Recipes for fun

Summertime means hours of outdoor play! Children of all ages will enjoy these games and nature activities whether in their own backyards or at a playground, or a nearby park or forest preserve. Ann Cole and Carolyn Haas are parenting consultants and the authors ofI saw a Purple Cow, Pumpkin in a Pear Tree andChildren are Children are Children (all Little, Brown & Co.), as well as theRecipes For Fun books (each $2.50 from PAR, 464 Central, Northfield, II. 60093). Their newest book isThe Big Book of Recipes For Fun (from PAR, $12.98 plus 1.00 postage and handling).     

Shifting the paradigm: The use of creativity in career counseling

Conclusion To summarize, the techniques provided were intended to serve as a springboard for career counselors to employ creative strategies in their work. There also are important individual difference variables in career counselors that would make some of these techniques more desirable than others. It seems critical to explore different ways of being creative in our work in order to ensure that students develop an interest in vocational counseling and clients receive excellent services.As surveys of counselors as well as clients continue to show a dissatisfaction with career counseling it seems imperative that we investigate dynamic new ways of helping our clients think about their life/ career planning. As we model creativity in our own lives and practice, our clients will vicariously experience people who are truly excited about their occupational employment. This alone may assist career clients in achieving their dreams and maximizing their creative potentials.     

Policy-to-practice context to the delays and difficulties in the acquisition of speech,language and communication in the early years

The aim was to investigate the policy-to-practice context of delays and difficulties in the acquisition of speech, language and communication (SLC) in children from birth to five in one local authority within the context of Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model. Methods included a survey of early years practitioners (64 responses), interviews with 11 early years practitioners and observations of 9 children in the context of their early years settings. Policy texts revealed a growing consensus on the importance of early learning and development, the centrality of language and early intervention. Practitioner survey and interview findings indicated confident practice in relation to early identification, assessment and support, despite minimal initial professional training in SLC and virtually none for children with English as an additional language. Greater use of specialist assessment tools and alternative communication systems was made in specialist than mainstream settings. Observation showed considerable variation in the organisation of staff, groups, activities and interactional patterns with more targeted, short and intensive adult-led activity in special settings that led to less child-initiated interactions and private ‘self-talk’, characteristic of large-group free play of mainstream settings. Challenges and opportunities of generalist and specialist provision are discussed.     

Students' Perceptions of Literacy Assessment

Students' perceptions of literacy assessment processes and practices were investigated in two year long case studies undertaken in two English classrooms in two state high schools in Queensland, Australia. A range of qualitative data techniques was used to collect information related to students' previous experiences of assessment in primary school, students' responses to the first and last literacy assessment task of the school year, and their perceptions of assessment at the end of the year. The study showed that students' attitudes, beliefs, practices and understandings about assessment varied both within and across student groups and differences in students' accounts were evident both at the start and end of the school year. The findings highlight the role that students play in actively constructing knowledge about literacy assessment through their prior and current experiences with assessment tasks, and in their interactions with each other.     

Education: the untapped resource in oil rich countries

This article raises the question of whether having a high value primary product resource, such as petroleum, makes a constructive contribution to economic and social development, and specifically to education. Although many scholars study the political and economic impact of oil on different societies, the impact on education remains an under‐explored area of comparative educational research. It first summarizes the general issues, then it discusses the educational case of Kazakhstan following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The article provides information about Kazakh history and development as a newly independent republic in Central Asia. The article argues the importance of bringing education into the center of the oil and natural resource rich development debate.     

Genres and Learning to Read

The issue of text genre has begun to loom larger in thinking about literacy development, especially with the foregrounding of range in the latest National Curriculum orders for English. Lynne Kirk and Henry Pearson describe their investigation into the effects of text genre upon children's reading and conclude that, although story is the most immediately attractive genre, no one genre has all the qualities for helping children to learn to read.     

‘More than boy,girl, male,female’: exploring young people’s views on gender diversity within and beyond school contexts

Abstract

This paper explores the views of young people aged 12–14 on gender diversity, drawing upon school-based qualitative data from a study conducted in England in 2015–2016. Although earlier feminist and queer research in schools often found evidence of variable local gender cultures and gender non-conformity, we argue that the contemporary context, with its increasing global awareness of gender diversity, offers young people significant new ways of learning about and doing gender. Findings reveal that many young people have expanded vocabularies of gender identity/expression; critical reflexivity about their own positions; and principled commitments to gender equality, gender diversity and the rights of gender and sexual minorities. We also show how young people are negotiating wider cultures of gendered and sexual violence. Schools are providing some spaces and learning opportunities to support gender and sexual diversity. However, overall, it appears that young people’s immediate social cultural worlds are constructed in such a way that gender binary choices are frequently inevitable, from school uniforms and toilets to sports cultures and friendships. Our conclusion touches on the implications of these findings for how educational practitioners, external agencies and young people can address gender rights, equality and justice in schools and beyond.     

Dimensions of Subjectivity in Parents'' Ratings of Infant Temperament

This study was designed to further define the subjective component in parental reports of infant temperament. 131 mothers and 127 fathers completed the ICQ twice during pregnancy and at 3.5 months postpartum. In addition, motivation for the pregnancy was assessed early in pregnancy, and depression and anxiety were measured at each point in the study. Principal components analyses of the data collected during pregnancy yielded anxiety/depression and pregnancy motivation components for both mothers and fathers. The ICQ scores formed 2 components in the mothers' analysis and 1 in the fathers'. Subsequent correlation and regression analyses examining the relation between the pregnancy components and the postpartum scores revealed that the best predictors of postpartum ICQ scores were the postpartum ICQ components, although the anxiety/depression component was also a significant correlate. The results are discussed in terms of the role parents' prepartum expectancies might play in their perceptions of and interactions with their infants.