Educational change in Singapore and its ‘tinkering’ around the edges: A critical realist perspective

This article re-examines the contents of Singapore’s Thinking Schools Learning Nation (TSLN) and Teach Less Learn More (TLLM) educational initiatives, introduced and implemented to promote change and to prepare Singaporeans for a twenty-first century knowledge-based economy. Adopting a critical realist perspective that enables investigations into complex social systems, the paper highlights the concepts, change process and possible outcomes of change proposed by realist social theory. An explanatory critique responding to the question, ‘What social structural changes were implemented by the TSLN and TLLM initiatives, and why?’ is developed, tracing the programmes of change in TSLN and TLLM. Findings reported in 2013, by a local large-scale research project, has made claims about the ineffectiveness of the initiatives in bringing about desired changes in classroom instructional practices. The critique questions—given Singapore’s recent and consistent successful performances in international benchmarking tests—whether it is only in the classroom that educational change that matters, counts. It suggests that despite making strong statements about the limited effectiveness of the TSLN and TLLM initiatives, many programs introduced and adopted by primary, secondary and post-secondary institutions, especially under TLLM, were left unexamined by the research project. The explanatory critique theorises that two kinds of changes have taken place—the reorientation of pedagogical practices in post-secondary institutions and extensions of what already exists in the primary and secondary sections. The paper concludes by highlighting some implications the explanatory critique have for research into educational change in general, and for educational change in Singapore.     

Understanding the influence of teachers’ cognitive and affective responses upon school inspection feedback acceptance

Despite the developmental perspective of school inspections, teachers in inspected schools are not always willing to accept the school inspection’s feedback for their further improvement of teaching and learning processes. Literature distinguishes several aspects of feedback that stimulate or hinder the acceptance of feedback, such as recipient’s cognitive and affective responses to feedback. This study investigates teachers’ cognitive and affective responses to school inspection feedback in relation to feedback acceptance. It draws on data from 21 in-depth interviews with teachers in eight primary schools. We found that positive perceptions of the inspectors’ credibility enhance teachers’ feedback acceptance. This is also the case for positive, clear feedback. Under these circumstances, emotions of joy, happiness and relief are expressed. Conversely, respondents tend to reject feedback when inspectors are perceived to be inadequately informed, arrogant or disrespectful. When negative feedback is rated as unfair, negative emotions, such as anger and sadness, interfere with feedback acceptance. In essence, we conclude that both feedback content and feedback source characteristics are decisive in the acceptance of process. From a practical perspective, the findings suggest there is a need to build on supportive relationships between teachers and school inspectors.     

The Validity of Comparative Educational Studies

What are the conditions that will allow for appropriate comparisons among groups" Should the concept of comparative validity be added to the lexicon of the psychometrician"     

Modeling Skipped and Not‐Reached Items Using IRTrees

When dealing with missing responses, two types of omissions can be discerned: items can be skipped or not reached by the test taker. When the occurrence of these omissions is related to the proficiency process the missingness is nonignorable. The purpose of this article is to present a tree‐based IRT framework for modeling responses and omissions jointly, taking into account that test takers as well as items can contribute to the two types of omissions. The proposed framework covers several existing models for missing responses, and many IRTree models can be estimated using standard statistical software. Further, simulated data is used to show that ignoring missing responses is less robust than often considered. Finally, as an illustration of its applicability, the IRTree approach is applied to data from the 2009 PISA reading assessment.     

RIM: A Random Item Mixture Model to Detect Differential Item Functioning

In this paper we present a new methodology for detecting differential item functioning (DIF). We introduce a DIF model, called the random item mixture (RIM), that is based on a Rasch model with random item difficulties (besides the common random person abilities). In addition, a mixture model is assumed for the item difficulties such that the items may belong to one of two classes: a DIF or a non-DIF class. The crucial difference between the DIF class and the non-DIF class is that the item difficulties in the DIF class may differ according to the observed person groups while they are equal across the person groups for the items from the non-DIF class. Statistical inference for the RIM is carried out in a Bayesian framework. The performance of the RIM is evaluated using a simulation study in which it is compared with traditional procedures, like the likelihood ratio test, the Mantel-Haenszel procedure and the standardized p -DIF procedure. In this comparison, the RIM performs better than the other methods. Finally, the usefulness of the model is also demonstrated on a real life data set.     

Patterns of journal publications by staff of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 1961-1980

This study analyzes publishing patterns of the staff of the University of Ibadan College of Medicine, Nigeria, based on a bibliography prepared by the authors. Data-gathering for the bibliography is described. An analysis is made of journals staff published in for the period 1961-1980, focusing on changes in journal order rank, publishing locations, and subject spread. A ranked list of the leading journals for the period 1976-1980 is given, showing the importance of local publishing and pointing to the need for local indexing.     

关于广东省普通高校体育专业招生考试足球项目考试内容、方法及评分标准的研究

采用调查访问、实验法对广东省普通高校体育专业招生考试足球项目考试内容、方法及评分标准进行研究,通过研究．足球非专项考试难度偏低的问题、足球专项考试方法中颠球、绕杆射门项目考试难度偏低以及踢准项目偏难等问题得到解决,从而确立了广东省新的足球专项、非专项考试的各项内容、方法及评分标准,为广东省考试中心组织实施2005年广东省普通高校体育专业招生考试提供了具有实效性和科学性的保证。     

PubMed, Internet Grateful Med, and Ovid: a comparison of three MEDLINE Internet interfaces

Three MEDLINE Internet interfaces are compared: PubMed, Internet Grateful Med, and Ovid MEDLINE. Although these interfaces all search MEDLINE, significant differences exist in terms of their search interfaces, presentation of results, and special features. This paper examines these variations and explores some of the advantages and disadvantages of the three interfaces.     

每球得分制条件下影响一攻、防反关系的主要因素的研究——兼谈中国女排与世界女排的比较

通过对 1998年世界女子排球锦标赛、1999年世界杯女子排球赛与 1999年、2 0 0 0年全国女子排球甲级联赛的研究 ,对每球得分制条件下影响一攻和防反的主要因素进行论证。结果表明 :发球、一传效果、防守效果、不同风格打法和运动员心理素质是影响每球得分制条件下一攻、防反效果的主要因素 ;与世界强队相比 ,中国女子排球队在后排进攻方面存在着显著性差异