Teacher Appraisal,Professional Development and School Improvement: a case study

The paper argues that in respect of the day‐to‐day work activities required in being a headteacher, and in the work relationships involved in running schools, the occupational culture of headship has changed fundamentally. Using the accounts of 20 headteachers, interviewed in respect of their career histories in 1990 and followed up by means of a postal questionnaire in 1992, the paper illustrates the changes experienced and identified by this group of heads. It is argued that a new headteacher is required; that aspects of educational leadership have diminished dramatically in the work culture of headship.     

Annual Index Volume 8

The objective of this paper is to report the development and use of an observation checklist to identify typically developing children with behavioural manifestations associated with inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. This measure is termed the Scope Classroom Observation Checklist (SCOC). The SCOC was developed, assessed for reliability using an independent observer and teacher ratings, and administered to a sample of 157 mainstream schoolchildren. The SCOC revealed a normal distribution of scores on the checklist, and the top and bottom quartiles of this distribution were found, as would be expected, to differ significantly on SCOC score. The SCOC had good inter‐observer reliability and a high rate of concordance with teacher ratings of attentional difficulties. The SCOC has emerged as a reliable measure that could prove to be a useful tool in a battery of screening measures to identify mainstream schoolchildren with difficulties characterised by inattention and hyperactivity‐impulsivity.     

The icelandic educational network: incidents reported as fostering successful use of educational networks

Abstract

Telecommunications have moved into the world of education, and educational networks have arisen in many countries. The Icelandic Educational Network (IEN) is one of these, and a recent study was undertaken to examine its role and its impact on the educational community in Iceland. A critical incident study was conducted to determine what activities educators felt have led to their successful use of the IEN. Participants were asked to describe two critical incidents that fostered their successful use of the IEN; 580 critical incidents reported by 290 subscribers at the IEN were analyzed. The data, recorded and presented in narrative and visual form, revealed six categories that foster successful use of the IEN, and frequency distribution charts showing the frequency of each incident are included here. Participant feedback has provided information regarding instructor training for telecommunication technology, and has indicated possible areas for inclusion in teacher education, and professional development activities     

Measuring Jews in Motion

Jewish educators are expected not only to imbue their students with Jewish knowledge but with Jewish feelings and Jewish actions as well—in short, with Jewish identity. However, in spite of a growing understanding among researchers that identity is fluid and dynamic, many of the traditional methods for assessing Jewish identity reflect essentialist concepts of identity that assume Jews and their Jewishness remain unchanging across various contexts. Our intention in this article is to review briefly some of the ways in which traditional methods of studying Jewish identity reveal problematic conceptualizations, and to suggest an alternative that seems to us more in keeping with constructivist concepts of identity.     

Problems & Prospects Revisited: Bursik’s Mark on Chicago‐Style Criminology

It has been 20 years since Robert J. Bursik Jr. published his seminal article outlining some of the problems and prospects in the social disorganization perspective on crime and delinquency. In this study, we review the content of approximately 200 published articles that cite Bursik’s 1988 piece. These studies are systematically examined in terms of their efforts to overcome the problems and pursue the prospects that Bursik outlined. In addition to content analysis, we survey the authors who cite this work. That is, we gather data from the authors directly to assess the influence of Bursik’s article on their own published work. Our research finds that Bursik’s work played a significant role in the revitalization and expansion of social disorganization theory.     

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM PROGRAMS IN NEW JERSEY'S PUBLIC COLLEGES

Since 1976 in response to growing concern about college students’ writing abilities, faculty development programs on writing across the curriculum have arisen in a number of two‐ and four‐year colleges throughout the United States. This movement, for it seems to be one, has its roots in a similar movement that began more than 15 years ago in British secondary schools. This paper first reviews briefly the early history of the movement in England and compares the movement there to the one now under way in U.S. higher education. It then presents the results of a questionnaire survey of New Jersey's public two‐ and four‐year colleges undertaken in the spring of 1979. The purpose of the survey was to determine whether and to what extent New Jersey's public colleges had started or were planning to start development programs designed to bring groups of faculty together, across disciplines, to discuss problems relating to student writing performance and to develop specific interdisciplinary plans for solving these problems. In addition, information is presented about the nature of the steps taken in those institutions that reported having initiated such programs and about the efforts to evaluate the impact of these programs. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the state of writing across the curriculum programs in New Jersey public higher education and recommendations are made for further action in this direction.     

The Teacher as Creative Artist: Harold O. Rugg: 1886‐1960

IN AN AGE OF MASS CONSUMPTION In our age of mass consumption, the ubiquity of commodification's many forms establishes and constitutes a significant fact of our everyday existence. A Starbucks on every corner. Between supermarket and superstore, supply almost never a problem. So much merchandise just a mouse click away. Nearly everything having its price. A product for every imaginable problem.