More about increasing the quality of educational intervention research: A synthesis

A synthesis of the commentaries to our leadoff paper is presented, along with our replies to some of the specific comments offered. When the original analysis and the commentaries are combined, an exceptionally thorough summary of issues that should be considered by intervention researchers emerges. We hope this set of issues will be useful to the educational research community.A draft of this synthesis was circulated among the commentators in this special issue, with a request to determine whether their views were represented fairly. There were few reservations expressed, and in every case when a concern was expressed, we concluded on review that slight adjustment was required to present the commentator's perspective more clearly and/or fairly, and we attempted to do so.     

Longitudinal patterns of emerging literacy in beginning deaf and hearing readers

The emerging reading and spelling abilities of 24 deaf and 23 hearing beginning readers were followed over 2 years. The deaf children varied in their language backgrounds and preferred mode of communication. All children were given a range of literacy, cognitive and language-based tasks every 12 months. Deaf and hearing children made similar progress in literacy in the beginning stages of reading development and then their trajectories began to diverge. The longitudinal correlates of beginning reading in the deaf children were earlier vocabulary, letter-sound knowledge, and speechreading. Earlier phonological awareness was not a longitudinal correlate of reading ability once earlier reading levels were controlled. Only letter name knowledge was longitudinally related to spelling ability. Speechreading was also a strong longitudinal correlate of reading and spelling in the hearing children. The findings suggested that deaf and hearing children utilize slightly different reading strategies over the first 2 years of schooling.     

Content and method in a thanatology training program for paraprofessionals

A training program of paraprofessionals was developed in a university teaching hospital. Trainees were exposed to seminars and a supervised practicum. The objectives of the experience included sensitization of persons in the natural helping network to (a) psychosocial needs of seriously ill persons and their families, (b) experience and comfort in interaction with such persons; (c) the structure of the health care delivery system, and (d) the usefulness of peer support groups.     

‘They think it’s all Dover!’ Popular newspaper narratives and images about the English football team and (re)presentations of national identity during Euro 2012

The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship (‘Euro 2012’) – Europe’s quadrennial football bonanza was held in Poland and the Ukraine between June 8th and July 1st. Occurring between Elizabeth II’s Diamond jubilee and the London 2012 Olympic Games, the eyes of the media were fixated on the pride and joy of English football, its men’s national team. With national consciousness at an all-time high, articles in England’s tabloid, ‘red-top,’ daily national newspapers The Sun and Daily Mirror were tracked for three weeks as they lavished their attentions on the national pastime. Their coverage of the English team reflected a heightened consciousness of English national identity. Drawing on Guibernau’s strategies for creating and uniting citizens around a collective national identity, this study examined how England’s popular media presented and represented England’s national identity to reflect the real and imagined versions of Englishness during this major sporting event.¹1. Montserrat Guibernau, The Identity of Nations (Cambridge: Polity, 2007). By focusing on The Sun and Daily Mirror’s narratives about, and images of, the English team during the Euro 2012 tournament, this paper focuses on how English national identity ebbed and flowed during a time of seismic change within the country. Shaped by an inductive textual analysis, this paper shows how the press fluctuated between optimistic notions of the present and future English national identity and traditional ‘olde England’ in an almost formulaic fashion.     

Correction to: The State of Current Reading Intervention Research for English Learners in Grades K–2: a Best-Evidence Synthesis

Educational Psychology Review -     

A New Twist on Studying the Development of Dynamic Spatial Transformations: Mental Paper Folding in Young Children

The relation of spatial skills to academic success in areas such as math and science has sparked discussion in early education around how spatial thinking skills might be included in early schooling. Planning and evaluating new curricula or interventions requires understanding these skills and having the means to assess them. Prior developmental research focused primarily on one aspect of dynamic spatial transformations (DST), namely mental rotation. This study broadens our knowledge by addressing another important DST, namely mental folding. We devised a new test suitable for young children. Performance of 180 children between 4 and 7 years suggests that mental folding appears at around 5.5 years of age, although there were also marked individual differences. These data on the emergence of DST suggest that educational programs targeting this skill could start in preschool or kindergarten and provide a means to assess the effectiveness of such efforts.     

Leading Change in Schools in Difficulty

School improvement is a complex undertaking for any school but for schools in challenging or difficult circumstances it presents extra problems. Not only do schools in challenging circumstances often face acute levels of socio-economic deprivation, but also, improvement or change efforts can be extremely fragile in these volatile school contexts. This article focuses upon the process of leading change in a group of schools in challenging circumstances in England. It draws upon empirical data and focuses particularly on the process of leading change in schools in difficulty by exploring three leadership themes. The article concludes by arguing that while the quality of leadership is undoubtedly important in these school contexts it is simply not sufficient to combat the stubborn relationship between social disadvantage and underachievement. This relationship is more likely to be broken through structural change and localised and community-based action rather than through the forces of standardization or accountability.