Culture, Politics, and Education - Science topic

though difficult to be carried out, yet still, i go with yes.

Good Answer E. Alana James

The simpliest instruments that might lead to the understanding of cultural identity are connected with methods that are numerous and specific. The most popular are interviewing and comparison.

I think, hard-working solidarity and unity supported by technology-based inquiry eradicate poverty. Moreover, the world great thinkers shift from Negativism world to positivism to get new insight.

The challenge of a teacher is to motivate the students. For effective erudition in the lecture hall a tutor has to sort an informative allocution. The student should partake and retain the information. The instructor should have thought-provoking acquaintance about the topic. The learning should be made enjoyable and edifying. In order to make the students use their full potential, a teacher should make the learning fun and it needs to be inspiring for the students. The lecture hall should be a friendly and respected place. The teachers should be more acceptable and approve the passion among the students. There need to be a greater involvement of students which should result in more responsibility. Students should be made to work in groups and participate in the classroom. Ingenious teaching stratagems encompass open ended questions and classroom discussions. Students should be allowed to think disparagingly about the topic and allowed to come up with pioneering ideas. They should think authoritatively and contribute trendily. There need to be ways such that the students become more inquisitive and the mind-sets need to be more avant-garde. There should be an element of ingenuity which would make the sessions attention-grabbing and intermingling. The creativity and perfect curriculum will help the students to be innovative and they will learn new things. The upgrading in emotional and social skills can be attained if the students are good communicators. The important thing for student is to acquire education and apply it into their lives. A good sense of emotional development can be attained by acquiring creative expressions. The students should believe in their own creativity such that they will be inspired. They should be able to express the ideas, fearlessly. They need to take part in classroom discussions, debates and field trips. They should be given a chance to have freedom of expression. This will give them a sense of satisfaction. They should continuously contribute to the learning sessions. They can build up a good confidence level when they are allowed to show their true emotions in a creative manner. Teachers need to promote creative team building activities, debates and brain storming sessions. Students need to work in stress-free environment. The anxiety levels need to be reduced. There need to be flexibility in all the matters to create a good classroom environment. The brain storming and leading skills can stimulate the problem solving. They need to be encouraging to think out of box and more imaginatively and innovatively. The conformist ways of teachings should be circumvented such that the attentiveness of students is kept intact which should encompass regular breaks. In order to have an efficacious life the students need to outclass in their academics. The students should be allowed to follow drawing, music, poetry and other forms of art. This will improve their ingenious talents and augment the academic wisdom. Students should be able to apply their knowledge in real life situations. It is the need of the hour that the students should be able to manage the requirements of the latest workplace.

I cannot see how the temporal lords with lord over people with justice and integrity over the long haul.

Dear Tanja, I think that we live in a very contradictory world today, also with respect to scientific literature.

Ruby Payne's work on the hidden language of culture has been my go-to resource for working in low socio-economic classrooms as well as among deviant subcultures.

A main point I recall is to understand the "unspoken" unrules by which your audience lives their lives. Let them know the rules of the classroom YOU are managing and that you are not insisting they live by different rules but how they can be successful in your class by following YOUR rules.

For example, you could say that "their" rules for surviving in "their" world could be compared to playing football, but YOUR class rules are like playing basketball. So you are not imposing YOUR rules on their lives but simply letting them know the rules of YOUR class so they can be successful.

Many resources available here: https://www.google.com/search?q=ruby+payne+hidden+rules+of+poverty&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS674US674&oq=ruby+payne+hidden+rules&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l4.19977j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Interesting viewpoint James. And one that I can accept the possible truth in. It seems to me that neither unions and professional organisations are well placed to solve the problem of loss of autonomy (and the possible loss in education quality). Unions did not necessarily have enough of a stake in educational quality and outcomes, just focussing on teacher conditions, while professional organisations, while focussing on (research based) education quality, do not take enough of a political role. Maybe the roles of unions and professional organisations need to be amalgamated.

Hello, Jolanta.

You may be interested in this artícle: 

Sincerely

Georgios Varouxakis'Liberty Abroad: JS Mill on International Relations has a chapter on Mill's view of empire.

Three alternative indices to the EIU's come to mind: Polity IV, the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI), and v-dem. 

Tom, Jelena Milic wants to know the examples in the world of the "successful post-socialist transition to adulthood. Your examples are correct. But if she wants to see beyond. My point is ... She needs to know the difference between capitalism and socialism. It is very important to define socialism, communism, Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, populism, fascism, national socialism as nuances in the same spectrum. All of them involves slavery, poverty and misery

Capitalism means freedom, welfare and prosperity

Democracy is a neutral element, full of different values at all times

Those who take the path of capitalism lead and reach more successfully transition to adulthood

As anti example of transition to adulthood is Hispanic / lusitana America. The twentieth century have pushed towards socialism. Today we suffer

Very interesting, especially issues related to women and science.

In India children start learning math by counting the four division lines in each finger. Thus they become able to count upto 20  in one hand. But in many countries children learn to count only 5 in one hand. Thus Indian children start to learn math faster. 

Paul, yes, there is no question that life expectancy increases with income.  As you noted, there appear to be multiple factors involved, and the poor lifestyle choices you listed are major contributing factors.  Because education level is correlated with income and lifestyle, I suppose it is another factor.  I've read that in California, the average education level of illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America is 3rd grade, and reports indicate that as a group they are among the most unhealthy.  Thus, it appears that access to health care is only one factor in creating a healthy society.  

I would argue that politicians bear great responsibility in such an endeavor.  In my lifetime, however, I have not observed many US politicians dedicated to doing so.

James

Dear Jeroen,

According to me, it is a "sentence" that is directly from "theories of german fascism (about the collective book "Wars and warriors" edited by Ernst Jünger). I do not know the original article and edition of this article but I already read the french translation " Théories du fascisme allemand (à propos du collectif Guerre et Guerriers édité par Ernst Jünger)" article from Walter Benjamin, published in1991 into the review " Lignes" n°13 (1991/1). I send you the french translation into a file below, with all the references.

Hope it can be useful,

Christophe Gibout

By: S.W.R. de A. Samarasinghe

Hi Paul,

These are interesting questions that seem to indicate with a fair degree of precision the limitations of a liberal political imaginary that holds sway over teacher education and educational theory. I think that citizenship or civic education can proceed without referencing, or even privileging, elections or a strictly electoral conceptualization of politics. If anything, I would say it's crucial for critical approaches. That's not to say, like you mention, that elections are not an integral issue in contemporary political problems. Obviously the current status of the U.S. presidential election make this clear. But what is more intriguing, I think, is challenging the centrality of the electoral imaginary in mainstream liberal democratic thought. The relationship between elections and citizenship education should, at least in many contexts, bring up quite quickly how liberalism tends to hinge on binaries of inclusion and exclusion, and thus forefronts politics of recognition or fulfillment rather than more transfigurative or revolutionary modes of politics.

A question that your own sparks for me is: what might political education or even a problematized democratic education look like outside of the normative liberal scope of citizenship education. I'm sure that citizenship education, in some corners (perhaps your own), has troubled the hegemony of citizenship and nation-state power as legitimate modes of sovereign power and belonging, but still, I wonder to what degree those problematic notions linger in secondary or even teacher education just by dint of the name. Perhaps citizenship education is overdetermined by a somewhat narrow vision of what politics and democracy actually consist of.

These may not be particularly useful insights, and I admit I'm not especially up-to-date on these fields of study (citizenship/civic ed, social studies ed, etc.), but as they pertain to or are influenced by broader issues in educational theory, I'm excited by the idea of challenging, perhaps even rupturing, the liberal imaginary's stronghold on these very debates. What might happen to citizenship education if it departed initially from a direct problematization of the question and meaning of politics itself? It seems as if your decade of study suggests teacher education students might be receptive to this rupture; perhaps some might even yearn for it. As a teacher education student myself not quite a decade ago, I would have been.

So, in that roundabout way, I'm suggesting that, at least from my perspective, the exciting potential for a citizenship education unfettered by the bonds of a liberal electoral imaginary is the indeterminacy of the questions of politics and political life themselves. These are such open-ended questions that can lead into a vast wealth of intellectual, political, and epistemological traditions. While, in the U.S. at least, such inquiry is constrained by high-stakes accountability and impoverished politics of knowledge and curriculum, the possibility remains. Perhaps the next question then would be how to rupture the norms of citizenship education and inquiry so that students can more easily pursue those many paths.

I hope these thoughts are useful, and I would be happy to chat more on the topic. Be well.

Best,

Graham Slater

Keeping students Indianised is the biggest problem we are facing in higher education. But the fault starts from the top from policy makers to executors and teachers. we have enough universities, colleges, teachers, unemployed youth but don,t have minds who love India and think for the welfare of this nation and fellow-beings. Present system of education is more oriented towards material, package, competition, existing at all cost thus resulting in erosion of basic human values, which we are finding extremely difficult to hold on.

The three elements  of personality are :

Id i functions on ‘Pleasure principle’ and demands immediate fulfillment of needs and wants.  Ego functions on ‘Reality principle’. It deals with reality. It ensures the impulses of Id are expressed in a manner which is acceptable in the real world. The ego weighs costs and benefits before deciding on an action. Superego is the moral part of personality. It’s a product of Socialisation. It holds all the internalized moral standards and ideals acquired from parents and society. Superego is the sense of right and wrong. It provides guidelines for judgements.

regards

Rathish

Hi,  

2 sources that may be useful in your research: 

The UN Women Training Centre has a Resource Centre containing  tools and materials related to Training for Gender Equality. You need to register first to access their training resources.   

The Australian Federal Police have a Pacific Police Development Program (PPDP) which supports the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Women’s Advisory Network. Through the Timor-Leste Police Development Program, the AFP undertakes Gender-Based Violence Investigations Training and has produced a manual for use in training the PoliciaNacional de Timor-Leste in gender-based violence issues.

I will give it a try. In the so-called "German speaking countries" there exist Chambers of

Handycraft and Chambers of Commerce which have the responsibility for the Exams

after a period of training in school and at worksite. This also applies to some

universities.

Dear Nathan Kerrigan, Harshvarhan Singh and Angel Martinez thank you very much for sharing your research material on diaspora and hybridity I did not know those topics are so very interesting. From your literature I can now prepare my research proposal. I do hope we will discuss in the near future those research topics. Regrads

The graph you reference (the link btw is faulty) shows a reduction in percentage of students valuing school. I think this will require different reasoning from the concomittant loss in enthusiasm within each student over time, and i would like to attempt to address both issues if i may.

My start points are:

Issue 1, the drop in numbers of students remaining engaged.

The reasons for this are multiple as Laura suggests. I would add that it is an additive effect, the slow, inexorable collection of negative influences within the school environment. Only those students who have high quality motivation can maintain it in the face of the collection of negatives over time.

Issue 2, the progressive loss in engagement/motivation within individuals or groups. The reason i distinguish this is because there are interesting patterns in groups, eg in Australia, the loss in motivation is greatest amongst indigenous and low SES students. My experience, not just general observations as an educator, but also from an action research project i undertook over 5 years where i changed some of the parameters within which the school worked, leads me to focus in particular on schooling parameters that speak to motivational pillars.

A key issue is readings of the meaning of success. Currently, students who, for various reasons, begin school behind the 8 ball socially or educationally are most likely to define themselves as unsuccessful at school from an early age, and soonest lose enthusiasm. So, when i had the opportunity in the A.R., i redefined the meaning of success by altering assessment, reporting processes and teacher language around success. Over the 5 years, i noted greater motivation in class, especially, but not only, amongst the lower achievers. In a nutshell, the definition of success was reframed from 'passing' against criteria, to 'progressing' with effort, a kind of personal best approach. There is much more to say, but hopefully this is enough to get the ideas across.

To your question: while there are multiple reasons for loss in  enthusiasm, the one that is most interesting is self efficacy in schooling. Schooling, that collection of contexts, processes, procedures, relationships and language constructs is not designed well to maintain engagement/motivation because it negatively impacts on self efficacy, mindset, resilience etc. My hypothesis, on the basis of the action research, is that redesigning the processes, procedures, language used in school to positively impact on the student psychology/sociology would see a significant gain in erngagement. Unfortunately, what i think would work is unattractive politically, and hence unlikely to gain traction. That being said, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) is currently looking to change at least some of the parameters, I am describing.

Hello, please take a look on my publications.

Kind regards

NP

It seems to me that there are several variables - the quality and accuracy of the books, the ages and sensitivities of the children, the presence or absence of input from parents, the quality and sensitivity and training of teachers. Schools should never be places of indoctrination, no matter what the agenda. Facts need to be distinguished from opinions. Banning never accomplishes anything but pros and cons may need careful discussion, depending on children's maturity and perhaps also on the composition of the class.

I hope it's still of interest to you all if I contribute late to this conversation: your remarks are very interesting and the whole question really important at the moment. I came across them as I've been reading Thorstein Veblen (right now,The Vested Interests), in whom the tension between the humanities and the technical faculties you all refer to can be felt in strange ways (he can be taken as advocating that the engineers would do better for humanity, overall, than the financiers and real estate speculators; one "human instinct" he described was "idle curiosity", which I think could be a correlative of Paul's/Schiller's seeking of "knowledge for its own sake"; he also favoured synthesis over analysis ). I observe a similar tension between MIll/Churchill, as cited by Ivo, and Schiller (especially as cited by Paul) in that both Mill and Churchill are clearly utilitarian in outlook, while Schiller clearly is not. I suppose the tension here is something like the one Karl is looking into around the Bologna Process.

But maybe it's just a paradox, which to get right to Karl's question, might be resolved by identifying both Mill/Churchill and Schiller with Joseph Priestley, who died just one year earlier than Schiller (and who was a very clear influence on Mill, Bentham & Co.). Now, whether or not there was a "debate" between the bread-eaters and the lotus-eaters in England at the time, I'm not sure, but Priestley was forced to flee England because of his commitment to intellectual and religious freedom. He was a scientists' and engineers' scientist, having discovered oxygen and invented soda water, and a significant scholar and educator. Again, I think there's a tension, in our context here, in titles like Essay on a Course of Liberal Education for Civil and Active Life (1765): Priestley was very much an advocate of what would be called vocational education today, but I'm sure he would agree with JS Mill and Churchill, and Ivo. (I can also identify Veblen with Priestley, in many ways, although the former was an atheist and the latter a theologian and minister; Priestley was a great grammarian and teacher, while Veblen's prose is torturous and his teaching considered "dreadful" and boring.) But how to identify Priestley with Schiller?

If Schiller was border-line German Romantic, ST Coleridge was definitely not, in England, and Coleridge was a great admirer of both Schiller (having translated some of his work into English) and Priestley (whom he wrote into his poetry, and whose exile he lamented as a major loss for England of spiritual and intellectual leadership). And if Priestley might have seen education as about how people might win their bread (whilst also being a critical intellectual), Coleridge was certainly a lotus-eater (or laudanum drinker), and a "provincial radical", like Priestley, for whom religious dissent was as much intellectual as anything else.

A book to complement the one referred to by Ivo (for the contemporary US) could be: http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/academic-freedom-in-the-post-9/11-era-edward-j-carvalho/?sf1=barcode&st1=9780230313491; another, which you've no doubt got already, covering the period in which Schiller was active: The Romantic Idea of a University: England and Germany, 1770-1850: http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/view/10.1057/9780230510739

Thanks all for the interesting posts . . . Michael

First, a caveat:  My perception probably cannot be generalized.  

When I began university teaching in 1980, assessment was governed primarily by the needs of accrediting bodies.  Departments reviewed their learning outcomes and then produced written statements regarding how those learning outcomes were realized through teaching and in-class assessment.  The result was a document that passed as institutional assessment.

Although the requirements of the accrediting bodies continue to have some influence on assessment, more salient is, arguably, ideology.  My colleagues who came up during the height of postmodern orientations, for example, tend to be dismissive of validity and reliability in assessment as being without meaning.  The neo-marxists urge resistance to all forms of assessment on political grounds.  And so on.  One consequence is that reaching any agreement regarding institutional assessment has become extremely difficult.  And a consequence of this difficulty is that, increasingly, administrators are finding reasons to remove faculty from the assessment process, adopting a more-or-less exclusively top-down approach while the various faculties are so immersed in bickering that they fail to notice.

Dear Jill

Another useful addition to the list. Many thanks for this information.

Hywel

Neela:

Your question certainly has been answered by research done in other countries, so I think it will be the same for India as shown in ResearchGate:

I extend best wishes for every success with your research.

Debra

Jacqueline:

Well, I guess it is possible but it would education and a good marketing program that requires a marketing budget. That aside, here's a link to similar research in ResearchGate:

All the best with your research!

Debra

Learning a language implies learning the culture which this language portrays  or reflects.  So, cultural issues should be presented at all level of studying a language: morphological, semántics, pragmatics. Particularly, in forein language learning it is important to focus on what you call “serious culture topics”. But  much more important is to engañe the students in popular topics, those which are more closely related to the issues and worried we experience as part of everyday life: food, family, clothes, love, Jobs…

Hello Prabhat,

I'm not  yet submitted Ph.D. Thesis. So call me just Prashant.

You are write about new apex body, but even after self evaluating systems, there is need of the human to take decision at right time to make the change effective. So human role in any automated systems can not be neglected.

I suggest that differences in attitudes towards time do not "take root" but rather may reflect cultural differences, orientations, and preferences.  Explore Hall's research (1992, 2000) on monochronic and polychronic orientations towards time for better understanding. 

I don't know of studies, but I can tell you that the U.S. Current Population Survey voting supplement would allow you to look at teachers (by occupation) and their voting participation (but not who they voted for).

-Kurt

The art of teaching is affected by "technology changes'' and "tailor made" teaching methods, where teacher is not free to use its own methods.

When there are no formal programmes as Carlo, mentioned   in schools to deal with violence this is likely to  prevent meaningful feedback to the students who need such a feedback the most. Teachers who are consistently affected by violence tend to stop taking on the children's issues and become withdrawn. In  doing this  the well needed  Culture of Care that could effectively take students from a violent and delinquent sub culture into one of peacefulness and calmness becomes missing.

It is likely that in the long run these students will become more vicious since in the first place their violent behaviour had emerged from the  lack of attention in most cases and this lack has developed with  most of their   teachers paying them limited  attention.

Hi there,

To me they would more clearly on the LEFT. 

Cheers,

Dan

You should get David Hursh's book: HIgh Stakes Testing for background info.

The Philippines and other countries in southeast Asian region had established ASEAN not just for mutual defense (previously, it was named the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization, akin to NATO) but for stronger cooperation in the political, economic and socio-cultural spheres.  By next year, it can be expected that a lot of those provisions for cooperation will be in place.

One of the basic tenet of ASEAN Integration 2015 is on higher education.  Majority of the population of member-countries are not so aware of the direct impact of integration to their lifestyle.  However, academicians are so concerned considering that those who came from so-called "low-quality" schools will be competing with those who graduated from high-profile universities.  The manner of raising the bar of quality education is not so easy considering the fact that a lot of these countries are still in the middle stage of development.  Thus, there are issues which are of grave importance that has to be addressed first before we can say that these countries are ready for integration.

I mentioned that in my paper "Educational Choices of Muslim Students in the United States" (attached). Also attached is the link to the related court decison.

HERMAN, Edward et al (1989). Hope and Folly. The United States and UNESCO, 1945-1985. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Dear Mark

Education plans made by technicians in offices , even skilled, never worked out. This perverse situation will be reversed only if the society prioritize education and for this there must be an appreciation of social mobilization to school and learn. The equity will be achieved only by the union of educators and community discussing and developing an appropriate educational policy needs of each region. For this to occur a politicization of the teacher is necessary

Universities' 3-folds functions are instruction, research and extension. The pillars of our university are scholarship, leadership, character and service. These, I believe, are enough proof that our higher education goes beyond economic/business needs.

I like the viewpoint by Field, A. E., Camargo, C. A., & Ogino, S. (2013). The Merits of Subtyping Obesity: One Size Does Not Fit All. JAMA, 310(20), 2147-2148. In this viewpoint, the authors argue that "One reason for the lack of stronger associations with risk factors or more consistently successful treatment is that all types of overweight and obesity are often grouped together. This approach potentially obscures strong associations between risk factors and specific subtypes of obesity."

Dear All,

A good politician or a good political intention or trend can help to increase enormously the efficiency of education. Bad or ignorant politicians can easily destroy the work of many educators during decades.

James and Marc, interesting discussion. I would like to add only one point. People or students are graded individually; learning, however, takes place collectively in social contexts. This insight, not new at all, however, is mostly forgotten in our grading systems - as practices of grading all over the world illustrate. But if one takes the insight seriously it becomes obvious that grading is the medium and result of grading practices on different interlaced levels, the level of interaction in class, the school level, the level of school district or the organizational field of learning and so on up to the level of the dominant culture. The social meaning of grading is constituted via these socially interrelated practices. Scripts of what teachers, students etc. do (or have to do) and what are appropriate ways of actions are for example the medium and result of these practices, practices of grading included. Thus, the social meaning of grading is socially constituted. And the meaning of grading include social understandings of how people should be selected, included or excluded, and positioned in relation to their future chances in life (or working life) in and through grading practices. The socially constituted understandings of grading, thus as Foucault would have pointed out, produce our way of dealing with grading. The interplay of different levels of grading practices can, I think, by the way quite nicely be seen if one looks at the example of Summerhill, the example you mentioned in your discussion. Grading in the famous Summerhill experiemnt can be done quite differently than in the normal school system. However, as one could say with reference to Durkheim: Obviously you can act otherwise as socially expected but you wil have to face the consequences. However I should quickly add, grading systems and grading practices are not simply given. They are produced and reproduced by more or less powerful agents, students, teachers, unions, politicians and so on in and through their socially embedded grading practices in time-space. Grading systems and grading practices are, thereby, prolonged or even sometimes changed - nowadays mostly with the involvement of organizations who coordinate activities togethe with others in networks.

Defusing confrontation, empathy, non-violent responses - verbal, body language etc, good will, guts, salespersonship to maintain a focus on learning.

I looked up examples of lesson studies and it seems to constitute what I would describe as a good 'normal' lesson in Australia, in that the focus is on concept development and personal development. I say good normal lesson because it doesn't happen as it should all the time. There are some benefits to the study lesson explicit design process. Teachers have to focus on concepts. Teachers have to focus on personal development. Teachers have to collaborate. Teachers have to reflect on a lesson. Teachers have to support each other. Teachers have to consider student personal differences. It appears to me that this would be used as an adjunct to a more didactic 'normal' lesson style.

Hi Eliana,

I am not so sure defining a 'List of Cultures' for you can be meaningful outside of the context I used it. However in keeping with the context at the end of the Slavery era the literature tells us that Jamaica became a 'Classist Society' and the country became structured along Colour Lines. The Whites and Near Whites occupied positions of power and had wealth and were considered to be the 'Haves'. Edward Seaga former Prime Minister of Jamaica and now Chancellor of the University of Technology has explored this issue thoroughly. Below the Whites and Near Whites came the High Browns, Medium Browns, Light Browns and Dark Browns. It must be remembered that bleaching is essential to helping some of the population take their place in the colour-class structured society.

The range of Brown people were able to maintain their status position through education. Poor uneducated Blacks, usually seen as the 'Have-Nots' according to Omeally-Nelson, could move up in the Class System by excelling academically.

Money in conjunction with skin colour was and still is the defining features of progress in Jamaica.

The hierarchy of Skin Colour Cultures that I have indicated ranged then and and still does now from Whites, Near Whites, referred to as 'High Browns', followed by all shades of Brown and 'Blacks' who are poor and uneducated and found themselves at the bottom of the Colour hierarchy then and now .

Education should be problem based for the society. It is the responsibility of the government to provide. Private institutions can not provide a better higher education, as the policy is created by a local body with limited resources.we are at cross roads now. Unless a national policy is made you will reap the consequence in another 10 years.

According to census data, the Asian population of Watts in 2008 was .2%, which means that there were 8 residents of Asian decent living in Watts (total population was 41,028). How many of these 8 classified themselves as Japanese-Americans? Impossible to tell, but given my familiarity with Southern California, I would be very surprised if even one was Japanese-American.

The value of Lareau's study is that she and her team focused on household income, not ethnicity. Some African-American subjects were well off, others were poor; some white subjects were well off, others were poor. The children's academic success or failure was related to income, not ethnicity.

Parenting style also was related to SES, not ethnicity. Thus, I would suggest that the struggles that African-American and Hispanic students face in school are related to the fact that these groups are disproportionately, compared to whites and Asians, at the low end of the socioeconomic scale. Moreover, parenting style is not related to "quality" but rather to "type." Parents who practice authoritarian parenting are not neglectful or "bad," but they may not provide their children with the linguistic and negotiation skills that are an advantage in navigating the education system.

As for Germany, where I taught in during the 1980s and again about 4-5 years ago. I think that the benefits of PISA findings included the fact that many Germans and their educational institutions had done well through the 1970s and 1980s well in the great variety of educational models in practice in that country. (There were at least 5 major different models of high schools functioning at the same time across the land in the public school secondaries.) However, by the 1980s and 1990s, a great percentage of Germany's were not coming out of the public schools and training with a greater variety of skills as is required in fast changing European labor and educational markets today. There was also a clear class and ethnic bias in the system--i.e. minorities and foreign born peoples were being hurt more and more by the status quo.

Then along came PISA.

After poor results on PISA circa 2000 in Germany, that country began to try to provide access to a more important variety of models for serving the greater majority of students than ever before. This led over the recent decades to greater variation in teaching, learning and educational models at all levels--not just at the secondary but at the primary and tertiary levels, too.

Sadly, like in India and elsewhere, the governments of Germany have often relied in that land too much on the private sector to weed through the humongous PISA data and to show the way for the country. This has led to a great injustice upon leaving high school for many German students --whose parents never new the debt of higher education that this generation is now paying for across the land. Education is getting more costly--practicums are often still hardly paid for--training and access to good training and helpful advice and directions for students is still lacking.

In short, data is data and what one does with it is one thing. How to collect more helpful data is even more important for the future. However, never rely on one instrument for your policy or for making major decisions--PISA by itself was never enough to assist in educational reform.

Creating value and differentiation is the key for 21st century learners

Collaborative – Working on different projects in different groups understanding the strength and weakness of others and self as individuals

Societal Integration – helping students to take part in social communities not just in the neighbourhood but globally

Student centered – A one-size-fits-all model driven by text books doesn’t work, it has to focus on individual's needs

Contextual - Content enabled by technology that meets variety of topics and learning styles

Hi Guys

Let me tell you about the assessment regime I developed teaching mathematics to the first year engineering undergraduates at a University of widening participation. At the end I'll tel you why I thought it was successful.

1. During lecture I practiced Socratic dialogue, so students had a quick informal feedback on their progress every week

2. The students were asked to use logbooks where they put in their tutorial work homework and revision notes.

3. At the end of the 1st Semester they had a written test and were asked to submit their logbooks.

4. In the beginning of 2nd Semester, during 1 week tutorial the solution to test problems was discussed and test papers were returned to students. They were also given a list of common mistakes.

5. They were asked to do a "postmortem" on their test paper, putting against each of their written answers the numbers of common mistakes they made.

6. I then assessed their postmortems and logbooks (just looking at the quantity of tutorial, home and revision work and quality of logbook itself).

7. Judging by the quality of "postmortem" the test mark could be increased by maximum 20 % . The logbook mark could be maximum 10 % of the maximum total mark.

8. If the final total mark less than 30 % students were invited in to construct a "plan for success". Students were explained that the mark should be treated only as a start of the conversation. Looking at all three documents (logbook, test paper, "postmortem") the student approach to learning was discussed. Other specific pep talk was given, depending on circumstances.

The exam results in the next semester were usually much better, sometimes spectacularly so. All these measures can be described using various pedagogical theories. My point is - here is a practical system that is not so hard to implement and is not all that demanding on teacher time. It downplays the importance of marks which, in my view and the view of many other contributors is overblown.

In fact, in reference to Edwards query, I think that in likely 50% of the cases around the globe--and much more-so in many lands--most teachers-to-be enter their training with hopes of modifying and doing a better job as their peers or in some cases to attempt to match their favorite teachers in the field. In some teacher training programs, some of this idealism is weeded out but in other cases, some teacher training programs add a great new spin on the fallow ground that promotes change and reform.

It is in when one is placed in the old shoe (1) of schools, (2) in school systems, and (3) in school or college cultures where the teacher becomes a victim or in some cases a victimizer or perpetrator in a system of education. The forces for this redirection in a larger system involve financial, social, cultural, and other pressures which spin the dreams of the novice in all undesired and in many cases system destructive directions. Institutions thrive but individuals--teacher, administrators, and students founder.

In the example, I noted (above) concerning the need for more experiential learning, I would include the essential requirement that administrators and leaders in the field get back to the floor regularly (and are required to do so--with a thoughtful reflective essay required of each one). It is the failure of institutional leaders to get into the shoes of the teachers and the students, that leads to institutional nausea rather than positive institutional development over time.

My experimential learning credit at the college level--which has empowered me to teach and work in over ten countries--included the following type of experiential coursework (By the way, I studied in a small liberal arts college in Kansas, USA) :

(1) Urban economics at the Urban Life Center in Chicago--one month

(2) International development in Nicaragua and Honduras --one month

(3) Rural Farm family and rural experience in France/Germany--one year

(4) Internship at KWCH TV in Wichita, Kansas-- one month

In addition, I took several language courses and did homestays in Spain and Mexico.

In every case, I had to keep a journal and write/submit a reflective paper at the end of my experiential learning.

Such methodology is neither new nor old--however--in a world that too often expects wind-up teachers to act in a certain way or in a world that has traditionally hoped that students learn in a certain manner, getting out of one's typically foot-wear and becoming the other is invigorating to every participant in the system.

Get the educators and administrators back to the floors of learning. Get the students out of the classroom and give them new tools and eyes to face the world.

Service learning and other forms of experiential learning need to fuel and refresh the educational delivery and process for all.

Prakash, I have been waiting for more responses so have delayed in asking this question, sorry!

Can you direct me to any of the references you say exist so I can examine them please?

Hi

I think in Spain, in fact, the consensus is the confusion. The problem of the "historical memory" in Spain is that it responds a political and ideological project, and consequently the focus is which political parties or electoralist interests designate in each mometn, in a continuous change due to the political circumstamces.

It´s a bad time for historians here.

(Excuse me for my bad English)

The United States is about as diverse culturally as any country can be. I am not convinced that diversity increases discrimination, although it appears that the jury is still out on this point. Some research indicates it does, whereas other research suggests that it does not.

With regard to the issue of performance, diversity creates problems when cultural diversity involves linguistic diversity. My international students, for example, struggle with reading and writing assignments because they come to study in the States having low proficiency levels in English. We see a similar problem at the elementary and secondary levels, where recent immigrants generally have low proficiency in English.

In our public schools, this low proficiency can lead to dropping out, which creates a range of social issues that may affect perceptions of certain groups. These perceptions may be negative, so I suppose one might argue that there is an indirect correlation between diversity and discrimination, but I have not seen any data on this issue.

To ensure trustworthiness in qualitative research requires that you need to pay attention to coding. You need to code your responses from participants correct to identify themes and subthemes to guide your discussion of your results. In other words you need to allocate a valid code to themes. The more repeats you have for a theme the more it enhance your reliability. You must not just have one interview with your participants but go back to your other participants when new issues come up and determine how they feel about the issues. In this way you actually "test" if all participants have the same views about your themes that occur. When presented with information that you can verify with a person, do so as it enhance the "reliability" of your study. Building trust with your participants also assist in producing trustworthy results.

Dear Jacqueline -- It's interesting that you use the term 'deficit," which is primarily an economics/accounting term. Not merely you, but others such as the book Moses references above. What would a 'surplus' of education look like, whether a "developing" country or not? Why are we using such terms drawn from economics at all in dealing with education? For example, education will be as 'inefficient' (input/output ratio) as it is permitted to be, even in national educational systems. We generally strive for lower teacher/student ratios when resources permit (economically inefficient). And remember, too, that an educational 'exchange' is not subject to market rationality. When you teach something to someone, you are not giving up something in exchange -- except maybe your time (yes, an economic resource). You still retain your knowledge, after the 'exchange.' The same goes for 'marginal utility' in education -- it never decreases but always increases since there is no inflection point (nor Pareto optimality)

Educational goods and benefits (knowledge, skills, judgment, etc) are entirely different, conceptually speaking, from economic goods and benefits. We should not succumb to economistic ideas -- especially that of 'deficit.' We have to remember that education is a natural expression of learning from one generation to the next, quite apart from what is imposed by national educational systems which are everywhere the same. Only in the latter could the notion of deficit get any purchase at all -- the economist's dream.

Best wishes,

David Ericson

The characterization and determination of the goal of education is contingent with its meaning, its reception and its value. If education is understood as an all-encompassing field which is related to the process of learning and acquiring information an improved knowledge, its goal will be to develop one’s personality and behavior and critical reasoning and thinking skills. Nevertheless many people associate education acquired at school and the university with the key of the guarantee of a safeguarded financial future. Education is for social underprivileged children and young people the strategic role which helps them to overcome the social disadvantages and to be a normal active member of the society.

Therfore the main purpose of education is to overcome ignorance through formal learning in a school or university, to qualify oneself for a job through gaining in-depth knowledge of special fields, to succeed in getting life experience through self-teaching, to participate at the community life and at last to be a good person as Mr. James Williams said

@Alfarra, I can understand your feelings, one gets frustrated if nothing is working out. This is the time when the research guide, under whose supervision you are working has to play an important role of boosting the morale of the student ! If your guide is not helping you out and just watching you struggle , then there is something horribly wrong somewhere ! I suppose, in such cases, if the student requests a change of supervisor or guide, university should grant it! But then, I suppose students do not dare to take this step! Working on new, novel results or ideas is the basic aim of any research, which if not fulfilled, I am not sure if a degree like PhD be granted ?

Inequity in assessment is frequent in education. Two common instances: It occurs when teachers test students on material that has not been taught, and it occurs when the assessment instrument lacks construct validity. Probably the most frequent instance of inequity, however, is when teachers use grades for factors unrelated to education and learning.

At least some of the content proposed here:

"Foundations of Ethics"

thanks you Janice (and happy new year!) I haven't thought about this for a while, and kind of shelved it when I didn't get any responses. But your approach is interesting. I suppose that being more of a hacker who flagrantly ignores copyright contrasts with being someone in an academic faculty who might be under tangible pressure to abide by the rules.

Any code that could help slice through all downloading to give a proportion, say for a pie chart, of subjects could also be re-used to give a "proprtion of copyright-infringed-material" versus "proportion of public-domain material" which would be nice. It seems like a good idea, despite lack of comments, so maybe if I get in the mood I will dig and see if there are any existing figures for this. I am based in UK, and have friends in India and I know all too well that there are loads of people in poorer situations around the planet for whom a crucial part of their education is accessing fileshared text books etc. Hmm ethically I wanted to argue for this, being inclined to libertarianism.

I like your future minded suggestion also... as an also enraptured hacker I would hope we continue improving ways to deal with big data, so that the overload on servers and our brains is helped.

Thanks for answering! I mean management level

Hi, ive just red your question. I think educational leadership is a cultural issue. it means that leadership in any culture vary from other cultures. THIS causes that every related study to be new and exciting. I had a study on the variables that every leader considers in his work and i found how much some variables like emotions and believes and even religious issues could affect how a leader acts in his educational setting. I also found that how much the power of knowledge is important in determining the worth of a leader and his impacts on an university. I believe that every researcher who likes to study on the topic should choose qualitative methods to find his research questions. we should let leaders to talk about themselves.

bests

Maria Estela Ruiz Diaz

Sorry for the delay, I still hope will be useful, I'm not expert on the subject but from what I've read about the most important parameters to measure the performance of a school principal as a transformational leader, one must first define since the theory is to assess or measure performance, choosing from that paradigm (quantitative, qualitative or both) which are the most important: 1. To be able to encourage collegial work to develop explicit goals moderately challenging and achievable 2. Facilitate and ensure that there is a development for staff and for managers.

Where the evidence to assess this, means that managers use to create better solutions, collegial meetings, objectives, strategies, among other activities undertaken by teachers and pupils to achieve the same, if staff is transforming its accreditation and Academic Achievement.

Already exist in addition to the concept of transformational leadership, the leadership of the facilitator, persuasive, sustainable and distributed.

Now you have set the competition for leadership in the educational activity educational direction and professional settings: personality of the manager to understand, express and regulate appropriately emotional phenomena that allow him to influence the educational community, to lead with enthusiasm and determination in achieving goals set by the collaboration and participation of all team members in the development of professional learning activity management. Retrieved Article Main indicators for assessing the competence of leadership ... Esther Miriam Martinez and Jose Ramos Dorta Bañobre in the Journal of Education and Society

As to measure the characteristics of management, the academic community (professors, administrators and students) and community where the population is immersed, as well as parents have to look if there are previously validated instruments to measure this

I suggest you look online magazine http://www.educacionysociedad.org/

i am giving you email id of my profesor sajid basheer, he is very good in this field. you will off course get benifit from him,

his id is profsajid@hotmail.com