Neoliberalism and Corporate School Reform: "Failure" and "Creative Destruction"

Science.gov (United States)

Saltman, Kenneth J.

2014-01-01

In the United States, corporate school reform or neoliberal educational restructuring has overtaken educational policy, practice, curriculum, and nearly all aspects of educational reform. Although this movement began on the political right, the corporate school model has been heralded across the political spectrum and is aggressively embraced now…

Two Roads to School Finance Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Berke, Joel S.; And Others

1976-01-01

Research on legislative and electoral consideration of school finance reforms identifies three important elements; the art of compromise, the fiscal context, and political leadership. Adoption of new school finance formulas is far more likely through the legislative process than through a referendum. (Author/AM)

Perspectives on High School Reform. NCREL Viewpoints, Volume 13

Science.gov (United States)

Learning Point Associates / North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), 2005

2005-01-01

Viewpoints is a multimedia package containing two audio CDs and a brief, informative booklet. This volume of Viewpoints focuses on issues related to high school reform. This booklet offers background information explaining the issues surrounding high school reform with perspectives from research, policy, and practice. It also provides a list of…

Closing the Achievement Gap: Urban Schools. CSR Connection.

Science.gov (United States)

Porter, Kathleen; Soper, Stephanie

This report reviews efforts to reform urban schools, focusing on initiatives in Tennessee and California as examples from which distric leaders may draw useful lessons. The report suggests that comprehensive school reform (CSR) offers promise to struggling urban schools by focusing on transforming the academic climate, school culture, and…

School-Based Management: The Next Needed Education Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Guthrie, James W.

1986-01-01

Recommends the implementation of school-based management systems as one way to meet government demands for educational reform. Describes the functions of principals, school advisory councils, school-site budgeting and accounting, and annual planning and performance reports in successful school-based management systems. Presents examples of…

Analysis of curricular reform practices at Chinese medical schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Lei; Cai, Qiaoling; Cheng, Liming; Kosik, Russell; Mandell, Greg; Wang, Shuu-Jiun; Xu, Guo-Tong; Fan, Angela P

2014-01-01

A comprehensive search of the literature published between 2001 and 2010 was performed to gain a greater understanding of curricular reform practices at Chinese medical schools. There were 10,948 studies published between 2001 and 2010 that were retrieved from the database. Following preliminary screening, 76 publications from 49 different medical schools were selected. Thirty-one publications regarding clinical medicine curricular reforms were analyzed further. Of the 76 studies, 53 described curricular reforms that were instituted in theoretical courses, 22 described curricular reforms that were instituted in experimental courses, and 1 described curricular reforms that were instituted in a clinical skills training course. Of the 31 clinical medicine publications, 2 described reforms that were implemented for 3-year program medical students, 12 described reforms that were implemented for 5-year program medical students, 6 described reforms that were implemented for 7-year program medical students, and 2 described reforms that were implemented for 8-year program medical students. Currently, the majority of medical schools in China use the discipline-based curriculum model. Thirteen studies described transition to an organ-system-based curriculum model, 1 study described transition to a problem-based curriculum model, and 3 studies described transition to a clinical presentation-based curriculum model. In 7 studies educators decided to retain the discipline-based curriculum model while integrating 1 or several new courses to remedy the weaker aspects of the traditional curriculum, in 7 studies educators decided to integrate the preclinical courses with the clinical courses by using the systemic-integrating curricular system that dilutes classical disciplines and integrates material based on organ systems, and in 2 studies educators limited reforms to clinical courses only. Eight studies discussed the implementation of a formative evaluation system, 4 studies

"More Justice": The Role of Organized Labor in Educational Reform

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Rogers, John S.; Terriquez, Veronica

2009-01-01

This article explores the potential role of low-wage service sector unions in engaging in equity-minded school reform. The members of many such unions are parents of children attending poorly resourced public schools. In seeking to address the interests of their members, labor unions can draw upon resources, organizing strategies, and political…

Instructional Leadership in Indonesian School Reform: Overcoming the Problems to Move Forward

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Sofo, Francesco; Fitzgerald, Robert; Jawas, Umiati

2012-01-01

The paper reviews the research on instructional leadership and, through identifying problems emerging in Indonesian school reform, suggests some sustainable solutions. There are some discrepancies in the processes of Indonesia's school reform, and the objectives of the national education reform do not seem to have been reflected in the actual…

Teacher Identity and Reform: Intersections within School Culture

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Bower, Heather Ann; Parsons, Eileen R. Carlton

2016-01-01

In the era of school accountability, school reform programs aimed at shifting school culture are often implemented in an attempt to increase student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. This ethnographic case study was conducted in Hawk Elementary, a low-performing, high-poverty school. Quantitative and qualitative data collected…

Inside the Black Box of School Reform: Explaining the How and Why of Change at "Getting Results" Schools

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McDougall, Dennis; Saunders, William M.; Goldenberg, Claude

2007-01-01

This article reports key findings from a process-focused external evaluation that compared a subset of "Getting Results" project schools and comparison schools in order to understand the dynamics of school-wide reform efforts at these primary schools. Findings shed light on the "black box" of school reform and illuminate the…

Leading for Urban School Reform and Community Development

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Green, Terrance L.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Improving urban schools of color and the communities where they are located requires leadership that spans school and community boundaries. The purpose of this study is to understand how principal and community leader actions support urban school reform along with community development at two community schools in the urban Midwest and…

School-age children's fears, anxiety, and human figure drawings.

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, M K; Ryan-Wenger, N A

1999-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify the fears of school-age children and determine the relationship between fear and anxiety. A descriptive, correlational, secondary analysis study was conducted using a convenience sample of 90 children between the ages of 8 and 12 years. Each child was instructed to complete the Revised Children's Anxiety Scale and then answer questions from a structured interview. On completion, each child was instructed to draw a human figure drawing. Frequency charts and correlational statistics were used to analyze the data. Findings indicated that the most significant fears of the boys were in the categories of animals, safety, school, and supernatural phenomena, whereas girls were more fearful of natural phenomena. High correlations existed between anxiety scores and the number of fears and emotional indicators on human figure drawings. Because human figure drawings are reliable tools for assessing anxiety and fears in children, practitioners should incorporate these drawings as part of their routine assessments of fearful children.

Leading Inclusive Reform for Students with Disabilities: A School- and Systemwide Approach

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Theoharis, George; Causton, Julie

2014-01-01

It is of great importance to maximize access to general education for all students with disabilities. This article focuses on how leaders create inclusive schools for all students--inclusive school reform. Inclusive school reform can result in all students with disabilities being placed into general education settings (including students with…

Parents' Participation and Chicago School Reform: Issues of Race, Class and Expectations.

Science.gov (United States)

Rollow, Sharon G.; Bennett, Michael

Most studies of the early implementation of Chicago (Illinois) school reform have focused on the creation and early functioning of the Local School Councils (LSCs). This study is concerned with understanding the resources that different school communities have to embrace the LSC reform, the time frame needed to promote educational change, and the…

Radical Social Democracy and School Reform in Wilhelmian Germany

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Olson, James M.

1977-01-01

The article describes how the German Social Democratic Party promoted educational reform in Germany before World War I. It demanded state support for a secularized school program, suggested curricular reforms to instill socialist values, and promoted adult education and socialist training in the home. (AV)

Irrational Exuberance for Market-Based Reform: How Federal Turnaround Policies Thwart Democratic Schooling

Science.gov (United States)

Trujillo, Tina; Renée, Michelle

2015-01-01

Background: In 2009, the Obama Administration announced its intention to rapidly "turn around" 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. To do so, it relied on the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program to provide temporary funding for states and schools, and to mandate drastic, school-level reforms. Most of these reforms require…

The Influence of News Framing on Support for Charter School Reform

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Feuerstein, Abe

2015-01-01

This study examined the influence of media framing on attitudes toward charter school reform. Participants in an Internet-based experiment were presented, at random, with one of three manipulated news articles framing charter school reform as (a) supportive of values such as freedom, choice, and innovation; (b) conflicting with values such as…

Seeing through Transparency in Education Reform: Illuminating the "Local"

Science.gov (United States)

Koyama, Jill; Kania, Brian

2016-01-01

Utilizing "assemblage," a notion associated with Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we explore what discourses of transparency can, and cannot, accomplish in a network of education reform that includes schools, government agencies, and community organizations. Drawing on data collected between July 2011 and March 2013 in an…

Quality reform and "the learning pre-school child" in the making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krejsler, John B.

2012-01-01

The article argues that Early Childhood Education & Care (ECEC) is being redesigned based on quality reform discourse with references to global knowledge economy across Nordic countries and the EU. This takes place in policy processes that extend from transnational agents like the OECD and EU...... to national governments, local municipalities and ECEC institutions. Drawing on theoretical insights from Foucauldian genealogy, Laclau and others, the article explores how these policy processes reconfigure what counts as quality in ECEC in a Danish context. It is substantiated how the Danish government...... promotes governance structures among municipalities and professionals that pull ECEC into comprehensive educational strategies. This process draws on policy advice from the OECD and EU. Quality reform thus changes in fundamental ways the organisation and content in ECEC. In discourse, learning displaces...

It's Our School Too: Youth Activism as Educational Reform, 1951-1979

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Ajunwa, Kelechi

2011-01-01

Activism has the potential for reform (Howard, 1976). Unlike previous studies on high school activism this study places a primary focus on underground newspapers and argues that underground newspapers allowed high school students to function as activists as well as educational reformers. In order to make this argument, this study examined over 150…

Creating a Comprehensive School Reform Model: The Talent Development High School with Career Academies.

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Jordan, Will J.; McPartland, James M.; Legters, Nettie E.; Balfanz, Robert

2000-01-01

Discusses the need for comprehensive reforms in school organization, curriculum and instruction, and professional development to address the problems of large urban high schools. Describes the Talent Development High School with Career Academies model being developed to meet the needs of such schools. (SLD)

Arab Parents' Involvement in School Reform in Israel

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Arar, Khalid; Abu-Asbah, Khaled; Nasra, Muhammed Abu

2014-01-01

Current research indicates that parental involvement positively influences children's academic success. This study investigates parental involvement in the Arab education system in Israel, highlighting involvement in the New Horizon reform. We interviewed school principals and parent committee chairpersons from 15 Arab schools. The study confirmed…

The golden 45 minutes – School Reforms and Physical Activity in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Danielle Louise Nørager; Skovgaard, Thomas; Runge Larsen, Lisbeth

Introduction: In August 2014 the biggest reshaping of primary schools in forty years was implemented in Denmark. From the very early stages of the reform process, there was broad agreement among key stakeholders that children and young people should be more physically active during the school day....... Therefore, it is part of the reform program that physical activity (PA) form part of the syllabus for all year groups at primary schools corresponding on average to 45 minutes per day. Methods: The reform states, that the 45 minutes of daily, school-based PA must serve a pedagogical purpose – e.g. including...... to implement PA as part of the school day: How to include brain breaks in formal teaching sessions, making recess more active and using the physical school environment to promote PA are some of the initiatives currently in play in Denmark. Results: Available data indicates that Danish schools have acted...

Preschool Drawing and School Mathematics: The Nature of the Association

Science.gov (United States)

Malanchini, Margherita; Tosto, Maria G.; Garfield, Victoria; Dirik, Aysegul; Czerwik, Adrian; Arden, Rosalind; Malykh, Sergey; Kovas, Yulia

2016-01-01

The study examined the etiology of individual differences in early drawing and of its longitudinal association with school mathematics. Participants (N = 14,760), members of the Twins Early Development Study, were assessed on their ability to draw a human figure, including number of features, symmetry, and proportionality. Human figure drawing was…

Intersections between School Reform, the Arts, and Special Education: The Children Left Behind

Science.gov (United States)

Hourigan, Ryan M.

2014-01-01

Arts education and special education within public schools have faced similar challenges in the wake of school reform. Services and programming have been reduced, leaving a larger gap in resources and accessibility. Because of loopholes in policy, new reform initiatives such as vouchers and charter schools will continue to marginalize students…

Comprehensive School Reform and Standardized Test Scores in Illinois Elementary and Middle Schools

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McEnroe, James D.

2010-01-01

The study examined the effects of the federally funded Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program on student performance on mandated standardized tests. The study focused on the mathematics and reading scores of Illinois public elementary and middle and junior high school students. The federal CSR program provided Illinois schools with an annual…

No More Bullying: An Analysis of Primary School Children's Drawings of School Bullying

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Slee, Phillip T.; Skrzypiec, Grace

2016-01-01

Bullying in schools is an international problem impacting negatively on children's well-being. Children's drawings can provide an insight into their emotional states. There is little published literature that uses children's drawings to gain better understandings of the nature and impact of bullying. We report two studies using indicators of…

New Directions in Education? A Critique of Contemporary Policy Reforms

Science.gov (United States)

Skourdoumbis, Andrew

2016-01-01

This paper draws on facets of Foucault's theoretical resources to critique current education policy reform from within the Australian State of Victoria, namely the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development's (DEECD) discussion paper "New directions for school leadership and the teaching profession." Implicit in the reform…

Educational Management Organizations as High Reliability Organizations: A Study of Victory's Philadelphia High School Reform Work

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Thomas, David E.

2013-01-01

This executive position paper proposes recommendations for designing reform models between public and private sectors dedicated to improving school reform work in low performing urban high schools. It reviews scholarly research about for-profit educational management organizations, high reliability organizations, American high school reform, and…

Advances in Schoolwide Inclusive School Reform

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Sailor, Wayne

2015-01-01

This article highlights three significant advances in schoolwide inclusive school reform and suggests three next steps to improve educational outcomes for "all" students, particularly for students for whom typical instruction is not effective. Significant advances are as follows: (a) a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) with embedded…

Putting "The System" into a School Autonomy Reform: The Case of the Independent Public Schools Program

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Gobby, Brad

2016-01-01

The Australian Federal and state governments have been introducing neoliberal reforms to the governance of their education systems for a number of decades. One of the most recent programs of reform is the Western Australian Independent Public Schools (IPS) initiative. Similar to decentralizing reforms around the world, the IPS program seeks…

A Broader and Bolder Approach to School Reform: Expanded Partnership Roles for School Counselors

Science.gov (United States)

Steen, Sam; Noguera, Pedro A.

2010-01-01

This article describes a broader, bolder approach to education reform aimed at addressing the social and economic disadvantages that hinder student achievement. Central principles of this approach to reform include the provision of supports such as early childhood and preschool programs, after-school and summer enrichment programs, parent…

Schooling Reforms in England: From Quasi-Markets to Co-Opetition?

Science.gov (United States)

Adnett, Nick; Davies, Peter

2003-01-01

Economic analysis of the impact of recent schooling reforms in England designed to promote competition or cooperation between schools. Outlines the theoretical relationships between school competition and cooperation and school effectiveness. Briefly describes the development of policy in England and analyzes the interaction between the incentives…

School Sector and Student Achievement in the Era of Standards Based Reforms

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Carbonaro, William; Covay, Elizabeth

2010-01-01

The authors examine whether standards based accountability reforms of the past two decades have closed the achievement gap among public and private high school students. They analyzed data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) to examine sector differences in high school achievement in the era of standards based reforms. The authors found…

An investigation of school violence through Turkish children's drawings.

Science.gov (United States)

Yurtal, Filiz; Artut, Kazim

2010-01-01

This study investigates Turkish children's perception of violence in school as represented through drawings and narratives. In all, 66 students (12 to 13 years old) from the middle socioeconomic class participated. To elicit children's perception of violence, they were asked to draw a picture of a violent incident they had heard, experienced, or witnessed. Children mostly drew pictures of violent events among children (33 pictures). Also, there were pictures of violent incidents perpetrated by teachers and directors against children. It was observed that violence influenced children. Violence was mostly depicted in school gardens (38 pictures), but there were violent incidents everywhere, such as in classrooms, corridors, and school stores as well. Moreover, it was found that brute force was the most referred way of violence in the children's depictions (38 pictures). In conclusion, children clearly indicated that there was violence in schools and they were affected by it.

Comprehensive School Reform with a Focus on Literacy

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Zyburt, Gina M.

2010-01-01

Within the past years of Comprehensive School Reform (CSR), educators have begun to be innovative and employ strategies to support teaching and learning by incorporating high standards and inspiring high performance. Unfortunately, student achievement is not increasing and the achievement gap is continuing to widen. The next step for schools is to…

9 Hard Things to Do in Order to Sustain School Reform. Newsletter

Science.gov (United States)

Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, 2005

2005-01-01

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement invited Ann Chafin to share her thoughts and ideas about sustaining school reform. Chafin, chief of Program Improvement and Family Support Branch of the Maryland State Department of Education, was a speaker at the annual Institute for CSR State Coordinators held May 9-10 in Washington,…

"Turnaround" as Shock Therapy: Race, Neoliberalism, and School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Amanda Walker

2013-01-01

"Turnaround" strategies of educational reform promise that school closure, reconstitution, privatizing, and reopening them will bring miraculous results. Questioning the implications, this article situates "turnaround" strategies locally, following the closure of a predominantly minority high school in 2008, in Austin, Texas.…

Statistical Reform in School Psychology Research: A Synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Swaminathan, Hariharan; Rogers, H. Jane

2007-01-01

Statistical reform in school psychology research is discussed in terms of research designs, measurement issues, statistical modeling and analysis procedures, interpretation and reporting of statistical results, and finally statistics education.

Jump-Starting Educational Reform. Implementing British Columbia's Comprehensive School Act.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldman, Paul

An educational reform effort to implement a comprehensive school act in British Columbia (Canada) is analyzed with a focus on some sociotechnical and political aspects. An overview of the content, background, and implementation of the reform effort is followed by identification of seven contradictions inherent in the plan. Contradictions are as…

Preschool Drawing and School Mathematics: The Nature of the Association

Science.gov (United States)

Malanchini, M.; Tosto, M.G.; Garfield, V.; Czerwik, A.; Dirik, A.; Arden, R.; Malykh, S.

2016-01-01

The study examined the aetiology of individual differences in early drawing and of its longitudinal association with school mathematics. Participants (N = 14,760), members of the Twins Early Development Study, were assessed on their ability to draw a human figure, including number of features, symmetry and proportionality. Human figure drawing was moderately stable across six months (average r = .40). Individual differences in drawing at age 4½ were influenced by genetic (.21), shared environmental (.30) and non-shared environmental (.49) factors. Drawing was related to later (age 12) mathematical ability (average r = .24). This association was explained by genetic and shared environmental factors that also influenced general intelligence. Some genetic factors, unrelated to intelligence, also contributed to individual differences in drawing. PMID:27079561

Democratic School Leadership Reforms in Kenya: Cultural and Historical Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Jwan, Julius; Anderson, Lesley; Bennett, Nigel

2010-01-01

In this article we discuss students', teachers' and school principals' perceptions of democratic school leadership reforms in Kenya. The article is based on a study that was conducted in two phases. In phase one (conducted between September and December 2007), interviews were undertaken with 12 school principals in which understandings of…

New York City's Children First: Lessons in School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Kelleher, Maureen

2014-01-01

Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City's education system embarked on a massive change effort, known as Children First, that produced significant results: new and better school options for families, more college-ready graduates, and renewed public confidence in New York City's schools. New York City's reform effort has also produced…

Making Good Choices: Districts Take the Lead. Comprehensive School Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL.

Public schools across the country are aiming to improve student performance by engaging in comprehensive school reform (CSR). This guide was created to help school districts make CSR an integral part of their strategies for improving student achievement. Five components for CSR are described: (1) Strategizing, whereby the district supports CSR by…

The method of joint drawing in the practice of teaching drawing to the elementary school children with autism spectrum disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Belyalova O.A.

2015-06-01

Full Text Available While teaching children with autism spectrum disorders how to draw the teacher needs to focus on the fact that each child has creative potential and art activities play important part in the brain development. Often children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder have serious speech impairments, for example, they can talk to parents and family members, but not to classmates and teachers. In that case, one can communicate with a child through drawings, and to access their mood and desires through them. The article describes the method of joint drawing during teaching elementary school children with autism spectrum disorders from the school at the Center for Psychological, Medical and Social Support to Children and Adolescents.

Improving Public Education through Comprehensive School Reform: An Issue Brief from the International Reading Association.

Science.gov (United States)

International Reading Association, Newark, DE.

The Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program is a new initiative that could affect International Reading Association members in the United States--but will benefit only those who take advantage of it. The purpose of the CSR initiative is to provide financial incentives for schools to develop comprehensive school reforms. Funding is available to…

California teachers' perceptions of standards-based reform in middle school science: A mixed-methods study

Science.gov (United States)

Leggett, Allison Gail Wilson

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 presented one of the most significant and comprehensive literacy reforms in many years (McDonnell, 2005; U.S. Department of Education, 2006). The era of school accountability and standards based reform has brought many challenges and changes to public schools. Increasingly, public officials and educational administrators are asked to use standards based assessments to make high-stakes decisions, such as whether a student will move on to the next grade level or receive a diploma (American Psychological Association, 2005). It is important to understand any shifts in teachers' perceptions and to identify the changes teachers are making as they implement standards-based reform. This mixed-methods study was designed to assess teachers' perceptions of changes related to standards-based reform as supported by Fullan's (2001) change theory and transformational leadership theory. Survey questions sought to identify teacher perceptions of changes in curriculum, instruction and daily practice as schools documented and incorporated standards-based reform and began focusing on preparing students for the California Standards Test in Science (CSTS). Using descriptive statistical analysis and in-depth interviews, results show favorable insight towards standards-based reform. The survey was distributed to 30 middle school science teachers from 10 low-performing schools in Los Angeles, California. Results were analyzed using Spearman rank-ordered correlations. Interviews were conducted on middle school teachers represented by each grade level. Teachers who receive more support from administrators have more positive attitudes toward all aspects of SBR and the CSTS as measured in this study. No school should overlook the potential of a supportive administration in its effort to improve school programs.

Comprehensive Reform for Urban High Schools: A Talent Development Approach. Sociology of Education Series.

Science.gov (United States)

Legters, Nettie E.; Balfanz, Robert; Jordan, Will J.; McPartland, James M.

This book offers an alternative to current reform efforts, the talent development approach, detailing organizational, curricular, and instructional strategies that provide practitioners with a blueprint for whole school reform. The book presents the story of what happened in urban high schools when this approach was implemented. There are eight…

Preschool Drawing and School Mathematics: The Nature of the Association.

Science.gov (United States)

Malanchini, Margherita; Tosto, Maria G; Garfield, Victoria; Dirik, Aysegul; Czerwik, Adrian; Arden, Rosalind; Malykh, Sergey; Kovas, Yulia

2016-05-01

The study examined the etiology of individual differences in early drawing and of its longitudinal association with school mathematics. Participants (N = 14,760), members of the Twins Early Development Study, were assessed on their ability to draw a human figure, including number of features, symmetry, and proportionality. Human figure drawing was moderately stable across 6 months (average r = .40). Individual differences in drawing at age 4½ were influenced by genetic (.21), shared environmental (.30), and nonshared environmental (.49) factors. Drawing was related to later (age 12) mathematical ability (average r = .24). This association was explained by genetic and shared environmental factors that also influenced general intelligence. Some genetic factors, unrelated to intelligence, also contributed to individual differences in drawing. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Cutting through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform. Revised, Expanded, and Updated Edition

Science.gov (United States)

David, Jane L.; Cuban, Larry

2010-01-01

"Cutting Through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform" is a revised, expanded, and updated version of the classic work by Jane L. David and Larry Cuban. It offers balanced analyses of 23 currently popular school reform strategies, from teacher performance pay and putting mayors in charge to turnaround schools and data-driven instruction.…

Standards, Accountability, and School Reform: Perils and Pitfalls.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheldon, Kennon M.; Biddle, Bruce J.

1998-01-01

Examines current debates about educational standards, accountability, and school reform from the perspective of Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory. Research reveals various perils associated with rigid standards, narrow accountability, and tangible sanctions that can debase student and teacher motivation and performance. Alternative…

Deciding Who Decides Questions at the Intersection of School Finance Reform Litigation and Standards-Based Accountability Policies

Science.gov (United States)

Superfine, Benjamin Michael

2009-01-01

Courts hearing school finance reform cases have recently begun to consider several issues related to standards-based accountability policies. This convergence of school finance reform litigation and standards-based accountability policies represents a chance for the courts to reallocate decision-making authority for each type of reform across the…

The Need for District Support for School Reform: What the Researchers Say. Research Brief.

Science.gov (United States)

Appelbaum, Deborah

This article focuses on the school district's role in implementing Comprehensive School Reform (CSR). Research shows that effective district support for CSR varies from district to district. This is due, in part, to the fact that many prior models bypassed the district, operating under the belief that reform would be more effective if it targeted…

Education Inputs, Student Performance and School Finance Reform in Michigan

Science.gov (United States)

Chaudhary, Latika

2009-01-01

This paper estimates the impact of the Michigan school finance reform, "Proposal A," on education inputs and test scores. Using a difference-in-difference estimation strategy, I find that school districts in Michigan used the increase in educational spending generated through "Proposal A" to increase teacher salaries and reduce…

Dynamic drawing characteristics of preschool and younger school age children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cvetković Andrijana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this research is to determine developmental characteristics of dynamic drawings of preschool and younger school age children. The sample consists of 90 typical developed children, aged between 6 and 9. The sample includes 47 (52.2% girls and 43 (47.8% boys from preschool institutions and elementary schools in Pirot and Belgrade. Action representation in dynamic drawings was evaluated using three types of drawings: a man who runs, a man shooting a ball and a man lifting a ball from the floor. We determined that a very small number of the respondents reaches the highest level of graphical representation of figures in motion, and that girl’s achievements are better than boy’s achievements. However, this result is on the border of statistical significance (p=0.052. Also, there is a statistically significant trend of progress to higher levels of action representation (p=0.000 with the increase in chronological age of the respondents.

Leadership practices and inclusive education reform in primary schools in Bangladesh

OpenAIRE

Mullick, Jahirul

2017-01-01

This study was undertaken to investigate leadership practices for Inclusive Education (IE) reform in primary schools in Bangladesh. Specifically, the study investigated leadership practice structures, views of school leaders about the accountability approach in primary schools, school leaders’ opinions on challenges to implementing IE and possible strategies to address the identified challenges. The study also explored the relationships between school variables, teachers’ demographic variabl...

Converging Paths or Ships Passing in the Night? An "English" Critique of Japanese School Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Andy

2000-01-01

Examines origins and potential effects of liberalizing reforms in Japanese secondary education in light of British experiences with policies such as local school management and school choice. Argues that Japanese reform involves necessary diversification of curriculum and pedagogic practices, but administrative shifts toward deregulation and…

School Stakeholders' Experience with Navigating ICT Policy Reforms in Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes, Vicente Chua, Jr.; Kheng, Catherine Chua Siew

2015-01-01

Using qualitative research inquiry methods, this inquiry attempts to explore how school stakeholders cope with incessant and seemingly endless transformations in schools. The central phenomenon to be studied focuses on how school stakeholders "make sense" of educational reform. In order to do this, an exploratory case study of two target…

Equitable science education in urban middle schools: Do reform efforts make a difference?

Science.gov (United States)

Hewson, Peter W.; Butler Kahle, Jane; Scantlebury, Kathryn; Davies, Darleen

2001-12-01

A central commitment of current reforms in science education is that all students, regardless of culture, gender, race, and/ or socioeconomic status, are capable of understanding and doing science. The study Bridging the Gap: Equity in Systemic Reform assessed equity in systemic reform using a nested research design that drew on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. As part of the study, case studies were conducted in two urban middle schools in large Ohio cities. The purpose of the case studies was to identify factors affecting equity in urban science education reform. Data were analyzed using Kahle's (1998) equity metric. That model allowed us to assess progress toward equity using a range of research-based indicators grouped into three categories critical for equitable education: access to, retention in, and achievement in quality science education. In addition, a fourth category was defined for systemic indicators of equity. Analyses indicated that the culture and climate of the case study schools differentially affected their progress toward equitable reform in science education.

High School Diversification against Educational Equality: A Critical Analysis of Neoliberal Education Reform in South Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Jeongran

2011-01-01

Recent reforms of high school education in Korea have focused on transforming the uniform and standardized system into a deregulated and diversified system that has an emphasis on school choice and competition. Situating the high school diversification policy in the context of the recent controversy of the neoliberal educational reform, this study…

Implementing Marzano's Model: The Reality of Educational Leadership and School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Keaveny, Stacy M.

2013-01-01

Federal and state guidelines for school reform dominate the landscape of public education. Florida and its school districts, as a Race to the Top state, are in the process of fully implementing a value-added model of teacher evaluation. Effective school leaders are calling upon the theoretical framework of transformational, visionary and…

10 years with Planet Earth essence in the primary school children drawings

Science.gov (United States)

D'Addezio, Giuliana

2016-04-01

"10 years with Planet Earth" is the title of the 2016 INGV calendar for primary schools representing the review of a project conceived as support and complement of 15 years long INGV dissemination activities with schools. We realized 10 calendars together with and for primary schools, every year with a subject related to a World in constant evolution. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami waves, magnetic storms and other phenomena are manifestations of the complexity and dynamicity, which began more than four billion years ago and never halted. Since the Earth originated to the first presence of water, life and oxygen, the Cambrian explosion of species, the domain of dinosaurs, the great extinctions and glaciations, the surface of our planet experiences continents collisions, mountains and oceans formation and life forms emerging and disappearing. Every year we have launched a competition asking children to send drawings on themes chosen to stimulate learning about Earth Sciences and Planet Earth dynamics. We intended to raise awareness on issues as water resources availability, protection against natural disasters and control of environmental degradation. For each competition, we chose the most significant drawings to be included in the yearly calendar about the Earth. The authors of drawings were awarded by scientists, journalists, artists and science communicators and even by a minister. Besides the competitions, these drawings depict their own impressions and reflections, providing an opportunity to illustrate the children's point of view. From drawings and texts arise a great consideration and respect for the Planet, raising hopes that similar initiatives can contribute to increase the knowledge of the Earth and of the fragile human ecosystem in the hearts and minds of future active citizens. The project was made possible thanks to the teachers and to the wonderful students of more than 200 schools that sent about 10,000 drawings that have intrigued

School Performance, Accountability and Waiver Reforms: Evidence from Louisiana. CEPA Working Paper No. 17-06

Science.gov (United States)

Dee, Thomas; Dizon-Ross, Elise

2017-01-01

States that received federal waivers to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act were required to implement reforms in designated "Focus Schools" that contribute to achievement gaps. In this study, we examine the performance effects of such "differentiated accountability" reforms in the state of Louisiana. The Focus School reforms…

School Finance and Courts: Does Reform Matter, and How Can We Tell?

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Baker, Bruce D.; Welner, Kevin G.

2011-01-01

Background/Context: School finance litigation has often prompted funding reforms, but what happens as a result is the subject of considerable dispute. Purpose: This article explores design problems encountered in studies examining the nature and effects of those reforms. Analysis: After describing the development and current status of school…

Multisite Case Study of Florida's Millennium High School Reform Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carol A. Mullen

2002-10-01

Full Text Available This study should have immediate utility for the United States and beyond its borders. School-to-work approaches to comprehensive reform are increasingly expected of schools while legislative funding for this purpose gets pulled back. This multisite case study launches the first analysis of the New Millennium High School (NMHS model in Florida. This improvement program relies upon exemplary leadership for preparing students for postsecondary education

What Can Year-5 Children's Drawings Tell Us about Their Primary School Experiences?

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Maxwell, Tim

2015-01-01

This study describes the research process and trialling of a drawing technique for gathering pupils' views within a Personal Construct Psychology framework. Seventy-two pupils in curriculum year 5 were asked to produce two drawings of themselves in school (144 drawings), one in a "happy" situation and one in an "unhappy"…

School Reform and the Emotional Demands of Principals: Lorna's Story

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Mills, Martin; Niesche, Richard

2014-01-01

The issue of emotions in school leadership is one that has received increasing attention in recent years. In this paper we present a case study of the emotional demands upon one principal as she undertakes a programme of school reform. This case study works against the common discourse of "emotional maturity" inherent in an individual…

Toward an Understanding of How Teachers Change during School Reform: Considerations for Educational Leadership and School Improvement

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Kaniuka, Theodore Stefan

2012-01-01

As the concept of distributed leadership and its concomitant organizational structures become more prevalent in schools, studying how teacher capacity can be enhanced and can be used as a catalyst for reform is important. This article documents the nature of how the implementation of a research-validated reform influenced what teachers thought…

Educational Partnership and the Dilemmas of School Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Seeley, David

Today's educational reform proposals are undermined by four dilemmas. First, the public may demand visible results before it will provide the funding needed to achieve them. Second, higher academic standards will increase failure rates, while more attainable standards will inadequately educate students. Third, the current focus on high schools may…

Comprehensive School Reform and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

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Borman, Geoffrey D.; Hewes, Gina M.; Overman, Laura T.; Brown, Shelly

2003-01-01

This meta-analysis reviews research on the achievement effects of comprehensive school reform (CSR) and summarizes the specific effects of 29 widely implemented models. There are limitations on the overall quantity and quality of the research base, but the overall effects of CSR appear promising. The combined quantity, quality, and statistical…

Rodriquez V. San Antonio Independent School District: Gathering the Ayes of Texas--The Politics of School Finance Reform

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Yudof, Mark G.; Morgan, Daniel C.

1974-01-01

An historical account is given of movements toward educational finance reform in Texas, culminating in the Rodriquez v. San Antonio Independent School District case and its aftermath. The role of political pressures applied by various interest groups is traced and the prospects for future reform assessed. (EH)

Turnaround, Transformational, or Transactional Leadership: An Ethical Dilemma in School Reform

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Mette, Ian M.; Scribner, Jay P.

2014-01-01

This case was written for school leaders, specifically building-level principals and central office administrators attempting to implement school turnaround reform efforts. Often, leaders who embark on this type of organizational change work in intense environments that produce high levels of pressure to demonstrate improvement in student…

Place Matters: Mathematics Education Reform in Urban Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Rousseau Anderson, Celia

2014-01-01

While mathematics education research has often focused at the level of the classroom (Rousseau Anderson & Tate, 2008), there are emerging calls for attention to shift from individual classrooms to consider the process of reform at the school or district level. Investigating the role of the institution and conditions of the organization becomes…

Changing by Design: A Comprehensive Approach to School Reform. [Booklet with Audiotapes].

Science.gov (United States)

North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL.

Comprehensive school reform (CSR) focuses on reorganizing and revitalizing entire schools, rather than on implementing individual programs. The idea behind CSR is that schools cannot educate all students to high levels unless all the education system's components work together toward a common goal. Choosing a CSR model can be difficult and…

Adequacy, accountability, autonomy and equity in a Middle Eastern school reform: The case of Qatar

Science.gov (United States)

Guarino, Cassandra M.; Tanner, Jeffery C.

2012-04-01

This study examines Qatar's recent and ambitious school reform in the early stages of its implementation against a set of four criteria for successful education systems drawn from guidelines developed by the international community: adequacy, accountability, autonomy and gender equity. We investigate both the initial structure of the reform and its sustainability in light of concerns that movements in these directions might be politically unfeasible. To some degree, these concerns are substantiated by the developments we trace. However, it is important to note that the reform has changed the landscape of primary and secondary education in Qatar and that many reform principles, though diluted, have been retained. This paper highlights lessons learned - both hopeful and cautionary - in the first few years of reform and presents a methodology for evaluating progress along key dimensions that can be applied to school systems in many nations.

Telecom Reform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Telecom Reform: Principles, Policies and Regulatory Practices, provides a comprehensive and definitive review and assessment of the unfolding telecom reform process, and its implications for information society development. It is an invaluable resource and authoritative reference on telecom reform...... and information infrastructure issues - for people in government, academia, industry and the consulting community. This book addresses the process of policy and regulatory reform in telecom that is now in its formative stage. It draws on detailed knowledge of industry development and regulatory experience......, as well as expertise in the new technologies, industries, economics, policy development, and law to present and critique the principles, policies and regulatory practices associated with telecom reform. Twenty six international experts address thirty two topics that are essential to successful telecom...

Curricular Reform in Schools: The Importance of Evaluation

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Agrawal, Mamta

2004-01-01

Evaluation plays a pivotal role in deciding what the learners learn and what the teachers teach in schools. The paper reports a study of English-language teaching conducted in Delhi State of India that sought to examine the assumption that a change in an evaluation pattern can trigger curricular reform. Did concomitant changes take place in the…

Learning Science and English: How School Reform Advances Scientific Learning for Limited English Proficient Middle School Students

OpenAIRE

Minicucci, Catherine

1996-01-01

This article presents findings from the School Reform and Student Diversity Study, a 4-year project to locate and analyze schools offering exemplary science and mathematics programs to middle school students with limited proficiency in English. In contrast to the vast majority of schools, the four schools described in this article give these students access to stimulating science and mathematics curricula by instructing them either in the students' primary language or in English using shelter...

The Court versus Consent Decrees? Schools, "Horne v. Flores" and Judicial Strategies of Institutional Reform Litigation

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Chilton, Bradley; Chwialkowski, Paul

2014-01-01

Is the U.S. Supreme Court inviting litigants to take aim at unraveling injunctions in institutional reform litigation--especially consent decrees in the schools? In "Horne v. Flores" (2009), the court remanded a 17-year-old school reform case to a federal judge with orders to look beyond consent decrees on financing, reducing class…

Assessing attachment in school-aged children: Do the School-Age Assessment of Attachment and Family Drawings work together as complementary tools?

Science.gov (United States)

Carr-Hopkins, Rebecca; De Burca, Calem; Aldridge, Felicity A

2017-07-01

Our goal was to identify an assessment package that could improve treatment planning for troubled children and their families. To assess the validity of our tools, we tested the relations among the School-Age Assessment of Attachment, the Family Drawing and children's risk status. We used the Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation to interpret the assessments in the hope of identifying a gradient of risk, and explore whether a new coding method improved the validity of Family Drawings and their utility as a tool to complement the School-Age Assessment of Attachment. The participants were 89 children, aged between 5 and 12 years; 32 children were involved with mental health services or child protection. Each child completed a School-Age Assessment of Attachment and a Family Drawing. Both assessments differentiated between clinical and normative referrals with moderate effect sizes when dichotomizing risk versus non-risk attachment. When the analysis incorporated a gradient of six attachment classifications, the effect sizes decreased, but specificity of risk increased. The School-Age Assessment of Attachment had greater validity for discriminating risk, and type of risk, than the Family Drawings. With a School-Age Assessment of Attachment and family history, the Family Drawing can provide information about distress that some children do not provide verbally. Integration of the two assessment tools alongside information about parental and family functioning appears to be the key to formulating children's problems.

Unpacking Resistance to Change within-School Reform Programmes with a Social Justice Orientation

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Hynds, Anne

2010-01-01

Previous research in the area of resistance has inadequately described opposition to change within-school reform initiatives with a social justice orientation. A lack of attention to, and agreement on, the nature and causes of resistance may explain why so many equity-minded educational reforms fail to be sustained. This article highlights various…

The New Basic Education and Whole School Reform: A Chinese Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Bu, Yuhua; Li, Jiacheng

2013-01-01

Since the 1980s, China has entered an era of transformation which has extended its reach to education and school reforms. The "New Basic Education" (NBE) was born in this era and implemented by the East China Normal University together with schools around the country. NBE aims at nurturing the active, healthy development of a new…

Bridges, Tunnels, and School Reform: It's the System, Stupid

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Kelly, Thomas F.

2007-01-01

After almost three decades of school reform, student achievement nationally is about where it was when it started, and student behavior has declined dramatically. Numbers of dropouts, especially in cities and among the poor and minorities, have gotten much higher. Yet many billions of dollars have been spent; countless professionals have carried…

Dilemmas of reform: An exploration of science teachers' collective sensemaking of formative assessment practices

Science.gov (United States)

Heredia, Sara Catherine

Current reform efforts in science education call for significant shifts in how science is taught and learned. Teachers are important gatekeepers for reform, as they must enact these changes with students in their own classrooms. As such, professional development approaches need to be developed and studied to understand how teachers interpret and make instructional plans to implement these reforms. However, traditional approaches to studying implementation of reforms often draw on metrics such as time allotted to new activities, rather than exploring the ways in which teachers make sense of these reforms. In this dissertation I draw upon a body of work called sensemaking that has focused on locating learning in teachers' conversations in departmental work groups. I developed a conceptual and analytic framework to analyze how teachers make sense of reform given their local contexts and then used this framework to perform a case study of one group of teachers that participated in larger professional development project that examined the impact of a learning progression on science teachers' formative assessment practices. I draw upon videotapes of three years of monthly professional development meetings as my primary source of data, and used an ethnographic approach to identify dilemmas surfaced by teachers, sources of ambiguity and uncertainty, and patterns of and resources for teacher sensemaking. The case study reveals relationships between the type of dilemma surfaced by the teachers and different patterns of sensemaking for modification of teaching practices. When teachers expressed concerns about district or administrative requirements, they aligned their work in the professional development to those external forces. In contrast, teachers were able to develop and try out new practices when they perceived coherence between the professional development and school or district initiatives. These results underscore the importance of coherence between various

Market Accountability in Schools: Policy Reforms in England, Germany, France and Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Mattei, Paola

2012-01-01

This article concentrates on the policy reforms of schools in England, Germany, France and Italy, from 1988 to 2009, with a focus on the introduction of market accountability. Pressing demands for organisational change in schools, shaped by the objectives of "efficiency" and competition, which were introduced in England in the 1980s,…

School Autonomy Reform and Public Education in Australia: Implications for Social Justice

Science.gov (United States)

Keddie, Amanda

2017-01-01

The renewed commitment to school autonomy reform in Australia is based on the view that it will drive up academic standards. There remains, however, little conclusive evidence to support this view. Simply instating the structural changes to bring about greater autonomy for schools within public education systems across the world has not led…

Social Foundations and School Reform Networks: The Case Against E.D. Hirsch.

Science.gov (United States)

Ognibene, Richard

1998-01-01

Critiques the views of E.D. Hirsch, highlighting limitations of his book, "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them." The paper acknowledges Hirsch's influence on public opinion about school reform, but details flaws and errors Hirsch makes, asking foundational scholars in teacher education to better prepare students to respond to…

Curriculum reform and evolution: Innovative content and processes at one US medical school.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischel, Janet E; Olvet, Doreen M; Iuli, Richard J; Lu, Wei-Hsin; Chandran, Latha

2018-03-11

Curriculum reform in medical schools continues to be an ever-present and challenging activity in medical education. This paper describes one school's experiences with specific curricular innovations that were developed or adapted and targeted to meet a clear set of curricular goals during the curriculum reform process. Those goals included: (a) promoting active learning and learner engagement; (b) establishing early professional identity; and (c) developing physician competencies in an integrated and contextual manner while allowing for individualized learning experiences for the millennial student. Six specific innovations championed by the school are described in detail. These included Themes in Medical Education, Translational Pillars, Stony Brook Teaching Families, Transition Courses, Educational Continuous Quality Improvement Processes, and our Career Advising Program. Development of the ideas and design of the innovations were done by faculty and student teams. We discuss successes and ongoing challenges with these innovations which are currently in the fourth year of implementation. Our curriculum reform has emphasized the iterative process of curriculum building. Based on our experience, we discuss general and practical guidelines for curriculum innovation in its three phases: setting the stage, implementation, and monitoring for the achievement of intended goals.

Success for All and Comprehensive School Reform: Evidence-Based Policies for Urban Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Slavin, Robert E.; Madden, Nancy A.

This paper discusses comprehensive school reform (CSR), which accepts the importance of standards and accountability but adds to these strategies for introducing innovations in curriculum, instruction, school organization, governance, parent interactions, and other core features of practice. The paper reviews research on the nature and quality of…

Expanding Knowledge Gaps: The Function of Fictions in Teaching Materials after the 2011 Swedish High School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Graeske, Caroline

2016-01-01

The aim in the study is to analyze how work with fiction is organized in six textbooks for senior high school in Sweden after the school reform 2011. Research into Swedish teaching materials has been neglected in recent years and there is a knowledge gap about how the work with fictions is affected by the reform in 2011. In the study quantitative…

Journalism and Urban School Reform: Versions of Democratic Decision Making in Two American Cities

Science.gov (United States)

Shipps, Dorothy; Fowlkes, Elizabeth; Peltzman, Alissa

2006-01-01

School reform involves the public: its expectation of participation and its support for a reform agenda. In theory, the press influences both. To explore this link, we compare education coverage in four press outlets, two each in Chicago and Cleveland. Articles and editors are interrogated for (1) style of journalism and (2) assumptions about the…

Administrative Reform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Plum, Maja

Through the example of a Danish reform of educational plans in early childhood education, the paper critically addresses administrative educational reforms promoting accountability, visibility and documentation. Drawing on Foucaultian perspectives, the relation between knowledge and governing...... of administrative technology, tracing how the humanistic values of education embed and are embedded within ‘the professional nursery teacher' as an object and subject of administrative practice. Rather than undermining the humanistic potential of education, it is argued that the technology of accounting...

Kindergarten Teacher Buy-In for Standards-Based Reforms: A Dynamic Interplay between Professional Identity and Perceptions of Control

Science.gov (United States)

Briggs, Jennifer O.; Russell, Jennifer Lin; Wanless, Shannon B.

2018-01-01

Political and societal pressures are influencing kindergarten teachers and their classroom practices on a national level. Teachers' receptivity to reforms depends to a large degree on their buy-in to the change effort. Drawing on analyses of interviews with kindergarten teachers across school and districts, this study examined teacher buy-in to an…

Considerations for Education Reform in British Columbia

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Santos, Ana

2012-01-01

Countries around the world refer to twenty-first century education as essential to maintaining personal and national economic advantage and draw on this discourse to advocate for and embark on educational reform. This paper examines issues around education reform, particularly in British Columbia. It argues that reformers should give careful…

School Finance Reform: Do Equalized Expenditures Imply Equalized Teacher Salaries?

Science.gov (United States)

Streams, Meg; Butler, J. S.; Cowen, Joshua; Fowles, Jacob; Toma, Eugenia F.

2011-01-01

Kentucky is a poor, relatively rural state that contrasts greatly with the relatively urban and wealthy states typically the subject of education studies employing large-scale administrative data. For this reason, Kentucky's experience of major school finance and curricular reform is highly salient for understanding teacher labor market dynamics.…

Circulation and Internationalisation of Pedagogical Concepts and Practices in the Discourse of Education: The Hamburg School Reform Experiment (1919-1933)

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Mayer, Christine

2014-01-01

In the context of the international exchange of school reform ideas and concepts, the new schools in Hamburg were recognised as exemplary instances of a revolutionary and forceful reform in the public elementary school systems. Based on studies of transfer and their premise that the transnational transfer of ideas, practices and objects does not…

Learning From Rudolf Steiner: The Relevance of Waldorf Education for Urban Public School Reform

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Oberman, Ida

2007-01-01

The author of this paper investigates the relevance of Waldorf education for public urban school reform. Based on analysis of survey data from over 500 graduates of private U.S. Waldorf schools, review of documents from the Gates Foundation, and staff-interview and student-achievement data from four public Waldorf-methods schools, she develops…

Attitudes and Practices That Shape Children's Drawing Behaviour in Mainstream and Performing Arts Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Burkitt, Esther; Lowry, Ruth

2015-01-01

Previous research shows that key parties involved in children's drawing perceive the value and benefits of art and drawing very differently. However such research has been restricted to the examination of children attending mainstream schooling across the UK. The present study therefore compared the views and practices of key parties involved in…

Transforming an Urban School System: Progress of New Haven School Change and New Haven Promise Education Reforms (2010-2013). Research Report

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez, Gabriella C.; Bozick, Robert; Daugherty, Lindsay; Scherer, Ethan; Singh, Reema; Suárez, Mónica Jacobo; Ryan, Sarah

2014-01-01

In 2009, the City of New Haven and New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) announced a sweeping K-12 educational reform, New Haven School Change. The district had three primary goals for School Change: (1) close the gap between the performance of NHPS students' and Connecticut students' averages on state tests, (2) cut the high school dropout rate in…

Will Mayor De Blasio Turn Back the School Reform Clock?

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Peter

2014-01-01

While heads were spinning, policy watchers seemed genuinely perplexed by New York City's Mayor de Blasio's education opinions. De Blasio opposed many of Bloomberg's reform efforts despite the achievement gains realized by the nation's largest school district during the last 12 years. Yet on close reading, de Blasio's nine-page education plan…

School Reforms In Ghana: A Challenge To Teacher Quality And ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The role of the teacher in the modern school system is increasingly important and complex. A teacher needs a high level of professional knowledge and autonomous decision making when faced with professional challenges. Educational reform in Ghana like any other parts of the world calls for the type of teacher who is ...

Adequacy, Accountability, Autonomy and Equity in a Middle Eastern School Reform: The Case of Qatar

Science.gov (United States)

Guarino, Cassandra M.; Tanner, Jeffery C.

2012-01-01

This study examines Qatar's recent and ambitious school reform in the early stages of its implementation against a set of four criteria for successful education systems drawn from guidelines developed by the international community: adequacy, accountability, autonomy and gender equity. We investigate both the initial structure of the reform and…

Science teachers' beliefs about teaching and reform: Case studies from a restructured high school

Science.gov (United States)

King, Elizabeth A.

A qualitative research study of the beliefs of three science teachers about teaching and educational reform was carried out at a restructured high school belonging to the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), a nationally prominent restructuring movement. One problem of educational reform is to sustain change in the science classroom. A new wave of reform is shifting the focus away from curriculum changes and towards professionalism of teachers empowered to restructure schools. The beliefs of the teachers are key to decisions made in the classroom. The teachers and staff of Metro High School adopted the Ten Common Principles of CES as their guide to restructuring and sustaining change. Changes included increased authority for teachers in shared decision making, increased staff time for professional development, grouping students heterogeneously, grouping students and faculty in teams for extended time periods, and organizing instruction around small group and individual student study (student-centered). The theoretical framework centers on the constructivist theory of learning, particularly Vygotsky's socio-cultural model, and Bakhtin's dialogic function of language. Nespor's belief system model was used to describe the four characteristic features of beliefs: episodic memories, alternativity, existential presumption, and evaluative loading. My research questions were: What memories of teaching have influenced the teachers? What are the teachers' beliefs about the learning environment? What are the teachers' beliefs about their students? What are the teachers' beliefs about student activities? Interviews were the primary data source for the case studies of the three teachers, with additional data from lesson plans, photo-voice, and other artifacts. The teachers shared many common beliefs including that strong peer support is necessary for reform. The teachers' beliefs allied themselves to the majority of the common principles of CES, especially personalization and

Tobephobia Experienced by Teachers in Secondary Schools: An Exploratory Study Focusing on Curriculum Reform in the Nelson Mandela Metropole

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, P.

2011-01-01

Because of its history from apartheid to democracy, the aspiration to reform schools is a recurrent theme in South African education. Efforts to reform education in schools based on the outcomes-based education (OBE) curriculum approach created major challenges for policy makers in South Africa. The purpose of this exploratory research was…

A Place Called Home: Educational Reform in a Concord, Massachusetts School, 1897-1914

Science.gov (United States)

Morice, Linda C.

2012-01-01

This paper examines the role of place in the reform efforts of two teachers who established Miss White's Home School in Concord, Massachusetts (USA). Flora and Mary White rebelled against the prevailing industrial model of instruction in tax-supported schools where they taught. As a solution, they moved to Concord--a nonconformist town with a…

The Epistemic Role of Novel Metaphors in Teachers' Knowledge Constructions of School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Craig, Cheryl J.

2005-01-01

In this article, a parallel is drawn between Steven Hawking's use of common and novel metaphors in his evolving explanation of the theory of the universe and the similar use of common and novel metaphors by educators in four school contexts attempting to illuminate their experiences of school reform storied and restoried over time. The epistemic…

How Leadership for an ICT Reform Is Distributed within a School

Science.gov (United States)

Seong, David Ng Foo; Ho, Jeanne Marie

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of information communication technology (ICT) reform in a government school in Singapore. The focus is on the distributed leadership actions performed by various individuals, and how the multiple leaders and their leadership practices interacted with one another.…

The Repudiation of Single-Sex Education: Boys' Schools in the Soviet Union, 1943-1954

Science.gov (United States)

Ewing, E. Thomas

2006-01-01

This article examines the 11-year Soviet experiment with boys' schools as a way to cast new light on scholarly research and public debates about single-sex education. Drawing on archival and published materials by educators who described school conditions, identified problems, suggested reforms, and evaluated remedies, the author argues that…

Greek Primary School Children's Representations of the Urban Environment as Seen through Their Drawings

Science.gov (United States)

Stokas, Dimitrios; Strezou, Elena; Malandrakis, George; Papadopoulou, Penelope

2017-01-01

In the present study, we explore aspects of Greek primary school children's representations about the urban environment through the use of drawings and their relation to sustainability. For that purpose, 104 children, aged 9-12 (4th and 6th grades), were asked to make two drawings of their town: one as it is now and another as they would like it…

Examining Relational Engagement across the Transition to High Schools in Three US High Schools Reformed to Improve Relationship Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Heather A.; Chang, Mei-Lin; Andrzejewski, Carey E.; Poirier, Ryan R.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in students' relational engagement across the transition to high school in three schools reformed to improve the quality of student-teacher relationships. In order to analyze this data we employed latent growth curve (LGC) modeling techniques (n = 637). We ran three LGC models on three…

Effective Consultants: A Conceptual Framework for Helping School Systems Achieve Systemic Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Hazle Bussey, Leslie; Welch, Jennie C.; Mohammed, Meca B.

2014-01-01

A growing number of organisations--universities, non-profits, independent consultants--are emerging as partners to school systems pursuing systemic improvement. This proliferation invites questions probing the interaction between school systems and their consulting partners. Drawing on a cross-disciplinary review of literature, this theoretical…

New Orleans's Unique School Reform Effort and Its Potential Implications for Special Education

Science.gov (United States)

Morse, Timothy E.

2010-01-01

Four years following the decimation of the New Orleans Public Schools by Hurricane Katrina the city has been described as the center of a unique urban public school reform effort. This effort is a combination of events that transpired just before the storm and those that have occurred as a result of it. In particular some claim that the emerging…

Development and Implementation of Inquiry-Based and Computerized-Based Laboratories: Reforming High School Chemistry in Israel

Science.gov (United States)

Barnea, Nitza; Dori, Yehudit Judy; Hofstein, Avi

2010-01-01

Reforms in science education in general and in chemistry education in particular have been introduced in many countries since the beginning of the 21st Century. Similarly, at this time in Israel both the content and pedagogy of the chemistry curriculum in high schools were reformed. New content and pedagogical standards emerged, fostering…

Meeting the Demands of Science Reforms: A Comprehensive Professional Development for Practicing Middle School Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Pringle, Rose M.; Mesa, Jennifer; Hayes, Lynda

2018-03-01

Preparing teachers to teach science consistent with current reforms in science education is a daunting enterprise given a lack of high-quality science professional development (PD) adaptable across various contexts (Wilson 2013). This study examines the impact of a comprehensive professional development program on middle school teachers' disciplinary content knowledge and instructional practices. In this mixed methods investigation, data sources included classroom observations, content knowledge assessments, surveys, and a range of interviews. The teachers in the program showed significant improvements in their disciplinary content knowledge and demonstrated through their enactment of a reform-based curriculum, a range of ability levels to translate their knowledge into instructional practices consistent with the principles espoused in the PD. We conclude that programs that attend to elements of effective PD identified in the literature can positively impact middle school science teachers' enactment of reform-based science teaching. Our findings extend these elements to include the strategic engagement of school and district leadership and the provision of a safe learning space for teachers to collectively engage in reciprocal learning and critical practice. This study has worldwide implications for designing PD for science teachers and for extending our understanding of the impact of each element.

The Implementation and Impact of Evidence-Based Mathematics Reforms in High-Poverty Middle Schools: A Multi-Site, Multi-Year Study

Science.gov (United States)

Balfanz, Robert; Mac Iver, Douglas J.; Byrnes, Vaughan

2006-01-01

This article reports on the first 4 years of an effort to develop comprehensive and sustainable mathematics education reforms in high poverty middle schools. In four related analyses, we examine the levels of implementation achieved and impact of the reforms on various measures of achievement in the first 3 schools to implement the Talent…

Teaching History Then and Now: A Story of Stability and Change in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Cuban, Larry

2016-01-01

In "Teaching History Then and Now," Larry Cuban explores the teaching of history in American high schools during the past half-century. Drawing on his early career experience as a high school history educator and his more recent work as a historian of US education policy and practice, Cuban examines how determined reformers have and have…

Key Aspects of Current Educational Reforms in Islamic Educational Schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ibrahim Hashim

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper is based on the premise that Islamic education plays a significant role in producing an integrated personality of young generation in order to fulfil the needs of present society. This study is important to address the key educational changes in pedagogy, curricular and teaching approach that relate directly to the effectiveness of the implementation of Islamic Education in Islamic schools. Questions raised in this writing is whether and how Muslim schools have transformed to meet the changes and challenges of the globalizing world and what should be done to ensure Islamic schools meet current needs. Thus, it argues that there is a need for reform in contemporary Islamic schools with particular reference to the changes in the curriculum, teaching style, role of Islamic schools and gender participation. The paper considers the possibility of integrating new perspectives across the curriculum and outlines the integrated approach to ensure the quality and excellence of their graduates.

Intermediary Organizations in Charter School Policy Coalitions: Evidence from New Orleans

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DeBray, Elizabeth; Scott, Janelle; Lubienski, Christopher; Jabbar, Huriya

2014-01-01

This article develops a framework for investigating research use, using an "advocacy coalition framework" and the concepts of a "supply side" (mainly organizations) and "demand side" (policymakers). Drawing on interview data and documents from New Orleans about the charter school reforms that have developed there…

Cultivating Teachers' Beliefs, Knowledge and Skills for Leading Change in Schools

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Carrington, Suzanne; Deppeler, Joanne; Moss, Julianne

2010-01-01

Australian policy initiatives and state curriculum reform efforts affirm a commitment to address student disengagement through the development of inclusive school environments, curriculum, and pedagogy. This paper, drawing on critical social theory, describes three Australian projects that support the cultivation of teachers' beliefs, knowledge…

iPads at School? A Quantitative Comparison of Elementary Schoolchildren's Pen-on-Paper versus Finger-on-Screen Drawing Skills

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Picard, Delphine; Martin, Perrine; Tsao, Raphaele

2014-01-01

A growing number of schools are embracing new mobile technologies, such as iPads, with little (or no) prior empirical proof of their usability. We investigated whether iPads, which allow children to write and draw with their fingers without the need of a pen, are relevant devices for drawing activities at elementary school. A within-participants…

From pedagogy to timeagogy? Leisure-time pedagogues handling time in the reformed Danish Primary School and Leisure-time Center

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gravesen, David Thore; Ringskou, Lea Thomsen

for effectiveness contributes to increasing amounts of discipline techniques and new requirements in relation to the pedagogues’ skills in classroom management. Seemingly, the enhanced encounter between time and pedagogy both provide potentials and pitfalls, triggering different, often ambivalent, emotional......, Denmark. E-mail: dtg@viauc.dk Research topic/aim: In 2014, the Danish Primary School was reformed. A reform that meant longer school days, emphasizing varied learning environments and better results for each pupil regardless of social background. In general, the reform matches other educational reforms...... effectiveness and academic outcomes. In our presentation, launching the concept of timeagogy, we analyze and discuss the encounter between time and pedagogy. Which strategies, techniques and action evolve when time challenges pedagogy? How do pedagogues handle time demands and in which way does time constitute...

Drawing-Based Simulation for Primary School Science Education: An Experimental Study of the GearSketch Learning Environment

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Leenaars, Frank; van Joolingen, Wouter; Gijlers, Aaltje H.; Bollen, Lars

2012-01-01

Touch screen computers are rapidly becoming available to millions of students. These devices make the implementation of drawing-based simulation environments like Gear Sketch possible. This study shows that primary school students who received simulation-based support in a drawing-based learning

Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy

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Renee, Michelle; McAlister, Sara

2011-01-01

Community organizing for school reform offers an urgently needed alternative to traditional approaches to school change. Many current reforms fail to thrive due to lack of trust, understanding, or cultural relevance to the community being targeted. The high turnover of reformers (superintendents, principals, or outside organizations) in high-need…

The Relationship Between Reformed Teaching and Students' Creativity in a Chinese Middle School

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Wu, Chenglin

Current education reform in both the United States and China promotes a reformed inquiry-based approach based on the constructivist learning theory. This study contributes to the research literature by exploring the relationship between reformed science teaching and students' creativity. Chinese education is often criticized for a lack of creativity by some news media (Stack, 2011). This study was designed to explore the creativity of students and the extent to which inquiry instruction is used in the science classroom. The study used a convenience sample of two classes from a middle school located in Wuhu city, Anhui province, China. A total of 120 students and 3 science teachers participated. A mixed-methods research approach was adopted for integrated explanation. Student surveys, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), Verbal, Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP), and semi-structured interview were utilized as research tools for collecting quantitative and qualitative data. The findings indicate that there was a positive relationship between reformed teaching and students' creativity (F (2, 117) = 19.760, pteaching but also revealed several challenges. The findings from the Verbal TTCT and classroom observation provided evidence of Chinese students' creativity. Directions for future research are provided.

Do American and Korean Education Systems Converge? Tracking School Reform Policies and Outcomes in Korea and the USA

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Lee, Jaekyung; Park, Daekwon

2014-01-01

This study examines key school reform policies and outcomes of the USA and Korea over the past three decades from comparative perspectives. Since the two nations' unique educational problems brought divergent educational reform paths--standardization versus differentiation, high-stakes testing versus individualized assessment, and centralization…

The Implementation of Entrepreneurship Education through Curriculum Reform in Finnish Comprehensive Schools

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Seikkula-Leino, Jaana

2011-01-01

How has entrepreneurship education been implemented in Finnish comprehensive schools. A two-part survey was undertaken in 43 municipalities with different educational and socio-economic backgrounds. The first part, in 2005, dealt with the local curriculum reform with a focus on the development of entrepreneurship education. The second part, in…

Curricular constraints, high-stakes testing and the reality of reform in high school science classrooms

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Coble, Jennifer

Through a series of open-ended interviews, this study investigated the beliefs of six third year high school science teachers about how they implement science education reform ideals in their practice and the contextual challenges they face as they attempt to implement reform. The teachers argue that the lack of connection between their curricula and students' lives serves as a significant obstacle to them utilizing more inquiry-based and student-centered strategies. In their science classes that are not subject to a high stakes exam, the teachers shared instances where they engage students in inquiry by refraining the focus of their curricula away from the decontextualized factual information and onto how the information relates to human experience. In their science classes subject to a high stakes test, however, the teachers confessed to feeling no choice but to utilize more teacher-centered strategies focused on information transmission. This study provides an in depth analysis of how the presence of high stakes tests discourages teachers from utilizing reform based teaching strategies within high school science classrooms.

The Meaning(s) of Teacher Leadership in an Urban High School Reform

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Scribner, Samantha M. Paredes; Bradley-Levine, Jill

2010-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the meaning of teacher leadership from teachers' perspectives. The authors examine teachers' practice of and talk about legitimate sources of power and influence in the context of an urban high school reform. Design: This is an interpretive study of teacher leadership situated in one small high…

Financial Market Implications of India’s Pension Reform

OpenAIRE

Helene Poirson Ward

2007-01-01

India's planned pension reform will set up a proper regulatory framework for the pension industry and open up the sector to private fund managers. Drawing on international experiences, the paper highlights pre-conditions for the reform to kick-start financial development, including: (i) the buildup of critical mass; (ii) sufficiently flexible investment guidelines and regulations, including on investments abroad; and (iii) concurrent reforms in capital markets. Given the limited scale of the ...

Reforming the Discipline Management Process in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Zero Tolerance

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Kajs, Lawrence T.

2006-01-01

There is a need for educational reform of zero tolerance policies in school disciplinary management procedures. Zero tolerance policies are rigid mandates of predetermined consequences for specific student misconduct. Common sense and fairness are not necessarily served by the application of inflexible disciplinary rules that do not address the…

Curriculum Reform in Higher Education: A Contested Space

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Shay, Suellen

2015-01-01

Drawing on the theoretical and analytical tools from the sociology of education, in particular the work of Basil Bernstein and Karl Maton, the paper explores the tensions within curriculum reform discourses and how these tensions play out in different global contexts. The analysis focuses on two curriculum reform policies--Hong Kong and South…

John Stuart Mill on Freedom, Education, and Social Reform.

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Carbone, Peter F.

1983-01-01

Examines the social philosophy of John Stuart Mill, emphasizing his views on freedom, education, and social reform. Considers Mill's individualism and reformism, the conflict between freedom and control that characterizes his work, and the importance of freedom and education. Suggests caution in drawing educational implications from his work. (DAB)

Neoliberalism as Nihilism? A Commentary on Educational Accountability, Teacher Education, and School Reform

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Tuck, Eve

2013-01-01

In this article, the author discusses neoliberalism as an extension of settler colonialism. The article provides commentary on five recent articles on teacher education and the neoliberal agenda. The article presents an analysis of neoliberalism as despair, and as a form of nihilism. The author discusses an indigenous model of school reform and…

A logic of “linking learning”: Leadership practices across schools, subject departments and classrooms

OpenAIRE

Wayne Melville; Ian Hardy; Molly Weinburgh; Anthony Bartley

2014-01-01

This article considers the roles of school leaders, a departmental-level leader and a teacher in implementing a reform within a school, and the nature of the relations between the groups and individuals that attended this process. Drawing upon Bourdieu’s “thinking tools”, the article analyses the nature of the leadership practices surrounding the implementation of a single-sex mathematics class from the perspective of key participants in the change process: two school-level leaders, one depar...

The Hope for American School Reform: The Cold War Pursuit of Inquiry Learning in Social Studies

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Evans, Ronald W.

2010-01-01

As the issue of school reform grows ever more intense, it is imperative that we learn what we can from previous efforts. The new social studies was a 1960's attempt to transform the teaching of history and the social sciences in schools. With origins in the Cold War, the movement sought to develop critical thinkers through "inquiry" and…

Massachusetts health reform: employer coverage from employees' perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Long, Sharon K; Stockley, Karen

2009-01-01

The national health reform debate continues to draw on Massachusetts' 2006 reform initiative, with a focus on sustaining employer-sponsored insurance. This study provides an update on employers' responses under health reform in fall 2008, using data from surveys of working-age adults. Results show that concerns about employers' dropping coverage or scaling back benefits under health reform have not been realized. Access to employer coverage has increased, as has the scope and quality of their coverage as assessed by workers. However, premiums and out-of-pocket costs have become more of an issue for employees in small firms.

Mathematics training for the teaching of basic knowledge in times of teaching school reform of Parana (Year 1920

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Iara da Silva França

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract The article discusses the mathematical training of primary teachers in Paraná and aims to understand how elementary mathematical knowledge was included in the reform carried out by Lysimaco Ferreira da Costa, in the 1920’s and directed by Prieto Martinez for the modernization of the state’s primary education. Supported by theoretical and methodological framework of cultural history, this study is guided by the question: Considering the Reform of teaching school and thinking about the mathematics education of Paraná teachers, what has changed, why has it changed and what for? With the reform subjects more focused on practical teaching in primary school were introduced, and that favored the renewal of teaching methods and teaching resources, curriculum reorganization which reflected in the quality of Math education of future teachers in the state’s primary education. Keywords: Mathematics Teaching. Primary Education Teacher. History of Education.

Informing principal policy reforms in South Africa through data-based evidence

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Gabrielle Wills

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the past decade there has been a notable shift in South African education policy that raises the value of school leadership as a lever for learning improvements. Despite a growing discourse on school leadership, there has been a lack of empirical based evidence on principals to inform, validate or debate the efficacy of proposed policies in raising the calibre of school principals. Drawing on findings from a larger study to understand the labour market for school principals in South Africa, this paper highlights four overarching characteristics of this market with implications for informing principal policy reforms. The paper notes that improving the design and implementation of policies guiding the appointment process for principals is a matter of urgency. A substantial and increasing number of principal replacements are taking place across South African schools given a rising age profile of school principals. In a context of low levels of principal mobility and high tenure, the leadership trajectory of the average school is established for nearly a decade with each principal replacement. Evidence-based policy making has a strong role to play in getting this right.

The 1921 Agrarian Reform in Transylvania and its Reflection in the Considerations of the Members of the Bucharest School of Sociology

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TELEGDY, Balázs

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The 1921 agrarian reform aimed to be a significant step towards Romania’s agricultural development. The main motive of this reform – at least on a declarative level – was a socially oriented one: to expropriate a part of the big landowners’ estates, and to distribute in among the poverty-stricken people, with a special concern towards the First World War veterans, or their widows. At the same time, the agrarian reform recognised the differences in development between the different regions of the newly-formed Greater Romania, and as such there were two different laws regulating the reform processes in the Old Kingdom and in the newly annexed territories. The members of the Bucharest School of Sociology, based on the scarce data available to them to the time, approached the economically questionable results of this reform in a critical manner. József Venczel, who had acquired the bases of his professional knowledge at the same school, also proves, with regard to the Transylvanian land reform, that this had a second, national policy oriented goal, and its implementation was also ethnically biased.

Elementary school teachers perspective about educative reform in Zacatecas, México

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Elizabeth Cristina Bañuelos Sánchez

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The results of a research carried out in the state of Zacatecas, México, aiming at probing teachers perceptions about the Educative Reform (RE to elementary school education approved in 2013 in the country are presented. Structural reforms served as the research theoretical frame and are the starting point to analyze changes that reorganized educative institutions in general. The information gathering was conducted by an interview with open answers, focusing on the aspects which have direct effects on teachers: evaluation, entry requirements and the job continuity. The results show that most teachers do not oppose the evaluation, provided that it is used as a tool for improving their teaching practice. Yet they do mistrust the transparency of the system, since they consider that the RE is a hidden mechanism to fire teachers, instead of a mechanism to improve the quality of education.

Education Governance for the Twenty-First Century: Overcoming the Structural Barriers to School Reform

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Manna, Paul, Ed.; McGuinn, Patrick, Ed.

2013-01-01

America's fragmented, decentralized, politicized, and bureaucratic system of education governance is a major impediment to school reform. In this important new book, a number of leading education scholars, analysts, and practitioners show that understanding the impact of specific policy changes in areas such as standards, testing, teachers, or…

Big Business as a Policy Innovator in State School Reform: A Minnesota Case Study.

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Mazzoni, Tim L.; Clugston, Richard M., Jr.

1987-01-01

The Minnesota Business Partnership (MBP) was studied as a policy innovator in state school reform (for kindergarten through grade 12) in relation to agenda setting, alternative formulation, and authoritative enactment. Focus is on the MBP's policy-making involvement during the 1985 state legislative session. Overall, the MBP's influence was…

TRANSFERABILITY OF ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS: NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AS AN EXAMPLE

OpenAIRE

Kapucu, Naim; Kösecik, Muhammet

2002-01-01

This article begins with the examination of models of analyzing the process of policy transfer, lesson drawing and policy streams with regard to initiating and directing factors and dynamics of the process. The paper continues with the assessment of administrative reform transferring by evaluating the necessity, major themes and transferability of administrative reform. Strategies for successful administrative reform transferring are emphasized. Special reference is given to New Public Manage...

Ensouling the Beatific Vision. Motivating the Reformed Impulse

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Farris Joshua R.

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The beatific vision is a subject of considerable importance both in the Christian Scriptures and in the history of Christian dogmatics. In it, humans experience and see the perfect immaterial God, which represents the final end for the saints. However, this doctrine has received less attention in the contemporary theological literature, arguably, due in part to the growing trend toward materialism and the sole emphasis on bodily resurrection in Reformed eschatology. As a piece of retrieval by drawing from the Scriptures, Medieval Christianity, and Reformed Christianity, we motivate a case for the Reformed emphasis on the immaterial and intellectual aspects of human personal eschatology and offer some constructive thoughts on how to link it to the contemporary emphasis of the body. We draw a link between the soul and the body in the vision with the help of Christology as reflected in the theology of John Calvin, and, to a greater extent, the theology of both John Owen and Jonathan Edwards.

The "Hollywoodization" of Education Reform in "Won't Back Down"

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Goering, Christian Z.; Witte, Shelbie; Jennings Davis, Jennifer; Ward, Peggy; Flammang, Brandon; Gerhardson, Ashley

2015-01-01

What happens when forces attempting to privatize education create and produce a Hollywood film with an education reform plot line? This essay explores "Won't Back Down" through cultural studies and progressive education lenses in an effort to unveil misrepresentations of education and education reform. Drawing on scholarship in these…

Changes in educational inequalities in Poland. Comments on Zbigniew Sawiński’s article “Education reform and inequality: fifteen years of new lower secondary schools in Poland”

OpenAIRE

MICHAŁ SITEK

2017-01-01

In his text published in Edukacja, 141(2), 2017 („Education reform and inequality: fifteen years of new lower secondary schools in Poland”), Zbigniew Sawiński analyses data from the 2000 to 2012 editions of the OECD PISA study and argues that lower secondary school reform has not reduced educational inequalities in Poland. The importance of students’ social origin remained at the same level as before the reform, the impact of social origin on the choice of type of secondary school remained th...

Sponsors of Policy: A Network Analysis of Wealthy Elites, Their Affiliated Philanthropies, and Charter School Reform in Washington State

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Au, Wayne; Ferrare, Joseph J.

2014-01-01

Background/Context: Charter school policy has evolved into a major component of the current education reform movement in the United States. As of 2012, all but nine U.S. states allowed charter schools, and in one of those nine, Washington State, charter school legislation was passed by popular vote in November 2012. There is a substantial, if…

Comprehensive School Reform Models: A Study Guide for Comparing CSR Models (and How Well They Meet Minnesota's Learning Standards).

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St. John, Edward P.; Loescher, Siri; Jacob, Stacy; Cekic, Osman; Kupersmith, Leigh; Musoba, Glenda Droogsma

A growing number of schools are exploring the prospect of applying for funding to implement a Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) model. But the process of selecting a CSR model can be complicated because it frequently involves self-study and a review of models to determine which models best meet the needs of the school. This study guide is intended…

Autonomy and Accountability in Standards-Based Reform

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Susan Watson

2001-08-01

Full Text Available In this article we discuss the effects of one urban school district's efforts to increase the autonomy and accountability of schools and teams of teachers through a standards-based reform known as team- based schooling. Team-based schooling is designed to devolve decision-making authority down to the school level by increasing teachers' autonomy to make decisions. Increased accountability is enacted in the form of a state-level standards-based initiative. Based on our evaluation over a two-year period involving extensive fieldwork and quantitative analysis, we describe the ways that teachers, teams and school administrators responded to the implementation of team-based schooling. What are the effects of increasing school-level autonomy and accountability in the context of standards- based reform? Our analysis highlights several issues: the "lived reality" of teaming as it interacts with the existing culture within schools, the ways that teachers respond to the pressures created by increased internal and external accountability, and the effects of resource constraints on the effectiveness of implementation. We conclude by using our findings to consider more broadly the trade-off between increased autonomy and accountability on which standards-based reforms like team-based schooling are based.

Responding to Children's Drawings

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Watts, Robert

2010-01-01

This article aims to explore the issues that face primary school teachers when responding to children's drawings. Assessment in art and design is an ongoing concern for teachers with limited experience and confidence in the area and, although children's drawings continue to be a focus of much research, the question of what it is that teachers say…

On school choice and test-based accountability.

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Damian W. Betebenner

2005-10-01

Full Text Available Among the two most prominent school reform measures currently being implemented in The United States are school choice and test-based accountability. Until recently, the two policy initiatives remained relatively distinct from one another. With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, a mutualism between choice and accountability emerged whereby school choice complements test-based accountability. In the first portion of this study we present a conceptual overview of school choice and test-based accountability and explicate connections between the two that are explicit in reform implementations like NCLB or implicit within the market-based reform literature in which school choice and test-based accountability reside. In the second portion we scrutinize the connections, in particular, between school choice and test-based accountability using a large western school district with a popular choice system in place. Data from three sources are combined to explore the ways in which school choice and test-based accountability draw on each other: state assessment data of children in the district, school choice data for every participating student in the district choice program, and a parental survey of both participants and non-participants of choice asking their attitudes concerning the use of school report cards in the district. Results suggest that choice is of benefit academically to only the lowest achieving students, choice participation is not uniform across different ethnic groups in the district, and parents' primary motivations as reported on a survey for participation in choice are not due to test scores, though this is not consistent with choice preferences among parents in the district. As such, our results generally confirm the hypotheses of choice critics more so than advocates. Keywords: school choice; accountability; student testing.

Ethnic Differences in the Goodenough-Harris Draw-a-Man and Draw-a-Woman Tests.

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Dugdale, A. E.; Chen, S. T.

1979-01-01

The draw-a-man (DAM) and draw-a-woman (DAW) tests were given to 307 school children in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. The children were ethnically Malay, Chinese, or Indian (Tamil), and all came from lower socioeconomic groups. Journal availability: British Medical Journal, 1172 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02134. (Author)

Proactive educational reforms in South Korea: Schools for Improvement and multicultural education

OpenAIRE

Lee, Hye-Won

2014-01-01

Introduction This paper discusses the educational issues and societal changes that have led to proactive reforms in the education system of South Korea. Korean pupils achieve high academic levels, but there have been some criticisms relating to sociocultural issues. In addition, Korea is being transformed into a multicultural society. Here we consider two examples of Korea’s educational interventions, introduced in response to contextual demands and societal changes: firstly, the Schools for...

The Impact of School Finance Litigation on Resource Distribution: A Comparison of Court-Mandated Equity and Adequacy Reforms

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Springer, Matthew G.; Liu, Keke; Guthrie, James W.

2009-01-01

While there is a wealth of research on school finance equity and adequacy, and school finance theory clearly documents differences between the two concepts, no study has examined whether the reforms engendered by each approach actually differ in terms of resource distribution. The present study examines the issues using district-level data on…

Dewey and Italian School Policy: Proposals for Reform by Scuola e Città (1950–1960

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Andrea Mariuzzo

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The paper analyses the role of Ernesto Codignola’s «Florence School of Pedagogy» in the renewal of Italian democratic and secular education after World War II, particularly its commitment to the diffusion of John Dewey’s educational thinking across Italy, previously dominated by the influence of traditional neo-idealism. Through a systematic analysis of the journal Scuola e Città, the group’s mouthpiece, the paper highlights the importance of Dewey’s ideas in the elaboration of educational policy proposals and potential legislative measures for school reform. It analyses the extent to which the «Deweyan laboratory» in Florence contributed to the emergence and foundation of the positions held by one of its exponents, Ernesto Codignola’s son Tristano – the Italian Socialist Party’s Education minister, in the parliamentary debate of the Sixties. The paper focuses on three main themes: (i assessment of the government’s primary school curricula, drawn up in the mid-fifties, characterized by an overhaul of the existing educational practices, which Scuola e città authors considered to be insufficient and contradictory; (ii universal access to a junior secondary education along the lines of the comprehensive school model to guide the active stimulation of students’ abilities and interests; and (iii school administration reform in response to the persistence of pre-war centralism and the authoritarian character of traditional Italian pedagogy.

Using Symbolic Interactionism to Analyze a Specialized STEM High School Teacher's Experience in Curriculum Reform

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Teo, Tang Wee; Osborne, Margery

2012-01-01

In this paper, we present a microanalysis of a specialized STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) high school teacher's experience of self-initiated science inquiry curriculum reform. We examine the meanings of these two constructs: "inquiry curriculum" and "curriculum change" through the process lens of interactions, actions,…

A School in Every Village: Educational Reform in a Northeast China County, 1904-31. Contemporary Chinese Studies Series

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VanderVen, Elizabeth R.

2012-01-01

In the early 1900s, the Qing dynasty implemented a series of institutional reforms to shore up its power. The most important were a nationwide school system and the abolition of the centuries-old civil examinations. "A School in Every Village" recounts how villagers and local state officials in Haicheng County enacted orders to establish…

Using Assessment to Drive the Reform of Schooling: Time to Stop Pursuing the Chimera?

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Torrance, Harry

2011-01-01

Internationally, over the last 20-30 years, changing the procedures and processes of assessment has come to be seen, by many educators as well as policy-makers, as a way to frame the curriculum and drive the reform of schooling. Such developments have often been manifested in large scale, high stakes testing programmes. At the same time…

Community Responses to School Reform in Chicago: Opportunities for Local Stakeholder Engagement. A Report by Public Agenda for the Joyce Foundation

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Public Agenda, 2012

2012-01-01

This is a report on how community stakeholders, including parents, teachers, community leaders and advocates, think about current efforts by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to "turn around" Chicago's lowest-performing schools, and their expectations for future school reform actions. It was prepared by Public Agenda, with support from the…

Regulatory Autonomy and Performance: The Reform of Higher Education Re-Visited

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Enders, Jurgen; de Boer, Harry; Weyer, Elke

2013-01-01

The main aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of organizational autonomy and control in higher education reform and related expectations as regards the performance of universities. Our analyses draws on principal-agent models as a normative theory of policy reform, and institutionalist approaches in public policy and…

Mediating Global Reforms Locally: A Study of the Enabling Conditions for Promoting Active Learning in a Maldivian Island School

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Di Biase, Rhonda

2017-01-01

This paper explores active learning reform in the small state of the Maldives. Acknowledging the implementation challenges of active learning approaches globally, the study explored the policy-practice intersection by examining the experiences of one island school and its approach to promoting active learning pedagogy. The school was selected for…

Cooperation and trust in the context of decentralization reforms in rural Tanzania

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Masanyiwa, Z.S.; Niehof, A.; Termeer, C.J.A.M.

2014-01-01

This paper investigates the impact of decentralization reforms on cooperation and trust at the village level in Tanzania, using a gender perspective. The paper draws on survey and qualitative data from ten villages in two rural districts. The findings show that the reforms have revitalized 'formal’

The transnational grip on Scandinavian education reforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krejsler, John B.; Olsson, Ulf; Petersson, Kenneth

2014-01-01

This article reveals how templates that emerge from opaque albeit often inclusive policy processes in transnational forums (EU, OECD & the Bologna Process) affect education reform policy in Scandinavian countries, such as Denmark and Sweden. The open method of coordination is the mother template...... of the political technologies (standards, performance indicators, scorecards, best practices) that are instrumental in fashioning reforms. This template commits countries in consensus-making ways to comparison, and normalizes the competitive incentive of mutual peer pressure. The authors draw on post...

Improving Finance for Qatari Education Reform. Research Brief

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Guarino, Cassandra M.; Galama, Titus; Constant, Louay; Gonzalez, Gabriella; Tanner, Jeffery C.; Goldman, Charles A.

2009-01-01

Qatar's education reform, which included implementation of a new finance system, appears to be providing schools with adequate funding but is still struggling with issues of transparency and swift policy shifts that have been difficult to accommodate. [For full report, "Developing a School Finance System for K-12 Reform in Qatar", see…

Critical Race Feminism and the Complex Challenges of Educational Reform

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Childers-McKee, Cherese D.; Hytten, Kathy

2015-01-01

Throughout the past several decades, there has been an abundance of research about school reform, particularly in schools predominated by students of color and students experiencing poverty. Critics acknowledge that many reform efforts have failed and comprehensive solutions to school change remain elusive. In this article, we provide an overview…

On being African and Reformed? Towards an African Reformed ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2014-06-17

Jun 17, 2014 ... It is furthermore our contention that the notion of culture and African worldviews was always perceived negatively ..... dean of the South East Asia Graduate School of Theology. He later .... Another Reformed church for Indian.

International Aspects of Nigeria's Economic Reforms | Iyoha ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper attempts to draw a relationship between Nigeria's previous failed economic reforms and external influences from international financial institutions, which had constantly resulted in chronic economic misfortunes. Now that homegrown economic programmes are currently being undertaken in Africa through ...

"Seeing" the School Reform Elephant: Connecting Policy Makers, Parents, Practioners, and Students.

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Wagner, Tony; Sconyers, Nancy

This report is part of a multi-year project conducted by the Institute for Responsive Education (IRE) and Boston University components of the Center on Families, Communities, Schools and Children's Learning. The report draws on results of a series of focus groups and interviews conducted in 1994 and 1995 to explore how policymakers and parents,…

High School Principal Transformational Leadership Behaviors and Teacher Extra Effort during Educational Reform: The Mediating Role of Teacher Agency Beliefs

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Boberg, John Eric

2013-01-01

Transformational leadership has been shown to affect organizational commitment, capacity development, and performance. However, these relationships have received very little attention in schools, especially high schools in the United States that are experiencing educational reform initiatives under No Child Left Behind. Using a sample of 1403 high…

From Government to Governance: Teach for India and New Networks of Reform in School Education

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Subramanian, Vidya K.

2018-01-01

The Teach for India (TFI) programme, an important offshoot of the Teach for All/Teach for America global education network, began as a public-private partnership in 2009 in poorly functioning municipal schools in Pune and Mumbai. Like its American counterpart, the programme in India has similar ideas of reform and recruits college graduates and…

The pedagogical and ethical legacy of a "successful" educational reform: The Citizen School Project

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Fischman, Gustavo E.; Gandin, Luis Armando

2016-02-01

The Citizen School Project (Escola Cidadã) was implemented from 1993 to 2004 in Porto Alegre, capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. This article presents the conception behind the Citizen School Project, the basic mechanisms created to implement and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, and some of its contradictions. After contextualising the educational reforms in Brazil during the 1980s and 1990s, the authors demonstrate how the Citizen School Project's emphasis on participation and democratisation was a radical departure from Brazil's traditional public education system. Next, they present the three main goals and structures of the Citizen School Project - democratisation of access to schools, democratisation of schools' administration, and democratisation of access to knowledge. They conclude by discussing some pedagogic, social and political dynamics which appear to be strong legacies of this pedagogical project. The authors also argue that the Citizen School Project has both improved the quality of education in Porto Alegre and is an important contribution to our collective thinking about the politics of "successful" educational policies.

Maternal state of mind regarding attachment, maternal depression and children's family drawings in the early school years.

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Fihrer, Irene; McMahon, Cathy

2009-11-01

The current study explored how children's family drawings in the early school years might be related to their exposure to recurrent episodes of maternal depression. We also examined prospectively relations among maternal state of mind regarding attachment derived from the Adult Attachment Interview and earlier mother-child attachment from the Strange Situation Procedure (both measured when the child was 12-15 months old) and later family drawings. Seventy-five mothers were assessed for symptoms of depression periodically between birth and child age 6-8 years. At this age, children completed a family drawing rated using an attachment-based scoring system. Both mothers' state of mind regarding attachment and their overall depression were modestly, but significantly, correlated with a global rating of the child's drawings. When both predictors were considered together, however, neither was significant, reflecting collinearity between the two variables. In this study, women with a non-autonomous state of mind regarding attachment were significantly more likely to experience recurrent depression. The earlier classification of the child's attachment to the mother from the Strange Situation Procedure was not related to the family drawing.

Reforming the 4th-Year Curriculum as a Springboard to Graduate Medical Training: One School's Experiences and Lessons Learned.

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Wackett, Andrew; Daroowalla, Feroza; Lu, Wei-Hsin; Chandran, Latha

2016-01-01

Concerns regarding the quality of training in the 4th year of medical school and preparation of graduates to enter residency education persist and are borne out in the literature. We reviewed the published literature regarding Year 4 concerns as well as institutional efforts to improve the 4th-year curriculum from several schools. Based on input from key stakeholders, we established 4 goals for our Year 4 curriculum reform: (a) standardize the curricular structure, (b) allow flexibility and individualization, (c) improve the preparation for residency, and (d) improve student satisfaction. After the reform, we evaluated the outcomes using results from the Association of American Medical Colleges Questionnaire, student focus groups, and program director surveys. This article describes the context, process, and outcomes of the reform of the Year 4 curriculum at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. We were able to achieve all four stated goals for the reform. The significant components of the change included a flexible adaptable curriculum based on individual needs and preferences, standardized learning objectives across the year, standardized competency-based evaluations regardless of discipline, reinforcement of clinical skills, and training for the transition to the workplace as an intern. The reform resulted in increased student satisfaction, increased elective time, and increased preparedness for residency training as perceived by the graduates. The Program Director survey showed significant changes in ability to perform a medical history and exam, management of common medical conditions and emergencies, clinical reasoning and problem-solving skills, working and communication with the healthcare team, and overall professionalism in meeting obligations inherent in the practice of medicine. Lessons learned from our 4th-year reform process are discussed. Listening to the needs of the stakeholders was an important step in ensuring buy-in, having an institutional

Education Reform in Hong Kong

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Chris Dowson

2000-05-01

Full Text Available Since the early 1990s, the pace of educational reform in Hong Kong has accelerated and broadened to incorporate almost all areas of schooling. The reforms introduced during this period can be subsumed under what has generally been labelled the quality movement. In this paper, we review and comment on a number of policy reform initiatives in the four areas of "Quality Education," English Language Benchmarking, Initial Teacher Training and the Integration of Pupils with Special Needs into Ordinary Classrooms. Following a brief description of each policy initiative, the reforms are discussed in terms of their consistency, coherence and cultural fit.

Changes in educational inequalities in Poland. Comments on Zbigniew Sawiński’s article “Education reform and inequality: fifteen years of new lower secondary schools in Poland”

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MICHAŁ SITEK

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In his text published in Edukacja, 141(2, 2017 („Education reform and inequality: fifteen years of new lower secondary schools in Poland”, Zbigniew Sawiński analyses data from the 2000 to 2012 editions of the OECD PISA study and argues that lower secondary school reform has not reduced educational inequalities in Poland. The importance of students’ social origin remained at the same level as before the reform, the impact of social origin on the choice of type of secondary school remained the same, and an increasing differentiation of lower secondary schools did not lead to an increase in educational inequalities. I present methodological arguments and the results of a re-analysis of PISA data, indicating changes in wider educational inequalities. Between 2000 and 2012: (a the strength of association in the performance of 15-year-olds with the socio-economic status of students’ families did not change, but (b the variation of results decreased, which was mainly due to the improved performance of the lowest performing students, (c the differences between students of high and low socio-economic status decreased, (d the influence of social origin on the choice of the type of upper secondary school decreased. The effects of socio-economic status on upper secondary school choice is largely direct: it is not mediated by the educational achievements of students. The commentary also highlights the complexity of lower secondary school reform, which was not limited to the introduction of such schools. I indicate the role of factors that make it difficult to interpret the results of the reform in causal terms – particularly the role of unobserved variables related to the changes in the learning environments of subsequent cohorts of students.

Turning Lightning into Electricity: Organizing Parents for Education Reform

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Kelly, Andrew P.

2014-01-01

Families are the primary clients of public schools, but they are one of many constituencies who have a say in how schools actually operate. In all the technocratic fervor around "education reform"--the broad effort to implement standards and accountability, reform teacher tenure and evaluation, and increase parental choice--it is easy to…

Multicultural Music Education in Singapore Primary Schools: An Analysis of the Applications of a Specialist Professional Development in Practical Music Teaching

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Costes-Onishi, Pamela; Lum, Chee Hoo

2015-01-01

Multicultural music education is often approached simply through the exposure of students to different world musics. This "cultural supermarket" approach to teaching diversity in the classrooms is re-examined in this study by drawing attention to the need for a broader curriculum reform. Using the Singapore primary school music teachers…

Electricity reform in developing and transition countries: A reappraisal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, J.H.; Ghanadan, R.

2006-01-01

Since about 1990, many developing and transition countries have undertaken market-oriented reforms in their electric power sectors. Despite the widespread adoption of a standard policy model, reform processes and outcomes have often failed to meet expectations. Drawing on an extensive literature review and case studies in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, this paper describes common features of non-OECD electricity reform and reappraises reform policies and underlying assumptions. Comparison with the sector-focused policy goals of deregulation in OECD countries highlights the importance of national fiscal crises, macroeconomic reforms, and persuasion by multilateral lenders in shaping non-OECD reforms. It also makes clear reform's dependence on attracting foreign capital, and consequent vulnerability to volatile international financial conditions. Case studies of Bolivia, Ghana, India, Poland, and Thailand illustrate reform's diverse pathways and problems in different settings. A broad range of non-OECD reform experiences indicates that disappointing results have often resulted from a narrow focus on finance and cost recovery, inflexibly applied. The paper concludes that improving reform will require emphasizing a broader set of objectives, including service provision, public benefits, effective regulation, and social/political legitimacy. Above all, reforms must be based on realistic assessments of national needs and capabilities. (author)

Business Registration Reform Case Studies : Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Olaisen, John

2009-01-01

This collection of case studies describes experiences and draws lessons from varied business registration reform programs in economies in vastly different stages of development: Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, Madagascar, and Malaysia. Over the last twenty years, a number of countries have recognized the importance of smooth and efficient business start up procedures. A functioning business re...

The effect of three different educational approaches on children's drawing ability: Steiner, Montessori and traditional.

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Cox, M V; Rowlands, A

2000-12-01

Although there is a national curriculum for art education in the UK there are also alternative approaches in the private sector. This paper addresses the issue of the effect of these approaches on children's drawing ability. To compare the drawing ability in three drawing tasks of children in Steiner, Montessori and traditional schools. The participants were 60 school children between the ages of 5;11 and 7;2. Twenty children were tested in each type of school. Each child completed three drawings: a free drawing, a scene and an observational drawing. As predicted, the free and scene drawings of children in the Steiner school were rated more highly than those of children in Montessori and traditional schools. Steiner children's use of colour was also rated more highly, although they did not use more colours than the other children. Steiner children used significantly more fantasy topics in their free drawings. Further observation indicated that the Steiner children were better at using the whole page and organising their drawings into a scene; their drawings were also more detailed. Contrary to previous research Montessori children did not draw more inanimate objects and geometrical shapes or fewer people than other children. Also, contrary to the prediction, Steiner children were significantly better rather than worse than other children at observational drawing. The results suggest that the approach to art education in Steiner schools is conducive not only to more highly rated imaginative drawings in terms of general drawing ability and use of colour but also to more accurate and detailed observational drawings.

Prospect Theory and Public Service Outcomes: When do Citizen Prefer Risky Reforms to Reforms with Certain Outcomes?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bækgaard, Martin

Prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky 1979; Tversky and Kahneman 1992) has been widely acknowledged in the social sciences as a potential frame for understanding how people deal with uncertainty. Yet, little is known about whether key expectations from prospect theory also hold in a complex public...... service setting with outcomes in multiple dimensions. In this paper I draw on prospect theory to examine under what conditions citizens prefer uncertain – but potentially advantageous – reforms to reforms with more certain outcomes. Using a population based survey experiment with participation of 1......,395 Danish citizens I find support for some of the expectations derived from prospect theory while the evidence is in outright opposition to the expectations in other instances. Most notably, I find that that citizens are more willing to take risks if reforms are associated with gains than...

Factors affecting science reform: Bridging the gap between reform initiatives and teaching practices

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Pensak, Karl John

In response to the perceived deficiencies in science education today, and to the expressed need for research into the culture of schools (due primarily to the failure of many science reforms in the past), this study used a broad based approach to study the gap between science education research and science education practice. This study identified 47 factors that may encourage or inhibit science curriculum reform. A survey was conducted to determine which factors were perceived to be important by local and national K-12 classroom teachers, science supervisors/coordinators, and college/university professors. Continual staff development (scheduled as part of teachers' work day/week/month), funding (for long-term staff development, teacher training and support, science laboratory facilities and materials), teacher motivation and "ownership" of the reform, the need for collaborative opportunities for classroom teachers, teachers' college preparation, textbook reform, community support, and reform initiatives that are "in tune" with assessment, are major factors identified as having a substantial affect on the successful adoption, implementation, and institutionalization of science reforms.

Interactions of selected policy-stakeholder groups implementing middle school science standards-based systemic reform

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Boydston, Theodore Lewis, III

1999-12-01

This research is an interpretive inquiry into the views and interactions of stakeholders in a district office of a large school system responsible for implementing science systemic reform. Three major sources of data were used in this research: surveys, stakeholder interviews, and autobiographical reflection on experiences as part of the reform initiative. This is an emergent research that is evident in the shift in the focus of research questions and their supporting assumptions during the research. The literature review describes standards-based reform, arguments about reform, and the major dimensions of reform research. The results of the survey of stakeholders revealed that the views among the stakeholder groups followed the system hierarchy and could be separated into two large groups; staff responsible for implementing the reform initiative and the other stakeholder groups. Each of these groups was composed of identifiable subgroups. The interviews with stakeholders revealed how their different attitudes, values, and beliefs frame the context of stakeholder interactions. An over reliance on an authoritarian view of decision-making leaves many stakeholders feeling disempowered and critical of others. This atmosphere promotes blaming, which inhibits collegial interaction. Work experiences in the district office revealed how stakeholders' unaddressed assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs promote fragmentation and competition rather than cooperation. Hidden assumptions about management by control and mandate, competition, and teaching and learning appear to restrain the interactions of stakeholders. Support of the National Science Education Standards was identified as a unifying view among the stakeholders, yet the professional development program focused on content and pedagogical knowledge without addressing stakeholder concerns and beliefs about the intended constructivist framework of the program. Stakeholders' attitudes about the issue of equity demonstrated

What do school principals do to overcome the challenges of implementing a new senior secondary curriculum in Hong Kong?

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Edith Lai

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to identify the challenges facing school principals as they engaged in implementing a curriculum reform in Hong Kong. Based on interview data of school principals, this paper shows three major types of implementation challenges facing school principals, namely curriculum planning, catering for learner diversity, and managing change. Drawing on the concept of ‘exploiting situated possibilities’, this paper further shows how these school principals explored and exploited possibilities in and around the school contexts to overcome the implementation challenges, as one way to strengthen the schools’ capacity for change. Implications for developing efficacious principal leadership in school capacity building are discussed.

Constructivism and Pedagogical Reform in China: Issues and Challenges

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Tan, Charlene

2017-01-01

This article critically discusses the constructivist ideas, assumptions and practices that undergird the current pedagogical reform in China. The pedagogical reform is part of a comprehensive curriculum reform that has been introduced across schools in Mainland China. Although the official documents did not specify the underpinning theories for…

Survey of Attitudes towards Curriculum Reforms among Medical Teachersin Different Socio-economic and Cultural Environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dahl, Mads Ronald

2007-01-01

Curriculum reforms in medical schools require cultural and conceptual changes from the faculty. We assessed attitudes towards curriculum reforms in different academic, economic, and social environments among 776 teachers from 2 Western European medical schools (Belgium and Denmark) and 7 medical...... schools in 3 countries in post-communist transition (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The survey included a 5-point Likert-type scale on attitudes towards reforms in general and towards reforms of medical curriculum (10 items each). Teaching staff from medical schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina...... had more positive attitude towards reforms of medical curriculum (mean score 36.8 out of maximum 50 [95% CI 36.1 to 37.3]) than those from medical schools in Croatia or Slovenia (30.7 [29.8 to 31.6]) or Western Europe (27.7 [27.1 to 28.3]) (Pattitudes...

Using symbolic interactionism to analyze a specialized STEM high school teacher's experience in curriculum reform

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Teo, Tang Wee; Osborne, Margery

2012-09-01

In this paper, we present a microanalysis of a specialized STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) high school teacher's experience of self-initiated science inquiry curriculum reform. We examine the meanings of these two constructs: inquiry curriculum and curriculum change through the process lens of interactions, actions, and interpretations. Symbolic interactionism is the theoretical framework we used to frame our analysis of how this teacher, Darren Daley (a pseudonym) and various stakeholders purposefully and strategically engaged in "face-work" and act out lines of actions to advocate or oppose curriculum change. Symbols are used in this world of face-to-face encounters to communicate, imply, and assert, meanings through socially flexible and adjustable processes. We scrutinize how Daley (un)consciously engaged all of these to defend his decisions, actions, and outcomes and "look" to others as doing inquiry reform. The meanings of such work are not intrinsically driven or reactions to psychological and extraneous factors and forces, but emergent through interactions. The data collection methods include interviews with Daley, school administrators, students, and parents, lesson observations in Daley's class, and gathering of school website pages, brochures, and curriculum materials. We represent data in narratives describing storied history, voices, interactions, anecdotal accounts from individuals' experiences, and interpretations. The analysis and findings illuminate the nature of teacher agency—how it is reclaimed, sustained, reinforced, contested, exercised, and modified in more nuanced ways, hence offering an alternative lens to theorizing and empirically analyzing this construct.

Business Curriculum and Assessment Reform in Hong Kong Schools: A Critical Review from a Competence-Based Perspective

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Yu, Christina Wai Mui

2010-01-01

From September 2009 onwards, a new business curriculum which focuses on three key business disciplines, namely management, accounting and finance, has been implemented in Hong Kong senior secondary schools. A new assessment guide has been also proposed in light of the new curriculum. Such business curriculum and assessment reform move in the…

America Y2K: The Obsolescence of Educational Reforms

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Sherman Dorn

2000-01-01

Full Text Available The passing of the deadline for fulfillment of the national education goals in the United States (the beginning of 2000 reflects the frequently hyperbolic statements of objectives and the manic pace of school reform efforts over the past two decades. The domination by schools of child and family life has combined with a longstanding reliance on schools to solve social problems to make school reform a politically opportune as well as visible issue. Thus, even if the phrasing of national education goals in the U.S. changes to reflect the passing of the nominal deadline, those pressures will remain.

Education Reform: Ten Years after the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993

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Linda Driscoll, Joseph B. Berger, Ronald K. Hambleton, Lisa A. Keller, Robert W. Maloy, David Hart, Paul Oh, Victoria Getis, Susan Bowles, Francis L. Gougeon, Kathryn A. McDermott, Andrew Churchill

2005-02-01

Full Text Available In June 1993, Governor William Weld signed into law the Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA. MERA greatly increased the state role both in funding public education and in guiding the local educational process. The state’s role changed to incorporate setting curriculum frameworks and holding schools accountable for student performance. Because MERA was designed to be a systemic reform of education, all of the various state activities and policies needed to fit together into a coherent whole based on state educational standards.

Misrecognition and science education reform

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Brandt, Carol B.

2012-09-01

In this forum, I expand upon Teo and Osborne's discussion of teacher agency and curriculum reform. I take up and build upon their analysis to further examine one teacher's frustration in enacting an inquiry-based curriculum and his resulting accommodation of an AP curriculum. In this way I introduce the concept of misrecognition (Bourdieu and Passeron 1977) to open up new ways of thinking about science inquiry and school reform.

K-5 mentor teachers' journeys toward reform-oriented science within a professional development school context

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Manno, Jacqueline L.

Reform-oriented science teaching with a specific focus on evidence and explanation provides a student-centered learning environment which encourages children to question, seek answers to those questions, experience phenomena, share ideas, and develop explanations of science concepts based on evidence. One of the ways schools have risen to meet the challenge of ever-increasing demands for success in science and all other curricular areas has been in the development of professional development schools (PDSs). Dedicated to the simultaneous renewal of schools and teacher education programs, the structure of a PDS plays a significant role in the change process. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the nature of change in mentor teachers' beliefs and pedagogical practices toward science teaching in the elementary school as conveyed through their own "stories of practice". The major research questions that guided the study were: (1) How do mentor teachers describe their science teaching practices and how have they changed as a result of participation in PDS? (a) In what ways do PDS mentor teachers' descriptions of practice reflect contemporary reform ideas and practices in science education? (b) To what extent do their stories emphasize technical aspects of teaching versus epistemological changes in their thinking and knowledge? (c) How is student learning in science reflected in teachers' stories of practice? (2) What is the relationship between the levels and types of involvement in PDS to change in thinking about and practices of teaching science? (3) What is the depth of commitment that mentors convey about changes in science teaching practices? Using case study design, the research explored the ways experienced teachers, working within the context of a PDS community, described changes in the ways they think about and teach science. The connection to the issue of change in teaching practices grew out of interest in understanding the relationship

Merging Educational Finance Reform and Desegregation Goals

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Deborah M. Kazal-Thresher

1993-06-01

Full Text Available Educational finance reforms and desegregation have both sought to address inequities in educational opportunities for minorities and low income families. The recent methods of addressing desegregation issues have tended to focus on attaining racial balance rather than educational quality, however. This paper explores how desegregation goals can be merged with educational finance reform to more systematically address educational quality in schools serving low income and minority populations. By moving toward centralized control over school financing, the inequity of school outcomes that are based on unequal school resources can be reduced. In addition, state determined expenditures when combined with desegregation monies, would meet the original intention of desegregation funds by clearly providing add-on monies for additional services for minority children, while at the same time, creating a better monitoring mechanism.

Certification of Teachers: Tensions in a New Signature Reform

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Tone Dyrdal Solbrekke

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Professional certification or registration is a designation earned by an individual. It is an authorization materialized as a document bearing the signature of a person given the authority to “sign off” professionals. A signed document also signals the “professionalism” of the profession by indicating the capacities that are expected of a professional and the competencies that are required for the successful exercise of an occupation—the desirable components of professional practice. However, the implications and logics of a signing process vary according to different factors, such as status, jurisdiction and societal legitimacy. Drawing on a case from Sweden, this paper investigates and critically discusses the logics of the recent reform of certification of Swedish school teachers. Applying a theoretical distinction between the logics of professional “responsibility” and “accountability,” we indicate embedded consequences for the signing process and teacher professionalism.  

Public Pension Plan Reform: The Legal Framework

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Monahan, Amy B.

2010-01-01

There is significant interest in reforming retirement plans for public school employees, particularly in light of current market conditions. This article presents an overview of the various types of state regulation of public pension plans that affect possibilities for reform. Nearly all of the various approaches to public pension plan protection…

EIA: Educational Reform or Repression?

Science.gov (United States)

Monteith, Dianne S.

A recent study (Cook, 1989) involving 58 randomly selected South Carolina elementary schools indicated that none of these schools could be characterized as having an "open climate." This paper suggests that this situation may have its origins in the educational reform movement of the 1980s, first ignited by the publication of "A…

Intertextuality in Educational Reform: Reflections on Equity in Swedish School Reform La Intertextualidad en las reformas educativas: reflexiones sobre la equidad en la reforma escolar sueca.

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Guadalupe Francia

2008-03-01

Full Text Available This article proposes intertextuality as a conceptual instrument for the deeper understanding of the phenomenon of equity in educational Reform in times of decentralization. This analysis starts from a dynamic vision of education reforms as interactions of texts. To illustrate the use of intertextual analysis of equity in education, this article introduces and discusses the analyzed examples of the educational national policy and of educational practice in the educational reform implemented in the 90?s and currently in force in the compulsory school in Sweden. It is argued that the meaning of equity is never a fixed one; it varies according to the interactions between political texts at a national level and texts of educational practice at communal and school levels. En este artículo se propone la intertextualidad como herramienta conceptual para lograr una mayor comprensión de la equidad en las reformas educativas en tiempos de descentralización. En este análisis se parte de una visión de reforma educativa como sistema dinámico de interacciones de textos. Para ilustrar la utilidad del análisis intertextual de la equidad educativa se presentan y discuten ejemplos de la política y de la práctica escolar en la reforma introducida en la década de los noventa y actualmente vigente en la escuela obligatoria sueca. Se argumenta que el significado de equidad nunca es fijo, sino que varía de acuerdo con las interacciones de los diferentes textos de la política educativa y de la práctica escolar.

Disruptive Fixation: School Reform and the Pitfalls of Techno-Idealism. Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology Series

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Sims, Christo

2017-01-01

In New York City in 2009, a new kind of public school opened its doors to its inaugural class of middle schoolers. Conceived by a team of game designers and progressive educational reformers and backed by prominent philanthropic foundations, it promised to reinvent the classroom for the digital age. Ethnographer Christo Sims documented the life of…

The Quasi-Human Child: How Normative Conceptions of Childhood Enabled Neoliberal School Reform in the United States

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Sonu, Debbie; Benson, Jeremy

2016-01-01

This paper argues that normative conceptions of the child, as a natural quasi-human being in need of guidance, enable current school reforms in the United States to directly link the child to neoliberal aims and objectives. In using Foucault's concept of governmentality and disciplinary power, we first present how the child is constructed as a…

Evidence as Source of Power in School Reforms: The Quest for the Extension of Compulsory Education in Zurich

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Imlig, Flavian; Ruoss, Thomas

2015-01-01

This article investigates the use of evidence in educational policy and politics, and how this use has changed over time. Using an analytical framework that combines research approaches from both political and educational science, evidence-related arguments in two major school reforms in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland are described. In…

Teachers’ Working Conditions Amid Swedish School Choice Reform: Avenues for Further Research

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Karolina Åsa Parding

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Since the 1990s, governance changes, including customer choice agendas, have permeated the public sector and, consequently, welfare sector professionals’ work. One example is the education sector. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss avenues for further research when it comes to teachers’ working conditions in the light of current choice agendas. This is accomplished by presenting an overview of previous studies on implications of the reforms for teachers’ working conditions. How are these conditions described in relation to the current school choice agenda in Sweden? What directions should be applied to increase knowledge of these conditions? We conclude by identifying some avenues for further research: the issues of organization of work, temporal and spatial dimensions of working conditions, and finally comparative studies of various forms, are suggested as warranting further investigation to highlight the diversified labor market in which teachers find themselves today.Keywords: Competition, governance change, privatization, professional work, school choice, Sweden, teaching profession, working conditions

Enhancing forest tenure reforms through more responsive regulations

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Anne M Larson

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Forest tenure reforms have offered new opportunities for communities to obtain formal rights to forests and forest benefits, but at the same time a variety of limitations are placed on livelihood options. This article draws on several case studies of reforms in Africa, Asia and Latin America to analyse the regulations accompanying reforms. It identifies three types of regulations, namely rules that limit areas available to local communities; rules that delineate conservation areas and impose related limits on use; and bureaucratic requirements for permits and management plans, which restrict the commercial use and marketing of valuable forest products. It discusses problems with these regulations, and proposes a simple framework for identifying ways to promote regulations that work for forest conservation but are more responsive to the needs of communities and forests.

Curriculum Reform and the Displacement of Knowledge in Peruvian Rural Secondary Schools: Exploring the Unintended Local Consequences of Global Education Policies

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Balarin, Maria; Benavides, Martin

2010-01-01

This paper draws attention to processes of policy implementation in developing contexts, and to the unintended consequences of education policies that follow international policy scripts without enough consideration of local histories and cultures. Drawing on a study of teaching practices in Peruvian rural secondary schools after a period of…

Educational and school managers training in the context of educational reforms: consensus and dissensus

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Ana Paula Oliveira Rescia

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This paper shows some of the results from a doctoral research on the educational and school managers training to the beginning of XXI century, in the context of decentralization and trends of educational reforms in Latin America at the end of 1980s and 1990s. Guided by a qualitative, bibliographic and documentary research, the methodological procedures had reference in studies conducted by international organizations, such as: UNESCO, ECLAC and ILPE as well as scholars from different management paradigms, considering the Latin-American education systems’ needs. In Brazil, we sought to understand the requirements of transformation of local competences in planning and educational management after implications and managers training initiatives within this new reality. Therefore, it was analyzed for comparative purposes, three educational and school managers training programs in public schools: Management Circuit Program; Distance Learning Program for School Managers and the Managers’ School Program of Public Basic Education. It was intended to identify the trends of each program for educational and school managers training, with a view to the changes occurred in our society and education and the requirements to acquire new skills and abilities. As conclusion, the research indicated that although the training programs have originated from different instances and explain various guidelines, everything converges to the same set of skills in educational and school managers training.

Placing Math Reform: Locating Latino English Learners in Math Classrooms and Communities

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Erbstein, Nancy

2015-01-01

This article explores how place matters in public school reform efforts intended to promote more equitable opportunities and outcomes. Qualitative case studies of three California middle schools' eighth grade math reforms and the resulting opportunities for Latino English learners are presented, using the conceptual frameworks of critical human…

The impact of education on the probability of receiving periodontal treatment. Causal effects measured by using the introduction of a school reform in Norway.

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Grytten, Jostein; Skau, Irene

2017-09-01

The aim of the present study was to estimate the causal effect of education on the probability of receiving periodontal treatment in the adult Norwegian population. In Norway, a substantial part of the cost of periodontal treatment is subsidized by the National Insurance Scheme. In that case, one might expect that the influence of individual resources, such as education, on receiving treatment would be reduced or eliminated. Causal effects were estimated by using data on a school reform in Norway. During the period 1960-1972, all municipalities in Norway were required to increase the number of compulsory years of schooling from seven to nine years. The education reform was used to create exogenous variation in the education variable. The education data were combined with large sets of data from the Norwegian Health Economics Administration and Statistics Norway. Since municipalities implemented the reform at different times, we have both cross-sectional and time-series variation in the reform instrument. Thus we were able to estimate the effect of education on the probability of receiving periodontal treatment by controlling for municipality fixed effects and trend variables. The probability of receiving periodontal treatment increased by 1.4-1.8 percentage points per additional year of schooling. This is a reasonably strong effect, which indicates that policies to increase the level of education in the population can be an effective tool to improve oral health, including periodontal health. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Educational Reform in Management Courses of Agricultural & Forestry Higher Vocational Schools from the Perspective of Microblog

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Liuhe; JIN

2014-01-01

At present there are many socialized microblog platforms.With powerful mobility,real-time information,fragment of information dissemination,and innovation of interaction,the microblog has become a socialized interaction mode in recent years.Since microblog is very popular with students of agricultural and forestry higher vocational schools,with the rising and development of network education,the microblog as a new information platform will be used by more and more teachers in education.From the perspective of microblog,this paper studied educational reform in management courses of agricultural and forestry higher vocational schools,in the hope of providing certain reference and help for current education practice of agricultural and forestry management courses.

A logic of “linking learning”: Leadership practices across schools, subject departments and classrooms

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Wayne Melville

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This article considers the roles of school leaders, a departmental-level leader and a teacher in implementing a reform within a school, and the nature of the relations between the groups and individuals that attended this process. Drawing upon Bourdieu’s “thinking tools”, the article analyses the nature of the leadership practices surrounding the implementation of a single-sex mathematics class from the perspective of key participants in the change process: two school-level leaders, one departmental chair, and the teacher charged with teaching the class. By considering a secondary school and one of its constituent departments as a field and sub-field, respectively, we argue that even as there is evidence of contestation over the nature of the practices that influence or potentially influence the leadership practices at play within the field and sub-field as a whole, there are also significant learnings in relation to student learning on the part of those involved which serve as “links” between the leadership practices at the school and department levels, and the leadership of learning of the teacher implementing the reform. In this way, a logic of “linking learning”, guided by an ethic of concern for students’ success, was evident across school, department and classroom.

Comprehensive District Reform: Philadelphia's Grand Experiment.

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Useem, Elizabeth; Balfanz, Robert

2002-01-01

This report describes "Philadelphia's Grand Experiment" in comprehensive school district reform, from its conception through its initial months of implementation. In 2001, as part of the remedy for low student performance, the governor ordered the state to take over governance of the Philadelphia School District, with a substantial…

Status of medical education reform at Saga Medical School 5 years after introducing PBL.

Science.gov (United States)

Oda, Yasutomo; Koizumi, Shunzo

2008-03-01

In Japan, problem-based learning (PBL) is a relatively new method of educating medical students that is reforming the face of medical education throughout the world, including Asia. It shifts from teacher-centered learning strategies (for example, lectures in large auditoriums) to student-centered, self-directed learning methods (for example, active discussions and problem-solving by students in small groups under the guidance of faculty tutors). Upon a recommendation by the Japan Model Core Curriculum, Saga Medical School introduced a PBL curriculum 5 years ago. A full PBL curriculum was adopted from the McMaster model through Hawaii. A description of how PBL was implemented into the 3rd and 4th year (Phase III curriculum) is given. The overall result has been good. Students who experienced PBL had increased scores on the National Medical License Exam, and Saga increased its ranking from 56th to 19th of the 80 medical schools in Japan. A key step was introduction of the educational scaffolding in PBL Step 0. Students were allowed to see page one of the PBL case, containing the chief complaint, on the weekend before meeting in small groups. Despite a perceived overall benefit to student learning, symptoms of superficial discussions by students have been observed recently. How this may be caused by poor case design is discussed. Other problems, including "silent tutors" and increased faculty workload, are discussed. It is concluded that after 5 years, Saga's implementation of a PBL curriculum has been successful. However, many additional issues, including motivation of students and preparation for PBL in the first 2 years, must still be resolved in the future. This is the first description of the positive and negative outcomes associated with the reform of medical education and the introduction of PBL to a traditional medical school curriculum in Japan.

Status of Medical Education Reform at Saga Medical School 5 Years After Introducing PBL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yasutomo Oda

2008-03-01

Full Text Available In Japan, problem-based learning (PBL is a relatively new method of educating medical students that is reforming the face of medical education throughout the world, including Asia. It shifts from teacher-centered learning strategies (for example, lectures in large auditoriums to student-centered, self-directed learning methods (for example, active discussions and problem-solving by students in small groups under the guidance of faculty tutors. Upon a recommendation by the Japan Model Core Curriculum, Saga Medical School introduced a PBL curriculum 5 years ago. A full PBL curriculum was adopted from the McMaster model through Hawaii. A description of how PBL was implemented into the 3rd and 4th year (Phase III curriculum is given. The overall result has been good. Students who experienced PBL had increased scores on the National Medical License Exam, and Saga increased its ranking from 56th to 19th of the 80 medical schools in Japan. A key step was introduction of the educational scaffolding in PBL Step 0. Students were allowed to see page one of the PBL case, containing the chief complaint, on the weekend before meeting in small groups. Despite a perceived overall benefit to student learning, symptoms of superficial discussions by students have been observed recently. How this may be caused by poor case design is discussed. Other problems, including “silent tutors” and increased faculty workload, are discussed. It is concluded that after 5 years, Saga's implementation of a PBL curriculum has been successful. However, many additional issues, including motivation of students and preparation for PBL in the first 2 years, must still be resolved in the future. This is the first description of the positive and negative outcomes associated with the reform of medical education and the introduction of PBL to a traditional medical school curriculum in Japan.

Comparison of good days and sick days of school-age children with cancer reflected through their drawings.

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Linder, Lauri A; Bratton, Heather; Nguyen, Anna; Parker, Kori; Phinney, Susanna

2017-10-01

Childhood cancer disrupts children's daily life experiences. Eliciting children's perspectives regarding their life experiences during cancer treatment can be challenging. The purpose of this study was to characterize elementary school-age children's "good days" and "sick days" through their drawings. This study used draw-and-tell interviews, a developmentally sensitive arts-based technique that supports children's recall and communication of information, facilitating a deeper understanding of children's personal interpretation and meaning of a given phenomenon of interest. Children were asked to draw pictures representing both a "good day" and a "sick day." Following completion of each drawing, research team members used a semi-structured interview guide to elicit children's explanations of their pictures. Content analysis techniques were used to descriptively characterize children's drawings followed by thematic analysis to identify commonalities. Participants were 27 children 6.33-12.83 years of age (mean 9.16 years; SD = 1.9) receiving treatment for cancer. "Good day" and "sick day" pictures were similar with regards to the presence of the child, the inclusion of other individuals, and the type of art medium used. Children's pictures characterized "good days" as being happy, outside in sunny weather, and engaged in activities. In contrast, "sick days" were characterized as feeling sad, lying down or reclining, and experiencing illness-related symptoms. Children's drawings illustrate their capacity to provide rich personal data related to their "good days" and "sick days." Incorporating arts-based strategies in the clinical setting may provide a child-centric strategy to understand the child's perspective and direct interventions.

Large-Scale Curriculum Reform in Finland--Exploring the Interrelation between Implementation Strategy, the Function of the Reform, and Curriculum Coherence

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Pietarinen, Janne; Pyhältö, Kirsi; Soini, Tiina

2017-01-01

The study aims to gain a better understanding of the national large-scale curriculum process in terms of the used implementation strategies, the function of the reform, and the curriculum coherence perceived by the stakeholders accountable in constructing the national core curriculum in Finland. A large body of school reform literature has shown…

Learning from the best: Overcoming barriers to reforms-based elementary science teaching

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Banchi, Heather May

This study explored the characteristics of elementary science teachers who employ reforms-based practices. Particular attention was paid to the consistency of teachers' practices and their beliefs, the impact of professional development experiences on practices, and how teachers mitigated barriers to reforms-based instruction. Understanding how successful elementary science teachers develop fills a gap in the science reforms literature. Participants included 7 upper elementary science teachers from six different schools. All schools were located within two suburban school districts in the south-Atlantic United States and data was collected during the spring of 2008. Data collection included use of the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) to evaluate the level of reforms-based instruction, as well as 35 hours of classroom observation field notes and 21 hours of audio-taped teacher interviews. The variety of data sources allowed for triangulation of evidence. The RTOP was analyzed using descriptive statistics and classroom observations and interview data were analyzed using Erickson's (1986) guidelines for analytic induction. Findings indicated (a) reforms-based elementary science teaching was attainable, (b) beliefs and practices were consistent and both reflected reforms-based philosophies and practices, (c) formal professional development experiences were limited and did not foster reforms-based practices, (d) informal professional development pursued by teachers had a positive impact on practices, (e) barriers to reforms-based instruction were present but mitigated by strong beliefs and practical strategies like curriculum integration. These findings suggest that there are common, salient characteristics of reforms-based teachers' beliefs, practices, and professional development experiences. These commonalities contribute to an understanding of how reforms-based teachers develop, and inform efforts to move all elementary teachers in the direction of

Neoliberalism, Social Darwinism, and Consumerism Masquerading as School Reform

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Tienken, Christopher H.

2013-01-01

Education reform policies harvested from neoliberalism, social Darwinism, consumerism, and free-market ideologies have begun to replace the pragmatic progressivism of the pre-World War II era. In this article, I use three federal and state education reform policies and programs--No Child Left Behind Act, Common Core State Standards Initiative, and…

The Effects of Reform in Principal Selection on Leadership Behavior of General and Vocational High School Principals in Taiwan

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Hsiao, Hsi-Chi; Lee, Ming-Chao; Tu, Ya-Ling

2013-01-01

Deregulation has formed the primary core of education reform in Taiwan in the past decade. The principal selection system was one of the specific recommendations in the deregulation of education. The method of designation of senior high school principals has changed from being "appointed" to being "selected." The issue as to…

The sex reform movement and eugenics in interwar Poland.

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Gawin, Magdalena

2008-06-01

This paper focuses on the relations between a liberal group of sex reformers, consisting of writers and literary critics, and physicians from the Polish Eugenics Society in interwar Poland. It illustrates the paradoxes of the mutual co-operation between these two groups during the 1930s and analyses the reason why compulsory sterilisation was rejected by politicians. From the early 1930s two movements began to forge an alliance in Poland: the sexual reform movement which advocated freedom of the individual, and eugenics, which called for limiting the freedom of the individual for the collective good. This paper draws attention to several issues which emerged as part of this collaboration: population politics, the relationship between reformers, eugenicists and state institutions, and the question of how both movements--eugenics and sexual reform--perceived the question of sexuality, birth control and abortion. It will also focus on those aspects of their thinking that led to mutual co-operation.

A case study of systemic curricular reform: A forty-year history

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Laubach, Timothy Alan

What follows is a description of the development of a particular inquiry-based elementary school science curriculum program and how its theoretical underpinnings positively influenced a school district's (K-12) science program and also impacted district- and state-wide curriculum reform initiatives. The district's science program has evolved since the inception of the inquiry-based elementary school science curriculum reform forty years ago. Therefore, a historical case study, which incorporated grounded theory methodology, was used to convey the forty-year development of a science curriculum reform effort and its systemic influences. Data for this study were collected primarily through artifacts, such as technical and non-technical documents, and supported and augmented with interviews. Fifteen people comprised the interview consortium with professional responsibilities including (a) administrative roles, such as superintendents, assistant superintendents, principals, and curriculum consultants/coordinators; (b) classroom roles, such as elementary and secondary school teachers who taught science; (c) partnership roles, such as university faculty who collaborated with those in administrative and classroom positions within the district; and (d) the co-director of SCIS who worked with the SCIS trial center director. Data were analyzed and coded using the constant comparative method. The analysis of data uncovered five categories or levels in which the curriculum reform evolved throughout its duration. These themes are Initiation, Education, Implementation, Confirmation, and Continuation. These five categories lead to several working hypotheses that supported the sustaining and continuing of a K-12 science curriculum reform effort. These components are a committed visionary; a theory base of education; forums promoting the education of the theory base components; shared-decision making; a university-school partnership; a core group of committed educators and teachers

The anti-politics of health reform: household power relations and child health in rural Senegal.

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Foley, Ellen E

2009-04-01

This article employs ethnographic evidence from rural Senegal to explore two dimensions of health sector reform. First, it makes the case that health reforms intersect with and exacerbate existing social, political, and economic inequalities. Current equity analysis draws attention to the ways that liberal and utilitarian frameworks for health reform fail to achieve distributive justice. The author's data suggest that horizontal power relations within households and small communities are equally important for understanding health disparities and the effects of health reform. Second, the article explores how liberal discourses of health reform, particularly calls for 'state-citizen partnerships' and 'responsiblization', promote depoliticised understandings of health. Discourses associated with health reform paradoxically highlight individual responsibility for health while masking the ways that individual health practice is constrained by structural inequalities.

Basic Education Curriculum Reform in Rural China: Achievements, Problems, and Solutions

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Wang, Jiayi; Zhao, Zhichun

2011-01-01

The latest wave of basic education curriculum reform, carried out over the past ten years, has achieved significant results and promoted the development of rural education. There are still some problems in the reform of basic education in rural areas, however, such as a serious shortage of funds for rural school curriculum reform, the continuing…

Examining the Potential of Critical and Kaupapa Maori Approaches to Leading Education Reform in New Zealand's English-Medium Secondary Schools

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Berryman, Mere; Egan, Margaret; Ford, Therese

2017-01-01

This paper discusses expectations, policies and practices that currently underpin education within the New Zealand context. It acknowledges the ongoing failure of this policy framework to positively influence reform for Indigenous Maori students in regular, state-funded schools and highlights the need for extensive change in the positioning and…

The Political Context of School Finance Reform

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Rossmiller, Richard A.; Geske, Terry G.

1976-01-01

Reports the results of a case study of the political decision-making process in Wisconsin through which control over educational finance reform was exercised between January, 1972, and August, 1973. (Author)

From "School House" to "School-as-Community": Governmentality and the Space of the School.

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Hennon, Lisa

This paper is a preliminary examination of historical shifts in U.S. discourses of school architecture as they relate to curricular reforms and inventions on new pedagogical techniques. The paper begins by sketching the current parameters of discourses on school architecture and notes some of the key arguments of reform taken up by educators and…

School Reform: America’s Winchester Mystery House

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David Daniel Meyer

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This quantitative study examines the correlation between international student achievement test outcomes and national competitiveness rankings. Student achievement data are derived from a variation-adjusted, common-scale metric data set for 74 countries that have participated in any of the international mathematics and science achievement tests since 1964. National competitiveness data are taken from the 2014–15 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI published by the World Economic Forum. A Spearman’s rank-order correlation was run to assess the relationship between student performance on international achievement tests and the competitiveness of nations. For all nations, there was a moderate positive correlation between student performance on international achievement tests and the competitiveness of a nation, rs(98=0.688, p<0.001. However, this relationship disappeared among the 18 most competitive nations, the cohort to which the United States belongs. The relationship also disappeared among the 18 nations with the highest achievement scores on international tests. Student performance on international assessments appears to have no relationship to the competitiveness of the United States. This study has implications for legislators and public education leaders who want to maximize the return on investments in education. Education dollars and reform initiatives should be diverted toward addressing poverty, funding schools equitably, alleviating social stress and violence, and supporting young families and students of immigrant families.

Towards a pragmatic science in schools

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Segal, Gilda

1997-06-01

This paper contrasts naive beliefs about the nature of science, with science as it appears from sociological and philosophical study, feminist critique and insights from multicultural education. I draw implications from these informed views to suggest how school science might be modified to project a pragmatic view of science to its students that allows students to know science and its relationships to themselves and society in multi-faceted ways. From these perspectives, pragmatic school science is situated within a values framework that questions how we know. Pragmatic school science also requires that the naive inductivist views that permeate school science inquiry methods at present be modified to recognise that observations and inquiry are guided by prior knowledge and values; that new knowledge is tentative; that some knowledge has high status, as it has been constructed consensually over a long period; but that even high status knowledge can be challenged. For implementation of these reforms, yet still to embrace the need for some students to appropriate understanding of discipline knowledge required for advanced science education, a broad set of aims is required.

Applying Concepts of Critical Pedagogy to Qatar's Educational Reform

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Romanowski, Michael H.; Amatullah, Tasneem

2016-01-01

Qatar is in the midst of a systemic education reform, Education For a New Era, steered by RAND's (a nonprofit research organization) analysis and report of Qatar's Educational system. Driven by a neoliberal agenda, the reform includes international curricula, curriculum standards, teacher licensure, and professional standards for school leaders…

Moral education and values education in curriculum reform In China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhu Xiaoman

2006-01-01

In the new curriculum reform in China,moral education and values education have been defined from the angles of the integrity and conformity of curriculum functions.Accordingly, a new education concept based on complete/integral curriculum functions is established.By discussing the essences of the curriculum,the basis of moral and values education,integrated curriculum setting in instruction structure,the presence of emotional and attitudinal goals in the subject standards,and teaching methods,this text points out that this curriculum reform looks to moral and values education in schools.The reform also emphasizes and will guarantee moral and values education in schools.Finally,the article recommends to elementary and secondary schools the studies on moral education in class conducted by the Research Institute of Moral Education of Nanjing Normal University,one of the Key Bases for Humanities and Social Sciences Research for the Ministry of Education.

The Rhetoric of a Reform: The Construction of "Public", "Management" and the "New" in Norwegian Education Reforms of the 1990s

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Trippestad, Tom Are

2011-01-01

This article presents a critical rhetorical analysis of the governing and reform ideology of the Norwegian school system of the 1990s. It uses Karl Popper's "The Open Society and its Enemies" as a critical resource in the reading of the reforms, and discusses some of the consequences of the regime's models of leadership and public…

Reform in Secondary Education: The Continuing Efforts to Reform Secondary Education, and a Modest Proposal. Curriculum Bulletin Vol. XXXII, No. 340.

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Saylor, Galen

The author begins by examining the functions of the school and the basic principles governing the provision of education in the American democracy as a way of providing a framework for analyzing proposals for the reform of secondary education. He then examines proposals for reform. His major focus is on ten proposals made by agencies,…

Necessary Educational Reform for the 21st Century: The Future of Public Schools in Our Democracy

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Laguardia, Armando; Pearl, Arthur

2009-01-01

We offer a theoretical and ecological argument for the preparation of citizens in U.S. public schools. This democratic education draws legitimacy from the concern of the nations founders for a populace educated to govern itself. We also emphasize the need for new democratic skills and knowledge in the face of today's challenges, and our…

Listen to them draw: screening children in primary care through the use of human figure drawings.

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Tielsch, Anna H; Allen, Patricia Jackson

2005-01-01

This literature review focuses on the Human Figure Drawing (HFD) methods put forth by Elizabeth Koppitz as a screening instrument. Children's drawings have potential as a mental health screening aide for health care practitioners in the primary care setting. This paper focuses on self-portrait drawings as a screening technique for emotional well-being, anxiety, and depression in school-aged children (6-12 years old). Using Koppitz's emotional indicators checklist for mental health, practitioners can use the child's HFD as a quick screening tool. Although the HFD is not diagnostic and can not be used as the sole indicator for anxiety or depression, two or more emotional indicators may signal to the clinician that further psychiatric assessment and referral is needed.

Health, welfare reform, and narratives of uncertainty among Cambodian refugees.

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Becker, G; Beyene, Y; Ken, P

2000-06-01

Massive disruptions to a way of life, such as those brought on by widespread violence, terror, and genocide, disorder the body as well as the social order. When they flee their homelands, refugees bring their experiences of violence and terror with them. Drawing on an ethnographic study of 40 Cambodian refugees between the ages of 50 and 79 who suffered from one or more chronic illnesses, we explore how refugees who live with chronic illnesses and are dependent on government support were affected by the threat of welfare reform. When welfare reform threatened to cut Cambodian refugees' income, it posed a new crisis for those who were chronically in limbo and placed further constraints on their lives. Through their narratives, Cambodian refugees enacted their bodily distress and resisted the threat of welfare reform. The story of threatened welfare reform in the U.S. and its possible consequences for refugees is a story of quixotic U.S. politics, policies and antidotes for refugeeism gone awry.

The Search of a New Logic of Public Administration Reforms: The Case of Metropolitan Areas in Italy

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Renato Ruffini

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to formulate some recommendations for the currently undergoing reform of Italian metropolitan areas. This case is particularly relevant since it clearly represents how, even if expected by law, reforms might not happen on the implementation side. We draw the recommendations from some basic assumptions of the collaborative governance model. Recommendations deal with the development of a systemic, collaborative and leadership oriented view of reforms. Indeed, reforms should be intended not only as a legislative process, but also as a complex change management process characterized by the decisive role of the human factor.

Bringing Home the Bacon: The Politics of Rural School Reform.

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Sher, Jonathan P.

1983-01-01

Self-interested political, corporate, and education leaders have undermined recent West Virginia court decisions mandating educational reform. Three implications are: (1) principals, teachers, parents, and students must be equal partners in the educaiton reform process; (2) a constituency for rural children is needed; and (3) rural educators must…

Writing and drawing with both hands as indicators of hemispheric dominance.

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Labak, Irena; Snajder, Darija; Srzentić, Mirna Kostović; Bensić, Mirta; Nist, Marina; Ilakovac, Vesna; Heffer, Marija

2011-01-01

Brain lateralization is a common term used to describe dominance of one brain hemisphere over another for a specific function. The right hand dominance in writing, controlled by the left hemisphere, is preceded by development of communicative gesticulation and followed by development of speech in the same hemisphere. We assumed that some people are not aware of their own capability of using the other hand for tasks involving fine motor sequential movements. To prove this hypothesis, the participants were asked to perform one trained task (writing) and one less-trained task (drawing) with a dominant and a non-dominant hand. The final sample was comprised of 1189 children from 14 elementary schools and 8 high schools in the Osijek area, of which 685 elementary school children were attending 1st to 4th grade and 504 high school children were attending 3rd and 4th grade. The participants were asked to write two words, draw a specific object (a vase with flowers) and fill out a questionnaire with 10 questions concerning the classification of handedness and cerebral hemisphere dominance. The self-reported cerebral lateralization assessed in the questionnaire was compared with the drawing and the writing performance. The self-reported and objectively measured hand dominance deviated in the cases of the ambidextrous who consider themselves right-handers. Given the fact that the number of ambidextrous persons was greater in elementary schools than in high schools, we concluded how training of the right hand decreases the ability of using both hands equally for either of the tested functions - writing and drawing.

Teenagers and Welfare Reform.

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Offner, Paul

This report examines the extent to which welfare reform is changing adolescent behaviors that lead to welfare dependency. It begins by discussing the provisions in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 that require teenagers to stay in school and live with a parent, concluding that relatively little can be…

Education Reform: A Managerial Agenda.

Science.gov (United States)

Bacharach, Samuel B.; Conley, Sharon C.

1986-01-01

Education reform has wrongly focused on teacher motivation and rewards, when the organizational system itself is at fault. Research shows that effective school management hinges on increased individual discretion and decision-making opportunities for teachers and less controlling behavior by administrators. Ten characteristics of effective…

China's power sector reforms - where to next?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2006-12-15

With the fastest growing energy demand in the world, China is now the largest electricity consumer after the United States. How can the government best assure affordable and environmentally sustainable electricity supply in the future? The Chinese government has initiated electricity sector reforms to overhaul an antiquated system and attain new energy security and environmental objectives. How China proceeds with these reforms will have lasting consequences, both locally and globally. Assessing the current state of electricity regulation in China, this report draws on experience elsewhere to explore how better to develop and communicate strategy, how to moderate growth in demand through increased efficiency, how to integrate environmental goals into planning and operation, how to ensure sufficient supply when and where it is needed, and how to handle institutional and governance challenges. In this respect, electricity sector reform in other countries offers valuable lessons as to how China might proceed.

Drawing on Dynamic Local Knowledge through Student-Generated Photography

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Coles-Ritchie, Marilee; Monson, Bayley; Moses, Catherine

2015-01-01

In this research, the authors explored how teachers using student-generated photography draw on local knowledge. The study draws on the framework of funds of knowledge to highlight the assets marginalized students bring to the classroom and the need for culturally relevant pedagogy to address the needs of a diverse public school population. The…

“Draw me a physicist” exhibition opens

CERN Multimedia

CERN Bulletin

2010-01-01

From 12 to 23 June, the Globe of Science and Innovation will be hosting the “Draw me a physicist” exhibition: over 160 drawings and definitions that illustrate how children see the world of research.   In a child’s imagination, scientists are colourful, slightly eccentric figures with unusual powers. This is what emerges from the exhibition on the second floor of the Globe of Science and Innovation, opening on 12 June. “Draw me a physicist” brings together 160 drawings and definitions by children about the profession of research scientist. The exhibition is the result of a six-month project by CERN and 20 primary school classes from the Pays de Gex and the communes of Meyrin, Satigny and Vernier. Some 400 schoolchildren aged 9 to 11 were asked in class to make drawings and come up with definitions of a physicist. Subsequently they came to CERN, visited one of the Laboratory’s sites, and met and interviewed some physicists. They used t...

More Fragmented, and yet More Networked: Analysing the Responses of Two Local Authorities in England to the Coalition's "Self-Improving School-Led System" Reforms

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Greany, Toby

2015-01-01

This paper explores school reform in England under the Conservative-led Coalition government, elected in 2010, through a focus on the changing roles and status of Local Authorities (LAs). The Coalition's stated aim was the development of a "self-improving, school-led" system in which LAs should become "champions for children."…

Children's drawings exhibited in the Globe

CERN Multimedia

Elizabeth Roe

2010-01-01

"Draw Me A Physicist" has been a success. Members of the public visiting the exhibition in the Globe of Science and Innovation have praised the scientific and creative balance the children of neighbouring France and the Canton of Geneva have obtained through their visit to CERN.   The Draw Me a Physicist exhibition in the Globe For a six-month period 9 to 11-year olds from the Pays de Gex, Meyrin, Satigny and Vernier have been able to enjoy a balance between science and art, through drawing and defining their interpretations of a physicist. In May, eight pairs of drawings from each participating class were selected by the schools to be displayed on the second floor of the Globe. Since the images have been put up, the viewers have enjoyed the contrast between the "before" pictures of vibrant Albert Einsteins to the "after" pictures of casual people sitting in an office. The large room in the Globe has been transformed from a hollow shell int...

A Model for Rural School Consolidation: Making Sense of the Inevitable Result of School Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Cummins, Craig; Chance, Edward W.; Steinhoff, Carl

Passage in 1989 of Oklahoma's education reform bill, H.B. 1017, provided encouragement and financial rewards for use of consolidation as a reform strategy, but this approach is often met with anxiety and hostility from stakeholders. In an effort to identify strategies that facilitate consolidation, semistructured interviews were conducted with the…

Impact of the Curriculum Reform on Problem Solving Ability in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An ex post facto study was conducted to examine the effect of the curriculum reform on 60 Dilla University chemistry education students' problem solving ability. The study shows that the curriculum reform that shifted university introductory courses of the old curriculum into preparatory school levels in the new curriculum ...

Social Justice and Resisting Neoliberal Education Reform in the USA

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Au, Wayne

2016-01-01

Efforts to reform public education along free-market, corporate-styled models have swept across many nations. In the USA these reforms have included an intense focus on the use of high-stakes, standardized tests to quantify students, teachers, and schools for market comparisons, the deprofessionalization of teaching, and the establishment of…

Trends and prospects of tax reforms in China

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Yoo Ho Lim

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This study aims to identify the reform trends in Chinese tax systems with emphasis on the structural tax reduction policy that has been enforced in China’s socialist market economy system for the past 10 years. This study also intends to draw the implications of such tax reforms by identifying the relationship between China’s socialist and capitalist market economy systems along with other related tax systems and describing the tax policy trends for the last 10 years. A comparison and analysis of the differences in viewpoints on taxation between these market economy systems is also conducted. The core and specific contents of this study on structural tax reduction policy that has been enforced in China over the past decade are arranged.

Cultural Narcissism and Education Reform

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Pajak, Edward F.

2011-01-01

Background/Context: Scholars have described American culture in recent decades as narcissistic, manifested by displays of self-absorption tantamount to a pathological syndrome that has reached epidemic proportions. An education reform movement that is highly critical of public schools, teachers, and students has simultaneously emerged, espousing a…

Quantitative Analysis of Science and Chemistry Textbooks for Indicators of Reform: A complementary perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Kahveci, Ajda

2010-07-01

In this study, multiple thematically based and quantitative analysis procedures were utilized to explore the effectiveness of Turkish chemistry and science textbooks in terms of their reflection of reform. The themes gender equity, questioning level, science vocabulary load, and readability level provided the conceptual framework for the analyses. An unobtrusive research method, content analysis, was used by coding the manifest content and counting the frequency of words, photographs, drawings, and questions by cognitive level. The context was an undergraduate chemistry teacher preparation program at a large public university in a metropolitan area in northwestern Turkey. Forty preservice chemistry teachers were guided to analyze 10 middle school science and 10 high school chemistry textbooks. Overall, the textbooks included unfair gender representations, a considerably higher number of input and processing than output level questions, and high load of science terminology. The textbooks failed to provide sufficient empirical evidence to be considered as gender equitable and inquiry-based. The quantitative approach employed for evaluation contrasts with a more interpretive approach, and has the potential in depicting textbook profiles in a more reliable way, complementing the commonly employed qualitative procedures. Implications suggest that further work in this line is needed on calibrating the analysis procedures with science textbooks used in different international settings. The procedures could be modified and improved to meet specific evaluation needs. In the Turkish context, next step research may concern the analysis of science textbooks being rewritten for the reform-based curricula to make cross-comparisons and evaluate a possible progression.

COPD depicted – patients drawing their lungs

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Kaptein AA

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Ad A Kaptein,1 Jitske Tiemensma,2 Elizabeth Broadbent,3 Guus M Asijee,4,5 Maarten Voorhaar4,5 1Medical Psychology, Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC, Leiden, the Netherlands; 2Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA, USA; 3Psychology Department, Auckland University Medical School, Auckland, New Zealand; 4CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands; 5Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany Background: Given the increasing importance of patient-reported outcomes (PRO in quality medical care, we examined the value and feasibility of an innovative method for assessing patients’ illness perceptions, represented in drawings made by patients with COPD of their lungs. Aim: The aim of our study was: to study patients’ representation of COPD as reflected in their drawings of their lungs; and to examine scores on a validated measure that assesses illness perceptions (ie, Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire [B-IPQ]. Patients and methods: One hundred outpatients with COPD, mean age 70 years, selected from a pharmacy database, participated and 98 filled out the B-IPQ. Eighty-seven patients completed the drawing task. Results: The illness perceptions as reflected in the responses to the B-IPQ scales represented a quite optimistic view of COPD and its consequences. The drawings of the lungs reflected a considerable discordance between patients’ representations and medically accepted representations of lungs of a person with COPD. Conclusion: Assessing illness perceptions in clinical care and research about COPD offers opportunities to identify goals for patient education and self-management. Inviting patients to draw their illness is an innovative and promising approach to assessing PRO. Keywords: COPD, drawings, illness perceptions, PRO, quality of life, self-management

General Education Today. A Critical Analysis of Controversies, Practices, and Reforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Gaff, Jerry G.

The range of controversies and changes emerging from the current revival of general education are examined, and many ideas, examples, and recommendations for achieving realistic and successful curricular reform are offered. Instead of either offering an apology for general education or advocating any particular approach, the book draws on solid…

The Curricular Reform of Art Education in Primary School in Slovenia in Terms of Certain Components of the European Competence of Cultural Awareness and Expression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rajka Bračun Sova

2012-01-01

Full Text Available One of the important positions of the last curricular reform in Slovenia, which included systemic issues of education (White Paper on Education, 2011 and curricula for compulsory subjects in primary school, is the fact that Slovenia has been integrated into Europe, and thus education should also include the development of core European competences. One such competence is cultural awareness and expression, which until now has been an issue more in the context of cultural policies than school policies in Slovenia. The purpose of the present article is to critically analyse the curricular reform of art education (i.e., visual art education, through which, in terms of certain components of the competence of cultural awareness and expression, it is foreseen that the student will gain a knowledge of art, develop an ability to experience works of art and develop a creative attitude towards art and heritage. Because the starting point and goal of curricular change is the curriculum, our analysis is derived from curriculum theories, and not from the art theories and pedagogical theories that have predominantly framed previous attempts at curriculum analysis. Critical consideration of the curricular reform of art education in primary school in terms of certain components of the competence of cultural awareness and expression was undertaken by comparing curricula in the field of aesthetic education. We compared art education with music education and literature within the Slovenian language curriculum. Qualitative analysis showed that, despite the reform, the curriculum for arts education does not realise selected components of the competence of cultural awareness and expression, largely due to the curriculum’s conceptual structure. Art education is centred principally on art-making activities, with an obvious neglect of appreciation. The integration of arts subjects at school, as proposed by the White Paper, is therefore not possible, due to the existing

Reforming Science and Mathematics Education

Science.gov (United States)

Lagowski, J. J.

1995-09-01

Since 1991, the National Science Foundation has signed cooperative agreements with 26 states to undertake ambitious and comprehensive initiatives to reform science, mathematics, and technology education. Collectively, those agreements are known as the State Systemic Initiatives (SSI's). Two complimentary programs, The Urban and Rural Systemic Initiatives (USI's and RSI's), address similar reforms in the nation's largest cities and poorest rural areas. The SSI Program departs significantly from past NSF practice in several ways. The funding is for a longer term and is larger in amount, and the NSF is taking a more activist role, seeking to leverage state and private funds and promote the coordination of programs within states. The Initiatives also have a stronger policy orientation than previous NSF programs have had. The NSF strategy is a reflection of the growing and widely held view that meaningful reforms in schools are most likely to be achieved through state initiatives that set clear and ambitious learning goals and standards; align all of the available policy levers in support of reform; stimulate school-level initiatives; and mobilize human and financial resources to support these changes. Two premises underlie systemic reform: (1) all children can meet significantly higher standards if they are asked to do so and given adequate opportunities to master the content, and (2) state and local policy changes can create opportunities by giving schools strong and consistent signals about the changes in practice and performance that are expected. Because this is an enormous investment of Federal resources that is intended to bring about deep, systemic improvement in the nation's ability to teach science and mathematics effectively, the NSF has contracted with a consortium of independent evaluators to conduct a review of the program. The first of the SSI's were funded in 1991, sufficiently long ago to begin to formulate some initial impressions of their impact. Take

Scaling up Education Reform: Addressing the Politics of Disparity

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Bishop, Russell; O'Sullivan, Dominic; Berryman, Mere

2010-01-01

What is school reform? What makes it sustainable? Who needs to be involved? How is scaling up achieved? This book is about the need for educational reforms that have built into them, from the outset, those elements that will see them sustained in the original sites and spread to others. Using the Te Kotahitanga Project as a model the authors…

Single-Sex Schools, the Law, and School Reform.

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Brown, Frank; Russo, Charles J.

1999-01-01

Discusses the history of single-sex schools and analyzes the legal status of these schools, reviewing constitutional dimensions of gender-based discrimination and the leading cases that have been litigated on these issues. Offers reflections on why single-sex schools are not likely to hold a major place in the future of urban U.S. public schools.…

Studying Meaning in Children' Drawings

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Hopperstad, Marit Holm

2010-01-01

This paper reports on an ethnographic study conducted with two Year 1 classes in two different Norwegian schools. In total, 35 five- and six-year-old children were involved in the study and were observed over a two-month period as they engaged in learning activities that involved drawing. Building on Kress and Van Leeuwen's (1996) theory of a…

Improving low-performing high schools: searching for evidence of promise.

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Fleischman, Steve; Heppen, Jessica

2009-01-01

Noting that many of the nation's high schools are beset with major problems, such as low student reading and math achievement, high dropout rates, and an inadequate supply of effective teachers, Steve Fleischman and Jessica Heppen survey a range of strategies that educators have used to improve low-performing high schools. The authors begin by showing how the standards-based school reform movement, together with the No Child Left Behind Act requirement that underperforming schools adopt reforms supported by scientifically based research, spurred policy makers, educators, and researchers to create and implement a variety of approaches to attain improvement. Fleischman and Heppen then review a number of widely adopted reform models that aim to change "business as usual" in low-performing high schools. The models include comprehensive school reform programs, dual enrollment and early college high schools, smaller learning communities, specialty (for example, career) academies, charter high schools, and education management organizations. In practice, say the authors, many of these improvement efforts overlap, defying neat distinctions. Often, reforms are combined to reinforce one another. The authors explain the theories that drive the reforms, review evidence of their reforms' effectiveness to date, and suggest what it will take to make them work well. Although the reforms are promising, the authors say, few as yet have solid evidence of systematic or sustained success. In concluding, Fleischman and Heppen emphasize that the reasons for a high school's poor performance are so complex that no one reform model or approach, no matter how powerful, can turn around low-performing schools. They also stress the need for educators to implement each reform program with fidelity to its requirements and to support it for the time required for success. Looking to the future, the authors suggest steps that decision makers, researchers, and sponsors of research can take to promote

The Relevance of Reformed Scholasticism for Contemporary Systematic Theology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

te Velde Dolf

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article examines how Reformed scholasticism can be relevant for systematic theology today. ‘Reformed Scholasticism’ denotes the academic practice in which the doctrines of the Reformation are expounded, explained, and defended. It is primarily a method and attitude in search of the truth, based on a careful reading of Scripture, drawing on patristic and medieval traditions, and interacting with philosophy and other academic disciplines. In addition to these methodological features, important contributions on various doctrinal topics can be discovered. The doctrine of God has a foundational role in the sense that God is the primary subject of the other topics (creation, salvation, etc.. Reformed scholastic theology not only examines God’s inner essence, but also the concrete relation and operation of God toward his world. In a Trinitarian understanding of God’s essence, a distinction is maintained between God’s immanent relatedness as three divine Persons, and his outward relation to created reality. The doctrines of creation and providence gave occasion for Reformed scholastics to engage in debates with the emerging natural sciences, and also articulated important theological insights concerning the involvement of God in creaturely affairs. In Christology, the Reformed orthodox maintained the classic doctrine of the two natures of Jesus Christ, against Socinians and other opponents. These ontological statements are the necessary conditions for a proper understanding of the salvation by Christ. While the doctrinal positions of Reformed scholastic theology cannot be automatically transmitted to contemporary discussions, we can profit from this tradition on several levels of method and content.

The Problem with Reform from the Bottom up: Instructional practises and teacher beliefs of graduate teaching assistants following a reform-minded university teacher certificate programme

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Addy, Tracie M.; Blanchard, Margaret R.

2010-05-01

Reform-minded practices are widely encouraged during pre-service science teacher education in concert with national reform documents. This contrasts to the nature of instruction within university science laboratories in which pre-service teachers enrol, which are largely confirmatory in nature. Undergraduate science laboratories are taught predominantly by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) with minimal teacher preparation. The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to investigate the instructional practices and teacher beliefs of eight GTAs at a university with very high research activity who completed a reform-minded Teacher Certificate Programme, asking: What are their beliefs about teaching? How are their practices described? Do their beliefs and practices differ from one another? Do their teaching beliefs correspond with their practices? Findings indicate that GTAs held moderately reform-minded "transitional" beliefs of teaching following the programme, yet displayed fairly traditional instruction. Cross-case findings highlight similar patterns across subscales of the RTOP that draw attention to underlying constraints of the laboratory curriculum structure. We suggest that GTA professional development is best undertaken concurrent with laboratory course revision.

Connecting Educational Leadership with Multi-Level Assessment Reform

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Volante, Louis; Cherubini, Lorenzo

2007-01-01

Renewed calls for greater accountability within schools have led to a rapid expansion of standards-based reforms across the Western world. Establishing and raising standards, and measuring the attainment of those standards, are intended to encourage excellence in our schools. Yet concern is increasing about the fairness of external testing and the…

Collective inquiry in the context of school-wide reform: Exploring science curriculum and instruction through team-based professional development

Science.gov (United States)

Eddy Spicer, David Henning

Teacher collaboration and joint reflective inquiry have been viewed as central elements of progressive educational reform for more than two decades. More recently, researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners have heralded "blended" or "hybrid" approaches that combine online and on-site environments for collaborative learning as especially promising for "scaling up" instructional improvement. Yet, relatively little is known about how teachers working together navigate organizational and interpersonal constraints to develop and sustain conditions essential to collective inquiry. This in-depth study of meaning making about curriculum and instruction among a group of 11 physics teachers in a public, urban secondary school in the U.S. is an effort to explore collective inquiry as a resource for teacher learning and innovations in teaching practice. Through extended observations, multiple interviews, and close analyses of interaction, the study followed teachers for 7 months as they worked together across 3 settings organized in fundamentally different ways to promote joint inquiry into teaching practice. The explanatory framework of the study rests on the mutually-reinforcing conceptual underpinnings of sociocultural theory and systemic functional linguistics to establish connections between micro-social interactions and macro-social processes. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics, the study explores interpersonal meaning making through close analyses of speech function and speech role in 6 extended sequences of generative interaction. Concepts from activity theory elucidate those features of settings and school that directly impinged on or advanced teachers' collaborative work. Findings run counter to prevailing congenial views of teacher collegiality by identifying ways in which collective inquiry is inherently unstable. That instability makes itself apparent at two levels: (a) the dynamics of authority within the group, and (b) middle-level features of

Education as Recovery: Neoliberalism, School Reform, and the Politics of Crisis

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Slater, Graham B.

2015-01-01

Building upon critical education policy studies of crisis, disaster, and reform, this essay develops a theory of "recovery" that further elaborates the nature and operation of "crisis politics" in neoliberal education reform. Recovery is an integral process in capital accumulation, exploiting material, and subjective…

The Impact of Standards-Based Reform: Applying Brantlinger's Critique of "Hierarchical Ideologies"

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Bacon, Jessica; Ferri, Beth

2013-01-01

Brantlinger's [2004b. "Ideologies Discerned, Values Determined: Getting past the Hierarchies of Special Education." In "Ideology and the Politics of (in)Exclusion," edited by L. Ware, 11-31. New York: Peter Lang Publishing] critique of hierarchical ideologies lays bare the logics embedded in standards-based reform. Drawing on…

Bourdieu, Department Chairs and the Reform of Science Education

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Melville, Wayne; Hardy, Ian; Bartley, Anthony

2011-11-01

Using the insights of the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, this article considers the role of the science department chair in the reform of school science education. Using Bourdieu's 'thinking tools' of 'field', 'habitus' and 'capital', we case study the work of two teachers who both actively pursue the teaching and learning of science as inquiry. One teacher, Dan, has been a department chair since 2000, and has actively encouraged his department to embrace science as inquiry. The other teacher, Leslie, worked for one year in Dan's department before being transferred to another school where science teaching continues to be more traditional. Our work suggests that there are three crucial considerations for chairs seeking to lead the reform of science teaching within their department. The first of these is the development of a reform-minded habitus, as this appears to be foundational to the capital that can be expended in the leadership of reform. The second is an understanding of how to wield power and position in the promotion of reform. The third is the capacity to operate simultaneously and strategically within, and across, two fields; the departmental field and the larger science education field. This involves downplaying administrative logics, and foregrounding more inquiry-focused logics as a vehicle to challenge traditional science-teaching dispositions-the latter being typically dominated by concerns about curriculum 'coverage'.

America Y2K: The Obsolescence of Educational Reforms.

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Dorn, Sherman

2000-01-01

Notes the passing of the deadline for fulfillment of the national education goals in the United States, the beginning of the year 2000, and indicates that pressures on schools to solve social problems will continue to make school reform a politically opportune and very visible issue. (SLD)

The Role of Democratic Governing Bodies in South African Schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Karlsson, Jenni

2002-01-01

School governance reform in post-apartheid South Africa aimed to democratize schooling while accommodating diverse school histories of underdevelopment or self-management. Analysis of relevant legislation shows the reform was structured to allow representative democracy and partnerships. But two recent studies suggest that governance reforms have…

Addressing Elementary School Teachers' Professional Stressors: Practical Suggestions for Schools and Administrators

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Stauffer, Sarah D.; Mason, Erin C. M.

2013-01-01

Purpose: Given the preponderance of education reform since the No Child Left Behind Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2001), reform efforts have shaped the nature of the work and culture in schools. The emphasis on standardized testing to determine schools' status and student performance, among other factors, has generated stress, particularly…

Do Charter Schools Ruin Local Public Schools in Poor Neighborhoods? Evidence from New York City. Working Paper #02-14

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Cordes, Sarah

2014-01-01

Charter schools and school choice are popular reforms believed to improve student performance largely through market competition, increased innovation, or some combination of the two mechanisms. Opponents of school choice argue that such reforms sap needed funds and resources from the traditional public school system. Despite this claim, there has…

Behavioral health and health care reform models: patient-centered medical home, health home, and accountable care organization.

Science.gov (United States)

Bao, Yuhua; Casalino, Lawrence P; Pincus, Harold Alan

2013-01-01

Discussions of health care delivery and payment reforms have largely been silent about how behavioral health could be incorporated into reform initiatives. This paper draws attention to four patient populations defined by the severity of their behavioral health conditions and insurance status. It discusses the potentials and limitations of three prominent models promoted by the Affordable Care Act to serve populations with behavioral health conditions: the Patient-Centered Medical Home, the Health Home initiative within Medicaid, and the Accountable Care Organization. To incorporate behavioral health into health reform, policymakers and practitioners may consider embedding in the reform efforts explicit tools-accountability measures and payment designs-to improve access to and quality of care for patients with behavioral health needs.

Teacher Reform in Indonesia: Can Offshore Programs Create Lasting Pedagogical Shift?

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Allen, William; Hyde, Mervyn; Whannel, Robert; O'Neill, Maureen

2018-01-01

Regional and national interest in reforming teaching in Indonesia has seen governments, NGOs and education specialists combine to drive pedagogical changes among school teachers there. Results of these programs have been indifferent at best. This paper reports on teacher reform programs in Provinsi Papua, one of the most marginal societies in…

Legal Limitations on Public Pension Plan Reform. Conference Paper 2009-08

Science.gov (United States)

Monahan, Amy B.

2009-01-01

There is significant interest in reforming retirement plans for public school employees, particularly in light of current market conditions. This paper presents an overview of the various types of state regulation of public pension plans that affect possibilities for reform. Several states have legal protections that effectively prevent a state…

A School for the Common Good

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Baines, Lawrence; Foster, Hal

2006-01-01

This article examines the history and the concept of the common school from the Common School Movement reformers of the 1850s to the present. These reformers envisioned schools that were to be tuition free and open to everyone, places where rich and poor met and learned together on equal terms. Central to the concept of the common school is its…

Profile of laboratory instruction in secondary school level chemistry and indication for reform

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Mei

This study is a profile of the laboratory component of instruction in secondary school level chemistry. As one of several companion studies, the purpose of the study is to investigate present practices related to instruction as a means of producing reform that improve cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes. Five hundred-forty students, from 18 chemistry classes taught by 12 teachers in ten high schools were involved in this study. Three schools included public and private schools, urban school, suburban schools, and rural schools. Three levels or types of chemistry courses were offered in these schools: school regular chemistry for college bound students, Chemistry in the Community or "ChemCom" for non-college bound students, and a second year of chemistry or advanced placement chemistry. Laboratory sessions in each of these three levels of courses were observed, videotaped, and later analyzed using the Modified Revised Science Teachers Behaviors Inventory (MR-STBI). The 12 chemistry teachers, eight science supervisors, and selected students were interviewed to determine their professional backgrounds and other factors that might influence how they teach, how they think, and how they learn. The following conclusions developed from the research are: (1) The three levels of chemistry courses are offered across high schools of varying sizes and locations. (2) Teachers perceive that students come to chemistry classes poorly prepared to effectively carry out laboratory experiences and/or investigations. (3) While students indicated that they are able to effectively use math skills in analyzing the results of chemistry laboratory experiments, teachers, in general, are not satisfied with the level at which students are prepared to use these skills, or to use writing skills. (4) Students working in pairs, is the typical approach. Group cooperation is sometimes used in carrying out the laboratory component of chemistry instruction in the ChemCom and AP chemistry

Drawing evaluation report for sampling equipment drawings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

WILSON, G.W.

1999-01-01

This document presents the results of a task to evaluate Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) sampling equipment drawings and identifies drawings category as either essential, support, or general drawings. This report completes the drawing evaluation task as outlined in Engineering Task Plan For Truck 3 and 4 Drawing Compliance and Evaluation (Wilson, 1997). The scope of this report is limited to an evaluation and identification of drawing category for drawings of certain tank waste sampling equipment for which the TRWS Characterization Project has been assigned custody, including: vapor sampling, grab sampling, auger sampling, and all core sampling equipment (see LMHC Task Order 304). This report does not address drawings for other waste tank deployed equipment systems having similar assigned custody, such as, Light Duty Utility Arm (LDUA), Cone Penetrometer system, or Long Length Contaminated Equipment (LLCE). The LDUA drawings are addressed in the Characterization Equipment Essential Drawings (HNF 1998). The Cone Penetrometer system drawings which are vendor drawings (not H- series) is not currently turned over to operations for deployment. The LLCE equipment was just recently assigned to Characterization Project and were not included in the original scope for this evaluation and will be addressed in the evaluation update scheduled for fiscal year 1999

Local court reforms and ‘global’ law

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard Mohr

2007-06-01

Full Text Available This study considers court reform programmes sponsored by the IMF and World Bank in Indonesia and Venezuela. It aims to broaden the frame of reference of ‘globalisation’ in law beyond the two traditional sites of human rights and trade. Drawing on a tradition of legal pluralism, it investigates the various sources of ‘global’ or universalising pressures on the law. The sources and impacts of these efforts may derive from and benefit or disadvantage specific groups in various locations. They will also promote or inhibit particular political, social or economic projects. The study concludes that various constituencies and impulses to reform refer to different versions of the ‘universal’ for their conception of right and legitimacy. These are neither inherently local nor unambiguously global. Local religious or egalitarian movements may refer to universal religious or political values just as interests in fair commercial dealing can call on international legal norms. In contrast to the local sites where law is performed, these universal sites exist in a multitude of indigenous, religious, political and legal imagined communities, each of which may be invoked in attempts to reform local practice.

The multidimensionality of electricity reform - an Australian perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, Deepak

2003-01-01

The electricity industry in Australia has over the last decade undergone fundamental and profound change. The industry has been functionally unbundled. The generation and retail segments of the industry have been exposed to competition. The transmission and distribution monopolies have been reoriented to foster competition. The customers are being offered increasing choice in the selection of their energy providers. The ownership of the industry is generally moving away from the public domain to the private domain. The rules for the governance of the industry have been developed in the form of a variety of market codes and regulation. Much of the debate about industry reform is being conducted exclusively in the economic domain. There is a general lack of any serious analysis and debate on the political, social, environmental and other dimensions of reform despite a wide consensus on the criticality of such dimensions. This is clearly unhelpful and could lead to obfuscation of the real challenges confronting the industry and preclude the development of responsible policy prescriptions to meet such challenges. There is an obvious need to devote some direct attention to these neglected dimensions of reform. This paper is one such attempt. It draws together the various dimensions of reform and provides a firmer basis for meaningful analyses and concrete debate on the issues. While the discussion focuses on Australian experience, the messages are relevant for other countries engaged in electricity reform

The Creative Drawing process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Flensborg, Ingelise

  The creative drawing process Associated Professor Ingelise Flensborg, PhD The Danish University school of Education, Aarhus University Tuborgvej 164 København NV   Why are children's drawings important for the development of cognitive structures and for their development in a visual society......'s. It is a pattern of actions as well as a pattern for action    In my doctoral thesis I discussed the connection between spatial orientation and visual representation (as a form of knowledge). I wanted to show the developmental possibilities within spatial cognition in art-education. I used the dynamic theory......, which is supposed to be our most basic cognitive structure. The body's interaction with the environment is decisive for children's spatial representations. In my theoretical and empirical investigations I found that this interaction creates the basic form of cognitive structures. The child...

Russian Electricity Reform 2013 Update: Laying an Efficient and Competitive Foundation for Innovation and Modernisation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-06-01

Russia is in the process of one of the most ambitious electricity reform programs ever undertaken. The reform is crucial for Russia, with the potential to modernize and transform the sector into a key driver of longer-term economic growth and prosperity. In 2005, the IEA published a study documenting the proposed reform and highlighting some potential implementation issues. Achievements to date have been impressive by international standards, however the outcome remains uncertain. Electricity reform is entering another critical phase in Russia. The 2013 Update examines the key remaining challenges affecting the development of competitive wholesale and retail electricity markets in Russia including: market structure, market design, pricing, investment and related regulation. The report draws extensively on the experience of IEA member countries and on views expressed during consultations with key Russian stakeholders.

Schooling, the School Effectiveness Movement, and Educational Reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Angus, Lawrence

The widely accepted notion that the management of resources in schools involves merely strategic decisions about the deployment of finances, staff, and materials must be contested. The school effectiveness movement ignores the social and political context of schools and, through emphasis upon superficial managerial matters, teaches pupils to…

Developing a School Finance System for K-12 Reform in Qatar

Science.gov (United States)

Guarino, Cassandra M.; Galama, Titus; Constant, Louay; Gonzalez, Gabriella; Tanner, Jeffery C.; Goldman, Charles A.

2009-01-01

Reform-minded leaders of Qatar, who have embarked on a sweeping reform of their nation's education system, asked RAND to evaluate the education finance system that has been adopted and to offer suggestions for improvements. The authors analyze the system's evolution and resource allocation patterns between 2004 and 2006 and develop analytic tools…

A Design of Innovative Engineering Drawing Teaching Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Mujiarto; Djohar, A.; Komaro, M.

2018-02-01

Good teaching is influenced by several things such as effective school leaders and skilled teachers who are able to use information communication technology as a medium of learning. The purpose of this research in general is to develop innovative teaching materials in the form of multimedia animation for engineering drawing in the field of technology and engineering at vocational high school. Research method used research and development (research and development / R & D). The results showed that the E-book Multimedia Animation Engineering Drawing (E-MMAED) is easy to possess and contains complete material. Students stated that the use of E-MMAED adds to learning motivation and improves learning outcomes (student competencies). We recommend that teachers apply E-MMAED as a learning medium and create other innovations to improve student competences.

Human figure drawings as a measure of children's emotional status: critical review for practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Skybo, Theresa; Ryan-Wenger, Nancy; Su, Ying-Hwa

2007-02-01

Human figure drawing is a common measurement that is used in practice and research. Drawing is a fun, inexpensive, and easy-to-administer method used to provide school-age children a projective means of expressing attitudes and emotions. As cognition matures, the content of drawing develops. The inclusion of emotional indicators in drawing signifies possible emotional problems. Recently, drawing has been used in countries and cultures other than the United States. Drawing can be implemented in any setting by all health care professionals.

The new reform in tunisia: the democratic challenge of the manuals analysis and teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Lucenti

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Tunisia is affected by many changes, including the reform of the education system that plays a crucial role. The Ministry of Education together with Trade Unions (UGTT and the Arab Institute of Human Rights are tracing the outlines of the reform, through an experiment of participatory democracy, synthesized through the preparation of a national report, which is analyzed here. The reform aims to change profoundly the current educational system: programs, manuals, the training of teachers, teaching, all these aspects will be included. Faced with the current economic situation and the problems affecting the country, from the religious extremism to the economic crisis, attempts have been made to examine the solutions proposed by various players involved. After a brief historical reconstruction of the reforms that have affected the Tunisian school system, a current reform is discussed, focusing especially on the school textbooks and on the image of Europe that they carry. Based on the opening to the other, discussed in the manuals, how can one explain the diffusion of religious fanaticism among certain groups of young people? How can the school consolidate the emerging democracy? These are the questions that are tried to be answered, leaving open the possibility of different interpretations.

School Climate and Leadership: Levers for School Improvement Efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Costa, Lois

2016-01-01

This qualitative study considers which aspects of school climate support or inhibit student achievement as each aspect relates to school leadership and school reform efforts. Due to the increased responsibility and accountability which schools face during these challenging times, school climate and the role of the school principal formed the basis…

Have you ever considered a career in total revolution?: drama and the corporate reform of higher education.

OpenAIRE

Connolly, Roy

2013-01-01

This paper examines the corporate reform of UK higher education and its implications for drama. The paper first sets out the background to this reform and its ideological reference points. It then outlines the discourse surrounding the foundation of drama in British Universities and relates this to the discourse developed several decades later by performance studies. In mapping out these areas, the paper draws attention to drama academics’ professed emphasis on rejecting commodification in fa...

Behavioral Health and Health Care Reform Models: Patient-Centered Medical Home, Health Home, and Accountable Care Organization

OpenAIRE

Bao, Yuhua; Casalino, Lawrence P.; Pincus, Harold Alan

2013-01-01

Discussions of health care delivery and payment reforms have largely been silent about how behavioral health could be incorporated into reform initiatives. This paper draws attention to four patient populations defined by the severity of their behavioral health conditions and insurance status. It discusses the potentials and limitations of three prominent models promoted by the Affordable Care Act to serve populations with behavioral health conditions: the Patient Centered Medical Home, the H...

O conhecimento em desenho das escolas primárias imperiais brasileiras: o livro de desenho de Abílio César Borges - The knowledge about drawing in the brazilian imperialist primary schools: Abílio César Borges’s drawing book

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gláucia Trinchão

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Resumo O conhecimento em Desenho, que chegou aos alunos das escolas primárias públicas brasileiras no final do século XIX, foi analisado através do livro de Desenho de Abílio César Borges, o Barão de Macaúbas. A obra, como suporte de memória, preservou o processo de construção do conhecimento acadêmico, o processo de transposição do saber científico, do professor/autor, ao saber escolar e, ao materializá-lo em suas páginas, socializou as ações didáticas do educador e os conteúdos selecionados. O livro "Desenho linear de elementos de Geometria prática popular: seguido de lições de agrimensura, stereometria e architectura" - "Primeira Parte", editado em 1882, representa a segunda edição compilada da primeira versão publicada em 1878. A primeira se destinava às escolas primárias, normais, liceus, colégios, cursos de adultos, artistas e operários da indústria. A segunda representa o substrato da primeira, destinada às escolas primárias do Império brasileiro. Palavras-chave: ensino de desenho; didática do desenho; transposição didática; livro didático.   THE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DRAWING IN THE BRAZILIAN IMPERIALIST PRIMARY SCHOOLS: ABÍLIO CÉSAR BORGES'S DRAWING BOOK Abstract The knowledge in Drawing, that arrived at the pupils of the primary schools public Brazilians, in the ending of century XIX, was analyzed through the book of Drawing of Abílio Cesar Borges, the Baron of Macaúbas. The workmanship, as memory support, preserved the process of construction of the academic knowledge, the process of transposition of knowing scientific to knowing school, when materializing it in your pages, socialized the didactic actions of the educator and the selected contents to be taught. The book "linear Drawing of elements of popular practical Geometry: followed of lessons of agrimensura, stereometry and architecture" - "First Part", edited in 1882, represents the second compiled edition of the first version published in

Global social issues in the curriculum

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simovska, Venka; Kremer Prøsch, Åsa

2016-01-01

and sustainability education and treats the two issues as societal challenges that are important to address in schools as educational examples. We draw on the literature on school leadership challenges linked to global neoliberal trends in educational reform. The context of the study is the on-going school reform...... somewhat more than sustainability education; however, both are characterized by insufficient attention to teachers’ professional development and the low prioritization of collaboration within the school and between the school and community actors. Acknowledging the contradicting demands that principals...... face in the context of the reform, we argue for reconnecting the concept of leadership with the wider purposes of schooling and for providing space for an emergent, whole-school curriculum that addresses health and sustainability....

Examining The Beliefs Of Prospective Elementary And Science Teachers Regarding Reformed Science Teaching And Learning

OpenAIRE

KARAMAN, Ayhan; KARAMAN, Pınar

2014-01-01

Turkey following the footsteps of western education system is nowadays struggling to implement constructivist paradigm in its schools. The success of the integration of constructivist elements into the schools is heavily contingent upon the support of teachers. This necessitates that the ideas advocated in constructivist reform movements should be promoted adequately in the preparation of teacher candidates. Therefore, investigating the beliefs of prospective teachers regarding reformed scien...

Correcting the Money Myth: Re-Thinking School Resources

Science.gov (United States)

Grubb, W. Norton

2010-01-01

The Money Myth is the contention that any education problem requires increased spending and, conversely, that reform is impossible without more funding. However, increased funding works for only certain kinds of school resources. Many reforms require resources that money cannot buy. What is needed are reforms that build the capacity of schools to…

Research on reform plan of civil engineering adult education graduation design

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Zhibin; Sun, Shengnan; Cui, Shicai

2017-12-01

As for civil engineering adult education graduation design, reform program is put forward combined with our school. The main points of reform include the following aspects. New pattern of graduation design which is consisted of basic training of engineering design, technical application and engineering innovation training is formed. Integration model of graduation design and employment is carried out. Multiple professional guidance graduation design pattern is put forward. Subject of graduation design is chosen based on the school actual circumstance. A “three stage” quality monitoring system is established. Performance evaluation pattern that concludes two oral examinations of the dissertation is strictly carried out.

Analysis of Academic and Non-Academic Outcomes from a Bottom-up Comprehensive School Reform in the Absence of Student Level Data through Simulation Methods: A Mixed Methods Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Sondergeld, Toni A.

2009-01-01

This dissertation examines the efficacy of a bottom-up comprehensive school reform (CSR) program by evaluating its impact on student achievement, attendance, and behavior outcomes through an explanatory mixed methods design. The CSR program (Gear Up) was implemented in an urban junior high school over the course of seven years allowing for…

Drawing experts have better visual memory while drawing.

Science.gov (United States)

Perdreau, Florian; Cavanagh, Patrick

2015-01-01

Drawing involves frequent shifts of gaze between the original and the drawing and visual memory helps compare the original object and the drawing across these gaze shifts while creating and correcting the drawing. It remains unclear whether this memory encodes all of the object or only the features around the current drawing position and whether both the original and the copy are equally well represented. To address these questions, we designed a "drawing" experiment coupled with a change detection task. A polygon was displayed on one screen and participants had to copy it on another, with the original and the drawing presented in alternation. At unpredictable moments during the copying process, modifications were made on the drawing and the original figure (while they were not in view). Participants had to correct their drawing every time they perceived a change so that their drawing always matched the current original figure. Our results show a better memory representation of the original figure than of the drawing, with locations relevant to the current production most accurately represented. Critically, experts showed better memory for both the original and the drawing than did novices, suggesting that experts have specialized advantages for encoding visual shapes.

"Decentralised" Neoliberalism and/or "Masked" Re-Centralisation? The Policy to Practice Trajectory of Maltese School Reform through the Lens of Neoliberalism and Foucault

Science.gov (United States)

Mifsud, Denise

2016-01-01

The politics of the later part of the twentieth century have been marked by the emergence of neoliberalism, which has consequently impregnated the global policy climate with neoliberal technologies of government. It is within this political scenario of hegemonic neoliberal discourse that I explore one aspect of school reform in Malta--contrived…

Reforming Preschools and Schools.

OpenAIRE

Duncan, GJ; Magnuson, K; Murnane, RJ

2016-01-01

Compared with their higher-income counterparts, children growing up in low-income families in the United States typically complete less schooling, report worse health, and work and earn less in adulthood. Moreover, changes in the American economy over the last 40 years have raised the level of skills and qualifications that children need to obtain a good middle-class job, as well as making it much more difficult for children from low-income families to attend schools that support their learni...

Tracking Gender Equity under Economic Reforms: Continuity and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Tracking Gender Equity under Economic Reforms: Continuity and Change in South ... She has a master's degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics ... An IDRC delegation will join international delegates and city representatives ...

Beyond Representation: Exploring Drawing as Part of Children's Meaning-Making

Science.gov (United States)

Darling-McQuistan, Kirsten

2017-01-01

Drawing is an everyday feature of primary school classrooms. All too often however, its role within the classroom is limited to a "representational" one, used to demonstrate the accuracy of children's images and representations of the world. Furthermore, drawings, which most closely "match" objective, dominant perspectives are…

Reforming Administrator Training: Here We Go Again!

Science.gov (United States)

Drury, William R.

1989-01-01

The National Policy Board for Educational Administration report ("Improving the Preparation of School Administrators: An Agenda for Reform") reiterates the need for program improvements for educational administrators. Obstacles to any real change occurring in the near future are pointed out. (six references) (SI)

Reforming birth registration law in England and Wales?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julie McCandless

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The Law Commission of England and Wales is considering what its 13th Programme of Law Reform should address. During the consultation process, a project on birth registration law has been mooted. This is a very welcome proposal given that civil birth registration in England and Wales is a compulsory procedure that not only finds its roots in the early Victorian era, but also remains very similar, at least in terms of form and the information that is recorded. I first use two recent legal challenges to illustrate why the current system is coming under increasing pressure. I further use these examples to caution against a law reform agenda that is narrowly focused on the precise information recorded, without a preliminary and wider examination of what the role and purpose of birth registration is, and should be, in society. I argue that this needs to be addressed before the state can justify the parameters of the information recorded. I then use an outline of historical reforms relating to the registration of births outside of marriage to highlight the normative two-parent family model that underpins the birth registration system. I argue that legal reform must be cognizant of the tenacity of this normative family model, particularly in relation to reform proposals surrounding donor conception and the annotation of birth certificates. Finally, I draw attention to wider developments in family law that cast birth registration as a social policy tool for the facilitation of parent–child relationships, particularly unmarried fathers.

The Promise of a Literacy Reform Effort in the Upper Elementary Grades

Science.gov (United States)

Walpole, Sharon; Amendum, Steven; Pasquarella, Adrian; Strong, John Z.; McKenna, Michael C.

2017-01-01

We compared year-long gains in fluency and comprehension in grades 3-5 in 3 treatment and 4 comparison schools. Treatment schools implemented a comprehensive school reform (CSR) program called Bookworms. The program employed challenging text and emphasized high text volume, aggressive vocabulary and knowledge building, and contextualized strategy…

Drawing evaluation report for sampling equipment drawings; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

WILSON, G.W.

1999-01-01

This document presents the results of a task to evaluate Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) sampling equipment drawings and identifies drawings category as either essential, support, or general drawings. This report completes the drawing evaluation task as outlined in Engineering Task Plan For Truck 3 and 4 Drawing Compliance and Evaluation (Wilson, 1997). The scope of this report is limited to an evaluation and identification of drawing category for drawings of certain tank waste sampling equipment for which the TRWS Characterization Project has been assigned custody, including: vapor sampling, grab sampling, auger sampling, and all core sampling equipment (see LMHC Task Order 304). This report does not address drawings for other waste tank deployed equipment systems having similar assigned custody, such as, Light Duty Utility Arm (LDUA), Cone Penetrometer system, or Long Length Contaminated Equipment (LLCE). The LDUA drawings are addressed in the Characterization Equipment Essential Drawings (HNF 1998). The Cone Penetrometer system drawings which are vendor drawings (not H- series) is not currently turned over to operations for deployment. The LLCE equipment was just recently assigned to Characterization Project and were not included in the original scope for this evaluation and will be addressed in the evaluation update scheduled for fiscal year 1999

Drawing Evaluation Report for Sampling Equipment Drawings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

BOGER, R.M.

1999-01-01

This document presents the results of a task to update the evaluation of River Protection Project (WP) sampling equipment drawings and updates the assigned drawings category as either essential, support, or general drawings. This report updates the drawing evaluation that was originally done per Engineering Task Plan For Truck 3 and 4 Drawing Compliance and Evaluation. The scope of this report is limited to updating the evaluation and identification of drawing category for drawings of certain tank waste sampling equipment for which the RPP Characterization Project has been assigned custody, including: vapor sampling, grab sampling, auger sampling, all core sampling equipment, and Light Duty Utility Arm (LDUA) (see LMHC contract No. 519, release 10). This report does not address drawings for other waste tank deployed equipment systems having similar assigned custody, such as, Cone Penetrometer system, or Long Length Contaminated Equipment (LLCE). The Cone Penetrometer system, which is depicted on vendor drawings, (not H- series), is not currently turned over to operations for deployment. The LLCE equipment was just recently assigned to Characterization Project and was not included in the original scope for this update and will be addressed in the evaluation update scheduled for later in fiscal year 1999, when equipment ownership is determined

Vehicles of Logics: The Role of Policy Documents and Instructional Materials in Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Woulfin, Sarah L.

2016-01-01

To understand the complexities of education policy implementation, it is necessary to consider how artifacts associated with reform are imbued with ideas, meanings, and values. This empirical paper draws on neo-institutional theory to reveal how artifacts carried particular logics (D'Adderio in "J Inst Econ" 7(2):197-230, 2011; Feldman…

Transformative Education? A Philosophic-Augustinian Response to the 2010 Albertan Reform Initiatives in "Inspiring Education"

Science.gov (United States)

Steel, Sean

2012-01-01

The Alberta Government's 2010 "Inspiring Education" reform proposals claim to be "transformational" in nature. This paper examines these proposals in light of ancient philosophy and various among the world's wisdom traditions. Drawing particularly on the philosophic reflections of St. Augustine in his "Confessions",…

Transforming Economies. The Case of the Norwegian Electricity Market Reform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olsen, Per Ingvar

2000-01-01

the theoretical, analytical and methodological approach, which mainly draws from contributions within Sociology of Science and Technology (the Actor-Network approach) and from Economic Sociology (social network theory). Other lines of thought are also touched upon, like different traditions within institutional theory and institutional economics. Even though issues within main stream economics are also discussed in brief, this scientific tradition here mainly serves as an empirical area of investigation. The second part of the thesis presents the historical background of the Norwegian electricity sector in broad - drawing lines back to the early establishing of the Norwegian electricity system and passing though important formative processes and reform attempts which came to establish vital directions and constraints on the later market reform. In part three, the emergence of the market reform is triangulated through analysis with distinctly different focuses. One concentrates on the immediate controversies and rival reform programs within the sector in between 1965 and 1985. Another takes its departure from the reorientation among leading economists internationally in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and follows their new economic concepts, models and arguments back to Norway, through various economic and public sector reforms in between 1977 and 1986. The third perspective is obtained from a focus on the SAF research institution in Bergen, where the market reform program gradually got established through the carrying out of various research projects regarding the functioning of the electricity system. Finally, there is a focussed discussion of the various attempts at modernizing the Norwegian state administration and the role of the state in the economy during the second half of the 1980s, by shifting governments and in particular by actors within the state administration with the responsibility to help shaping and carrying out these political-economic ambitions. The

Transforming Economies. The Case of the Norwegian Electricity Market Reform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Olsen, Per Ingvar

2000-07-01

the theoretical, analytical and methodological approach, which mainly draws from contributions within Sociology of Science and Technology (the Actor-Network approach) and from Economic Sociology (social network theory). Other lines of thought are also touched upon, like different traditions within institutional theory and institutional economics. Even though issues within main stream economics are also discussed in brief, this scientific tradition here mainly serves as an empirical area of investigation. The second part of the thesis presents the historical background of the Norwegian electricity sector in broad - drawing lines back to the early establishing of the Norwegian electricity system and passing though important formative processes and reform attempts which came to establish vital directions and constraints on the later market reform. In part three, the emergence of the market reform is triangulated through analysis with distinctly different focuses. One concentrates on the immediate controversies and rival reform programs within the sector in between 1965 and 1985. Another takes its departure from the reorientation among leading economists internationally in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and follows their new economic concepts, models and arguments back to Norway, through various economic and public sector reforms in between 1977 and 1986. The third perspective is obtained from a focus on the SAF research institution in Bergen, where the market reform program gradually got established through the carrying out of various research projects regarding the functioning of the electricity system. Finally, there is a focussed discussion of the various attempts at modernizing the Norwegian state administration and the role of the state in the economy during the second half of the 1980s, by shifting governments and in particular by actors within the state administration with the responsibility to help shaping and carrying out these political-economic ambitions. The

Drawing Inventors

Science.gov (United States)

Szekely, George

2012-01-01

Children are drawing inventors. Their art is certainly not what most adults think of as drawing. Almost instinctively, kids know that drawing is everywhere--that they can draw with almost anything, and that innumerable surfaces can be converted for art use. Teaching drawing is showing interest and enthusiasm for kids' drawing inventions--instead…

Social Capital Practices as Adaptive Drivers for Local Adjustment of New Public Management in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Olesen, Kristian Gylling; Hasle, Peter; Sørensen, Ole H.

2016-01-01

New public management (NPM) reforms have typically undermined teachers' autonomy, values, and status in society. This article questions whether such reforms automatically have these outcomes or whether and how possibilities for local adjustment of such reforms may prevent negative outcomes. Drawing on empirical case studies from two Danish…

Education sciences, schooling, and abjection: recognizing ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

people to that future. The double gestures continue in contemporary school reform and its sciences. ... understand their different cultural theses about cosmopolitan modes of life and the child cast out as different and ... Keywords: educational sciences; history of present; politics of schooling; reform; social inclusion/exclusion

Still Reforming after All These Years

Science.gov (United States)

McKenzie, William

2014-01-01

This article presents an interview with Terry Grier, superintendent of the Houston Independent School District (HISD), Texas's largest district. Before taking this post, he had been a principal or superintendent for most of three decades and remains a reformer five years into his leadership. Grier has maintained his passion for improving schools…

Planning for Reform-Based Science: Case Studies of Two Urban Elementary Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Mangiante, Elaine Silva

2018-02-01

The intent of national efforts to frame science education standards is to promote students' development of scientific practices and conceptual understanding for their future role as scientifically literate citizens (NRC 2012). A guiding principle of science education reform is that all students receive equitable opportunities to engage in rigorous science learning. Yet, implementation of science education reform depends on teachers' instructional decisions. In urban schools serving students primarily from poor, diverse communities, teachers typically face obstacles in providing reform-based science due to limited resources and accountability pressures, as well as a culture of teacher-directed pedagogy, and deficit views of students. The purpose of this qualitative research was to study two white, fourth grade teachers from high-poverty urban schools, who were identified as transforming their science teaching and to investigate how their beliefs, knowledge bases, and resources shaped their planning for reform-based science. Using the Shavelson and Stern's decision model for teacher planning to analyze evidence gathered from interviews, documents, planning meetings, and lesson observations, the findings indicated their planning for scientific practices was influenced by the type and extent of professional development each received, each teacher's beliefs about their students and their background, and the mission and learning environment each teacher envisioned for the reform to serve their students. The results provided specific insights into factors that impacted their planning in high-poverty urban schools and indicated considerations for those in similar contexts to promote teachers' planning for equitable science learning opportunities by all students.

Drawing and painting as a tool for communication

OpenAIRE

Elin, Setara

2012-01-01

The thesis is based on research, which was held in Bærum kommune, Norway in Autumn 2011, at four primary schools. The research question is: How do drawing and painting activities influence the communication between children with Norwegian background and children with immigrant background? Based on teachers experience, Case study at primary schools in Bærum kommune, Norway. The thesis discusses about communication between children with immigrant background and children with Norwegian back grou...

Structural Dynamics of Education Reforms and Quality of Primary Education in Uganda

Science.gov (United States)

Nyenje, Aida

2016-01-01

This paper examines Uganda's recent undertaking to reform her Primary School education System with a focus on the effect of structural dynamics of education reforms and the quality of primary education. Structural dynamics in the context of this study is in reference to the organizational composition of the education system at the government,…

The Spanish Civil War as Seen through Children's Drawings of the Time

Science.gov (United States)

Padrós Tuneu, Núria; Carrillo Flores, Isabel; Casanovas Prat, Josep; Prat Viñolas, Pilar; Tort Bardolet, Antoni; Gómez Mundó, Anna

2015-01-01

This article presents the most significant results to have emerged from the research process "Documentation, interpretation and digital diffusion of the educational patrimony produced in the period 1936-1939 in the schools of Barcelona: children's drawings". This research set out to analyse the drawings produced by the children of the…

DrawFromDrawings: 2D Drawing Assistance via Stroke Interpolation with a Sketch Database.

Science.gov (United States)

Matsui, Yusuke; Shiratori, Takaaki; Aizawa, Kiyoharu

2017-07-01

We present DrawFromDrawings, an interactive drawing system that provides users with visual feedback for assistance in 2D drawing using a database of sketch images. Following the traditional imitation and emulation training from art education, DrawFromDrawings enables users to retrieve and refer to a sketch image stored in a database and provides them with various novel strokes as suggestive or deformation feedback. Given regions of interest (ROIs) in the user and reference sketches, DrawFromDrawings detects as-long-as-possible (ALAP) stroke segments and the correspondences between user and reference sketches that are the key to computing seamless interpolations. The stroke-level interpolations are parametrized with the user strokes, the reference strokes, and new strokes created by warping the reference strokes based on the user and reference ROI shapes, and the user study indicated that the interpolation could produce various reasonable strokes varying in shapes and complexity. DrawFromDrawings allows users to either replace their strokes with interpolated strokes (deformation feedback) or overlays interpolated strokes onto their strokes (suggestive feedback). The other user studies on the feedback modes indicated that the suggestive feedback enabled drawers to develop and render their ideas using their own stroke style, whereas the deformation feedback enabled them to finish the sketch composition quickly.

Expressions of agency within complex policy structures: science teachers' experiences of education policy reforms in Sweden

Science.gov (United States)

Ryder, Jim; Lidar, Malena; Lundqvist, Eva; Östman, Leif

2018-03-01

We explore the experiences of school science teachers as they enact three linked national curriculum and assessment policy reforms in Sweden. Our goal is to understand teachers' differing responses to these reforms. A sample of 13 teachers engaged in 2 interviews over a 6-9-month period. Interviews included exploration of professional background and school context, perceptions of the aims of the policy reforms and experiences of working with these reforms in the classroom. Analysis was guided by an individual-oriented sociocultural perspective on professional agency. Here teaching is conceptualised as an ongoing interplay between teachers' knowledge, skills and personal goals, and the characteristics of the social, institutional and policy settings in which they work. Our analysis shows that navigating the ensuing continuities and contradictions results in many different expressions of teacher agency, e.g. loss of autonomy and trust, pushing back, subversion, transfer of authority, and creative tensions. Typically, an individual teacher's enactment of these reforms involved several of these expressions of agency. We demonstrate that the sociocultural perspective provides insights into teachers' responses to education policy reform likely to be missed by studies that focus largely on individual teacher knowledge/beliefs about reform or skills in 'implementing' reform practices.

Energy market reform - lessons learned and next steps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doucet, G.

2004-01-01

This presentation will be based on the World Energy Council's recently published report, Energy Market Reform: Lessons Learned and Next Steps with Special Emphasis on the Energy Access Problems of Developing Countries. The report draws on practical lessons from past studies carried out by the World Energy Council and on current experiences on the desirable architecture of market reforms in electricity and natural gas. The approach of the study was not to further deepen the analysis or to provide technical recommendations but rather, to build a debate guided by the common thread of energy security and end-user e mpowerment , highlighting the possible areas of conflict of interest and the broad solutions that might be chosen depending on the local circumstances for different parts of the energy chains. The ambition was to identify key concerns and to initiate a debate on possible answers.(author)

Liberalism, Radicalism, and Self-Governing Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Swartz, Ronald

1978-01-01

Contrasts Karl Popper's theory of social reform with a Marxist theory of reform. Concludes that a liberal approach to educational reform, as exemplified by A.S. Neill's self-governing school at Summerhill, is generally more satisfactory. (Author/DB)

Time to Reform the Schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Elshtain, Jean Bethke

1983-01-01

Indicates that parents, teachers, and concerned citizens must become involved in the decision-making process regarding public education. Recommends that (1) schools be decentralized to allow for more parent participation and teacher responsiveness, (2) schools of education be phased out, (3) parents and students get involved in educational…

Shunning the Bird's Eye View: General Science in the Schools of Ontario and Quebec

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman, Michelle

2013-04-01

This paper considers the adoption of general science courses in two Canadian provinces, Ontario and Quebec, during the 1930s. In Ontario, a few science teachers had followed the early general science movements in the United States and Britain with interest. During the 1930s, several developments made the cross-disciplinary, applied thrust of general science particularly appealing to Ontario educationists. These developments included a new demand for vocational education, renewed reservations about pedagogical rationales based on transfer of training, and a growing professional divide between high school science teachers and university scientists. Around the same time, scientists in the Quebec's French-language universities were engaged in a concerted campaign to expand the place of science in the province's francophone secondary schools. The province's prestigious classical colleges, which were the scientists' principal target for reform, privileged an inductive view of science that had little in common with the applied, cross-disciplinary emphasis of the general science courses gaining support in English-speaking school systems. In 1934, however, a popular American general science textbook was adopted in a workers' cooperative devoted to adult education. Comparing the fate of general science within these two education systems draws attention to the fact that general science made inroads in francophone Quebec but had little influence in public and private schools. In light of the growing support general science enjoyed elsewhere, we are led to explore why general science met with little overt interest by Quebec scientists pushing for school science reform during the 1930s.

Role and challenges of school social workers in facilitating and supporting the inclusiveness of children with special needs in regular schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Doriana Balli

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Dynamic of the society development is associated with extension of social problems, notably in educational context. The role of school, as the main public institution for social development of the students, is now obvious throughout the world. Consequently the role of social workers in schools is becoming essential, especially in terms of the inclusion of marginalized children from the opportunity of education, by impacting the educational system, to meet the diverse needs of all learners. Social work is focused on the welfare of individuals by increasing and developing their potential, so it goes hand in hand with inclusive education for children with disabilities, which emphasizes the children’ rights to obtain a definite, qualitative and suitable education in regular schools. The main focus of this study was to draw a clear panorama of the school social workers’ role towards the processes of inclusiveness of students with disabilities in Albanian regular schools. The data were collected via in-depth interviews with eight school social workers of the secondary schools in Korça region. The results showed that social service in schools is very important for helping students to develop social competences, intermediating parents in utilizing school and community resources, identifying and reporting bullying phenomenon, etc. School social workers could play a key role to implement the educational reform, which is being undertaken in Albania. Interviewees also shared their difficulties regarding the practical work, especially obstacles related to inclusive education processes.

EDUCATIONAL REFORMS AND TEACHERS’ WORKING CONDITIONS: EMOTIONS EXPERIENCED BY AN IN-SERVICE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neide Nunes RODRIGUES

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In this article, we analyze the relation among educational reforms and teachers’ work, and emotions. This study was conducted with a public school English teacher, in Minas Gerais. The aim was to verify the role that contextual factors play in the production of emotions, and detect the emotions that influence her practice with students, colleagues, and school managers. The theoretical framework was based on studies about educational reforms and teachers’ work (AUGUSTO, 2005; HYPOLITO; VIEIRA; PIZZI, 2009; DUARTE; AUGUSTO, [s.d.], the relationship between emotions and the process of teaching and learning languages (HARGREAVES, 2000; ZEMBYLAS, 2002, 2003; ARAGÃO, 2008; DAY; QING, 2009; SHUTZ; ZEMBYLAS, 2009; COWIE, 2011; RIBEIRO, 2012. We used a semistructured questionnaire and a narrative interview as data collection instruments. The analysis has pointed out poor work condition, crowded classrooms, poor physical and technological structures, strict school curriculum, students’ indiscipline, and the institution pessimistic atmosphere as frustrating, stressful, and de-motivating factors. These results indicate the need to create alternative ways of school workplaces organization, and to modify the way people interact in schools. They also suggest the need of educators to participate in the design and implementation of educational reforms.

Prescription, Ceremony, or "Trickle Down": How Do National Commissions Try to Reform Education?

Science.gov (United States)

Wimpelberg, Robert K.; Ginsberg, Rick

Educational reform commissions and their reports can be traced back to the massive expansion of public schools during the 1890s. The reports of reform commissions over the years follow the same format: problems are identified, experts are selected to examine them, and improvement proposals are recommended. This report examines 14 national studies…

Exploring Principal Capacity to Lead Reform of Teaching and Learning Quality in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Hallinger, Philip; Lee, Moosung

2013-01-01

In 1999 Thailand passed an ambitious national educational law that paved the way for major reforms in teaching, learning and school management. Despite the ambitious vision of reform embedded in this law, recent studies suggest that implementation progress has been slow, uneven, and lacking deep penetration onto classrooms. Carried out ten years…

In Flesh and Bone: Bodily Image and Educational Patterns in Early Reformation Theatre

Science.gov (United States)

Salvarani, Luana

2018-01-01

From its very beginning, the Protestant Reformation adopted the theatre as one of its educational tools. Together with choral music, visual arts, and preaching, Luther, Melanchthon, Oekolampad, and other Reformers promoted both the cultivated school theatre and the popular street theatre in order to spread the new faith, create a community ethos,…

The Joint Production of the Drawing of a Family: An Interactional Story

Science.gov (United States)

Brassac, Christian; Mietkiewicz, Marie-Claude

2010-01-01

The interpretation of drawings made by school-age children is a classic study field in child psychology. Yet clinical psychologists and researchers in psychology have concentrated more on analysing the semiotic value of a drawing made by the child. The authors of this paper offer an original approach to this graphic realisation, which consists of…

Drawing experts have better visual memory while drawing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Perdreau, F.A.G.; Cavanagh, P.

2015-01-01

Drawing involves frequent shifts of gaze between the original and the drawing and visual memory helps compare the original object and the drawing across these gaze shifts while creating and correcting the drawing. It remains unclear whether this memory encodes all of the object or only the features

The moral economy of austerity: analysing UK welfare reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Lydia

2016-03-01

This paper notes the contemporary emergence of 'morality' in both sociological argument and political rhetoric, and analyses its significance in relation to ongoing UK welfare reforms. It revisits the idea of 'moral economy' and identifies two strands in its contemporary application; that all economies depend on an internal moral schema, and that some external moral evaluation is desirable. UK welfare reform is analysed as an example of the former, with reference to three distinct orientations advanced in the work of Freeden (1996), Laclau (2014), and Lockwood (1996). In this light, the paper then considers challenges to the reform agenda, drawn from third sector and other public sources. It outlines the forms of argument present in these challenges, based respectively on rationality, legality, and morality, which together provide a basis for evaluation of the welfare reforms and for an alternative 'moral economy'. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2016.

The Search for Equity in School Finance: Michigan School District Response to a Guaranteed Tax Base.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Rolla Edward; Carroll, Stephen J.

Part of a three-volume report on the effects of school finance reform, this volume examines the effects of reform on Michigan school districts' budgets from 1971 to 1976. Econometric models were used. Researchers found a very small "price" effect--an elasticity of -.02. The data provide no evidence that state matching grants stimulate…

Encountering Drawing

Science.gov (United States)

Gregory, Nuala

2017-01-01

This article divides into two roughly equal parts, both of which aim to address the "act" rather than the "art" of drawing. The second part focuses on a theoretical discussion of drawing. The first bears on a number of themes including the role of drawing in colonial history, drawing and data collection, and drawing and memory.…

Charter School Competition, Organization, and Achievement in Traditional Public Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Tomeka M.

2013-01-01

Market models of education reform predict that the growth of charter schools will infuse competition into the public school sector, forcing traditional public schools to improve the practices they engage in to educate students. Some scholars have criticized these models, arguing that competition from charter schools is unlikely to produce…

School Finance Reform. At Issue

Science.gov (United States)

Weston, Margaret

2010-01-01

Californians are very concerned about funding for their K-12 public schools. They consistently say that K-12 education should be protected from spending cuts over and above any other area of the state budget. California's system of school finance is in trouble. Many studies have found it to be inequitable, with wide variation in per-pupil funding.…

Can We Pay for Current Education Reform?

Science.gov (United States)

Odden, Allan

2012-01-01

For more than 30 years, the United States has been engaged in education reform efforts designed to dramatically boost student performance and close achievement gaps linked to poverty and ethnicity. Can schools afford those education ambitions? Most educators have their doubts. The author believes educators can improve student learning even when…

Sacred Choices: Adolescent Relationships and Sexual Ethics--The Reform Movement's Response to the Need for Faith-Based Sexuality Education

Science.gov (United States)

Winer, Rabbi Laura Novak

2011-01-01

"Sacred Choices: Adolescent Relationships and Sexual Ethics" is a sexual ethics curriculum for middle school and high school students developed by the Union for Reform Judaism. Sacred Choices strives to teach Reform Jewish teens that their bodies are gifts from God and that Judaism provides relevant guidance on how to use and care for that gift…

The Curricular Reform of Art Education in Primary School in Slovenia in Terms of Certain Components of the European Competence of Cultural Awareness and Expression

Science.gov (United States)

Bracun Sova, Rajka; Kemperl, Metoda

2012-01-01

One of the important positions of the last curricular reform in Slovenia, which included systemic issues of education (White Paper on Education, 2011) and curricula for compulsory subjects in primary school, is the fact that Slovenia has been integrated into Europe, and thus education should also include the development of core European…

[Issue of population quality under economic reform].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, G

1991-02-01

Under the current economic reform program, various problems about the quality of the population have emerged; dropping out of school is one such problem. In recent years, dropping out of school, has become a prevalent phenomenon. It was estimated that between 1980 and 1987, 40 million primary and middle school students dropped out of school. Drop-outs occurred mostly in primary and middle schools and in rural areas. The reasons for dropping out can be summarized as follows: 1) families could not afford to pay for tuition, 2) students were not able to keep up with school work, and 3) families or students were influenced by other students who had dropped out. In weighing the cost and benefit of attending school, parents would decide whether or not and for how many years to send their children to school. The costs included both direct costs and opportunity costs. Children in urban areas have practically no opportunity costs, while those in rural areas do. Dropping out has been more prevalent among girls than boys. Since girls marry into other families, parents were less willing to invest in their education. On the other hand, the school curriculum gave more emphasis to preparing students for advanced studies than to relaying practical knowledge. Parents did not feel there was any advantage for their children to spend more time in school. Rural economic reform had strengthened the decision-making function of the family in the area of investment. It has also widened the gap between the rich and the poor. For less affluent families, it has become more and more difficult to bear the increasing cost of education. To deal with this problem, the author made several suggestions: 1) persuade parents to continue sending children to school 2) set regulations forbidding the employment of school age children 3) forbid schools to collect unauthorized feeds and establish scholarships to help economically disadvantaged students, 4) develop more vocational schools and change the

Representation of dental care and oral health in children's drawings.

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Torriani, D D; Goettems, M L; Cademartori, M G; Fernandez, R R; Bussoletti, D M

2014-06-01

Paediatric dentistry requires knowledge of preventive measures, restorative skills and an understanding of child development. This exploratory, descriptive and qualitative study has analysed children's drawings regarding their perception of dental treatment and oral health. Children aged from six to ten years attending a dental school for treatment were randomly invited to create a drawing about 'dental treatment' and 'oral health'. Verbal expressions made by the children whilst drawing were also recorded and attached to the drawings. These representations were analysed and categorised using Vygotsky postulations for context reading. During the drawing analysis different themes emerged. Five categories regarding perceptions of dental treatment were identified: personal relationship; power relation; trauma; childhood resistance; and contextualisation of dental care in the child's life. Three categories relating to oral health were determined: dichotomy of health/sickness; ludic representation of health; and sickness seen as a process. Drawing can be used to understand children's emotions and expectations about dental treatment. Besides possessing technical skills and scientific knowledge, dentists have an obligation to pay attention to children's feelings.

Geography teachers' interpretation of a curriculum reform initiative ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article addresses how teachers in a specific developing world context interpreted a curriculum reform initiative. It is located within a broader interpretive study that investigated the integration of Environmental Education into the formal education system of Lesotho with particular reference to secondary school geography.

Mechanical drawing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cho, Ho Seon; Lee, Geun Hui

2004-04-15

This book deals with how to read and draw the mechanical drawing, which includes the basic of drawing like purpose, kinds, and criterion, projection, special projection drawing, omission of the figure, section, and types of section, dimensioning method, writing way of allowable limit size, tolerance of regular size, parts list and assembling drawing, fitting, mechanical elements like screw, key, pin, rivet, spring, bearing, pipe, valve, welding, geometric tolerance and mechanical materials.

Effectiveness of Powerpoint Presentation On Students’ Cognitive Achievement in Technical Drawing

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Amosa Isiaka Gambari

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses importance of technology education and evidence of declining performance of junior secondary school students in basic technology subject. Benefits of PowerPoint presentation in classroom instruction as a means to improve classroom teaching in the developing countries are also discussed. The effectiveness of PowerPoint Presentation (PPT for teaching Technical Drawing concepts in Basic Technology was determined using a pretest-posttest, non-equivalent, non-randomized experimental group design. A 2x2x3 factorial design was employed. One hundred JSS 1 students (53 male and 47 female categorized into 29 high, 54 medium and 17 low achievers from two secondary schools in Abuja Metropolis formed the sample. The schools were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught some selected concepts from Technical Drawing using PowerPoint Presentation (PPT while Chalkboard method (CB was used for the control group. A validated Technical Drawing Achievement Test (TDAT comprising a 25-item multiple-choice test was employed for data collection. The reliability coefficient of TDAT was .88 using Kuder-Richardson (KR-20. The hypotheses were tested using ANCOVA and Sidak post-hoc analysis. Results revealed that the students taught with PPT performed better than their counterparts taught with CB. Also, high achievers performed better than medium and low achievers respectfully. The PPT was found also to be gender friendly. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the use of PPT should be encouraged in Nigerian schools.

The Discourse of Partnership and the Reality of Reform: Interrogating the Recent Reform Agenda at Initial Teacher Education and Induction Levels in Ireland

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Judith Harford

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Over the last decade, teacher education in Ireland has experienced radical reconceptualization and restructuring at both initial teacher education [ITE] and induction levels, with reform of continuous professional development now in the planning phase. The establishment of the Teaching Council (2006 as a statutory, regulatory body, with a role in the review and accreditation of teacher education, increased the visibility of and policy focus on teacher education. Significant reform of initial teacher education was announced in 2011 that included both an extension of the duration of programmes and, most notably, the period the student teachers were to be engaged in school-based professional development. This increased period has been accompanied by a shift in the understanding of what is involved in practicum and implies a redefinition of the respective roles of the university and the school, and the development of a new form of partnership between both agencies. The period of induction and probation has also become an area of reform with an emphasis on school-based coaching and the evaluation of newly qualified teachers, which devolves decisions on teachers’ full recognition and membership of the profession, to principals and colleagues. This shift, which changes the established approach to induction for primary level teachers, has resulted in the withdrawal of cooperation with this policy by the main teacher union and to the implementation process being stymied. Both policy developments bring the concept of partnership within Irish education into sharp focus: a partnership between schools and universities in ITE, but also partnership in policy development and implementation in the case of induction.

Charter Schools: An Experiment in School Reform. ASPIRA Issue Brief.

Science.gov (United States)

Dittmar, Belinda Corazon; And Others

Charter schools incorporate the focus of magnet schools but often go beyond their academic specialization to more social goals. They can operate at both elementary and secondary levels, although they are always quite small. The greatest difference, however, between charter schools and other public schools is their status as a bridge between public…

Drawing as Driver of Creativity: Nurturing an Intelligence of Seeing in Art Students

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Riley, Howard

2017-01-01

The article reasserts the primacy of drawing as a driver of creativity within art schools. It reviews specific aspects of visual perception theory and visual communication theory relevant to a pedagogical strategy as a means of nurturing an "intelligence of seeing" in art students. The domain of drawing is theorised as a…

Perspectives: parity--prelude to a fifth cycle of reform.

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Goldman, Howard H

2002-09-01

Based on 2000 Carl Taube Lecture at the NIMH Mental Health Economics Meeting. This perspective article examines the relationship between a policy of parity in financing mental health services and the future of reform in service delivery. Applying theories of static and dynamic efficiency to an understanding of parity and the evolution of mental health services, drawing upon Burton Weisbrod s concept of the health care quadrilemma . Each of four cycles of reform in mental health services have contended with issues of static and dynamic efficiency. Each cycle was associated with static efficiency in the management and financing of services, and each was associated with a set of new treatment technologies intended to improve dynamic efficiency. Each reform proved ultimately unsuccessful primarily because of the failure of the treatment technologies to prevent future patient chronicity or to achieve sustained recovery. Recent advances in treatment technology and management of care can permit an unprecedented level of efficiency consistent with a policy of improved access to mainstream health and social welfare resources, including insurance coverage. This policy of so-called financing parity can improve current mental health service delivery, but it may also portend a future fifth cycle of reform. If new technologies continue to advance as full technologies - simple to deliver and producing true recovery - and mainstream resources are made available, then the specialty mental health services may contract dramatically in favor of effective care and treatment of mental illness in primary care and other mainstream settings. Predicting the future of health care is speculative, but it may be easier using the Weisbrod formulation to understand the process of mental health reform. Over-reliance on administrative techniques for building static efficiency and false optimism about dynamic efficiency from new technology have stymied previous reforms. All the same, a fifth cycle

Tensions between Teaching Sexuality Education and Neoliberal Policy Reform in Quebec's Professional Competencies for Beginning Teachers

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Parker, Dan; McGray. Robert

2015-01-01

This research draws into question the effects that neoliberal policy reforms--with an emphasis on individual and measurable "competencies"--has on new teachers teaching sexuality education in Quebec. While we examine professional competencies that teachers can use to define their mandate for teaching sexuality education as a beginning…

Allocation Anatomy: How District Policies That Deploy Resources Can Support (or Undermine) District Reform Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Roza, Marguerite

2008-01-01

The goal of this paper is to explore the effects of micro-budgeting decisions and show how they might support or hamper district reform strategies. The study draws on public and private sector resource allocation literature to identify key elements of resource allocation decisions. These elements are used to highlight different allocation…

Controlled fragmentation of multimaterial fibres and films via polymer cold-drawing.

Science.gov (United States)

Shabahang, Soroush; Tao, Guangming; Kaufman, Joshua J; Qiao, Yangyang; Wei, Lei; Bouchenot, Thomas; Gordon, Ali P; Fink, Yoel; Bai, Yuanli; Hoy, Robert S; Abouraddy, Ayman F

2016-06-23

Polymer cold-drawing is a process in which tensile stress reduces the diameter of a drawn fibre (or thickness of a drawn film) and orients the polymeric chains. Cold-drawing has long been used in industrial applications, including the production of flexible fibres with high tensile strength such as polyester and nylon. However, cold-drawing of a composite structure has been less studied. Here we show that in a multimaterial fibre composed of a brittle core embedded in a ductile polymer cladding, cold-drawing results in a surprising phenomenon: controllable and sequential fragmentation of the core to produce uniformly sized rods along metres of fibre, rather than the expected random or chaotic fragmentation. These embedded structures arise from mechanical-geometric instabilities associated with 'neck' propagation. Embedded, structured multimaterial threads with complex transverse geometry are thus fragmented into a periodic train of rods held stationary in the polymer cladding. These rods can then be easily extracted via selective dissolution of the cladding, or can self-heal by thermal restoration to re-form the brittle thread. Our method is also applicable to composites with flat rather than cylindrical geometries, in which case cold-drawing leads to the break-up of an embedded or coated brittle film into narrow parallel strips that are aligned normally to the drawing axis. A range of materials was explored to establish the universality of this effect, including silicon, germanium, gold, glasses, silk, polystyrene, biodegradable polymers and ice. We observe, and verify through nonlinear finite-element simulations, a linear relationship between the smallest transverse scale and the longitudinal break-up period. These results may lead to the development of dynamical and thermoreversible camouflaging via a nanoscale Venetian-blind effect, and the fabrication of large-area structured surfaces that facilitate high-sensitivity bio-detection.

Thinking Drawing

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Adams, Eileen

2017-01-01

This article draws heavily on the author's critical autobiography: "Eileen Adams: Agent of Change." It presents evidence of the value of drawing as a medium for learning, particularly in art and design, and argues that drawing is a useful educational tool. The premise is that drawing makes you think. This article explains various…

When Schools Become Dead Zones of the Imagination: A Critical Pedagogy Manifesto

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Giroux, Henry A.

2016-01-01

In this article Henry Giroux discusses corporate school reform movement and its detrimental impact on the public school system such as the closure of public schools in cities such as, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York to make way for charter schools. Giroux argues that corporate school reform is not simply obsessed with measurements that degrade…

Education for Sustainable Development in Malaysia's National Curriculum Reformation: A Theoretical Exploration

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Aai Sheau Yean

2014-10-01

Full Text Available This article aims to examine the feasibility and potential of including appropriate Education for Sustainable Development (ESD elements in the National Curriculum Reformation of Malaysia that is set to be introduced in the year 2017. This is done through the proposal of a theoretical approach for understanding ESD fit for Malaysia from an environmental epistemology. To start with, this article outlines dominant ideologies and epistemologies revolving around the concept of Sustainable Development (SD and focuses on critiquing the underlying anthropocentric tendencies found within. Drawing principally from the ideas of Schumacher (1973, Orr (2004, and Sterling (1992, the article then sets out to examine the ideologies and epistemologies needed to support education reformation that are more environmentally sensitive in nature.

The Transition from Traditional to Whole Language Instruction: A Continuum from Reformers to Resistors.

Science.gov (United States)

Schweiker, Karyn E.; Barksdale-Ladd, Mary Alice

Factors that influenced teachers to become reformers, reviewers, or resistors to whole language were investigated with specific examination of school culture. In this study three transitioning school sites were selected on the basis of their similarity in staffing and student size. Participants from each school involved three to four classroom…

An Evaluation of Teaching-Learning of Drawing at School of Applied Arts, Takoradi Polytechnic

Science.gov (United States)

Ofori-Anyinam, Sampong; Andrews, Amoako-Temeng; Ankrah, Owusu-Ansah

2016-01-01

Drawing is described as the bases of all art work when an art idea is conceived. It can only materialize into concrete form when it has gone through a process of designing which basically involves drawing. The ability of an artist to draw is very paramount in the art profession. The bases for selecting students to pursue an art programme is their…

Gender and Preferred Content in Children's Drawing among ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study sought to establish the relationship between gender and preferred Content in children‟s drawing. A total of 220 pupils stratified into 110 males and 110 females drawn from eleven randomly selected primary schools in Zaria metropolis were used for the study. Four research questions were raised and four null ...

Characterization of fine motor development: dynamic analysis of children's drawing movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Qiushi; Luo, Jianfei; Wu, Zhongcheng; Shen, Fei; Sun, Zengwu

2015-04-01

In this study, we investigated children's fine motor development by analyzing drawing trajectories, kinematics and kinetics. Straight lines drawing task and circles drawing task were performed by using a force sensitive tablet. Forty right-handed and Chinese mother-tongue students aged 6-12, attending classes from grade 1 to 5, were engaged in the experiment. Three spatial parameters, namely cumulative trace length, vector length of straight line and vertical diameter of circle were determined. Drawing duration, mean drawing velocity, and number of peaks in stroke velocity profile (NPV) were derived as kinematic parameters. Besides mean normal force, two kinetic indices were proposed: normalized force angle regulation (NFR) and variation of fine motor control (VFC) for circles drawing task. The maturation and automation of fine motor ability were reflected by increased drawing velocity, reduced drawing duration, NPV and NFR, with decreased VFC in circles drawing task. Grade and task main effects as well as significant correlations between age and parameters suggest that factors such as schooling, age and task should be considered in the assessment of fine motor skills. Compared with kinematic parameters, findings of NFR and VFC revealed that kinetics is another important perspective in the analysis of fine motor movement. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cultural and age differences of three groups of Taiwanese young children's creativity and drawing.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Mei-Hue; Dzeng, Annie

2013-06-01

This study investigated the cultural and age effects on children's overall creativity and drawing. 1,055 children ages 6 to 8 from three groups--urban and rural Taiwanese children and Taiwanese children of immigrant mothers, all in public schools--were given a creativity test, a people-drawing test, and a free-drawing test. The results showed that the older Taiwanese children scored higher than the young Taiwanese children on people-drawing and free-drawing, but not overall creativity. Drawing and creativity scores increased in accordance with age. In the six-year-old group, a group difference was found only on the scale of people-drawing. Urban Taiwanese children in the eight-year-old group scored higher than the other two groups of children on creativity and free-drawing. Results are discussed in terms of educational opportunities.

Quality Reform: Personality Type, Preferred Learning Style and Majors in a Business School

Science.gov (United States)

Fallan, Lars

2006-01-01

The quality reform of higher education in Norway has generally recommended a substitution of classroom teaching with more active forms of learning in higher education. This study reveals that ignoring the student's personality type may be in conflict with the purpose of the reform. The student's personality type affects both the most effective…

Sugli obiettivi di una riforma tributaria in Italia. (The aims of a taxation reform in Italy

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C. COSCIANI

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The drawbacks and deficiencies of the Italian fiscal system have become such and so many that a structural revision is urgent both concerning legislation and the organisation of the tax system. The first aim of a reform must be to make the system clear and simple. Secondly, the progressiveness of the system must be announced. Third, the fiscal system should become an instrument of economic planning. The paper puts forward a reform proposal and draws a set of priorities for the reorganisation of fiscal structures and jurisdictions in Italy.JEL: E62, H21, H30

Choice in Schooling: A Case for Tuition Vouchers.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirkpatrick, David W.

The educational reform movement produced only incremental improvements in student achievement, prompting a need for greater focus on structural and cultural aspects of school organization. Parental choice is the necessary element for successful school reform in the future. The public educational system that has evolved in America is widely…

China's New National Curriculum Reform: Innovation, Challenges and Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Guan, Qun; Meng, Wanjin

2007-01-01

This paper presents systematically China's New National Curriculum Reform (CNNCR). It covers the background, origin, essence, goals, features, evolvement, schedule, implementation, the alignment in primary, secondary and middle schools' curricula and inter-subjects, the outcomes and the challenges and strategies of CNNCR.

Drawing cure: children's drawings as a psychoanalytic instrument.

Science.gov (United States)

Wittmann, Barbara

2010-01-01

This essay deals with the special case of drawings as psychoanalytical instruments. It aims at a theoretical understanding of the specific contribution made by children's drawings as a medium of the psychical. In the influential play technique developed by Melanie Klein, drawing continuously interacts with other symptomatic (play) actions. Nonetheless, specific functions of drawing within the play technique can be identified. The essay will discuss four crucial aspects in-depth: 1) the strengthening of the analysis's recursivity associated with the graphic artifact; 2) the opening of the analytic process facilitated by drawing; 3) the creation of a genuinely graphic mode of producing meaning that allows the child to develop a "theory" of the workings of his own psychic apparatus; and 4) the new possibilities of symbolization associated with the latter. In contrast to classical definitions of the psychological instrument, the child's drawing is a weakly structured tool that does not serve to reproduce psychic processes in an artificial, controlled setting. The introduction of drawing into the psychoanalytic cure is by no means interested in replaying past events, but in producing events suited to effecting a transformation of the synchronic structures of the unconscious.

The School Budget, Power and Responsibility in Grant-Maintained Schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, Simon

1992-01-01

Describes Audenshaw High School in Manchester, England, the first school to achieve grant-maintained status under the 1988 Education Reform Act, as an example of future school administration in the United Kingdom. Examines five aspects of budgeting that this change has entailed, highlighting funding problems and opportunities. (10 references) (MLH)

What to Do with the Bounty? Organizational Patterns for the Implementation of Resources Allocated by the Courage to Change (Oz Letmura) Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Tamir, Emanuel; Shaked, Lea

2016-01-01

The research investigated the way in which school administrations implement resources provided by Israel's "Courage to Change" reform. The uniqueness of this reform stems from the fact that the allocated resources come in the form of "weekly instruction time" rather than finance, and the school management needs to decide how to…

Qatar's K-12 Education Reform Has Achieved Success in Its Early Years. Research Brief

Science.gov (United States)

Larson, Judy

2009-01-01

To evaluate progress made in the first years of Qatar's implementation of K-12 education reform, RAND analyzed data from school-level observations, national surveys, and national student assessments. The study found that students in the new, Independent schools were performing better than those in Ministry schools, and there was greater student…

Power sector reform and distributed generation in sub-Saharan Africa

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Turkson, J.K.; Wohlgemuth, N.

2001-01-01

As part of the current liberalisation process sweeping sub-Saharan Africa, power sectors across the region are being scrutinised and restructured. A critical aspect of the reform is improving access to electricity by large segments of the population. Many in the continent are, therefore,looking a......As part of the current liberalisation process sweeping sub-Saharan Africa, power sectors across the region are being scrutinised and restructured. A critical aspect of the reform is improving access to electricity by large segments of the population. Many in the continent are, therefore......, on average, 30-40 per cent of the region's population, the authors discuss the issues involved, drawing on the experiences of other countries whether there are any apparent 'preconditions' for success. Second, the role renewable energy can play in this process and the extent to which lessons from other parts...... of the world might be transferable to the countries of sub-Saharan Africa is assessed. The paper concludes by investigating the prospects for distributed generation in power sector reform in sub-Saharan Africa, arguing that though lessons from other parts of the world will be helpful, they cannot be all...

Impact of a school district's science reform effort on the achievement and attitudes of third- and fourth-grade students

Science.gov (United States)

Shymansky, James A.; Yore, Larry D.; Anderson, John O.

2004-10-01

This article is about one school district's effort to reform its elementary science curriculum through a program of professional development called Science, Parents, Activities and Literature (Science PALs). The differential exposure of the district's K-6 teachers to Science PALs and differences in how well teachers implemented Science PALs-type inquiry strategies allowed us to conduct a quasi-experimental study of the impact of Science PALs on student achievement and attitudes. We measured achievement with an instrument based on items taken from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS; International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, [1997]) and selected attitudes about science with the Student Perceptions of Classroom Climate (SPOCC; Yore et al., [1998]), an instrument that we designed. Our analyses of student attitude scores as a function of years of teacher participation in Science PALs and supervisor's rating of a teacher's implementation of the project's instructional approaches showed a significant overall positive impact on student attitudes toward school science. Student TIMSS scores on multiple-choice items or constructed-response items did not improve significantly when analyzed by the number of years a student's teacher was involved in the Science PALs effort or by the supervisor's rating of that implementation. We found no significant differences in attitude or achievement scores among students taught by a series of teachers rated high, medium, or low in quality of implementation by the district's science supervisor. We discuss possible explanations for the lack of clear and positive connections between Science PALs and student performance in light of the increased focus on accountability in reform projects.

Growth Mindset and Motivation: A Study into Secondary School Science Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Bedford, Susannah

2017-01-01

Motivation in science in school is a national issue but is often overlooked in educational reform (Usher, A., and N. Kober. 2012. "Student motivation -- An overlooked piece of school reform". Centre on Education Policy, Graduate School of Education and Human Development. The George Washington University). Despite new curriculum content…

Renewable energy policy and electricity market reforms in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cherni, Judith A.; Kentish, Joanna

2007-01-01

The article examines the potential effectiveness of the renewable energy policy in China and its regulatory Law framework. It frames the option of renewable energy technology within the background of the long-lasting electricity problems that China has faced including serious supply shortages, reliance on coal, and severe environmental contamination. Its dual administrative and ownership system based on state and privately owned industry is discussed together with the market reform measures adopted in the sector. Current renewable energy policy is analysed, and the scope of the 2005 Renewable Energy Promotion Law is investigated. This is conducted within the context of the electricity sector reform that China adopted, and its effects upon the prospects of encouraging as well as expanding the development of renewable energy. This study draws upon primary information collected from interviews with stakeholders on the policy adequacy, and identifies three main types of shortcomings that have interfered with a more successful expansion of renewable energy in China. (author)

Images of Schools.

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Schlechty, Phillip C.; Joslin, Anne Walker

1984-01-01

Metaphors used commonly in education do not adequately define school problems or help in reform. A new metaphor of the school as a knowledge work organization is offered with a description of teacher and student roles. (DF)

Systems, Stakeholders, and Students: Including Students in School Reform

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Zion, Shelley D.

2009-01-01

The education system in the United States is under pressure from a variety of sources to reform and improve the delivery of educational services to students. Change across a system as complex and dynamic as the educational system requires a systemic approach and requires the participation or buy-in of all participants and stakeholders. This…

Human Resource Support for School Principals in Two, Urban School Districts: An Exploratory Study

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Lochmiller, Chad R.

2010-01-01

School districts are increasingly focused on instructional practice in classrooms. Many urban school districts have shifted decision-making responsibility to school principals in order to improve instruction. This reform strategy has been referred to as decentralization or school-based management. Decentralization has a significant influence on…

Moving from Separate, to Equal, to Equitable Schooling: Revisiting School Desegregation Policies

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McPherson, Ezella

2011-01-01

For over a century after the 1896 "Plessy v. Ferguson" decision, researchers have been grappling with how to effectively implement educational reform policies to provide students with an equal education in American schools. This literature review examines previous school desegregation cases and school desegregation plans to investigate…

Educating for Freedom and Responsibility: Lessons From the First Amendment Schools Project

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Mitchell, Cynthia

2016-01-01

The First Amendment Schools project holds rich lessons in how to change school cultures into "laboratories of democracy"--as well as in how to increase the odds of success for any school reform effort. School reform programs of any sort need to make sure to build in sustainability, to provide ways to spread their lessons beyond the…

Architectural Drawing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Steinø, Nicolai

2018-01-01

In a time of computer aided design, computer graphics and parametric design tools, the art of architectural drawing is in a state of neglect. But design and drawing are inseparably linked in ways which often go unnoticed. Essentially, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to conceive of a design...... is that computers can represent graphic ideas both faster and better than most medium-skilled draftsmen, drawing in design is not only about representing final designs. In fact, several steps involving the capacity to draw lie before the representation of a final design. Not only is drawing skills an important...... prerequisite for learning about the nature of existing objects and spaces, and thus to build a vocabulary of design. It is also a prerequisite for both reflecting and communicating about design ideas. In this paper, a taxonomy of notation, reflection, communication and presentation drawing is presented...

America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor Pickard

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This contribution is a recording of the CAMRI research seminar held at the University of Westminster on November 19, 2014, in which Victor Pickard presented his book "America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform": http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/americas-battle-media-democracy-triumph-corporate-libertarianism-and-future-media-reform Why do American media have so few public interest regulations? How did the American media system become dominated by a few corporations, and why are structural problems like market failures routinely avoided in media policy discourse? By tracing the answers to many of these questions back to media policy battles in the 1940s, Victor Pickard explains how this happened and why it matters today. Drawing from extensive archival research, the book uncovers the American media system’s historical roots and normative foundations. His book charts the rise and fall of a forgotten media reform movement to recover alternatives and paths not taken. As much about the present and future as it is about the past, the book proposes policies for remaking media based on democratic values for the digital age. Victor Pickard is an assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously he taught media studies at NYU and the University of Virginia, and he worked on media policy in Washington, D.C. as a Senior Research Fellow at the media reform organization Free Press, the public policy think tank the New America Foundation, and Congresswoman Diane Watson’s office. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on the history and political economy of media institutions and media reform activism. His op-eds on media policy debates and the future of journalism have appeared in news outlets like The Guardian, The Seattle

Co-Constructing Community, School, University Partnerships for Urban School Transformation

Science.gov (United States)

Gillenwaters, Jamila Najah

2009-01-01

University-school-community partnerships represent a collaborative model of urban educational reformation inclusive of all the organizations that impact urban education. Co-constructed relationships among communities, schools, and universities have the potential for redistributing hierarchical power, thereby enabling all partners to contribute to…

Violence Prevention and School Climate Reform. School Climate Brief, Number 5

Science.gov (United States)

Nader, Kathleen

2012-01-01

Research has demonstrated that a positive school climate is an essential part of violence prevention. Many factors influence the association between school climate and behavioral outcomes. Positive school climate alone cannot prevent all variables that may contribute to the expression of aggression. Nevertheless, positive school climates influence…

Reforms in VUmc School of Medical Sciences Amsterdam: Student engagement, a Minor elective semester and stakeholder collaboration in improving the quality of assessments.

Science.gov (United States)

Kusurkar, Rashmi A; Daelmans, Hester E; Horrevoets, Anton; de Haan, Marian; van der Meijde, Margreeth; Croiset, Gerda

2018-03-07

At VUmc School of Medical Sciences, major curricular reforms occurred in 2005 and 2015, related to the introduction of a Bachelor-Master structure, a new legislation from the Ministry of Education, the changing societal context, and taking note of students' and teachers' needs. Summary of work: Along with the introduction of the Bachelor-Master system, the period between 2005 and 2009 saw the movement from traditional lecture-based teaching to small group teaching in a competency-based curriculum, in which the students were responsible for their learning. Student engagement grew through students' designing learning modules and conducting some of the teaching. In the Bachelor program, an elective "Minor", was designed to broaden and deepen the knowledge of our students beyond the core learning outcomes, in a discipline of their choice. The examination board (EB), responsible for maintaining the quality of assessment, was split into the General EB, which handled overall strategy issues, and the Executive EB, which handled student requests and monitored the quality of assessments. Students develop a sense of what education is about if they are provided opportunities in designing teaching and conducting it. A Minor elective in the medical study can provide the students with an opportunity to learn outside the medical field. Collaborative working between different stakeholders in a medical school is crucial for safeguarding the quality of assessments. Curricular reforms need time to be accepted and integrated into the culture of the medical school. The educational vision needs to be refreshed regularly in alignment with the changing societal context.

Exploring educational partnerships: a case study of client provider technology education partnerships in New Zealand primary schools

Science.gov (United States)

Weal, Brenda; Coll, Richard

2007-04-01

This paper explores the notion of educational partnerships and reports on research on client provider partnerships between full primary schools and external technology education providers for Year 7 and 8 New Zealand students (age range approx. 12 to 13 years). Educational reforms in New Zealand and the introduction of a more holistic technology education curriculum in 1995 changed the nature of the relationship between the technology education partners. The research sought to identify, from the perspective of the primary schools (clients), factors that contribute to successful partnerships between them and their technology education provider. A mixed methods approach consisting of a survey of client schools, in-depth interviews and a series of four in-depth case studies (drawing on issues derived from the survey) was employed. Issues relating to teacher subculture, leadership roles and inflexibility of official processes all surfaced. The research points to an absence of commitment, shared understanding, shared power, leadership, communication and accountability in many educational partnerships that were the focus of this work.

Enacting the Carnegie Foundation call for reform of medical school and residency.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Bridget C; Irby, David M

2013-01-01

On the 100th anniversary of the Flexner Report, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published a new study of medical education. This study, titled Educating Physicians: A Call for Reform of Medical Schools and Residency Programs, contained four primary recommendations intended to stimulate innovation and improvement in medical education. In this article, the authors examined the ways others have applied the four recommendations from Educating Physicians within and beyond medical education. In their review of 246 publications citing the Carnegie work, they found that the recommendation for integration was addressed most frequently, often through descriptions of integration of curricular content in undergraduate medical education. The recommendation to focus on professional identity formation was the second most frequently addressed, followed by standardization and individualization, then inquiry, innovation, and improvement. The publications related to these latter three recommendations tended to be conceptual rather than descriptive or empirical. Publications spanned the continuum of medical education (from medical school to residency to physicians in practice) and even into other fields, but undergraduate medical education received the most attention. The authors discuss common themes among the citing publications and highlight opportunities for further discussion and innovation. Many exciting developments have occurred in medical education and beyond since the publication of Educating Physicians in 2010. Thus far, most of the publications citing the Carnegie recommendations describe incremental changes in medical education, particularly in the area of integration. Some of the conceptual work around these recommendations, coupled with a variety of external factors such as changes in health care and accreditation systems, suggests the potential for changes that are more transformative in nature.

The Educational Benefits of Attending Higher Performing Schools: Evidence from Chicago High Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Allensworth, Elaine M.; Moore, Paul T.; Sartain, Lauren; de la Torre, Marisa

2017-01-01

Policymakers are implementing reforms with the assumption that students do better when attending high-achieving schools. In this article, we use longitudinal data from Chicago Public Schools to test that assumption. We find that the effects of attending a higher performing school depend on the school's performance level. At elite public schools…

Beyond Backpacks and Bus Tokens: Next Steps for a District Homeless Student Initiative

Science.gov (United States)

Hallett, Ronald E.; Low, Justin A.; Skrla, Linda

2015-01-01

How policies get translated and enacted by school districts frame how students experience reforms associated with federal law. This qualitative case study of a Northern California school district explores the importance of integrating homeless student initiatives within all aspects of the district functioning. Drawing from the equity framework of…

Holy Alliances: Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz; Chaudhury, Nazmul

2009-01-01

This paper documents the experience of incentive-based reforms in the secondary Islamic/madrasa education sector in Bangladesh within the context of the broader debate over modernization of religious school systems in South Asia. Key features of the reform are changes of the curriculum and policy regarding admission of female students. In return…

Educational Reforms in Morocco: Evolution and Current Status

Science.gov (United States)

Llorent-Bedmar, Vicente

2014-01-01

Since 1956, the year in Morocco achieved independence, until now, the school system has been the subject of many discussions and controversies in the most varied areas of the country. We provide data on the educational situation. We analyze the reforms from a critical perspective, ending with final proposals. He underlined that the sector was…

Social capital practices as adaptive drivers for local adjustment of new public management in schools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Kristian Gylling; Hasle, Peter; Sørensen, Ole H.

2016-01-01

local adjustments of the reform initiatives, while also revealing some ambiguities. The results demonstrate that some reform initiatives can lead to new collaborative leadership and management practices in schools that solve the central school leadership and management tasks of coordination and planning....... This indicates that collaborative leadership and management practices may emerge from NPM reforms, and that such practices can prevent negative outcomes of such reforms....... on empirical case studies from two Danish municipal schools and the concept of organisational social capital, we investigate how two reform initiatives – ‘student plan-based school–home collaboration’ and ‘teamwork’ – were locally adjusted into collaborative practices. The analysis demonstrates surprising...

Nudging towards nutrition? Soft paternalism and obesity-related reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Hector, Colin

2012-01-01

Obesity is one of the most contentious issues facing the United States today. Some researchers warn of an obesity "epidemic" that poses a grave threat to our nation's health, while others attack these claims as alarmist and misguided. This divide reinforces the political schism between advocates of government intervention and anti-regulatory groups. As a result, obesity science finds itself entangled in partisan battles that leave little room for compromise. This paper explores the potential for the political philosophy of soft paternalism to provide a regulatory framework that may appeal to both sides of the obesity reform debate. Soft paternalism draws upon social science research in order to develop policies that encourage better decision-making, while preserving individual choice. Applying this framework to the issue of obesity, I look at two areas of potential reform: 1) information-based policies such as nutritional label design, and 2) policies that affect default choices, such as portion size norms. I find that while soft paternalism is an appealing framework that offers many promising reforms, it is not a panacea. Instead, I argue that these proposals should be considered on their own merit, not as a complete solution precluding other measures. In addition, in light of potential criticism concerning the stigmatizing effect of some obesity-related measures, I suggest that reforms based on soft paternalism can and should be tailored to promote more mindful eating habits. With these concerns in mind, I conclude that soft paternalism is a promising approach that warrants serious consideration by policymakers.

Bad Drawing

OpenAIRE

Burgoyne, Greig

2016-01-01

"Only when we move do we see the chains" - Rosa Luxemburg Bad drawing / paper cell is a site-specific drawing performance commissioned for The Prison Drawing Project, Scarborough jail, Yorkshire, presented as a film grafted onto the space that is the cell. It takes the notion of drawing as an act of covering and form of measurement, in an immersive act of attempted liberation. Measuring using rolls of paper, the film chronicles what could be seen as a bad day wallpapering a space, no ass...

MiniDraw

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2018-01-01

MiniDraw is a teaching-oriented 2D graphics direct manipulation framework in Java, inspired by JHotDraw. It is used in the book "Flexible, Reliable Software - using Patterns and Agile Development", by Henrik Bærbak Christensen, published by CRC Press 2010.......MiniDraw is a teaching-oriented 2D graphics direct manipulation framework in Java, inspired by JHotDraw. It is used in the book "Flexible, Reliable Software - using Patterns and Agile Development", by Henrik Bærbak Christensen, published by CRC Press 2010....

Interest Groups' Influence over Drug Pricing Policy Reform in South Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Woojin

2005-01-01

In 1999, the Korean government made a drug pricing policy reform to improve the efficiency and transparency of the drug distribution system. Yet, its policy formation process was far from being rational. Facing harsh resistance from various interest groups, the government changed its details into something different from what was initially investigated and planned. So far, little evidence supports any improvement in Korea's drug distribution system. Instead, the new drug pricing policy has deteriorated Korea's national health insurance budget, indicating a heavier economic burden for the general public. From Korea's experience, we may draw some lessons for the future development of a better health care system. As a society becomes more pluralistic, the government should come out of authoritarianism and thoroughly prepare in advance for resistance to reform, by making greater efforts to persuade strong interest groups while informing the general public of potential benefits of the reform. Additionally, facing developing civic groups, the government should listen but not rely too much on them at the final stage of the policy formation. Many of the civic groups lack expertise to evaluate the details of policy and tend to act in a somewhat emotional way. PMID:15988802

Interest groups' influence over drug pricing policy reform in South Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Woo Jin; Kim, Han Joong

2005-06-30

In 1999, the Korean government made a drug pricing policy reform to improve the efficiency and transparency of the drug distribution system. Yet, its policy formation process was far from being rational. Facing harsh resistance from various interest groups, the government changed its details into something different from what was initially investigated and planned. So far, little evidence supports any improvement in Korea's drug distribution system. Instead, the new drug pricing policy has deteriorated Korea's national health insurance budget, indicating a heavier economic burden for the general public. From Korea's experience, we may draw some lessons for the future development of a better health care system. As a society becomes more pluralistic, the government should come out of authoritarianism and thoroughly prepare in advance for resistance to reform, by making greater efforts to persuade strong interest groups while informing the general public of potential benefits of the reform. Additionally, facing developing civic groups, the government should listen but not rely too much on them at the final stage of the policy formation. Many of the civic groups lack expertise to evaluate the details of policy and tend to act in a somewhat emotional way.

SOCIAL POLICIES AND STRUCTURAL REFORMS IN EUROPE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ferran Brunet Cid

2006-12-01

Full Text Available This paper considers the social and structural policies in contemporary Europe. The presentation is organized in four sections. First, we discuss the emerging Europe, the new unity based on democracy and the market economy, the special European Union formula, and comparisons with America. Second, we analyze the dynamics of the European economy, the convergence process, the gaps between United States in productivity and standard of living, competitiveness issues, and the emergence of a new European economy and new European policy mix.Third, we consider European social conditions, the stationary and aging population, Europe’s low employment rate and permanently high unemployment. European economic growth could draw on two major sources: the labor reserves and reforms in factor, product and service markets. In a monetary union, advanced industrial relations should promote labor mobility and salary flexibility. The social security systems permit the redistribution and cohesion which defines the European model.Fourth, for the new Europe, the structural reform strategy is the way forward for the challenge of European economic policy and social policy: more and better jobs thanks to sustainable growth in a dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy, favoring greater social cohesion.

COMPARISON OF LINE-DRAWING SKILLS OF 14 AGE-GROUP MODERATE LEVEL-MENTALLY-RETARDED STUDENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sibel ADAR

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In this research, drawing skills -free drawing works and periodical rules drawing works- of the 14-age-group students at the 8th grade in secondary schools and those in level II. in Private Education Practice Centre have been compared, in regards to some variations. With the extent of research, at Şeker Secondary school special training centre in Meram district in Konya Province, training exercise with a group of 14 students, 7 of whom are mentally retarded ones was conducted using direct teaching method, for 2 lesson time per week for different drawing task for each topic. Using direct teaching method during the second part of the education year 2012-2013 for being 2-lesson-time (40'+40' per week, totally 4 weeks, 4 lesson-time the studies of the researcher under his observation were evaluated in terms of both educational and design principles, with performance evaluation forms. In this research, documentary analysing method, one of the abstract research methods, has been used. In this research ,7 different drawing tasks were made under the topic of line, point, colour, stain and tissue. In this research, in two different topics, 'Free Drawing Works' and ' Periodical -Ruler Drawing Works' have been performed by using thin-medium-thick fiber tip pens. Performance assessments forms along with the curriculum were designed for each activity and were composed of pedagogical targets and artistic notifications under the extent of research. In these forms pedagogical targets and artistic notifications expected from pupils were assessed through filling in ''Yes-No'' boxes with “X”.

HippoDraw

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gravina, M.F.; Kunz, P.F.; Rensing, P.E.

1992-09-01

HippoDraw is a NeXTSTEP application for viewing statistical data. It has several unique features which make viewing data distributions highly interactive. It also incorporates a set of simple drawing tools. HippoDraw is written in Objective-C and uses the Hippoplotamus library package to handle the n-tuples and displays

Democratic Schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Apple, Michael W., Ed.; Beane, James A., Ed.

This book illustrates how educators in four U.S. communities committed themselves to preparing students for the democratic way of life. In four narratives, educators directly involved in four different school-reform efforts describe how they initiated demographic practices in their educational settings. The four schools serve as reminders that…

Educational reform and the public: Two case studies of Poland and Saskatchewan (Canada)

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Kaproń, Danuta; Stephan, Werner

1991-09-01

The involvement of the public in educational reform processes in modern democratic societies primarily serves the purpose of politically legitimizing the reform agenda. This study examines the rationales implicitly or explicitly submitted to the public to explain why educational reforms in the two countries should be endorsed. Although differences in the political culture caution against a hasty comparison of the two case studies, a number of politico-economic similarities allow for a valid juxtaposition. In Poland the context of socio-political and economic renewal prompted the reformers to emphasize the human-capital model which heightened public awareness and participation in the debate surrounding the reform. Public involvement in Saskatchewan was negatively affected for mainly two reasons. First, the government evidently manipulated public input by various means and thereby appears to have predetermined the outcome. Second, the rationale for the reform, based on a free-market model, tightened the linkage between the needs of the labour market and the mandate of the schools. As a result, public interest and participation was greatly diminished.

Excavating silences and tensions of agency|passivity in science education reform

Science.gov (United States)

Rivera Maulucci, Maria S.

2010-12-01

I reflect on studies by Rodriguez and Carlone, Haun-Frank, and Kimmel to emphasize the ways in which they excavate silences in the science education literature related to linguistic and cultural diversity and situating the problem of reform in teachers rather than contextual factors, such as traditional schooling discourses and forces that serve to marginalize science. I propose that the current push for top-down reform and accountability diminishes opportunities for receptivity, learning with and from students in order to transform teachers' practices and promote equity in science education. I discuss tensions of agency and passivity in science education reform and argue that attention to authentic caring constitutes another silence in the science education literature. I conclude that the current policy context positions teachers and science education researchers as tempered radicals struggling against opp(reg)ressive reforms and that there is a need for more studies to excavate these and other silences.

Conceptualizing Teaching to the Test under Standards-Based Reform

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Welsh, Megan E.; Eastwood, Melissa; D'Agostino, Jerome V.

2014-01-01

Teacher and school accountability systems based on high-stakes tests are ubiquitous throughout the United States and appear to be growing as a catalyst for reform. As a result, educators have increased the proportion of instructional time devoted to test preparation. Although guidelines for what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate test…

Enacting Curriculum Reform through Lesson Study: A Case Study of Mathematics Teacher Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Ni Shuilleabhain, Aoibhinn; Seery, Aidan

2018-01-01

Based in a time of major curriculum reform, this article reports on a qualitative case study of teacher professional development (PD) in the Republic of Ireland (ROI). Five mathematics teachers in an Irish secondary school were introduced to and participated in successive cycles of school-based lesson study (LS) over the course of one academic…

Reductions in abortion-related mortality following policy reform: evidence from Romania, South Africa and Bangladesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benson Janie

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Unsafe abortion is a significant contributor to worldwide maternal mortality; however, abortion law and policy liberalization could lead to drops in unsafe abortion and related deaths. This review provides an analysis of changes in abortion mortality in three countries where significant policy reform and related service delivery occurred. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature, population data and grey literature on programs and policies, this paper demonstrates the policy and program changes that led to declines in abortion-related mortality in Romania, South Africa and Bangladesh. In all three countries, abortion policy liberalization was followed by implementation of safe abortion services and other reproductive health interventions. South Africa and Bangladesh trained mid-level providers to offer safe abortion and menstrual regulation services, respectively, Romania improved contraceptive policies and services, and Bangladesh made advances in emergency obstetric care and family planning. The findings point to the importance of multi-faceted and complementary reproductive health reforms in successful implementation of abortion policy reform.

Arbiters of Effectiveness and Efficiency: The Frames and Strategies of Management Consulting Firms in US Higher Education Reform

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McClure, Kevin R.

2017-01-01

A growing number of public colleges and universities in the United States have hired management consulting firms to help develop strategies aimed at increasing institutional effectiveness and efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to explore the frames and strategies of consultants in US public higher education reform efforts. Drawing upon a…

Good governance and budget reform in Lesotho Public Hospitals: performance, root causes and reality.

Science.gov (United States)

Vian, Taryn; Bicknell, William J

2014-09-01

Lesotho has been implementing financial management reforms, including performance-based budgeting (PBB) since 2005 in an effort to increase accountability, transparency and effectiveness in governance, yet little is known about how these efforts are affecting the health sector. Supported by several development partners and $24 million in external resources, the PBB reform is intended to strengthen government capacity to manage aid funds directly and to target assistance to pressing social priorities. This study designed and tested a methodology for measuring implementation progress for PBB reform in the hospital sector in Lesotho. We found that despite some efforts on the national level to promote and support reform implementation, staff at the hospital level were largely unaware of the purpose of the reform and had made almost no progress in transforming institutions and systems to fully realize reform goals. Problems can be traced to a complex reform design, inadequate personnel and capacity to implement, professional boundaries between financial and clinical personnel and weak leadership. The Lesotho reform experience suggests that less complex designs for budget reform, better adapted to the context and realities of health sectors in developing countries, may be needed to improve governance. It also highlights the importance of measuring reform implementation at the sectoral level. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine © The Author 2013; all rights reserved.

Farmers' preferences for water policy reforms: Results from a survey in Alberta

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, W.; Bjornlund, H.; Klein, K.

2012-12-01

Facing increasingly urgent stress on global water scarcity, many reforms have been launched in countries around the world. As the biggest group of natural resource managers, farmers' behaviour is drawing increasingly wide attention. Satisfying new demands for water will depend on farmers' support since, generally, water will need to be transferred from farmers who have historically secure rights. Although water pricing reform is widely considered to lead to water conservation, the uncertainty of its potential impacts hinders the process of reform. This farmer-level empirical research explores farmers' possible responses to introduction of reforms in water pricing. A survey was conducted of about 300 farm households that use water for irrigating crops in Southern Alberta, an area that is facing water shortages and has had to stop issuing new water licences. By using structural equation modelling, the strength and direction of direct and indirect relationships between external, internal and behavioural variables as proposed in general attitude theory have been estimated. Farming as a family engagement, family members' and family unit's characteristics doubtlessly affect farming practice and farm decisions. Farmers' behaviour was explored under the family and farm context. In developing and testing conceptual models that integrate socio-demographic, psychological, farming context and social milieu factors, we may develop a deeper understanding of farmers' behaviour. The findings and recommendations will be beneficial for environmental practitioners and policy makers.

Market reforms and public incentives: finding a balance in the Republic of Macedonia.

Science.gov (United States)

Nordyke, Robert J; Peabody, John W

2002-03-01

The Republic of Macedonia is undertaking sweeping reforms of its health sector. Funded by a World Bank credit, the reforms seek to improve the efficiency and quality of primary health care (PHC) by significantly strengthening the role of the market in health care provision. On the supply-side, one of the key reform proposals is to implement a capitation payment system for PHC physicians. By placing individual physicians on productivity-based contracts, these reforms will effectively marketize all PHC provision. In addition, the Ministry of Health is considering the sale or concessions of public PHC clinics to private groups, indicating the government's commitment to marketization of health care provision. Macedonia is in a unique position to develop a new role for the private sector in PHC provision. The private provision of outpatient care was legalized soon after independence in 1991; private physicians now account for nearly 10% of all physicians and 22% of PHC physicians. If the reforms are fully realized, all PHC physicians-over 40% of all physicians-will be financially responsible for their clinical practices. This study draws on Macedonia's experience with limited development of private outpatient care starting in 1991 and the reform proposals for PHC, finding a network of policies and procedures throughout the health sector that negatively impact private and public sector provision. An assessment of the effects that this greater policy environment has on private sector provision identifies opportunities to strategically enhance the reforms. With respect to established market economies, the study finds justification for a greater role for government intervention in private health markets in transition economies. In addition to micro-level payment incentives and administrative controls, marketization in Central and Eastern Europe requires an examination of insurance contracting procedures, quality assurance practices, public clinic ownership, referral

Making Good Choices: A Guide for Schools and Districts. Revised Edition. [with CD-ROM].

Science.gov (United States)

Ferguson, Maria

This guide was designed to help schools develop effective programs in comprehensive school reform (CSR). It emphasizes that a school's CSR approach should be based on its needs, keeping in mind that one model may not provide every aspect of a school's comprehensive reform effort. Even so, a CSR model that meets the U.S. Department of Education's…

Connecting the Disconnected: Scholar Activists and Education Reform in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Daniella Ann

2014-01-01

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans on August 29, 2005, the failure of the levees resulted in the largest single human-made disaster in the United States. In addition to the physical devastation of the city, the landscape of public schools in New Orleans was permanently altered, as was the national dialogue about school reform in the…

Teacher Agency in Educational Reform: Lessons from Social Networks Research

Science.gov (United States)

Datnow, Amanda

2012-01-01

This article provides a context for understanding how social networks among teachers support or constrain school improvement in terms of instructional practice, professional development, and educational reform. It comments on the articles in this special issue, summarizing their contributions to the field. This analysis reveals several important…

Educational Development and Reformation in Malaysia: Past, Present, and Future.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, Rahimah Haji

1998-01-01

Discusses educational development in Malaysia, focusing on curriculum changes, issues, and future perspectives. Discusses the development of values education, its importance in the curriculum, and the government's efforts to mold a united nation with Malaysian values. Current reforms target tertiary education. The school curriculum has not been…

Steepest Ascent Tariff Reform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Raimondos-Møller, Pascalis; Woodland, Alan

2014-01-01

. In undertaking this task, and by focusing on tariff reforms, we introduce the concept of a steepest ascent policy reform, which is a locally optimal reform in the sense that it achieves the highest marginal gain in utility of any feasible local reform. We argue that this reform presents itself as a natural......The policy reform literature is primarily concerned with the construction of reforms that yield welfare gains. By contrast, this paper’s contribution is to develop a theoretical concept for which the focus is upon the sizes of welfare gains accruing from policy reforms rather than upon their signs...... benchmark for the evaluation of the welfare effectiveness of other popular tariff reforms such as the proportional tariff reduction and the concertina rules, since it provides the maximal welfare gain of all possible local reforms. We derive properties of the steepest ascent tariff reform, construct...

Dysfunction and Educational Reform in Morocco

OpenAIRE

Llorent Bedmar, Vicente

2015-01-01

Since 1956, the year in Morocco achieved independence, until now, the school system has been the subject of many discussions and controversies in the most varied areas of the country. We provide data on the educational situation. We analyze the reforms from a critical perspective, ending with final proposals. We concluded by acknowledging the efforts made in recent years in the Moroccan education sector, although there is still a considerable number of clearly important aspects of improvement.

Bureaucracy and the Schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Seeley, David

This paper briefly reviews how New York City has developed its bureaucratic school structures, the pathologies that have developed within them, and some remedies that can help to change them into structures that will improve city schools. Some historians claimed that reformers purposely created bureaucratic school systems to provide a docile pool…

Ability Grouping and Differentiated Instruction in an Era of Data-Driven Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Vicki; Datnow, Amanda

2017-01-01

Despite data-driven decision making being a ubiquitous part of policy and school reform efforts, little is known about how teachers use data for instructional decision making. Drawing on data from a qualitative case study of four elementary schools, we examine the logic and patterns of teacher decision making about differentiation and ability…

A Discipline-Based Professional Development Faculty: A Case for Multiple-Site Collaborative Reform in the Disciplines.

Science.gov (United States)

Hudson-Ross, Sally

1998-01-01

Describes a partnership among English-education faculty members and secondary English teachers, arguing that a multisite, discipline-based professional-development faculty provides an alternative for secondary-level Professional Development School principles-in-action. The paper discusses reform, departmentalization of high school and college…

Academic Differentiation, School Achievement and School Violence in the USA and South Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Akiba, Motoko; Han, Seunghee

2007-01-01

Whilst school violence is a major public concern and a focus of educational reforms both in the USA and South Korea, few studies have comparatively examined the rates of school violence and school factors associated with them. Analysing nationally-representative data from eighth graders, their mathematics teachers and principals in 150 South…

The Attitudes and Practices that Shape Children's Drawing Experience at Home and at School

Science.gov (United States)

Burkitt, Esther; Jolley, Richard; Rose, Sarah

2010-01-01

Concept: Few empirical studies have investigated the influence of teachers, parents and children on children's drawing experience. The current study aims to examine the attitudes and practices of these three key players that shape children's drawing experience. Method: A survey methodology was used, as typically found in previous research in this…

Negotiating science and engineering: an exploratory case study of a reform-minded science teacher

Science.gov (United States)

Guzey, S. Selcen; Ring-Whalen, Elizabeth A.

2018-05-01

Engineering has been slowly integrated into K-12 science classrooms in the United States as the result of recent science education reforms. Such changes in science teaching require that a science teacher is confident with and committed to content, practices, language, and cultures related to both science and engineering. However, from the perspective of the science teacher, this would require not only the development of knowledge and pedagogies associated with engineering, but also the construction of new identities operating within the reforms and within the context of their school. In this study, a middle school science teacher was observed and interviewed over a period of nine months to explore his experiences as he adopted new values, discourses, and practices and constructed his identity as a reform-minded science teacher. Our findings revealed that, as the teacher attempted to become a reform-minded science teacher, he constantly negotiated his professional identities - a dynamic process that created conflicts in his classroom practices. Several differences were observed between the teacher's science and engineering instruction: hands-on activities, depth and detail of content, language use, and the way the teacher positioned himself and his students with respect to science and engineering. Implications for science teacher professional development are discussed.

Problem and design drawing for solution of precision design drawing and machine design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heo, Gil

1982-04-01

The contents of this book are basic of design drawing, problem of machine design, problem of precision design drawing, problem of planar figure of sheet metal, design drawing for solution of machine design, design drawing for solution of precision design drawing and design drawing for planar figure of sheet metal. It tells of the problems and gives the solutions on precision design drawing and machine design.

Financial and clinical risk in health care reform: a view from below.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Pam; Mackintosh, Maureen; Ross, Fiona; Clayton, Julie; Price, Linnie; Christian, Sara; Byng, Richard; Allan, Helen

2012-04-01

This paper examines how the interaction between financial and clinical risk at two critical phases of health care reform in England has been experienced by frontline staff caring for vulnerable patients with long term conditions. The paper draws on contracting theory and two interdisciplinary and in-depth qualitative research studies undertaken in 1995 and 2007. Methods common to both studies included documentary analysis and interviews with managers and front line professionals. The 1995 study employed action-based research and included observation of community care; the 2007 study used realistic evaluation and included engagement with service user groups. In both reform processes, financial risk was increasingly devolved to frontline practitioners and smaller organizational units such as GP commissioning groups, with payment by unit of activity, aimed at changing professionals' behaviour. This financing increased perceived clinical risk and fragmented the delivery of health and social care services requiring staff efforts to improve collaboration and integration, and created some perverse incentives and staff demoralisation. Health services reform should only shift financial risk to frontline professionals to the extent that it can be efficiently borne. Where team work is required, contracts should reward collaborative multi-professional activity.

Evaluation of the Swedish version of the Child Drawing: Hospital Manual.

Science.gov (United States)

Wennström, Berith; Nasic, Salmir; Hedelin, Hans; Bergh, Ingrid

2011-05-01

This paper is a report of psychometric testing of the Swedish version of the Child Drawing: Hospital Manual. Drawings have shown to be useful in assessing emotional status and anxiety in children because they generally speak to us more clearly and openly through their drawings than they are willing or able to verbally. The Child Drawing: Hospital Manual was translated into Swedish according to World Health Organization guidelines (a routine procedure for translation of English instruments) in order to assess anxiety by analysing the drawings of 59 children (5-11 years), of whom nine were girls and 50 boys undergoing day surgery during 2007-2009. Inter-rater reliability (five independent scorers) was high and internal consistency reliability was good (coefficient alpha =0·77). Parts A and C, as well as the total scale score of the Child Drawing: Hospital Manual, discriminated anxiety significantly between the group of children undergoing day surgery and a comparison group of school children, indicating adequate construct validity. For the Swedish version of the Child Drawing: Hospital Manual, our study demonstrates evidence for adequate construct validity in Parts A and C (and total scale score), high inter-rater reliability and acceptable internal consistency reliability. However, some improvements are needed before the instrument will be a clinically useful assessment of anxiety in children undergoing day surgery. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Comfort drawing during investigative interviews: evidence of the safety of a popular practice.

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Poole, Debra Ann; Dickinson, Jason J

2014-02-01

This study evaluated the impact of comfort drawing (allowing children to draw during interviews) on the quality of children's eyewitness reports. Children (N=219, 5 to 12 years) who had participated in an earlier memory study returned 1 or 2 years later, experienced a new event, and described these events during phased, investigative-style interviews. Interviewers delivered the same prompts to children in the no drawing and drawing conditions but provided paper and markers in the drawing condition, invited these children to draw, and periodically asked if they would like to make another picture. Most children in the drawing condition were interested in using the materials, and measures of eyewitness performance were sensitive to differences in cognitive ability (i.e., age) and task difficulty (i.e., delay between the remote event and interview). Comfort drawing had no overall impact as evidenced by nonsignificant main effects of condition across 20 performance measures, although more of the younger children reported experienced touching in the drawing than no drawing condition. The children successfully divided attention between voluntary drawing and conversations about past events. Importantly, comfort drawing did not impair the amount of information recalled, the accuracy of children's answers, or even the extent to which interviewers needed to prompt for answers. Due to the large number of analyses, the benefit of drawing for younger, touched children requires replication. Comfort drawing poses no documented risks for typically-developing school-aged children, but the practice remains untested for younger children and those with cognitive impairments. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Balancing the Readiness Equation in Early Childhood Education Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Christopher P.

2010-01-01

As policy-makers continue to implement early childhood education reforms that frame the field as a mechanism that is to ready children for elementary school success, questions arise as to how the multiple variables in the readiness equation, such as the child, family, and program, are affected by these policies. The instrumental case study…

A Critical Analysis of The Holmes Group's Proposals for Reforming Teacher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawley, Willis D.

1986-01-01

The Holmes Group proposals for reforming teacher education are evaluated by looking at the effects on teacher knowledge and competence, attraction and retention of talented teachers, organization of schools and the teaching profession, and cost effectiveness. (MT)

National Assessment and the Opportunity to Learn in Educational Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Snyder, Conrad Wesley, Jr.; Mereku, Kofi D.; Amedahe, Francis K.; Etsey, Kofui; Adu, John

2013-01-01

Over two decades, national assessments in Ghana have revealed generally poor performances across curriculum-based tests for primary school (Grades 1-6). Various reform agendas have been applied to the education system, sometimes with isolated success, but the overall performances remained stable and low. Surveying teacher mentors in schools…

Non-catalytic recuperative reformer

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Khinkis, Mark J.; Kozlov, Aleksandr P.; Kurek, Harry

2015-12-22

A non-catalytic recuperative reformer has a flue gas flow path for conducting hot flue gas from a thermal process and a reforming mixture flow path for conducting a reforming mixture. At least a portion of the reforming mixture flow path is embedded in the flue gas flow path to permit heat transfer from the hot flue gas to the reforming mixture. The reforming mixture flow path contains substantially no material commonly used as a catalyst for reforming hydrocarbon fuel (e.g., nickel oxide, platinum group elements or rhenium), but instead the reforming mixture is reformed into a higher calorific fuel via reactions due to the heat transfer and residence time. In a preferred embodiment, extended surfaces of metal material such as stainless steel or metal alloy that are high in nickel content are included within at least a portion of the reforming mixture flow path.

Collaborative Leadership and School Improvement: Understanding the Impact on School Capacity and Student Learning

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Hallinger, Philip; Heck, Ronald H.

2010-01-01

Fifty years of theory and research offer increasing levels of support for the assertion that principal leadership makes a difference in the quality of schooling, school development, and student learning. In the current context of global education reform, however, recent inquiries have focused on identifying how teams of school leaders contribute…

Governing Health Care through Free Choice: Neoliberal Reforms in Denmark and the United States.

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Larsen, Lars Thorup; Stone, Deborah

2015-10-01

We compare free choice reforms in Denmark and the United States to understand what ideas and political forces could generate such similar policy reforms in radically different political contexts. We analyze the two cases using our own interpretation of neoliberalism as having "two faces." The first face seeks to expand private markets and shrink the public sector; the second face seeks to strengthen the public sector's capacity to govern through incentives and competition. First, we show why these two most-different cases offer a useful comparison to understand similar policy tools. Second, we develop our theoretical framework of the two faces of neoliberalism. Third, we examine Denmark's introduction of a free choice of hospitals in 2002, a policy that for the first time allowed some patients to receive care either in a public hospital outside their local area or in a private hospital. Fourth, we examine the introduction of free choice among private managed care plans into the US Medicare program in 1997. We show how policy makers in both countries used neoliberal reform as a mechanism to make their public health care sectors governable. Fifth, on the basis of our analysis, we draw five lessons about neoliberal policy reforms. Copyright © 2015 by Duke University Press.

Science, technology and inventions: Children draw their own visions

Science.gov (United States)

D'Addezio, G.; Rubbia, G.; Marsili, A.

2013-12-01

Italian primary schools participated with enthusiasm to the drawing competition 'I'm a scientist too! Science and scientists from the children point of view' organized by the Laboratorio di Didattica e Divulgazione Scientifica of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) in Rome, Italy. The best drawings were awarded and published in the 2011 school calendar. Children were asked to realize a drawing, choosing among three suggestions: 1) How do you imagine a scientist, and how do you imagine the daily activities of a researcher? 2) What invention do you consider the most important among all those you know? 3) What would you invent? The topic 'invention' (#3) was the most successful. In fact, among the collected 1,000 drawings, 400 drawings depict scientists, nearly 150 depict scientists with their inventions, and other 350 depict inventions alone. A classification scheme was designed in order to synthetically describe this set of images and analyze it. The Draw-A-Scientist scheme, known from literature, was maintained but modified in order to characterize both inventors and inventions. A preliminary analysis about scientists reveals a persistent gender stereotype, since most of depicted persons were male and nearly half of girls draw men scientists. The image of 'mad scientist' is still present but it is mainly related to men. Women scientists are drawn by girls; they are represented as young, not crazy, usually good-looking. There are no particular differences between boys and girls in assigning research fields to scientists. Women scientists are often depicted as assistants, but when alone they are self-confident enough to give their name to an invention or to aspire for Nobel Prize. In this work we present the preliminary analysis performed on drawings containing inventions. What do girls and boys 6 to 11 years old invent? Robots, helping in housekeeping or in doing homework; rockets, space vehicles and time machines, but also fictional machines and

Realities and Challenges of Educational Reform in the Province of Quebec: Exploratory Research on Teaching Science and Technology/Realites Et Defis De La Reforme Scolaire Quebecoise: Une Etude Exploratoire De L'Enseignement De La Science...

Science.gov (United States)

Potvin, Patrice; Dionne, Eric

2007-01-01

Exploratory and descriptive research was conducted in a secondary school to reveal the realities and difficulties of the implementation process that awaits teachers under Quebec's Educational Reform. A team of teachers agreed to be observed while simulating implementation one year ahead of other schools. Results underscore the importance of…

Boarding Schools and Capital Benefits: Implications for Urban School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Bass, Lisa R.

2014-01-01

The author discusses the boarding school model as a schooling alternative to improve life chances for disadvantaged youth, particularly African American youth, by positively meeting their social and educational needs. Bourdieu, Coleman, and other social scientists purported that these needs can be better met by exposing students to social and…

Nicolae Ceausescu and Santiago Carrillo. On the reform of proletarian internationalism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cezar Stanciu

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the close relations developed between the Romanian and Spanish Communist parties in the context of the Soviet-led intervention in Czechoslovakia. It explores the similarities and differences between the visions of Nicolae Ceaușescu and Santiago Carrillo on the reform of the world Communist movement and also the new meaning attributed by both to proletarian internationalism. Drawing on transcripts of their conversations in crucial political moments, the article reveals how Eastern and Western Communists found ways to work together in order to undermine Soviet control over world Communism.

Science and scientists from the children point of view, an overlook from drawings

Science.gov (United States)

D'Addezio, Giuliana; Marsili, Antonella; Rubbia, Giuliana; Carosi, Alessandro

2013-04-01

The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) is currently the largest European scientific institution dealing with Earth Sciences research and real-time surveillance, early warning, and forecast activities in geophysics and volcanology. The Laboratorio Didattica e Divulgazione Scientifica of INGV organizes every year educational and outreach activities with schools of different levels and with general public to convey scientific knowledge and to promote the Research on Earth Science, focusing on volcanic and seismic hazard. Among the most successful initiatives is the creation of a calendar designed for the schools and realized based on a competition devoted to children of primary school. The intent is to provide a pleasant stimulus for discussion for teachers and students. Schools participate with enthusiasm by sending drawings made by children on a specified theme, different each year, chosen among geophysics and earth sciences arguments. For 2011, the theme was selected also with the aims to investigate on the image the young generations have of the Research and on its potential and future prospective. The title was "Scienziato anche io! La Scienza e gli scienziati visti dai bambini" (I'm a scientist too! Science and scientists from the children point of view), with the purpose of give a shape to the image children have of the world of science, its potential and the figure of the scientists. We asked the children to realized a draw suggesting some possible arguments between: 1. How do you imagine a scientist? How do you imagine the daily activities of a researcher? 2. What is the invention you consider the most important among all those you know? 3. What would you invent? The 986 drawings realized by 6 up to 10 years old boys and girls from 48 schools distributed throughout the Italian territory, report us a generally positive picture of the work of scientists and also highlight a great level of confidence in the potential of science, capable to

The Challenges of Advancing Fiscal Equity in a Resource-Strained Context

Science.gov (United States)

Malen, Betty; Dayhoff, Justin; Egan, Laura; Croninger, Robert G.

2017-01-01

Weighted student funding (WSF) is a multifaceted school finance, management, and governance reform that is gaining attention. While WSF has a number of goals, its primary objective is to redress intra-district funding inequities. This article draws on a mixed-methods study of WSF in Prince George's County Public Schools to examine the initiative's…

The reform in the Turkish natural gas market: A critical evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cetin, Tamer; Oguz, Fuat

2007-01-01

Turkey is in a strategically advantageous position in terms of its natural gas market. Being in the middle of Europe and energy-rich countries of Central Asia, it can be an energy corridor between these two regions. It can import gas from a number of countries and diversify its sources. This situation may also provide motivation for a competitive gas market. The recent reform in the market, which began in 2001, was an attempt to strengthen the natural gas market to this end. However, the reform has not worked out as expected so far. This article discusses recent restructuring efforts in the Turkish natural gas market. We focus on the legal structure and economic consequences of the legal change within the international economic relations. After presenting a detailed discussion of the legal framework, we draw attention to the problems of the industry and difficulties in the transition to a more competitive market structure. In the end, we touch upon some regulatory issues and potential conflicts. (author)

A NORMATIVE STUDY OF CHILDREN'S HOUSE-TREE-PERSON DRAWINGS.

Science.gov (United States)

RAPPAPORT, SHELDON R.

THIS STUDY WAS THE FIRST PHASE OF A THREE-PART PROJECT WHOSE GOAL IS TO ESTABLISH VALID CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING THE HOUSE-TREE-PERSON (H-T-P) DRAWINGS OF NORMAL CHILDREN THROUGHOUT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YEARS. THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WERE (1) TO IDENTIFY WHICH ITEMS OF THE H-T-P TEST CHARACTERIZE NORMAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH GRADES 2,…

A Longitudinal Study of Children's Theory of Mind and Drawings of Play

Science.gov (United States)

Bosacki, Sandra L.

2013-01-01

This study investigated the longitudinal relations between theory of mind (ToM) understanding and children's drawings of play in 26 school-aged children, (16 females, 10 males, aged 8-12 years). Theory of mind was assessed at Time 1 (T1, M = 8 y 5m) and two years later at Time 2 (T2, M =10 y 4 m), as well as children's drawings of play activities.…

Transposing reform pedagogy into new contexts: complex instruction in remote Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Sullivan, Peter; Jorgensen, Robyn; Boaler, Jo; Lerman, Steve

2013-03-01

This article draws on the outcomes of a 4-year project where complex instruction was used as the basis for a reform in mathematics teaching in remote Aboriginal communities in Australia. The article describes the overall project in terms of the goals and aspirations for learning mathematics among remote Indigenous Australians. Knowing that the approach had been successful in a diverse setting in California, the project team sought to implement and evaluate the possibilities of such reform in a context in which the need for a culturally responsive pedagogy was critical. Elements of complex instruction offered considerable possibilities in aligning with the cultures of the remote communities, but with recognition of the possibility that some elements may not be workable in these contexts. Complex instruction also valued deep knowledge of mathematics rather than a tokenistic, impoverished mathematics. The strategies within complex instruction allowed for mathematical and cultural scaffolding to promote deep learning in mathematics. Such an approach was in line with current reforms in Indigenous education in Australia where there are high expectations of learners in order to break away from the deficit thinking that has permeated much education in remote Australia. The overall intent is to demonstrate what pedagogies are possible within the constraints of the remote context.

High Pressure Reform: Examining Urban Schools' Response to Multiple School Choice Policies

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Holme, Jennifer Jellison; Carkhum, Rian; Rangel, Virginia Snodgrass

2013-01-01

Over the past several decades, policymakers have sought to address the problem of school failure by exposing traditional public schools to competitive market forces. In this analysis, we examine how two traditional public schools in a "high pressure/high choice" urban school cluster in Texas responded to a number of overlapping choice…

Teachers' Innovative Change within Countrywide Reform: A Case Study in Rwanda

Science.gov (United States)

Uworwabayeho, Alphonse

2009-01-01

This article presents practical perspectives on mathematics teacher change through results of collaborative research with two mathematics secondary school teachers in order to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in Rwanda. The 2006 national mathematics curriculum reform stresses pedagogies that enhance problem-solving, critical…

Collaborative drawing with interactive table in physics: Groups’ regulation and task interpretation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mykkanen, A.; Gijlers, Aaltje H.; Jarvenoja, H.; Jarvela, S.; Bollen, Lars

2015-01-01

This study explores the relationship between secondary school students’ (N=36, nine groups) group members’ task interpretation and individual and group level regulation during collaborative computer- supported drawing task. Furthermore, it investigates how these factors are related to students

Teach for All: Storytelling "Shared Solutions" and Scaling Global Reform

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Ahmann, Chloe

2015-01-01

"Teach For All" is a global network of state-based organizations that translate "Teach For America's" market model of school reform into moral projects of nation-building abroad. Referring to this challenge as one of "scaling" the organization, its leaders elaborate a theory of change that hinges on replicability: in…

The Charter School Experience: Autonomy in Practice

Science.gov (United States)

McDonald, Tonya Senne

2013-01-01

While traditional public school and charter school systems continue to undergo dramatic reforms in response to the educational crisis, charter schools are praised as possessing the distinguishing characteristic of maintaining autonomy in exchange for increased accountability (Buckley & Schneider, 2009). The expectations for charter schools are…

Collaborative School Improvement: Eight Practices for District-School Partnerships to Transform Teaching and Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Kaufman, Trent E.; Grimm, Emily Dolci; Miller, Allison E.

2012-01-01

How can districts bring instructional improvement to scale within and across schools? The authors of "Collaborative School Improvement" argue that districts can play a powerful part in helping schools build the capacity to engage in inquiry-based reform--but that this effort requires a shift in districts' traditional role as a professional…

Demand-side management (DSM) in the context of China's on-going power sector reform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Sufang; Jiao, Yiqian; Chen, Wenjun

2017-01-01

As an approach to manage power demand-side resources, DSM plays an important role in electric power system. Though DSM was introduced into China in the early 1990s, its benefits have been underutilized. Using literature study, interview methods and three data sources, this paper examines the likely impacts of China's on-going power sector reform on its DSM. It finds that the major constraints to DSM in China are the insufficient and improper market-based DSM mechanism, grid companies’ low motivations for DSM due to their traditional business model, the underdeveloped energy service industry, and electricity end-users’ low motivation for DSM. China's on-going power sector reform will change power transmission and distribution pricing and grid companies’ business model and introduce competition into retail-side. Drawing on these findings, it is concluded that the likely impacts of the new reform on DSM are: governments may attach more importance to DSM; grid companies may have more motivations for DSM investment; electricity end-users’ motivations for DSM may be both enhanced and dampened; electricity retailers’ motivations for DSM may be dampened; demand response application may be enhanced, and more DSM business models may be developed. Finally, policy implications are provided. - Highlights: • Mechanism of and constraints to DSM in China are examined. • China’s on-going power sector reform is overviewed. • DSM is likely to be enhanced under China's on-going power sector reform. • Policy implications are provided.

Modernizing Schools in Mexico: The Rise of Teacher Assessment and School-Based Management Policies

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Echávarri, Jaime; Peraza, Cecilia

2017-01-01

In this paper we analyze the evolution of the teacher assessment policy and the origins of school-based management initiatives in the Mexican education context from the late 1980s until the last 2012-2013 Education Reform (RE2012-2013). Mexico joined the Global Education Reform Movement during the 1990s through the National Agreement for the…

Agile Drawing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kruse Aagaard, Anders; Lahmy, Maya

2014-01-01

This paper aims to discuss the expanding territory of the architectural drawing through digital fabrication processes and with this angle suggest an experimental practice in research and education. At two workshops held throughout June 2014 this approach and mind-set was presented to 2nd year...... on the correlation between tool and drawing. The output of the workshop is considered one accumulated body of drawings and artefacts, mapping some aspect of the method put forward in a tangible materialised approach....

Grade 3 Learners' Representation of Their Solutions to a Design Problem through Drawing: A Semiotic Analysis

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Alant, Busisiwe P.; Sherwood, Marion P.

2017-01-01

Literature suggests that drawing has an important role in the development of learning and thinking skills and the communication of ideas. However, the role and use of drawing by young learners within the process of designing is poorly understood. Working with 22 Grade 3 learners from a well-resourced school in KwaZulu-Natal, this study sought to…

Pushing up against the Limit-Horizon of Educational Change: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Popular Education Reform Texts

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Anderson, Ashlee; Aronson, Brittany; Ellison, Scott; Fairchild-Keyes, Sherrie

2015-01-01

With this article, we work to identify the limit-horizon of possible ideas, practices, and ways of talking about education reform and schooling via a critical discourse analysis of selected popular political and governmental texts. To do so, we explore the popular discourse of education reform in the United States through our analyses of three…

United States School Finance Policy, 1955-1980.