TEACHER BEHAVIORAL PRACTICES: RELATIONS TO STUDENT RISK BEHAVIORS,LEARNING BARRIERS,AND SCHOOL CLIMATE

Student behavioral problems pose a myriad of challenges for schools. In this study, we examine the relations among teacher and school‐level constructs (i.e., teacher collaboration, supervision/discipline, instructional management), and student‐related outcomes (i.e., high‐risk behaviors, barriers to learning, student social–behavioral climate). Teachers across 29 high schools, in a large urban school district serving primarily low‐income students, completed self‐report surveys. Multilevel regression was used to test both individual‐ and school‐level predictors of student outcomes. Findings suggest that teacher practices at the individual and school levels are linked to student high‐risk behaviors, barriers to student learning, and school climate. More specifically, findings indicate that better supervision/discipline and instructional management are associated with fewer high‐risk behaviors and barriers to learning. More instructional management is also linked to positive social–behavioral climate. Results from this study highlight the association between teacher practices and a range of student‐related problem behaviors, and suggest that system‐level interventions in the school may have positive effects.     

Using Qualitative Assessment in Career Counselling

Advancements in conceptualisations about career and career development and irreversible changes in the world of work have necessitated that career counsellors reflect on their practice in order that it keeps pace and maintains relevancy.Fundamental to these reflections isconsideration of the place and nature of career assessment in career counselling.Traditionally, emphasis has been given toquantitative assessment. More recently, theprofile of qualitative assessment has beenraised, and its place in career counselling hasbeen strengthened relative to but not to theexclusion of quantitative assessment. However,there is little to guide the use of qualitativeassessment. This paper presents a theoreticaloverview of qualitative assessment in careercounselling and proposes guidelines for usingqualitative assessment.     

VIOLENCE DIRECTED AGAINST TEACHERS: RESULTS FROM A NATIONAL SURVEY

Teachers in U.S. schools report high rates of victimization, yet previous studies focus on select types of victimization and student perpetrators, which may underestimate the extent of the problem. This national study was based on work conducted by the American Psychological Association Classroom Violence Directed Against Teachers Task Force and is one of the few national studies to examine violence directed at teachers. Participants included 2,998 kindergarten through 12^th‐grade (K‐12) teachers from 48 states who completed an anonymous web‐based survey assessing their experiences with victimization. Results revealed that 80% of teachers reported at least one victimization, and of these teachers, 94% reported being victimized by students. Nearly three‐fourths of all teachers experienced at least one harassment offense, more than half experienced property offenses, and 44% reported physical attacks. Findings suggest that specific teacher and community characteristics are associated with a higher likelihood of victimization, namely, male gender and urban settings; whereas, African American teachers were less likely to report victimization. Implications for teacher training, school interventions, public policy, and future research are discussed.     

Towards Partnership in Teacher Education in Northern Ireland—an unfinished story

This paper was presented at the Gargnano seminar. It presents an analysis of the reform of teacher education in Northern Ireland from 1992 to 1995. It points to similarities and differences with developments in England and Wales and describes in detail the debate on partnership teacher education up to June 1995. The focus of the paper is on policy development in N.I. and on the interactions between the main players involved in advising government and implementing policy. The positions taken up by the Government, the HE institutions, the schools and the Northern Ireland Teacher Education Committee are described. The approach taken by the University of Ulster in the planning and delivery of social work training in N.I. is used as an exemplar of partnership building worthy of examination by the teaching profession. The paper concludes with a short section (written in September 1996) which brings the reader up to date on some major developments, including a “step back from the brink”.     

The economics of vocational and technical education: Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

This is an economic analysis of education that is specific to a particular profession or vocation, but not to a particular firm. It is therefore new in relation to Becker's analysis, which distinguished only between firm-specific training and general training without addressing this in-between case. The basic issue is the optimum degree of vocationalization of the curriculum. The evidence is that a properblance between vocational and general curricula is efficient. But there are growthrelated criteria for different rates of expansion for each. Criteria for the most efficient mixture of vocational schooling and on-the-job training are considered, as are the implications for policy and equity of overexpanding separately tracked schools.

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Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel ist eine Wirtschaftsanalyse von berufsspartenoder berufsspezifischer jedoch nicht firmenspezifischer Ausbildung. Mit der Analyse Beckers verglichen, die nur zwischen firmenspezifischer und allgemeiner Ausbildung unterscheidet, ohne diesen Zwischenbereich zu behandeln, ist sie daher neuartig. Hauptsächlich geht es dabei um den optimalen Grad an Berufsorientierung des Curriculums. Es hat sich gezeigt, daß die richtige Ausgewogenheit zwischen berufsorientierten und allgemeinen Curricula effizient ist. Es gibt jedoch wachstumsbezogene Kriterien für unterschiedliche Expansionsraten. Kriterien für die wirksamste Verflechtung von Berufsbildung und berufsbegleitender Ausbildung werden ebenso berücksichtigt wie die Auswirkungen auf Richtlinien und Gleichstellung bei der Überexpansion verschiedener Schulsparten.

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Résumé L'article présent est une analyse économique de la formation spécifique à une profession ou à un métier particuliers, et non à une firme particulière. Elle diffère donc de celle de Becker qui distingue seulement la formation spécifique à une firme et l'enseignement général sans tenir compte de ce cas intermédiaire. La question fondamentale qui est posée est celle relative au degré optimal de professionnalisation des contenus de l'éducation. II apparait évident qu'un équilibre convenable entre l'enseignement professionnel et l'enseignement général est positif. Il existe cependant des critères de grandeur pour les différent taux d'expansion de chacun. Les critères du système le plus efficace combinant un enseignement professionnel et une formation en cours d'emploi sont analysés ainsi que les implications pour la politique et l'équité d'une expansion excessive d'écoles dispensant un enseignement spécialisé.

     

Relative returns to human and physical capital in the U.S. and efficient investment strategies

This paper presents new estimates of the social rates of return to a high school and to a 4-year college education for males and females in the U.S. for each year from 1967 to 1988 based on microeconomic data from U.S. Census Bureau surveys. These are compared with the real rates of return to investment in plant and equipment and in housing since 1947. Results reveal drastic declines in returns to a junior high school education for those who leave (from 21 to 7%), steady rates of return to a high school education averaging 12%, and real rates of return to the college level rising gently to 12–14% levels in the late 80s, with a dip in the mid 70s. Rates of return to housing, including capital gains, were only 5% in this period, compared with 15% for plant and equipment investment.