The relationship between civic attitudes and voting intention : an analysis of vocational upper secondary schools in England and Singapore

From 2009 to 2011, a team from the Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies carried out a mixedmethods study of young people in England and Singapore. With regard to civic attitudes, the study showed that there was a greater sense of political self-efficacy and collective (school) efficacy in Singapore than in England. In addition, the group in Singapore scored higher on future voting relative to the group in England. Further, while both political self-efficacy and collective (school) efficacy were correlated with future voting in England, only the latter was correlated in the case of Singapore. For some, the results may seem counter-intuitive. The article reflects on these results, particularly those relating to democratic outcomes

Re-conceptualising learning-centred (instructional) leadership: an obsolete concept in need of renovation

For more than thirty years, ‘instructional leadership’ has been at the forefront of research and practice in school effectiveness and improvement. Governments, employers, universities and professional developers, all see it as a mainstay of raising school and student performance. Wave-after-wave of educational policy reforms during this period have changed school environments, widening and deepening the (instructional) leadership roles and functions of principals and other school leaders. Terminology has changed – while Americans still use ‘instructional leadership’, others prefer ‘learning-centred’ and ‘leadership-for -learning’, disputing whether they encompass the same or different meanings. Yet curiously, the concept itself – as defined and measured by academic researchers and scholars - has changed relatively little since Hallinger and Murphy’s first seminal contribution in 1985. This paper argues the case for wholesale renovation of the concept if it is to maintain relevance going forward. The case is supported by important and powerful trends in policy and practice

Promoting social-emotional learning in Chinese schools : a feasibility study of PATHS implementation in Hong Kong

This paper describes a pilot study of a reduced version of the PATHS Curriculum, a USdeveloped evidence-based SEL program, among schools in Hong Kong SAR (China). Three hundred and sixteen 12th grade students in three elementary schools participated in the study. A limited number of first grade PATHS lessons were adapted and translated into Chinese. Twelve teachers learned and adopted these lessons in their teaching. Students in these classrooms learned about different emotions and practiced self-control. The intervention lasted four months. After the intervention, students showed improvement in emotion understanding, emotion regulation and prosocial behavior. No change was observed in the level of children’s problem behaviors. Over 65% of the teachers reported a high degree of satisfaction and willingness to adopt the intervention. The effects of the intervention varied among schools, with variations in the level of intervention and principal support, but not in the quality of implementation. Discussion is focused on the factors that could shape the adoption and implementation of SEL programs, especially the role of the difference in school systems between Hong Kong and the United States.peer-reviewe

Adaptation, translation, and validation of information literacy assessment instrument

The assessment of information literacy (IL) at the school level is mainly dependent on the measurement tools developed by the Western world. These tools need to be efficiently adapted and in most cases translated to allow them to be utilized in other cultures, languages, and countries. To date, there have been no standard guidelines to adapt these tools; hence, the results may be cross-culturally generalized to a certain extent. Furthermore, most data analyses produce generic outcomes without taking into account the ability of the students, including the difficulty of the test items. The present study proposes a systematic approach for context adaptation and language translation of the preexisting IL assessment tool known as TRAILS-9 to be used in different languages and context, particularly a Malaysian public secondary school. This study further administers a less common psychometric approach, the Rasch analysis, to validate the adapted instrument. This technique produces a hierarchy of item difficulty within the assessment domain that enables the ability level of the students to be differentiated based on item difficulty. The recommended scale adaptation guidelines are able to reduce the misinterpretation of scores from instruments in multiple languages as well as contribute to parallel development of IL assessment among secondary school students from different populations

Building Community: Synergy and Empowerment through Staff Development and Marketing in a Small Rural Academic Library

This paper presents two collaborative programs at a small academic library that leverage the insights, engagement, and interests of our most important asset: our staff. Two new library committees, the Staff Training Advisory Group and the Marketing Team, extended planning, accountability, and partnerships to paraprofessional staff members. The onset and associated activities of these two committees yielded not only direct results in terms of staff training programs and marketing initiatives, but also resulted in creating a more collaborative culture and shared purpose in our library. This paper examines how the overlap of these two committees created a convergence that fostered excitement about the library, interest in improving library roles, and furthering library initiatives. By working together, and with our university community, we developed solid, popular programs in addition to cultivating a more intentional, thoughtful, and inclusive approach to our work and, ultimately, to supporting our university community.published under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (more details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Ye

Young people and the evaluation of information on the World Wide Web: Principles, practice and beliefs

A recurrent theme in LIS literature is the tendency of young people not to evaluate rigorously the information with which they come into contact. Although many information literacy models stress the need to take a critical approach, the reality of behaviour is often very different. Recent research conducted in an English high school has explored the importance that teenagers attach to ten particular evaluative criteria. 149 youngsters contributed data via an online questionnaire. Participants felt that information on the Web should be current/topical, free from spelling and grammatical errors and easily verifiable elsewhere but authorship was much less of a priority to them. The findings are likely to be of special relevance to information literacy teachers who are defining priorities for their own programmes

Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works

Considering the education-to-employment system as a highway with three critical intersections -- enrolling in postsecondary education, building skills, and finding a job -- this research has determined places where students take wrong turns or fall behind, and why. With increased data and innovative approaches, employers, educators, governments and youth can create a better system

A Case Study: Impact Of Assessment For Learning In A Badminton Unit In Physical Education

The main purpose of assessment for learning (AfL) is to provide feedback to learners, regarding the learners’ progress towards the learning objectives, and allow students to take ownership of their own learning. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of using an analytical rubric as an assessment for learning tool on teaching and learning in physical education. This case study examines the acquisition of skills in a badminton unit and student engagement in a Singapore’s secondary school physical education class setting. Specifically, the research questions are: a) How does the incorporation of AfL tools affect students’ acquisition of skills in a badminton unit? b) How does the incorporation of AfL tools in a badminton unit impact students’ engagement (i.e., response rate)? A quasi-experimental group design method was used and one class had AfL tools incorporated in the teaching and learning, while the other class did not. Results showed that the class with AFL tools incorporated into the lessons had a significantly higher response rate than the class without. Both classes experienced almost similar improvement of skills even though the class with AfL tools incorporated had less game play time. This study concluded that assessment for learning when incorporated into lessons can increase engagement and motivation, with no significant conclusion on the impact on skill improvement and psychomotor learning

Volume 39 Number 1

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