‘And When did You Last See Your Father?’ Exploring the Views of Children with Learning Difficulties/Disabilities

The Gulliford Lecture 2003 was given by Professor Ann Lewis of the School of Education at the University of Birmingham. Professor Lewis's lecture, on which this article is based, focused on the process of listening to the views of children and, in particular, children with learning difficulties. Following the near-universal ratification of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, a plethora of recent initiatives, both in the UK and internationally, has encouraged professionals to access children's views about provision (educational, health-related, social and legal). A range of materials has been developed to support this process, often by, or in liaison with, children's charities. At the same time, research provides valuable insights into effective practice in exploring the views of children with learning difficulties. In this article, Ann Lewis reviews ten strategies for gathering the views of children and raises four challenges for the further development of policy and practice. She closes her argument with a call for greater rigour and critical evaluation in this crucial and demanding area.     

Reversing a Sentence for Life

How selected children are returned stage by stage to mainstream education from the Castle School for ESN(M) children in Walsall, is described by Janet Bond, headteacher, and Ann Lewis, deputy head at the school     

Should alumni remain silent?

Jerry L. Martin, former acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is president of the National Alumni Forum and adjunct professor of political philosophy and public policy at Georgetown University.     

From Planning to Practice

This contribution to the single theme issue moves from planning and assessment for differentiation to classroom practice. Dr Ann Lewis is lecturer in education, Department of Education, Warwick University.     

Summative National Curriculum assessments of primary aged children with special needs

Ann Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Warwick, examines what has been learned about the use of standard tests and tasks with primary age children perceived as having special educational needs. She also raises wider issues about the assessment of all children with special needs and considers the implications for the fostering of supportive school environments for a range of children.     

The development of children's ideas about others' difficulties in learning

In this paper, Professor Ann Lewis, of the School of Education, University of Birmingham, reviews the literature and current research on pupils' perceptions of others' difficulties in learning. She focuses, in particular, on three strands: children's perceptions about other people and their traits; children as 'naïve' biologists, attempting to explain growth and development in others; and children's responses to and use of cues based on achievement and ideas about ability. In a wide-ranging discussion, this article explores work on theory of mind and notes the different ways in which children explain learning difficulties in others at various ages. In her conclusion, Professor Lewis makes three key points: there is a need to supplement experimental work in this area with good quality, classroom-based studies; more effort should be devoted to finding ways of accessing children's views and perceptions in authentic and reliable ways; and staff working in inclusive classrooms are ideally placed to contribute to the development of research in this area.     

Integration: the Coleshill Experience

The integration of children with severe learning difficulties into mainstream schools is threatened by the 1988 Education Reform Act. Its continuation and expansion may largely depend on the type and degree of support available from LEAs and individual schools. Barry Carpenter and Jeremy Fathers, head and deputy head respectively at Blythe School, Ann Lewis, lecturer in education, Warwick University, and Rosemary Privett, integration support teacher at Blythe School, describe Blythe's integration projects and the role of the integration support teacher, which will be crucial in maintaining mainstream links 'at a time when … integration might wane'.     

Integrated Learning Systems and pupils with low attainments in reading

Ann Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Education in the Institute of Education at the University of Warwick, considers the research evidence from UK evaluations of Integrated Learning Systems, discusses the value of these systems for pupils with learning difficulties, and focuses on their effects on the reading attainments of lower achieving pupils.     

The more things change,the more they stay the same: African American English,language policy,and African American learners

Abstract

Despite the substantive body of research on African American Language (AAL), designating it a meaningful, rule-governed language system and the first language of many African Americans, schools in the US have systematically failed to integrate a language policy related to African American English learners (AAELs). In this article, we employ a critical discourse and policy analysis to examine two major policies related to AAL and AAELs – the Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Children et al. v. Ann Arbor School District, a federal district case in Michigan known as the Ann Arbor Decision, and the Ebonics Resolution adopted by the Oakland California Board of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Our analysis reveals three themes across these texts – they affirm AAL as a ‘home and community language’ in its own right, mandate teachers to take ‘appropriate action’ in teaching AAL speakers, and dispel notions that AAL stems from cultural, social, and economic deprivation.     

‘Why should I be like bloody Rain Man?!’ Navigating the autistic identity

This article explores the views of six higher education students with autism/Asperger syndrome. The research draws upon social identity theory to explore how participants made meaning of their label. There was consensus that information given at the point of diagnosis generally did not reflect their individual experiences. First‐hand accounts tended to be perceived as more personally relevant. The ‘Asperger’ identity was generally framed as fragile and inconsistent, leading some individuals to distance themselves from it. This may be problematic for a group that is already disadvantaged and isolated. However, participants conveyed strong self‐images regardless of how and whether they identified with their diagnosis, which was attributed to their relative privilege in achieving higher education and therefore experiencing success and achievement related to their personal strengths. In this article, Andrea MacLeod, Ann Lewis and Christopher Robertson, from the University of Birmingham, call for researchers and relevant services to involve autistic individuals directly in fostering a constructive ‘autism identity’.     

Reference, or advisory, groups involving disabled people: reflections from three contrasting research projects

Increasingly in recent years, the involvement of disabled people as co-researchers has been regarded as 'good practice'. This has been informed by growing participatory and emancipatory research paradigms as well as user-focused policy imperatives. The benefits of these shifts apply to the research itself (improved definition, direction, applicability and impact), to non-disabled researchers (personal growth and enhanced understanding of the reflexive research process), to people with disabilities involved as researchers or collaborators (personal growth and enhanced opportunities), and (if externally funded) to the funder whose ways of operating are likely to be challenged profoundly. In this paper, Ann Lewis, Sarah Parsons and Christopher Robertson (based at the University of Birmingham), Anthony Feiler, Beth Tarleton and Debby Watson (based at the University of Bristol) and Richard Byers, Jill Davies, Ann Fergusson and Claire Marvin (based at the University of Cambridge) discuss the work of three independent research teams carrying out concurrent projects. The authors share their experiences of trying to take seriously the participation of disabled people in research. All three projects were informed, to a significant degree, by their respective reference groups of disabled people. The work of these groups in each of the three projects is outlined and then discussed in relation to five common themes: formal contracts with members of reference groups; considerations concerning drawing on an established reference group; planning for reference group involvement; style of reference group involvement; and building on good practice.     

What Katy did: a case study in communication between a pupil with severe learning difficulties and non-disabled classmates

The British Journal of Special Education has contributed substantially to debates on the principles and practice of integration. Dr Ann Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Warwick, extends that work by providing evidence about the quality of interaction in a setting in which special and mainstream pupils worked regularly together over the school year. This case study highlights the complexity of such contexts and the difficulties in successfully fostering equal and complementary roles. She highlights the sensitivity, but dominance, of the mainstream children when working with special school work partners, who, although actively involed in the interaction, tended to take subservient roles.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Suzanne E., Wade Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education: Case Pedagogies and Curricula for Teacher Educators
David, Abbott, Jenny, Morris and Linda, Ward Disabled Children and Residential Schools: A Study of Local Authority Policy and Practice
Neville, Harris, Karen, Eden and Ann, Blair Challenges to School Exclusion
Pamela, Munn, Gwynedd, Lloyd and Mairi, Ann Cullen Alternatives to Exclusion from School
D. O., Braithwaite and T. L., Thompson Handbook of Communication and People with Disabilities Research and Application
Judith, Ackroyd Literacy Alive
Paul, Croll and Diana, Moses Special Needs in the Primary School: One in Five?
Sheila, Wolfendale Special Needs in the Early Years: Snapshots of Practice
Deirdre, Martin Teaching Children with Speech and Language Difficulties
S., Janert Reaching the Young Autistic Child: Reclaiming Non-Autistic Potential through Communicative Strategies and Games
Anita, Keates Dyslexia and Information and Communications Technology: A Guide for Teachers and Parents     

Growing Roots and Becoming Interested: Teaching about the World through Exemplarity

The discussion of the power of the teacher's voice is raging again in light of the standardisation of education and the emergence of testing as the new regime of truth in educational processes. In confrontation with this paradigm, Jasinki and Lewis have raised pertinent questions regarding the role of language and the voice of the teacher. By highlighting what they coin the time of ritualised learning they expose how even when the teacher becomes almost surplus in the face of standardised curriculum and adaptive testing, there is a reproductive power being ‘cursed’ at our children. By introducing the notion of communities of infancy, Jasinski and Lewis point to another way of conceptualising learning and education, where the teacher portrays love for the children and not the truth about the world. In this article, I will argue that even in their very enticing argumentation for speaking silence, something goes missing. What goes missing is the quintessential component of the school, namely the world as it is ‘handed over’ to the children. By turning to a perhaps unlikely couple in the form of Hannah Arendt and Martin Wagenschein I will attempt to complement the framework of Jasinski and Lewis with a world that can be spoken about by teachers and students. Through a re-introduction of the notion of exemplarity I will present a didactic framework where the teacher's voice does not become a curse, but retains the possibility of representing a world to the children in the activity of schooling.     

Assessment using the P scales: best fit – fit for the purpose?

In this article, Andrew Martin, deputy headteacher at Greenside School in Stevenage, provides an outline of the development of the P scales as an assessment tool for pupils working below Level 1 of the National Curriculum. He recounts the difficulties his school found in using P scales to track pupil progress from year to year and describes and evaluates a computer package which he devised in order to fulfil this function. He goes on to discuss current issues in the use of P scales, many of which were highlighted through use of the computer package. These issues include inconsistency in the use of the P scales; variations in pupil profiles; difficulties over making 'best fit' judgements; the need for moderation; and relationships with other curriculum and assessment systems in the school years and in the Foundation Stage. Andrew Martin closes his article with a call for consistency in approaches to assessment, particularly in view of the fact that P scale assessments are to be collected as part of statutory end of key stage data collection arrangements in future.     

Approaches to learning by undergraduate students: A longitudinal study

The purpose of this study was to determine if the success of students at a highly selective combined baccalaureate/MD degree program is affected by their different approaches to learning. One hundred freshmen students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine (UMKC) were surveyed using the Lancaster Approaches to Studying Inventory (short survey by Entwistle, 1981). Analysis of the data indicates that the learning styles of students from this combined-degree school tend to be similar to the learning styles of students from other baccalaureate-degree programs in medicine. It appears there are some relationships between approaches to learning and success in the program. This association between learning styles and success also appears to be related to gender differences.Presented at the Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Louisville, KY, May 13–16, 1990.     

Children's Learning from Science Texts: A Critique of ‘EXIT into Understanding’

This article is a reply to an earlier article published in Reading Volume 29 (1) in which David Wray and Maureen Lewis outlined their EXIT model for describing the process of children learning from text. Here Alan Peacock, a science specialist with a particular interest in the use of texts in developing countries, questions the applicability of the EXIT model to children's reading of science texts in other contexts. He rightly makes the point that not enough research has been carried out into the use of texts in various curriculum areas and in various contexts and his article is a challenge to begin such extended research.     

天地生人学术讲座1000讲学术历程回顾

＂天地生人学术讲座＂创建于1990年的北京,到2012年3月10日完成1000讲,是一个由天文学研究、地学研究、生物学研究、人文学研究等诸多方面的中老年学者组成和主持的民间性质的学术交流活动,旨在当代科学的综合性发展潮流中,推动宇宙—地球—生物—人类社会的大交叉综合学术研究,发掘中国古代自然国学整体论思维的资源,对复杂性科学问题的解决进行探索,关注人地关系的矛盾及解决,是一个全开放、纯公益的多学科学术交流平台。二十余年来,围绕自然灾害综合研究、中国自然国学的复兴、中国传统文化的复兴、中医的复兴、民间科学研究的振兴、科学观念辩证、复杂系统的整体论科学思维的发展、中国科技体制创新等主题进行了长期的讨论和探索。讲座明确自己的历史责任和奋斗目标：保存一方学术净土;种一块整体论与还原论优势互补的试验田。