An Unplanned Journey into Individualised Planning

This paper tells the story of my research and experience with the concept and practice of individualised planning for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities--a prominent issue in my 1977 paper in The Exceptional Child on "Special Education and the Law in United States: Implications for Australian Educators." The current paper overviews the results of research on individualised planning that my colleagues and I have conducted since that time. I also draw attention to relevant changes in the values, philosophies, policies and developments that have occurred during the last 25 years and discuss how these have influenced planning for, with, and by, people with disabilities. Policy and research issues in individualised planning in the context of contemporary values and policies are also explored.     

A reevaluation of the CS− hypothesis for schedule-induced polydipsia under intermittent schedules of pellet delivery

Lashley and Rosellini (1980) have recently suggested that schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) is determined by the occurrence of absolute periods within schedules of periodic food delivery which are associated with a low probability of food delivery, that is, CS? periods. To assess this hypothesis, SIP was examined in the present experiments under three schedules—fixed time, variable time, and random time (RT)—which differed in probability of occurrence and/or duration (Experiment 1), and under a range of RT schedules in which the CS? period was systematically varied by changing the interpellet interval (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the level and temporal distribution of SIP did not seem to be related to the absolute period associated with the absence of food. Instead, SIP was more systematically related to the average length of the interpellet interval and, therefore, to the average period associated with no food. It was suggested that drinking under intermittent schedules of pellet delivery, that is, SIP, is determined by an average CS? period and not by an absolute period associated with the unavailability of food.     

Psychological symptoms in sexually abused girls

This study examined psychological symptoms exhibited by children who had recently been sexually abused. Twenty-four girls aged 6 to 12 years old were evaluated within six months of being abused using a variety of standardized child psychiatric instruments. Results showed a marked discrepancy between child and parent reports of symptoms. The abused children did not exhibit significant depressive, anxiety, or low self-esteem symptoms by self-report; however, their parents rated them as having significantly more behavioral problems than a normative sample but as somewhat less pathological than a clinical sample. The implications of these findings in relation to our current understanding of the psychological problems manifested by sexually abused children and for future research are discussed.     

Free‐choice environmental education: understanding where children learn outside of school

Free‐choice learning and, derivatively, free‐choice environmental learning emerges as a powerful vehicle for supporting diversity in learning styles (Falk & Dierking, 2002 Falk J Dierking L (2002) Lessons without limit: how free choice learning is transforming education New York NY Altamira Press  [Google Scholar]). In this article, I argue that free‐choice environmental learning holds great potential for enabling us to understand what is at stake in environmental learning and thus help us build a sustainable future. I examine the different informal learning contexts for children, home (family and play), museums, zoos, nature parks and wilderness, among many others, and offer an explanation for how learning occurs in these settings, and how such domains or sectors can contribute to free‐choice environmental learning. This article also examines the nature of environmental learning in free choice settings to establish a connection with stages of childhood development. In the final section of this article, I draw on these examples to discuss research issues that emerge within various free‐choice settings.     

The reader,the text,the poem: the influence and challenge of Louise Rosenblatt

ABSTRACT

This paper is a re-examination of Louise Rosenblatt’s seminal work of reader-response theory, The Reader, The Text, The Poem. I argue that poems are essentially social in nature and that they open up a space in which conversation and interpretation can take place. With Rosenblatt I argue that until a reader engages with a poem, bringing to it a combination of her interest and experience, the text will lie dormant. I go on to argue that this implies a model of pedagogy and discourse about poetry which is currently inimical to the high stakes testing arrangements in the current context in England and the Anglophone world. Via the work of John Dewey, especially his notion of art as experience, I analyse the cultural and critical frameworks which influenced Rosenblatt innovations both directly and indirectly. This includes the tradition of the New Criticism, with its emphasis on empiricism and an assumed reader. For practitioners seeking a model of reader-response and classroom practice that promotes more than pre-prescribed comprehension questions, I offer examples of practice which prefigure the role of talk in aiding the reader’s aesthetic and transactional interpretations of poems.     

Separated by Removal: The Impact of Parental Deportation on Latina/o Children’s Postsecondary Educational Goals

This research examines the impact of parental deportation on Latino/a adolescents’ postsecondary aspirations. Based on interviews with students, their families, and site observations, the study finds that for some adolescents who held college aspirations prior to the deportation, this type of abrupt parental removal negatively affects their perception of safety and stability in their home and school environments (i.e., microsystem) (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). Where this vulnerability is not countered with emotional, economic, and institutional support, it can hinder their development of the social capital (Coleman, 1988; Stanton-Salazar, 2001) that would be conducive to their higher educational aspirations.     

Effect of attention therapy on reading comprehension

This study quantified the influence of visual attention therapy on the reading comprehension of Grade 6 children with moderate reading disabilities (RD) in the absence of specific reading remediation. Thirty students with below-average reading scores were identified using standardized reading comprehension tests. Fifteen children were placed randomly in the experimental group and 15 in the control group. The Attention Battery of the Cognitive Assessment System was administered to all participants. The experimental group received 12 one-hour sessions of individually monitored, computer-based attention therapy programs; the control group received no therapy during their 12-week period. Each group was retested on attention and reading comprehension measures. In order to stimulate selective and sustained visual attention, the vision therapy stressed various aspects of arousal, activation, and vigilance. At the completion of attention therapy, the mean standard attention and reading comprehension scores of the experimental group had improved significantly. The control group, however, showed no significant improvement in reading comprehension scores after 12 weeks. Although uncertainties still exist, this investigation supports the notion that visual attention is malleable and that attention therapy has a significant effect on reading comprehension in this often neglected population.     

COLLEGE RANKINGS: Democratized College Knowledge for Whom?

Every fall the opening of the academic year is heralded by an ever increasing number of newsmagazines that rank colleges. In addition to the standard bearers of this market — U.S. News and World Report and Money — magazines that offer their readers advice on how to choose a college are proliferating. For example, one can find lists of the "best colleges" and "best buys" accompanied on newstands by the top jock schools (Sports Illustrated), the best party schools (Playboy), and the best colleges for Asian Americans (A. Magazine). This paper is a study of who uses the contentious and seemingly influential newsmagazine rankings of U.S. colleges and universities, and an analysis of what types of freshmen find these rankings useful in making their choice of college. Equally important, it is a discussion of why reputations are important and how they can serve as a hedge against uncertainty. Finally, the paper provides an analysis of the for-profit sector's encroachment into a critical educational equity arena-college access-embedded within a discussion of whether widely available college rankings result in democratized college knowledge.