Applying the framework for culturally responsive teaching to explore the adaptations that teach first beginning teachers use to meet the needs of their pupils in school

Previous research has shown that beginning teachers are capable of adapting their practice to the needs of ethnically diverse pupils. This paper investigates the possibility that such teachers were developing their practice into what I have termed culturally adaptive teaching. A variety of methods were used to collect qualitative data that focused on the perspectives of teachers in schools across Yorkshire and Humberside, (UK) over the course of an academic year. The framework for culturally responsive teaching (CRT) was used as a lens through which to analyse the data collected. It enabled findings to emerge that took the framework beyond that of CRT, to one of culturally adaptive teaching. Teachers continually adapted their practice, in terms of cultural sensitivity, to better meet the needs of their pupils. If we can apply this framework and support beginning teachers to help them understand issues of cultural diversity in the classroom, we might be able to engender a real systematic change in teaching for the benefit of pupils

Examining the Determinants of Food Prices in Developing Asia

How the price of food is determined has become a critical issue, given the drastic surges in prices in recent years and the prevailing expectation of further increases. Along this line, this paper examines the sources of food price fluctuations in 11 developing Asian countries. The working model is a block vector autoregression (VAR), and 10 variables are classified into three blocks - world, region, and country - depending on their origin and nature. Empirical evidence shows that the regional shock plays a pivotal role in explaining the variations of domestic food prices, particularly at medium- to long-term horizons. Contrary to conventional belief, the world food price shock contributes little to the dynamics of domestic food prices in developing Asia. The findings suggest Asian food markets are more integrated regionally than with the world market. The short-run movements of domestic food prices are accounted for largely by the country's own shock. Taken together, our findings suggest that promoting food price stability would require efforts at the regional level as well as at the domestic level, reflecting the influence of region-specific factors. Extensions to the developing countries in other regions produce similar findings on the determination of food prices

Are There Bubbles in Stock Prices? Testing for Fundamental Shocks

This paper investigates whether there are bubbles in stock prices. We do this using a previously studied structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model claiming to distinguish fundamental and non-fundamental shocks to real stock prices. TheSVAR model relies on an identification restriction in order to correctly label the shocks. We test this restriction by means of a Markov switching-SVAR (MS-SVAR) model in heteroskedasticity. Using data from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US we find that the restriction is rejected for Italy, supported at the 1% level for Japan and supported at least at the 5% level for the remaining countries. Several alternative specifications confirm the robustness of these findings. Using SVAR impulse responses and forecast error variance decompositions we further examine the structural shocks and confirm the shock labeling for Japan. Through historical decompositions we observe that stock prices tended to be undervalued throughout the 1970s and 1980s. This undervaluation corrects itself by the mid 1990s, after which stock prices tend to move in tandem with their fundamentals. We therefore find no evidence in favor of stock price bubbles in all the countries invested

Structural Vector Autoregressions with Smooth Transition in Variances: The Interaction between U.S. Monetary Policy and the Stock Market

In structural vector autoregressive analysis identifying the shocks of interest via heteroskedasticity has become a standard tool. Unfortunately, the approaches currently used for modelling heteroskedasticity all have drawbacks. For instance, assuming known dates for variance changes is often unrealistic while more exible models based on GARCH or Markov switching residuals are difficult to handle from a statistical and computational point of view. Therefore we propose a modelbased on a smooth change in variance that is exible as well as relatively easy to estimate. The model is applied to a five-dimensional system of U.S. variables to explore the interaction between monetary policy and the stock market. It is found that previously used conventional identification schemes in this context are rejected by the data if heteroskedasticity is allowed for. Shocks identified via heteroskedasticity have a different economic interpretation than the shocks identified using conventional methods

Coaching Models of School-Based Prevention and Promotion Programmes: A Qualitative Exploration of UK Teachers' Perceptions

There has been increased interest in recent years regarding the utility of imported universal prevention and promotion (P&P) programmes in UK schools, many of which have a coaching model attached. However, there have been relatively few studies exploring the cultural transferability and social validity of these models, even though evidence suggests that these factors are important to the successful implementation of the programmes, and thus the achievement of the intended outcomes. The aim of the current study was to explore the coaching practices that teachers report experiencing, and to further understanding of the perceived benefts of these coaching practices to teachers. The sample consisted of 33 teachers implementing one of two universal, school-based P&P programmes, Good Behavior Game and Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies as part of large-scale, randomised controlled trials. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data were analysed thematically utilising a hybrid approach. Teachers typically reported engaging in six distinct practices with their coaches. While the majority of these practices were in line with coaching literature, there were some discrepancies between intended coaching practices and teachers’ reports. The coaching practices were generally perceived to be acceptable to teachers. Two unanticipated practices, validation and motivation, appeared to be of particular value to teachers, although these are not currently a prominent feature in existing coaching models. The fndings provide implications for improving the development of socially valid coaching models for UK schools

Emerging market economies and the world interest rate

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.We use a Factor Augmented VAR model to estimate the dynamic responses of interest rates in emerging market economies to the ‘world’ interest rate, which we extract from a dynamic factor model of yields in industrialized countries. Our results provide evidence that many emerging market yields respond to world rate shocks, at least gradually, which is broadly consistent with capital market integration. Our findings also suggest that the world rate captures information about emerging market yields not contained in US rates, which are typically used to proxy for the world rate