166,317 research outputs found
Configurations of institutional contexts
No full textA recent tendency is to view school effectiveness from the different contexts or settings that can be distinguished in and around the school. Teddlie and Reynolds (2000) claim that the consideration of contextual variation in school effectiveness research has led to an increased sophistication in theory development. The purpose of our study is to deepen our insight in institutional differences that could contribute to differential effects of schooling and could explain variation in quality and equity of education systems in particular. The institutional context, specifically the funding, governance and choice of schools, can have an impact on the behaviour exhibited by individuals of a certain group because it is a relatively enduring quality of the school environment that is experienced by participants, affects their behaviour and is shown in their collective perceptions of the schooling process. This is the case because pupils and peers attending the same (public or private) school share a similar institutional context. Such contextual effects are a result of social processes: through reciprocal influence and mutual adjustment, individuals in the same institutional context exhibit more homogeneous behaviours, attitudes and opinions. In general it can be assumed that specific characteristics of similar institutional contexts effects such as financing, governance and parental choice, are transferred through the social climate in public and private schools and thus affects pupils' cognitive and social functioning. However, although researchers claim that institutional context could be an important issue in research on outcomes of schooling, they have not yet indicated the mechanisms through which institutional effects arise nor specified the underlying processes through which they take place (Willms &Raudenbush, 1989). A specific application of school effectiveness research is configuration theory which studies the context-based origin of school effectiveness from a broader perspective. It approaches organisations from a contextual point of view and claims that the effectiveness of an organisation depends upon the fit of internal structural factors and external situational factors (Mintzberg, 1979). Furthermore, although research on school and institutional effectiveness has led to increased theory development, it has focused on the search for individual effectiveness factors or single variables for too long. The basic assumption of configuration theory is that we can learn more about the subject by studying the specific types of countries based on configurations of the single institutional indicators (Mintzberg, 1979; Hofman, Hofman &Guldemond, 2001a, 2001b). This research investigates the impact of different institutional contexts (finance, governance and choice) using configuration theory.</p
Engineer Stanisław Hofman-Kalinowski
No full textW artykule przedstawiono życie i zawodowe osiągnięcia wybitnego polskiego inżyniera komunikacji Stanisława Hofmana-Kalinowskiego, który żył na przełomie XIX i XX wieku. Opisano w nim historię mostu pierwotnie zbudowanego przez administrację niemiecką na Wiśle w Opaleniu, który został potem rozebrany przez władze polskie i przeniesiony do centrum Torunia, gdzie jest użytkowany do dzisiaj.The article covers the life and professional achievement of the prominent Polish transport engineer Stanisław Hofman-Kalinowski, who lived in the turn of 19th and 20th centuries. It describes the history of the Bridge originally built by the German Authorities over river Vistula in Opalenie, which was then deconstructed by the Polish Government and relocated to the town of Toruń and is being utilized till now
Selection and definition of indicators
No full textThis international study works from the premise that the institutional contexts of schools play an important role in the explanation of variation in effectiveness between schools. Furthermore, we assume major differences between countries world-wide in the definition of institutional context, more specific concerning the exact difference between the public and private sectors in education. As we have seen in Chapter 1 crucial aspects in this respect seem to be: the financial base of public-private differences, differences in the governance structure in public and private education and the degree of freedom of school choice available. A comparative analysis of education systems in Europe requires clear concepts of the current situation in each country. The definition of indicators, used in the description of education systems in this study, will be addressed in the next section.</p
Quality and equity of European education
No full textInternationally an increase in attention for institutional related aspects of schooling is observed. Most research has taken place in individual countries. A thorough international comparison of specific institutional effects of schooling could merit important policy implications for individual countries and be useful in that they provide some indication of how the country is performing in comparison to other countries with similar social, economic and educational circumstances (Bishop and Wössmann, 2001; Willms &Somers, 2001). Although a lot has been published about the quality of countries' education systems it is still not very clear how much is in fact explained by institutional characteristics. Furthermore, multilevel between-country studies focusing on institutional features of education systems are scarce. The objective of this Chapter is to analyse the relative impact of parameters of institutional contexts on quality and equity of schooling systems in general. This bears relevance because students in some education systems do not have the same educational opportunities than in others and this inequality could well be related to variation in institutional contexts. Research should make clear what produces such variations and what factors are related to more equal opportunities for pupils. Another reason is that international comparison of education systems shows that institutional factors seem to explain substantial cross-country variation in student performance (Bishop and Wössmann, 2001). Furthermore, these researchers argue that privately-governed schools are more likely to posses "incentive creating" institutional characteristics and that competition from privately-managed schools within the country's education system seems to be associated with positive effects on the total quality of the education system.</p
Prof. Th. W. Adorno and the author Hans Erich Nossack.
No full textProf. Th. W. Adorno and the author Hans Erich Nossack at a reception of Insel Verlag, Buchmesse Frankfurt 1966LB
Summary and implications for worldwide education
No full textWhen we began our research we had two major concerns. First, to look at how the different countries of Europe schooled their children in terms of certain key dimensions - funding, governance and choice being the most prominent. And second, to explore whether what they did mattered in terms of their effects on pupil performance. Educational systems emerge over time. Their formation and maintenance reflect differing historical traditions, cultural values and religious interests as well as divergent views about the role of the state in shaping the life-chances of its future citizens. Everywhere we looked we found differences. The task we set ourselves was to find appropriate frameworks for comparison which were simultaneously true to the broad circumstances of each country whilst putting some of the nuances into context. Our strategy was to recruit a range of country 'experts', who could alert us to the salient features of each educational system, and combine their views with analyses of a cross-European data-set on pupil performance (drawing on data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study - widely known as TIMMS). The use of such 'experts' is common in international studies of achievement but the degree of detail we achieved as a result is rare. Bringing these two sources together we painted a detailed picture of the systems in 13 European countries. Our 'experts' also gave us a greater purchase on the key structural dimensions which make up what we refer to as the 'institutional context' and underpin our analyses of performance. 'Institutional context' has come to play an important role in the explanation of differences in 'effectiveness' between schools. But what is meant by such a concept differs from system to system. At its centre are a nexus of inter-cutting relationships pertaining to the relative sizes of the public and private sectors, the financial bases on which they are founded, governance structures and the extent of school 'choice' available in different countries as well as variations in decision-making, the 'locus of control' and the influence of parents and community. Any or all of these factors have been portrayed as crucial to the functioning of particular educational systems. Given the number and complexity of some of them, we should therefore not be particularly surprised that valid comparisons of public/private effects in education are currently few and far between. As policy-makers increasingly come to compete through educational systems for economic advantage and, in the process create ambitious agendas for systemic reform, there is a further interest in determining the relative influences of such differences. Such 'improvement' agendas have been reflected in recent research. Bishop and Wössmann (2001), for example, have argued that certain "incentive creating" institutional factors can help to explain a great deal of the cross-country variation in mathematics achievement. They suggest that private schools are more likely to possess appropriate "incentive creating" characteristics and that competition from privately-managed schools is generally associated with positive effects in terms of performance. The implication is that improving institutional policies may be a good deal more effective in increasing the quality of schooling than revising resource policies. It is a policy agenda which affects school reform in developed and developing countries alike. The European case is of particular interest, however, because the range of combinations on offer is considerable.</p
Nowe spojrzenie na planowanie architektury mieszkaniowej w afryce subsaharyjskiej
No full textThe author shares his reflections on state of art in housing and urban planning, deficiencies, expectations and possibilities in the Sahel region of Africa. He notices, that the housing problem in Africa is one of the challenges, which should be solved in order to recover life dignity of African people and secure their rights to traditional family life in acceptable conditions. The paper describes the studies on the typical dispersed urban structures and the need to foster this type of settlement structure and proposals of introduction of new on light steel frame housing system in the area of Sahel, combining the traditional way of building houses with modern technology. The particularly analysed case, is the housing problem in the Republic of Chad. The author presents the basic discussion on this topic and his architectural proposals. Unfortunately, the gap between the needs and the financial feasibility of housing construction in this area, makes this project already at the starting point extremely difficult to be realized without external subventions.Problem mieszkaniowy w Afryce jest jednym z wyzwań, które należy rozwiązać, aby Afrykanie mogli odzyskać godność życiową i zabezpieczyć swoje prawa do tradycyjnego życia rodzinnego w akceptowalnych warunkach. W artykule opisano badania nad typowymi rozproszonymi strukturami miejskimi i potrzebą wspierania tego typu struktur osadniczych oraz propozycji wprowadzenia nowego systemu konstrukcji domów, opartym na lekkim szkielecie stalowym, łączącym tradycyjny sposób budowania domów z nowoczesną technologią. Przypadkiem szczególnie analizowanym jest problem mieszkaniowy w Republice Czadu. Autor przedstawia podstawową dyskusję na ten temat i swoje propozycje architektoniczne. Niestety luka między potrzebami mieszkaniowymi w Czadzie a finansową wykonalnością budownictwa mieszkaniowego w tym obszarze sprawia, że projekt ten, już w punkcie wyjścia, jest niezwykle trudny do realizacji bez uzyskania zewnętrznych dotacji
The picture of the Czech art according to Wlastimil Hofman
No full textThe text is a scholarly interpretation of the manuscript of Wlastimil Hofman's lecture on Czech art, delivered on 16 January 1934 in the Jagellonian University in Cracow. The manuscript comes from Jiài Karásek's collection that since 1960 has been kept in Prague, in the collection of Památník národního písmnictví. Seventy years ago in his lecture Wlastimil Hofman gave an outline of the history of Czech painting, starting from the period of the early Gothic, up to the artists and works from the break of the 19th century that were most important for Czech art. The choice of the Czech artists and their works presented to Polish students was influenced by both the Polish painter's personal views of social-historical nature and his artistic preferences – Hofman knew well Prague's artistic circles of those times and historical and political determinants, also of art, of the then young Czechoslovakia. In the text of his lecture Wlastimil Hofman did not conceal the fact that he did not know the old Czech art very well, so he fully based his opinions about artists and about their works, especially of the Gothic, Renaissance and baroque periods, on opinions expressed by the Czech historians of art who specialized in those periods, like Vincenc Kramaø or Vojtéch Volavka. Only the 19th century Czech painting that Hofman knew well was treated by the Polish painter more broadly and in greater detail. In this part of his lecture the artist expressed his personal tastes and likings, especially in reference to Czech artists of the period of the so-called “national awakening” that started at the break of the 18th century, when, first on the grounds of the Enlightenment ideology, and then of the 19th century nationalism the Czechs undertook actions aiming at revival of their nation. Along with building the foundations of a new economic structure and modern forms of political life they created the basic elements of the literary Czech language, of literature and of their own national art. Owing to the efforts they undertook, in all domains of life – starting from economy and ending with the problems connected with developing the nation's creative powers and national consciousness (with a special emphasis on the element of education, ethics and art), Czech entered the 20th century as the only nation in Central and Eastern Europe that did not have its own state, and after World War I, in 1918, they established Czechoslovakia, a country that was an element of Europe of that time within the so-called Versailles order, and one that was the crowning of the many centuries of Czechs' and Slovaks' national aspirations
- …
