Cyril Simmons

English, Israeli‐Arab and Saudi Arabian Adolescent Values

Summary This paper compares the results of three surveys. The subjects comprise 96 adolescents in an English comprehensive school, 118 Arab adolescents in three schools in Israel and 89 adolescents in two schools in Saudi Arabia. The first and last groups of subjects have a modal age of 14 years whereas the majority of the second group are 15 years of age. The open‐ended questionnaire comprised 10 prompts designed to elicit responses concerning ideals and least ideals, most and least preferred companions, use of solitude, summum bonum, most and least desired outcomes to life and nascent philosophies. Two methods of analysis were used. First, references to dominant themes were totalled; secondly, responses were assigned to six categories according to the dominant values expressed from materialistic to altruistic. Similarities but also significant differences were found in the dominant themes and significant differences were also apparent in the values that were expressed. Most marked was the high value pla...

Personal and Moral Adolescent Values in England and Saudi Arabia

Abstract This paper compares the results of two surveys. The subjects comprised 89 adolescents in two schools in Saudi Arabia and 96 adolescents in an English comprehensive school with a modal age of 14 years. The open‐ended questionnaire comprised 10 prompts designed to elicit responses concerning ideals and least ideals, most and least preferred companions, use of solitude, summum bonum, most and least desired outcomes to life and nascent philosophies. Two methods of analysis were used. First, references to dominant themes were totalled; secondly, responses were assigned to six categories according to the dominant values expressed from materialistic to altruistic. Similarities but also significant differences were found in the dominant themes and significant differences were also apparent between the values expressed by the two samples. Most marked was the prominence given to Islam by the Saudi Arabian adolescents and the high value placed on parents and friendship by the English young people.

Student teachers learning to learn through information technology

Summary Information Technology (IT) is currently included in all aspects of the National Curriculum for England and Wales. At the same time, the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE) has endorsed the recommendation of the Trotter Report (HMSO, 1989), that it should be a condition of approval for all initial teacher training (ITT) courses that they provide students with at least a minimum training in IT capability. Students are also required by other CATE criteria to acquire an understanding of the different ways in which pupils develop and learn. This paper therefore reports on an experiment in which an essential requirement of an assignment on ‘Learning’ in the Education Studies component of a Postgraduate Certificate in Secondary Education (PGCE) course was that it be word processed or desk top published. One hundred and fourteen secondary students following one of seven main methods courses took part in the experiment. It was found that despite initial misgivings on the part of most...

Contrasting attitudes to education in England and Japan

Summary In Japan, 95 per cent of young people stay in full‐time education until the age of 18, compared with 32 per cent of 16‐18‐year‐olds in England. Also Japanese students consistently out‐perform students from other nations in international tests of achievement. It was hypothesized that the replication in Japan of an open‐ended survey previously conducted in England would reveal differences in attitudes to education on the part of the relevant samples as well as differing cultural characteristics. It was found that many Japanese 14‐year‐olds attach supreme importance to studying, passing examinations and entering high school, whereas many English 15‐year‐olds were more concerned with getting a job. It was also found that the Japanese emphasized ideals such as kindness and consideration for others, whereas the English stressed characteristics like individuality and love for parents. It was concluded that the academic achievement of young people in Japan springs out of a widespread respect for learning ...

The Rroma: Their history and education in Poland and the UK

Rroma, or Gypsies as they are commonly called in almost every part of the world, usually claim the nationality and language of their host country. In Europe, the Rroma, probably because they are a people without an ethnic territory or a national state of their own, frequently qualify for being the most hated of all ethnic groups. Certainly their lack of a territorial base seems to have contributed both to the long-lasting neglect of their rights and to the many acts of persecution and discrimination committed against them. The Rromas nomadic way of life, which has been part of their identity for over five-hundred years, was forbidden in most Eastern European countries after World War II and has been increasingly penalised in Western Europe by legislative systems designed for and by settled societies. Because of their unique culture and traditions, many Rromani children do not receive any formal education at all while others, as a result of family mobility, eviction from unofficial sites and general lack of interest in imposed education, attend school only sporadically. Consequently, high levels of illiteracy prevail in the adult Rromani population which are rarely reduced when host countries attempt to use education to promote assimilation and settlement but, at the same time, ignore the cultural heritage of the Rroma and their own educational aims of preparing children for the nomadic life. Nevertheless, when host communities take the Rromani lifestyle and values seriously progress can be made.

New Forms of Student Teacher Learning

Abstract This article examines the effects of recent educational legislation in England and Wales on student teacher learning. In particular it reports the response of one university department of education in its attempt to fulfil two criteria laid down by the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE): that students should be able to make use of information technology (IT) in the classroom and that they should understand the different ways pupils develop and learn. Some 114 Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students were set an assignment on how they learnt to word process or desk top publish and what this taught them about the learning process. Their IT capability was monitored by short questionnaire at the beginning and end of the year and the assignments themselves yielded qualitative data on student learning. It was found that the assignment led to an increase in students’ confidence and competence in using computers and that the students became deeply involved in the learn...

Young People's Least Ideals in Five Countries

Studies of young peoples ideals by means of ideal person tests have been reported over a period of nearly 90 years whereas the examination of least ideals through appropriate tests has a much more recent history. Two surveys of least ideals are described. One hundred and seventy young people (average age 15 years) at four schools in Austria, France, Switzerland and West Germany completed the unfinished sentence, “The sort of person I would least like to be like...”. The results of this continental survey are compared with an English survey, in which 820 15 year olds at six schools completed the same test. Cultural differences and similarities are reported. Differences in valuing are also observed between the English and continental girls. The greater popularity of ideal person test over least ideal person tests seems to be related to value judgements concerning the relative worth of their respective products rather than to any logical or empirical demonstration of the primacy of the former.

The Young Ideal

Abstract In 1968 Simmons studied the personal and moral values of 101 fourth‐year pupils of a comprehensive school by means of 10 unfinished sentences. This survey was published in 1980. The first sentence was based on an Ideal Person Test used by the Eppels in the early 1960s. In 1981 the 1968 survey was replicated and extended to include 820 fourth‐year pupils (492 boys, 328 girls, average age 15 years) in six schools with different social and geographical backgrounds. The responses to the first sentence confirmed many of the Eppels’ findings of nearly 20 years ago particularly with respect to (a) the rejection of ideal models in favour of ‘myself choices, (b) the clear preference by nearly half the subjects for ideal models chararcterised by attractive physical appearance and popularity, (c) the over‐subscription of boys to material values and the oversubscription of girls to social values.

Living with CATE: the case of reflective student teachers

Summary This paper considers the effect of the introduction of market forces into teacher education both in terms of the loss of autonomy on the part of the providers, the teacher educators, and in terms of the growth of ownership by the consumers, the student teachers, of their learning. Specifically it identifies the paradigms of teacher education which are absent from the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE) criteria, such as enquiry‐oriented teacher education, but which are important for promoting professional self‐awareness amongst teachers. This paper describes and evaluates an exercise undertaken by student teachers on a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) course which both promotes self‐reflection and meets some of the criteria set by CATE. It concludes that it is possible to promote self‐reflective teaching within the confines of the CATE criteria so long as certain procedures are followed.

A Comparative Study of Educational and Cultural Determinants of Adolescent Values

Abstract This article compares the results of three surveys in adolescent values. The subjects comprise young people with a modal age of 15 years from three countries‐‐England, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The contrasting educational systems of these countries are described with particular reference to the place of religious education within their curricula. An open‐ended questionnaire, designed to prompt statements from young people about their values, is introduced and its provenance is described. Similarities but also significant differences are found in the values expressed across the three cultures. Most marked is the high value placed on parents and friendship by the English young people, the importance attached to being well adjusted and feeling good about oneself in the American group and the prominence given to Islam by the Saudi Arabian adolescents.