The historical process of the institutionalisation of childhood is in a period of intensification, as children enter institutions at ever earlier ages and remain in them for longer periods. This intensification presents great opportunities but also involves many risks since everything is dangerous. A particular set of risks are produced from the…

Group interviews and observations of 477 British secondary students in a personal development planning (PDP) project were analyzed. Both male and female students were highly motivated toward career success, but males had greater confidence in their self-knowledge. The quality of the PDP process was highly influenced by the skills of tutors who…

A national survey of General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQ) implementation in 465 British post-16 institutions (response rate 67.9%) found some evidence that GNVQs fill gaps in provision; many complaints about jargon and an unwieldy system were noted; and the overreliance on behaviorist features of competency-based education was seen as…

Examines theoretical frameworks underlying research on teacher beliefs and practices and provides a synthesis of recent research. Discusses methodological issues related to policy capturing, repertory grid technique, and process tracing. Outlines directions for future research. (Author/JOW)

Develops eight metaphors to represent the invariant features of education. Four liken it to the planning, preparation, consumption, and digestion of mental meals; the other four relate to the improved vision gained by the learner. (JOW)

Metaphorical images of students, teachers, principals, and schools were gathered from 409 students and 254 educators and administrators. The patterns that emerged underscored a simultaneous view of the open educational character of schooling and its imprisoning effect. A significant discrepancy was found between students' perceptions of…

A survey of 803 14-year-old students in England regarding knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome determined that knowledge of transmission routes was high. Most did not want those infected to be banned from school; but they wanted to know who was infected. (JOW)

Describes the mission, structure, information dissemination, and research program of the 50-year-old National Foundation for Educational Research. Summarizes work in testing, program evaluation, and integration of students with special needs. (SK)

Reviews four groups of research: (1) effects of pictures on children's reading comprehension; (2) effects of pictures on comprehension and accuracy; (3) effects of titles on comprehension; and (4) effects of titles and pictures on comprehension and accuracy. Important findings are that pictures and titles are not uniformly effective in all…

Interviews with 18 headteachers and 27 teachers and 4 school case studies in Northern Ireland found that teachers' role as managers and facilitators has increased, creating greater need for teacher aides. It is largely the teachers' responsibility to foster assistants' skills. In most schools, auxiliary support was concentrated on the youngest…

Delineates five orientations to reflective practice: immediate, technical, deliberative, dialectic, and transpersonal, each reflecting different social science bases and beliefs and values about education. Views them as interactive, interdependent, noncompeting, aspects of reflective practice. (SK)

All five female headteachers in secondary schools in an English county had experienced both overt discrimination and more subtle sexism. They avoided gender-stereotyped roles at work, did not have major domestic responsibilities, and had not taken extended career breaks for children. As children, they knew their parents had high educational…

In a science class of 43 Turkish eighth-graders, an experimental group performed investigative lab activities; controls used worksheets. Although the pretest showed similar logical thinking ability, after 5 weeks of instruction the experimental group had significantly higher science achievement scores. (SK)

In 2 pilots and a main study, teachers in 17 British primary schools evaluated children's products from structured and unstructured activities in visual arts, music, and creative writing. There was a high level of correlation between teachers' ratings of work across all scales and between different scales in each art form. Products of unstructured…

Responses from 276 of 690 white secondary teachers in South Africa showed that 59% supported integrated schools. The most negative attitudes were held by Afrikaans speakers (75%) rather than English speakers (31%). The majority anticipated problems in implementing integration in public schools. (SK)