Rebecca Soden

Person-environment fit and teacher stress

Summary This study examines the relationship between person‐environment fit and occupational stress and strain for a group of 300 Australian and Scottish vocational teachers. A self‐report questionnaire was used to obtain a measure of predominant work interest type for each individual. Teachers were allocated to the Congruent group on the basis of reporting a predominantly Social interest type; Social types are seen to be most congruent with teaching. Teachers were allocated to the Incongruent group on the basis of reporting a predominantly Practical interest type. The Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI) was used to measure various aspects of occupational stress, strain and coping resources. Significant between‐group effects (congruent vs incongruent) were found for two of the four strain subscales of the OSI. The implications of person‐environment fit and strain for teachers is discussed.

Rethinking Vocational Education: A Case Study in Care.

The authors explain how development of employability and educational interest might be enhanced by a radically different division of labour between FECs (Further Education Colleges) and the institutions in which students live and work. They argue that, rather than looking for ways in which FECs could teach vocational knowledge in a more relevant way, the role of FECs might be to develop students’ educational interest through analytical reflection on their life and work. The authors tried out these ideas with 25 adult returners to formal education who hope to secure jobs as professional carers. The theoretical perspective known as situated learning is contrasted with one which implies that transfer of learning from classroom to workplaces is relatively unproblematic and that cognitive operations are relatively unaffected by culture.

Supporting Primary Students' On-Line Learning in a Virtual Enrichment Program

particular the Internet, is transforming business and social environments, practices and outcomes. It is not as clear that the potential for change in educational contexts is being realised, especially in classroom practices. ‘There are computers in schools, but they remain largely ancillary to the activity of the traditional classroom ...’ (Kolde, 1997, p. 1). In Australia, where this research was conducted, computers are available in most schools, and in some states all schools have an Internet connection, yet the possibilities they provide for resources and communication are not fully utilised (Moersch, 1995; Smith, 2000). The world of knowledge and communication is being transformed, and there are calls for a new intellectual basis for education (Hubbard, 1998), yet many schools are being left behind. Two factors that contribute to this underutilisation of technology include teacher inexperience in using computers and the Internet, and limited support for teachers to learn how to use the technologies to develop effective, enriching learning experiences for students (Smith, 2000). The roles of both teachers and students change in a ‘technology’ classroom, with teachers acting as facilitators of students’ active enquiry and construction of their own understandings. Such educational approaches are reminiscent of the views of John Dewey and the progressive educators (Starr, 1996), as well as those of constructivists (Duffy and Cunningham, 1996; Steffe and Gale, 1995), so they are not actually new. What is new, however, is the potential of computer technology to provide flexible, interactive learning activities, and to provide ‘education to learners anywhere at any time’ (Kolde, 1997, p. 1). Students with access to the Internet now have access to resources, people and related educational opportunities that schools could not previously provide. One example of such provision is the project from which this study arose, the Talent Education Virtual Enrichment Program (TEdVEP) in the School of Curriculum Studies at the University of New England (http://scs.une.edu. au/tedvep/). Located at a rural university, one aim of TEdVEP is to provide suitable educational opportunities for highly capable or motivated students restricted by geographical isolation or lack of trained specialist teachers. Recognising that the use and integration of computers in education are in Suorting rim ry stuents’ o-line lerning

Facilitating Changes in Lecturers' Understanding of Learning

Abstract The research reported in this paper addresses some general concerns about courses of professional development for lecturers in Higher Education through description and analysis of a particular course. Over a 9‐month period a group of 11 lecturers were encouraged to develop an increasingly sophisticated and theoretically informed understanding of purpose and process in learning. They were also encouraged to construct ways of teaching consistent with their developing theoretical understanding and to justify those ways retrospectively. A fundamental assumption that underpins such encouragement is that practice is improved when practitioners engage seriously with the epistemological problem of theory‐preference

Capital, culture and community: understanding school engagement in a challenging context

Engagement in learning is seen as a key to success at school. The article reports on a study into the ways in which one school has attempted to engage with its community in an area of multiple deprivation. Using Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, the article explores the ways in which school management aims to boost students’ embodied cultural capital as a means towards achieving academic success, and looks at the perceptions of key informants and school students on these issues. The report shows the considerable efforts schools in such areas need to expend, the economic challenges, and the difficulties and dilemmas which students often encounter in trying to negotiate the cultural divide between home and school.

Experienced tutors’ deployment of thinking skills and what might be entailed in enhancing such skills

In the context of research that reports weaknesses in adults’ critical thinking skills, the primary aim was to examine adults’ use of critical thinking skills that are described in taxonomies and to identify areas for development. Position papers written by an opportunity sample of 32 experienced adult educators formed the data for a descriptive sample survey design intended to reveal participants’ use of critical thinking skills. Each 6000‐word paper was written during a development programme that supported such skills. A content analysis of the papers revealed that when participants drew on personal and published ideas about learning to derive their proposals for change, they accepted the ideas uncritically, thereby implying that they might find it difficult to help learners to examine ideas critically. The evidence supports research that implies that critical thinking skills are unlikely to develop unless overall course design privileges the development of epistemological understanding (King and Kitchener 1994, Kuhn 1999). A fundamental assumption underlying the study is that this understanding influences effective citizenship and personal development, as well as employability. A proposition that merits attention in future research is that the development of epistemological understanding is largely neglected in current curricula in formal post‐16 education.

Researching Media Education in English

established as a recognised curriculum area within mandatory schooling in many parts of the world. Yet it is still struggling to establish itself as a coherent and respectable academic discipline. Why should this be? One obvious answer is that, unlike other academic disciplines, it cannot yet claim to draw on a body of systematic published research. There is no shortage of enthusiasm or accounts of practice, but little solid research that can act as a basis for curriculum development. In the United Kingdom, the Film Education Working Group Report (BFI, 1999), set up by the government’s Department for Culture Media and Sport, has proposed a detailed model of progression for mandatory Media teaching and an extensive framework of curriculum and inspection support. At the same time, the new mandatory post-2000 National Curriculum framework for ages 5–16 includes, for the first time, a requirement for learning about moving image texts within the teaching of English (QCA, 1999). There has also been a dynamic increase in candidature for formal specialist examinations at 16+ (General Certificate of Secondary Education) and 18+ (Advanced and Advanced Subsidiary Level). Yet research into classroom teaching about Media remains scarce and variable in quality. At one end of the spectrum, Buckingham’s work at the Instutute of Education in London focuses on the micro-social interactions of small groups of learners and on individual teachers’ reflexive accounts of their work (1990a, b, c, 1993a, b, 1998; Buckingham and Sefton-Green, 1994; Buckingham et al., 1995). It does not pretend to say anything about broader patterns of teaching or how teachers are adapting their work to the opportunities and constraints of National Curriculum and examination board specifications. At the other end of the spectrum, surveys carried out for the British Film Institute (BFI) (Twitchin and Bazalgette, 1988; Dickson, 1994; Barratt, 1998) give a sense of landscape, but say nothing about what actually happens in classrooms, as opposed to what teachers say happens (often retrospectively). These wide-angle surveys are useful, but they lack the depth of field and focus that we need in order to understand more about the day-to-day decisions made by teachers as they seek to articulate and manage a developing Media curriculum. R es ea rc h in E du ca tio n N o. 6 6

Helping education undergraduates to use appropriate criteria for evaluating accounts of motivation

The aim of the study was to compare students in a control group with those in a treatment group with respect to evaluative comments on psychological accounts of motivation. The treatment group systematically scrutinized the nature and interpretation of evidence that supported different accounts, and the assumptions, logic, coherence and clarity of accounts. Content analysis of 74 scripts (using three categories) showed that the control group students made more assertions than either evidential or evaluative points, whereas the treatment group used evaluative statements as often as they used assertion. The findings provide support for privileging activities that develop understanding of how knowledge might be contested, and suggest a need for further research on pedagogies to serve this end. The idea is considered that such understanding has a pivotal role in the development of critical thinking.

The realization of critical thinking aims in a degree program for vocational tutors

Abstract There has been a growing emphasis within educational literature on the need to encourage all learners to think critically about whatever they are studying. There were concerns that this aim was not being achieved in a degree program for VET tutors. One purpose of the study was to quantify the extent of critical thinking in one cohort of VET tutors. Another purpose was to use the method of quantification as well as literature on critical thinking to help a team of lecturers who taught the VET tutors to understand how they might recognize and evaluate this ability in vocationally oriented essays. Drawing on this literature, a category system was developed and used to content-analyse 40 course essays that been graded earlier by the lecturers. This analysis confirmed the team’s impression that the VET tutors rarely analysed or justified ideas. What emerged from a group interview with the lecturers, and examination of feedback notes, was that lecturers were unclear about what should count as critical thinking in course essays. Subsequently, the researchers discussed literature on critical thinking with the lecturers. Taken together, the data supported a ‘ fuzzy’ proposition (Holligan, 1997) that merits further research. The proposition is that discussion of critical thinking literature has a significant role in staff development programs in helping course teams clarify how thinking is to be evidenced in course work.

Personality Traits of Pupils at Independent Schools in England

Independent Schools Information Service, ‘all sorts’. Estimates from the Department of Education and Employment and from the Independent Schools Information Service suggested that 7 per cent of children attend independent schools. A major advantage of such education is claimed to be smaller class sizes so that greater attention can be given to helping to realise the potential of individual children. Critics might, however, consider that such schools are elitist, and that some parents choose them for unworthy reasons. According to a MORI poll of 737 parents with children at independent schools, when choosing a school parents rated the school’s reputation, discipline and encouragement of a responsible attitude to study as more important than examination results (ISIS, 1998). Since only 9 per cent of the children had a government-assisted place and only 5 per cent had scholarships, such a choice may well entail financial sacrifices. The children going to independent schools must be aware of their parents’ concern. The schools may well tend to promote an ‘ethos’ that is different from that of statemaintained schools and the collective culture of the pupils would contribute to this ethos. The personality of pupils can be expected to shape the collective ethos. But what aspects of personality are particularly relevant? For example, are the pupils at independent schools more intelligent? More conscientious? Stronger in self-esteem? This article explores the question of how the personality profiles of children attending independent schools compare with those of British children in general. In order to obtain a wide coverage of relevant personality traits the High School Personality Questionnaire (HSPQ: Cattell et al., 1984) was adopted. The HSPQ is intended to measure fourteen personality traits. To make comparisons with other British children, the raw scores of the independent school participants were compared with the raw scores on a British standardisation of the HSPQ (Saville and Finlayson, 1981). Peonality taits of ppils at indendent scools