Citizenship Education in England: The Crick Report and Beyond

Citizenship education is being formally introduced into schools in England as a matter of national policy for the first time. This article offers a critical evaluation of the report of the Advisory Group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools which was chaired by Professor Bernard Crick, and which has been influential in shaping current educational policy in relation to these matters. An assessment is also offered of the challenges and prospects which confront citizenship education in England in the light of these developments.     

The relationships between research and decision making in education: An empirical investigation

Chapter 5 of DETYA’s volume The Impact of Educational Research (Selby-Smith 2000) begins with an examination of the peculiarity of decision making in the VET sector, followed by an examination of the idiosyncratic consequences for the function of research in the sector. Having established the distinctiveness of VET in relation to these two key factors (decision making and research), the chapter then proceeds to explore the linkages between them. The study on which the chapter is founded identified a complex research culture, in which overt forms of impact are difficult to detect, yet where, it is concluded, research nonetheless plays its part. The research which is likely to impact most heavily is that which is conducted around the practical issues with which VET must deal, preferably with a heavy on-site component, and which is carried out by researchers who are prepared to engage most fruitfully with the VET culture, ideally with a long lead time and maximum follow-up to the actual research phase.Chapter 5 contributes to the overall Impact volume in a variety of ways. First, it offers an insight into the enigmatic nature of educational research in general, and especially as it relates to the VET sector. Second, it makes it clear that educational sectors like VET are likely to be affected by research only when its application to their practical needs is clear and it is carried out by people who are committed to working with their realities. Third, there are broader lessons to be taken from the chapter, especially for university researchers who are imputed by the chapter to be among the least likely to effect research that impacts on practical policy and decision making. While unrelated to the main body of The Impact of Educational Research project, Chapter 5 contributes to the overall work through exposing the real world of research impact in what is very likely the least understood of the educational sectors.     

Using visits to interactive science and technology centers,museums, aquaria,and zoos to promote learning in science

This article received the “Implications of Research for Educational Practice” award at the 1995 meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science. The award is made possible by Carolina Biological Supply. An adaptation of this article, entitled “Don’t Compare, Complement: Making Best Use of Science Centres and Museums,” was published in the 1995 Set: Research Information for Teachers, Number 1, Item 1, by the New Zealand and Australian Councils for Education Research.     

Does segmenting principle counteract modality principle in instructional animation?

This study investigated the segmenting and modality principles in instructional animation. Two segmentation conditions (active pause vs. passive pause) were presented in combination with two modality conditions (written text vs. spoken text). The results showed that the significant effect was found in relation to segmentation conditions, whereas the modality effect was not found. The groups with embedded questions (ie, active pause) between segments outperformed pause‐only groups (ie, passive pause) on both recall and transfer tests regardless of the mode of text. The findings of the study imply that a stimulus (eg, testing occasion) would be more effective than only pauses between segments.     

Supporting families: a nurturing teacher education strategy in Nauru

There has been little recent documentation concerning Pacific family support for family members locally involved in university study in their Pacific home country and how such responses affect both parties. Some studies dealing with family support for student family members, including Pacific families residing in the USA, have been published. A New Zealand Ministry of Education report on Pasifika students’ educational success rates raised the need for effective family support contexts. Another study researched the family support negotiation patterns of mature-age part-time students in Australia, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea. Only one University of the South Pacific research focused on Pacific family and community expectations of family members studying and residing with their families in their Pacific home countries. This Nauru-based study describes mixed support responses from Nauruan families towards their teacher education student family members and Nauru Department of Education student engagement and well-being development strategies.     

Threats to the Valid Use of Assessments

Validity is the most important quality of an assessment, but its evaluation is often neglected. The step‐by‐step approach suggested here provides structured guidance to validators of educational assessments. Assessment is depicted as a chain of eight linked stages: administration, scoring, aggregation, generalization, extrapolation, evaluation, decision and impact. Evaluating validity requires careful consideration of threats to validity associated with each link. Several threats are described and exemplified for each link. These sets of threats are intended to be illustrative rather than comprehensive. The chain model suggests that validity is limited by the weakest link, and that efforts to make other links particularly strong may be wasteful or even harmful. The chain model and list of threats is also shown to be valuable when planning assessments.     

Teaching as a Practice and a Community of Practice: the Limits of Commonality and the Demands of Diversity

This paper examines some neglected aspects of the conceptualisation of teaching as a 'practice' and as involving a 'community of practice'. The concepts of a 'practice' and of a 'community of practice' are brought into focus by contrasting the differing senses of the notions employed in the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Etienne Wenger respectively. Concepts of educational 'practice' and 'communities of practice' which embody a coherent overall holistic vision of education are contrasted with senses of educational 'practice' and 'communities of practice' which relate to lower level, specific and subordinate elements of the educational process which are detachable from such visions. The possibility of specifying a single, common, overall, holistic conception of an educational 'practice' or 'community of practice' in the context of a pluralistic, diverse, liberal democratic society is discussed. It is suggested that the demands of diversity in this context open up the possibility of, and the need for, diverse forms of teacher education and training based on differing and partly competing conceptions of educational 'practice' and 'communities of practice' involving contrasting, coherent, overall, holistic visions of education.     

Factors affecting completion of apprenticeship training in England

This paper examines factors that are associated with the probability of completion of apprenticeship programmes by individual learners in England. Data are from the 2008/2009 academic year Individualised Learner Record – the administrative database containing information on all learners in the Further Education system in England. The analysis considers various factors including demographic characteristics of apprentices, aspects of their programme and an indicator of the local labour market context in which they participate in the apprenticeship. The study considers both Apprenticeships (Level 2) and Advanced Apprenticeships (Level 3) and finds a variety of factors that have a significant effect on the likelihood of completion. Gender-related differences are found only within particular frameworks (akin to the subject or sector). Local unemployment rates are found to have a significant effect on the probability of completion with the direction of this relationship differing between the two levels. The findings highlight that the contemporaneous goals of increasing participation in apprenticeship and improving completion rates cannot be easily achieved through the same actions. Despite this, the importance of completion of an apprenticeship cannot be denied for a variety of reasons including the penalties individuals may suffer in the labour market due to non-completion.     

Performance Assessment and Cost Evaluation – A Case Study

This article reports on an empirical study of the management of curriculum and instruction in South African secondary schools. Drawing on data collected from 200 schools in 2007, a series of regression analyses tested the relationship between various dimensions of leadership and student achievement gains over time. Whilst the research confirms what we do know about school management in South Africa, and aligns with much of the international research base, the strong emphasis that emerges on school–community relations offers important insights for school management development.     

Language,Truth, Justice,and Sporting Practice

In this article, we examine philosophy of sport as a field of study in Japan, its history, characteristics, and future prospects, as part of a contribution to the international development of the discipline of sport philosophy. The Japan Society for the Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education has been holding an annual sport philosophy conference every year since its inception in 1978. Nevertheless, the trends of sport philosophy in Japan have not been conveyed abroad. The language barrier between Japanese and English as an international communication tool makes it difficult to spread our work on the philosophy of sport throughout the world. The question arises as to whether the philosophy of sport in Japan has the same trends as those in the Western countries. Is it reasonable to assume that it has different aspects and interests than philosophy of sport in English-speaking countries? We will also try to address these questions for our audience