Policy and practice: the changing nature of special educational provision in schools

Carol Vincent (a former teacher in London primary and special schools, now a lecturer in Special Education at the Open University), and Jennifer Evans, Ingrid Lunt & Pam Young (from the London Institute of Education) draw on data collected in a recent research project, which studied the effects of LMS on the funding and organisation of specials education services and resources, to provide a snapshot of some recent developments in special education provision.     

New educational provision for young children in Italy

A widespread latent demand for educational provision for under 3s exists in Italy. This demand emerges from different material and psychological needs of families. In the last twenty years a large network of day care centers for infants and toddlers, asilo nido, have been installed by local governments in many regions of Central and Northern Italy. These facilities provide daily child care within an educationally oriented context. More recently, new types of facilities have been set up. They stem from the public asilo nido in both cultural and organizational terms and are integrated, together with all the other services, into a local network of educational facilities for young children and their families. The new facilities are aimed at quantitatively expanding the supply of educational provision and at broadening the range of choice for families with respect to their different needs. This paper provides an overview of the new facilities.     

教育技术学综合实验课程构建

立足于教育技术学科综合性实验课程的建设与发展现状,结合多年的实验课程教学实践,探讨了在教育技术学科实验教学中,进行综合性实验课程建设的目的、必要性以及存在的问题,总结了开发与构建教育技术学科综合实验课程的一些方法、经验与尝试。     

Exporting professional courses: cultural and educational implications

Since the introduction of the Overseas Student Program (OSP) in 1985, courses have been marketed, often quite aggressively, by Australian universities. In most cases, overseas students have responded by coming to Australia. The cultural implications of the OSP are evaluated using a hypothetical case—Hong Kong Registered Nurses undertaking a post-graduate Public Health Nursing program in a higher education institution to prepare them for work with Vietnamese people in Hong Kongs refugee camps. The evaluation is based on an application of Dunns jurisprudential metaphor and transactional model of argument to a consideration of the contextual and cultural issues which arise from an examination of the impact of the course. It was concluded that the course would not be appropriate. Moreover, arguments developed from the hypothetical case were found to be generalisable to the export of other professional courses, and the relevance of many offerings were questioned.     

Pupil participation in planning provision for special educational needs: teacher perspectives

There are legal, moral and practical reasons to involve pupils in planning provision for their special educational needs. We do not yet know how principles are implemented in practice. This study explored the views and experiences of 64 teachers with an interest in special educational needs through an online survey. Participants reported greater pupil involvement in everyday matters, less in conceptual aspects of planning. Effective strategies were based on good teacher-pupil relationships and school-wide systems for sharing pupil views. Participants gave examples of the impact of pupil participation on teacher insight, pupil motivation and material provision. 84 per cent indicated that they would like pupils to be more involved in decisions about their provision than they currently are. Barriers included the nature of children’s difficulties and practitioner attitudes. Listening to children is intrinsic to good teaching, yet pupils also benefit from a more formal role in provision planning.     

Inclusive education: Ireland's education provision for children with special educational needs

The concept of inclusive education is a relatively new phenomenon within the Irish education system, with considerable developments in government policy only occurring since the early 1990s. These developments are aiming to advance special education provisions and legislation for individuals with disabilities and special educational needs (SEN). This increased attention is illustrated by the Special Education Review Committee (SERC) report, the report of the Government Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities, A Strategy for Equality (1996 Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities (1996) A strategy for equality , Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities . [Google Scholar]), the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) Discussion Document (1999), Special Educational Needs: Curriculum Issues, the Education Act, the Equal Status Act and the recently published Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill and the Disability Bill (2004). However, despite these advancements in SEN developments, it can be argued that the Irish government and education system still fall short of providing a rights-based education to all children with a disability or SEN in the state. This article discusses the educational provision for children with SEN from 1990 to 2004.     

Multiple Policy Innovations: the impact on special educational needs provision

Sally Brown, Professor of Education at the University of Stirling and the new Chairperson of the Editorial Board of BJSE, has based this article on her keynote address to the Joint Conferences of the Scottish Support for Learning Association and NASEN on 23rd April 1994.     

Conceptualising educational provision for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in England

ABSTRACT

The right to education for all children, including asylum-seeking children, is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, there is little research available to describe the educational provision provided to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in England. Crucially, it is not known whether the educational needs are met by the provision available to UASC. In the most recent figures, the number of UASC in England has risen by 130% since 2013, to 4,480. Schools, ‘virtual schools’ responsible for children in care, social workers, and policymakers wish to know how this population is currently being served and how they might better serve them. This paper presents the findings from a mapping exercise on education available to UASC in England including 12 semi-structured interviews with virtual school heads, teachers, social workers, and charity education providers; document analysis; a workshop at the Department of Education with key stakeholders; and summary statistics. It highlights gaps in data and provision; conceptualises types of provision into bespoke, mainstream, and English language; and analyses how provision interacts with assessment and support needs. What emerges is a framing of provision through an integration lens and an agenda for future research and practice.     

Guidance on the use of physical force by staff in educational establishments

Dave Hewett, independental consultants, and Andy Arnett, Hertfordshire Social Services Department, attempt to clarify the present legal position on the use of physical force by staff in schools. The authors, who conducted an informal survey of education authorities in England and Wales, report their findings and discuss the implications.     

大学计算机公共课教学改革探析

随着计算机信息技术的发展,社会对大学生应具有的计算机水平和应用能力提出了更高的要求.而当前大学的公共计算机教学效果并不乐观,只有对教学大纲、教学目标、教学手段、教学内容、实践教学等诸方面进行改革,才能切实提高人才培养质量.本文就大学计算机公共课教学改革的现状和应采取的对策进行了分析和探讨,以期推动计算机公共课教学朝着健康的方向发展,满足社会对人才的需求.     

LEA support services for special educational needs provision and management

The National Foundation for Educational Research recently undertook research on the impact of delegation on local authority support services for special educational needs. This paper presents data on the provision offered by these services and the way in which they are managed. In particular, it examines how support is targeted, the extent and profile of service staff, mechanisms for the referral of pupils for support from the services, management structure, staff deployment and the professional development of service staff, and service monitoring, review and evaluation. Ways in which support services have developed in the 1990s, and their challenges for the next decade in the light of developments in the governance of education and the local policy context, are discussed.     

Civic values and the subject matter of educational courses

In a previous article (Benton, 1999) which focused on the teaching of poetry in secondary schools, teachers' responses to a survey undertaken in 1998 were compared with those of a similar survey in 1982. It was suggested that a major change was that where the teachers registered concern it was a concern for poetry itself rather than a concern about poetry teaching. By and large they were much more confident in handling the reading and writing of poetry in class than formerly: what appears to exercise them most now are the effects of the National Curriculum and of SATs on their teaching and of changes in the way poetry is examined. These, taken together, are seen by some as having a detrimental effect on the students' experience of poetry. Others, however, see positive advantage in some of the changes. It is these concerns which are the focus of the present paper.     

Mixed blessings: effects of educational resource materials on South African children in day care

Free play patterns of black South African children in 16 day care centres were observed before and after the introduction of an enrichment package. The package consisted of a range of educational toys and cost US$12 per child. Results indicated that the enrichment was associated with changes in social interaction and play patterns, though not all these may have been positive. Results are discussed in terms of often unexpected impacts that intervention schemes can have in the developing world, even those specifically designed for a particular population.     

The changing American college student: implications for educational policy and practice

New students entering higher education institutions in the United States have undergone dramatic changes during the past two decades. This paper summarizes some of the major trends observed in these surveys and discusses possible implications of the findings for educational policy and practice.Each fall since 1966 the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles has been conducting a national survey of new college freshmen. A typical survey involves 250,000 students and a nationally representative sample of 550 higher education institutions of all types. Between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s American college students became much more focussed on material goals and less concerned with altruism and social problems. These value changes were accompanied by dramatically increased student interest in business careers and a sharp decline of interest in school teaching, social work, nursing, the clergy, and other service careers. These changes are perhaps best illustrated in the contrasting trends in two values: being very well off financially, which doubled in popularity during the period of survey and developing a meaningful philosophy of life which was the top student value in the early 1970s but was endorsed by fewer than half as many students by the late 1980s.During just the past two or three years most of these trends seem to have ended or, in certain cases, shown signs of reversing direction. At the same time, there is growing evidence that students are increasingly oriented toward social activism. Protecting the environment appears to be the single greatest concern among American college students at the turn of the decade.Portions of this talk were given at the January 6, 1989 meeting of the Commission on the University of the 21st Century, Council of Higher Education, Richmond, Virginia: portions have also been adopted from an earlier article in Change magazine (Astin, A. W. Competition or Cooperation, September/October 1987).     

A time of transition: exploring special educational provision in the Republic of Ireland

Special educational provision in the Republic of Ireland has experienced significant changes in the past decade. A combination of interrelated factors including litigation, legislation, parental advocacy and international developments has radically altered the landscape of special education. As a result of these changes the move towards establishing inclusive learning environments appears irreversible though many critical issues remain to be addressed at this time of transition. This study examines how key stakeholders in primary education perceive the challenge of responding appropriately to increased diversity. The results indicate that many barriers remain in the development of inclusive learning environments. The conceptual understanding of special educational needs (SEN) was seriously deficient and this affected the coherence of policy and service delivery. The system lacked strategic leadership, according to participants, and this restricted the capacity to support schools. School capacity to deliver quality education for children with SEN was constrained by the serious shortfall in the range and level of skills required and opportunities for professional development available. There was strong support for the principle of inclusion into mainstream though this was principally perceived in terms of the development of socialisation skills. It was concluded that in this transition phase schools required strategic leadership from policy‐makers to address the many challenges that remain in the establishment of inclusive learning environments.     

浅析将现代教育技术应用于传感器课程教学

随着现代科学技术的飞速发展,现代传感器技术也在课程教学中体现出越来越关键的作用,它与现代教育技术的联系愈发紧密,为了实现将两者进行有机整合,本文根据现代传感器技术的特点和应用,针对性的提出了将现代教育的教学手段运用到传感器课程教学中,从而对现代教育起到积极的推动作用。