“The True Story of Insy Winsy by A. Spider”

This paper investigates how the writing of some Year 6 children was influenced by exposure to the work of a contemporary author of children’s literature and through reading a variety of fairy stories, traditional tales, fables and nursery rhymes. Their growing awareness of the way in which story structures are constructed in particular genres resulted in some thought–provoking short stories which exhibited intertextual references linked to life experiences and to parts of other texts they had read.     

The status and impact of prereferral intervention: “We need a better way to determine success”

This study assessed the current status of preferral practices in the state of Michigan. Directors of special education for intermediate school districts (N=49) responded to a survey addressing issues such as whether prereferral intervention was required, the suspected handicaps for which it is used, the nature of the interventions, and who designs, implements, and evaluates interventions. Respondents also commented on the success of prereferral practices. Results indicated that (a) most districts either require or recommend prereferral practices, (b) interventions are used predominantly with students suspected of mild handicaps, and (c) academic and behavior management strategies are equally prevalent intervention strategies. The respondents' judgment of intermittent success for prereferral interventions and the prominence of school psychologists as evaluators of interventions prompt discussion of how psychologists can assist in improving prereferral practices.     

Creating the “International Mind”: The League of Nations Attempts to Reform History Teaching, 1920–1939

After the First World War, the League of Nations, through its International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, attempted to reshape the teaching of history in its member states. The League's supporters realized that its long‐term success depended in part on supportive public opinion and that this, in turn, had implications for education. Aware of the strength of national loyalties, the League sought not to abolish the teaching of national history but to suffuse it with the spirit of the “international mind.” To this end, the League promoted revision of history textbooks and curricula, retraining of teachers, and rethinking of teaching methods. National governments responded by including some study of the League in history curricula but ignored the League's broader plans. Nonetheless, the League's attempt to internationalize the teaching of history opened up a debate that continues today as schools seek to strike a balance between claims of national and global history.     

“UNIFIED”: Bridging the Researcher–Practitioner Divide in Mind,Brain, and Education

Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) science is by definition transdisciplinary. However, the communication and collaboration between constituent disciplines needed for true transdisciplinarity remains relatively rare. Consequently, many of the potential benefits of MBE science remain unrealized for parties on all sides of the discipline. The present commentary first conducts an analysis of the current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of transdisciplinary partnerships in MBE. A new, free, and international web platform (“UNIFIED”) is then proposed to broker relationships between researchers and teachers within schools. This website would allow users to form collaborations based on a system of tags indexing their research interests as well as practicalities such as their location. Such a website appears well placed to realize many of the opportunities, and mitigate the threats and weaknesses, of transdisciplinary MBE research. The article concludes with an appeal to interested researchers and schools to contribute to the development of the project.     

“Oh,the Places You'll Go” by Bringing Developmental Science Into the World!

Urie Bronfenbrenner and Ernest Boyer argued for leaving the laboratory to conduct rigorous developmental research in the real world where children are found—in the places they go. Contributions to this special issue meet Bronfenbrenner and Boyer's call while at the same time recognizing the continued importance of laboratory research. These articles range from a review of research on the arts to a language intervention in Senegal to large‐scale dissemination and intervention projects designed to communicate the best developmental science to families, public agencies, and schools. Together these articles illustrate how we can study development in the world and enrich our work on the factors that promote development. Taking this path presents us with a set of additional hurdles to be addressed, such as how to communicate with the public and how to scale up our interventions in the face of diversity along many dimensions.