Critiques of socio-economic school compositional effects: are they valid?

Abstract

School socio-economic compositional (SEC) effects have been influential in educational research predicting a range of outcomes and influencing public policy. However, some recent studies have challenged the veracity of SEC effects when applying residualised-change and fixed effects models and simulating potential measurement errors in hierarchical regression models. We review the residualised change and fixed effects methods in critical studies and find limitations in their capacity to demonstrate null compositional effects. We show this with an adjusted residualised change model finding significant SEC effects. We show structural equation models can address concerns that measurement errors inflate SEC effects by comparing hierarchical regression models to structural equation models. We find that structural equation models can detect SEC effects free from measurement error. We conclude that the reviewed critiques of SEC effects were due to methods unlikely to detect compositional effects. Future research would benefit from the identification of mediators of SEC effects.     

Secondary Teachers' Interpersonal Behaviour in Singapore,Brunei and Australia: A cross-national comparison

This study investigates the reliability and validity of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) in three countries: Singapore, Brunei and Australia. The QTI maps student perceptions of interpersonal teacher behaviour and is based on the circumplex Model for Interpersonal Teacher Behaviour (MITB) that investigates the teacher–student relationship in terms of the two dimensions of influence and proximity. Students' perceptions of their teachers in the three countries are also compared. Results show that the QTI scales are represented by two independent dimensions and that scales can be ordered in terms of a circular structure. However, empirical scale locations differ from their theoretical positions as hypothesised by the circumplex model, and among countries. Differences in teacher influence and proximity are also found among the countries.     

Students' Perceptions of Interpersonal Aspects of the Learning Environment

This study examined variables associated with differences in students' perceptions of interpersonal teacher behavior. The perceptions of 3023 students and 74 teachers in 168 classes in seven secondary schools were used in the analyses. Investigating variance at the student, class, teacher and school levels revealed that several variables are significantly related to students' perceptions: student and teacher gender, student and teacher ethnic background, student age and grade, class size, grade level, subject taught and teacher experience. There were interaction effects between some variables, such as student ethnicity and student gender, as well as student and teacher gender. While significant, the amount of variance explained by these was low (around 10%). The outcomes generally confirmed earlier research, although some new effects were found. Perhaps the main result of the study was its verification of the complex and interactive nature of students' perceptions of the learning environment and researchers' understanding of it.     

Risk, error and accountability: improving the practice of school leaders

This paper seeks to explore the notion of risk as an organisational logic within schools, the impact of contemporary accountability regimes on managing risk and then, in turn, to posit a systems-based process of risk management underpinned by a positive logic of risk. It moves through a number of steps beginning with the development of an understanding of risk, the risk society and the logic of risk derived from the seminal work of Douglas (1992, Risk and blame: essays in cultural theory, London: Sage), Beck (1992, Risk society: towards a new modernity. London: Sage) and Giddens (1990, The consequences of modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press). Second, the paper juxtaposes this understanding of risk with the rise of accountability imperatives and an “audit culture” [Strathern (1997) European Review, 5(3), 305–321] in public institutions, including schools. It then moves to consider how a systems-based approach to risk management, drawing on Reason’s (1990, Human Error. New York: Cambridge University Press) model of human error minimisation, could be usefully developed for schools. Such an approach would be built on a positive risk logic which maintains the flexibility, innovativeness and adaptability so necessary in education and avoids the more deleterious effects of many current forms of accountability and risk management which reflect avoidance, conformity and rigidity.     

Providing Space for Teacher Renewal: The role of the facilitator in school-university partnerships

This article uses the process of a teacher renewal partnership programme to explore the role of the university academic as a facilitator of change. Responses to a series of interview questions relating to change were used to explore and examine the dimensions of the facilitator's role. Facilitators report that the role is complex, often uncertain and requires an understanding of the school and its culture and schools' and teachers' previous experiences in professional development programmes. The findings from this article suggest that an effective facilitator creates, for the teachers involved, a space for discussion, reflection and challenge and that this space provides for and legitimates teacher renewal.     

Infants of depressed mothers show "depressed" behavior even with nondepressed adults

To determine whether the "depressed" behavior (e.g., less positive affect and lower activity level) of infants noted during interactions with their "depressed" mothers generalizes to their interactions with nondepressed adults, 74 3-6-month-old infants of "depressed" and nondepressed mothers were videotaped in face-to-face interactions with their mothers and with nondepressed female strangers. "Depressed" mothers and their infants received lower ratings on all behaviors than nondepressed mothers and infants. Although the infants of "depressed" versus nondepressed mothers also received lower ratings with the stranger adult, very few differences were noted between those infants' ratings when interacting with their mother versus the stranger, suggesting that their "depressed" style of interacting is not specific to their interactions with depressed mothers but generalizes to their interactions with nondepressed adults as early as 3 months of age.     

Baseline Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis and Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity Interact to Predict Executive Functions in Low‐Income Children

We examined interactions between baseline hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity in relation to executive functions (EF) in a sample (n = 1,005) of children in low wealth, nonurban communities at age 48 months. Salivary cortisol and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) represented baseline HPA axis and PNS activity, respectively. The interaction between RSA and cortisol predicted EF such that children with either lower RSA and lower cortisol, or higher RSA and higher cortisol had higher EF scores. These findings suggest a potential compensatory relation in which the PNS and HPA axis counterbalance each other to support cognition.     

Using video clubs to develop teachers’ thinking and practice in oral feedback and dialogic teaching

ABSTRACT

The authors report outcomes of an evaluation of a ‘video club’ intervention to improve the feedback and dialogic teaching practice of 91 teachers from 11 primary schools in England. Participating teachers worked collaboratively in a sequence of six video clubs over a six-month period. To understand teacher engagement they examine videos of video club meetings; online platform use metrics; surveys; selected videos of classroom practice; focus groups; and interviews. They evaluate change in teachers’ thinking and practice using survey results for participants compared to a comparison group of non-participating teachers at the intervention schools. The survey includes a new instrument for gathering evidence of teachers’ thinking and practice in feedback. The results suggested changes in thinking and practice for teachers who self-reported as engaging highly with the intervention. They conclude by discussing the potential of video technology within professional development and the challenges of researching changes in thinking and practice.     

Personal and Contextual Contributors to Young Children's Activity-Based Perceived Self-Efficacy

This study investigated personal and contextual influences to young children's perceived self-efficacy (SE) in social and independent learning situations. The participants were children (n?=?24) 6–8 years old from four Finnish elementary school classrooms. First, teachers from each classroom were asked to rate their students’ social competence (SC). Second, the participants were videotaped in 45 social and 15 independent learning situations, and later interviewed about their SE perceptions using video-stimulated recall. Participants with higher SE demonstrated more stable perceptions and greater involvement in social learning situations. However, a statistically significant relationship between perceived SE and SC was not found. Participants also identified 4 factors promoting perceived SE: positive emotional states, mastery experiences, personal strategic behavior, and contextual support.