'But I Wouldn't Want to go Back'

Reflections on the re-integration of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties into mainstream schools are offered by Hilary Askew, teacher in a day school for maladjusted children, and David Thomas, senior lecturer in the Department of Education, Liverpool University.     

Social Tactics and Slow Learners

John Holden, senior remedial teacher, Birmingham, and David Thomas, senior lecturer, School of Education, Liverpool University, compare ESN children's tactics in social encounters with those of ordinary children     

The contribution of a 'Quiet Place' to early intervention strategies for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in mainstream schools

Bob Spalding, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education, University of Liverpool, outlines the nature of a holistically oriented therapeutic intervention ('Quiet Place') developed in some mainstream primary schools on Merseyside. It offers a focus for a variety of therapeutic interventions, as well as an environment conducive to a sense of well-being and relaxation. An evaluation of the first cohort of children to complete the programme is analysed in comparison with a control group, and the key factors in the success of the provision are identified.     

Special Educational Provision after LMS

Jennifer Evans is lecturer in the Department of Policy Studies and Ingrid Lunt is senior lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs, Institute of Education, London University. This article examines recent and proposed educational legislation from the perspective of its impact on provision for pupils with special educational needs. Some findings from surveys carried out by the authors in English LEAs are presented.     

Personal Constructs and Attribution for Academic Success and Failure in Dyslexia

Neil Humphrey published a previous article, on self–esteem and dyslexia, in BJSE . This paper, jointly authored by Dr Humphrey, recently appointed as a lecturer in the psychology of education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manchester, and Dr Patricia M. Mullins, senior lecturer in special educational needs at Liverpool John Moores University and the supervisor of Neil Humphrey's PhD thesis, explores the relationships between dyslexia and the ways in which pupils perceive themselves as learners. Making extensive links with other relevant research, the authors conclude by suggesting that 'the problems that children with dyslexia encounter have negative consequences for their self–development'. Humphrey and Mullins also propose that, while further research is needed, we already know enough about how to make schools more 'dyslexia friendly' to begin to tackle these difficulties at an early stage in children's education.     

Pioneering at Park Lane

Leon Sanders, lecturer in charge of the course, Park Lane College of Further Education, and Peter Watson, Department of Adult Education, Leeds University, describe a course for ESN(S) students     

Visiting Teaching Lecturers—an experiment in collaboration between university and schools

This paper reports on an evaluation of the visiting teacher lecturer programme at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur in Sydney, Australia. Between 1992 and 1996, ten practising school teachers taught full‐time within the Faculty of Education for a period of 12 months each. The teachers were known as visiting teaching lecturers and worked in the Faculty's Secondary, Primary and Early Childhood Teacher Education Programmes. The visiting teaching lecturer programme was instigated in order to ensure that recent and relevant experience was available to preservice teacher education students within the Faculty's programmes. Also, the Department of School Education was enthusiastic about the programme as it enabled teachers to gain significant professional development both for themselves and for the Department. The extent to which the programme met these goals, in spite of numerous policy barriers introduced at both State and Federal level, is explored.     

How should we define Exceptions?

'Modifying' or 'disapplying' the National Curriculum – what do these terms mean? Neither is clearly defined in the Education Reform Act, statutory instruments or circulars. Yet both begin to apply from this month onwards as the National Curriculum is introduced into schools. Guidance from the Department of Education and Science is urgently needed, suggests Brahm Norwich, lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs, Institute of Education, London University.     

Commonality among diversity

Senior lecturer, Department of Education, University of Hong Kong; board member, Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration; founding chairman, Hong Kong Council for Educational Administration Author of China's Education on the Move (1990), Planning Basic Education in China: Two Case Studies in the Province of Liaoning (research report for UNICEF, published by IIEP).     

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.     

Intensive Interaction and autism: a useful approach?

The very challenging nature of many individuals with autism has meant, for some, a focus on 'special', as opposed to 'naturalistic', intervention processes. There has been much recent media interest in parental campaigns, Melanie Nind, senior lecturer in the School of Education, Oxford Brookes University, addresses the potential usefulness of Intensive Interaction for pupils whose learning difficulties are compounded by autism. She considers empirical case-study evidence together with questionnaire and interview data from teachers using the approach.     

A Children's Court for Bullies

Setting up a children's court to which pupils can bring-complaints against their peers can be one way of reducing bullying in school, suggests Robert Laslett, lecturer in education, Department of Special Education, Birmingham University     

Building community in academic settings: the importance of flexibility in a structured mentoring program

Academic mentoring is increasingly being used by many universities as a tool to enhance the quality of research‐led teaching, promote cross‐faculty collaboration and encourage a mentoring culture and community. This article reports on a pilot project established to investigate the benefits of building flexibility into a structured academic mentoring program at the University of Sydney. Twenty‐six academics from the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Education and Social Work participated in the program. The mentors ranged in position from lecturer to professor and the mentees from associate lecturer to senior lecturer. Flexible arrangements were shown to be important in a variety of ways, from the pairing of mentor with mentee, to focussing on issues of work survival and life balance, research outcomes and career advancement. The project highlighted the lower number of male academics involved in formal mentoring, which merits further exploration. All participants reported positive outcomes, although refinement of the pairing process was recommended. A variety of unanticipated outcomes was reported by mentees.     

Integrating the Maladjusted Child

'Functional integration' is one form of integration suggested in the Warnock Report. Robert Laslett, lecturer in the education of maladjusted children, Department of Special Education, Birmingham University, discusses the implications of the proposal     

Misunderstandings, Miscues and Maths

Most primary school teachers are faced with the problem of trying to help young children with learning difficulties to understand elementary arithmetic. Harry Daniels, lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs, Institute of Education, London University, suggests one approach to solving the teaching problems that these children present.     

Integration on an Individual Basis

Dr Darcy Dale, senior lecturer in the education of the deaf, Department of Child Development and Educational Psychology, London University Institute of Education, describes the integration of individual children into ordinary schools in north London     

South Africa: The need for a radical restructuring of specialized education in the new South Africa

Sigamoney Naicker, a lecturer in Specialized Education in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Western Cape, provides an analysis of specialized education after one year of the first democratic government in South Africa.     

Legitimising Sketchbooks as a Research Tool in an Academic Setting

This paper describes the development of criteria for the production, marking and external examination of sketchbooks as research tools. The sketchbooks are developed in the Department of Education at Liverpool University in two settings: by students on a one- year Post Graduate Certificate of Education courses (PGCE), training to be primary teachers, and by practising primary teachers on Certificate of Advanced Studies in Education courses (CASE). In this setting the sketchbooks are weighted as the equivalent of a 5,000 word essay.     

Monoculturalism in transition: The educational implications and opportunities of finnish internationalization

A lecturer in English language at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Jyv?skyl? (Finland). His fields of interest include the use of computers in language teaching, Canadian studies, global education and citizenship. He has published several articles and textbooks, includingA handbook of classroom English.     

Moving Minds

This paper explores and examines a case study based at Ivy Bank Business and Enterprise College, The Imperial War Museum North, and Liverpool John Moores University. This collaboration took place from November 2004 until February 2005 culminating in an exhibition of children's artwork as part of the ‘Moving Minds’ project at the IWM North. This project was built upon a firm foundation of common goals; an investment in educational and curriculum development; learning through an engagement with contemporary art practice; learning within the context of the museum and a belief that working collaboratively can act as an effective antidote to a perceived orthodoxy in art and design education (Steers 2004). Through practitioner enquiry this paper presents three distinct perspectives. The voice of the trainee teacher, the classroom teacher and the university lecturer demonstrate both elements of commonality and difference within the shared experience of this enterprise.