Evaluating a schools' service for children with a facial disfigurement: the views of teaching and support staff

In this article Lindsay O'Dell and Jess Prior present the findings of a small survey, organised as a collaborative project to evaluate a schools’ service, set up in 1998 by the charity Changing Faces 1 to assist pupils with facial disfigurements. Twenty schools responded, each of which had a pupil in their school, aged between 3–16 years, with a facial disfigurement. Qualitative and quantitative questions addressed schools’ expectations of the service, ratings of visits from Changing Faces, helpful/unhelpful aspects of the service and suggestions for improvements, as well as information about the child and school. The data was analysed using both quantitative data and a qualitative thematic analysis. Findings point to reasons for initial contact, and effectiveness of any intervention. Whilst many families and schools seek support in times of crisis, sometimes contact is made to try and prevent future difficulties. Professionals working in education may have much to learn from cases where the child, school and family are all coping well. Future research plans include extending this pilot survey to include the views of a wider range of schools as well as those of the children and families involved.     

Exploring children's perceptions of forgiveness at the interpersonal and political levels: emerging evidence in Cyprus

This small-scale study reports the findings from an investigation into non-verbal communication. It primarily seeks to analyse whether 9 and 13 year-olds can encode and decode non-verbal communication in the context of classroom behaviour management. This research showed that, in contrast to previous published research, there were no distinct differences between the ages, genders, or task types. One key finding was the frequency with which pupils misinterpreted the facial expression of anger, irrespective of the familiarity of the face, although accuracy of emotional interpretation improved with time. From observations, female staff consistently used more complementary non-verbal communication than conflicting, compared with the male staff.     

Diagnosing ADHD in Danish primary school children: a case study of the institutional categorization of emotional and behavioural difficulties

This study of institutional categorization reports an investigation of the practices, procedures and assumptions of psychiatric staff members when diagnosing ADHD. The main data upon which the study is based consist of transcribed audio recordings of meetings in the psychiatric clinic. Here children referred from primary schools on the suspicion of ADHD are attended to. The tools and procedures for gathering information are shown to produce decontextualized and individualizing representations of children’s conduct. The evaluation against a number of norms is found to be central. Finally, the discussions at the central team conferences are shown to reveal the use of hypothesis testing structured around a number of dichotomies, where isolated aspects of the child’s life are considered against each other as the source of the difficulties. Together, these practices have cumulative and profound consequences for how children’s problems come to be understood as caused by a neurological condition.     

An exploratory study of Special Educational Needs Co‐ordinators' knowledge and experience of working with children who have sustained a brain injury

This research aimed to measure Special Educational Needs Co‐ordinators' knowledge of the educational implications of acquired brain injury in children and young people and whether experience of working with pupils with a brain injury or additional training impacts upon this knowledge. Data was collected within one local authority in England using an online survey. The results indicated that the respondents had high levels of uncertainty regarding the impact of a brain injury although they were more confident in those areas which related most closely to their practice. The responses suggested that experience of working with a pupil with a brain injury promoted greater knowledge than receiving training; the results, however, showed that only a minority of SENCos had received any training and those who had tended to have undertaken this independently. This suggests that there is a need for SENCos to be provided with specialist training in order to increase their understanding of the impact of acquired brain injury in children and young people.     

Effects of bottom-up and top-down intervention principles in emergent literacy in children at risk of developmental dyslexia: a longitudinal study

This longitudinal study focused on the effects of two different principles of intervention in children at risk of developing dyslexia from 5 to 8 years old. The children were selected on the basis of a background questionnaire given to parents and preschool teachers, with cognitive and functional magnetic resonance imaging results substantiating group differences in neuropsychological processes associated with phonology, orthography, and phoneme-grapheme correspondence (i.e., alphabetic principle). The two principles of intervention were bottom-up (BU), "from sound to meaning", and top-down (TD), "from meaning to sound." Thus, four subgroups were established: risk/BU, risk/TD, control/BU, and control/TD. Computer-based training took place for 2 months every spring, and cognitive assessments were performed each fall of the project period. Measures of preliteracy skills for reading and spelling were phonological awareness, working memory, verbal learning, and letter knowledge. Literacy skills were assessed by word reading and spelling. At project end the control group scored significantly above age norm, whereas the risk group scored within the norm. In the at-risk group, training based on the BU principle had the strongest effects on phonological awareness and working memory scores, whereas training based on the TD principle had the strongest effects on verbal learning, letter knowledge, and literacy scores. It was concluded that appropriate, specific, data-based intervention starting in preschool can mitigate literacy impairment and that interventions should contain BU training for preliteracy skills and TD training for literacy training.     

The association between school exclusion,delinquency and subtypes of cyber- and F2F-victimizations: Identifying and predicting risk profiles and subtypes using latent class analysis

This purpose of this paper is to identify risk profiles of youth who are victimized by on- and offline harassment and to explore the consequences of victimization on school outcomes. Latent class analysis is used to explore the overlap and co-occurrence of different clusters of victims and to examine the relationship between class membership and school exclusion and delinquency. Participants were a random sample of youth between the ages of 12 and 18 selected for inclusion to participate in the 2011 National Crime Victimization Survey: School Supplement. The latent class analysis resulted in four categories of victims: approximately 3.1% of students were highly victimized by both bullying and cyberbullying behaviors; 11.6% of youth were classified as being victims of relational bullying, verbal bullying and cyberbullying; a third class of students were victims of relational bullying, verbal bullying and physical bullying but were not cyberbullied (8%); the fourth and final class, characteristic of the majority of students (77.3%), was comprised of non-victims. The inclusion of covariates to the latent class model indicated that gender, grade and race were significant predictors of at least one of the four victim classes. School delinquency measures were included as distal outcomes to test for both overall and pairwise associations between classes. With one exception, the results were indicative of a significant relationship between school delinquency and the victim subtypes. Implications for these findings are discussed.     

Sex differences in the acceptability and short-term outcomes of a web-based personalized feedback alcohol intervention for high school seniors

Despite the escalation of alcohol use through high school, the majority of research on school-based alcohol interventions has been conducted with junior high students or first and second-year high school students. Preliminary research indicates a brief, web-based personalized feedback intervention developed for college students (eCHECKUP TO GO) may be a promising program for high school seniors. Although these studies demonstrate positive intervention effects, there is some evidence for greater program efficacy for females in this age group. The current study investigates sex differences in program acceptability of the eCHECKUP TO GO and its relationship to short-term alcohol outcomes among high school seniors (N = 135). Overall, the majority of students reported they found the program to be acceptable (i.e., user-friendly and useful). However, contrary to our hypothesis, results indicated that male students reported significantly higher perceptions of program acceptability than females. Although we did not find sex differences in alcohol outcomes, program user-friendliness was related to reductions in alcohol use for males. The results of this study add to the literature supporting the eCHECKUP TO GO for high school seniors and highlight the importance of program user-friendliness for males. Implications for implementing the program as a school-based intervention are discussed.     

An analysis of associations between residential and school mobility and educational outcomes in South African urban children: The Birth to Twenty cohort

Using data from Birth to Twenty, a cohort of South African urban children, the current paper investigates the relationships between residential and school mobility and a set of educational outcomes. The findings provide some evidence of a positive association between changes in residence and numeracy and literacy scores, and school mobility was found to be associated with grade repetition, however, no relationship was observed between changes in school and competency in numeracy and literacy. The South African study provides a counter example to trends observed in higher-income countries, while highlighting that associations are likely to be context specific.     

Using iPads for the social communication and emotional regulation of autistic pupils: an exploration of key stakeholders' perspectives and practices

Little research has focused on the implementation of iPad practices in real contexts and the identification of relevant challenges and enablers. This work explored practices relating to using iPads for autistic pupils' social communication (SC) and emotional regulation (ER) based on key stakeholders' perspectives. It employed two case studies undertaken in two primary schools located in the United Kingdom's West Midlands. The data were gathered by interviewing practitioners and parents and analyzing the schools' computing policies. The outcomes varied from iPads being used as multimodal learning tools, to teachers focusing on SC and ER, and parents mainly on recreation and ER. The findings were evaluated using Abbott's concept of e-inclusion (2007), considering the impact of the relationship between technology, individuals and context on iPad use in situ. Issues are highlighted around pedagogy and teaching methods, offering insights into what drives teachers to make decisions regarding technology use.     

Some possible effects of behaviour management training on teacher confidence and competence: evidence from a study of primary school teachers in Hong Kong

This study aims to explore the relationships between the extent and perceived quality of teachers’ experience of training in behaviour management (BM), and their awareness of the nature and extent of behavioural problems among school students, and their confidence in their own competence to deal with such problems. Teachers (n = 183) from Hong Kong primary schools were surveyed. The results showed that gender, age and whether teachers have received training had no significant influence on teachers’ awareness, conception and confidence regarding BM. A negative correlation was found between teachers’ levels of satisfaction in relation to their training experiences and their perceptions of the level of problematic behaviours among students, and the impact of students’ problematic behaviour on their teaching. A positive correlation was found between teachers’ levels of satisfaction in relation to their training experiences and their confidence in their own competence to deal with students’ problematic behaviour.     

Learning and expertise in support for parents of children at risk: a cultural-historical analysis of partnership practices

A key predictor of young people’s future outcomes is their level of academic achievement whilst at school. In England this is most commonly measured by achievement in GCSEs. However, not all pupils will have taken the same set of GCSE examinations as, for example, they may make different subject choices. For this reason, GCSE performance is often aggregated into a simple measure such as ‘mean GCSE grade’ before being used in statistical models. This paper investigates the merits of using an alternative method, based upon the relatively new technique of Generalised Boosting Models, which does not require for GCSE results in different subjects to be aggregated together. The importance of this research is that by evaluating the predictive performance of such a method we can ascertain how much useful information is lost in the process of GCSE aggregation. The results show that traditional predictions based upon simple aggregated measures of GCSE attainment are fairly similar to those based upon the more complex approach. This provides some confidence that, for the majority of outcomes, only a small amount of predictive information will be lost through the use of aggregated measures of GCSE performance.     

Gender justice/gender through the eyes of children: a Photovoice project with elementary school gender expansive and LGBTQ-parented children and their allies

How do children experience gender? What are the roles of schools, adults and allies in supporting gender inclusion in a world of gendered categories? Despite a growing public discourse on gender and shifts toward fluid understandings of gender in US popular culture and educational institutions, the voices of transgender and gender expansive children remain on the margins. In Spring 2017, fourteen elementary school children in a school in Northern California, USA, who are gender expansive, transgender and in LGBTQ parented families and their allies documented their understandings and experiences of gender in their lives and in the school using Photovoice methodology. Visual and narrative findings traced three related themes of gendered meanings, gendered spaces and gendered allies. This paper asks how we can build more inclusive school environments in which children can come into their fully gendered selves. By documenting meanings and experiences of gender, children illustrate the infinite possibilities of gender and create pathways to institutional and social change for inclusive educational environments. The paper addresses the role of gender justice in light of persistent injustices rendered in and through gendered states to support movements for educational and social change.     

Development of motor-life-skills: variations in children at risk for motor difficulties from the toddler age to preschool age

This article explores variations in development of everyday motor-life-skills in 661 children (329 girls and 332 boys) in Norwegian kindergartens of ages 2:9 (T1) and 4:9 (T2) years:months. The particular focus is on children at risk for problems in motor development (the 10% weakest children in the sample). The methodological approach chosen is authentic assessment, applying the Early Years Movement Skills Checklist (EYMSC). All correlations between motor-life-skills at ages 2:9 and 4:9 are statistically significant (p < 0.01), varying between r = 0.26 to 0.38 for the four section scores of EYMSC (Self-help skills, Desk skills, General classroom skills and Recreational and playground skills) and r = 0.39 for the EYMSC total score. The group composition of children assumed to be at risk for motor difficulties changes considerably between ages 2:9 and 4:9. Approximately, two-thirds of the 10% weakest at T1 do not belong to the 10% weakest at T2. Logistic regression failed to identify children at risk at T1 being among the 10% weakest at T2. However, for two sections of EYMSC (Self-help skills; Recreational and Playground skills), it was possible to distinguish between stable and flux groups.     

Graduate feedback on a teacher education program and school district support: An argument for a continuum of professional learning

This phenomenological study aimed to explore how early career teachers were supported in their transition from teacher education to professional practice. It involved interviewing seven recent graduates from a post-degree teacher education program on their perceptions of both the program and their local school district in supporting them as early career teachers. Results involve numerous recommendations for supporting these teachers during their induction into the profession leading to the articulation of a continuum of lifelong professional learning that includes teacher education, induction and mentorship, and professional development. Key responsibilities for school districts, principals, and teacher education faculty are included.     

The attitude of civil engineering students towards health and safety risk management: a case study

The highest rate of accidents and injuries in British industries has been reported by the construction industry during the past decade. Since then stakeholders have recognised that a possible solution would be to inculcate a good attitude towards health and safety risk management in undergraduate civil engineering students and construction professionals. Consequently, the four accreditation bodies that accredit construction degrees have improved coverage of health and safety risk management. The key issue has now shifted to ensure that Higher Education Centres deliver these requirements. This paper demonstrates innovative assessment methods that have been used to inculcate a safety conscious attitude into undergraduate civil engineering students, and to improve their knowledge of health and safety risk management. Surveys were administered to the students before and after they were subjected to innovative assessment techniques over two semesters in the construction management units. The analyses of the results of the surveys are provided to demonstrate the degree of improvement in the attitude of the students towards, and their knowledge of, health and safety risk management.     

Music as a tool for environmental education and advocacy: artistic perspectives from musicians of the Playlist for the Planet

Environmental education is a key tool in humanity’s efforts to address environmental issues. The arts can help provide some of the affective components of environmental education – emotions, values, and motivations driving pro-environmental behavior. As one of the arts, music can captivate, entertain, and create a sense of community. Using non-probabilistic purposive sampling, we interviewed a cohort of environmentally aware musicians with the goal of understanding their mental constructions around the role of music in environmental education and advocacy. A constant comparative coding method was used to code the interviews. The analysis revealed four artistic and five quality dimensions that the participants considered when sharing their pro-environmental values through their music. The four artistic dimensions emerged as continua representing ranges of choice regarding how a musician might create and deliver an environment-related song. The five quality dimensions emerged as recommendations for effectiveness of messaging through art that is perceived as authentic.     

Developing and testing a scale of moral thinking and communication (MTC) functioning: a preliminary study and its implications for moral development and education

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a scale assessing students’ moral thinking and communication (MTC) functioning as well as to explore the implications for moral development and education. The rationale of MTC functioning, including interaction of four independent competencies: moral awareness, moral judgement, moral discourse, and moral decision-making, is primarily adapted from L. Kohlberg’s theory, Neo-Kohlbergian theory, J. Habermas’s and K.-O. Apel’s discourse ethics, and L. Hinman’s ethical pluralism. There were two studies in the development of the measure. The resulting instrument contained four moral dilemmas differing by a focus on micro-moral and macro-moral levels. Findings from the studies indicated the MTC scale has acceptable psychometric properties and describe Taiwanese students as attending to the difficult problems of integrating local and international cultural norms. Additionally, the measure provides a detailed picture of students’ moral thinking and communication functioning. These results are discussed in terms of implications for moral theory and assessment of moral education.