Entering Initial Teacher Education: science graduates’ views of the interview and selection process

This paper describes ongoing research that builds on earlier studies by the authors that have investigated issues concerning the selection of science graduates to secondary PGCE courses. These studies identified the need for criteria that are understood by tutors and applicants to ensure that candidates from ethnic minority groups are not disadvantaged. The research focuses on the perceptions that science graduates have about the selection process for secondary teacher education courses and seeks to identify whether the procedures used disadvantage any particular groups or individuals. We are interested also in whether there is a mismatch between tutors’ perceptions of the interview process and those of the applicants. During 1995/96 current students and applicants for one year PGCE courses in science were asked how they had prepared for their interviews and for their impressions of the interviewing process. The paper describes initial findings and the implication of these findings.     

Assessing mentoring in organizations: an evaluation of commercial mentoring instruments

The purpose of this article is to inform readers about the types of instruments available for assessing and improving mentoring in organizations. Extensive review of the psychological, business and medical literature was conducted to identify commercially published, practitioner‐oriented instruments. All of the instruments that were identified – including the Alleman mentoring activities questionnaire, Mentoring in the moment, Mentoring skills assessment, and Principles of adult mentoring scale – are evaluated herein. Each instrument’s target audience, raters, subscales, response options, psychometric properties, and relative strengths and weaknesses are described. Although these instruments are reported to be used extensively, evidence of their validity is not always available. This review presents information that, in combination with first‐hand inspection of the instruments, should enable practitioners to differentiate between instruments that may be a fit for their needs from those that are not. Furthermore, it may introduce academic readers to instruments that are not covered in the scholarly literature in spite of their common use for non‐research purposes.     

Becoming a mature student: How adult appplicants weigh the advantages and disadvantages of higher education

The data presented in this paper is taken fromthe results of two much larger studies ofmature student decision-making and HigherEducation (HE), which considerprocesses of agency from initial considerationof the possibility of becoming a studentto eventually becoming one. In thispaper, six categories of applicant to HE arediscussed: `Delayed traditional students', `Late starters' who have undergone alife-transforming event e.g. redundancy ordivorce and require `a new start'. `Single parents' `Careerists', who are currently in employment who seek a qualification to make progress in their existing careers, `Escapees' who are currently in employment who want a qualification as a way out of `dead-end' jobs, Finally, the `personal growers', a small number pursuing education for its own sake.These categories of applicants are discussed inlight of the factors that both catalyse andinhibit individuals' decision-making duringapplication to HE.     

“Circle of Friends”—An Exploration of Impact Over Time

This study investigated the impact of different aspects of the circle of friends (CoF) intervention. A naturalistic sample of 14 primary‐aged children with a range of special educational needs were involved, seven of whom were followed‐up a term later, to assess medium‐term impact. The whole‐class meeting was found to be effective in increasing the social inclusion of the focus children. However, with the exception of one child with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), the weekly CoF meetings produced no measurable further improvements. Possible explanations for the pattern of findings and implications for educational psychology practice are discussed.     

Evaluating academic development in the higher education sector: academic developers’ reflections on using a toolkit resource

The professionalisation of teaching is of increasing importance in UK higher education due to converging processes including the proliferation of managerialism, increasing quality agendas and changes to student fee structures. These have brought into sharp relief the need for greater understanding of how quality teaching evolves in university settings. One key element of this involves academic development and its impacts on teaching and learning. Current literature suggests that a plethora of ideas, frameworks and instruments claiming best practice exist but that take-up of these is inconsistent. This prompted a UK national research project which produced an evidence-based toolkit for evaluating academic development. As part of the toolkit augmentation, academic development representatives from across the sector were asked to create, review and test uniquely tailored evaluation instruments. These instruments were then piloted on university teachers who had participated in teaching-related continuing professional development activities. This paper reports on these individuals’ reflections of using the toolkit. It suggests that academic developers are interested in evaluating the impact of their work on teachers, students and on the wider institutional culture but that confidence and expertise varies. Using the toolkit generated ‘traditional’ evaluation data including satisfaction with the development activity and changes to lecturers’ conceptions and behaviours. However, it also prompted critical discussions around current evaluation practice. This included the need for transformational reform of institutional culture to support links between evaluation and good standing; and making explicit the thorny issue of evidencing student learning. This paper will be of interest to those with an interest or responsibility for evaluating teaching in higher education. The paper offers an important contribution to the international literature at a time when global higher education is faced with questions about teaching, learning and quality. Evaluation, and how to do it well, is timely and important business.     

Screening for problem parenting: preliminary evidence on a promising instrument

This paper reports on efforts aimed toward the development of more effective procedures for identifying mothers who are at elevated risk for problems in parenting. We present data from two independent samples of known maladaptors and corresponding comparison mothers and report on our attempts to cross-validate a promising screening instrument composed of items that index social support and parenting attitudes. The resultant 20-item scale correctly identified over 90% of maladaptive and comparison mothers. When this scale was cross-validated on a second independent sample of maladaptors and comparison mothers, it was again almost 90% accurate. Issues concerning the field application of this promising instrument are discussed and its possible limitations are considered.     

视角:“发达”还是“发展中”?(英文)

改革开放使中国获得了空前的发展,我国的综合国力得到了很大提高,尤其是城市的发展令外国人印象更为深刻。但从全国城乡总体来看,我们还不是一个工业化国家,经济实力和人民生活水平的人均数字都依然处在"发展中"国家的水平。那么,究竟发展到什么状态中国才算"发达"国家呢?来自"发达"国家的Brad,根据自己在中国生活过的体验和我们谈谈他对"发达"和"发展中"之间差别的认识。     

Educational policy and teacher education

This article stresses the importance of teacher training in implementing changes in educational policy. It considers some of the ‘hidden’ implications of educational change and suggests that in order to reduce such undesirable consequences, teacher trainers should be more involved in educational policy-making, especially in regard to curriculum development.     

Archiving — the full‐text solution: an innovative way to electronic archiving

Somerset Computing Limited has developed a unique search engine that allows publishers and societies to produce electronic archives with full‐text searching and the ability to carry out high‐level search requests without major rekeying or tagging, making it the most cost‐effective solution for full‐text searching available. This technology has relevance to many publishing areas including legal publishers, academic publishers, STM publishers, learned societies and professional typesetters. This article describes how Somerset Computing has utilized its expertise and this innovative in‐house software to provide the British Academy with an affordable, fully searchable solution to the electronic archiving of the Proceedings of the British Academy.