Excluding Primary School Children – The Outcomes Six Years On

This article reports and discusses a study which followed up, through case records, 726 children excluded permanently, indefinitely or for fixed–term periods in 1993/4 in 10 LEAs. The outcomes at secondary level in 1998/9 were found to be moderately poor with the problems intensifying for half the sample. Forty six per cent had further primary school exclusions and 36 per cent received exclusions in their secondary education. Looked–after children and those with special educational needs fared worse and achieved less. Case studies showed the kinds of commitment and support that can work even with very difficult cases.     

数字时代的长文

目前,篇幅较长的文章面临着严峻的挑战.怎样才能够持续吸引网络读者的注意力?因为网络读者更可能喜欢快速点击而不是一页一页地阅读.内容维护者的新群体说,正是移动设备和应用程序增强了长文的吸引力,并再次创造出能坐下来认真阅读的读者.     

The role of athlete narcissism in moderating the relationship between coaches' transformational leader behaviors and athlete motivation

Leadership research that examines follower characteristics as a potential moderator of leadership effectiveness is lacking. Within Bass's (1985) transformational leadership framework, we examined follower narcissism as a moderator of the coach behavior-coach effectiveness relationship. Youth athletes (male = 103, female = 106) from the Singapore Sports Academy (mean age = 14.28, SD = 1.40 years) completed the Differentiated Transformational Leadership Inventory (Callow, Smith, Hardy, Arthur, & Hardy, 2009), the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Terry, 1988), and indices of follower effort. Multilevel analyses revealed that athlete narcissism moderated the relationship between fostering acceptance of group goals and athlete effort and between high performance expectations and athlete effort. All the other transformational leader behaviors demonstrated main effects on follower effort, except for inspirational motivation.     

Building bridges rather than walls: research into an experiential model of interfaith education in secondary schools

This paper examines research findings from an experiential model of interfaith education called the Building Bridges through Interfaith Dialogue in Schools Programme (BBP). The BBP has been operating continuously in Melbourne, Australia since 2004. In the research, participating students were interviewed and surveyed to assess the effect of this experiential interfaith education programme on their knowledge, attitudes, perspectives and behaviour toward those from different religious and cultural backgrounds to them. Some of the data from those interviews are included in this article. The findings identify that the programme promoted religious literacy, (including improved knowledge, understanding and appreciation for different religious and cultural traditions and their practices), dismantled prejudice from ignorance and overly generalised stereotypes of others, and promoted social inclusion and cohesion.     

Gender differences in mathematics and science competitions: A systematic review

Gendered patterns in mathematics and science interest emerge in early childhood, develop over time, and ultimately reflect advanced course selection in secondary education. During the crucial time adolescents become aware of their strengths and interests and specialize accordingly, they get the opportunity to participate in out-of-school learning programs such as mathematics and science competitions. This raises the question whether mathematics and science competitions contribute to gender equity by equally promoting female and male interests. In this article, we present a systematic review on gender differences and the mechanisms explaining success and failure in mathematics and science competitions. On an international level, we found large gender differences regarding participation in all Olympiads with the exception of the biology Olympiad. In fairs and national Olympiads, overall participation rates were not gendered as such, but females preferred biology topics whereas males preferred physics related topics. Male and female achievement in fairs was comparable, but males clearly outperformed female participants at the Olympiads, with the smallest differences in the biology Olympiad. Variables and theoretical frameworks explaining participation and achievement and the role of gender in mathematics and science competitions are discussed. We suggest that gender stereotypes, through their influence on self-concept and interest, play an important role in the mechanisms resulting in low female participation rates in and beyond mathematics and science competitions (especially in physics and chemistry). The mechanisms we found explaining female representation during a national selection competition might be considered as reflecting those in female mathematics or science careers and could thus serve as food for thought on countering the gender gap in mathematics and science.     

Access management: the overlooked but critical enabler

• Access management (AM) is a critical, but often overlooked, enabler for publishers looking to expand the appeal of their online resources.
• This article examines why publishers underinvest in AM, and provides practical examples of how this impacts productivity and growth across the organization.
• Three AM trends that offer new growth opportunities are also explored: (i) enabling a wider range of customer types and business models, (ii) supporting a more diverse range of access scenarios, and (iii) facilitating greater personalization through identity management.
• Publishers need to review their AM strategy in light of these opportunities. In particular, publishers that currently support AM in‐house should outsource to specialist vendors if they are not fully committed to investing the expertise and time needed to support this increasing sophistication.

     

Formula for Uncertainty

How LEAs are measuring and allocating resources for special educational needs varies widely. Yet their formulae for doing so are likely to make the difference between enabling pupils with special needs to progress in their learning and, conversely, reducing the support they may need. Tim Lee, research fellow, Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy, Bath University, reports on the latest surveys of LEAs' funding policies.