The Innovative School: Organization and Instruction

Researchers in the area of educational effectiveness should attempt to develop a new theoretical framework. A critical analysis of the current models of educational effectiveness research is provided and reveals that a dynamic model of effectiveness must: (a) be multilevel in nature, (b) be based on the assumption that the relation of some effectiveness factors with achievement may be curvilinear, (c) illustrate the dimensions upon which the measurement of each effectiveness factor should be based, and (d) define relations among the effectiveness factors. In principle, each factor that refers to the classroom, school, and system, can be measured by taking into account five dimensions: frequency, focus, stage, quality, and differentiation. Examples of measuring effectiveness factors operating at different levels using these 5 dimensions are given. More attention in describing in detail factors associated with teacher behaviour in the classroom is given, since this is seen as the starting point for the development and the testing of the dynamic model. Finally, suggestions for the next steps in the development of other parts of the model are provided.     

Feminisms and science education: one science educator's exploration of her practice

This article relates stories of what I have learned by engaging in autobiographical analysis of my work as a science educator, over a seven year period. These stories can be described loosely as 'a play with three acts'. During each act I am played by a somewhat different feminist character who is not only influenced by her own pedagogical and philosophical underpinnings (feminisms) but, by her own disciplinary and institutional contexts. The first act presents an historical feminist perspective. The second act can be described as an emerging postmodern feminist story. The third act is a feminisms story which is where I currently locate my practice.     

Personality Type and Participation in Networked Learning Environments

For networked learning environments, it is necessary to consider different aspects of this environment, such as the collaborative environment, the nature of activities and resources, the technological environment and the learner's characteristics, if quality learning is to take place online. This paper focuses on one aspect of the learner's characteristics; that of personality type as determined using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (Myers, 1984). It investigates the relationship between personality type and a student's participation (both passive and active) within a networked learning environment using asynchronous threaded discussion for a university course run both online and face-to-face. Qualitative results show patterns in student attitudes to participation related to personality type, particularly on the dimensions of introversion/extroversion, sensing/intuition and thinking/feeling. The paper also discusses implications of the findings in relation to the development of the networked learning environment, to ensure better online participation from all students. L’importance des types de personnalité dans la participation dans des environnements d’apprentissage en réseau. Pour les environnements d’apprentissage en réseau Net, il faut considérer différents aspects de cet environnement coopératif, la nature des activités et des sources, l’environnement technologique et les caractéristiques de l’apprenant si l’on veut en ligne obtenir un apprentissage de qualité. Cet article se concentre sur un aspect des caractéristiques de l’apprenant, celui du type de personnalité défini dans le Myer Briggs Type Indicator (Myers, 1984). Il étudie la relation entre le type de personnalité et la participation d’un étudiant (passive et active) dans un environnement d’apprentissage basé sur le Net utilisant une discussion filetée asynchrone our un cours d’université mené face À face et en ligne. Les résultats qualitatifs montrent des modéles dans

l’attitude des étudiant quant À la participation liée au type de personnalité, particulièrement sur les dimensions de l’introversion/extroversion, de la sensation/intuition et de la pensée/sentiments. L’article discute aussi des implications des

résultats en relation avec le développement de l’environnement de l’apprentissage en réseau, pur assurer une meilleure

participation en ligne de la part de tous les étudiants. Persönlichkeitstyp und Partizipation in vernetzten Lernumgebungen. Bei vernetzten Lernumgebungen müssen unterschiedliche Aspekte dieser Umgebung bedacht werden, so z.B. der

gemeinschaftliche Bereich, die Art von Aktivitäten und Ressourcen, die technischen Gegebenheiten und die Charakteristika der Lernenden, wenn erstklassiges Lernen auch online möglich werden soll. Dieser Beitrag beschränkt sich auf einen charakteristischen Aspekt des Lerners: seinen Persönlichkeitstyp unter Benutzung des Myers Briggs Type Indicator (Myers, 1984). Es untersucht die Beziehung zwischen dem Persönlichkeitstyp und der Teilhabe (aktiv und passiv) eines Studenten

innerhalb einer vernetzten Lernumgebung bei asynchron angelegter Diskussion – sowohl online als auch direkt – über einen Universitätskurs. Qualifizierte Ergebnisse zeigen, dass bestimmte Verhaltensmuster der Studenten zur Partizipation vom Persönlichkeitstyp abhängen, insbesondere vom Grad der Introversion/Extroversion, Empfindsamkeit/Einfühlungsvermögen und Denken/Fühlen. Der Beitrag stellt auch Folgerungen aus den Befunden in Bezug auf die Entwicklung vernetzter Lernumgebungen zur Diskussion, um bessere online-Partizipation aller Studenten sicherzustellen.     

Curriculum innovation within an evaluative state: issues of risk and regulation

The English EAZ experience illustrates the difficulties of developing an innovative, responsive and inclusive curriculum within an evaluative state characterized by high stakes testing. Consequently, while government exhortations to ‘raise standards’, ‘innovate’ and ‘promote social inclusion’ clearly serve an important rhetorical function, they may underestimate the challenges involved and overestimate the capacity of schools within disadvantaged areas to ‘make a difference’.     

Women,adult education and literacy: A Caribbean perspective

The main function of agricultural extension is generally thought to be the transfer through nonformal educational means of practical knowledge to agriculture and the enhancement of rural development. Agricultural extension has received renewed attention in recent years from international development agencies and considerable discussion has ensued regarding the appropriate role for extension programmes. Much of the attention has been directed towards improving the functions of existing services. This article discusses the policy considerations of extension within the broader context of agricultural development goals and the overall direction of the country's development objectives and strategies. A framework is presented for analysing important characteristics of different extension development options. The issues raised are relevant to the larger concerns of adult education policy and the promotion of lifelong learning strategies within society. They include the relationship of sectoral goals and policies to broader national objectives, the audience the public sector should target, the role of the private sector, the structural arrangements best suited to meet certain objectives and the correct mixture and co‐ordination of various services and programmes.     

Cloning the Blairs: New Labour's programme for the re-socialization of working-class parents

In his speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in July 1999, the UK Secretary of State for Education, David Blunkett, set out New Labour's vision for a system of education in which there is ‘excellence for the many not just the few’. He outlined what is essentially a bi-focal strategy for achieving this vision. The first focus is on the education system itself, the structures and practices that New Labour believes need to be in place if schools and services are going to meet the needs of all children and not just a privileged minority. The second focus is on the need to promote ‘a culture of achievement’, as, according to Blunkett, the vision ‘depends on changing attitudes as well as the system itself’. This paper focuses on this second strategy, more specifically the government's attempts to change the attitudes of parents. It is argued that this strategy aims to eradicate class differences by reconstructing and transforming working-class parents into middle-class ones, that it represents possibly the most important and far-reaching aspect of New Labour's policy agenda, and that it has not so far received the attention it deserves. The paper is in two parts. The first part sets out what is involved in New Labour's programme of re-socialization and explores the mechanisms by which New Labour is attempting to universalize the values, attitudes and behaviour of a certain fraction of middle-class parents. The second part develops a critique of this programme.     

Self-reports of forgetting and remembering childhood sexual abuse in a nationally representative sample of US women

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to describe patterns of forgetting and remembering childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in a nationally representative sample of US adult women. METHOD: The respondents were a national probability sample of 711 women, aged 26 years to 54 years, residing in noninstitutional settings in the contiguous 48 states. In a 1996 face-to-face interview survey, trained female interviewers asked each respondent whether she had experienced any sexual coercion by family members or nonfamily members while growing up; whether she believed that she had been sexually abused (by family members or others); and whether she had ever forgotten the CSA experiences and, if so, how she had subsequently remembered them. RESULTS: Twenty-one and six-tenths percent of respondents reported having sexually coercive experiences while growing up; of these, 69.0% indicated that they felt they had been sexually abused. More than one-fourth of respondents who felt sexually abused reported that they had forgotten the abuse for some period of time but later remembered it on their own. Only 1.8% of women self-described as sexually abused reported remembering the abuse with the help of a therapist or other professional person. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that, among women who report CSA, forgetting and subsequently remembering abuse experiences is not uncommon. According to the women surveyed, however, very few (1.8%) of those who felt abused recovered memories of CSA with help from therapists or other professionals. As one of the few studies of CSA memories in a nationally representative sample, this study suggests that therapist-assisted recall is not a major source of CSA memories among women in the US general population.