Who benefits from public spending on higher education in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa?     

Sonia Ilie 《Compare》2018,48(4):630-647

Most countries are far from achieving the new sustainable development target of equal access to higher education by 2030, with those in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa furthest behind. This raises questions about the allocation of public resources across the education system to promote equity. We use data from Demographic and Health Surveys and UNESCO Institute for Statistics in 31 countries in these regions to assess who benefits from public spending on education. Our results reveal an overall pattern of pro-rich education spending, increasing with education level. We find that this pattern can be traced to an allocation of resources to higher education that is disproportionate to the sub-sector’s size: even when higher education spending overall represents a small proportion of total educational expenditure, per-capita expenditure is extremely high. Given that the richest predominantly gain access to higher education, the current spending patterns are likely to reinforce wealth-driven education inequalities.  相似文献   

Understanding productivity dynamics: A task taxonomy approach     

Tiago Fonseca  Francisco Lima  Sonia C. Pereira 《Research Policy》2018,47(1):289-304

As job markets have been polarizing, firms have been changing their labor inputs. By using matched employer–employee data for Portugal, we examine whether labor market polarization has occurred within or across firms and how labor input upgrades have contributed to overall productivity growth. We develop a firm taxonomy based on worker's occupational data. Firms can be focused on one task – Abstract, Manual or Routine – on a combination of tasks, or none. Results show that Abstract firms are the most productive and their share has increased over time. Manual firms, the least productive, have had a stable share throughout the period. Routine firms have seen their share decline over time. The dynamic decomposition of the estimated productivity reveals that productivity growth is propelled by increased market shares of the most productive incumbents and exiting of the least productive, especially for Abstract firms. Notwithstanding these productivity growth drivers, they fail to avert the productivity stagnation observed in Portugal between 2004 and 2009 due to the overall decline in productivity of incumbent firms, especially Routine. We discuss the policy implications of our results which are relevant to other European economies also lagging behind in terms of knowledge and innovation capabilities.  相似文献   

The color of innovative and sustainable leadership: Learning from teacher leaders     

Sonia Nieto 《Journal of Educational Change》2007,8(4):299-309

In this article, I address how teachers in urban and suburban U.S. schools with multicultural and multilingual student populations demonstrate leadership both within their classrooms and schools as well as outside of them. Based on research with U.S. public school teachers in two projects (Nieto What keeps teachers going? New York: Teachers College Press 2003, Why we teach. New York: Teachers College Press 2005), various roles that teachers have in initiating, putting into practice, and sustaining change in schools are described. Implications for policymakers and administrators are then briefly explored.  相似文献   

The influence of the family educational scenario on internet use of primary and secondary school children / La influencia del escenario educativo familiar en el uso de internet en los niños de primaria y secundaria     

Sonia Padilla  Elisa Rodríguez  Míriam Álvarez  Alezandra Torres  Arminda Suárez  María-José Rodrigo 《Infancia y Aprendizaje》2015,38(2):402-434

Abstract

With the aim of studying the impact of the internet in the home, this paper analyses how the physical component (where and with whom) and attitudinal component (who decides what the child is to see on the internet and motivations for internet use) of the family educational scenario influence the frequency of internet use and diversity of uses, as reported by parents. The participants included 711 parents of children in primary and secondary school. Results showed that being in secondary school, using the internet in privacy at home, without company, internet content under the child’s control, and parental motivations based on the internet being used as a means for the child to relax, predicted higher frequency of internet use. Some of these factors, as well as the presence of peers and new parental attitudes related to the use of the internet for social and learning purposes, predicted a greater variety of uses, suggesting a more appropriate family scenario. The practical implications for parental education on this matter are described.  相似文献   

What can ‘social practice’ theory and ‘socio-cultural’ theory contribute to our understanding of the processes of module design?     

Carole Binns 《Journal of Further & Higher Education》2015,39(5):758-775

This article discusses the data obtained from an online survey of academic staff who are involved in module design and who are employed within one university. The survey was used as a baselining tool to explore the nature of current module design practice within the survey sample. Do academics consistently employ the pragmatic approaches recommended by educational developers and theorists or is module and curriculum development a more informally constructed process? By comparing the initial findings of this project with survey and interview data produced by evidence-based projects, this article suggests that module design practice is not set in stone and that we need a deeper analysis of the process of module and curriculum design in terms of social practice and socio-cultural theory in order to gain a deeper understanding of it.  相似文献   

Bi-directional dynamics underlie the complexity of talk in teacher–child play-based conversations in classrooms serving at-risk pupils     

Laura M. Justice  Anita S. McGinty  Tricia Zucker  Sonia Q. Cabell  Shayne B. Piasta 《Early childhood research quarterly》2013

This study examined the transactional, utterance-by-utterance dependencies in the syntactic complexity of teachers’ and children's talk during small-group conversations in preschool classrooms. The sample included 39 teachers and select children in their classroom, which targeted enrollment to children experiencing documentable risk factors. Patterns of sequential dependencies demonstrated a bi-directional interdependence in teachers’ and children's complex syntactic use, whereby both teachers and children appeared sensitive to each other's use of complex syntactic forms. Teachers’ use of complex syntax increased the likelihood that children's adjacent utterance would contain complex syntax; similarly, children's use of complex or simple syntax increased the likelihood that teachers’ adjacent utterance would mirror their syntactic level. Associations were small to moderately large in strength, but varied across individual classrooms. The findings point to complex, bi-directional relationships underlying the complexity of talk within the classroom language environment.  相似文献   

Publisher's Note: “High yield fabrication of multilayer polydimethylsiloxane devices with freestanding micropillar arrays” [Biomicrofluidics 7, 056503 (2013)]     

Christopher W. Gregory  Katelyn L. Sellgren  Kristin H. Gilchrist  Sonia Grego 《Biomicrofluidics》2013,7(6)

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High yield fabrication of multilayer polydimethylsiloxane devices with freestanding micropillar arrays     

Christopher W. Gregory  Katelyn L. Sellgren  Kristin H. Gilchrist  Sonia Grego 《Biomicrofluidics》2013,7(5)

A versatile method to fabricate a multilayer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) device with micropillar arrays within the inner layer is reported. The method includes an inexpensive but repeatable approach for PDMS lamination at high compressive force to achieve high yield of pillar molding and transfer to a temporary carrier. The process also enables micropillar-containing thin films to be used as the inner layer of PDMS devices integrated with polymer membranes. A microfluidic cell culture device was demonstrated which included multiple vertically stacked flow channels and a pillar array serving as a cage for a collagen hydrogel. The functionality of the multilayer device was demonstrated by culturing collagen-embedded fibroblasts under interstitial flow through the three-dimensional scaffold. The fabrication methods described in this paper can find applications in a variety of devices, particularly for organ-on-chip applications.  相似文献   

CLASS–Infant: An Observational Measure for Assessing Teacher–Infant Interactions in Center-Based Child Care     

Kristen Roorbach Jamison  Sonia Q. Cabell  Jennifer LoCasale-Crouch  Bridget K. Hamre  Robert C. Pianta 《Early education and development》2014,25(4):553-572

Research Findings: The growing body of literature demonstrating the importance of quality interactions with caregivers to infant development coupled with the increasing number of infants spending time in classroom settings highlights the need for a measure of interpersonal relationships between infants and caregivers. This article introduces a new measure of quality in infant classrooms based on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) framework. This measure focuses on teacher–infant interactions with the goal of understanding how these proximal process features can be assessed in this environment. Results from a small pilot study of 30 infant classrooms indicated that the CLASS–Infant demonstrated adequate variability as well as expected convergent and divergent validity with the most commonly used infant child care quality measure. The dimensions of the measure composed a single construct of classroom quality based on teacher–infant interactions. Practice or Policy: Implications of using this measure as an assessment of center-based infant classroom quality and improving professional development are discussed.  相似文献   

Leading through partnership: enhancing the Teach First Leadership Programme     

Sonia Blandford 《Teacher Development》2014,18(1):1-14

Teach First works in partnership with government, business organisations, higher education institutions (providers of Initial Teacher Training, ITT) and schools to offer a two-year integrated Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) Leadership Development Programme; the first cohort of students were accepted in 2003. Its delivery of an integrated QTS/leadership programme, recruitment of top graduates who would not otherwise consider teaching, focus on teaching in challenging schools and joint business–Higher Education Institution delivery, set Teach First within a unique position amongst ITT partnerships in England. In 2008, building on its success, Teach First sought to enhance its Leadership Development Programme, relevant to teachers and leaders in all fields, including the development of an optional Masters route. This paper considers the development of the enhanced programme within the Teach First partnership model and explores the merits of the programme in developing teachers. Evidence suggests that the core values, focus on mission and strong ethos have been major contributory factors to its success.  相似文献