The Educational Forces Inventory

The Educational Forces Inventory (EFI) is a technique for assessing the constellation of forces in the teacher’s social-psychological field. Thereby, important stress points for teachers are identified and their work in the classroom is facilitated. The EFI charts the relative influence of each of 13 forces that are important factors in the educational settting. Teachers are asked to characterize each force along two dimensions: the amount of influence it exerts upon the classroom process, and the degree to which this influence is positive or negative. Several hundred teachers and teaching assistants in Follow Through classrooms throughout the country participated in a field test of the instrument, with concurrent administration of the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire (PTO), an established measure of teacher morale. The high rate of return and correct completion on the EFI indicated that it is a practical technique. In addition, the data indicated validity for the instrument in three important respects: (1) the pattern-of-importance ratings correspond to independently assessed patterns of physical and social distance; (2) the positive/negative ratings for particular forces correlated substantially with corresponding subscores of the PTO; and (3) the pattern of responses reflected aspects of internal consistency. Some ways of utilizing EFI data are discussed: how to plot and interpret two-dimensional force fields, and how to use them in program implementation, especially to facilitate the work of the teacher in the classroom.     

Community Colleges and Labor Market Conditions: How Does Enrollment Demand Change Relative to Local Unemployment Rates?

This study uses fixed-effects panel data techniques to estimate the elasticity of community college enrollment demand relative to local unemployment rates. The findings suggest that community college enrollment demand is counter-cyclical to changes in the labor market, as enrollments rise during periods of weak economic conditions. Using national data for the years 1990 through 2009, we find that a one percentage-point change in unemployment is associated with 1.1–3.3 % increases in enrollment demand. We disaggregate the analysis by total full-time and part-time enrollment, concluding that high levels of unemployment are also associated with greater demand for full-time attendance. Additionally, enrollments are slightly more responsive to unemployment in metropolitan (rather than micropolitan) areas. Informed by enrollment demand theory, our analysis provides an update to the “unemployment elasticity” literature and could aid in current enrollment planning, economic development, and public policy efforts to educate students on the margin between college and work.     

'The centre cannot hold': complexity and difference in European Union policy towards a learning society

The notions of lifelong learning and a learning society have been an important policy driver in the European Union at both the Commission and national government levels for a number of years. Overall, these policies aim to promote the twin goals of competitiveness in international markets and social cohesion within the still-expanding borders of the Union itself. To date, however, the impact of this emphasis on lifelong learning has been relatively slight. This article argues that this is in part because the policy process in relation to the development of a learning society is based on a view of governance and power that is open to reasoned dispute, and is, therefore, bound to disappoint in relation to its espoused goals. It is suggested that, rather than implementation being the main ‘problem’ of policy, the policy context inevitably generates many recontextualizations and renegotiations of meanings according to the situations and the actors involved, thereby undermining the notion of ‘implementation’ as a technical-rational process. It is argued that the complex negotiations enacted at local level reveal and are fashioned by tensions between the membership resources available to actors. This emphasizes complexity, diversity, and difference in policy processes, bringing to the fore a communicative and distributed approach to policy rather than one that is technical and centralizing.     

Binding Forces and Teachers’ School Life: A Recursive Model

Attempts were made to formulate a theoretical framework of binding forces in school organizations and to examine their effects on teachers’ feelings about school life. After a series of tests with factor analyses, 4 major scales of organizational binding forces were confirmed, that is, bureaucratic linkage, cultural linkage, tight coupling, and loose coupling. An implication of the study is that school administrators should make full use of the 4 binding forces to bind people together in schools and resort more to cultural linkage, loose coupling, and tight coupling to enhance school effectiveness and to give people meanings in their work.     

A Review of Recommended Social Competency Programs for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Social competency deficits are a core feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). During the past several decades, a number of social skill interventions for students with ASD have emerged. However, over the past five years, three converging issues have brought increased attention to the need for social competence programming: (1) increased ASD incidence rates, (2) inclusion and integration trends, and (3) recent No Child Left Behind Act requirement regarding use of evidence-based practices. This article discusses current best practices in enhancing the social competence of learners with ASD. To this end, a review of the literature was conducted to: (1) define key behaviors related to social competence targeted by common interventions and (2) identify the core components and targets that are essential for effective social competence interventions. Searches done by hand and electronically were conducted to identify empirical reviews or summaries of effective social competence interventions from preschool to early adulthood. Eight reviews that encompass typically developing as well as those that specifically target ASD were chosen. Results of the review identified eight primary behavior categories most frequently targeted by social interventions across preschool, elementary, and secondary age groups. Additional analysis identified 11 core components consistently identified in the reviews. Explanation of categories as well as implications for future research and practice are explored.     

Pre‐service Teachers’ Subject Knowledge of and Attitudes about Radioactivity and Ionising Radiation

This study focussed on secondary school (11–18 years) pre‐service teachers’ (n = 73) knowledge of and attitudes towards risks associated with alpha, beta, and gamma radiations. A multi‐method approach was used with physics, chemistry, biology, and history graduates undertaking the one‐year initial teacher training, Post Graduate Certificate in Education course at a university in central England. A novel research tool, involving interviews about real concrete contexts and first‐hand data collection with radioactive sources, was employed to gain insights into a sub‐set of the sample (n = 12) of pre‐service teachers’ subject knowledge of and attitudes towards risk. The subject knowledge of all the pre‐service teachers was also measured using a Certainty of Response Index instrument; multiple‐choice questions with associated confidence indicators. Although the physicists displayed the higher levels of knowledge, they also demonstrated limitations in their knowledge and held misconceptions such as irradiation being confused with contamination. Physics graduates hold more rational attitudes and a greater willingness to accept risk while the attitudes of graduates in the other subject disciplines are more disparate. These findings raise questions about the extent to which pre‐service science and history teachers have the knowledge necessary to teach this topic. The article concludes with discussion of the implications these findings have for initial teacher training, continuing professional development needs for teachers already in the profession, and curriculum developers.     

Public schools and the Fleming report of 1944: shunting the first-class carriage on to an immense siding?

This paper assesses the origins, conclusions and consequences of the Fleming Committee, which considered the relationship between Britain’s leading independent boarding schools and the state. In 1944, the committee recommended one-quarter of the places at these schools should be assigned to a national bursary scheme for children who might benefit from boarding. The author emphasises the role that Ellen Wilkinson played in implementing a Fleming-style scheme in the early years of the Attlee Government. Despite promises to the contrary, the Conservative Government that was elected in 1951 did not expand the scheme, which lingered on in a desultory form. Failure stemmed from a lack of political will, which was reinforced by a shortage of public finance, inconsistent support from independent boarding schools and local education authorities and problems over the selection of pupils.