The psy-disciplines go to school: psychiatric,psychological and psychotherapeutic approaches to inclusion in one UK primary school

A growing body of research, largely from the global North, and particularly from North America, highlights the increasing psychiatrisation, medicalisation and psychologisation of children and childhood, and suggests that schools and educators play a key role in these processes. This increasing diffusion of psy-expertise within educational spaces signifies a cultural shift that has profound effects on teacher and student subjectivity, and on institutional and professional practices. Educators in many countries are said to be on the ‘front-line’ in identifying mental health issues, recommending treatment pathways, and sometimes helping to administer psychopharmaceuticals. The alacrity with which educators engage in these practices varies internationally, with reported occurrence being much higher in the United States and Canada, compared to the United Kingdom, where there is a lack of research. Drawing upon a case study in a UK primary school, this paper makes an original and timely contribution to research into UK teacher’s perceptions of inclusion in relation to social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and, in particular, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, as they navigate the interface of psychology and education. Contrary to some previous research, the educators in this study viewed the distribution of psychopharmaceuticals negatively, and showed a preference for psychotherapeutic approaches to inclusion. This research provides much needed empirical findings to a growing but largely theoretically informed body of research exploring whether, and if so then how, educators are implicated in the mobilisation of psy-expertise within children’s lives.     

Now it is time for your child to go to school,how do you feel?

FEELINGS OF ANXIETY and depression were analyzed in a group of 13 mothers of children with Down syndrome (DS) aged 7 to 8 years using a standardized questionnaire, two projective tests and a semistructured interview. The experience of social support and the family situation was evaluated using questionnaires. Thirteen women without handicapped children served as a comparative group. The results were also compared with results obtained in 18 mothers of motor handicapped children and 18 mothers of children with mental retardation and psychotic symptoms. Mood disturbances such as anxiety and depression seemed to be uncommon in the mothers of primary school children with DS. Their experience of social support was not negative although the need for more empathy was expressed by some of them. There were no major differences between the mothers of children with DS and the mothers of motor handicapped children. The results indicate that mothers of children with DS fare better than mothers of children with mental retardation and psychotic symptoms.     

农民工子女进城读书，给城市师生带来了什么

近年来大量农民工子女涌入城市学校就读,给城市师生带来了一系列影响。对教师来说,主要是带来了超负荷的教学工作负担,带来了超负荷的管理工作负担;对学生来说,主要是带来了学习质量的下降,带来了身体健康素质的下降;对于教师和学生来说,主要是带来了很大的安全隐患。推进城乡基础教育均衡发展,实现教育公平,是唯一有效的应对之道。     

Time to go back to the drawing board: organisation of primary school reading development in South Africa

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 findings highlighted concerns about reading literacy teaching quality in South African primary schools (Howie et al., 2007 Howie, S.J., Venter, E., Van Staden, S., Zimmerman, L., Long, C., Scherman, V. and Archer, E. 2007. Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 summary report. South African children's reading literacy achievement, Pretoria, South Africa: Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, University of Pretoria.  [Google Scholar]). In response, the national Department of Education (DoE, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2008d) has emphasised instructional practice improvement. However, little emphasis has been placed on the role of school organisation in learners’ reading success or failure. This article presents school organisation findings from a mixed methods study that explored South African Grade 4 teachers’ instruction practices and schooling conditions for reading literacy development. The analysis considered is based on the reclassification of the PIRLS 2006 sample according to class achievement levels on the PIRLS benchmarks and instructional language profiles. Findings from the PIRLS 2006 school questionnaire data are reported together with findings from case studies to illustrate differences and similarities in school organisation for reading literacy across a range of low- and high-performing schools.     

Humanoid robots in higher education: Evaluating the acceptance of Pepper in the context of an academic writing course using the UTAUT

This study investigates the acceptance of social robots by higher education students in the social sciences. Pepper, a humanoid social robot from SoftBank Robotics, provided a sample of its capabilities during a first semester, large-scale, university course, “Introduction to academic writing.”From this course, 462 freshmen participated in our survey. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) acts as the conceptual framework, and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) as the method for data analysis. The four perceived characteristics—trustworthiness, adaptiveness, social presence and appearance—all predict the intention to use the robot for learning purposes; anxiety regarding making mistakes in handling the robot and about privacy issues are not significant predictors. An importance-performance map analysis indicated adaptiveness as the robot’s most important characteristic for predicting student behavioural intention. Overall, however, the study shows that students do not have the intention to rely on social robots for learning purposes at the current level of state-of-the-art technology: behavioural intention reaches only 36.6% of the theoretical maximum.     

No particular way to go

This article aims to deepen understanding of the trajectories through school and into adulthood of people who did not attain valued qualifications from upper secondary school (‘non-completers’), and explore the fruitfulness of careership theory for such analysis. It is based on interviews with 100 young Swedes: 81 non-completers and 19 who had attended special upper secondary schools catering for young people with mild cognitive disability. Their narratives portray sparse socio-economic resources and difficult family situations, learning problems and marginalisation processes in school. They commonly learned to perceive themselves as failures and ‘different’. Framed by narrow horizons of action, these young people’s careers were mostly characterised by enforced rather than self-initiated turning points. Often leading to unemployment and economic problems, leaving secondary school was less of a turning point than a continuation of failure, even if completing adult education and getting a job were regarded as self-initiated, positive shifts. We conclude that careership theory was useful for analysing and understanding the careers of the young people concerned. However, distinguishing between ‘routines’ and ‘turning points’ became especially difficult when studying lives of these young people hemmed in by sparser resources, fewer choices and less stable career trajectories than their peers.     

为什么上大学

大学,是无数莘莘学子的一个金色理想,那里有殿堂般的图书馆,有皓首博学的师长,有环绕不绝的青藤,有一切梦想中的最美好的意象。然而,准备着上大学的你除了希望看到这一切、感受到这一切,有没有想过你上大学的深层目的呢?     

教学点：何去何从？——关于农村学校布局调整的一项质的研究

在当前各地进行的农村学校布局调整过程中，许多教学点被撤销了，使为数不少的农村孩子的求学历程增加了更多的困难和挫折。教学点的教学质量并不总是低下的，相反，一些教学点具有自己的独特优势。教学点的去留需要遵循科学的依据和标准．对于那些需要保留的教学点要采取各种措施促进其发展。     

类人形机器人制作箱的研制

对航模中使用的舵机加以改造,进行类人形机器人多变方案的结构设计,配以各种功能模块,整合成具有类人形机器人多变功能的制作箱。经工程训练中心创新思维训练室的使用,学生在训练中对制作出自己设计的各种机器人非常有兴趣,且有一种成就感,在训练过程中很好地培养了学生的创新意识和创新能力,有效地提升大学生的动手与创新能力。     

农村教育如何弱势走强

本文证实了“农村教育为弱势事业”的事实判断与“农村教育是经济与社会发展的自变量”的价值判断,提出了农村教育弱势走强的对策思路:在教育方针、教育发展战略、教育发展目标及政府拨款上调整战略管理,使之定向有序地解决城乡不同地区教育共同发展的问题。