Professional dialogues: exploring an alternative means of assessing the professional learning of experienced HE academics

Courses are widely used to provide professional qualifications for higher education (HE) practitioners. However, the question of how experienced academics might gain recognition as professional educators without completing a course is not well explored. This paper introduces the use of professional dialogue for this purpose, describing an approach being applied within four UK universities. The paper discusses the value of the professional dialogue, drawing on assessors’ and participants’ voices to provide empirical evidence. Findings from the study suggest that ‘assessed dialogues’ provide a more authentic route to professional recognition for experienced HE academics, effectively synthesising professional development, the individual and organisational learning.     

School‐based Teacher Training. Can it work?

The article briefly reports on a school‐based training group, citing it as illustration of a development shared by other schools which have evolved partnerships with higher education. It suggests that good mentoring practice has existed in previous years and that there is a pool of expertise in schools, which can be tapped for the benefit of teacher training in the new courses. (Implementation of Circular 9/92). ¹ Nichloas Pyke, Inspectors cast doubt on in‐school training. TES 10.3.95 article on forthcoming report by HM Inspectorate on the School Central Intial Teacher Training Scheme. (SCITT) View all notes

     

Forces affecting change in small rural schools

Selected curriculum changes were studied in two rural shcool‐community contexts. Both qualitative and quantitative data indicated that implementation was at a low level of use and that factors related to isolation were particularly powerful influences in the change process. A major implication of the study is demonstrated need for detailed curriculum implementation plans that account for local school community factors.     

Professional learning during a schools–university partnership Master of Education course: teachers’ perspectives of their learning experiences

An extensive body of research has indicated the benefits of collaborative, contextualised and enquiry-based learning for teachers’ professional development and school improvement. Yet professional learning is also known to be constrained by a number of factors, including the organisational limitations of schools, conflicting cultural practices and wider political demands. Schools–university partnerships have been developed to overcome some of these difficulties by transcending particular school contexts and offering alternative theoretical and practical perspectives. The complex combination of motivations, backgrounds and working contexts in such partnership work calls for attention to the individual and collective learning experiences of those involved, including the ways in which school and university contexts are, or could be, effectively bridged. This paper focuses on understanding the learning experienced by a cohort of teachers and school leaders involved in a two-year schools–university partnership Master of Education (M.Ed.) course in England. A mixed group of 15 experienced primary and secondary teachers and school leaders reflected on their learning at five points of time during and shortly after completing their M.Ed. course. Qualitative analysis of the group’s interview responses and reflective writing led to the identification of six related aspects of personal and professional learning experience: being a learner; learning as part of professional practice; widening repertoire; changing as a learner; personal growth; and critically adaptive practice. The identification and visual representation of these aspects of experience emerging within the group offers useful insight into teachers’ perspectives on learning in school and university contexts and their experiences of progression over time. We conclude that more explicit and central attention to the professional and personal learning elements of schools–university partnerships can help to resolve some of the binary ‘theory–practice’ tensions that have been extensively discussed in relation to partnership programmes and teacher professional development. There is a need to acknowledge variation in teachers’ learning experiences within schools–university partnerships, bearing in mind the ongoing nature of this reflective process with each new group of school and university colleagues. Analysis of participants’ learning experiences in school and university contexts also draws attention to the wider structures, values and cultures that influence, and are influenced by, schools–university partnership work.     

Media Accountability and Journalists: To Whom Do Spanish Professionals Feel Responsible?

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses to whom Spanish journalists feel responsible. To achieve this objective, we sent out a survey to Spanish journalists to ascertain their opinion on this question. The journalists’ point of view was then compared with that of the general public though six focus groups consisting of Spanish citizens from six cities in Spain (Barcelona, Castellón, Madrid, Sevilla, Mondragón and Santiago de Compostela). Lastly, five in-depth interviews were conducted with journalism experts (e.g., directors of professional journalist associations). The main results show that the journalists feel particularly responsible to their conscience, the journalism code of ethics and their sources. The citizens, in contrast, believe that journalists should be responsible to the audience. We contextualised the Spanish finding in the European context by comparing our results with those derived from a study among European journalists.     

Closing achievement gaps between Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking students in Israel: Findings from TIMSS-2003

Closing achievement gaps between sub-populations in Israel, and among them between students in the Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking schools, continues to be one of the priorities of Israel's education system. TIMSS-2003 findings provide first evidence that efforts made during the 1990s to close these gaps were in the right direction although inequality in input between the two sectors still remains. This paper on the one hand highlights factors that still perpetuate the achievement gap and on the other detects factors that explain why these gaps have narrowed.     

When Parents Want Children to Stay Home for College

Although previous studies show that a majority of parents want their children to go to college and graduate with a 4-year degree, the strategies used to accomplish this goal vary widely. While some parents feel it is important for their children to attend school while living at home (college-at-home parents), others do not (college-anywhere parents). This study investigates the influence of these parental strategy preferences on whether children apply to college during their senior year of high school, as well as whether they apply to multiple colleges. Net of measured ability, socioeconomic factors, and students’ own strategy preferences, students with college-at-home parents are significantly less likely to apply to college than students with college-anywhere parents; and among those who do apply to college, students with college-at-home parents are significantly less likely to apply to multiple colleges.