Supporting behaviour support: developing a model for leading and managing a unit for teenagers excluded from mainstream school

In the UK, mainstream schools can decide to exclude students because of their behaviour. Students are then placed in pupil referral units (PRUs, sometimes known as short-stay schools) until their needs can be more thoroughly assessed so that they can then be placed appropriately. This article outlines the development of one particular approach to leading and managing a PRU for students aged 11–14. Beginning with the idea that staff and students all have a range of needs to be met, the approach draws on psychoanalytic ideas of containment, holding and attachment, as well as recent neuro-developmental research, to demonstrate how students' needs can be best met through meeting the professional needs of staff. A range of interventions and areas of practice are then described to illustrate how containment, management and support are operationalised in day-to-day practice. Specific areas of impact of these interventions for students and their families are then highlighted.     

Supporting Online PBL: Design Considerations for Supporting Distributed Problem Solving

This study considers how four groups of education graduate students worked in a distributed problem-based learning (PBL) environment using an asynchronous threaded discussion tool. The analyses consider how the students were able to interact with each other using the tool and how they worked together to define the problem and identify key issues to explore. The outcomes include some design considerations for tools to support these activities as well as insight about how students may work together to solve a problem in a distributed environment.     

Supporting the Ordinary School

In the wake of the Education Act 1981, the Department of Education and Science commissioned three major research studies. These were concerned respectively with: in-service training (Manchester University and Huddersfield Polytechnic); the implementation of the Act (London University Institute of Education); and support for the ordinary school (National Foundation for Educational Research). All the studies were completed by 1986, and numerous publications have resulted from them. Dr Seamus Hegarty, deputy director at the Foundation, summarises findings from the NFER study.     

Supporting Change in Schools

In his article in the March 1997 edition of BJSE , Professor Mel Ainscow speculated on some of the reasons for the lack of progress towards a more inclusive school system in Britain, and identified possible ways of moving forward. Implicit in his penetrating analysis is that policies for implementing change in schools need to be supported at all levels, both within the education system itself and throughout society. Jesper Holst, associate professor at the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, focuses on these wider issues and uses examples from Denmark and Mongolia to identify successful strategies for change which rely on professional and economic support (from both central and local government), and the backing of parents and local communities. In Denmark the concept of inclusive education is reflected in the new (1993) Danish Education Act and the basis of the work described is the assumption that by supporting change schools can be better prepared to respond to pupil diversity.     

Supporting the Mainstream Teacher

What support is most helpful for those who teach pupils with special needs in ordinary schools? Louise Clunies-Ross, deputy education officer, RNIB, describes a recent study undertaken with former colleagues at the NFER     

Supporting Faculty Grassroots Leadership

Various factors are making faculty leadership challenging including the rise in part-time and non-tenure-track faculty, the increasing pressure to publish and teach more courses and adopt new technologies and pedagogies, increasing standards for tenure and promotion, ascension of academic capitalism, and heavy service roles for women and people of color. This article focuses on describing actions taken by institutional agents and aspects of campus environments which are supportive of grassroots faculty leadership. While there are many conditions which inhibit faculty leadership (i.e., part-time and contingent faculty trends, rising publication standards, etc.), our study demonstrated certain campus conditions or characteristics can overcome the forces of change including counting leadership as service, creating campus networks, addressing dysfunctional department dynamics, fostering role models, supporting faculty who question or challenge decisions, ensuring flexibility and autonomy, and altering contingent faculty contracts to include service and leadership.

Seeing and Supporting Twice-Exceptional Learners

Through a four-part discussion, this essay advocates for seeing the characteristics and special needs of gifted students with disabilities and using best practices to support their learning. Part 1 delineates the evolution of the legislative acts and professional initiatives regarding twice exceptionality. Part 2 discusses the educational rights of twice-exceptional learners. Part 3 presents challenges to understanding and supporting this student population, followed by a call for ongoing personnel training in part 4.     

三软回采巷道锚杆支护技术研究

随着开采深度的增加,三软煤巷是围岩剧烈变形的难维护的回采巷道。通过锚杆对软岩巷道围岩的支护分析,提出加固帮角拉制围岩稳定、高阻让压支护限制围岩变形和强化顶板保证安全的主动支护的思想,研究了合理的锚杆支护技术。     

Supporting fathering through infant massage

Fathers may feel dissatisfied with their ability to form a close attachment with their infants in the early postpartum period, which, in turn, may increase their parent-related stress. Our study sought to determine if an infant massage intervention assisted fathers with decreasing stress and increasing bonding with their infants during this time. To address the complex father-infant relationship, we conducted a pilot study using a mixed methodology approach. Twelve infant-father dyads participated in the intervention, and 12 infant-father dyads populated a wait-list control group. Paternal stress was measured using the Parenting Stress Index at baseline and at postintervention. We found infant massage instruction significantly decreased paternal stress. Our findings were also supported by the qualitative data and suggest fathers may benefit from applied postnatal education.     

关系数据库对多媒体数据的支持

随着Internet的普及和多媒体技术的发展,以数字视频、音频传输为代表的多媒体信息越来越多。由于多媒体信息具有信息量大、难以描述等特点,如何对这些海量信息进行组织、管理、操作和快速有效的检索等就成为数据库技术迫切需要解决的问题。本文介绍了多媒体数据的类型及特点,讨论了多媒体数据管理和存储,探讨了关系数据库的扩展,阐述了基于内容的检索与查询的特点及发展方向。随着研究工作的不断深入,能够满足复杂应用需求的多媒体数据库必将得到发展与完善。     

Supporting asylum seekers in schools

In this article Lucy Clarke provides us with a ‘hands-on’ view of her work with the East Oxford Schools Inclusion Project where she is a project worker supporting asylum seekers. Her post has been funded jointly by The Children's Society, Oxfordshire Social Services and Oxfordshire Local Education Authority.     

发现、培养、支持——荷兰博士研究生创新支撑体系

对荷兰博士研究生教育的调查显示,科学合理的博士研究生遴选机制、系统有效的指导训练机制和强有力的物质保障机制,构成了荷兰博士研究生创新的支撑体系.改进博士研究生招生方式、加强导师指导、保证必要的物质条件是提高我国博士研究生创新能力的可能途径.     

Supporting Induction: Relationships count

This article examines the structural changes to the induction of teachers in Scotland using the perceptions of a group of final year student teachers. This group would be the first probationer teachers to experience revised arrangements for new teacher induction in 37 years. Their preferences and concerns are highlighted, as the new procedures roll out in schools nationwide, in an attempt to stress the importance of relationships to the success of the induction scheme. The argument put forward in this article is based on the notion that personal intelligence is central to effective relationships and therefore crucially important in the context of this mentoring relationship. The views of our sample provide evidence to suggest that the quality of interactions between the mentor and the probationer teacher are paramount in providing a good induction experience. These views are substantiated by experiences in England and in induction literature elsewhere. A synthesis of this evidence is used to make recommendations for those involved in supporting induction in schools, local authorities or teacher education institutions.     

Brain Mechanisms Supporting Distinct Languages

This article briefly outlines key issues related to the neurological substrate of basic language and reading functions in native speakers of Indo‐European and Oriental Languages, and in individuals who are competent in more than one language. Modern neuroimaging techniques have been used in order to address conflicting results produced by older, less flexible methods. When issues of validity and reliability of brain activation protocols are systematically addressed, converging results across methods can be obtained. Only then can neuroimaging findings provide useful data and inform education policy regarding formal language learning and reading instruction and remediation. These are steps that can ensure that we can bring the technology and approaches to bear on the problems of learning disabilities in a focused and productive way.     

Supporting untrained teachers in Malawi

In the aftermath of the introduction of free primary education in Malawi, 17 000 untrained teachers were recruited to meet the new demand for schooling. This article reports a study carried out to investigate how the new recruits were coping and how far the schools were able to provide informal on-the-job training. It also describes how action research was introduced to help heads and both qualified and unqualified teachers to improve their own practice. Conclusions are drawn about the feasibility of school-based training in Malawi.     

Supporting the supporters: the learning and supervision needs of unqualified support staff in a supported housing scheme for people with mental health problems

The investigation reported here started out as an exploratory study of the nature of ‘support’ in a supported housing development for people with mental health problems. It was intended that this would suggest appropriate changes in staff practices. This report describes how ideas around a number of themes identified were gradually developed and refined to provide a focus for investigation. The eventual focus centred on my apparently pivotal role in supporting ‘unqualified’ support staff. An inter-relationship between how residents experience ‘being supported’ and the learning needs of support staff is identified, teased out and described. Action research methods were found to be a useful means of generating areas of learning that appeared to be most relevant in this particular work context. The discoveries and insights that developed helped inform the tentative application of some initial action steps aimed at meeting these learning needs and guiding the activities of support staff.