The impact of pre‐school on young children's cognitive attainments at entry to reception

This article explores the impact of pre‐school experience on young children's cognitive attainments at entry to primary school and analyses data collected as part of a wider longitudinal study, the Effective Provision of Pre‐school Education (EPPE) project, which followed a large sample of young children attending 141 pre‐school centres drawn from six types of provider in five English regions. The article compares the characteristics and attainments of the pre‐school sample with those of an additional ‘home’ sample (children who had not attended pre‐school) recruited at entry to reception. Multilevel analyses of relationships between child, parent and home environment characteristics and children's attainments in pre‐reading, early number concepts and language skills are presented. Duration of time in pre‐school is found to have a significant and positive impact on attainment over and above important influences such as family socio‐economic status, income, mother's qualification level, ethnic and language background. The research also points to the separate and significant influence of the home learning environment. It is concluded that pre‐school can play an important part in combating social exclusion by offering disadvantaged children, in particular, a better start to primary school.     

Is it possible to access the ‘voice’ of pre‐school Children? Results of a research project in a pre‐school setting

This paper presents a rationale for consulting with very young children to enable their voices to be heard, and taken into consideration, when planning pre‐school provision. It goes on to suggest that the expressed preferences of pre‐school children can be taken as an accurate account of their thoughts and feelings. This is tested through a case study of six 4‐year‐olds in a nursery setting. The research enabled a comparison to be made between what the children said were their favourite areas of nursery life, and their preferences as noted by adults. In five out of six cases, adult perspectives were the same as child perspectives. The paper ends with some exploration of the factors that contribute to reliable consultation with very young children.     

Not just ‘sunny days’: Aboriginal students connect out‐of‐school literacy resources with school literacy practices

In this paper, I report on a school‐university collaborative research project that investigated which practices and knowledges of Canadian Aboriginal students not acknowledged in school may provide these students with access to school literacy practices. The study, which took place in a small city in Western Canada, examined ways to merge the out‐of‐school literacy resources with school literacy practices for minority language learners who struggle with academic literacies. Drawing on the third space theory, in conjunction with the concept of “funds of knowledge,” I explain how students' linguistic and cultural resources from home and community networks were utilised to reshape school literacy practices through their involvement in the Heritage Fair programme. I analyse a representative case study of Darius, a 10‐year‐old boy who explored his familial hunting practices for his Heritage Fair project. This illustrative exemplar, “Not just sunny days,” highlights the ways in which children's out‐of‐school lives can be used as a scaffold for literacy learning. In conclusion, I discuss implications for educators and researchers working to improve literacy learning for minority students by connecting school learning to children's out‐of‐school learning.     

Adjustment outcomes of developmental placement: A longitudinal study

Over the years, educators and psychologists have recommended delaying school entry and have developed alternative interventions for young children identified as unready for school. These developmental placement interventions, including readiness kindergartens and pre‐first classes, were developed to avoid both academic and social‐emotional problems in schools. However, the efficacy of these programs has not been proven. This study examined school adjustment outcomes and emotional and learning difficulties, both short‐term and longitudinally, for students who participated in readiness kindergartens and pre‐first classes, as well as for control groups of students. Significant differences were noted in retention rates, dropout rates, and special education placement rates. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An evaluation of Learning Contracts within the context of partnership in school‐based training: implications for school based mentoring

This paper explores parents' expectations and perceptions of effective induction and formative partnership with their child's school during the transition to full‐time statutory education.

Based on fifty case study children from two schools of similar size and catchment area but with different induction practices, it looks at a range of issues including parents' perceptions of home visiting, pre‐entry visits to school and pre‐entry profiles, as well as parents' knowledge about school and their notions of partner ship.

The paper outlines the implications for schools' partnerships with parents, exploring: ways in which schools and parents can begin to understand one another; how schools can help parents to support their children's learning; and ways in which effective schools can create opportunities for parental involvement.     

Thinking allowed: use of egocentric speech after acquired brain injury (ABI)

This paper explores the use of thinking aloud made by young people who have sustained a severe acquired brain injury (ABI). The phenomenon is compared with the concepts of egocentric speech and inner speech before the form of thinking aloud by pupils with ABI is examined. It is suggested that by using thinking aloud, this group of pupils is able to engage in internally persuasive dialogue and is therefore enabled to take part in classroom learning.     

Is Jimmy Really so Different? Learning and making-meaning in work and non-work contexts

In this paper I use a single case-study to map the transition of a young person as he moved from school into work. My purpose is to illuminate the shape and character of his learning in work and its relation to education. Not only do I authenticate the social and situated composition of his learning, but show that this was grounded as a continuing accomplishment in his unfolding experience. Out of school, Jimmy did not cease to be a learner. Indeed, the character and manner of his learning in work was not dissimilar to that which was experienced by other young people who chose to continue, directly and formally in school or college, with their training and education.     

Evaluation of a school‐based transition program designed to facilitate school reentry following a mental health crisis or psychiatric hospitalization

In recent decades, increasing attention has been paid to the number of adolescents experiencing extended absences from school due to mental health crises. Upon returning to school, these students often face difficulties in functioning, risk of relapse, and vulnerability to academic failure and social isolation. This paper presents results of a study examining a school‐based support program model designed to provide short‐term academic, social, and emotional support to help students successfully reacclimatize to school after an extended absence. The paper describes demographic, academic, and clinical characteristics of 189 program participants across eight high schools. Improvements were observed in participants’ day‐to‐day functioning based on the results of pre/postassessments completed by program clinicians. Preliminary data showed positive trends in participants’ school attendance and high school graduation rates. Finally, the paper considers implications for school‐based mental health practice and next steps in related research.     

The Training of Coaching Skills: an implementation study

In this study, the implementation effects of a programme for the training of coaching skills with Dutch school counsellors are described. These school counsellors are expected to provide help and support to primary school teachers. Coaching is a form of in‐class support intended to provide teachers with feedback on their own functioning and thereby stimulate self‐reflection and self‐analysis in order to improve instructional effectiveness. To assist school counsellors in their attempts to coach teachers, a training programme was designed: ‘The school counsellor as coach.’ A quasi‐experimental, treatment‐control group investigation was then set up to test the effects of this programme. Based on the pre‐ and post‐training ratings of coaching conferences, a significant treatment effect was found for the coaching skills concerned with the development of autonomy (empowerment), feedback, and purposefulness. The pre‐ and post‐training ratings from coached teachers showed no significant treatment effects. This was because the teachers were not accustomed to in‐class assistance and thus rated the coaching skills of the school counsellors quite favourably even at pre‐test.     

Neuro‐sensori‐motor dysfunction in young children with educational and behavioural problems and controls

The theoretical importance of neuro‐sensori‐motor areas,” particularly of the proprioceptive and vestibular systems, to optimal functioning in the classroom is outlined, together with exceptionalities where dificits have been reported. Children of normal intelligence but referred with learning and behavioural problems were assessed by a multidisciplinary team and the results of the neuro‐sensori‐motor assessment are compared with those from a control group. The children referred by medical or guidance officers had much higher deficits than the randomly sampled pre‐school children, including deficits in labyrinthine righting in 97%, occulomotor functioning in 80% and proprioception in 79%.     

‘I never imagined I’d have to teach these children’: providing authentic learning experiences for secondary pre‐service teachers in teaching students with special needs

This article describes a collaborative and cross‐curricula initiative undertaken in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. The project involved developing an integrated approach to providing professional year pre‐service secondary teacher education students with experiences that would assist them to develop their knowledge and skills to teach students with special needs in their classrooms. These experiences were undertaken in the authentic teaching and learning context of a post‐school literacy program for young adults with intellectual disabilities. In preliminary interviews pre‐service teachers revealed that they lacked experience, knowledge and understanding related to teaching students with special needs, and felt that their teacher education program lacked focus in this field. This project was developed in response to these expressed needs. Through participating in the project, pre‐service teachers’ knowledge and understanding about working with students with diverse learning needs were developed as they undertook real and purposeful tasks in an authentic context.     

Extending pre‐school experience as preventive intervention: Relationships with later reading achievement

This study investigated the predictive validity of decisions made by a pre‐school teacher concerning the cognitive and social maturity of her pupils to enter formal schooling, based on their performance on the Neale Scales of Early Childhood Development.Thirty‐five children selected from the rolls of a Melbourne pre‐school which had maintained records over a ten‐year period were followed up in primary school and their reading ability assessed. Findings showed that subjects who had undertaken an additional pre‐school year following advice based on their Neale Scales’ performance were reading significantly better than those who had displayed similar developmental anomalies but who bad not been exposed to further pre‐school experience; moreover, the former were reading as well as or better than children selected on the basis of their pre‐school profiles as being ready for school.     

What happens to pupils permanently excluded from special schools and pupil referral units in England?

There is widespread consensus in the research and policy‐related literature over the last decade that young people who have been permanently excluded from school are at a far greater risk of a variety of negative outcomes than young people who have not had this experience. These negative outcomes include prolonged periods out of education and/or employment; poor mental and physical health; involvement in crime; and homelessness. This article presents evidence from a small‐scale qualitative study of destinations and outcomes post‐exclusion for a group of young people considered to be at particular risk of such negative outcomes: namely, those who have been permanently excluded from special schools or Pupil Referral Units (now known as short‐stay schools). The specific focus of this paper is on the 24 young people's educational trajectories pre‐ and post‐exclusion; the reasons for their exclusion from school; and on what forms of alternative provision were available to them after their permanent exclusion.     

Connective learning: young people's identity and knowledge‐making in work and non‐work contexts

In this paper I begin by outlining the key characteristics of a view of learning that has been pre‐eminent in the past 30 years in the United Kingdom. The focus of this discourse has been less upon understanding the processes and practices of learning as a complex process and more upon improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the curriculum and of teaching to meet taken‐for‐granted needs. Making use of two case studies, I exemplify a connective approach, as a transaction with the environment, which acknowledges both the contextual and incremental character of knowledge‐making, and the interplay between different cultural factors and influences, including discourse and identity, that play‐upon learning. This recognises the importance of all the different learning opportunities available to young people while lending support to claims for approaches to both the design of the curriculum and teaching that allow young people to learn in formal and informal contexts.     

Cultural and religious experiences: do they define teaching and learning for pre‐service teachers prior to teacher education?

This study examines the interaction between indigenous culture and modern religious practices of teaching and learning, and how this contributes towards shaping the preconceptions of teaching, learning, a teacher's role(s), students as learners, and knowledge of three secondary school pre‐service teachers who were just commencing their teacher education program at the only university educating teachers for post‐primary and post‐vocational educational institutions in Papua New Guinea. Data were obtained through a semi‐structured interview questionnaire. Data analysis revealed a dialectical and a mutually constitutive relationship between cultural and religious practices of teaching and learning. This made a significant contribution towards the construction of the three secondary school pre‐service teachers' preconceptions. These practices defined and fashioned the perceptions of teaching and learning the three pre‐service teachers held prior to becoming students of teaching.     

‘This baby…it isn't alive.’ Towards a community of learners for vocational orientation

The aim of this study is to contribute to the innovation of pre‐vocational education, in particular, students' orientation at possible future occupations. From our theoretical understanding, vocational orientation that makes sense to students requires them to be part of a ‘community of learners for vocational orientation’. In such a community, students are stimulated to learn deliberately while participating in vocational practices. In this article we distinguish four parameters to define a community of learners for vocational orientation. We then present the results of a collective instrumental case study into teaching‐learning processes in four classes in two pre‐vocational secondary schools. Data were collected through classroom observations, a series of interviews with teachers and students. The interviews focused on eight ‘critical incidents’ recorded during classroom observations. The results show that the parameters ‘shared learning’ and ‘meaningful learning’ are more manifest in the teaching‐learning process than ‘reflective learning’ and ‘a focus on transferable learning outcomes’. The article concludes with a discussion of the limits of working in simulated work situations in school for realizing effective pre‐vocational education.     

Childhood acquired brain injury: the knowledge and training needs of special educational needs coordinators

The aim of this study was to further explore Special Educational Need Co-ordinators' (SENCos) knowledge of childhood acquired brain injury (ABI) and if they have received training on how to effectively support children and young people (CYP) with an ABI in school. SENCos from Nottinghamshire were asked to complete a survey face-to-face or online. Data reported by Howe and Ball (Support for Learning, 32, 1, 85–100), was also used to allow comparisons between different counties in the UK for knowledge of childhood ABI. Results indicated that SENCos from Nottinghamshire hold numerous uncertainties about childhood ABI, although less uncertainties than SENCos from the West Midlands. A majority SENCos from Nottinghamshire had not received training about childhood ABI. Additional challenges in supporting CYP with an ABI were also identified. The findings show a clear need for more training on childhood ABI across UK schools. It is also apparent that obtaining funding for CYP with an ABI can be a challenge for SENCos. However, further research is needed to determine what these barriers to funding are.     

Differential Third‐Grade Outcomes Associated With Attending Publicly Funded Preschool Programs for Low‐Income Latino Children

This study examined the third‐grade outcomes of 11,902 low‐income Latino children who experienced public school pre‐K or child care via subsidies (center‐based care) at age 4 in Miami‐Dade County, Florida. Regression and propensity score analyses revealed that children who experienced public school pre‐K earned higher scores on standardized assessments of math and reading in third grade and had higher grade point averages than those who attended center‐based care 4 years earlier. The sustained associations between public school pre‐K (vs. center‐based care) and third‐grade outcomes were mediated by children's kindergarten entry preacademic and social–behavioral skills, and among English‐language learners, English proficiency. Implications for investing in early childhood programs to assist with the school readiness of young Latino children in poverty are discussed.     

The link between the emotional consequences of child sexual abuse and school experiences

The present paper presents findings drawn from a qualitative study that investigated the impact of childhood sexual abuse on school functioning among young adult survivors in South Africa. Data were obtained by means of in‐depth individual interviews with 22 young adults. Analysing the interviews following procedures aligned to a grounded theory approach, the findings revealed the link between the emotional consequences of the experience and the individual's school performance. To provide a detailed explanation of the victims' responses, the discussion includes the multifaceted factors that trigger emotions and their interactions.