Learn to Lead: Mapping Workplace Learning of School Leaders

In recent years policy makers’ interest in the professional development of school leaders has grown considerably. Although we know some aspect of formal educational programs for school leaders, little is known about school leaders’ incidental and non-formal learning in the workplace. This study aims to grasp what workplace learning activities school leaders value most, what work-related questions incite them to learn, what outcomes they achieve through workplace learning and what conditions support workplace learning of school leaders. In order to generate answers to the research questions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 Dutch school leaders in secondary education, which also served as a form of reflection for the respondents. Results show that school leaders mostly value workplace learning through working on improvement and innovation and through reflection. In addition to outcomes for the school leader, working on improvement and innovation also leads to learning outcomes for teachers, and seems to provide opportunities for teachers to influence changes in the school. On the other hand, teachers take little or no part in reflection. Here, school leaders find peace and stability to reflect with fellow school leaders. If adjusted to a specific context, the methods used in this study might be transferred to other contexts, to study workplace learning of all kinds of leaders.     

Is Visually Guided Reaching in Early Infancy a Myth?

The issue examined was whether infants require sight of their hand when first beginning to reach for, contact, and grasp objects. 7 infants were repeatedly tested between 6 and 25 weeks of age. Each session consisted of 8 trials of objects presented in the light and 8 trials of glowing or sounding objects in complete darkness. Infants first contacted the object in both conditions at comparable ages (mean age for light, 12.3 weeks, and for dark, 11.9 weeks). Infants first grasped the object in the light at 16.0 weeks and in the dark at 14.7 weeks, a nonsignificant difference. Once contact was observed, infants continued to touch and grasp the objects in both light and dark throughout all sessions. Because infants could not see their hand or arm in the dark, their early success in contacting the glowing and sounding objects indicates that proprioceptive cues, not sight of the limb, guided their early reaching. Reaching in the light developed in parallel with reaching in the dark, suggesting that visual guidance of the hand is not necessary to achieve object contact either at the onset of successful reaching or in the succeeding weeks.     

The design and validation of an instrument to measure teachers’ professional development at work

After graduation, it is essential for teachers to continue working on their professional development since they need to be prepared for the requirements of tomorrow's knowledge- and technology-based society, a more varied student and pupil population creating new responsibilities, and higher social expectations from schools and the society as a whole. Although attention for teachers’ professional development at work is increasing, the availability of valid survey instruments that measure their participation in professional development at work is still limited. Based on a literature review, such an instrument was designed. This 21-item self-report measure, using a 4-point rating scale, makes an inventory of teachers’ participation in activities contributing to professional development. The purpose of the instrument is to make teachers, school leaders and other stakeholders aware of whether, and to what degree, teachers engage in learning at work. This is important because ultimately the quality of education depends on it. A survey was administered in 9 Dutch primary schools and 15 Dutch secondary schools. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed a six-factor structure, and augments earlier findings in the field. The reliabilities of the six subscales were sufficient to good.     

A Critical Analysis of Current Practices and Beliefs Underlying General Physical Education Programs in Higher Education

Abstract

This study was made to determine a current set of concepts which physical educators believe should characterize the purposes of the modern college program of general physical education. A review of current literature was conducted to identify and define those concepts which seemed to be characteristic of the purposes of the general college program of physical education. From this literature a structured interview guide was developed. Sections I and II of this guide contained questions concerning the current status of this program. Questions designed to elicit opinions with regard to selected aspects of the general college program of physical education also were included. Section III contained statements of concepts currently appearing in the literature of higher education. The data were obtained by the personal interview and the mailed questionnaire technique. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was employed to compare responses among three groups of respondents: a group of physical educators who were selected on the basis of their specific qualifications with regard to the general college program (Group I), a jury of physical educators who were considered expert in the overall field of physical education (Group II), and a group composed of deans of instruction (Group III). This test was designed to determine whethere were statistically significant differences of opinion among responses of the three groups. The data were reported and interpretations and analyses of the data were made. It was found that physical educators and academic deans of instruction were in close agreement in most instances with regard to beliefs concerning the general college program of physical education.     

The Socialization of Emotion: Learning Emotion Management at the Fire Station

In a variety of fields, particularly human service occupations, the management of emotion is a precondition of employee and client well being. Based on qualitative data from participant observation and interviews, this study examines how firefighters are socialized to manage feelings and emotional displays. It concludes that firefighters recognized a need to manage their own emotions and those of their clients in order to deliver adequate service. Veteran firefighters facilitated the use of emotion labor techniques among newcomers by considering the emotion management knowledge and capabilities of job candidates during employee selection processes, providing habituated emotional events, and reinforcing customer service expectations. Newcomers actively participated in their own socialization to local emotion expectations through observational information seeking, retrospective surveillance, and performance of a normative newcomer role demeanor. The article concludes by offering practical and theoretical implications.     

The Better Beginnings, Better Futures project: findings from grade 3 to grade 9

Although comprehensive and ecological approaches to early childhood prevention are commonly advocated, there are few examples of long-term follow-up of such programs. In this monograph, we investigate the medium- and long-term effects of an ecological, community-based prevention project for primary school children and families living in three economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Ontario, Canada. The Better Beginnings, Better Futures (BBBF) project is one of the most ambitious Canadian research projects on the long-term impacts of early childhood prevention programming to date. Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development informed program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Using a quasi-experimental design, the BBBF longitudinal research study involved 601 children and their families who participated in BBBF programs when children were between 4 and 8 years old and 358 children and their families from sociodemographically matched comparison communities. We collected extensive child, parent, family, and community outcome data when children were in Grade 3 (age 8–9), Grade 6 (age 11–12), and Grade 9 (age 14–15). The BBBF mandate was to develop programs that would positively impact all areas of child's development; our findings reflect this ecological approach. We found marked positive effects in social and school functioning domains in Grades 6 and 9 and evidence of fewer emotional and behavioral problems in school across the three grades. Parents from BBBF sites reported greater feelings of social support and more positive ratings of marital satisfaction and general family functioning, especially at the Grade 9 follow-up. Positive neighborhood-level effects were also evident. Economic analyses at Grade 9 showed BBBF participation was associated with government savings of $912 per child. These findings provide evidence that an affordable, ecological, community-based prevention program can promote long-term development of children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods and produce monetary benefits to government as soon as 7 years after program completion.