Values education as holistic development for all sectors: researching for effective pedagogy

The paper argues that values education has moved from being associated most heavily with the religious agenda of faith schools to being central to updated research insights into effective pedagogy. As such, it represents a vital approach to education in any school setting. The paper draws on an array of values education research and practice in making the case but centres especially on findings from a number of recent publicly funded projects in Australia with which the authors have been associated. Of special importance is evidence from the Values Education Good Practice Schools Project and the Project to Test and Measure the Impact of Values Education on Student Effects and School Ambience that provide both anecdotal and empirical evidence that high quality values education contributes to holistic educational development, including academic advancement, of students across all school sectors.     

Forward view: advancing health library and knowledge services in England

This article is the fourth in a series on New Directions. The National Health Service is under pressure, challenged to meet the needs of an ageing population, whilst striving to improve standards and ensure decision making is underpinned by evidence. Health Education England is steering a new course for NHS library and knowledge services in England to ensure access to knowledge and evidence for all decision makers. Knowledge for Healthcare calls for service transformation, role redesign, greater coordination and collaboration. To meet user expectations, health libraries must achieve sustainable, affordable access to digital content. Traditional tasks will progressively become mechanised. Alongside supporting learners, NHS librarians and knowledge specialists will take a greater role as knowledge brokers, delivering business critical services. They will support the NHS workforce to signpost patients and the public to high‐quality information. There is a need for greater efficiency and effectiveness through greater co‐operation and service mergers. Evaluation of service quality will focus more on outcomes, less on counting. These changes require an agile workforce, fit for the future. There is a bright future in which librarians’ expertise is used to mobilise evidence, manage and share knowledge, support patients, carers and families, optimise technology and social media and provide a keystone for improved patient care and safety.     

THE EDUCATIVE IMPORTANCE OF ETHOS

ABSTRACT:  This article explores the educative importance of ethos from a broadly philosophical perspective. It is argued that, for a range of reasons, the notion of ethos in the context of education needs to be brought into clearer focus. An analysis is offered of the concept of ethos, with particular reference to the context of classrooms and schools. The educative importance of ethos is explored, with reference to a range of difficulties and challenges which it presents.     

The Monty Hall Three Doors Problem

In this article, we study the Monty Hall three doors problem. A fully general solution and several new approaches are presented, including a Bayesian analysis.     

Policy Implementation Difficulties and Special Education

By considering, in one LEA, a particular area of policy implementation, namely the allocation of welfare assistance to named children with special needs in mainstream primary schools, the author questions whether LEA administrators do actually control events and determine what happens during the implementation process. This paper examines the different expectations of administrators and headteachers with regard to the role and specific duties of welfare assistants and also traces the historical development of the welfare assistant service in the target LEA. Evidence from these two sources points to wide ranging and adverse effects of a reactive administration and indicates that far from initiating and controlling events, LEA administrators struggle to keep up with developments in schools.