Differences between secondary schools: A study about school context,group composition,school practice,and school effects with special attention to public and Catholic schools and types of schools

The results indicate that in Flanders secondary schools of different denomination and of different school type (based on their curriculum offerings) differ with respect to several characteristics. With respect to the educational framework, learning environment and learning climate differences between schools are small and differences are more situated within schools. Multilevel analysis reveals that almost 19% of the variance in mathematics achievement is at school level. The effect of denomination is small and disappears when student background (which is related to school practice) is taken into account. The effect of school type remains important when controlled for student background and denomination. Group composition, the social and learning climate, and the opportunity to learn seem to matter and explain almost 90% of the school effect. They also explain more than four fifths of the effect of school type (and denomination together) which accounts for 65% of the school level variance.     

Participation in extracurricular activities and student achievement: evidence from German all-day schools

The major aim of educational effectiveness research is to examine and explain school, class, and teacher differences with respect to relevant educational criteria. Until now, in the large majority of studies, language and mathematics scores were used as a criterion. In the present study, the educational track students choose at the start of secondary education (at the age of 12) and their success in the chosen curriculum are examined in relation to primary school and classes (Grades 1 to 6). Two-level models show that students had higher aims in secondary education if they had attended primary Catholic schools and/or primary schools with high average curriculum advice. The latter schools were also highly effective with respect to achievement, and their students had a high socioeconomic status and background. Multilevel models with a cross-classified structure showed no direct long-term effects of primary schools and classes.     

Teachers' knowledge of models and modelling in science

This study investigated the knowledge that experienced science teachers have of models and modelling in science in the context of a school curriculum innovation project in which the role and the nature of models and modelling in science are emphasized. The subjects in this study were teachers of biology, chemistry and physics preparing for the curriculum innovation. Two instruments were used: a questionnaire with seven open items on models and modelling, which was completed by 15 teachers, and a questionnaire consisting of 32 items on a Likert-type scale (n=71). Results indicated that the teachers shared the same general definition of models. However, the teachers' content knowledge of models and modelling proved to be limited and diverse. A group of teachers who displayed more pronounced knowledge appeared to have integrated elements of both a positivist and a social constructivist epistemological orientation in their practical knowledge. Implications for the design of teacher education interventions are discussed.     

The Role of Students’ Home Language in Science Achievement: A multilevel approach

The present study aimed to identify the role of both student- and school-level characteristics in primary school students’ achievement in the science curriculum. As societies become more culturally and linguistically diverse, many students enter the classroom with a home language that is different from the language of instruction used at school. This study takes into account both the home language and literacy in the language of instruction in relation to student achievement in science subjects. Questionnaires, reading performance tests, and science achievement tests were administered to 1,761 fourth-grade students from 67 schools across Flanders (Belgium). Multilevel hierarchical regression analyses show that the home language and literacy in the language of instruction play an important role in science achievement at the student level, next to gender and socioeconomic status. Students with a home language that is different from the language of instruction experience difficulties with science subjects. Moreover, the higher students’ performance on reading comprehension and self-assessed proficiency in the language of instruction, the higher their score on science achievement tests. At the school level, a school's teachability expectations are one of the key factors related to students’ science achievement. Limitations of this study and future directions for research are discussed.     

Media literacy and audiovisual languages: a case study from Belgium

This article examines the use of media in the construction of a “new” language for children. We studied how children acquire and use media literacy skills through their engagement in an educational art project. This media literacy project is rooted in the realm of audiovisual media, within which children’s sound and visual worlds are the focus of inquiry. Using an ethnographic approach, we examined the engagement in the project of participating children, and we analyzed how they used this “new” discourse as a tool to express themselves. Our analysis focused on how the project was received by children, and on the potential for educational media art projects to stimulate media knowledge.

Connaissance raisonnée des medias et langages audio‐visuels: une étude de cas en Belgique

Cet article étudie l’usage des medias dans la construction d’un nouveau langage pour les enfants. Nous avons étudié la façon dont les enfants acquièrent et font usage de compétences liées à la connaissance raisonnée des medias en s’impliquant dans un projet artistique éducatif. Ce projet sur la connaissance raisonnée des medias s’enracine dans les médias audio‐visuels au sein desquels les mondes visuels et sonores des enfants font l’objet de notre enquête. En ayant recours à une approche ethnographique, nous avons examiné l’implication dans le projet des enfants qui y participaient et nous avons analysé la façon dont ils utilisaient ce nouveau discours comme instrument de leur propre expression. Notre analyse a mis l’accent sur la façon dont le projet a été reçu par les enfants et sur le potentiel des projets artistiques reposant sur les médias éducatifs pour stimuler la connaissance des medias.

Medienkompetenz und audiovisuelle Sprachen: Eine Fallstudie aus Belgien

Dieser Artikel untersucht die Nutzung von Medien in der Entwicklung einer “neuen” Sprache bei Kindern. Wir untersuchten wie Kinder Medienkompetenzen bei ihrer Auseinandersetzung mit einem pädagogischen Kunstprojekt erwarben und verwendeten. Dieses Medienkompetenzprojekt basierte in dem Bereich der audiovisuellen Medien, wobei die auditorischen und visuellen Welten der Kinder im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung standen. Durch die Verwendung eines ethnographischen Ansatzes untersuchten wir, wie sich die an dieser Studie teilnehmenden Kinder mit dem Projekt auseinandersetzten. Wir analysierten zusätzlich, wie die Kinder diesen “neuen” Diskurs benutzten, um sich selbst auszudrücken. Unsere Analyse konzentrierte sich darauf, wie das Projekt von den Kindern aufgenommen wurde, sowie auch auf das Potenzial von pädagogischen Medienprojekten für die Förderung von Medien‐Wissen.

Alfabetismo mediático y los lenguajes audio‐visuales: un estudio de caso de Bélgica

El presente artículo examina el uso de los medios en la construcción de un nuevo lenguaje para los niños. Hemos estudiado como los niños adquieren y aprovechan sus competencias en alfabetismo mediático cuando se involucran en un proyecto artístico educativo. Este proyecto de alfabetismo mediático está arraigado en el reino de los medios audiovisuales en el cual los mundos sonoros y visuales de los niños son el foco de la presente encuesta. Utilizando una metodología etnográfica, hemos examinado la implicación en este proyecto de los niños participantes y analizado como aprovechaban este « nuevo » discurso como una herramienta para expresarse. Nuestro análisis enfoca la manera de acoger el proyecto por parte de los niños y el potencial de los proyectos artísticos basados en los medios educativos para incentivar el conocimiento de los medios.     

Designing a Moodle course with the CADMOS learning design tool

CADMOS is a graphical learning design (LD) authoring tool that helps a teacher design a unit of learning in two layers: (i) the conceptual layer, which seems like a concept map and contains the learning activities with their associated learning resources and (ii) the flow layer, which contains the orchestration of these activities. One of CADMOS’ main innovative features is that it can bridge the gap between the design of a unit of learning and its enactment into Moodle. This paper presents how one can create a LD using CADMOS and deploy it into Moodle. Also, the paper shows the findings from a case study which was organized in order to evaluate the usability of the tool, its pedagogical flexibility and the usefulness of its innovative feature of deploying a LD into Moodle. CADMOS seems to be an easy-to-use tool, which offers guidance and flexibility during the design process.     

THE CLASSIFICATION OF ABILITIES

Sixth‐form students who had expressed varying degrees of commitment to entering teaching as a career reported on their knowledge of the teaching profession, their expectations for teacher training and on their own educational experiences. By the time they had entered the sixth form most had developed quite sophisticated views about the profession and about their own potential to become effective teachers.

A warm and approachable personality was seen as the most important characteristic of the good primary teacher, while for the secondary teacher, subject matter competence was emphasized. Students planning to enter teaching saw themselves, already, as warm and approachable, but felt that their training would have a great effect on their general level of competence, and indeed on their confidence. At their chosen college of education, they anticipated too much ‘educational theory’ and not enough on ‘methods of teaching’ or teaching practice.

Most students who planned to teach had had a reasonable amount of prior experience in one of a wide range of teaching settings. This appeared to have had a beneficial effect, especially for those enrolled in formal work experience programmes.     

Moral language and pedagogical experience

As educators are challenged to develop a moral vocabulary of teaching, such a language needs to be sensitive to the way that pedagogical relations are lived and experienced. This exploration into the meanings of care offers a phenomenological puzzle. It concerns the relation between, on the one hand, commonly accepted and professionally received meanings of the ethical concept of care as we find it in the parental, philosophical, and curriculum literature and, on the other hand, the lived experience of caring. The language of care in the field of commerce and in the helping professions tends to pass over these subtle and deeply-felt sensibilities. It seems that for many parents and teachers caring commonly means worrying. Caring is experienced as worrying responsibility. But this worry ('sorgen' in German) is often neglected for happier or more acceptable understandings of care. This should make us wonder about what happens when language turns professional and theoretical, when it becomes charged with meanings that in everyday life are not always recognizable, and when it becomes discharged of meanings that are existentially at its very centre.