Who benefits from public spending on higher education in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa?

Most countries are far from achieving the new sustainable development target of equal access to higher education by 2030, with those in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa furthest behind. This raises questions about the allocation of public resources across the education system to promote equity. We use data from Demographic and Health Surveys and UNESCO Institute for Statistics in 31 countries in these regions to assess who benefits from public spending on education. Our results reveal an overall pattern of pro-rich education spending, increasing with education level. We find that this pattern can be traced to an allocation of resources to higher education that is disproportionate to the sub-sector’s size: even when higher education spending overall represents a small proportion of total educational expenditure, per-capita expenditure is extremely high. Given that the richest predominantly gain access to higher education, the current spending patterns are likely to reinforce wealth-driven education inequalities.     

Understanding productivity dynamics: A task taxonomy approach

As job markets have been polarizing, firms have been changing their labor inputs. By using matched employer–employee data for Portugal, we examine whether labor market polarization has occurred within or across firms and how labor input upgrades have contributed to overall productivity growth. We develop a firm taxonomy based on worker's occupational data. Firms can be focused on one task – Abstract, Manual or Routine – on a combination of tasks, or none. Results show that Abstract firms are the most productive and their share has increased over time. Manual firms, the least productive, have had a stable share throughout the period. Routine firms have seen their share decline over time. The dynamic decomposition of the estimated productivity reveals that productivity growth is propelled by increased market shares of the most productive incumbents and exiting of the least productive, especially for Abstract firms. Notwithstanding these productivity growth drivers, they fail to avert the productivity stagnation observed in Portugal between 2004 and 2009 due to the overall decline in productivity of incumbent firms, especially Routine. We discuss the policy implications of our results which are relevant to other European economies also lagging behind in terms of knowledge and innovation capabilities.     

Some general tactics for creating alternative educational futures

The purpose of this paper is to outline a number of very general questions pertinent to people who are dissatisfied enough with currently institutionalized educational provisions to seek to accomplish fundamental educational change. I maintain that a change-oriented group that fails to address all of these sorts of questions seriously diminishes its potential for creating its educational future.

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Résumé Le but de cette étude est de souligner un certain nombre de questions très générales concernant les gens qui sont suffisamment mécontents des méthodes d'instruction couramment instituées pour rechercher des modifications fondamentales de l'instruction. Je soutiens qu'un groupe orienté vers les changements qui manque de poser toutes ces sortes de questions réduit sérieusement ses chances de décider de son avenir académique.

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OISE

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I would like to thank Andrew Effrat, Michael Fullan, Dan Leckie, and Paul Paschke for their comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

The color of innovative and sustainable leadership: Learning from teacher leaders

In this article, I address how teachers in urban and suburban U.S. schools with multicultural and multilingual student populations demonstrate leadership both within their classrooms and schools as well as outside of them. Based on research with U.S. public school teachers in two projects (Nieto What keeps teachers going? New York: Teachers College Press 2003, Why we teach. New York: Teachers College Press 2005), various roles that teachers have in initiating, putting into practice, and sustaining change in schools are described. Implications for policymakers and administrators are then briefly explored.     

The influence of the family educational scenario on internet use of primary and secondary school children / La influencia del escenario educativo familiar en el uso de internet en los niños de primaria y secundaria

Abstract

With the aim of studying the impact of the internet in the home, this paper analyses how the physical component (where and with whom) and attitudinal component (who decides what the child is to see on the internet and motivations for internet use) of the family educational scenario influence the frequency of internet use and diversity of uses, as reported by parents. The participants included 711 parents of children in primary and secondary school. Results showed that being in secondary school, using the internet in privacy at home, without company, internet content under the child’s control, and parental motivations based on the internet being used as a means for the child to relax, predicted higher frequency of internet use. Some of these factors, as well as the presence of peers and new parental attitudes related to the use of the internet for social and learning purposes, predicted a greater variety of uses, suggesting a more appropriate family scenario. The practical implications for parental education on this matter are described.     

An investigation of a novel three-dimensional activity monitor to predict free-living energy expenditure

The aim of this study was to assess the capability of the 3dNX accelerometer to predict energy expenditure in two separate, free-living cohorts. Twenty-three adolescents and 14 young adults took a single dose of doubly labelled water and wore a 3dNX activity monitor during waking hours for a 10-day period while carrying out their normal routines. Multiple linear regression with backward elimination was used to establish the strength of the associations between various indices of energy expenditure, physical activity counts, and anthropometric variables. 3dNX output accounted for 27% and 35% of the variance in the total energy expenditure of the adolescent and young adult cohort, respectively. The explained variance increased to 78%, with a standard error of estimate of 7%, when 3dNX output was combined with body composition variables. The 3dNX accelerometer can be used to predict free-living daily energy expenditure with a standard error of estimate of 1.65 MJ in adolescents and 1.52 MJ in young adults. The inclusion of anthropometric variables reduces the error to approximately 1 MJ. Although it remains to cross-validate these models in other populations, early indications suggest that the 3dNX provides a useful method of predicting energy expenditure in free-living individuals.     

CLASS–Infant: An Observational Measure for Assessing Teacher–Infant Interactions in Center-Based Child Care

Research Findings: The growing body of literature demonstrating the importance of quality interactions with caregivers to infant development coupled with the increasing number of infants spending time in classroom settings highlights the need for a measure of interpersonal relationships between infants and caregivers. This article introduces a new measure of quality in infant classrooms based on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) framework. This measure focuses on teacher–infant interactions with the goal of understanding how these proximal process features can be assessed in this environment. Results from a small pilot study of 30 infant classrooms indicated that the CLASS–Infant demonstrated adequate variability as well as expected convergent and divergent validity with the most commonly used infant child care quality measure. The dimensions of the measure composed a single construct of classroom quality based on teacher–infant interactions. Practice or Policy: Implications of using this measure as an assessment of center-based infant classroom quality and improving professional development are discussed.     

Leading through partnership: enhancing the Teach First Leadership Programme

Teach First works in partnership with government, business organisations, higher education institutions (providers of Initial Teacher Training, ITT) and schools to offer a two-year integrated Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) Leadership Development Programme; the first cohort of students were accepted in 2003. Its delivery of an integrated QTS/leadership programme, recruitment of top graduates who would not otherwise consider teaching, focus on teaching in challenging schools and joint business–Higher Education Institution delivery, set Teach First within a unique position amongst ITT partnerships in England. In 2008, building on its success, Teach First sought to enhance its Leadership Development Programme, relevant to teachers and leaders in all fields, including the development of an optional Masters route. This paper considers the development of the enhanced programme within the Teach First partnership model and explores the merits of the programme in developing teachers. Evidence suggests that the core values, focus on mission and strong ethos have been major contributory factors to its success.     

Building services cabinets as teaching material in a degree in architecture

The aim of this innovative educational project is to encourage students’ interest in one of the most underrated fields of architecture: building services. With this material students interact with real elements and thereby understand the relationship between facilities and the building. A set of three small technical cabinets is planned. They allow for comfortable use and movement inside the building, need minimum maintenance and are easily stored. The result is an alternative concept of a mobile laboratory called a ‘technical cabinet’, made up of three mobile units for fire safety, electricity and the heating/cooling system. The design, content and learning systems of the cabinets confirmed the validity of the initial concept during the first year of use. A protocol has also been developed for each of the technical cabinets so that the teaching experience may be of use in other Schools of Architecture.