School effectiveness and the displacement of equity discourses in education

An essential aspect of school effectiveness theory is the shift from the social to the organisational context, from the macro- to the micro-culture. The school is represented largely as a bounded institution, set apart, but also in a precarious relationship with the broader social context. It is ironic that at a time when social disadvantage appears to be increasing in Britain and elsewhere, school effectiveness theory places less emphasis on poverty, deprivation and social exclusion. Instead, it places more emphasis on organisational factors such as professional leadership, home/school partnerships, the monitoring of academic progress, shared vision and goals. In this article, the authors evaluate the extent to which notions of effectiveness have displaced concerns about equity in theories of educational change. They explore the extent to which the social structures of gender, ethnicity, sexualities, special needs, social class, poverty and other historical forms of inequality have been incorporated into or distorted and excluded from effectiveness thinking.

Science in modern poetry: new directions

An edited collection of essays by the leading scholars in the field on science in poetry from 1900 to the present. This is a collection of research essays, not a companion. The introduction (pp. 1-15) and one of the 12 main chapters, 'From Bergson to Darwin: Evolutionary Biology in the Poetry of Judith Wright' (pp. 194-209), are by the editor.

Data mining in education

The third chapter, data mining in education, examines potentials and constraints in the use of data mining in education, summarizing the potential they have to offer meaningful support to: students, teachers, tutors, authors, developers, researchers, and the education and training institutions in which they work and study.

Experiencing Science in Action: The Use of Exhibition Techniques in Guided Tours to a Scientific Laboratory

The current paper presents a study conducted at CERN, Switzerland, to investigate visitors' and tour guides' use and appreciation of existing panels at visit itinerary points. The results were used to develop a set of recommendations for constructing optimal panels to assist the guides' explanation.

Is there wage premium to computer use in Sweden

This paper examines the wage premium to computer use in Sweden in the early 1990’s. I use simple regression model and interaction terms in my paper to examine the effect of computer use at work. Although the data is only one-year cross-section data, my results clearly show a wage premium to computer use in Sweden. There are also interesting findings in my paper by using Swedish data. From the results, I find wage premium to be related to intensity of computer use at work.

Equity and Efficiency in Education: motivations and targets

The recently released "Educational PAC" attempts to place basic education at the center of the social debate. We have subsidized this debate, offering a diagnosis of how different education levels can impact individuals' lives through broad and easily interpreted indicators. Initially, we analyze how much each educational level reaches the poorest population. For example, how are those in the bottom strata of income distribution benefited by childcare centers, private secondary education, public university or adult education. The next step is to quantify the return of educational actions, such as their effects on employability and an individual's wages, and even health as perceived by the individual, be that individual poor, middle class or elite. The next part of the research presents evidence of how the main characters in education, aka mothers, fathers and children, regard education. The site available with the research presents a broad, user-friendly database, which will allow interested parties to answer their own questions relative to why people do not attend school, the time spent in the educational system and returns to education, which can all be cross-sectioned with a wide array of socio-demographic attributes (gender, income, etc.) and school characteristics (is it public, are school meals offered, etc.) to find answers to: why do young adults of a certain age not attend school? Why do they miss classes? How long is the school day? Aside from the whys and hows of teaching, the research calculates the amount of time spent in school, resulting from a combination between absence rates, evasion raters and length of the school day. The study presents ranks of indicators referring to objective and subjective aspects of education, such as the discussion of the advantages and care in establishing performance based incentives that aim at guiding the states in the race for better educational indicators.

Is 'tagging' a rationale for affirmative action in education?

In this paper, we try to rationalize the existence of one of the most common affirmative action policies: educational quotas. We model a two period economy with asymmetric information and endogenous human capital formation. Individuals may be from two different groups in the population, where each group is defined by an observable and exogenous characteristic. The distribution of skills differ across groups. We introduce educational quotas into the model by letting the planner reduce the effort cost that a student from one of the groups has to endure in order to be accepted into a university. Affirmative action policies can be interpreted as a form of ``tagging" since group characteristics are used as proxies for productivity. We find that although educational quotas are usually efficient, they need not subsidize the education of the low skill group.

Política pública e educação digital no ensino fundamental em Natal/RN: análise de eficácia da atuação dos objetivos do Proinfo Municipal

The present work turns on the public politics of digital inclusion and of the impact of the Technologies of the Information and Communication in the formation of the citizenship. For this, it was opted for doing an analysis of effectiveness of the performance of the objectives of the Proinfo (National Program of Computer Science in the Education) municipal district of Natal-RN. As instrument of collection of data, three types of questionnaires were used. The collected data were analyzed and discussed starting from it analyzes it descriptive of averages and analyze of multiple regression. The results of the research pointed that the teachers and the students use the computer science in a restricted way. On the other hand, the digital education is not still totally contemplated in the schools beneficiaries' digital rérumé by Proinfo municipal and thus, the inefficacy of the program was verified with relationship the educational training and the students' digital inclusion

O computador no ensino de lígnua inglesa no CEFET/RN

The present study has as goal to analyze the aplicability of the computational technology as mediator in the english-speaking teaching in the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica do Rio Grande do Norte-CEFET/RN. The object of study was centered in the use of the computer incorporated in the teaching of English by four institution groups. The research was ruled metodologically in the study of case, adopting a qualitative and quantitative boarding of interpretative-reflexive mark. We support ourselves on a bibliographical literature revision that cares of the use of the computational technology matter into the class-room, aiming an education new practice, regarding the current reality conceptions in what we live in the technological education. We also use a referencial for a pedagogical action, trying to offer subsidies for a practice that provides the knowledges generation through the interaction, aiming a subject reflexive and critical education. For materialization of this study, we used esrutuctured action, as interviews for the teachers and students, besides the observations of the dayly in class-room, in order to get the necessary datas for analysis. During this study, we oserved that the use of the computer, while pedagogical support instrument in the english-speaking teaching, has acted like mediator of the teaching-learning process. The results demonstrate use of the computer use has been each more a practice adopted by other institution languages teachers. The conclusions confirm the hypothesis showed at the beginning of the work and evidence that the teachers are warden of forming thinking, reflexive and critical subjects. For that, they need to be prepared to face situations in which they can take the pedagogical practice to tune with the technological advances, consequently providing an effective technological education