Whole School Management: Turning an Illusion into Practice

Richard Aird, headteacher, and Sue Bainbridge, deputy headteacher, of Baginton Fields Special School, Coventry describe a system of audit model which takes as its starting point curriculum issues. Although it drives an authority funding formula, its educational importance is at a school level and the work of an individual school is described to illustrate how it facilitates decision making by all involved in the school.     

Cultural capital and agency: connecting critique and curriculum in higher education

This paper explores some of the unresolved tensions in higher education systems and the contradiction between widening participation and the consolidation of social position. It shows how concepts of capital derived from Bourdieu, Coleman and Putnam provide a powerful basis for critique, but risk a deficit view of students from less privileged backgrounds. These students are more likely to attend lower‐status institutions and engage with an externally focused curriculum. The paper argues for greater attention to agency, and community and familial capital, in conceptualising the resilience of those from less privileged backgrounds. While the recognition of ‘voice’ is important, a curriculum that acknowledges the context independence of knowledge is essential if these students are not to be further disadvantaged.     

The measurement of classroom management self‐efficacy: a review of measurement instrument development and influences

Teachers' self‐efficacy (SE) in their classroom management capabilities is thought to be an important factor in teachers' overall judgements of their teaching SE. Low SE in classroom management has been linked to teacher attrition and burnout, and reduced student learning outcomes. This article provides the first comprehensive review of classroom management as a factor in the construct of teacher SE. Twenty‐five peer‐reviewed articles published from 1984 to 2009 that reported on the use of SE scales containing at least one novel classroom management self‐efficacy (CMSE) item were reviewed. The validity and reliability of CMSE scales and items were found to be very good, with classroom management items pertaining to maintaining order and control the most frequent category included. Approximately one in four items in the SE scales reviewed was CMSE item, and, in general, CMSE items were not linked explicitly to classroom management research or contemporary psychological or philosophical approaches.     

Bodies and affect in non-traditional learning spaces

Abstract

This paper considers the ‘knowledge economy’ as it is used in education rhetoric to establish social and educational consent for significant changes both to the spatial organisation of classrooms and their affective economies. We draw on ethnographic data from a study of ‘non-traditional classroom spaces’, where the spatial organisation of schooling emerged as a potential fulcrum through which the imaginary of the conventional primary classroom was being reconceptualised. Traditionally configured classroom spaces and the learning that takes place within them were being challenged and replaced by notions of twenty-first century learning in ‘agile’ learning environments. In the context of this reform agenda, these open-plan spaces were seen as offering new prospects for participation in a globally connected and competitive economic world that requires students to continuously adapt, innovate and respond creatively to a range of different problems. We consider how these everyday moments function as conceptual encounters between affective, embodied experiences and educational reform discourses that rationalise the implementation of non-traditional classroom spaces in ways that have very little to do with children and their futures. This cultural approach takes a step aside from numerous, and necessary, critiques of recent educational policies per se, in order to consider what might be learned from the uncanny spectres of child bodies that haunt them. The paper draws attention to examples of children’s affect in non-traditional classrooms and what that may tell us about current educational reform when sacrifice forms part of the missing account of educational reorganisation for the knowledge economy.     

Both Theory and Practice: Science Literacy Instruction and Theories of Reading

Many journal articles detail recommendations to naturally integrate literacy instruction into content-area classes, particularly science, claiming that such instructional practices will support both literacy and content-knowledge acquisition. This begs the question, are the literacy strategies recommended for content-area instruction founded in established educational theories? The purpose of the current study is to examine the implicit and explicit theories driving science disciplinary literacy instruction. Theories assist in organizing and advancing research in a systematic manner. Information on the status of theory is essential to both practitioners (who are implementing strategies) and researchers (who are making recommendations for classroom instruction). Our study revealed that in science literacy, vocabulary instructional practices are frequently supported with Schema and Dual-Coding theories. Articles also frequently used theories grounded in social dynamics, including social constructionism and sociocultural perspective, to support literacy instruction. However, recommendations for other aspects of instructional practices in science literacy are generally not well-grounded in major reading theories.     

Online student evaluation improves Course Experience Questionnaire results in a physiotherapy program

This paper reports the use of an online student evaluation system, Course Experience on the Web (CEW), in a physiotherapy program to improve their Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) results. CEW comprises a course survey instrument modelled on the CEQ and a tailored unit survey instrument. Closure of the feedback loop is integral in the CEW system. Analysis of the data shows that the students’ evaluation in their final year of the program is closely correlated with their CEQ results. Increases in the CEQ scores from 2001–04 included an increase in the Good Teaching Scale (27.5), Generic Skills Scale (10.3) and Overall Satisfaction Index (29.3). By using CEW, academics at the School of Physiotherapy were able to determine students’ perceptions during the course, make changes to teaching and learning, where appropriate, in a timely manner and, as a result, the CEQ scores were improved markedly.     

Young people who cut themselves – a growing challenge for educational settings

There has been an increasing pattern of young people seeking to cope with the stresses of modern life by acts of self-harm. The frequency of this has been estimated by one review as between one in 12 and one in 15 across the UK. In this article, Margaret Dimmock, family therapist, Sue Grieves, community psychiatric nurse, both of whom work for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Hartlepool, and Maurice Place, Professor of Child and Family Psychiatry at Northumbria University, report the results of a survey carried out in a large comprehensive secondary school in the North of England, where the rate of self-destructive behaviour was found to be at least 9.8%. The reasons for this behaviour are explored when the authors look at the differences in coping behaviour that these young people show compared with their peers. The results from this project indicate that, within this sample of young people, there is a tendency to worry far more; to feel rather remote from peers; and to feel less able to cope with setbacks. Drawing on these findings, Margaret Dimmock, Sue Grieves and Maurice Place discuss some approaches that might help young people to avoid self-harming behaviour in future.     

Mexican-Origin Youth's Cultural Orientations and Values: Do Older Sisters and Brothers Matter?

Family is an important context for cultural development, but little is known about the contributions of siblings. This study investigated whether older siblings’ cultural orientations and familism values predicted changes in younger siblings’ cultural orientations and familism values across 2 years and tested sibling characteristics and younger siblings’ modeling as moderators. Participants were 246 Mexican-origin younger (M_age = 17.72; SD = 0.57) and older siblings (M_age = 20.65; SD = 1.57) and their parents. Findings revealed that older siblings’ Anglo orientations and familism values interacted with younger siblings’ modeling: When younger siblings reported high modeling, older siblings’ Anglo orientations and values predicted increases in younger siblings’ Anglo orientations and values. Discussion highlights the importance of siblings in cultural socialization.