Three Decades of Non‐reform

Abstract

Since the publication of the Crowther Report in 1959 there have been seven major proposals for reducing the degree of specialisation in England and Wales and postponing its onset. This article examines the history and nature of these proposals and the reasons for their failure. Its main contentions are that the historical opposition to any central or local control of the school curriculum has made it very difficult to determine what actually was happening in the schools or what external forces controlled the pattern of studies: and that in the absence of any authority controlling the pattern of the curriculum, it was almost impossible that any proposals for change would be implemented.     

Library service delivery via hand-held computers--the right information at the point of care

Today's health and medical librarians are well aware of the move towards evidence-based clinical practice which has emerged during the past decade. Hand-in-hand with this trend is the need for health practitioners to have access to the best possible evidence to help them in their clinical decision making. Libraries have a key role in the provision of information to their clients, and this means keeping abreast, not only of the various information sources available, but also the means by which those sources may be used. This paper will examine the effects that the hand-held computer is having on the work practices of our clients-library users. It is hoped that the paper will give an insight into the various types of library material which are suitable for use with hand-held devices, and an understanding of their advantages and limitations.     

Measurement of teacher performance: A study in instrument development

The procedures used to produce a research-based teaching evaluation system, containing low-inference indicators of effective and ineffective teacher behavior, included instrument development, content validation, and field testing. An extensive reliability study produced estimates for three types of consistency: intercoder agreement (r = 0.85), stability across teaching situations r = 0.86, and discriminant reliability among teachers (r = 0.79). The norming component of the study conducted in 45 schools, generated over 1200 observations of current teacher practice at all grade levels and in various subject areas. The results indicated the substantially generic nature of these behaviors; only grade level and instructional method (interactive, lecture, and independent seatwork) produced meaningful differences among groups of teachers. In addition, the average teacher used most of the effective behaviors (70%), and a few of the ineffective behaviors (8%) during observation. These results support the instrument's value in teacher training, remediation, and evaluation.     

Book Reviews

Serial Publications: Guidelines for Good Practice in Publishing Printed and Electronic Journals, 2nd edition, by Diane Brown, Elaine Stott and Anthony Watkinson Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers 2003, £27 (members), £30 (non‐members), 108 pp., paperback. ISBN 0‐907341‐22‐5. Available from http://www.alpsp.org/pub3.htm The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper prepared by Raym Crow, SPARC Senior Consultant Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, Washington DC. Release 1.0, 2002. Available at: www.arl.org/sparc The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper prepared by Raym Crow, SPARC Senior Consultant Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, Washington, DC. Release 1.0, 2002. Available at: www.arl.org/sparc Internet Law: Text and Materials by Chris Reed Butterworths Tolley, 2000, £24.95, paperback. ISBN 0406981418 Intellectual Property Law by Lionel Bently and Brad Sherman Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001, £32.99 (paperback), 1136 pp. ISBN 0‐19‐876343‐3 Clearing the Way: Copyright Clearance in UK Libraries by Elizabeth Gadd LISU Occasional Paper no. 31, Library & Information Statistics Unit (LISU), Department of Information Science, Loughborough University. ISBN 1 901786 51 X Electronic Journals and User Behaviour: Learning for the Future from the SuperJournal Project by David Pullinger and Christine Baldwin Deedot Press, 2002, £14.95. ISBN 0‐954‐2924‐0‐5 Electronic Ecology: A Case Study of Electronic Journals in Context by Karla L. Hahn Association of Research Libraries, 79 pp., 2001, $45. ISBN 0‐918006‐46‐1 The Transition from Paper: Where Are We Going and How Will We Get There edited by R. Stephen Berry and Anne Simon Moffat American Academy of Arts and Sciences, published online (2001): www.amacad.org/publications/trans.htm The Transition from Paper: Where Are We Going and How Will We Get There edited by R. Stephen Berry and Anne Simon Moffat American Academy of Arts and Sciences, published online (2001): www.amacad.org/publications/trans.htm E‐Serials, Publishers, Libraries, Users and Standards, 2nd edn, edited by Wayne Jones The Haworth Press Inc., 2003, 294 pp. paperback ISBN 0789012294     

Promoting doctoral students' research self-efficacy: combining academic guidance with autonomy support

A diverse sample of doctoral students completed an on-line questionnaire assessing their supervisors' academic, personal and autonomy support and their research self-efficacy. The more task-related help and personal support students received, the more positively they evaluated their supervision. The degree to which supervisors encouraged students to think and act autonomously (autonomy support) was not uniquely associated with students' supervision satisfaction but predicted greater research self-efficacy. A combination of high levels of autonomy and academic support was associated with the highest levels of research self-efficacy, whereas when greater levels of personal support were accompanied by low levels of autonomy support, students reported lower research self-efficacy. These results indicate that effective doctoral supervision involves supporting students to voice and act on their own ideas while simultaneously providing guidance on how to complete research tasks.     

Girls' secondary education in Uganda: assessing policy within the women's empowerment framework

This paper makes the case that policies, such as the National Strategy for Girls' Education in Uganda (NSGE), intended to achieve gender equity in education for girls in developing countries, have limited relevance to, and impact on girls' actual educational experiences. Recent considerations of girls' education acknowledge that gender equity within education is more than access to schooling; it entails the cultivation of capabilities necessary for girls to participate fully, actively and equally in all aspects of their societies. Drawing on a longitudinal, ethnographic policy research case study with 15 Ugandan schoolgirls in rural Masaka District, Uganda, from August 2004 to September 2006, I explore the girls' educational experiences in relationship to the NSGE. I employ the Women's Empowerment Framework (WEF) to evaluate the NSGE with respect to the extent to which its interventions are ‘empowering’ for girls.     

Is there an ethics of algorithms?

We argue that some algorithms are value-laden, and that two or more persons who accept different value-judgments may have a rational reason to design such algorithms differently. We exemplify our claim by discussing a set of algorithms used in medical image analysis: In these algorithms it is often necessary to set certain thresholds for whether e.g. a cell should count as diseased or not, and the chosen threshold will partly depend on the software designer’s preference between avoiding false positives and false negatives. This preference ultimately depends on a number of value-judgments. In the last section of the paper we discuss some general principles for dealing with ethical issues in algorithm-design.     

Is Peer Interaction Necessary for Optimal Active Learning?

Meta-analyses of active-learning research consistently show that active-learning techniques result in greater student performance than traditional lecture-based courses. However, some individual studies show no effect of active-learning interventions. This may be due to inexperienced implementation of active learning. To minimize the effect of inexperience, we should try to provide more explicit implementation recommendations based on research into the key components of effective active learning. We investigated the optimal implementation of active-learning exercises within a “lecture” course. Two sections of nonmajors biology were taught by the same instructor, in the same semester, using the same instructional materials and assessments. Students in one section completed in-class active-learning exercises in cooperative groups, while students in the other section completed the same activities individually. Performance on low-level, multiple-choice assessments was not significantly different between sections. However, students who worked in cooperative groups on the in-class activities significantly outperformed students who completed the activities individually on the higher-level, extended-response questions. Our results provide additional evidence that group processing of activities should be the recommended mode of implementation for in-class active-learning exercises.     

Use of Standardized Tests in Teacher Evaluation for Career Ladder Systems

In most current teacher evaluation systems, tests are typically used for all teachers or for none. Peterson describes how three Utah school districts employed tests, specifically National Teachers Examinations, as one line of optional evidence for use along with a selection of other evidence in the promotion of eligible teachers. The author indicates that the optional use of test scores both answers many objections to the testing of veteran teachers and allows the test results of teachers choosing to submit them to inform promotion decisions.