Dynamic Forces in Educational Development: A long-run comparative view of France and Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries

Since World War II, much of the economic growth literature has focused on the contribution of human capital to national development. Two assumptions have remained largely unexamined: (i) economic stability results from economic growth, and (ii) investments in human capital result in economic growth ( ceteris paribus ). This paper questions this education-stability link by examining longitudinal data from France and Germany across 170 years. Results indicate that human capital investment prior to 1945 was a response to economic growth. It is only since 1945 that human capital investments appear to drive economic growth. A shift since 1973 leads to doubts as to whether the post-war human capital-driven growth is being sustained. The results raise the question of whether human capital investment might not be as much a consequence as it is a cause of economic stability in the course of time.     

The myth of the competitive market: Linkage with the private sector and problems for higher education reform

Higher Education systems in Western countries currently face many problems. The enormous amount of information and reflection carried out by the members of the SRHE-Leverhulme Study team reveals the scale of these problems in one country. This article focusses on the validity of solutions which would substitute market mechanisms for a system of free education. With this in mind the results of the French experience in the area of professional continuing education are discussed. The idea of turning to the marketplace for initial education stems from a misconception. The second part of the article is concerned with the whole of the university population. In some respects it is unrealistic to claim that students' decisions to undertake university studies can conform to rationality through the operation of human capital theory. How can the market regulate education-employemt relations when equilibrium depends on the volume of the flow of students in x previous years, and when at the same time current techniques do not permit reliable forecasts of qualified manpower needs? Moreover, the socio-economic checks on the adoption of market mechanisms form a nearly insurmountable barrier in European countries. Like the SRHE-Leverhulme Study's conclusions, the article ends by attempting to find a realistic solution to such problems, which involve in part a reform of the methods of operation of higher education institutions.     

Self-evaluation and school adaptation in adolescence

The transition between Junior High School and High School (respectively “collège” and “lycée” in the French system) results in new academic demands to which the pupil tries to respond by mobilising new adaptive resources. This study deals with one of these resources — self-esteem — which, as a result of a qualitative change in the young person’s evaluation of him/herself, takes on its full meaning during adolescence. At the end of Junior High School, 208 good pupils (126 girls and 82 boys) were asked to fill in questionnaires about global self-esteem and self-evaluation in domains related to school (“with peers”; “in the school work”; “in the family”). Using two different techniques (questionnaires and interviews), their coping modalities (emotions, mental strategies and active strategies) were recorded when they found themselves facing a “first academic difficulty” at school. The difficulty took the form of a sudden, noticeable drop in performance in a subject in which the pupil had previously been successful. A multiple regression analysis revealed the low predictive power of contextual self-evaluation (including self-evaluation related to school) on functional and dysfunctional factors. On the other hand, global self-esteem contributed significantly to the prediction of these factors and to the sequential ordering of coping modalities in time.     

Les effectifs scolarisés en France: XIXème et XXème siècles

This article aims to present an analysis of the change over long periods in school attendance figures in France in the 19th and 20th centuries. The interest of the approach is twofold. Firstly it is of immediate practical interest insofar as it is an original reconstruction of the French educational system. It is also of theoretical interest, as it provides better knowledge of the mechanism regulating the development of the system over a long period. In this respect, reflection is in three parts. First, the chronological series compiled are presented to prepare the statistical analysis. The trends observed are then described and finally a preliminary analysis of the causes of the change is provided, with stress laid on the institutional aspects.     

Comprendre l'éducation physique à partir de la comparaison: le cas de la France et de l' Espagne

Le but principal de cet article est de comparer à partir des textes législatifs, des enquêtes ministérielles et européennes, et des revues spécialisées en France et en Espagne les propriétés de deux organisations scolaires singulières nommées «éducation prioritaire» ainsi que les mises en ?uvre de l'éducation physique. En nous appuyant sur l'approche de la construction sociale, nous présentons comment ces deux pays européens organisent cet enseignement dans les milieux défavorisés. Une analyse des aspects visibles du système éducatif à l'aide d'indicateurs généralistes (organisation des études, formation des enseignants, dépenses publiques) aurait laissé envisager d'importantes différences. Cependant, la comparaison à l'aide d'indicateurs «plus fins» des mises en ?uvre de l'éducation physique dans les écoles traditionnelles (poids de l'éducation physique, préoccupations gouvernementales et celles des enseignants, programmes d'enseignement) puis dans les milieux difficiles ZEP et CAEP (choix didactiques et pédagogiques) indique de fortes similitudes. Ces différences de résultats soulignent l'intérêt des analyses comparatives secondaires et la nécessité de considérer des analyses détaillées.

The main aim of this study is to compare two particular school organisations labelled ‘priority education’ in France and Spain, in relation to physical education using laws, ministerial and European surveys, and specialised journals. The social constructivist approach has been used to describe how both these European countries organise the teaching of physical education in under‐privileged environments. The analysis of the visible aspects of these educational systems with general indicators (organisation of studies, teacher education, public expenses) seems to imply differences. However, the comparison using more detailed data in the implementation of physical education in traditional schools (weight of the physical education in the system, governmental and teachers concerns, teaching programmes) indicates strong similarities. In addition, didactic and pedagogic choices in physical education in under‐privileged schools appear to be quite similar. These results underline the interest of secondary comparative studies and the necessity of taking into account detailed analyses.     

Baseball

The purpose of this study was to quantify and compare kinematic, temporal, and kinetic characteristics of American and Korean professional pitchers in order to investigate differences in pitching mechanics, performance, and injury risks among two different cultures and populations of baseball pitchers. Eleven American and eight Korean healthy professional baseball pitchers threw multiple fastball pitches off an indoor throwing mound positioned at regulation distance from home plate. A Motion Analysis three‐dimensional automatic digitizing system was used to collect 200 Hz video data from four electronically synchronized cameras. Twenty kinematic, six temporal, and 11 kinetic variables were analyzed at lead foot contact, during the arm cocking and arm acceleration phases, at ball release, and during the arm deceleration phase. A radar gun was used to quantify ball velocity. At lead foot contact, the American pitchers had significantly greater horizontal abduction of the throwing shoulder, while Korean pitchers exhibited significantly greater abduction and external rotation of the throwing shoulder. During arm cocking, the American pitchers displayed significantly greater maximum shoulder external rotation and maximum pelvis angular velocity. At the instant of ball release, the American pitchers had significantly greater forward trunk tilt and ball velocity and significantly less knee flexion, which help explain why the American pitchers had 10% greater ball velocity compared to the Korean pitchers. The American pitchers had significantly greater maximum shoulder internal rotation torque and maximum elbow varus torque during arm cocking, significantly greater elbow flexion torque during arm acceleration, and significantly greater shoulder and elbow proximal forces during arm deceleration. While greater shoulder and elbow forces and torques generated in the American pitchers helped generate greater ball velocity for the American group, these greater kinetics may predispose this group to a higher risk of shoulder and elbow injuries.     

Designing a humane multimedia interface for the visually impaired

Whilst graphical user interfaces (GUI) have gained much popularity in recent years, the need of the visually impaired to use applications in a non-visual environment is great. This paper promotes the provision of interfaces that allow users to access most of the functionality of existing GUIs using speech. This has been achieved by the design of a speech control tool that incorporates speech recognition and synthesis into existing packaged software, such as Teletext, the Internet or a word processor. The tool developed has taken the menu structure as a means of demonstrating what is accessible by the use of speech input and output. The tool provides the facility to dump screen text into clipboard and read it out loud. Adapting existing GUI applications in this way requires successful integration of speech, which in turn requires a profound understanding of the medium and the development of human engineering techniques.     

Examining the factor structure of the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale—Revised

The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale—Revised (FCCERS-R) in high-stakes contexts. The results of an exploratory factor analysis revealed three dimensions of quality on the FCCERS-R: (1) Activities/Materials, (2) Language/Interaction, and (3) Organization. This study also explored whether abridged versions of the FCCERS-R could serve as a proxy for the full instrument. In addition to subsets of FCCERS-R items created from the factor structure, purposively and randomly chosen item subsets were created. The purposively chosen subsets included 6-, 9-, and 12-item scales comprised of the items with the highest factor loading across the three factors, whereas the randomly chosen subsets consisted of 12 items. Results of a discriminant analysis showed that the factor subsets were poorer proxies for the total FCCERS-R score than were the other subsets, which demonstrated comparable internal consistencies and discriminant power as the full FCCERS-R when classifying homes into general quality categories. Implications for adopting shorter versions of the FCCERS-R are discussed.