Keith Haring in Pisa and Melbourne: Controversy and conservation

Keith Haring painted large outdoor murals in Melbourne, Australia, in 1984 (the Collingwood Mural) and at Pisa in Italy in 1989 (Tuttomondo). Recently, both murals have been analyzed and conserved by similar teams of conservators and scientists. The original appearance of the Collingwood Mural was severely compromised, and the original materials much degraded. Tuttomondo was somewhat altered visually but with less physical damage. There were initial suggestions to repaint Tuttomondo but these were dissipated by good communication of the analytical findings. In Melbourne, there was a high-profile and emotive campaign to have the Collingwood Mural repainted. Conservators and government were heavily criticized for supposedly ignoring the artist's wishes. However, detailed research into Haring's published statements revealed that conservation does respect his artistic aims. For the Collingwood Mural, conservators had to consider whether to reduce the visual disturbances which obscured the works. Practices documented by conservation theorists and routinely undertaken by conservators guided the decision to apply mechanically reversible re-integration. This made Haring's unique ‘line’ visible and accessible again, and pleased the public. The controversies showed how conservators must communicate clearly and tactfully; appreciate the feelings of the public and involve communities in conservation, without compromising rigorous scientific and curatorial research.     

“I wanted to go here”: Adolescents’ perspectives on school choice

New Zealand legislation removing school zones radically reshaped school choice, resulting in increased school stratification from parental choice frequently driven by social factors such as ethnic makeup of the school community. This article considers school choice through the eyes of 1,465 adolescents from 12 secondary schools in Dunedin (New Zealand). The most common reasons for school choice included: preference for a coeducational school, school’s facilities, positive comments from parents/students, and friends’ enrollment. Reasons for school choice differed by who was making the decision. Social factors and school programs/facilities, rather than proximity to home, influenced school choice decisions in Dunedin.     

Neuroscience as a Contemporary Science Domain to Contextualize Nature of Science Instruction

Science & Education - The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate if neuroscience, a contemporary example of science-in-the-making, provides a useful domain for contextualized...     

Government Policy and School Development

The last 10 or 15 years of this century have been a time of great challenge as well as considerable excitement for educational systems around the world. Governments everywhere have been embarking on substantial programmes of reform in an attempt to develop more effective school systems and raise levels of student learning and achievement. We see in these policy initiatives an unfortunate paradox that inhibits them from realising their aspirations. The community of educational change researchers and practitioners has finally begun to learn something about how ongoing improvement can be fostered and sustained in schools. However, government policy on education has not taken adequate account of this knowledge about school development, with the result that an enormous potential source of synergy has been lost and student learning continues to lag behind its potential. Our argument in this article is that as a consequence of this gap government efforts to improve schooling are less effective than they might be and that many school improvement efforts have to swim against the current of government regulation. Following our analysis of this central irony in educational policy, we go on to outline an approach that would be more likely to help governments achieve their educational objectives by building policy initiatives more explicitly on the knowledge base of school development.     

Class-of-Mail and the Effects of Monetary Gratuity on the Response Rates of Mailed Questionnaires

In two separate studies, class-of-mail had no significant effect on return rate of mailed questionnaires. Return rates increased markedly (almost doubled) when a $1.00 gratuity was included in the first-class mailing.