Coalitions and Cliques in the School Choice Problem

The school choice mechanism design problem focuses on assignment mechanisms matching students to public schools in a given school district. The well-known Gale Shapley Student Optimal Stable Matching Mechanism (SOSM) is the most efficient stable mechanism proposed so far as a solution to this problem. However its inefficiency is well-documented, and recently the Efficiency Adjusted Deferred Acceptance Mechanism (EADAM) was proposed as a remedy for this weakness. In this note we describe two related adjustments to SOSM with the intention to address the same inefficiency issue. In one we create possibly artificial coalitions among students where some students modify their preference profiles in order to improve the outcome for some other students. Our second approach involves trading cliques among students where those involved improve their assignments by waiving some of their priorities. The coalition method yields the EADAM outcome among other Pareto dominations of the SOSM outcome, while the clique method yields all possible Pareto optimal Pareto dominations of SOSM. The clique method furthermore incorporates a natural solution to the problem of breaking possible ties within preference and priority profiles. We discuss the practical implications and limitations of our approach in the final section of the article

Future school services, 'Global Solutions' : ESRC Seminar 4 Proceedings

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Diversity, inequality and a post-structural politics for education

This paper considers the contribution to understanding educational inequalities offered by post-structural theories of power and the subject. The paper locates this consideration in the context of the ongoing endeavour in education studies to make sense of, and identify ways of interrupting, abiding educational exclusions and inequalities. The paper examines the potential of Judith Butler's work, in particular her engagement with Foucault?s concepts of productive power and subjectivation, and the articulation of these ideas with the notion of the performative constitution of subjects, for making sense of the processes through which students come to be particular sorts of subjects of schooling. The paper argues that taking up these understandings not only enables us to better understand the endurance of particular configurations of educational inequalities, it also opens up new possibilities for interrupting these through a post-structural politics that seeks to displace prevailing discourses and constitute students differently through every-day practices of preformative reinscription

'Being the Teacher': identity and classroom conversation

Recent debate on the standard classroom Initiation–Response–Follow-up pattern has focused particular attention on the final move and the contribution it can make to productive interaction in teacher-fronted situations. This paper suggests that current research in this area has tended to exaggerate the pedagogic impact of changes based on specifiable discourse moves, proposing instead an approach to analysis which takes account of the dynamic nature of identity construction and its relationship to the development of ongoing talk. It challenges the view that the concept of classroom conversation is inherently contradictory and, drawing on the work of Zimmerman (1998) related to the broader field of Membership Categorization Analysis, demonstrates how shifts in the orientation to different aspects of identity produce distinctively different interactional patterns in teacher-fronted talk. Using Zimmerman's distinction between discourse, situated and transportable identities in talk, extracts from classroom exchanges from different educational contexts are analysed as the basis for claiming that conversation involving teacher and students in the classroom is indeed possible. The paper concludes with a discussion of the pedagogical implications of this

A theoretical view on concept mapping

Auto‐monitoring is the pivotal concept in understanding the operation of concept maps, which have been used to help learners make sense of their study and plan learning activities. Central to auto‐monitoring is the idea of a ‘learning arena’ where individuals can manipulate concept representations and engage in the processes of checking, resolving and confirming understandings. The learner is assisted by familiar metaphors (for example, networks) and the possibility of thinking ‘on action’ while ‘in action’. This paper discusses these concepts, and concludes by arguing that maps are part of the process of learning rather than a manifestation of learning itself. Auto‐monitoring is suggested as an appropriate term to describe the process of engaging in the learning arena

Opening up and closing down : how teachers and TAs manage turn-taking, topic and repair in mathematics lessons

Support for children with special educational needs in inclusive classrooms is increasingly provided by teaching assistants (TAs). They often have a direct pedagogical role, taking responsibility for instruction in mathematics. The quality of TAs' oral skills is crucial for learning but has rarely been researched. Using conversation analysis, this study compares teacher and TA talk in terms of turn allocation, topic generation and repair. From 130 recordings, transcripts of mathematics teaching in four lessons were analysed in depth. We found that teachers open up students whilst TAs close down the talk. Teachers, with whole classes, adopt inclusive teaching strategies to ensure oral participation whereas TAs, working with individuals, emphasise task completion. Teachers use open strategies for topic generation whilst TAs ask closed questions. Teachers withhold correction with prompts and hints whilst TAs supply answers. The findings are interpreted with reference to the TA role and implications for management and training