An Analysis of Some New Statistical Methods for Selecting Test Items

In this study, the relationship between student affective performance and classroom physical environment, social climate, and management style were investigated in a sample of classes in Hong Kong primary schools. The results of Pearson and canonical correlation analyses indicated that among the measures of classroom environment, perceived quality of physical environment and class master's expert power, personal power, and coercive power were the strongest predictors of affective performance. This finding supports the importance of class master's management style in the classroom environment. Students' attitudes toward school and teachers appeared to be most sensitive to variation in the classroom environment, and self-concept was the least sensitive among the seven student affective measures. Students' self-efficacy of learning and intention to drop out were moderately sensitive to classroom environment. Profiles of effective and ineffective classroom environments were also mapped. In effective classrooms, class masters care for students, pay attention to teaching, do not use force or punishment but do create a good classroom climate with their professional knowledge, personal morality, and personality. Physical environment and psychological environment are both important; a good classroom environment is highly correlated with student affective performance.     

Pedagogically bereft! Improving learning outcomes for children with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders

Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is the most common non‐genetic cause of learning disability, affecting around 1% of live births in Europe, and costing an estimated $2.9 million per individual across their lifespan. In adulthood, non‐reversible brain damage is often compounded by secondary disabilities in adulthood, such as mental health problems and drug addiction. The challenge for today's educators is: ‘How do we teach children with FASD?’ Their unusual style of learning and their extreme challenging behaviour is out of the experience of many teachers. This article, written by Professor Barry Carpenter, OBE, National Director of the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project, considers the status of FASD in the UK, and provides an overview of the author's recent research into effective educational strategies within the framework of Every Child Matters. Only government‐led approaches can lead to improvements in the quality of teaching and learning for children with FASD and their future life chances.