School Governors—an effective management force or another bureaucratic layer of school management?

This paper reviews the pattern and organisation of governors' meetings and their effectiveness for managing the new environment established by the 1988 Education Reform Act. It suggests that the move towards a sub‐committee structure may be counter‐productive in educational terms. A different approach is put forward which may be more appropriate for primary and most secondary governing bodies. The paper goes on to suggest a training strategy which facilitates the team approach that it is necessary for the partners in the process, i.e. governors, head and officers/advisers, to adopt. This draws heavily on the training approach adopted in Leicestershire.     

Economic aspects of citizenship education: an investigation of students' understanding

In 2002 education for citizenship will become a statutory requirement in English secondary schools for the first time. Broad guidelines which have been issued to schools include some elements of economic understanding, although this aspect of citizenship has attracted little attention in public debate. Moreover, relatively little is known about students' current thinking on these aspects of citizenship. Our article addresses this gap in current knowledge through reporting results from a large-scale (over 1000 responses) survey of 15- and 17-year-old students. A draft survey was trialled in May 2000 and revised in the light of students' responses and discussion at a research seminar in July 2000. The questionnaire focuses on students' understanding of, and attitude towards, aspects of taxation, government spending, employment and inflation. These results may usefully inform planning for programmes of citizenship education and they can also provide a point of reference for subsequent evaluation of those programmes.     

Unkindest Cuts? Some effects of picture editing on recall of television news information

Research into picture effects on encoding of verbal material has paid little attention to the effects of picture changes. In this experiment, it was found that adults’ recall of the spoken text in a TV news item was impaired by mid‐sentence picture editing. In contrast, both 11‐12 year old and 14‐15 year old children's recall was enhanced by rapid cutting, so long as the accompanying pictures were relevant to the verbal text. Both adults’ and younger children's recall was better with some of the experimentally‐manipulated material than it was with the original broadcast version of the news item. However, 14‐15 year olds performed best with the original version.

It is suggested that viewers are differentially sensitive to unintended production effects and that their processing of verbal information can be disrupted by inappropriately‐timed picture cuts. Research on picture‐text relationships in audio‐visual material needs to take account of picture‐timing, as well as picture content, and television editing procedures may need to be tailored more specifically to suit the intended audience.     

IDEALS AND METHODS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION FOR THE COMING WORLD ORDER∗

This article brings to bear on our understanding of learning many insights from the field of psychology

     

Writing with imagination: the influence of hot and cold executive functions in children with autism characteristics and typically developing peers

Reading and Writing - The current study investigated the extent cognitive and emotion regulation deficits (i.e., executive functions) associated with autism impact on the development of imagination...     

Rethinking agency as an assemblage from change management to collaborative work

The movement towards inclusion comes together with a neoliberal audit mentality whereby individuals are held responsible for the transformations. The Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) are seen as ‘change agents’ whose task it is, to support teachers in adapting their approach to optimise the chances for children with special needs in regular schools. In this paper, we want to problematise the ‘responsibility-blame discourse’ and look differently at agency. By using a diffractive methodology based on collaborative work, in which we have used material images of the workplace of the SENCO, and read-the-data-while-thinking-with-theory, we deconstruct the individualisation of agency. The SENCOs are no longer seen as separate individual humanist subjects where agency is solely lodged in the body of an individual agent [Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press] but the SENCOs are part of the intra-active entanglement of multiple agencies, of an assemblage. This re-conceptualisation of agency leads to a different approach to inclusion, in which the participants in any encounter can work as part of the assemblage to develop communities capable of re-thinking practice and transforming it into a place where children with special needs become legitimate members of the school.     

‘Straitjacket’ or ‘springboard for sustainable learning’? The implications of formative assessment practices in vocational learning cultures

In contrast to theoretical and empirical insights from research into formative assessment in compulsory schooling, understanding the relationship between formative assessment, motivation and learning in vocational education has been a topic neglected by researchers. The Improving Formative Assessment project (IFA) addresses this gap, using a sociocultural approach to explore the relationship between formative assessment practices and ‘learning cultures’ in vocational education. This article explores the influence of learning cultures in vocational education on the practice of formative assessment and evaluates critically two closely related questions. Why do some learning cultures foster formative assessment that leads to instrumental learning while others develop deeper forms of learning? When is formative assessment a springboard for sustainable learning, and when does it remain an instrumental straitjacket?     

Learning with and from: positioning school students as advisors in pre-service teacher education

This article reports on an innovative pedagogical approach within the Learning Partnerships program in which school students help to ‘teach the teachers’ within pre-service teacher education. Classes of school students join with classes of pre-service teachers to provide input on how teachers can enhance school students’ engagement and wellbeing. The article draws on data collected from 125 students (aged 13–16) and 120 pre-service teachers in these workshops. Findings generated from a mixed methods study combining pre-workshop focus groups (n = Students: 38, Teachers: 33) and post-workshop focus groups (n = Students: 69, Teachers: 15) and post-workshop surveys (n = Students: 96; Teachers: 101) demonstrated that the workshops were mutually beneficial for both students and pre-service teachers. Participants found that workshopping together enhanced their belief in the possibility of positive student–teacher relationships. The pre-service teachers reported greater confidence in communicating with young people about the issues that affect student engagement and wellbeing. The school students reported that they were more willing to use teachers as a source of help. Implications include the need for increased attention to a ‘third space’ for learning in teacher development which provides opportunity for learning with and from young people about how to foster their engagement and wellbeing.