Group Report 4: Iron dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems in the Amur River basin

Our focus is to understand the spatial and temporal patterns and processes of biogeochemical iron transport from terrestrial ecosystem to river with special attention to the human impacts such as forest fire, land-use change and agricultural activities. Field monitoring of iron dynamics including stream water, soil water, and groundwater has been conducted from the upstream to downstream basin of Amur river in northeastern China and far-eastern Russia under tight collaboration with Chinese and Russian scientists and institutes. We found that the major source of dissolved iron from terrestrial system to river was mainly natural wetland which largely covered near the middle to lower region of Amur river basin. In upstream forested basin, dissolved iron in soil was mainly transported with dissolved organic carbon (DOC) rather than the forms of Fe(II) and Fe(III). The swamp forest and riparian zone near the stream channel was the important source area of iron due to the wet and anaerobic conditions which increase the DOC concentration and dissolved iron in soil and groundwater. The forest fire, one of the major human disturbances in the upstream mountain, changes the quantity and qualities of the organic matter in the surface soil, resulting to the decrease of the iron transport from the burned forest to the stream. The downstream areas with gentle topography are largely covered by natural wetland especially surrounding the middle and lower part of Amur river. The spatial distribution of iron concentration in stream water indicated that the stream water at the lower elevation and the gentle watershed contained much higher iron concentrations than the upper and steep basin. DOC was the important carrier of dissolved iron in soil water and stream water in these lower wetland as well as in the upstream region. The land-use change from wetland to farmland (paddy field and cropland) caused significant changes in soil chemistry, redox potential (Eh) and soil water quality. The drainage during the crop production system increase the Eh (indicating changes from anaerobic to aerobic condition in soil), resulting the decrease of dissolved iron in soil water due to the land-use change. The development of the irrigation system has significantly decreased the groundwater table over the last several decades, possibly contributing to the decrease in iron concentration in river water in the Sanjiang plain. The irrigation of groundwater with high dissolved iron resulted in the accumulation of amorphous iron oxides in the surface soil of the paddy filed, which was retained and not mobile from the soil. Our results indicated that the natural anaerobic environment in wetland is important for iron mobilization from terrestrial system to Amur river and that the human impact such as forest fire and land reclamation tended to make these irons immobile through mainly oxidation in the ground surface

Tutoring in the assessments of teachers in schools of Saint-Petersburg

The article demonstrates the results of a hands-on survey dedicated to the teachers’ opinion about tutoring as a form of informal education. 497 teachers from different types of schools in Saint Petersburg participated in the survey. The analysis of empirical information shows the positive attitude of the vast majority of teachers towards tutoring and their high degree of readiness to provide tutoring services. As respondents’ answers show, the necessity to prepare for Unified National Exam is becoming the most valid reason for popularity of tutoring. Settlement of issues connected to individualization of learning, salary growth and decrease of number of students in class might become factors preventing growth of school kids’ additional lessons with tutors. The study also shows that Russian science is only starting to explore tutoring as a social phenomenon widely spread in Russian education system.</jats:p

Study on the efficiency of schools by different criteria (unified state examination results and functional literacy of school leavers)

The main goal of the article is to describe the social efficiency of St. Petersburg schools using such criteria as subject effectiveness and functional literacy. The marker of social efficiency in the empirical studies carried out by the authors of the article is the frequency of school students turning to tutoring services. The methodological basis of the study is the use of the method of secondary data analysis, which was obtained from a series of surveys among schoolchildren, parents, teachers and St. Petersburg school leavers. In addition to the empirical data obtained, the Unified State Exam ratings of the schools that took part in the surveys were collected. The concepts of the effective school are presented. The generalized “portraits” of the effective (according to the Unified State Examination criterion) and socially effective in terms of the frequency of accessing the services of tutors are given. Authors also provide the characteristics of the functional literacy concept and highlight the signs of school effectiveness by the criterion of functional literacy. Characteristics that were most distinct for effective and inefficient schools by the criterion of functional literacy were visualized. The information obtained as the result of the study can be used by school principals and teachers to improve the quality of the educational institutions’ activities and their social efficiency.</jats:p

Parent’s participation in the education of their children and in the school's educational policy

Introduction. The discourse that has unfolded recently about the future of the school, about the difficult relationship between the school and the parents of students, about the difficulties of introducing state-public administration has led to the need for a scientific understanding of the position of modern parents regarding the education of their own child and in the broader context of their participation in educational policy. The main goal of this theoretical article is to analyze the current features of the interaction between school and family and to build a comprehensive model for the participation of parents in the education of their children and in the educational policy of the school. Methodology and methods. The study refers to the comparative analysis and generalization of the results of the specialized and comprehensive scientific data, dedicated to the problems of parental positions in mutual relations with the school. Methodology of research composed of complex approach, detailed and subjective approaches, semantic analysis of central points, synthesis of positions and partial models, proposed different researchers. Results and scientific novelty. In the course of the work, studies were analyzed on the problems of interaction between parents and schools, the concepts of “parental involvement/participation”, “educational policy and its subjects”. The created model reveals the personal and institutional aspects of parental participation, taking into account the different levels of subjectivity of the participants in the interaction. The novelty of the proposed model lies in the fact that it compares two types of participation: participation in the construction of the child's educational space and participation in the educational policy of the school. At the same time, three groups of factors are identified that determine the nature of participation: “subjects” of participation or interest of parents, based on their idea of the quality of education; communication channels, ways of interaction between educational subjects; socio-psychological “motivators” for participation. Practical significance. The resulting model allows the school to purposefully adjust the processes of interaction with parents. The model also serves as the basis for empirical research to identify the conditions for effective family-school cooperation and its impact on the child's school well-being and educational achievement.</jats:p

Parents' participation in school life and their assessment of the quality of the educational process

Introduction. The importance of parents' participation in school life is theoretically indisputable, but the existing empirical data on the relationship between parental involvement and various educational results are ambiguous, which actualizes more detailed studies. The question of how much the participation of parents and their satisfaction with the school are related to the factor of openness of the school to parents requires empirical study. The purpose of the study is to analyze the levels of their home and organizational involvement, as well as the relationship between the participation of parents in school life, their assessment of the quality of school education and the degree of openness of the school, based on the material of a survey of St. Petersburg parents. Methods. The study is a secondary analysis of data from surveys of parents of students of the 4th, 9th and 11th grades of St. Petersburg schools conducted as part of a comprehensive study of the quality of school education (N=4278). The data were processed in the SPSS program; methods of analyzing paired correlations and cross-tables, reducing the dimension of the feature space by factor analysis, correlation analysis in the space of generalized indices and the construction of correlation graphs, nonparametric criteria for comparing samples were used. The results of the study. The data analysis revealed strong differences between primary school and high school according to such criteria as helping children with homework (52.3% of parents help in primary school and 9.4% in high school every day), proactive communication with the class teacher (59.9% in primary school and 34.1% in high school), as well as parents' assessment of various aspects of the quality of the educational process (significantly higher in primary school). The correlation analysis showed that the organizational involvement of parents, as well as their educational level, do not have significant correlations with the quality assessment, while the level of communication does. The more intensively parents communicate with teachers, the higher they assess the quality of the educational process at school (the correlation is higher for senior classes; r=0.21). A significant influence of the openness of the school on the parents' assessments was also revealed. The higher the openness of the school, the higher the parents rate the quality of the educational process in it (for both primary and high schools, r≥0.3). Conclusion. The obtained conclusions and recommendations can be used in the development of regional and school programs of cooperation between families and schools, to assess the importance, risks and consequences of parents' participation in school life.</jats:p