Advocacy Counseling for Female Survivors of Partner Abuse: Implications for Counselor Education

This article outlines ways by which counselor educators may prepare counselors and counselor trainees to be advocates for survivors of partner abuse. Advocacy strategies for counselors and counselor trainees working with survivors of partner abuse are provided, integrating the 5 components of collaboration, context, competence, critical consciousness, and community (E. McWhirter, 1998) within an ecological framework.     

Discourse complexity of college writers with and without disabilities: a multidimensional analysis

The purpose of this study was to examine specific word- and sentence-level features most frequently used in the expository writing of four groups of college writers. Three groups were writers who demonstrated disabilities. Group 1 students (n = 87) demonstrated learning disabilities (LD); Group 2 (n = 50), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); and Group 3 (n = 58), combined LD and ADHD. Group 4 consisted of writers with no history of a documented disability (n = 92). Computer-based analysis and structural equation modeling were used to group specific linguistic features identified in the expository essays across all four groups. The frequency of linguistic features, not errors, was analyzed. Four communication dimensions (factors) were identified for the four groups of writers, but the factor loadings and correlations were significantly different across groups. Furthermore, the relationships of specific linguistic features were studied as to their impact on the verbosity, quality, and lexical complexity of students' expository essays. It is interesting to note that very high correlations were found between verbosity, quality, and lexical complexity, suggesting that these constructs are not as separate in their functioning as might be supposed. Implications for assessment and instruction are provided.     

The Concerns of Mainstream Teachers: Coping with inclusivity in an Australian context

Throughout the past two decades there has been a move away from educating children with disabilities in segregated schools to adopting a more inclusive approach within mainstream schools in all jurisdictions in Australia. This research identifies the concerns of 228 regular class teachers in Western Australia who have all been involved with the inclusion of a child with an intellectual disability in their classrooms. Seven categories of concerns are investigated together with the use and effectiveness of a range of coping strategies. Demographic differences in age, year level being taught, qualifications, teaching experience and previous involvement with inclusion were found regarding concerns about inclusion. The discussion focuses on the relevance of professional development and the need to ensure that it targets the specific concerns of teachers, focusing on the coping strategies recognised as being most useful in order to provide optimal conditions for success.     

An evaluation of characteristics of environmental education practice in New Zealand schools

This paper reports on a national evaluation project that investigated characteristics of environmental education (EE) practice in New Zealand schools in 2002–2003. The research included a review of New Zealand and international environmental education literature, a survey of nearly 200 New Zealand schools and case studies of environmental education practice in eight schools. In this paper we describe and discuss key features of environmental education practice in New Zealand schools at the time of the research. We consider the rewards and challenges for teachers, students, schools and the wider school community arising from the schools’ implementation of this non‐compulsory curriculum subject. We conclude by considering what the findings told us about current EE practice and how these findings might inform a greater emphasis towards environmental education/education for sustainability in New Zealand schools at a time of national curriculum policy change.     

Cultural differences in the relationships among autonomy support, psychological need satisfaction, subjective vitality, and effort in British and Chinese physical education

Using basic psychological needs theory (BPNT; Ryan & Deci, 2000) as our guiding framework, we explored cultural differences in the relationships among physical education students' perceptions of teacher autonomy support, psychological need satisfaction, subjective vitality and effort in class. Seven hundred and fifteen students (age range from 13 to 15 years) from the U.K. and Hong Kong, China, completed a multisection inventory during a timetabled physical education class. Multilevel analyses revealed that the relationships among autonomy support, subjective vitality and effort were mediated by students' perceptions of psychological need satisfaction. The relationship between autonomy support and perceptions of competence was stronger in the Chinese sample, compared with the U.K. sample. In addition, the relationship between perceptions of relatedness and effort was not significant in the Chinese students. The findings generally support the pan-cultural utility of BPNT and imply that a teacher-created autonomy supportive environment may promote positive student experiences in both cultures.     

The effects of polysemy for Japanese katakana words

In these experiments, the effects of polysemy were examined as a function of word frequency for Japanese katakana words, words which have consistent character-to-sound correspondences. In the lexical decision task, an additive relationship was observed between polysemy and frequency (i.e., polysemy effects were identical for high and low frequency katakana words). In the naming task, although no word frequency effect was observed, there was a significant polysemy effect which, as in the lexical decision task, was identical for high and low frequency words. The implications of these results for conclusions about the loci of polysemy and frequency effects in lexical decision and naming tasks are discussed.     

Developing literacy through the Literacy Hour: a survey of teachers’ experiences

The results are reported of a survey of the experiences of 101 primary school teachers of the newly introduced Literacy Hour. The teachers were asked about the training and preparation they had received, the implementation of the Literacy Hour, its effectiveness and how children with special difficulties are differentially affected. General comments were also sought and sufficient were made for other aspects of the Literacy Hour to be reported, such as ability differences, writing, children’s attitudes and differences between different school years.