title: Ethical and practical concerns regarding the current status of sex offender risk assessment

authors: Boer, Douglas Pieter

subjects: risk assessment

abstract: Risk assessment strategies are becoming more complex and accurate, but remain problematic in terms of how such instruments are promoted and used.  Currently, many people doing risk assessments of sex offenders are using actuarial (statistical) tests developed in other countries or on unique populations, with offenders very different from the test-development sample.  This is clearly unethical and inappropriate and could result in needless prolonging of incarceration or the premature release of a dangerous individual and possible needless victimization of others.  Other measures, such as the structured clinical guidelines may provide a short-term solution to the widespread use of unguided professional judgement and the lack of population-based actuarial tests.

text: Ethical and practical concerns regarding the current status of sex offender risk assessment Risk assessment strategies are becoming more complex and accurate, but remain problematic in terms of how such instruments are promoted and used.  Currently, many people doing risk assessments of sex offenders are using actuarial (statistical) tests developed in other countries or on unique populations, with offenders very different from the test-development sample.  This is clearly unethical and inappropriate and could result in needless prolonging of incarceration or the premature release of a dangerous individual and possible needless victimization of others.  Other measures, such as the structured clinical guidelines may provide a short-term solution to the widespread use of unguided professional judgement and the lack of population-based actuarial tests.

year: 2008

title: Different or similar: patterns of lexical cohesion in Chinese non-narrative text and their applications in the study of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language-A corpus-based contrastive study

authors: Li, Shouji

subjects: Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

abstract: This study identifies and investigates patterns of lexical, cohesive devices in Chinese argument texts by two groups of writers: native speakers and learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language (hereafter CFL). The purposes of the research are twofold: first to inform instruction in the writing of extended Chinese texts to CFL learners and secondly to provide a basis for the further investigation of the linguistic competences that relate to the writing of such Chinese texts. To achieve such purposes, the study employs two corpora: a corpus of 50 native-speaker Chinese texts written for the National College Entrance Examination (hereafter the NCEE) and a corpus of 50 CFL texts written for the HSK (the Chinese language proficiency test). The overall framework adopted for the data analysis was Contrastive Analysis Study and the texts were analyzed using corpus-based methods. The first stage of the research involved using the NCEE Corpus of native-speaker texts as the basis for a critical review of Halliday and Hasan (1976) and Hoey (2000)’s approaches to the classification of cohesive devices in English, and through this review, adapting and extending the categories of these two theoretical approaches in order to account for salient linguistic elements used to achieve cohesion in Chinese texts. Using this modified system of classification of lexical cohesive devices that was developed for Chinese texts, the NCEE Corpus was then reanalyzed and the patterns of the use of lexical devices were identified. The same analysis was then performed on the texts from the HSK Corpus. The findings of the analyses of the two corpora were then compared to identify the different patterns of use of lexical cohesive devices by native-and non-native speaker writers of Chinese. 

The findings derived from the comparison of the analyses of the NCEE texts and the HSK texts show that there are a number of important differences in the use of lexical devices between the two corpora. The findings seem to suggest that learners of CFL are less competent in the use of a range of lexical devices, such as simple and complex paraphrase, constituent repetition, superordinate and hyponymic repetition. The comparison also reveals that learners of CFL have relatively low capacity to use lexical devices to create adequate and effective cohesive links across texts between non-adjacent sentences, and that they have difficulty in employing various types of lexical items to form repetitions appropriate to the development of argument in this type of text. 

On the basis of the findings, discussion of the pedagogical implications for the teaching of Chinese writing is provided. A further outcome of the research is that it appears to indicate the need for more in-depth investigations to inform both the teachers of Chinese writing and the developers of teaching and learning materials.

text: Different or similar: patterns of lexical cohesion in Chinese non-narrative text and their applications in the study of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language-A corpus-based contrastive study This study identifies and investigates patterns of lexical, cohesive devices in Chinese argument texts by two groups of writers: native speakers and learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language (hereafter CFL). The purposes of the research are twofold: first to inform instruction in the writing of extended Chinese texts to CFL learners and secondly to provide a basis for the further investigation of the linguistic competences that relate to the writing of such Chinese texts. To achieve such purposes, the study employs two corpora: a corpus of 50 native-speaker Chinese texts written for the National College Entrance Examination (hereafter the NCEE) and a corpus of 50 CFL texts written for the HSK (the Chinese language proficiency test). The overall framework adopted for the data analysis was Contrastive Analysis Study and the texts were analyzed using corpus-based methods. The first stage of the research involved using the NCEE Corpus of native-speaker texts as the basis for a critical review of Halliday and Hasan (1976) and Hoey (2000)’s approaches to the classification of cohesive devices in English, and through this review, adapting and extending the categories of these two theoretical approaches in order to account for salient linguistic elements used to achieve cohesion in Chinese texts. Using this modified system of classification of lexical cohesive devices that was developed for Chinese texts, the NCEE Corpus was then reanalyzed and the patterns of the use of lexical devices were identified. The same analysis was then performed on the texts from the HSK Corpus. The findings of the analyses of the two corpora were then compared to identify the different patterns of use of lexical cohesive devices by native-and non-native speaker writers of Chinese. 

The findings derived from the comparison of the analyses of the NCEE texts and the HSK texts show that there are a number of important differences in the use of lexical devices between the two corpora. The findings seem to suggest that learners of CFL are less competent in the use of a range of lexical devices, such as simple and complex paraphrase, constituent repetition, superordinate and hyponymic repetition. The comparison also reveals that learners of CFL have relatively low capacity to use lexical devices to create adequate and effective cohesive links across texts between non-adjacent sentences, and that they have difficulty in employing various types of lexical items to form repetitions appropriate to the development of argument in this type of text. 

On the basis of the findings, discussion of the pedagogical implications for the teaching of Chinese writing is provided. A further outcome of the research is that it appears to indicate the need for more in-depth investigations to inform both the teachers of Chinese writing and the developers of teaching and learning materials.

year: 2012

title: Cultural diversity and identity discourses in the design and implementation of the New Zealand curriculum key competencies: a Bernsteinian analysis

authors: Glogowski, Sonia Theresa

subjects: Culture

abstract: The key competencies as a curriculum construct have appeared in several national curricula from the early 2000s. Many have their origins in the Definition and Selection of Key Competencies Project (DeSeCo), commissioned by the supra-national Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A number of international critiques have highlighted tensions between neoliberal ideologies that underpin the key competencies, and broader socio-cultural and social justice issues within their respective countries (e.g., Crick, 2008; Sjøberg, 2016; Takayama, 2013).
This research investigated who and what influenced the design and implementation of the key competencies in the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum, and how students’ cultural diversity and identities were considered as part of this. Data for this case study were collected from three sources: interviews with key policy officials and academic consultants six years after the launch of the official curriculum; analysis of policy documents and discussion papers from government archives, and focus group interviews with teachers from two schools seven years into implementation. Bernstein’s (2000) theory of the pedagogical device, was used to focus analysis on the agents, influences, debates and events that impacted on the design and implementation of the curriculum. Fraser’s (1989) needs’ discourse theory was used to examine interpretations of cultural diversity and identity, and the implications of implicit valued attitudes and behaviours of the key competencies.
Findings indicated that in the New Zealand educational policy context, the roles and interactions between agents and processes in the fields of production and reproduction were more ‘fluid’ and consultative than Bernstein’s (2000) structuralist model would suggest. This may be reflective of New Zealand’s small population and more informal collaboration between agents in different fields. The development of this curriculum prioritised the ‘process’ of understanding curriculum through consultation and feedback, compared to previous curricula which were more focussed on curriculum as a ‘product’.
New Zealand’s socio-political climate, and its bicultural Treaty of Waitangi, appeared to impact on how the key competencies were conceived, and how student diversity and identity were interpreted at different points in the curriculum design and implementation process. Interviews with key policy officials and academic consultants revealed that cultural diversity was largely associated with ethnicity, and in particular, differences between indigenous Māori and Pākehā (New Zealand European). Less attention was given to the concept of multiple identities and intersections between ethnicity, socio economic class, gender and so on, and how these might influence interpretations of the key competencies. This was despite evidence of early discussion papers highlighting these complexities.
At the curriculum implementation level, Bernstein (2000) argues that schools and teachers can often ‘reproduce’ middle class values and expected behaviours through ‘invisible’ pedagogical practices, with little awareness of potential disjuncts for disadvantaged groups. Yet he also states that this is not necessarily deterministic, and the finding for the two school focus groups demonstrated this. Despite no evidence that student diversity was a specific aspect of their professional development on key competencies, the teachers discussed some complexities of student diversity in their schools and how the key competencies might be interpreted in different ways. However, given the case study schools were considered to be particularly ‘diverse’, this type of discussion and consideration may not be typical of other New Zealand schools.
The findings support the notion that the New Zealand curriculum key competencies were ‘weakly classified’ and ‘strongly framed’ (Bernstein, 2000). This means a high level of interpretation was located with school leaders and teachers, within the context of a permissive curriculum and thus presents both opportunities and risks.
This case study highlights the importance of agents in every field understanding the complexities and implications of diversity in education. In addition, if the key competencies genuinely seek to enhance both vocational and social justice outcomes for a more cohesive and equitable society, then education for diversity would seem to be important.
This research contributes new knowledge in relation to the process of curriculum design, highlighting the impact of a unique socio-political context on the interpretation of a curriculum construct, and the implications of ‘valued’ attitudes and behaviours of the key competencies on diverse students. It provides an example of how Bernstein’s (2000) theory of the pedagogical device can be used to identify important influences and processes that impact on the different stages of a curriculum design and implementation process. It also illustrates how the device can be usefully complemented by another theory, in this case Fraser’s (1989) needs discourse theory, to examine more closely the discourse that relates to a particular lens of the research.

text: Cultural diversity and identity discourses in the design and implementation of the New Zealand curriculum key competencies: a Bernsteinian analysis The key competencies as a curriculum construct have appeared in several national curricula from the early 2000s. Many have their origins in the Definition and Selection of Key Competencies Project (DeSeCo), commissioned by the supra-national Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A number of international critiques have highlighted tensions between neoliberal ideologies that underpin the key competencies, and broader socio-cultural and social justice issues within their respective countries (e.g., Crick, 2008; Sjøberg, 2016; Takayama, 2013).
This research investigated who and what influenced the design and implementation of the key competencies in the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum, and how students’ cultural diversity and identities were considered as part of this. Data for this case study were collected from three sources: interviews with key policy officials and academic consultants six years after the launch of the official curriculum; analysis of policy documents and discussion papers from government archives, and focus group interviews with teachers from two schools seven years into implementation. Bernstein’s (2000) theory of the pedagogical device, was used to focus analysis on the agents, influences, debates and events that impacted on the design and implementation of the curriculum. Fraser’s (1989) needs’ discourse theory was used to examine interpretations of cultural diversity and identity, and the implications of implicit valued attitudes and behaviours of the key competencies.
Findings indicated that in the New Zealand educational policy context, the roles and interactions between agents and processes in the fields of production and reproduction were more ‘fluid’ and consultative than Bernstein’s (2000) structuralist model would suggest. This may be reflective of New Zealand’s small population and more informal collaboration between agents in different fields. The development of this curriculum prioritised the ‘process’ of understanding curriculum through consultation and feedback, compared to previous curricula which were more focussed on curriculum as a ‘product’.
New Zealand’s socio-political climate, and its bicultural Treaty of Waitangi, appeared to impact on how the key competencies were conceived, and how student diversity and identity were interpreted at different points in the curriculum design and implementation process. Interviews with key policy officials and academic consultants revealed that cultural diversity was largely associated with ethnicity, and in particular, differences between indigenous Māori and Pākehā (New Zealand European). Less attention was given to the concept of multiple identities and intersections between ethnicity, socio economic class, gender and so on, and how these might influence interpretations of the key competencies. This was despite evidence of early discussion papers highlighting these complexities.
At the curriculum implementation level, Bernstein (2000) argues that schools and teachers can often ‘reproduce’ middle class values and expected behaviours through ‘invisible’ pedagogical practices, with little awareness of potential disjuncts for disadvantaged groups. Yet he also states that this is not necessarily deterministic, and the finding for the two school focus groups demonstrated this. Despite no evidence that student diversity was a specific aspect of their professional development on key competencies, the teachers discussed some complexities of student diversity in their schools and how the key competencies might be interpreted in different ways. However, given the case study schools were considered to be particularly ‘diverse’, this type of discussion and consideration may not be typical of other New Zealand schools.
The findings support the notion that the New Zealand curriculum key competencies were ‘weakly classified’ and ‘strongly framed’ (Bernstein, 2000). This means a high level of interpretation was located with school leaders and teachers, within the context of a permissive curriculum and thus presents both opportunities and risks.
This case study highlights the importance of agents in every field understanding the complexities and implications of diversity in education. In addition, if the key competencies genuinely seek to enhance both vocational and social justice outcomes for a more cohesive and equitable society, then education for diversity would seem to be important.
This research contributes new knowledge in relation to the process of curriculum design, highlighting the impact of a unique socio-political context on the interpretation of a curriculum construct, and the implications of ‘valued’ attitudes and behaviours of the key competencies on diverse students. It provides an example of how Bernstein’s (2000) theory of the pedagogical device can be used to identify important influences and processes that impact on the different stages of a curriculum design and implementation process. It also illustrates how the device can be usefully complemented by another theory, in this case Fraser’s (1989) needs discourse theory, to examine more closely the discourse that relates to a particular lens of the research.

year: 2020