Physical Activity,Self-Regulation,and Early Academic Achievement in Preschool Children

Research Findings: The present study investigated whether active play during recess was associated with self-regulation and academic achievement in a prekindergarten sample. A total of 51 children in classes containing approximately half Head Start children were assessed on self-regulation, active play, and early academic achievement. Path analyses indicated that higher active play was associated with better self-regulation, which in turn was associated with higher scores on early reading and math assessments. Practice or Policy: Results point to the benefits of active play for promoting self-regulation and offer insight into possible interventions designed to promote self-regulation and academic achievement.     

Solution or smoke screen? The use of further education colleges in making KS4 provision for difficult to manage (D2M) students

The significance of this article lies in Bob Sproson's willingness to ask difficult questions and to provoke further questions in the mind of the reader. The shift in thinking which allows us to consider 14–19 education as a whole makes the work of support services such as the one described here particularly interesting, with implications far beyond the group of students at KS4 described here as ‘difficult to manage’. As Bob Sproson argues, college placement is no panacea, but requires careful preparation and attention to the needs and views of each student and to the development of mutually respectful relationships between teachers and students. Implied in this article is a radically new view of young people and their educational needs post–14.     

Challenging Behaviour in the Classroom

Challenging behaviour among children with severe learning difficulties has drawn relatively little attention from educationists. Dr John McEvoy, Andrew McDonnell and Bob Dearden, who have been running workshops in behaviour management in Birmingham, seek to explore this issue further and offer their views on policy and training.