How do learning environments vary by school sector and socioeconomic composition? Evidence from Australian students

We examine how students’ perspectives of their learning environments vary between private and public schools in Australia. Previous research has shown that educational outcomes do not vary by school sector in most countries after controlling for student social background. Little is known, however, about the ways in which different students’ educational experiences vary across sectors. Australia is a good case study for examining this question, because it has one of the largest private school sectors in the world. We used a large and nationally representative dataset to compare sector differences across five measures of learning environments while accounting for the average socioeconomic composition of the school. Very few differences large enough to be considered educationally substantive were found between sectors. On two measures, however, student perspectives varied substantially within sectors and across school socioeconomic contexts. Overall, classroom disciplinary climate varied the most across school sectors and socioeconomic contexts, and teacher scaffolding and structuring strategies varied the least

How child‐centred education favours some learners more than others

Debates on how best to educate young children have been raging over the last 100 years—more often fuelled by ideological preferences rather than empirical evidence. To some extent this is hardly surprising given the difficulty of examining pupil progress in a systematic and comparative way. However, the introduction of a new child‐centred curriculum in Wales provides the opportunity to undertake just such an examination. The Foundation Phase curriculum, introduced in 2008, is designed to provide all 3‐ to 7‐year‐olds with a developmental, experiential, play‐based approach to learning. Evidence from a major 3‐year evaluation of this intervention finds that, overall, pupil progress and well‐being is fostered in those settings where the principles of the Foundation Phase have been most closely followed. However, the evidence also suggests that even within these contexts, progress is uneven and that some kinds of children seem to gain more from this approach than others. The ‘losers’ appear to be boys and those living in poverty. Drawing on the theories of Basil Bernstein, the paper explores why this may be the case and examines the relative significance of teacher dispositions, teacher–learner dynamics and the availability of resources. The paper concludes by arguing that these issues will need to be addressed if the benefits of child‐centred approaches are to benefit all

New coil concept for endoluminal MR imaging: Initial results in staging of gastric carcinoma in correlation with Histopathology

Our aim was to conduct a prospective study to evaluate staging accuracy of a new coil concept for endoluminal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on ex vivo gastric carcinomas. Twenty-eight consecutive patients referred to surgery with a clinically proven primary gastric malignancy were included. Surgical specimens were examined with a foldable and self-expanding loop coil (8-cm diameter) at 1.5 Tesla immediately after total gastrectomy. T1- and T2-weighted and opposed-phase sequences (axial, frontal sections; 3- to 4-mm slice thickness) were acquired. Investigators blinded to any patient information analyzed signal intensity of normal gastric wall, gastric tumor, and lymph nodes. Findings were compared with histopathological staging. On surgical specimens, 2–5 gastric wall layers could be visualized. All gastric tumors (26 carcinomas, two lymphomas) were identified on endoluminal MR data (100%). Overall accuracy for T staging was 75% (18/24); sensitivity to detect serosal involvement was 80% and specificity 89%. N staging correlated in 58% (14/24) with histopathology (N+ versus N−). The endoluminal coil concept is feasible and applicable for an ex vivo setting. Endoluminal MR data provided sufficient detail for gastric wall layer differentiation, and therefore, identification of T stages in gastric carcinoma is possible. Further investigations in in vivo settings should explore the potential of our coil concept for endoluminal MR imaging

Long-Range Intra-Protein Communication Can Be Transmitted by Correlated Side-Chain Fluctuations Alone

Allosteric regulation is a key component of cellular communication, but the way in which information is passed from one site to another within a folded protein is not often clear. While backbone motions have long been considered essential for long-range information conveyance, side-chain motions have rarely been considered. In this work, we demonstrate their potential utility using Monte Carlo sampling of side-chain torsional angles on a fixed backbone to quantify correlations amongst side-chain inter-rotameric motions. Results indicate that long-range correlations of side-chain fluctuations can arise independently from several different types of interactions: steric repulsions, implicit solvent interactions, or hydrogen bonding and salt-bridge interactions. These robust correlations persist across the entire protein (up to 60 Å in the case of calmodulin) and can propagate long-range changes in side-chain variability in response to single residue perturbations

Vulnerable Children, Young People, and Families: Policy, Practice, and Social Justice in England and Scotland

This chapter begins by highlighting the rise of vulnerability as a term in social policy, and the three-level approach that is used to examine it. The first level is definitional, examining the possibility of defining vulnerability and vulnerabilities through a consideration of relevant literature and a number of recent policy documents. The second looks at how policy developments in Scotland and England have diverged, particularly since 2010, and how vulnerability has become more central to education policy in England. The third level focuses on practice, presenting research undertaken by the authors into a programme developed to support vulnerable children, young people, and families in Northern England as a case study exemplifying some of the factors affecting the effectiveness of programmes in which schools played an important but not central part. This practice perspective is still too often overlooked in discussions of policy and definition, and it is suggested that its inclusion will contribute to the ongoing debate about both how best to support vulnerable families and the implications for education and social justice

Sector distinctions and the privatization of public education policymaking

Current trends indicate declining distinctions between ‘public’ and ‘private’ sectors in education. Reformers see sector barriers as unnecessary impediments to innovation, distracting attention and effort from ‘what works’. This analysis questions whether trends in education policy are simply a natural evolution away from state control of public goods, noting the agency involved in blurring the boundaries between sectors. While the weakening of public and private distinctions is real and substantial, there are reasons for researchers and policymakers to rely on these distinctions in understanding education policy and policymaking, not so much as principles that should guide policymaking, but as means for analyzing competing interests, agendas, and beneficiaries of policies. In that respect, education policymaking itself is being privatized through a significant shift toward private interests in the making of public policy for public education. The analysis focuses on the central role that some private philanthropies play in shaping hybridized private–public policy networks in education policymaking