A new approach to vocational guidance for school-leavers in the 1920s? Exploring key themes from an influential 1926 report

The economic difficulties currently being experienced in the United Kingdom have served to further intensify debates about the role different kinds of education could and should play in both preparing individuals for work and boosting economic growth. However, these contemporary and historical debates have tended to neglect vocational guidance. This article offers a case study of an experiment to boost vocational guidance in schools during the period of social and economic dislocations that followed the First World War. The scheme drew on the thinking of influential figures like Cyril Burt, and at a theoretical and practical level sought to better connect the classroom with the workplace. Its stated aim was to better prepare children for employment and encourage school-leavers to find work that suited them.     

Co‐education‐‐II: AN ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH ON COMPARATIVE ATTAINMENT IN MATHEMATICS IN SINGLE‐SEX AND COEDUCATIONAL MAINTAINED GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

The Schools Council's evaluation of i.t.a. (Warburton and Southgate, 1969) did not seek to ascertain the attitudes towards i.t.a. of teachers using craditional orthography (t.o.) other than those involved in the British i.t.a. experiments in teaching control groups. This smaller‐scale research aimed to investigate the attitudes of t.o. users as well as i.t.a. users in the Berkshire College school practice catchment area.

The attitude measures distinguished clearly between users and potential users of i.t.a. and t.o. users.

No significant differences in attitude relating to the age of children taught, the age and service of the teacher or the position held in school were found for the t.o. sample, nor, contrary to some of the Schools Council findings, for the i.t.a. users. The sole exception was that older t.o.‐using teachers showed more feelings against i.t.a. than younger teachers.

About 10 per cent of t.o. users indicated that they were potential users of i.t.a., whilst 13 per cent of i.t.a. users rejected i.t.a. in a future situation. There was little demand for i.t.a. courses; only 3‐57 per cent of the t.o. users wished for these.     

The development of an innovation: the case of porvair

Economists and management “scientists” tend to adopt a rationalistic, “black box” approach to the treatment of technological innovation, with decisions to invest in innovation being viewed as climactic acts and with the significant impact of risk and uncertainty often being disregarded. This paper examines an alternative analytical perspective: that a least the early development of technological innovation is a process of incremental decision making where managerial responses are affected by the consequences of previous decisions and by alterations in external information. The development of the “poromeric” Porvair discussed here illustrates the considerable risks that have to be borne when undertaking radical innovation, and the nature of the uncertainties, the interdependency between them and the manner in which they persist, in this case even beyond the commercialization of the new product.     

TGMD-3在中国3~12岁儿童基本运动技能测试中的信效度研究

目的: 验证TGMD-3在中国3~12岁儿童基本运动技能测试中的可靠性和有效性。方法: 选取上海、深圳、重庆、洛阳、长沙的512名3~12岁儿童为研究对象进行TGMD-3测试,对测试的难度、区分度、一致性信度、重测信度和评价者信度、结构效度进行统计检验。结果: TGMD-3的13个项目难度范围为0.27~0.78,区分度范围为0.38~0.49。每个年龄组儿童基本运动技能测试(TGMD-3)的内部一致性系数范围为0.808~0.902,其中男女生的内部一致性系数均为0.95;总体的基本运动技能评价者信度(肯德尔协同系数)w为0.944, 2值为28.331,达到显著性水平;重测检验中,移动式运动技能(组内相关系数)ICC为0.755、球类运动技能(组内相关系数)ICC为0.741、总的基本运动技能(组内相关系数)ICC为0.743,均达到了较高水平。通过探索性因子分析验证了TGMD-3的双因子结构,并通过验证性因子分析支持双因子模型(χ²(64)=103.28,p<0.001,CFI=0.960,TLI=0.952,RMSEA=0.049,SRMR=0.043)。结论: TGMD-3儿童基本运动技能测试具有良好的项目难度、区分度,以及可靠的内部一致性信度、重测信度和结构效度,对我国3~12岁儿童具有良好的适用性,可以作为我国儿童基本运动技能发展评价的有效工具。     

Genome-Wide Polygenic Scores Predict Reading Performance Throughout the School Years

It is now possible to create individual-specific genetic scores, called genome-wide polygenic scores (GPS). We used a GPS for years of education (EduYears) to predict reading performance assessed at UK National Curriculum Key Stages 1 (age 7), 2 (age 12) and 3 (age 14) and on reading tests administered at ages 7 and 12 in a UK sample of 5,825 unrelated individuals. EduYears GPS accounts for up to 5% of the variance in reading performance at age 14. GPS predictions remained significant after accounting for general cognitive ability and family socioeconomic status. Reading performance of children in the lowest and highest 12.5% of the EduYears GPS distribution differed by a mean growth in reading ability of approximately two school years. It seems certain that polygenic scores will be used to predict strengths and weaknesses in education.     

Facial Similarity Mitigates the Persuasive Effects of Source Bias: An Evolutionary Explanation for Kinship and Susceptibility to Influence

This research examined how the interaction between a source's facial similarity to message targets and communicated bias affects audience persuadability. We used an evolutionary explanation to hypothesize that biased sources would elicit less favorable attitudes than unbiased sources for dissimilar sources, but that this difference would be absent for similar sources. Predictions were supported by results from a 2 (facial similarity) × 2 (source bias) experiment, in which an unrecognizable percentage of participants' photographs (n = 94) was digitally morphed with a source's face to act as a kinship cue. Further, structural equation modeling demonstrated a direct effect of facial similarity on attitude independent of mediation by source liking and appraisals, providing further evidence that susceptibility to influence from facially similar sources may have evolutionary origins.