East Meets West in Assessment Development: Western Technical Assistance to Eastern Needs. Part III. Reform of an Examination System: Shoulder to Shoulder in the Polish SMART Project

This is Part III of a three part series describing the consultancy and training demands that are encountered in technical assistance projects in Central and Eastern Europe. Part I dealt with strategic issues for a successful delivery of "Western Technical Assistance to Eastern Needs." Part II highlighted project management and co-operation aspects in delivering support to the Romanian Assessment and Examination Service. In this part, we address training of Polish subject experts who were preparing to take on responsibility for a decentralized and strongly innovative final exam, the Matura.     

Hans Freudenthal (17 September 1905–13 October 1990)

Recorded are some biographical data about the late professor Freudenthal along with some indications about his mathematical work. In an appendix a tiny part of his mathematical work which can be explained in a fairly direct manner is discussed.This is the somewhat modified text of a commemorative address given at the annual meeting of the Wiskundig Genootschap, the Dutch mathematical society, on April 5, 1991, cf. Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde, 9 (1991), 131–136.     

Social cohesion and integration: learning active citizenship

This article starts from a conceptual clarification of the notions social integration and social cohesion as a prerequisite for the reorientation of citizenship education. Turning away from uncritically reproduced assumptions represented in mainstream ‘deficiency discourse’, the article first focuses on sociological conditions for the rise of active citizenship and its role in the revitalization of the public sphere. Next a number of educational objectives are deduced from competencies needed and learning processes taking place in practices of active citizenship. Finally, the article argues for the adoption of a lifelong learning perspective, relating formal citizenship education to informal and non‐formal experiences of active citizenship.     

The validity and reliability of focus groups as a research method in adult education

The article examines the theory and practice of focus groups in adult education research. Three theoretical positions are described: radical hermeneutic, moderate interpretative and pragmatic realistic position trying to bridge the gap with positivist research. This last position has been chosen as the departure point for a further analysis of the focus group elements, which relate to validity and reliability. The research examines four European research projects in the field of adult education. The most important and surprising data are presented with reference to both socio-psychological and technical problems in the use of this method. The results highlight the importance and dynamics of all the elements discussed.     

Disguises, invisibility and disqualification of the guards of children in French-speaking Switzerland

Various factors oblige today's parents to entrust their children to a child-care worker (CCW), providing services in the domestic sphere, either at the child's parental house or at the day-care worker's (DCW's) own home. Taking this into account, this paper examines job offers and applications for DCWs published in a regional Swiss newspaper as well as other job offers and applications published on a website called bestnounou.ch. The parents often tend to use a variety of terms, which do not point to the child-caring or rearing activity itself, but rather emphasise sociological characteristics of the CCW (age, gender, civil status), requesting, for example, a “lady”, a “grandmother”, a “student”. Thereby, the parents present the child-care work as: (1) a secondary and temporary activity in relation to another major stable activity (motherhood, apprenticeship, retirement); and (2) an activity that does not require professional skills but inborn aptitudes. Moreover, employers use as synonyms distinctive terms, which refer to various categories of CCW and domestic workers, whose schedules of conditions and salaries are regulated and differ. The parents' inclination to use terms designating the most precarious and underpaid CCW underscores the importance of child-care in the domestic sphere. It leads also to a public image of child-care workers as being a fragmented, unstable, little qualified and economically inconsistent workforce, in contrast to the stable and structural need for their specific services, allowing parents to face their familial and professional responsibilities.     

Teaching Probability for Conceptual Change La Enseñanza De La Probabilidad Por Cambio Conceptual

This work presents a theoretical proposal for a methodology for the teaching of probability theory. The theoretical proposal has a dual inspiration: (1) the epistemological approach of Lakatos (1978b) regarding the quasi-empirical nature of mathematical theories; (2) the perspective of conceptual change for the teaching-learning process, as formulated by Strike and Posner (1992). The scientific content taught and the didactic methods used in the classroom should, according to this proposal, respect and conform to this dual inspiration. We also present an evaluation of the methodology in a real context: six Spanish high school classes of students aged 14–15. The main purpose of the research was to answer this question: Is our didactic proposal more effective than traditional methodology? We operatively identify the concept of traditional teaching, and establish several indicators of effectiveness: the mastery of elementary probability calculations, the quality of intuitive reasoning in probability, and the conceptual and attitudinal change produced. We found significant differences on all indicators, except for attitudinal change, in favour of the group that followed our proposal.     

Editorial

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance -