Evaluation and decentralised governance: Examples of inspections in polycentric education systems

Across Europe schools and other service providers increasingly operate in networks to provide inclusive education or develop and implement more localized school-to-school improvement models. As some education systems move towards more decentralized decision-making where multiple actors have an active role in steering and governing schools, the tasks and responsibilities of Inspectorates of Education must also change. This paper reflects on these changes and suggests ‘polycentric’ inspection models that fit such a decentralized context. Examples of inspection frameworks and methods from Northern Ireland, England and the Netherlands are provided, as well as a brief discussion of the potential impact of such ‘polycentric’ models.     

Intercepting moving objects during self-motion: effects of environmental changes

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of background texture on an interception task during self-motion. Twenty-six participants modulated tricycle speed along one arm of a V-shaped track so as to intercept a ball approaching horizontally on the other arm of the V. Either a plain or a textured background (consisting of contrasting vertical stripes) was used. Velocity modulations occurred so as to keep the angle beta between the direction of heading and the line head-ball constant (constant bearing angle, or CBA strategy), indicating that this observer-environment relation might regulate the approach phase. In the textured condition, participants initially drove faster than predicted by the CBA model and compensated by slowing down in the second half. This is in line with the texture-induced overestimation of the ball velocity and implies that absolute velocity information is also used.     

Combining full text and bibliometric information in mapping scientific disciplines

In the present study results of an earlier pilot study by Glenisson, Glänzel and Persson are extended on the basis of larger sets of papers. Full text analysis and traditional bibliometric methods are serially combined to improve the efficiency of the two individual methods. The text mining methodology already introduced in the pilot study is applied to the complete publication year 2003 of the journal Scientometrics. Altogether 85 documents that can be considered research articles or notes have been selected for this exercise. The outcomes confirm the main results of the pilot study, namely, that such hybrid methodology can be applied to both research evaluation and information retrieval. Nevertheless, Scientometrics documents published in 2003 cover a much broader and more heterogeneous spectrum of bibliometrics and related research than those analysed in the pilot study. A modified subject classification based on the scheme used in an earlier study by Schoepflin and Glänzel has been applied for validation purposes.     

Effects and side effects of inspections and accountability in education: an overview of empirical studies

This paper presents an overview of studies into effects and side effects of control mechanisms in education. We focus on effects and side effects of inspection visits and public performance indicators. A first conclusion is that the studies do not provide us with a clear answer to the question of whether inspections have positive causal effects on the quality of schools. Results of studies of publications on public performance indicators are more unambiguous. They lead us to the conclusion that although principals and teachers believe performance indicators are important, parents and pupils take very little notice of these indicators when choosing schools. A third conclusion concerns the occurrence of side effects of school inspections and other control mechanisms in education. Several of the studies discussed clearly refer to the existence of these side effects, such as ‘window dressing’ and other types of ‘gaming’.     

Explaining students' appraisal of lectures and student-activating teaching: perceived context and student characteristics

During lectures, some students are continuously focused and attentive, whereas others tend to be bored, jittery, or inattentive. The same might happen when students are given student-activating assignments. Some students simply love one type of instruction, whereas others tend to resent it. Moreover, it is not the context itself, but the context as it is perceived by the student that affects learning. This study sets out to discover how students view instruction, based on their experiences with a particular setting, and aims to investigate the effects of “context-by-student” characteristics, such as students' course experiences, and the effects of “student-by-context” features, such as approaches to learning. The research has a quasi-experimental design and compares a lecture-based setting with student-activating teaching methods (i.e. self-discovery learning by means of authentic tasks with the help of a scaffolding approach); followed by one of four assessment methods: a multiple-choice test, a case-based examination, a peer assessment or a portfolio assessment. Data (N = 579) were collected by means of validated questionnaires, comprising the ASSIST and LSQ instruments and the course experience questionnaire. Results demonstrate that students' appraisal of the assessment method, their course experiences and the teaching methods that are dominant in the setting contribute positively to students' appraisal of instruction. Interestingly, this conclusion applies to both the lecture-based and the student-activating groups and to both conventional assessment methods and new modes of assessment. Moreover, deep approaches to learning, monitoring studying and/or organized studying, as well as preferences for courses that support understanding, positively affect students' appraisal of student-activating teaching methods. In short, both student-by-context and context-by-student features prove to be strong predictors of students' appraisal of instruction and, as a consequence, student learning.     

Cognitive-motor dual-task ability of athletes with and without intellectual impairment

Cognition is important in many sports, for example, making split-second-decisions under pressure, or memorising complex movement sequences. The dual-task (DT) paradigm is an ecologically valid approach for the assessment of cognitive function in conjunction with motor demands. This study aimed to determine the impact of impaired intelligence on DT performance. The motor task required balancing on one leg on a beam, and the cognitive task was a multiple-object-tracking (MOT) task assessing dynamic visual-search capacity. The sample included 206 well-trained athletes with and without intellectual impairment (II), matched for sport, age and training volume (140 males, 66 females, M age = 23.2 ± 4.1 years, M training experience = 12.3 ± 5.7 years). In the single-task condition, II-athletes showed reduced balance control (F = 55.9, P < .001, η² = .23) and reduced MOT (F = 86.3, P < .001, η² = .32) compared to the control group. A mixed-model ANCOVA revealed significant differences in DT performance for the balance and the MOT task between both groups. The DT costs were significantly larger for the II-athletes (?8.28% versus ?1.34% for MOT and ?33.13% versus ?12.89% for balance). The assessment of MOT in a DT paradigm provided insight in how impaired intelligence constrains the ability of II-athletes to successfully perform at the highest levels in the complex and dynamical sport-environment.     

Hybrid clustering for validation and improvement of subject-classification schemes

A hybrid text/citation-based method is used to cluster journals covered by the Web of Science database in the period 2002–2006. The objective is to use this clustering to validate and, if possible, to improve existing journal-based subject-classification schemes. Cross-citation links are determined on an item-by-paper procedure for individual papers assigned to the corresponding journal. Text mining for the textual component is based on the same principle; textual characteristics of individual papers are attributed to the journals in which they have been published. In a first step, the 22-field subject-classification scheme of the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) is evaluated and visualised. In a second step, the hybrid clustering method is applied to classify the about 8300 journals meeting the selection criteria concerning continuity, size and impact. The hybrid method proves superior to its two components when applied separately. The choice of 22 clusters also allows a direct field-to-cluster comparison, and we substantiate that the science areas resulting from cluster analysis form a more coherent structure than the “intellectual” reference scheme, the ESI subject scheme. Moreover, the textual component of the hybrid method allows labelling the clusters using cognitive characteristics, while the citation component allows visualising the cross-citation graph and determining representative journals suggested by the PageRank algorithm. Finally, the analysis of journal ‘migration’ allows the improvement of existing classification schemes on the basis of the concordance between fields and clusters.     

Friendship similarities in internalizing problems in early childhood

A key factor identified in friendship formation and stability is similarity. Homophily of externalizing problems has been reported frequently, but less attention has been directed at homophily of internalizing problems. Whether young children who are friends resemble each other in their internalizing problems is thus largely unknown. In order to increase understanding of the social risk factors implicated in the etiology of internalizing problems, it is important to establish whether internalizing problems cluster in friendships. The present study examines homophily of internalizing problems while controlling for externalizing problems in a sample of children aged 4–8.     

Anthropometric characteristics of elite female junior rowers

During the 1997 Federation Internationale des Societes d'Aviron (FISA) World Junior Rowing Championships, the anthropometric characteristics of 245 female junior rowers aged 17.5 ± 0.8 years (mean ± s) were assessed. Twenty-seven body dimensions (body mass, 6 heights or lengths, 4 breadths, 10 girths and 6 skinfolds) were measured in total. The elite female junior rowers were taller (174.5 ± 6.2 cm) and heavier (69.5 ± 6.2 kg), with greater length, breadth and girth dimensions, but lower skinfold thicknesses than a representative sample of Flemish (Belgian) girls of the same chronological age. An anthropometric profile chart was constructed that was rowing-specific and norms were established. Compared with scullers, sweep rowers were heavier (+4.2 kg) and taller (+2.8 cm), with greater length, breadth (except for femur width) and girth dimensions (except for calf girth). Sweep rowers also had greater skinfold thicknesses (except for the thigh and calf skinfolds). Finalists were heavier (+3.6 kg) and taller (+3.9 cm), with greater length, breadth (except for femur width) and girth dimensions (except for calf girth) than non-finalists. No significant differences were found for skinfold thicknesses between finalists and non-finalists.