Still on the Margins: Migration,English Language Learning,and Mental Health in Immigrant Psychiatric Patients

This qualitative study explores the reflexive relationships among mental illness, acculturation, and progress toward English proficiency in five adult immigrants being treated at a Canadian psychiatric hospital. The research explores the additional challenges faced by mentally ill individuals when learning a new language and the extent to which English language acquisition may be impeded by factors related to mental illness. Semistructured ethnographic interviews are conducted with the patients. Data analysis is accomplished through grounded theory methods, specifically data-driven and theory-driven coding. The English language acquisition experiences of these five individuals are contrasted with second-language acquisition theory to suggest that the effects of the theoretical language learning advantages possessed by this group may have been diminished by factors related to mental illness. Policy recommendations are made to address this additional set of challenges for immigrants with psychiatric disorders.     

The triarchic theory of intelligence and computer-based inquiry learning

Sternberg's (1985) triarchic theory of human intelligence distinguished among three types of intellectual abilities: analytic, creative, and practical. Our study explored the relationships between student abilities and the cognitive and attitudinal outcomes that resulted from student immersion in a computer-based inquiry environment. In particular, we examined outcome variables related to content understanding, problem solving, and science-related attitudes. Results indicated that more practical abilities predicted greater content understanding and transfer of problem-solving skills. High analytic abilities were predictive of content understanding but not transfer of problem-solving skills. High creative abilities predicted problem solving, but were not predictive of performance on content understanding. In terms of science-related attitudes, students who were dominant in practical abilities had significantly more positive posttest attitudes than those dominant in analytic abilities. The results from this study were used to make recommendations regarding design principles used in the subsequent development of computer-based inquiry environments.     

Action learning as a tool for developing networks and building evidence-based practice in public health

The aim of this account of practice is to share my specific experience of action learning as an approach to effective working in a networking organisation. The context is delivery of public health at a regional level as part of a national organisation, The Health Development Agency. The action learning set took place with a consistent group over a 20-month period. The account includes my personal learning, views expressed by colleagues, and some reflections on ways the set improved my working practice with others as part of a ‘networked organisation’. The account may be of relevance to anyone involved with developing networks, and/or a networked organisation. It is particularly pertinent to public health specialists, practitioners and others involved with developing networks as a tool to enhance good public health practice.     

Designing pedagogic strategies for dialogic learning in higher education

This article focuses on the pedagogic value of dialogue to strengthen pre-service teachers’ reflective practices and improve their knowledge about the power of talk for learning. Dialogic learning was introduced to a unit of study taken by a final-year cohort of students in an initial teacher education degree at an urban university in Australia. Various opportunities for dialogue were designed into the unit through blended learning such as face-to-face tutorials, social networks and Viva Voce contexts. In the face of mixed opinion on their efficacy, the author profiles the use of social networks as a means of incorporating more interactive discourse through Web 2.0 platforms in higher education. The mixed-methods study reports on data collected from focus group interviews run at the end of the semester. An analytical framework based on Alexander’s principles of dialogic learning is used to interrogate the data set. The results illustrate the positive impact that dialogue employed as a pedagogic tool had on the value students perceived of their learning experience. It is recommended that designs for learning in higher education incorporate iterative exchanges across a variety of blended learning contexts to encourage productive interactions between students, peers and tutors.     

The Sad Demise of z.D.H.38 Ernest Collins: Suicide,Informers and the Debate on the Abolition of Flogging

In 1934, a convict was found hanged in his cell. His final words reveal the fearful state of his mind on learning his appeal against a sentence of flogging had been rejected. Historical records about his prison life offer insights into suicide and prison informers, subjects which have received little attention from historians. His activities as an informer increased the weight of imprisonment for him in the period prior to his death. He is a statistic in the Prison Commissioners’ annual report, but his death became a crucial component of rejuvenated campaigns for an enquiry into the use of corporal punishment.     

Evidence-Based Methods for Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Stakeholder Issues and Perspectives

Despite variable interpretations of the meaning and nature of specific effective practice methods and research-supported strategies, such approaches are generally considered essential for children and youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Indeed, there is general consensus that only by qualified professionals using effective methods in an approved fashion will optimal student outcomes be achieved. Related to this need, this article presents perspectives of stakeholders connected to use of effective practices with children and youth diagnosed with ASD. A parent, educational practitioner, and program administrator each share their unique perspectives on the subject of effective practice methods for learners with ASD.     

Reimagining Critical Race Theory in Education: Mental Health,Healing, and the Pathway to Liberatory Praxis

Long‐standing theoretical education frameworks and methodologies have failed to provide space for the role mental health can play in mediating educational consequences. To illustrate the need for such space, Ebony McGee and David Stovall highlight the voices of black undergraduates they have served in the capacities of teacher, researcher, and mentor. Building from the theoretical contributions of intellectual giants like Frantz Fanon and W. E. B. Du Bois, the authors attempt to connect oppressive social systems to the psyche of the oppressed in a way that is relevant to black students. McGee and Stovall pose a challenge to the current research trend of attributing the survival of black students at traditionally white institutions primarily to grit, perseverance, and mental toughness, noting that research on the aforementioned qualities often fails to properly acknowledge multiple forms of suffering. Utilizing the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT), the authors also challenge the construct of grit to consider the extent to which the mental health concerns of black students go undetected. Although critical race theorists have unmasked and attacked the racial trauma experienced at all levels of the educational system, the connection of CRT to mental health and wellness research is in its embryonic stages. For these reasons, McGee and Stovall argue that CRT scholars need to incorporate praxis to address mental health and wellness in order to address a fuller spectrum of black students' racialized worlds. Ultimately, they seek interdisciplinary perspectives that can help identify and foster strategies to support black students in the project and process of healing from multiple forms of racialized trauma they experience within and beyond their educational encounters.     

Moving across physical and online spaces: a case study in a blended primary classroom

With the introduction of digital tools and online connectivity in primary schools, the shape of teaching and learning is shifting beyond the physical classroom. Drawing on the architecture of productive learning networks framework, we examine the affordances and limitations of an upper primary learning network and focus on how the digital and physical elements involved in set design shape teachers' pedagogical approaches and students' learning processes. The findings suggest that blended spaces support teachers' distributed orchestration of classroom activities across tools and resources while also leveraging students' engagement in reciprocal teaching and collaborative learning.