good’ and that this under-researched phenomenon deserves greater critical attention within and outwith schools.     

Social justice and education in the public and private spheres

This paper explores the complex relationship between social justice and education in the public and private spheres. The politics of education is often presented as a battle between left and right, the state and the market. In this representation, the public and the private spheres are neatly aligned on either side of the line of battle, and social justice is commonly seen as the prerogative of the public sphere. This paper challenges this representation. It shows how the language of what counts as public and private in education is historically specific, culturally contingent and ideologically loaded. Through drawing on a range of education policies and practices, the paper demonstrates that ‘public’ and ‘private’ are not simple opposites. Moreover, it argues that social justice can be conceptualised in ways that have complex and multi-faceted implications for public and private sphere involvement. The paper concludes that if we are to enhance our understanding of the relationship between social justice and education we need to recognise the multi-faceted nature of what counts as private, what counts as public and what counts as justice.     

Modelling patterns of improvement over time: value added trends in English secondary school performance across ten cohorts

This paper looks at underlying patterns of school effectiveness through analysing a GCSE examination data‐set over a period of ten cohorts (1993–2002) in one very large English school district. Both value added and raw score approaches were explored by employing different statistical multilevel models to examine time trends of school and pupil performance from two perspectives: consistent (linear) and inconsistent (non‐linear) school improvement. Overall, levels of measured attainment for the vast majority of the schools increased over the decade and the results indicate that one in four schools had significantly higher value added improvement trajectories (linear) than would be expected over the decade—in comparison to the average school. Those schools with a lower value added starting point in 1993 were more likely to make significant improvement. However, underlying these linear improvement trajectories it appears that only one in 16 schools managed to improve continuously for more than four years at some point over the decade in terms of value added.     

Reading education action zones

During the last few decades, the concept of equivalence has assumed an increasingly important role in Swedish educational policy, and at the same time the actual meaning of equivalence has been given different authoritative interpretations. The shift in significance which the concept has undergone seems to be not only an aspect of the social power play of which it is part, but also, at the same time, a clear expression of the ‘reality constituting’ power of language. In the 1970s and early 1980s the concept referred to a common curriculum and equally allocated resources, ensuring that all students would have an educational experience that was both shared and equal. In the late 1980s and 1990s, this meaning of equivalence was challenged by something quite different: a reference to a form of curriculum distribution and resource allocation that put primary emphasis on allowing students and their parents to freely pursue educational choices and on providing an array of curriculum possibilities that varied according to the interests of students and their parents. From the perspective of the challenged meaning of equivalence the question asked is what the markedly weaker emphasis of the former shared frame of reference in favour of increased individual freedom may imply in the light of new conditions for the shaping of community through education.     

Issues in inter‐state delivery of educational programs using telecommunications technologies

Technology, Open Learning and Distance Education. A. W. Bates. (London and New York: Routledge, 1995, 280 pp., $75.00 hard/$24.99 soft).

Distance Learners in Higher Education: Institutional Responses for Quality Outcomes. Chère Campbell Gibson, ed. (Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing, 1997, pp. 143, $19.95).     

Dimensions of Secondary School Effectiveness: Comparative Analyses Across Regions

Recent UK government policy implementing new systems of evaluation and accountability have highlighted the use of performance data to inform judgements about secondary schools and stimulate school improvement. However, these developments have been informed by a relatively small number of research studies addressing the methodology of measuring school effectiveness, and often employing limited or incomplete datasets. This paper reports the findings of an Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) funded study that employs 6 extensive and detailed regional datasets (drawn from Lancashire, London, Jersey, Scotland, the Netherlands and England as a whole). The study aims to provide new evidence to assist school staff, policy-makers and academics in understanding the multi-faceted nature of school effectiveness and the need to evaluate school performance in detail. The objectives were to investigate 1) the optimal models for measuring secondary school effectiveness across a range of outcomes in the UK and abroad; 2) the extent of regional differences in the results; 3) the definition of the underlying dimension(s) of school effectiveness across different regional and policy contexts. The findings show that at least 4 dimensions of secondary school effectiveness can be defined, specifically in terms of different outcomes, pupil groups, pupil cohorts and curriculum stages. In addition regional differences appear to exist in the size and impact of school effects, and these are mirrored by differences in regional context in terms of pupil selection. In conclusion it is argued that effectiveness at different levels of the education system (e.g., individual pupils; departments; whole school; region and nationally), as well as interactions between levels, needs to be continually monitored in order to map out the boundaries of school effectiveness and how these change over time. The findings are discussed in relation to developing a value added framework for school evaluation in the UK.     

Response to Fry and Kraemer

In general, women are well represented among sport participants and sport audiences but not in the media. Data show that women's sport is greatly underreported and trivialized in newspapers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to measure press coverage during the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in the largest circulating Belgian, Danish, French, and Italian daily newspapers by: (a) number of articles, (b) size, (c) page placement, (d) accompanying photographs, and (e) photograph size. For each sport covered, the athletes' nationality and the gender were recorded. Compared to the 1996 Atlanta Games, there was an increase of 326 female athletes (+4%), and women competed in 25 sports and 132 events (44%) of the total 300 events. Although only 29.3% of the articles and 38% of photos were on women's sports, the newspaper coverage was similar to the distribution of participating athletes and events. No significant gender differences were found with respect to article size, page placement, accompanying photographs, or photograph size. The most covered sport was track and field, independent of national achievement. Other sports received different coverage in relation to national expectations, achievement, and participation. In conclusion, there was a trend to overcome gender inequities in media coverage during the Olympic Games, which may be due to the International Olympic Committee's actions to promote increased participation of women in sport activities and to publicize their achievements. Moreover, during the Olympic Games, a nationalistic fervor might affect the equality of gender coverage.     

“It's Cheesy When They Smile

Building on previous research in which we provided an opportunity for female college athletes to construct their own photographic portrayals, this study explored young female athletes' perceptions of the college athlete photographs. Fifty-two girls participated in focus group interviews where they viewed and discussed the images. The young athletes particularly liked images they perceived to show authentic athletes (e.g., in athletic settings, with appropriate sport attire), images they could relate to due to personal experiences, and images that reflected competent and passionate sportswomen. Images perceived as revealing a lack of motivation, poor sporting attitudes, and nonathletic poses generally were disliked. Images depicting multiple social identities (e.g., an athlete in a dress) were controversial and generated much discussion.