bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An Explication of a Path Model of Classroom Teaching: mediating effects of practical work on physics achievement
Authors: Cheung K. C. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis article seeks to examine how laboratory and practical work mediates the effects of school provision and teaching style, via students' opportunity to learn the subject matter, on students' physics achievement. As a result of careful composition of variable constructs, a causal model of classroom physics teaching at the sixth form (grade 12) level in Hong Kong was explicated with high explanatory power and parsimonious structural relationships. This study drew its data from the second IEA International Science Study. Replications of the analyses across school systems and grade levels will be valuable for comparing instructional effectiveness and locating exemplary teaching practices.
Learning to Learn: action research from an equal opportunities perspective in a junior school
Authors: Griffiths Morwenna , Davies Carol 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe project described is action research into pupils’ learning in a (years 5 and 6) class of a primary school, which was carried out by the class teacher and an eduction lecturer, in partnership. While the focus of the research was on the processes of pupils’ learning, the overriding research question was the possibility of improving equality of opportunity for pupils in a socially and racially mixed classroom. The resulting innovative, participative methodology is discussed. It is argued that the pupils were empowered by their involvement in the setting up of the research and in drawing conclusions from it. This process is described, and the effects on the children's ability to learn and reflect on their own learning needs are reported. Finally, the question of how far research of this kind should be extended to an explicit focus on race, class or gender is raised.
Seating Patterns in Small Language Classes: an example of action research
Authors: Philpott Patrick 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis article is a summary of a classroom research project carried out at a small English language school in southern Spain between December 1989 and April 1990. The object of the study was to look into possible relationships between the seating patterns of students in class and their observed attitudes towards class activities. The study was conducted in five stages (baseline picture, two intervention phases, the modified situation and a final questionnaire administered to the students). Simultaneous field notes were taken of the teachers’ and students’ reactions to the changing situation.
Defining Accountability in Education
Authors: Epstein Debbie 
Published: June 2007

AbstractDuring the 1980s and 1990s we have seen major changes in the education system, many of which have appealed to the notion of ‘accountability’. This paper argues that one of the reasons for the success of these appeals in common sense has been the failure of anti‐racist and other radical educationists to consider issues of accountability. It is suggested that this has made it easier for the right to appropriate the language of accountability, defining it in fundamentally undemocratic ways which are inimical to education for equality and social justice. The paper deconstructs Conservative discourses of accountability. It is then argued that it is both possible and necessary for such notions to be challenged by radical educationists and that this will involve the development of left definitions of accountability. Some of the ways in which this might begin are outlined.
Management, ‘Race’ and Gender: an unlikely alliance?[1]
Authors: Burton Leone 
Published: June 2007

AbstractStrategies used by ethnic minority women and men and white women to gain senior management positions within educational institutions were investigated using a life history approach. Participants were also asked to reflect upon institutional strategies that might operationalise equal opportunities policies. The report describes the experiences they recounted and identifies the themes, strategies and structures to which they drew attention.
Differential School Effectiveness: results from a reanalysis of the Inner London Education Authority's Junior School Project Data
Authors: Sammons Pamela , Nuttall Desmond , Cuttance Peter 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe paper reports the results of a reanalysis of data from a major longitudinal data base (the Inner London Education Authority's (ILEA) Junior School Project). Multilevel models are used to examine the extent of differential school effectiveness for reading and mathematics at entry (year 3) and at year 5, and the impact of pupil background characteristics. Differential school effectiveness is investigated for prior attainment in the two areas and for selected background characteristics. The results reveal the existence of differential effectiveness (differential school slopes) for both measures of prior attainment. No evidence of differential effectiveness for pupils of different groups (sex, social class, ethnicity) is found. The presentation of schools' test results is also examined. Raw test averages are compared with school‐level residuals from multilevel analyses. Marked differences in schools' rank positions are found and the implications for the publication of ‘league tables’ of schools' examination and National Curriculum assessment results are discussed.
Teacher Perceptions of Their Needs as Mentors in the Context of Developing School‐based Initial Teacher Education
Authors: Williams Anne 
Published: June 2007

AbstractResponses from teachers to a limited investigation of their perceived training needs as potential mentors are analysed in the context of a model which identifies different approaches to mentoring and different levels of operation. The diverse views presented by these teachers have implications for future initial teacher education programmes if students are to continue to have access to a wide range of aspects of support and advice.
Evaluating the Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project: problems of design and analysis
Authors: Lacey Colin , Cooper Barry , Torrance Harry 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis paper outlines the main features of the Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project (APPEP) and goes on to describe some of the main problems encountered in the design and analysis of the Project's evaluation. Issues in the conceptualisation and conduct of the evaluation are discussed, with particular attention being given to problems of gathering valid and reliable data in a Third World context.
Problems of Gender in University Mathematics
Authors: Fraser E. J. P. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis article presents the findings of a series of surveys on attitude towards mathematics carried out at the University of Edinburgh, as well as the analysis of national data on women's participation and performance in university mathematics. The main goal of the study was to ascertain whether there were gender differences in mathematics students' attitudes and achievement, and to obtain some idea of the scale of such differences. While some results confirmed findings from previous research regarding women's observed tendency to view mathematics more negatively than men, the overall picture showed only weak evidence of important attitudinal gender differences among the students surveyed. In the course of the surveys, several assumptions regarding the interpretation of perceived gender differences had to be examined and re‐evaluated in the context of a framework which took into account the meanings of gender and gender‐identity development. The national data showed very small gender differences in final degree results, but there was a rather large difference in women's participation rates between the Scottish and English universities.
Individual Rights in Further Education: lost, stolen or strayed?
Authors: Dee Lesley , Corbett Jenny 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTIn this paper we argue that the language of entitlement and empowerment is not always matched by correspondingly equitable actions but can sometimes be used to subvert equality of opportunity. We apply this argument to recent developments in the area of further education and the provision for students with disabilities and learning difficulties. Our concern is essentially with the rights of individuals rather than with institutional policy and practice.
Teaching the Holocaust: the relevance of children's perceptions of Jewish culture and identity
Authors: Short Geoffrey 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe Holocaust is now part of the history curriculum for all 11‐14‐year olds in maintained schools in England and Wales. In this paper it is argued that for the Holocaust to be taught effectively, teachers will need to have some idea of how children within this age group perceive Jewish culture and identity. The empirical core of the paper attempts to go some way towards meeting this need. Seventy‐two children aged between 12 and 14 were interviewed in order to explore their knowledge of Judaism, the nature of any misconceptions they may have about the faith, the extent to which they appreciate the commonalities between Judaism and Christianity and their awareness of anti‐Semitism. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the findings.
Small Scale Study of the Effects of Cross‐ethnic Tutoring on Inter‐ethnic Relationships
Authors: Datta Cecilia J. , Singh Basil R. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractA study of a system of cross‐ethnic tutoring was undertaken in an inner‐city comprehensive school with the objective of fostering inter‐ethnic relationships. Thirteen pupils of mainly Bangladeshi origin who were learning English as a second language were paired with monolingual English speakers. They worked co‐operatively in English, mathematics, drama, geography, science or modular technology. Both the control group and the experimental groups were monitored by interviews pre‐, mid‐ and post‐experiment. Social gains were strongest for the experimental group, who after an initial hesitant ‘incubation period’, later entered a ‘co‐operation stage’ when they followed the teacher's instructions, and finally an ‘action stage’ in which they interacted most naturally. Results show improved friendships between paired pupils across the curriculum, the extension of friendship to siblings and a limited amount of out of school friendships. The control group made considerably less social progress in these directions.
Birth Date and Sex Effects on the Scholastic Attainment of Primary Schoolchildren: a cross‐sectional study
Authors: Borg Mark G. , Falzon Joseph M. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate the role of pupil age as a major cause of the birth date effect in scholastic performance. Sex differences in performance were also investigated. A sample of 4123 pupils in Grades III, IV and V was selected from 12 state primary schools in Malta. Since in this educational setting there is only one intake of pupils per scholastic year it ensured that all children within any given year group would have received the same length of formal schooling. Analyses based on a data set consisting of scores in Maltese, English and mathematics derived from the national end‐of‐year examinations showed a strong and consistent age effect in all three attainment measures at each of the three grade levels: the ‘oldest’ pupils performed better in Maltese, English and mathematics than the ‘youngest’ pupils. Results also showed that girls consistently outperformed boys in the three school subjects.
Explorations in Group Interviews: an evaluation of a reflexive and partisan approach
Authors: Denscombe Martyn 
Published: June 2007

Abstract‘This article’ introduces and evaluates an innovative example of a group interview technique which has been used in research with young people in three Leicestershire secondary schools. The interviewing technique in this instance is shown to contrast with some of the conventional wisdoms about good practice (a) by acknowledging and using the intrinsically reflexive features of interviews and (b) by adopting an openly partisan approach to the topic under investigation. The potential limitations as well as the potential benefits of the approach are explored, particularly with reference to the prospects of empowering the research subjects.
How Does Children's Talking Encourage the Structure of Writing?
Authors: Conlan Kathleen 
Published: June 2007

AbstractAction research is used in this article as a means of discovering the possibilities of extending language development opportunities for children of 4 and 5 years just beginning their education in ‘English’. It is a reflective and detailed account of the strategies used to encourage the children to talk firstly, and then to write in a fuller more comprehensive manner using extended phrases and sentences. Different methods are used but in particular the use of story telling, questioning and drama are employed. Issues that emerge from the situation are explored and actions are evaluated. The account is self‐critical and self‐evaluative and indicates the need for the teacher to be responsive to individual pupil needs.
The Christian Schools Campaign—a successful educational pressure group?
Authors: Walford Geoffrey 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe Christian Schools Campaign was an educational pressure group which sought to obtain state funding for faith‐based schools. It successfully influenced both the 1992 Education (Schools) Act on inspection criteria and the 1993 Education Act. The latter now gives the possibility of faith‐based grant‐maintained schools, where existing faith‐based private schools may apply to be re‐established as grant‐maintained. This article charts the nature and activities of the Christian Schools Campaign, and begins to assess its effectiveness.
Researching Powerful People from a Feminist and Anti‐racist Perspective: a note on gender, collusion and marginality
Authors: Neal Sarah 
Published: June 2007

AbstractDrawing on the fieldwork experiences of my ethnographic, doctoral research into equal opportunities and anti‐racism in higher education and the role of academic trade unions in the policy initiatives in the area, this paper is centrally concerned with the relationship between the researcher and the researched—when the researched are powerful. For me this meant Vice‐Chancellors, Pro‐Vice‐Chancellors, Deans, Heads of Services, senior/famous academics and union officials. The paper seeks to argue that there is a continuing paucity in social research on the powerful and questions, through autobiographical accounts, the extent to which feminist and anti‐racist methodologies/critiques have actually been able to provide a terrain in which this type of research can be conducted.
’Pagan Knowledge’: a case study of post‐modern theorising and youth work training
Authors: Rosie Anthony 
Published: June 2007

AbstractYouth worker training has existed on a formal basis for many years but the training programme can be seen as conventional. There is an emphasis on participative activity where students are encouraged to work in groups, to develop learning opportunities and to use contracts to regulate their experience. A case‐study of a part‐time training route provides the focus for the paper. J‐F. Lyotard has developed a set of categories in his understanding of post‐modernity including the notions of pagan knowledge and the figural. Two scenes from the course are analysed through Lyotard's categories in order to reveal the distinctive discursive work that was taking place. Other accounts of such scenes have relied upon a clash between discourses, e.g. a discourse of oppression being countered by a different discourse. If Lyotard's ideas are developed, then the dominant discourse can be seen to contain its own oppositional practices and there is no need to search for further external discourses. The case‐study shows how the students in training used the dominant discourse of participation to bring about a series of different effects.
Linking the Cognitive and the Affective in Educational Research: cognitivist, psychoanalytic and post‐structuralist models
Authors: Evans J. , Tsatsaroni A. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis paper considers four different types of model for relating the affective and the cognitive in the study of mathematical performance and problem‐solving. The first two models are based on assumptions coming from a cognitivist framework. These are: A — ‘individual‐differential’ models, aiming to explain individual differences in, for example, performance scores or participation; and B — ‘constructivist’ models focusing on an individual's problem‐solving episodes. Models C and D are more innovative: C works with a psychoanalytic frame of analysis, and D draws on both psychoanalytic and post‐structuralist insights. These are compared in terms of: theorisation of the affective and the cognitive, methodology used to study the relationship, and recommendations for practice and pedagogy. Illustrations are drawn largely from mathematics education research, in particular from a study of adults’ numerate problem‐solving.
Informal Science Writing Produced by Boys and Girls: writing preference and quality
Authors: Levine Tamar , Geldman‐Caspar Zehava 
Published: June 2007

AbstractFive informal science‐related writing tasks of 374 seventh grade boys and girls (ages 12‐13) from two US schools were analysed. Both differences and similarities were revealed between boys’ and girls’ preferences and performance. Almost 60% of the boys preferred to write about science‐related inventions, whereas girls’ preferences were distributed among the different tasks. Content differences revealed a more practical perception of science among girls as opposed to a more imaginative one among boys. The boys wrote more formally and concisely whereas the girls produced longer written works, provided more detailed information and seemed to adapt better to the style demand of the different tasks. The quality of boys’ and girls’ writing, as reflected by the scope of the contents and the depth of treatment, was relatively poor. Boys and girls alike revealed curiosity concerning the heart and the brain, its structure and functioning, a desire to find a cure for cancer and AIDS, and a great concern for the environment. The integration of science and writing reflects a new perspective on gender differences in both science and writing, where the gap seems to be narrower than that typically found when science and writing are examined separately. Authentic writing examples are provided and implications for classroom practices aimed at enhancing communication skills and minimising gender‐related difference in both science and writing are discussed.
Meanings and Consequences: a basis for distinguishing formative and summative functions of assessment?
Authors: Wiliam Dylan , Black Paul 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe assessment process is characterised as a cycle involving elicitation of evidence, which when interpreted appropriately may lead to action, which in turn, can yield further evidence and so on. An assessment is defined as serving a formative function when it elicits evidence that yields construct‐referenced interpretations that form the basis for successful action in improving performance, whereas summative functions prioritise the consistency of meanings across contexts and individuals. Aspects of the interplay of meanings and consequences are explored for each of the three phases, and it is suggested that this interplay may be fruitful in distinguishing the two functions. Tensions between summative and formative functions of assessment are illustrated in the context of the National Curriculum, and although it is shown that such tensions will always exist, it is suggested that the separation of the elicitation of evidence from its interpretation can mitigate that tension.
Influences on Primary Teachers' Practice: some problems for curriculum change theory
Authors: Kyriakides L. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis paper presents findings concerning various sources of influences upon Cypriot primary school teachers. Questionnaires were distributed to a randomly selected sample of 10% of all Cypriot primary teachers. A response rate of 72% was obtained. Analysis was carried out using SPSS. Although a strong consensus among teachers' perceptions of teaching and assessment in mathematics was identified, there was little consensus about sources of influence on their practice. Cluster analysis (SPSS) revealed six relatively homogeneous groups of Cypriot teachers according to perceived influences on their practice. It is argued that the notion of a coherent set of teachers' attitudes to change is problematic and this has implications for curriculum reform policy.
Individual Autonomy and Comprehensive Education
Authors: Paterson Lindsay 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe welfare states in developed societies have led to significant individuali‐sation of social experience. The relative success of the welfare state programme has mitigated the determining effects of social structure on life chances (even though not by any means eradicating these effects). In reaction to this, citizens of these states have sought to exercise greater agency in determining their social lives. The specifically educational aspects of the changing role of social structure are illustrated in detail for the instance of comprehensive education in Britain, a collective reform which has had as one of its main effects a strengthening of individual agency. The process of individualisation cannot, therefore, be interpreted as straightforwardly associated with either a conservative or a progressive politics: strengthening individual choice was an original aim of social democracy. A comparison of England and Scotland provides a particularly revealing instance of the complexity of the political debate, in that the New Right has been dominant in the one but almost entirely absent at a popular level in the other, and yet in both a similar new culture of education has developed, involving both individual autonomy and a continuing attachment to public provision to insure that autonomy.
Theory in Initial Teacher Education: students’ perspectives on its utility — a case study
Authors: Holligan Chris 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe article reports a critical examination of the results of a Scottish Office Education and Industry Department sponsored research project, 1994‐96, ‘Students’ Perspectives on the Utility of Educational Studies’. Additional funding from the Open University supported the production of this article. It examines the ways in which students construe the value of educational studies. Data were gathered principally by semi‐structured interviews involving a sample of very able and average students as well as ‘mature’ and ‘young’ students. The results suggest that educational studies plays a variety of functions in facilitating teaching competence; different groups attach particular weights to these functions. Also, very able students, in terms of classroom teaching, were found to be significantly better than average students in terms of academic course performance. A detailed discussion of students’ comments, however, problematises the received terms within which controversies about initial teacher education have been debated. The article challenges the ‘New Right’ rhetoric that theoretical studies of education are dispensable and has implications for ‘on the job’ approaches to partnerships between higher education institutions and schools. Issues are raised about the implications of student teacher socialisation for the meaning of critical autonomy.