Nonreaders and nonwriters in special education: Crossing new literacy thresholds

This paper reports on the way in which a teacher led the literacy development of two students who were nonreaders and nonwriters. The two students received instruction in a special education room for students with learning disabilities. The teacher implemented an integrated instructional program in reading and writing that was designed to: (a) embed literacy instruction in meaningful and purposive activities, (b) respond to the needs, capabilities and interests of learners, and reflect their zones of proximal development, (c) promote self-regulated learning, and (d) foster students' membership in a literacy community. This paper focuses on the strategies the teacher used to mediate reading and writing development and the effects of the strategies on the narrative and expository writing performance of her students.     

Part-time Employment and Performance at A-level

How many sixth-formers have part-time paid employment, and does this affect their performance at A-level? This article describes how one teaching institution set up a project to collect and analyse data in an attempt to find answers to these questions.     

Doing time and motion diffractively: academic life everywhere and all the time

This article offers a diffractive methodological intervention into workplace studies of academic life. In its engagement of a playful, performative research and writing practice, the article speaks back to technocratic organisational and sociological workplace ‘time and motion’ studies which centre on the human and rational, and presume a linear teleology of cause and effect. As a counterpoint, we deploy posthumanist new materialist research practices which refuse human-centric approaches and aim to give matter its due. As a means to analyse what comes out of our joint workspaces photo project we produce two ‘passes’ through data – two diffractive experiments which destabilise what normally counts as ‘findings’ and their academic presentation. The article deploys the motif of ‘starting somewhere else’ to signal both our intention to keep data animated, alive and interactive, and to utilise visual and written modes of seriality as enabling constraints which produce a more generative focus on the mundane, emergent, unforeseen, and happenstance in studies of daily working life.     

College Counseling Centers With Counselors in Private Practice: Guidelines to Negotiate Ethical Challenges

Several factors shape practices in counseling centers today, including an increased need for referral to external mental health services. Providing external referrals can lead to both practical and ethical implications when counseling center employees also operate private practices. Guidelines to negotiate the potential ethical dilemmas inherent in this scenario are provided.     

Meanings of success and successful leadership in Ontario,Canada, in neo-liberal times

The provincial government of Ontario, Canada, has committed itself to raising student achievement, closing achievement gaps, and increasing the public's confidence in public education. It has introduced many policies, including the Ontario Leadership Strategy (OLS), to support these goals. Our study examined how teachers, administrators, support staff, and parents in three elementary schools in Ontario understand and enact school success and successful school leadership within this (neo-liberal) context. Findings of a comparative analysis of Ontario policy texts and data from interviews with administrators, teachers, support staff, and parents in the schools demonstrate that the school-based participants defined success as academic learning, a positive school climate, and students' well-being. This definition differs from the definition prioritised by Ontario's government: high scores on standardised provincial and international tests. However, principals in the schools enacted leadership practices advocated by OLS to support locally defined notions of success.     

Developing generic skills at university,during work placement and in employment: graduates' perceptions

This paper presents findings from Stage 4 of the Griffith Graduate Project. Graduates from three Schools within Griffith University were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the contributions that the learning contexts of university, work placement and post‐graduation employment made to the development of their generic skills. All graduates involved in the project had experienced work placement as a formal part of their undergraduate studies. Supplementary data from focus group discussions held with employers and graduates are also included. Findings showed that while graduates recognized the contribution university had made to their generic skills development, they greatly valued the experience of learning in the workplace during placement and subsequently in employment. The importance of teamwork, being given responsibility, and collaborative learning emerged as the most important factors for effective learning in the three contexts under consideration.     

The Role of Orthographic–Motor Integration in the Production of Creative and Well‐Structured Written Text for Students in Secondary School

There is a strong relationship between orthographic–motor integration related to handwriting and students' ability to produce creative and well‐structured written text. This relationship is thought to be due to the cognitive load which results when attention is required by writers to write letters and words on the page. Lack of automaticity in orthographic–motor integration means that writers do not have sufficient cognitive resources to accomplish the more demanding aspects of text production such as ideation, text monitoring, and pragmatic awareness. A systematic handwriting program can significantly improve the quality of written text by young children experiencing problems with orthographic–motor integration. This study investigated the effectiveness of a handwriting program in remediating older students' problems in orthographic–motor integration and consequently enhancing their written language skills. Two groups of students in Grades 8 and 9 were provided with either practice in handwriting or daily completion of a written journal. There were no differences between the two groups at pre‐test. However, at post‐test, the handwriting group had significantly higher scores in orthographic–motor integration as well as for the length and quality of the text they wrote.     

Educating the child care administrator

ABSTRACT

There is a strong national movement to improve the quality in child care programs nationwide and an important part of this movement includes professional preparation standards. Stakeholders in New York State (NYS) have developed the NYS Children’s Program Administrator Credential (CPAC), designed to meet the need for increased knowledge in child care administration. In response, Empire State College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY), developed four models to help practitioners meet the new requirement: study group, independent study, residency, and online. The purpose of this article is to examine the development of the credential, discuss the collaborative process involved in the development of the different modes of study, followed by a discussion of the strengths and challenges of each model.     

Teaching Thinking: new signs for theories of cognition

In this overview of research and practice associated with teaching thinking, three conceptions of thinking are identified. Thinking as information‐processing, which has its roots in the dominant paradigm in cognitive psychology; thinking as making judgements, which is associated with critical thinking; and thinking as sense‐making, which is embedded in constructivist epistemology. Core assumptions and characteristics of each viewpoint, as they are realised in cognitive instruction, are examined. The main features of an emergent model of instruction, cognitive apprenticeship, are identified. Finally, using the information‐processing framework as a baseline, socially shared cognition and situated cognition are detected as new signs for cognitive theory.     

Early Mathematics in the Home and Out-of-Home Contexts

The investigation to be reported here is part of a wider, multi-method and longitudinal study that has tracked early mathematics in the home of nine young children from between one and two years of age through to school age. The paper focuses on the mathematical development of two of the children, providing an in-depth analysis of observation and discourse in the home and considering the possible impact of this on later attitudes to learning. Clark (2001) has argued that it is possible to pin-point contexts in homes and pre-school settings from research evidence that are most likely to stimulate learning in young children and to lay an effective foundation for literacy and numeracy. This paper concludes that early pedagogical strategies may vary in the manner in which they pave the way not only for the later development, but also foster expectations for and attitudes towards future learning. L'investigation ici rapporte´e fait partie d'une e´tude de type multi-me´thode et longitudinal plus comple ¤ te, qui traque l'usage des mathe´matiques au premier age dans la maison par neuf jeunes enfants, a ¤ partir de l'age d'entre un et deux ans au passage a ¤ la scolarite´ formelle. Cet essai se concentre sur le de´veloppement mathe´matique de deux des enfants, fournissant une analyse approfondie de la observation et du discours dans la maison et conside ¤ re l'impact possible de ceci sur l'accomplissement et les attitudes a ¤ l'apprentissage poste´rieurs. Clark (2001) a soutenu que c'est possible de pre´ciser contextes spe´cifiques dans le cadre du foyer et dans les cadres pre´scolaires en e´manant de l'e´vidence de la recherche qui vont plus probablement stimuler l'apprentissage dans les jeunes enfants et placer une fondation efficace pour l'alphabe´tisation et l'aptitude au calcul. Cet essai conclut qu'une strate´gie parentale efficace est caracte´rise´e par sa direction de l'attention de l'enfant aux relations dans l'espace, le temps, la quantite´ et l'e´tendue, qui peuvent etre perc¸ues au cours de la manipulation d'objets dans les actions qui sont en cours de realisation et qui ont e´te´ introduites par l'enfant meme. La conscience de ces relations est e´tablie par la pe´riode d'acquisition de langue pendant que l'enfant reconna L t, arrange et manipule des relations qui peuvent etre perc¸ues dans les objets de jeu. L' appui par l'adulte de la coordination de l'enfant dans ces relations dans le contexte d'activite´s verbales et pratiques semble paver la voie non seulement pour le de´veloppement poste´rieur de principes cognitifs mais aussi d'espe´rances positives pour et des attitudes vers l'apprentissage futur. La investigacio´n que se relata aqu L ´´ forma parte de un estudio multime´todo y longitudinal ma´s amplio, que rastrea el uso de las matema´ticas en la primera edad en la casa de nueve nin ¨ os, de la edad de entre uno y dos an ¨ os al pasaje a la educacio´n formal. Este ensayo hace enfoque en el desarrollo matema´tico de dos de los nin ¨ os, proporcionando un ana´lisis a fondo de observacio´n y discurso en el hogar y considerando el impacto posible de e´ste sobre el logro posterior y las actitudes para el estudio. Clark (2001) ha argumentado que es posible sen ¨ alar los contextos en el hogar y en los ambientes preescolares (basandose en evidencia emergente de investigaciones previas) que ma´s probablemente estimulan el estudio en los nin ¨ os y que proporcionan una base eficaz para el alfabetismo y la aptitud al ca´lculo. Este ensayo concluye que una estrategia eficaz de parte de los padres es caracterizada por su dirigimiento de la atencio´n del nin ¨ o hacia las relaciones de espacio, de tiempo, de cantidad y grado, que puede ser percibido en el curso de la manipulacio´n de objetos en acciones continuas iniciadas por nin ¨ o. El conocimiento de estas relaciones se establece en el per L ´´odo de la adquisicio´n del lenguaje a medida que el nin ¨ o reconoce, pone en orden y manipula las relaciones que se pueden percibir en los objetos de juego. El apoyo de la coordinacio´n del nin ¨ o en estas relaciones por el adulto en el contexto de actividades verbales y pra´cticas parece preparar el terreno no so´lo para el desarrollo posterior de principios cognoscitivos pero tambie´n para las esperanzas positivas y para las actitudes hacia el aprendizaje futuro.