Towards inclusion — our shared responsibility for disaffected pupils

Finding ways of successfully including pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties in mainstream schools remains a significant challenge as we move towards a more inclusive future. In this article, Fiona MacLeod, Upper School Co-ordinator at Willow Grove School, a special school for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties in Wigan, describes a pilot project designed to promote the reintegration of pupils at transfer to the secondary phase of their education.
She reports on a series of successful placements and discusses the factors that may have helped to sustain the inclusion of some of the pupils in her pilot group. The work described in this article was undertaken as part of the author's MA (special educational needs) programme at Lancaster University.     

A Social Development Curriculum: Applying Nurture Group Principles and Practices to Support Socially and Emotionally Vulnerable Children Within Mainstream Classrooms

Rebecca Doyle set up the first nurture group in Thetford Education Action Zone in 2000. In 2001, she published an account of her work to reintegrate pupils from the nurture group into the mainstream of their infant school in the pages of BJSE. In this article, Rebecca Doyle describes how mainstream class teachers requested further support in working with socially and emotionally vulnerable children in their classes using the principles and practices from the nurture group. A social development curriculum was written to support this interest, offering mainstream staff a planning tool to complement their existing schemes of work and to help in the drive to make the curriculum appropriate for every child, regardless of their barriers to learning. This article indicates that mainstream staff are now able to bring the increasing knowledge of nurture group working to the fore in their planning, supporting the development of whole-school nurturing approaches. The social development curriculum has become a well-used document alongside current planning frameworks, supporting staff in meeting the diverse needs of pupils within mainstream classrooms with minimal cost and little additional workload.
In closing her article, Rebecca Doyle argues that the social development curriculum has had a positive impact upon the pupils in her school and upon her colleagues on the staff. She is pursuing her research into nurturing approaches through her membership of the National Nurture Group Network and her studies for a higher degree at the University of East Anglia.     

‘I've adopted a tiger’: enhancing teaching and learning with infants through an active and integrated approach

In Scotland, A Curriculum for Excellence [Curriculum Review Group. 2004. A curriculum for excellence. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/11/20178/45862 (accessed January 6, 2010).] is being implemented in every school from August 2010. This gives teachers greater responsibility, flexibility and professional autonomy when planning and delivering the curriculum. A Curriculum for Excellence is the major priority in every school’s Improvement Plan, and schools should be adopting teaching, learning and assessment strategies that support the four capacities of A Curriculum for Excellence (successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens, effective communicators). The Curriculum for Excellence describes experiences and outcomes for children's learning in ways that will support a more active and integrated approach to teaching and learning within the curriculum. This article reports on one infant teacher’s attempt to plan and implement a programme of study for the social studies topic ‘The Zoo’, adopting an active and integrated approach to teaching and learning for her Primary 2 class (children aged 5–6 years). Dealing with children of 5–6 years requires a varied methodological approach. The approaches involved questionnaires to parents, observations of pupil involvement in lessons and focus group interviews with pupils. There was a strict ethical approach taken, which involved both parental and pupil consent as well as allowing pupils to opt out at any time.     

Planning for Their Future

Robert Ashdown (Headteacher of St. Luke's School, a special school for pupils with severe learning difficulties in Scunthorpe, Humberside) argues that although the years since the Education Reform Act have been marked by intensive curriculum development in special schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties, external pressures may have forced schools to focus on the National Curriculum at the expense of the whole curriculum. This risk remains with the new, slimmer National Curriculum. This article reports on what has been achieved and what remains to be done, particularly as regards the personal and social development of pupils.     

School‐based curriculum development: the Hong Kong experience

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to analyse the nature of the School‐based Curriculum Project Scheme (SBCPS), which was introduced into the Hong Kong education system in 1988. The aims of the scheme were to promote school‐based curriculum development (SBCD) designed to meet the learning needs of pupils and to encourage teachers to solve curriculum problems. Overall, the article provides insights into the characteristics of the SBCPS which was introduced into a highly centralized context and was initiated through a highly centralized mechanism, and describes how it was implemented into Hong Kong schools. This underlines the need both to view curriculum policies critically and to recognize the impact that the prevailing culture in schools has on attempts at curriculum innovations.     

基于提高学生核心素养,转变学生学习方式的研究

目前,很多小学生的学习方式落后、单一,降低了学习效率,需要引起广大教师的重视。在新课程背景下,教师要注重挖掘小学生的潜力,以提高学生核心素养为宗旨,促进小学生学习方式的转变,提高课堂教学实效。本文将通过对责任意识、学习目标、质疑能力、现代技术四个方面的探讨,帮助小学生找到适合自己的学习方式,实现可持续发展。     

Pupils and ‘Race’: integration and disintegration in primary schools

Following the Swann Report of 1985 and its recommendation of ‘Education for All’, the need for multicultural education in all areas was generally recognized. School‐based attempts to respond have been little researched, as has minority ethnic pupil development from the pupil's point of view. Eighteen months’ ethnographic work in six main primary schools revealed a number of predominant themes, including that reported here of ‘integration and disintegration’. Their nature, the implications for pupil learning, and the conditions attending them are explored in relation to adapting to school in the early years; transfer between schools at ages seven and nine; relationships among pupils; and pupils’ experience of the curriculum. Integration and disintegration were found to be associated with certain factors at general societal and governmental, community, institutional and individual levels. Integrational features appear to promote pupil learning and development, disintegrational to obstruct and disrupt. The analysis appears to support, amongst other things, democratic, participatory procedures in schools and collaborative learning in its widest sense involving teachers, pupils and parents.     

From ‘consulting pupils’ to ‘pupils as researchers’: a situated case narrative

Schools in England are now being encouraged to ‘personalise’ the curriculum and to consult students about teaching and learning. This article reports on an evaluation of one high school which is working hard to increase student subject choice, introduce integrated curriculum in the middle years and to improve teaching and learning while maintaining a commitment to inclusive and equitable comprehensive education. The authors worked with a small group of students as consultants to develop a ‘student's‐eye’ set of evaluative categories in a school‐wide student survey. They also conducted teacher, student and governor interviews, lesson and meeting observations, and student ‘mind‐mapping’ exercises. In this article, in the light of the findings, the authors discuss the processes they used to work jointly with the student research team, and how they moved from pupils‐as‐consultants to pupils‐as‐researchers, a potentially more transformative/disruptive practice. They query the notion of ‘authentic student voice’ and show it as discursive and heterogeneous: they thus suggest that both a standards and a rights framings of student voice must be regarded critically.     

探讨小学数学课堂教学的有效性提问

随着我国经济社会的不断发展和进步,以及新课改和素质教育的推进和落实,我国教育事业发展也越来越快越来越好,教学理念和教学方法也在不断改革和创新。各个学校在提升学生文化知识能力的同时,更加注重学生综合素质和能力水平的培养。在小学数学教学中,有效性的提问教学能够有效提升小学生的学习兴趣和能力,促进小学生全面发展和进步。     

Learning the MI Way: The Effects on Students' Learning of Using the Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Since the 1988 Education Reform Act, issues of curriculum differentiation, varied learning styles and teaching approaches relevant to the needs of individual pupils have maintained high priority on the education agenda. This article discusses the effects on pupils' learning of using Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. It is based on explorations carried out in a project 'using multiple intelligences in the classroom', initiated by co-ordinators Brenda Hopper, Val Chamberlain and Barbara Jack in the School of Education at Edge Hill College of Higher Education. The project aimed to focus equally on teachers' individual professional development, and the learning experiences and development of the pupils involved, and was carried out with teachers in local primary and secondary schools, across a wide range of subjects.     

Supporting Pupils with Special Educational Needs in the Mainstream Setting: Methods and Approaches

Since the 1988 Education Reform Act, issues of curriculum differentiation, varied learning styles and teaching approaches relevant to the needs of individual pupils have maintained high priority on the education agenda. This article discusses the effects on pupils’ learning of using Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. It is based on explorations carried out in a project ‘using multiple intelligences in the classroom’, initiated by co-ordinators Brenda Hopper, Val Chamberlain and Barbara Jack in the School of Education at Edge Hill College of Higher Education. The project aimed to focus equally on teachers’ individual professional development, and the learning experiences and development of the pupils involved, and was carried out with teachers in local primary and secondary schools, across a wide range of subjects.     

Portfolios as ‘learning companions’ for children and a means to support and assess language learning in the primary school

This article explores the idea of portfolios as a way to collect evidence of pupils' learning and achievement in their language learning in the primary school. The emphasis is on portfolio work as an active and reflective process to underpin and support learning and to show evidence of achievement and progression. Pupil choice and reflexivity are essential in the process. The process can encourage learners to draw on their learning experiences across the curriculum. Whilst a means of providing evidence of learning, and for showcasing work pupils are proud of, portfolios are seen as central to and embedded in the day-to-day learning and underpinned by the principles of formative assessment. Designed to be used with other modes of assessment including the European Languages Portfolio, portfolios are in essence flexible, inclusive and a dynamic record of learning, achievement and potential for every learner. In this article, the use of portfolios from an early age as a means to promote development and learning and a way of assessing learning are inextricably linked. Teachers working to develop portfolio work, and some of their pupils, add their voices to the discussion of portfolio development towards an enhanced dialogic assessment culture.     

The electronic mirror and emotional growth

Abstract

The article examines the use of information and communication technology to enhance the educational achievement of a group of students evidencing a variety of EBD in a mainstream school setting. It is believed that ICT will have just as important a part to play in the education of students with EBD as it will with other sensory or physical special educational needs. The article examines within-child factors which make a cognitive-behavioural approach potentially powerful. It suggests that ICT can enhance the educational experience of EBD pupils if careful attention is paid to the creation of a therapeutic teaching environment and the interaction of the student/curriculum and teacher/student interfaces. The article discusses the implementation of an integrated learning system in an inner London comprehensive school and its effects on those pupils presenting with emotionally disordered learning difficulties.     

Narrative autoethnography and the promotion of spiritual well‐being in teacher research and practice

This article demonstrates through an example the usefulness of autoethnography as a mechanism for teachers acquiring clarity about their spiritual experiences, which has the potential to contribute to facilitating pupils’ spiritual growth. I begin by examining the role of the spiritual dimension in the promotion of a holistic model of education. The purposes and ethical implications of autoethnographic research and its benefits for teacher development are addressed. A story about illness, neurosurgery and rehabilitation is presented, written according to introspective and autoethnographic techniques. The narrative reflects aspects of the writer’s spiritual growth and highlights the need among teachers to explore their own spiritual well‐being as much as the spiritual well‐being of their pupils. Suggestions are made about the diverse use of narrative to promote spiritual learning experiences in the classroom. This is an important part of the work carried out by teachers in the delivery of a curriculum that prepares learners to fulfil their potential in life and work.     

Experience and Achievement: Initiatives in Curriculum Development for Pupils with Severe and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficuties

Richard Byers, education consultant and part-time lecturer at the University of Cambridge School of Education, challenges recent thinking on the teaching of subjects to pupils with learning difficulties. He emphasises that school-centred and innovative practices in curriculum development should be fully recognised and the role of experience and achievement thoroughly explored.     

高中历史教学中乡土课程资源开发与利用探微

乡土课程资源是历史课程资源的重要组成部分,它有利于调动学生历史学习的兴趣,有助于转变历史教与学方式,有益于凸显历史时序学习的思维特点。本文对高中历史教学中乡土课程资源的开发和利用展开探讨。     

北京市基础教育课程改革实验学科教学监控与评价报告

采用问卷法、访谈法、测验法及资料分析法等方法对北京市小学一年级至四年级和初中一年级课程改革实验进行监控与评价,结果表明:四年来,北京市基础教育国家课程改革实验的成绩主要表现为国家课程计划和目标总体上得到落实,教师教学观念和教学行为发生了显著变化,学生语文基础知识和技能掌握较好,小学生数学计算技能依然保持优势;存在的主要问题是教学任务过重与计划课时不足的矛盾依然存在,学习方式存在认识误区与实践偏差,学生阅读能力普遍较低,初中一年级学生数学基础知识和技能掌握还存在较大差距,学生基础学科学习过早两极分化,教学质量评价改革滞后于教学改革,教师培训工作落后于课程改革发展的需要。     

用“自己的课程”教与学——武进清英外国语学校创新课程体系报告

每一所学校的发展．都是基于课程的;每一所学校的特色,也都是系于课程的。在用“自己的课程”教与学的课程观的引领下,清英外国语学校从理念建构、体系架构、实践重构不断向纵深推进课程改革。走出了一条学校发展的创新之路。     

Pedagogical Thinking in a Student's Mind: A conceptual clarification on the basis of self‐determination and volition theories

This article suggests that educational psychology should pay more attention to the role of the curriculum when the optimal motivation to learn in school is considered. The curriculum frames the teaching‐studying‐learning process in school. This fact has several implications on the motivation to learn in school. After the child starts school, his or her motivation to learn seems to change from an intrinsic motivation to an extrinsic motivation. To develop pedagogical thinking in a student's mind means that the student must become acquainted with the aims and goals of the curriculum, assimilate them into his or her integrated sense of self and, thus, fully accept them as their own. If this succeeds, it will have positive effects on the student's motivation at school and especially on the motivation to study and learn. The concept of pedagogical thinking in a student's mind is analogous to the concept of teacher's pedagogical thinking. Based on previous studies, this article provides an example of how joint‐planning can offer a learning environment that promotes students' pedagogical thinking and the internalisation of the aims and goals of the curriculum in school. This article calls for new theoretical syntheses and research programmes that better take into account the normative nature of learning and teaching in school.     

新课改下初中数学教学学生学习主动性的培养路径

随着新课改的推进,在初中数学教学中,教师要采用先进的教学理念及方法去培养学生,激发学生学习主动性,以此促进他们得到发展。本文将详细阐述学习主动性的内涵、如何运用数学特性激发学生学习兴趣以及新课改下初中数学教学中培养学生学习主动性的措施。