A rising tide meets a perfect storm: new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education in Ireland

This paper examines the emergence of new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education in Ireland in the 15 years period 1997–2012. Framing accountability in terms of the three main approaches to it globally in education systems, that is, compliance with regulations, adherence to professional norms and attainment of results/outcomes, we identify significant changes, particularly, in compliance- and results-driven accountability. A ‘rising tide’ of accountability, due to the interrelated influences of the European higher education space, education legislation and professional self-regulation policies (i.e. Teaching Council), is evident since the late 1990s. This was punctuated by a ‘perfect storm’ in 2010 comprising ‘bad news’ from PISA 2009, the economic bailout and strategic leadership at a system level. The cumulative impact of the ‘rising tide’ and ‘perfect storm’ is evident in how they reframed both ‘to whom’ and ‘for what’ accountability in teacher education relates. Significantly, the new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education reflect a move towards the dominant global education reform movement (Sahlberg 2007) with its emphasis on standardisation, narrow focus on literacy and numeracy and higher stakes accountability.     

Facilitating early career leadership through pre‐service training

Current research indicates that new teachers want to be involved in school‐level decision‐making. Upon entering the profession, many novice teachers are surprised and disillusioned to find they have considerably less involvement and influence than expected. Based on strategies that have been developed, revised, and refined over a number of years in two teacher preparation programs in the eastern US, the current discussion proposes that teacher preparation programs incorporate training in school‐based management as a means to better prepare new teachers for the political realities of the profession. Intended for teacher educators, this paper describes how the research component common to most teacher education programs can be used as a venue to train teacher candidates in school‐based management.     

Changing the English Classroom: When Large-scale ‘Common’ Testing Meets Secondary Curriculum and Instruction in the United States

This article explores the intersection of new, large-scale standards-based testing, teacher accountability policy, and secondary curriculum and instruction in the United States. Two federally funded consortia – the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Readiness of College and Careers – prove focal to this paper, as these two organisations are creating new tests that will assess 42–49% of the K–12 student population in the United States in 2014–2015. Because greater teacher accountability for student performance will be given for these tests, there is more reason to pay attention to what these tests measure and what they do not. Our analysis suggests that these new tests will hold secondary English teachers accountable for literacy and disciplinary knowledge outside the field of English and thus raise important questions about what English teachers should, can and will do, especially when their jobs are on the line.     

Attendance manipulation and efficiency in Chile’s school voucher system

To improve the quality of education, one can either directly reward performance or introduce school choice, private provision, and demand subsidies. The Chilean voucher scheme combines both approaches: an attendance-related subsidy favors school choice and creates incentives for schools to promote attendance throughout the year. With imperfect monitoring, however, institutions may respond by manipulating performance indicators. By analyzing audit data, we find evidence that a large fraction of Chilean schools – including public schools – over-report attendance, with a higher prevalence among for-profit and under-achieving institutions. Expenditure data suggest that manipulation among for-profit schools seems to follow rent extraction purposes rather than educational goals.     

A school-based intervention on elementary students’ school engagement

Prior research has reported signs of low engagement in the early stages of schooling. The present study assessed the effectiveness of a school-based intervention that promotes cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement in elementary school children through a story tool. The study followed a cluster-randomized design with 259 fourth graders nested in 12 classes; the classes, not the individuals, were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. Both groups were assessed in four waves in two measures for each engagement dimension. Data were analyzed with a multilevel approach. Findings show that the intervention enhanced students’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement. Still, there is a delay before the intervention program exhibits a beneficial effect.Moreover, gender discrepancies were found. Before the intervention, girls showed higher cognitive and emotional engagement, but boys exhibited higher emotional engagement after the intervention. In addition, current results indicate that the program benefited the boys more than the girls. Finally, there was no evidence that the engagement outcomes differed depending on the parent’s educational level. Findings provide valuable information for future research and educational practice.     

数字化校本课程开发策略

信息技术的发展,为校本课程开发提供了新契机。结合信息技术与课程整合理念与方法,提出整体推进数字化校本课程开发策略:建立教师参与机制,形成校本课程开发动力;运用信息技术构建校本课程网络教学平台、整合校本课程学习内容、创新校本课程教学模式、优化校本课程学习资源。     

我国高等职业教育评估制度政策发展探析

文章对我国高等职业教育评估制度的政策演变历程进行了一次比较系统的梳理,试图揭示出一系列重要政策出台的相关背景及原因,并对高等职业教育评估制度政策演变的不同阶段及其特征进行分析,在此基础上提出对我国高等职业教育评估政策发展趋势的一些思考     

我国教育信息化的困局与出路——兼论网络教育模式的创新

网络时代人们通过三种模式进行学习：学校教育、网络教育和网络学习。我国教育信息化历来把重心放在学校教育尤其是课堂教学上,造成了当前教育信息化的“天花板困局”,“电子书包热”就是一个典型的案例。教育信息化的主战场应该在网络教育而不在学校课堂;网络教育不能照搬传统的学校教育模式,而必须另辟蹊径;网络学习可能将成为未来学习的主要模式。     

论竞技体育对学校体育的影响

举国体制下,竞技体育对我国群众体育和学校体育的发展有着重要的引领作用。在国家大力推进"体教融合"的今天,探究竞技体育对学校体育发展的影响显得尤为必要。据此,本研究分别从竞技体育对学校体育文化的影响、对学生人格发展的影响、对学校体育教学的影响3个角度进行了论述,旨在为促进我国体教融合,推动学校体育健康有序发展提供思路。     

作者之心与读者之意--关于常州派词学解释学的研究札记

常州派词学中包含丰富的解释学与接受批评思想,不仅补充和丰富了古代文学接受批评的相关理论,而且对晚清近代词坛创作以及词学由近代而现代的转型有着一定的影响。应当借助于现代解释学的相关理论,从批评的意图与过度诠释、作者与读者的关系、比兴寄托的标准与判断等三个方面,检讨常州词学的解释学思想。