What has <Emphasis Type="Italic">Harry Potter</Emphasis> Done for Me? Children’s Reflections on their ‘<Emphasis Type="Italic">Potter</Emphasis> Experience’

This article reports findings from a small-scale focus-group study funded by the British Academy. Drawing on Herbert Marsh and Richard Shavelson’s notion of “Academic Self-Concept” and David Barton and Mary Hamilton’s view of literacy as context-specific social practices, the authors examine what young British Harry Potter enthusiasts perceive as the influence of the novels on their subsequent reading behaviour and academic development. Specifically, they consider whether these children feel that Harry Potter has helped improve their literacy skills and whether they think the books have changed their attitudes to reading. Moreover, the article sheds light on the role of the films and the possible effect of gender. The authors conclude that the Potter enthusiasts they have interviewed see the series as formative in terms of their literacy. However, regarding gender, intra-group variation (differences among individual readers in a group of either boys or girls) is far more significant than inter-group variation (differences between single-sex groups of boys and girls).     

MOVING DOWN THE ROAD: COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AT THE UNIVERSITY

This study examines the relationship between 34 personal, demographic, and environmental characteristics of community college transfer students and their academic performance over a 2‐year period. The subjects for the study were 267 transfer students admitted to a research university during a fall semester. Data on the characteristics were collected through a survey and analyzed in relation to first and second semester GPAs and second year GPAs. Five characteristics showed a consistent statistical relationship with three or more GPA measures. A multiple regression analysis was used to identify which of these characteristics were useful in predicting the GPAs of the transfer students based on their previous backgrounds and attitudes.     

Transforming the school workforce: perspectives on school reform in England

This paper describes the experience of change management observed as part of an evaluation of the Transforming School Workforce Pathfinder Project commissioned by the UK Government for the English education system. The 32 Pilot Schools made interventions in organisational practice in ways that required them to think differently about work. Changes in the number, type and deployment of the school workforce combined with thinking about the nature of work have challenged existing practices. In particular, a focus on change management teams drawn from the whole school workforce, supported by an external school workforce advisor, has required schools to examine the nature of decision-making and participation. We intend to draw on evidence from eight case study schools and through this examine the implications for how change is understood and practiced. We critically engage with the government’s preference for a particular model of change to bring about organisational improvement, and we reveal a pluralistic and dynamic field both within practice and theorising.

Achieving both intellectual quality and relevance in classroom learning experiences: some conceptual challenges

The idea that the educational needs of secondary school students are best met by providing them with learning experiences that are both intellectually challenging and connected to the world beyond the classroom underpins several recent pedagogical initiatives in Australia. However, such learning experiences are rarely found in practice. Many reasons for this have already been identified, but we suggest there may be another dimension to this problem. From our experience of trialling a similar pedagogical approach with Years 8 and 10 students, the participating teachers seemed to be struggling with a conceptual dilemma that interfered with creating learning experiences that are both intellectually challenging and relevant. We suggest this dilemma was generated by a dualistic framework of thinking and practice, endemic in education systems, which constructs academic rigour and relevance as incompatible with each other. We conclude that there is a need for more extensive teacher professional development in pedagogies which attempt to integrate intellectual rigour and relevance.