Common pressures, same results? Recent reforms in professional standards and competences in teacher education for secondary teachers in England, France and Germany

Over the last decade the introduction of professional standards and competences in Initial Teacher Education for Secondary teachers in England, France, and Germany has provided the cornerstone of education reform in all three countries. The precise number and specific content of a measurable set of skills for teachers has offered challenges for policy makers, teacher educators, student teachers, and teachers alike. The concept of standardised teacher education feeds into the idea that there is some convergence towards a uniform teacher ideal. An examination of the skills required of teachers in each of the three countries in this study reveals distinct education systems where path divergence is more evident

TechnoFile: Viscosity

The article focuses on the effect the viscosity of a glaze or slip has on a piece of pottery. The article explains the term and provides tests that can be performed to determine the viscosity of a substance. It goes on to describe how one can manipulate the viscosity of a glaze or slip through the addition of water or other aids and includes step-by-step instructions for making a slip

“It’s not like family, it is family”: reflections on a mentoring program for boys of color

Early adolescence is a time of great potential and vulnerability, especially for boys of color. Research is replete with examples of how mentoring can help young people through this challenging period, but less is known about what students themselves want from such relationships. Tina Durand interviewed and conducted focus groups with boys of color participating in an after-school mentoring program to learn what they valued in a mentor. Common themes included mentors’ ability to relate to students; their unconditional support; their affirmation of students’ best traits, especially in the face of racial stereotypes; and their ability to inspire students.Accepted manuscrip

Chasing the Craze: When the Right Variables are Off-Stage

A smooth white glaze, (Figure 1) with a buttery surface and smooth breaking on edges, just enough change of whiteness in a crevice pooling, seemingly opaque when thicker, but with a certain glow, a slight grey showing through. It crazes slightly, a fine webbing of cracks. Not enough to be decorative crazing, and not enough crazing to make me abandon the glaze, but enough crazing that I would like it to be gone. I prefer a system-oriented testing approach as a kind of universal order. A simple Unity Molecular Formula grid mapping method typically shows a boundary line of crazed and non-crazed surfaces and trends in surface quality. Sounds simple enough. But, as has been said, there is no need to seek the ceramic troubles. They will find you. (excerpt

Techno File: Pyrometric Cones

A pyrometer measures temperature, but pyrometric cones measure heatwork. What is a cone, how does it work, and what does any of this have to do with synchronized swimmers? [excerpt

Financial Development and the Distributional Effects of Monetary Policy Do the distributional consequences of monetary policy depend on the extent of financial development? Should optimal monetary policy vary across countries? In order to answer these questions, we develop a monetary growth production model with heterogeneous agents. In our economy, optimal policy needs to weigh the effects of policy across two groups — capital owners and individuals who hold liquid assets. While banks help limit the exposure to inflation, there are limits because money alleviates the frictions of private information and limited communication. In this environment, we compare two economies that are identical in every aspect except for their level of financial development. In a country with limited financial development, a stock market is absent. In the other, an equity market is active. In either economy, inflation adversely affects capital formation and output. Individuals who hold liquid assets are always adversely affected by inflation, but the attitude of capital owners depends on the level of financial development. In particular, in the presence of a stock market, the impact of inflation on the welfare of capital owners is non-monotonic. Nevertheless, optimal monetary policy is always more conservative at higher levels of financial development.

Financial Development, Friedman Rule, Monetary Policy, Stock Market

Continuity and variability in the parental involvement and advocacy beliefs of Latino families of young children

Parental involvement is an important component of children’s school success. Although the literature on parental involvement among Latino families is growing and moving from deficit-based perspectives, very few studies have examined the parental involvement beliefs and practices of Latino families who vary across demographic and sociocultural lines within the same school community. This qualitative study explored Latino parents’ beliefs about children’s education, their involvement and advocacy beliefs and practices, and their perceptions of feeling welcome at their children’s school. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 parents of preschool and kindergarten children who attended a bilingual school. Qualitative descriptive analyses revealed that the majority of parents espoused the cultural value of educación, engaged in learning activities at home, and viewed themselves as living models of behavior for children, regardless of their education or immigrant status. Only first generation immigrant parents made explicit reference to children’s futures. All parents attributed supportive relationships with school personnel and a bilingual climate as the most important sources of feeling welcome at school. However, parents with more education valued what they perceived as an “open door policy” and were more vocal in critiquing policies. Findings have implications for the development of multicultural competence among teachers and for ways diverse Latino families might develop a shared voice within the school sector.Published versio

Scope, Scale, and Sustainability: What It Takes to Create Lasting Community Change

· This article examines success factors that relate specifically to the ability of a comprehensive community initiative (CCI) to achieve the scope and scale required to generate community-level outcomes and to sustain those positive impacts over time. · The CCIs selected for study represent a wide range of goals, strategies, and organizational structures. · Six factors were found to cut across scope, scale, and sustainability. These factors include having a single broker or entity that holds the vision of the change effort; clearly defined roles; alignment among interventions, resources, and geography; meaningful community engagement; competent leadership and staff; and strategic, cross-level relationships. · Additional factors were found to relate to success in achieving scope, scale, or sustainability individually. · Lessons include to plan, operate, and evaluate based on a systems- and community-change framework; choose focused and affordable strategies; build the capacity to use data; and plan for change and conflict

Priming God-Related Concepts Increases Anxiety and Task Persistence

Research on the relationship between religiosity and anxiety has been mixed, with some studies revealing a positive relation and other studies revealing a negative relation. The current research used an experimental design, perhaps for the first time, to examine anxiety and task persistence during a stressful situation. Christians and Atheists/Agnostics/Others were primed with God-related or neutral (non-God related) concepts before completing an unsolvable anagram task described as a measure of verbal intelligence. The results revealed that the God-related primes increased both task persistence and anxiousness, which suggests that experimentally induced God-related thoughts caused participants to persist longer on a stressful task, but also to feel more anxious after finishing it. No effect of religious affiliation was found, however, indicating that God-related priming affected Christians and non-Christians in a similar fashion

Phonetic Similarity in Brand Name Innovation

When developing a new brand name, similarity of the new brand name to an existing brand name may affect perceptions of the new brand name. However, marketers typically have little guidance on the optimal level of similarity versus originality. Based on linguistic theory, we develop a method to determine this optimal level. In four experiments, we examine the phonetic similarity of a company’s new brand names to the company’s original brand name, implementing a highly controlled methodology based on linguistic rules. When pre-existing attitudes towards a company are positive, an inverted U-shaped pattern is observed in brand name attitudes, such that moderate levels of phonetic similarity are preferred over closer or more distant levels of phonetic similarity. When pre-existing attitudes towards a company are negative, an opposite, U-shaped pattern is observed, such that moderate levels of phonetic similarity are less preferred over closer or more distant levels of phonetic similarity. However, when there are no pre-existing attitudes towards the company, a direct, linear relation between phonetic similarity and attitudes is observed, such that close levels are preferred over moderate levels which, in turn, are preferred over distant levels, consistent with a simple familiarity effect on brand name attitudes.Brand Names, Linguistics, Attitudes