A solution to exclusion

Abstract

A total involvement project in a mainstream upper school KEYW ORDS was initiated by a local education authority (LEA) as part of their behaviour restructuring of support for pupils with behavioural and emotional management; difficulties. The project was intended to meet the needs of a particular exclusion; LEA school which had a history of excluding difficult pupils. Initial evalu-behaviour ation of the project indicated that exclusion numbers have been support reduced, the school’s behavioural management structure has been improved, and a higher quality of support for pupils is offered at earlier stages. The project has highlighted a number of factors which are exemplars of good practice and has recently attracted research funding for a more structured evaluation via the DfES Best Practice Research Scholarship scheme. This account traces the early stages of the project, up to the first-phase evaluation, and is illustrated with examples of pupil case studies.     

A plea for Jill Chaney

Jill Chaney's first book was published over ten years ago, and since then she has produced eight more novels. Five of these have the young child in mind as reader, but her most interesting work lies in the four books she has written for teenagers,Half a Candle, Mottram Park, Return to Mottram Park, andThe Buttercup Field. She is a writer whose books are not widely known, and the purpose of this article is to examine some of the themes in her work and to suggest that what she has to say to young people deserves more attention, both from teachers and teenagers themselves, than she has received up till now.David has had three books for children published,Storm Surge (Butterworth),Quintin's Man (Dobson) andThe Missing German (Dobson). These are to be followed in 1977 by four more stories,The Spectrum (Dobson),Landslip (Hamish Hamilton),The Ferryman (Dobson), andRisks (Pyramid). He has also written articles on Penelope Lively and Penelope Farmer forThe Horn Book, and an essay on Philippa Pearce which appeared inChildren's literature in education. His novelQuintin's Man is to be published by Nelson in the United States this year.     

MEXICAN AMERICANS AS A LEGAL MINORITY

On August 2, 1972, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in Cisneros v. Corpus Christi, a school segregation case involving, among other things, the question whether Mexican Americans constitute an identifiable ethnic group in desegregation proceedings. The affirmative answer is embodied in the following extracts from the decision. For ease of reading, footnotes and most legal citations have been omitted. The opinion was written by Judge David W. Dyer.     

A Multimodal Approach to Counselor Supervision

This article represents an initial effort to apply Lazarus's multimodal approach to a model of counselor supervision. The supervision model emphasizes the importance of considering the trainee's total counseling experience. As a means of accessing the trainee's total experience, the supervisory process includes continuously monitoring the trainee's Behavior, Affect, Sensations, Images, Cognitions, Interpersonal functioning, and when appropriate, Biological functioning (Diet and Drugs). The multimodal model of supervision is presented as supervisee-specific; and the multimodal supervisor is seen as flexible, adaptable, and technically eclectic. Key multimodal supervision procedures, such as establishing a trainee modality profile and tracking the modality firing order, are presented and discussed via a case example.     

A transfer in learning

A Bibliography of Speech Pathology. By Robert West and Mildred Gottbank. Madison, Wisconsin: College Typing Co., 1940; pp. 41, mimeographed.

Annals of the New York Stage, Vol. XI. By George C. D. Odell. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939. $8.75.

Broadcast Receivers and Phonographs for Classroom Use. New York: Committee on Scientific Aids to Learning, 1939; pp. 95. Paper.

Central Sound Systems for Schools. New York : Committee on Scientific Aids to Learning, 1940; pp. 69. Paper.

Sound Recording Equipment for Schools. New York : Committee on Scientific Aids to Learning, 1940; pp. 52. Paper.

The Enjoyment of Drama. By Milton Marx. New York: F. S. Crofts &; Co., 1940; pp. 242. $1.50

Essentials of Parliamentary Procedure. By J. Jeffery Auer. New York : F. S. Crofts &; Co., 1940 ; pp. x + 35. $.40.

A Handbook of Voice and Diction. By F. Lincoln D. Holmes. F. S. Crofts and Company, 1940; pp. 270. $2.00.

The Logic of Language. By James MacKaye. Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College Publications, 1939; pp. 303.

Plays of America's Growth. By Samuel S. Ullman. New York: Dodd, Mead &; Company, 1940. pp. 227. $2.00.

The Effect of Varied Amounts of Phonetic Training on Primary Reading. By Donald C. Agnew. Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press, 1939 ; pp. viii + 50. $1.00.

Minor Mental Maladjustments in Normal People. By J. E. Wallace Wallin. Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press, 1939 ; pp. IX + 296. $3.00.

Science of Language: Vol. II, Word Study. By J. J. Callahan. Pittsburgh, Pa.: Duquesne University Press, 1939; pp. 272 + xi.

Stage Fright And What To Do About It. By Dwight Everett Watkins and Harrison M. Karr, with illustrations by Zadie Harvey. Boston: Expression Company, 1940; pp. 110. $1.50.

The Actor's Handbook, By Caroline Silverthorne. Boston: Expression Company, 1939 ; pp. xiii + 350. $2.50.

Twenty Short Plays On A Royalty Holiday, Vol. II. Edited by Margaret Mayorga. New York : Samuel French, 1940 ; pp. viii + 486. $3.00.

With Puppets Mimes And Shadows. By Margaret K. Soifer. Brooklyn, N.Y. : The Furrow Press, 1936; pp. 116. $1.50.

Handbook of Parliamentary Law—Revised Edition. By F. M. Gregg. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1940; pp. xii + 112. $1.00.

In a Word. By Margaret S. Ernst. Drawings by James Thurber. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939; pp. 251. $2.50.

Art and Craft of Play Production. By Barnard Hewitt. Chicago: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1940; pp. xii + 388; illustrated. $2.90.

How to Increase Reading Ability: A Guide to Diagnostic and Remedial Methods. By Albert J. Harris. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1940 ; pp. xix + 403. $3.00.

The Mechanism of the Human Voice. By Robert Curry, with a foreword by Douglas Guthrie. New York—Toronto (printed in Great Britain): Longmans, Green &; Co., 1940; pp. ix + 205.

The Language of Gesture. By Macdonald Critchley. London: Edwin Arnold &; Co., (New York: Longmans, Green) 1939; pp. 128. $1.75.

The World's Greatest Debate. Edited by Glenn Clark. St. Paul, Minn. Macalester Park Publishing Co., 1940 ; pp. viii + 214. $2.75.

Public Speaking for Technical Men. By S. Marion Tucker. New York: McGraw‐Hill Book Company, Inc., 1939; pp. xvi + 397. $3.00.

Education on the Air. Tenth Yearbook of the Institute for Education by Radio. Edited by Josephine H. MacLatchy. Columbus : Ohio State University, 1939; pp. ix + 436. $3.00.

Aeschylus, The Creator of Tragedy. By Gilbert Murray. New York : Oxford University Press, 1939; pp. 220.

Your Speech, Sixth Grade I, II ; Seventh Grade I ; Eighth Grade I. By David Powers and Suzanne Martin. New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1940; pp. 192, 202, 168, 168. $.75 each.

Interpretation of the Printed Page. By S. H. Clark, revised by Maud May Babcock. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1940; pp. 402. $2.00.

Effective Speaking for Every Occasion. By Willard Hayes Yeager. New York : Prentice‐Hall, 1940 ; pp. viii + 444. $2.60.

Building Your Vocabulary. By John G. Gilmartin. New York: Prentice‐Hall, 1939; pp. v‐ix + 281. $1.12.

Tested Public Speaking. By Elmer Wheeler. New York: Prentice‐Hall, 1939; pp. vii‐x + 173. $2.00.

How to Overcome Stammering. By Mabel F. Gifford. New York: Prentice‐Hall, 1940; pp. XII + 169. $2.45.

Sophocles, Poet and Dramatist. By William Nickerson Bates. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940; pp. xiii + 291. $3.50.

The Invasion from Mars. By Hadley Cantril, with the assistance of Hazel Gaudet and Herta Herzog. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1940; pp. xv + 228. $2.50.

Filibustering in the Senate. By Franklin L. Burdette. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1940 ; pp. ix + 252. $2.50.

Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy. By Fredson Thayer Bowers. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940 ; pp. viii + 288. $3.00.

Rhode Island Speaks, and Rhode Island High School Model Congress. Bristol, R.I. : Rhode Island Speech Association, Monographs No. 1 and 2, 1940.

Make Yourself a Better Speaker. By E. C. Buehler. New York : The Ronald Press Company, 1940 ; pp. xii + 250. $2.50.

Children and the Theater. By Caroline E. Fisher and Hazel Glaister Robertson. California: Stanford University Press, 1940. pp. XIII + 191. $3.00.

A Speech Teacher's Manual By Florence Henderson. Honolulu, T.H.: University of Hawaii Book Store, 1940; pp. v + 111; mimeographed.

Edmund Burke and His Literary Friends. By Donald Cross Bryant. St. Louis : Washington University Studies—New Series. Language and Literature— No. 9. 1939; pp. xii + 323. $2.75.

Representative American Speeches: 1938–1939. Selected by A. Craig Baird. The Reference Shelf, vol. 13, no. 3. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1939; pp. 265; $1.25.

Anthology of Public Speeches. Compiled by Mabel Platz. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1940; pp. 852; $3.75.

The American Neutrality Problem. Compiled and edited by Charles F. Phillips and J. V. Garland. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1939; pp. 404. $2.00.

The Student Congress Movement: with Discussion on American Neutrality. Edited by Lyman Spicer Judson. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1940; pp. 225. $1.25.

The American Drama Since 1918. By Joseph Wood Krutch. New York: Random House, 1939; pp. 325. $2.50.

American Playwrights: 1918–1938. By Eleanor Flexner. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939; pp. 331. $2.50.

How to Make Good Recordings. Audio Devices, 1600 Broadway, New York, 1940. pp. 128. $1.25.

Yearbook of Drama Festivals and Contests. By Ernest Bavely. Cincinnati, Ohio: Educational Theatre Press, 1939; pp. 144.

Mr. Cibber of Drury Lane. By Richard Hindry Barker. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939; pp. 278. $3.00.

Today in American Drama. By Frank Hurburt O'Hara. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1939; pp. 277. $2.50.     

A beginner's beginning

Seventeenth‐Century Lyrics. By Alexander Corbin Judson (Indiana University). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1927. Pp. xx + 413. Price, $2.50.

The Golden Trumpets. By Blanche Jennings Thompson. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1927. Pp. x + 163.

Essentials of Electrical Work. By George A. Willoughby. Peoria, Ill.: The Manual Arts Press, 1927. Pp. 242. Price, $1.60.

With the Circus. By Courtney Ryley Cooper. Boston: Little, Brown &; Co., 1927. Pp. vi + 212. Price, 75 cents.

Old Testament Stories. By Eulalie Osgood Grover. Boston: Little, Brown &; Co., 1927. Pp. x + 309. Price, 85 cents.

History of Socialist Thought. By Harry W. Laidler. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1927. Pp. xxii + 713. Price, $3.50.

The Organisation and Administration of Playgrounds and Recreation. By Jay B. Nash. New York: A. S. Barnes &; Co., 1927. Pp. xii + 547. Price, $4.

Historical Foundations of Modern Education. By Edward H. Reisner. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1927. Pp. xvi + 513. Price, $2.60.

Algebra, Book II. By William Raymond Longley and Harry Brooks Marsh. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1927. Pp. xii + 457.

Swimming Simplified. By Lyba and Nita Sheffield (Universities of California and Columbia). New York: A. S. Barnes &; Co., 1927. Pp. xiii + 297. Price, $2.

The Reorganization of Mathematics in Secondary Education (Part I). By John Wesley Young. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1927. Pp. xiv + 181. Price, $1.20.

Principles of Secondary Education. By L. A. Williams and G. A. Rice (University of California). Boston: Ginn &; Co., 1927. Pp. xi + 339. Price, $2.

Outlines of Historical Study. By George W. Robinson (Harvard University). Boston: Ginn &; Co., 1927. Pp. vii + 375. Price, $2.40.

Human Thinking. By Arthur Cary Fleshman (Converse College). Spartanburg, S. C: Piedmont Publishing Co., 1927. Pp. 58.

The Philosophy of Education. By Herman H. Horne (New York University), Revised Edition. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1927. Pp. xvi + 329.

A First Course in the New Mathematics. By Edward I. Edgerton and Perry A. Carpenter. Boston: Allyn &; Bacon, 1927. Pp. viii + 348.

Preventive Medicine. By Mark F. Boyd. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 1925. Pp. 429.

Football Conditioning. By Holger Christian Langmack. New York: A. S. Barnes &; Co., 1926. Pp. xi + 48. Price, $1.50.

Prehistoric Man—Life in the Old and New Stone Ages, By Mary E. Boyle. Boston: Little, Brown &; Co., 1924.

Creative Education. By Henry Fairfield Osborn (President, American Museum of Natural History). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927. Pp. xiv + 360. Price, $2.50.

Children's Stories That Never Grow Old. Adapted by Mary Stone. Chicago: The Reilly &; Lee Co. Pp. 248. Price, $1.50.

Skeezix at the Circus. By Frank King. Chicago: The Eeilly &; Lee Co., 1926. Pp. iii + 106. Price, $1.

Children's Poems That Never Grow Old. Compiled by Clement F. Benoit. Chicago: The Reilly &; Lee Co., 1922. Pp. xxii + 298.

Recitations for Younger Children. Compiled and edited by Grace Gaige. New York: D. Appleton &; Co., 1927. Pp. xviii + 215. Price, $2.

Nature Study and Health Education. By Alice Jean Patterson. Normal, Ill.: McKnight &; McKnight. Fourth Year, xii + 131 pp.; Fifth Year, 192 pp.; Sixth Year, 224 pp.     

A Matter of lntuition?

There have been several requests for a puzzle corner in Teaching Statistics. Dr Selkirk introduces one such problem. Others would be welcome.     

A Confucian Conception of Critical Thinking

This article proposes a Confucian conception of critical thinking by focussing on the notion of judgement. It is argued that the attainment of the Confucian ideal of li (normative behaviours) necessitates and promotes critical thinking in at least two ways. First, the observance of li requires the individual to exercise judgement by applying the generalised knowledge, norms and procedures in dao (Way) to particular action‐situations insightfully and flexibly. Secondly, the individual's judgement, to qualify as an instance of li, should be underpinned and motivated by the ethical quality of ren (humanity) that testifies to one's moral character. Two educational implications arising from a Confucian conception of critical thinking are highlighted. First, the Confucian interpretation presented in this essay challenges the perception that critical thinking is absent from or culturally incompatible with Chinese traditions. Secondly, such a conception advocates viewing critical thinking as a form of judgement that is action‐oriented, spiritual, ethical and interpersonal.     

A question

Amy Laura Dombro is the author of The Ordinary is Extraordinary: How Children Under Three Learn,published by Simon &; Schuster. She lives in New York City.     

A Methodology for Evaluating College Teaching Effectiveness

SUMMARY In this paper a multidimensional model for evaluating college teaching effectiveness is developed to select the best faculty member for a teaching award. The model is based on the assumption that teaching effectiveness is a linear function of five variables: (a) students’ evaluation; (b) graduating students’ evaluation; (c) chairman's input; (d) colleagues’ input; (e) course file. These variables have been quantified to obtain teaching effectiveness scores for the faculty members eligible for the award contest. The scores of the five variables are standardized prior to differential weighting. The reason for incorporating these five standardized weighted variables into the model is to ensure the fairness and objectivity of this evaluation process. The model has been implemented in a college to select a faculty for an outstanding teacher award.     

A preliminary investigation of the concurrent validity of reading comprehension rate: A direct,dynamic measure of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension rate (RCR) is a direct measure of reading skills that may be useful in formatively evaluating students reading beyond the fourth‐grade level. To investigate the concurrent validity of RCR, we correlated RCR, reading comprehension level (RCL), and words correct per minute (WC/M) with the Broad Reading Cluster Scores of the Woodcock‐Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ‐III ACH) across 88 students in 4th, 5th, and 10th grades. Results showed that aloud‐RCR was significantly correlated with the WJ‐III ACH scores for 4th‐grade (r = .90; n = 22), 5th‐grade (r = .87; n = 29), and 10th‐grade (r = .65; n = 37) students. Regression analysis specified a one‐predictor model for 4th‐grade students (aloud‐RCR), a two‐predictor model for 5th‐grade students (WC/M and aloud‐RCR), and a one‐predictor model for 10th‐grade students (WC/M). Discussion focuses on directions for future research and applied issues related to RCR probe passage development. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 373–388, 2007.     

A MORE PRACTICAL PEDAGOGICAL IDEAL: SEARCHING FOR A CRITERION OF DEWEYAN GROWTH

When Dewey scholars and educational theorists appeal to the value of educative growth, what exactly do they mean? Is an individual's growth contingent on receiving a formal education? Is growth too abstract a goal for educators to pursue? Richard Rorty contended that the request for a “criterion of growth” is a mistake made by John Dewey's “conservative critics,” for it unnecessarily restricts the future “down to the size of the present.” Nonetheless, educational practitioners inspired by Dewey's educational writings may ask Dewey scholars and educational theorists, “How do I facilitate growth in my classroom?” Here Shane Ralston asserts, in spite of Rorty's argument, that searching for a more concrete standard of Deweyan growth is perfectly legitimate. In this essay, Ralston reviews four recent books on Dewey's educational philosophy—Naoko Saito's The Gleam of Light: Moral Perfectionism and Education in Dewey and Emerson, Stephen Fishman and Lucille McCarthy's John Dewey and the Philosophy and Practice of Hope, and James Scott Johnston's Inquiry and Education: John Dewey and the Quest for Democracy and Deweyan Inquiry: From Educational Theory to Practice—and through his analysis identifies some possible ways for Dewey‐inspired educators to make growth a more practical pedagogical ideal.     

A good measure of safety

Each year, fifteen thousand children die from accidents—more than from cancer, congenital malformations, pneumonia, heart disease, meningitis, and homicide combined. As a day care center provider or a parent, you are responsible for the safety and well-being of children in your care. You need to know how to make your home safe for children and how to prevent accidents. Young children view things as interesting to taste or touch—not as safe or dangerous. Children do not even begin to understand the concept of danger until the age of two. Protecting them is your job. Annette Lubchenco is the principal writer for the Spoonful of Lovin'video series and its Manual for Day Care Providers.This article is excerpted from the Manualthat can be obtained from the Agency for Instructional Television, Box A, Bloomington, IN 47402.     

A Measure of Counselor Competency

Counselor educators need to be able to demonstrate their effectiveness in training new counselors; however, currently few valid or reliable measures exist for assessing educators' impact. The authors describe the development of such an instrument, the Counseling Skills Scale. They began by revising an existing scale and then they solicited feedback from experts and a focus group. They used the instrument to compare beginning counselors‐in‐training with those who had completed a counseling skills course. Finally, they conducted an item analysis. A paired t test showed significant improvements in counseling skills (t = 4.51, p < .000) from pretest to posttest. Cronbach's alpha showed internal consistency to be .90.     

A STUDY OF OLDER STUDENTS ATTENDING UNIVERSITY CLASSES

Recently, March, Hooper, and Baum (1977) described a sample of 99 nonstudent elders in terms of their demographic characteristics and their attitudes toward lifelong learning. The sample was found to be well‐educated (mean years of education = 13.61, SD = 9.43), active in the community, well‐read, and fairly affluent. The majority demonstrated a quite open attitude toward the appropriateness of formal education in old age, but also felt that learning can be acquired outside the classroom: “living is learning.”

The present study was undertaken to similarly describe a sample of elderly people enrolled in the University of Wisconsin guest student program, and to contrast these respondents with those in the earlier study. The student group was found to be significantly younger than the nonstudent group (mean = 70.78, SD = 7.21 vs. mean = 74.69, SD = 8.45; t = 2.87, p < .001). Although there is no difference in the mean years of education of the two groups, there is significantly greater variability in years of education in the student group (F = 10.98, p < .001), with 50.4% of the nonstudent group versus 21.6% of the student group having 12 years of education or less. Additionally, it was found that only 10 of the 139 student respondents did not have either personal or vicarious personal (through familial significant others) experience with higher education in youth.

The respondents’ stated preference for class format and student group age is also summarized, and some implications for educational gerontology are discussed.     

Multimedia Effect in Problem Solving: A Meta-Analysis

Pictures are commonly used to represent problems. However, it is unclear how the addition of pictures affects students’ problem-solving performance. The multimedia effect in problem solving describes the phenomenon whereby an individual’s problem-solving performance is enhanced when equivalent pictures are added to illustrate or replace part of the problem text. Using meta-analytic techniques, this study sought to determine the overall size of the multimedia effect in problem solving and the possible boundary conditions (k = 51; N = 38,987; Range n = 10 – 31,842; Median n = 63). The results showed a significant small-to-medium multimedia effect size on response accuracy (Hedges’s g = 0.32) and a significant medium-to-large multimedia effect size on students’ response certainty (Hedges’s g = 0.74), but no significant multimedia effect on response time. The results for the effects of decorative pictures were not sufficient for a reliable interpretation. Representational (Hedges’s g = 0.24) and organizational (Hedges’s g = 0.52) pictures had a significant and positive impact on response accuracy, but informational or multiple pictures across studies did not have a significant aggregate effect on an individual’s response accuracy. These findings suggest that the multimedia effect in problem solving is diverse and limited by multiple boundary conditions. Further primary studies are needed to further investigate the multimedia effect in problem solving.

     

A correspondence of academic interest

Editor's Note: The following is a continuation of the dialogue “A Correspondence of Academic Interest” in the Spring 1994 issue ofAcademic Questions. That exchange concerned the program, recently announced by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), to promote diversity on the governing boards of the public corporations in which it invests.     

A Laboratory in Higher Education

This study of time use and entertainment choices of college students used a triangulated approach to discover how college students use and manage their time. From the data we gathered through time diaries, students indicated that the greatest amount of personal time is spent in some form of communication (talking face to face, texting, talking on the phone, and using social networking Web sites). Students spent about the same amount of time studying for courses (M = 11.91 hours per week, SD = 3.27) as they do actually attending courses each week (M = 12.35, SD 4.51). By comparison, students reported spending 14.35 hours each week texting and 6.49 hours talking on the phone. Females had statistically higher GPAs than males and scored higher on academic striving. Data indicated that students were engaged by instructors who seemed passionate about the content they were teaching, viewed their college education through the lens of a consumer model, and expected to have a personal connection with their professors. Recommendations for adapting instructional strategies are provided.     

Stories: A Common Currency

This article offers an account of a series of writing workshops involving English teachers in Victoria, Australia, known as the stella2.0 project. It argues that storytelling can potentially provide a valuable counterpoint to the ‘knowledge’ underpinning standards-based reforms. The argument serves to introduce two other essays published in this issue of Changing English: ‘Storytelling and Professional Learning’, in which Brenton Doecke articulates a standpoint about storytelling that helped to shape the workshops, and ‘Professional Learning and the Unfinalizable: English Educators Writing and Telling Stories Together…’, by Graham Parr and Scott Bulfin, in which they inquire into the conceptual foundations of the stella2.0 project and discuss some of the writing generated by teachers in the workshops.     

A Conversation with Posy Simmonds

In this article David Lewis talks to Posy Simmonds about her career in illustration, cartooning and the writing and illustration of picturebooks. Together they discuss her early experience of working as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines; her first attempt at creating a weekly adult cartoon strip and her subsequent career as a regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper. They consider her approach to writing and drawing picturebooks; the balance of realism and fantasy in her work; her mastery of colour effects; her liking for drawing cats and her attempts to capture the truth of a situation in pictures and words. David Lewis has been a teacher in primary and secondary schools, an educational researcher, and lecturer in education at Goldsmiths’ College, London and the University of Exeter. He has written a number of articles about children’s picturebooks and is the author of Reading Contemporary Picturebooks: Picturing Text. He is a member of the UK editorial committee of Children’s Literature in Education.