INCLUSION: Confusion about inclusion: patching up or system change?

In this article, Klaus Wedell, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Education, University of London, looks back over 35 years of developments in the worlds of special and inclusive education. He engages directly with the complexities – for example, the tensions between the standards agenda and policy on inclusion – that have led some commentators to adopt controversial positions and that have engendered heated debate. Klaus Wedell also discusses a dilemma that is emerging as a key issue in the field – the relationships between ‘difference’, stigma, equality of opportunity and ‘special’ or separate provision. The response provided here takes, as a starting point, the notion of a flexible education system that could recognise diversity among learners while making provision for all. Klaus Wedell explores this possibility in terms of the curriculum, pedagogy, school structures and local authorities. He indicates points at which policies contradict one another and where practice has not evolved to address the challenges raised by innovative thinking. He provides evidence of the need for systemic change. He argues that all young people should be valued as individuals so that the differences between them can be acknowledged without prejudice. Only in this way, suggests Klaus Wedell, can the artificial separation of special educational needs policy and mainstream thinking be ended.     

明日简讯

Predicting the Wind 预测风向To sell their energy, wind-farm operators need to predict when they can deliver the power, but wind is skittish(多变的)and unpredictable. Researchers are hoping that artificial-intelligence techniques will make wind-energy forecasts more accurate. A method developed at Northern Ireland' s University of Ulster assesses past wind-flow patterns to predict     

Engagement,conduct of life and dropouts in the Danish vocational education and training (VET) system

This study provides support for the idea that school engagement is a central concept when trying to understand the dropout process. One of the strengths of this concept is that it involves understanding dropping out as a process, rather than as an event. However, the concept of school engagement also presents a number of problems. It tends to be functionalistic in nature: Processes of students’ school engagement and disengagement are partly the consequences of institutional initiatives – for example, how teachers act or how the school environment is organised. Furthermore, mainstream dropout researchers formulate the concept of engagement both simplistically and mechanistically by seeing engagement as something that the students possess to varying degrees. Inspired by critical psychology, this study includes a different concept of student engagement: We must take the students’ life conduct as the point of departure when approaching their school engagement and decision to drop out. The theoretical claims in the paper are substantiated by empirical results from 160 interviews with vocational educational and training (VET) students in the Danish VET system, and this paper will show how school engagement is closely related to the events in the other contextual settings of students’ lives.     

Die PISA-Studien: Ihre Präsentation und Interpretation im Lichte der Evidenzbasierung

This paper investigates the presentation and interpretation of PISA results by educational researchers, whereby the topics Development of student performance in international comparison, Social background and competence acquisition, Acquisition of competencies of students with a migration background and Identification of a risk group were selected for analysis. The findings indicate that the presentation and interpretation of PISA results by educational researchers do not provide a solid basis for evidence-based educational policy: the researchers present different and partially contradictory interpretations, as well as various and partial incompatible recommendations. Moreover, particular results are not robust, and concerning some research areas the embedding into competing findings is not offered. In view of this analysis, the paper closes with a skeptical appraisal regarding the concept of evidence-based educational policy.     

Similar results for face mask versus mouthpiece during incremental exercise to exhaustion

Investigations in the 1990s evaluated the influence of breathing assemblies on respiratory variables at rest and during exercise; however, research on new models of breathing assemblies is lacking. This study compared metabolic gas analysis data from a mouthpiece with a noseclip (MOUTH) and a face mask (MASK). Volunteers (7 males, 7 females; 25.1 ± 2.7 years) completed two maximal treadmill tests within 1 week, one MOUTH and one MASK, in random order. The difference in maximal oxygen consumption (VO_2max) between MOUTH (52.7 ± 11.3 ml · kg^?1 · min^?1) and MASK (52.2 ± 11.7 ml · kg^?1 · min^?1) was not significant (P = 0.53). Likewise, the mean MOUTH–MASK differences in minute ventilation (V_E), fraction of expired oxygen (FEO₂) and carbon dioxide (FECO₂), respiration rate (RR), tidal volume (V_t), heart rate (HR), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) at maximal and submaximal intensities were not significant (P > 0.05). Furthermore, there was no systematic bias in the error scores (r = ?0.13, P = 0.66), and 12 of the 14 participants had a VO_2max difference of ≤3 ml · kg^?1 · min^?1 between conditions. Finally, there was no clear participant preference for using the MOUTH or MASK. Selection of MOUTH or MASK will not affect the participant’s gas exchange or breathing patterns.     

Construct3D: A Virtual Reality Application for Mathematics and Geometry Education

Construct3D is a three dimensional geometric construction tool based on the collaborative augmented reality system Studierstube. Our setup uses a stereoscopic head mounted display (HMD) and the Personal Interaction Panel (PIP) - a two-handed 3D interaction tool that simplifies 3D model interaction. Means of application in mathematics and geometry education at high school as well as university level are being discussed. A pilot study summarizes the strengths and possible extensions of our system. Anecdotal evidence supports our claim that the use of Construct3D is easy to learn and encourages experimentation with geometric constructions.     

New Zealand management students’ perceptions of communication technologies in correspondence education

Nearly 1,000 management students enrolled in New Zealand's Technical Correspondence Institute during 1980‐1982 were mailed a questionnaire and followup letters from March ‐‐ July, 1983. Response rate was 76.9% (N=724). Did dropouts (3.43%) differ from persisters in their preferences for supplementary or alternative educational technologies? Dropouts were more receptive to telephone and audio taped communications and seminars. Audio tape and seminar variables were among surviving predictors of dropout after extensive multiple linear regression analyses. Distance education institutions should consider using multiple communication channels in order to cater to diverse student learning styles.     

Individuelle und kontextuelle Prädiktoren des Fachwissenserwerbs zum Internen Rechnungswesen im Hochschulstudium

In our study, we examine some theoretically relevant personal factors as predictors of students’ acquisition of knowledge of management accounting, a key area of business and economics studies in higher education. We modeled and assessed business and economics students’ knowledge of management accounting in Germany using an internationally proven accounting test that has been translated and adapted and comprehensively validated for higher education in Germany. A review of the international literature showed that potential predictors might include not only learning opportunities students have used during and prior to higher education, but also students’ socio-cultural background and gender. These factors were assessed in a survey of 1012 students studying at 23 institutions of higher education. Not surprisingly, a multilevel analysis confirmed that among the learning opportunities a course in management accounting has the greatest effect on students’ knowledge of management accounting. But when other potential predictors are controlled, completion of a commercial vocation training prior to university studies shows a positive effect, as well.