https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53204 Thu, 09 Apr 2026 04:00:34 GMT 2026-04-09T04:00:34Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53157 Title: Extended review : Teacher Evaluation: Educative Alternatives [book review] Abstract: This is an intellectually satisfying and pedagogically practical text on teacher evaluation. Noting the tendency to use concern about education to evaluate teachers' work in ways that are divorced from the understanding and experience of teachers and pupils, Gitlin and Smyth correctly start with an informed critique of current evaluative practices. In accepting external evaluation many teachers and pupils do not use internal inquiry and reflective self-evaluation. They become more concerned with meeting 'minimalist standards of outside experts' (p. viii). The movement away from impositional modes of teacher evaluation to the two alternative 'educative' forms proposed in this text, is based on a just and liberating contestation of the dominant impositional mode. Gitlin and Smyth make a sustained case against this mode, which whilst oppressing teachers does not challenge current (and often conservative) methods and aims of education practice. Wed, 01 Jan 1992 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53157 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53037 Title: Classroom practices and gender roles in primary school Authors: Portelli, Jennifer; Catania, Josette Abstract: This article considers the construction of gender identities in Maltese primary schools. It is based on small scale illuminative observation in two classrooms in two schools. The observation sessions, five in each school and each of an hour and a half duration were held over a period of one week, from 29th November till 6th December 1990. The sessions were carried out in two primary state schools in different areas of Malta and are named here as School A and School B. The age group chosen was in both cases six year olds that is Year 2 classes. Classroom A (in school A) had a total of 23 pupils of which fifteen (15) were boys and eight (8) girls. In Classroom B (school B) the pupils numbered 24, with thirteen boys (13) and eleven (11) girls. Both Miss A and Miss B were female and middle-aged. Whilst Miss A was a qualified teacher Miss B was at the time a part-time instructress. Notwithstanding the fact that the research was carried out in two different schools, the findings were very similar. This suggests that there is a certain pattern of behaviour which characterises many (see also Darmanin's article in this volume), if not all, Maltese primary state schools. Wed, 01 Jan 1992 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53037 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53036 Title: Maltese girls' attitude to physics Authors: Said, Lilian Abstract: To fully understand girls' attitudes to physics in their own words and with their own definitions, an Interview was held with ten (10) fourth form girls in one Junior Lyceum (grammar school). Although all from the same class, the girls were chosen at random. Pseudonyms have been used throughout. A set of ten questions (see below) had been prepared beforehand, and these were based on the items relating to subject orientation identified by Kelly (1987). The interviews were therefore structured. The pupils could answer in either English or Maltese according to their preference. Wed, 01 Jan 1992 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53036 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53035 Title: Everyday life in today's schools : the female pupils' experiences Authors: Delamont, Sara Abstract: On November 1st 1991 The Times Educational Supplement published a letter from a school governor querying the activities of the headmistress of a primary school. Among the problems was: Finally, we had put in our behavior guidelines that no punishment should be embarrassing to the child. Now we've heard that she's made girls wear boys' caps if they're caught fighting. If this disciplinary strategy has been accurately reported, the gender stereotyping is marked. Not only does the school have uniform, with different headgear for boys and girls, but fighting is seen as a 'male' pastime, and discipline is partially based on shaming one sex by comparing them to the other. Managing boys by comparing them unfavourably with girls, or llice IJersa, were common control strategies in British middle and comprehensive schools in the late 1970s (see Delamont, 1990, p. 29 and p.59) and in lessons for slow learners in some Welsh comprehensives in the mid 1980s (Delamont, 1990 p.60) but to hear of them thriving in 1991 is a shock. This paper examines what is known about everyday life in British schools as it is experienced by female pupils, drawing on the research done in the last twenty-five years. There are five sections, on the research background, on teacher-pupil relationships, on same sex pupil relationships, on male-female pupil relationships, on myths and fantasies, and on an agenda for future research. Wed, 01 Jan 1992 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53035 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z