AD/HD: Towards Resolution – A Personal View

The debate on AD/HD has stimulated a great deal of interest, and parents are beginning to ask whether their children may have the condition and how they might be treated.

Professionals need to create a personal philosophy and be ready to advise parents in relation to any fears and apprehensions they may have.

In this paper the author presents his philosophy, summarises its practical benefits and describes how he would reassure parents (and professionals) in relation to common concerns regarding the implementation of a multi-modal approach.

Part of the paper is based on a chapter from the author's new book ADHD: How to Deal with Very Difficult Children, published by Souvenir Press Ltd. in March 1996.     

Improving school attendance: can participation in outdoor learning influence attendance for young people with social,emotional and behavioural difficulties?

The link between good attendance in school and academic performance has been acknowledged for some time now. However, improving school attendance for young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) or pupils at risk of exclusion can be a challenging task for educational leaders. This paper begins with a discussion of earlier studies on outdoor learning and school attendance. It adds to the discourse by presenting findings from a one-year outdoor learning programme situated within an English special school for young people with SEBD. The research reported here is part of a larger study that used an action research design. The paper concludes that although improvements in attendance can be achieved, the factors affecting attendance are complex and that improvements may be restricted to programmes that utilise an outdoor learning approach rather than being achievable across the whole school curriculum.     

Expeditionary Learning in Information Systems: Definition,Implementation, and Assessment

In the natural sciences, collecting, cataloguing, and comparing living specimens have long been a popular, collaborative mode of discovery and learning. New species are discovered, and the relationships between species are theorized. From Aristotle's “History of Animals” to Darwin's “On the Origin of Species”, and beyond, this process of learning through expedition has yielded bountiful knowledge and insights to students of science. In this paper, we propose that expeditionary learning can be applied to a softer science: the field of information systems. In the field of information systems, specimens (information systems) are created by humans, evolving with great speed. Expeditionary learning—where students collaboratively discover, catalog, and compare rapidly evolving information system specimens—is an innovative approach for learners in the IS field, and is effective in increasing IS program visibility and delivering significant, measurable community impact. Our results indicate that learning by expedition has a strong, positive community impact through educating external learners (such as high school and community college students, and the general public), and compares favorably to conventional experiential and service learning styles. Though expeditionary learning does not yield improved course evaluations, we demonstrate that learners’ perceived self‐knowledge and intentions to pursue the subject area are improved.     

Imagining a different life in school: educating student teachers about ‘looked after’ children and young people

The research described in this paper concerns the acquaintance of student teachers with the educational and wider pastoral experiences of children and young people who are or have been ‘looked after’ and who they may well teach at some point, together with the familiarisation of student teachers with the ‘looked after’ system in the UK. We discuss an exploratory awareness‐raising curriculum project within a Teacher Education Department at a University in the UK that utilises digital multimedia to develop a ‘community of awareness’ of young people and student teachers. As a result of this work, the student teachers were able to reflect on their pedagogical knowledge and practices related to teaching and wider pupil pastoral care. Further, those involved in the project therefore not only learned how to use technology, but to apply it in meaningful, productive ways, which were potentially transforming in terms of appreciation and knowledge of diversity. Benefits for the participants – the young people involved and the student teachers, as well as implications for both student teachers’ understanding of diversity and limitations of the technology – are discussed.     

Optical Pulsars and Black Arrows: Discoveries as Occasioned Productions

The current article represents a methodological proposal. It seeks to address the question of how one might recognize a discovery as a discovery without knowing in advance what is available to be discovered. We propose a solution and demonstrate it using data from a study previously reported by J. Roschelle (1992) Roschelle, J. 1992. Learning by collaborating: Convergent conceptual change. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2: 235–276. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]. Roschelle investigated 2 students' developing understandings of certain abstract features of Newtonian mechanics while working within a computer-based microworld, the Envisioning Machine. We employ an approach we term discovery as occasioned production to reexamine his data. Such an approach proceeds stepwise from the identification of some matter discovered, working backward to see just where that matter entered the conversation and then, finally, tracing from that point forward to illuminate how the proposal for a possible discovery was ultimately transformed into a discovery achieved. The notion of “evident vagueness,” borrowed from H. Garfinkel, M. Lynch, and D. Livingston's (1981) Garfinkel, H., Lynch, M. and Livingston, D. 1981. The work of discovering science construed with materials from the optically discovered pulsar. Philosophy of Social Science, 11: 131–158. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] account of the discovery of an optical pulsar, emerges as an important feature of our analysis. Following H. Garfinkel (2002) Garfinkel, H. 2002. Ethnomethodology's program: Working out Durkheim's aphorism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield..  [Google Scholar], we present our findings as a “tutorial problem” and offer a suggestion for how a program of practice studies in the learning sciences might be pursued.     

ETHNICITY,GENDER, AGE,SES, AND ACTIVITY TYPE AS FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO EARLY CHILDHOOD PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ INTERACTIONS WITH INTERNATIONAL AND U.S. PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

The interactions of 67 early childhood preservice teachers with International and U.S. preschool children in structured story time and unstructured table activities were videotaped and analyzed. Overall, preservice teachers displayed significantly more facilitative (e.g., ego boosting, teaching, questioning, and attending) than nonfacilitative (e.g., commanding, negatively responding, ignoring, and physical restraint) behaviors toward children. However, analyses of data relative to different ethnicity, gender, and activity type groups also revealed preservice teachers were relating to children in differential ways. Preservice teachers displayed significantly less facilitative and more nonfacilitative behaviors toward International children than U.S. children. In addition, preservice teacher‐child interactions with International children were rated as less positive and more negative than their interactions with U.S. children. Still also, preservice teachers displayed significantly less facilitative and less nonfacilitative behaviors toward girls than toward boys. Furthermore, preservice teacher‐child interactions with girls were rated as significantly less positive and less negative than with boys. Finally, preservice teachers displayed significantly more nonfacilitative behaviors toward children in structured story time activities than in unstructured table activities.     

Early Childhood Teachers Reconstruct Beliefs and Practices Through Reflexive Action

Professional development, which results in sustained transformative change, requires that teachers engage in critical reflection regarding teaching practices. In this study, a group of five bilingual and generalist early childhood teachers engaged in a journey in which they elected to try to reconstruct their beliefs and practices about teaching and learning. In response to a school district's needs, these teachers were enrolled as a cohort in an early childhood graduate program that served as part of their professional development endeavor. The teachers used reflection and ongoing dialogue that bridged theory and practice as they raised questions about their daily practices in relation to theoretical perspectives. We provide a glimpse of these teachers' ongoing transformative journeys and provide suggestions for early childhood teachers to engage in sustained professional development.     

History Reproduces Itself: The transmission of symbolic capital at a private liberal arts college in the USA

This paper describes a number of ways in which a small group of gay higher educators draw upon their sexuality in their teaching. It considers three main themes (teaching from the outside; teaching as performance; and teaching as a (gay) person) to illuminate a discussion of how sexuality and teaching can be brought into productive relation. Whilst not wanting to imply a monolithic view of gay sexual identity and its relationship with teaching, the paper explores how the approaches to teaching described disrupt dominant pedagogies and the masculinities which underpin them. The paper concludes by inviting research into the ways in which heterosexual men use their sexuality positively in teaching and learning situations in higher education.     

Understanding the information and resource needs of UK health and social care placement students

Background: Students on health and social care degree programmes spend 50% of their time on practice placements. Because of the diversity of settings and the need to evidence their work, it is vital to understand the information and resource needs of placement students. Objectives: The aim of this investigation was to understand the needs of placement students in terms of accessing resources whilst they are in the field in order to inform a guide to meet these needs. Methods: Focus groups were conducted with students on midwifery, social work and post‐registration health professions degree programmes on three different sites across the region. Data were analysed using Thematic Content Analysis. Results: Three themes emerged from the data: inequality, user education needs and students’ solutions and strategies. Conclusions: It is essential to speak to placement students in order to understand their needs in terms of accessing and using library resources. The timing and content of information skills training is key to meeting student needs while on placement.