The Role of Self-Regulatory and Metacognitive Competence in the Motor Performance Difficulties of Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Theoretical and Empirical Review

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) experience difficulty coping with everyday demands due to difficulties in performing motor tasks. Recently, a cognitive learning paradigm has been applied to studying the nature of the problems experienced by children with DCD, which assumes that these children have fewer cognitive and metacognitive skills with which to acquire motor skills. However, despite the emergence of such cognitive models, individual differences in children’s use of self-regulatory and metacognitive skill during motor learning have received little research attention. The aim of this review article was to examine the roots of this emerging field of research, locate it within the larger body of metacognitive and self-regulation literature, and examine some of the preliminary work that has been conducted on the role of self-regulation and metacognition in motor learning and in the motor performance difficulties of children with DCD.     

On a Violence Unseen: The Womanly Object and Sacrificed Man

EXAMINING FOR APHASIA: A MANUAL FOR THE EXAMINATION OF APHASIA AND RELATED DISTURBANCES. By Jon Eisenson (Rev. ed.) New York: Psychological Corp., 1954; pp. 78. $3.50.

HANDBOOK FOR DISCUSSION LEADERS. By J. Jeffery Auer and Henry Lee Ewbank. (Rev. ed.) New York: Harper &; Brothers, 1954; pp. 153. $2.50.

THE CHILD'S BOOK OF SPEECH SOUNDS. By Sylvia Chipman. Magnolia, Massachusetts: Expression Co., 1954; pp. 43. $1.25.

RHETORIC AT ROME: A HISTORICAL SURVEY. By M. L. Clarke. London: Cohen and West Ltd., 1953; pp. 203. 21s.

HUGH ROY CULLEN: A STORY OF AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY. By Ed Kilman and Theon Wright. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1954: pp. viii+376. $4.00.

MASTERS OF THE DRAMA. By John Gassner. (Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged). New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1954; pp. xxii+890. $5.95.

THE TRAGEDIES OF GEORGE CHAPMAN: RENAISSANCE ETHICS IN ACTION. By Ennis Rees. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954; pp. 235. $4.50.

EDWARD ARLINGTON ROBINSON: THE LITERARY BACKGROUND OF A TRADITIONAL POET. By Edwin S. Fussell. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1954; pp. 221. $3.50.

THE MODERN IRISH WRITERS: Cross Currents of Criticism. By Estella Ruth Taylor. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1954; pp. 176. $3.50.

THE ANGLICAN PULPIT TODAY: REPRESENTATIVE SERMONS BY LEADING PREACHERS OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION. Edited by Frank D. Gifford. New York: Morehouse‐Gorham Co., 1953; pp. 235. $3.50.

THE PROCESS AND EFFECTS OF MASS COMMUNICATION. Edited by Wilbur Schramm. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1954; pp. x+586. $6.00.

THE MENTAL HOSPITAL. By Alfred H. Stanton and Morris S. Schwartz. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1954; pp. vii+484. $7.50.

STAGING TV PROGRAMS AND COMMERCIALS. By Robert J. Wade. New York: Hastings House, 1954; pp. xiii+216. $6.50.     

Discourses of widening participation in the prospectus documents and websites of six English higher education institutions

This article provides a comparative analysis of the discourses of widening participation used in the prospectus documents and websites of six English higher education institutions (HEIs). Taking 2007 and 2011 as snapshots, the article considers the nature of the messages being communicated to prospective students by the different HEIs in the context of the changing policy landscape. Critical discourse analysis is used to interpret the ways in which the case-study HEIs discursively positioned themselves and their prospective students – and the potential implications of this for widening participation practice. In 2007, the findings suggested sharp demarcations between the discourses chosen by the elite pre-1992 and the more accessible post-1992 institutions. By 2011, however, statements of commitment to widening participation were less overt in the post-1992 institutions, whilst there was some evidence of a shift towards a more inclusive tone by the elite universities.     

Children''s Relationships with Child Care Teachers: Stability and Concordance with Parental Attachments

In order to examine caregiving relationships of children enrolled in childcare, two longitudinal samples of children, n = 72 and n = 106, were followed from infancy through preschool. Maternal attachment as assessed by the Strange Situation, 4-year-old reunion behavior, and by the Attachment Q-Set tended to be stable across time. Children's teacher-child relationship quality, as measured by the Attachment Q-Set, was stable if the teacher remained the same. When the teacher changed, teacher-child relationship quality tended to be unstable until the children were 30 months old. After 30 months, relationship quality with teachers tended to be stable regardless of whether or not the teacher changed. Maternal and teacher relationships were nonconcordant. There were few interactions between adult caregiver relationship quality and age of entry into child care or intensity of child care.     

Designing computer systems to support peer learning

This article begins with a review of the various roles which computers have played in supporting collaborative learning and argues that, whatever role it plays, technology is not neutral with respect to interactions with and between users. Interfaces to learning environments embody particular representational schemes which have the potential either for competing with representations of the learning domain or for giving access to it. In this respect, the learner-machine interface has ‘Epistemic significance’ and its design is as important as the design of the materials and activities to which it interfaces.     

Alternate Reality Games as an Informal Learning Tool for Generating STEM Engagement among Underrepresented Youth: a Qualitative Evaluation of the Source

This project developed and studied The Source, an alternate reality game (ARG) designed to foster interest and knowledge related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) among youth from populations underrepresented in STEM fields. ARGs are multiplayer games that engage participants across several media such as shared websites, social media, personal communications, and real-world settings to complete activities and collaborate with team members. The Source was a five-week summer program with 144 participants from Chicago aged 13 to 18 years. The Source incorporated six socio-contextual factors derived from three frameworks: Chang’s (ERIC Digest, 2002) recommendations for engaging underrepresented populations in STEM careers, Lave and Wenger’s (Cambridge University Press, 1991) situated learning model, and Barron’s (Human Development, 49(4); 193-224, 2006) learning ecology perspective. These factors aligned with the program’s aims of promoting (1) social community and peer support, (2) collaboration and teamwork, (3) real-world relevance and investigative learning, (4) mentoring and exposure to STEM professionals, (5) hands-on activities to foster transferable skill building, and (6) interface with technology. This paper presents results from 10 focus groups and 10 individual interviews conducted with a subset of the 144 youth participants who completed the game. It describes how these six factors were realized through The Source and uses them as a lens for considering how The Source functioned pedagogically. Qualitative findings describe youth’s perception of The Source’s potential influence on STEM interest, engagement, and identity formation. Despite limitations, study results indicate that underrepresented youth can engage in an immersive, narrative, and game-based experience as a potential mechanism for piquing and developing STEM interest and skills, particularly among underrepresented youth.     

The symbolic violence of setting: A Bourdieusian analysis of mixed methods data on secondary students’ views about setting

‘Setting’ is a widespread practice in the UK, despite little evidence of its efficacy and substantial evidence of its detrimental impact on those allocated to the lowest sets. Taking a Bourdieusian approach, we propose that setting can be understood as a practice through which the social and cultural reproduction of dominant power relations is enacted within schools. Drawing on survey data from 12,178 Year 7 (age 11/12) students and discussion groups and individual interviews with 33 students, conducted as part of a wider project on secondary school grouping practices, we examine the views of students who experience setting, exploring the extent to which the legitimacy of the practice is accepted or challenged, focusing on students’ negative views about setting. Analyses show that privileged students (White, middle class) were most likely to be in top sets whereas working‐class and Black students were more likely to be in bottom sets. Students in the lowest sets (and boys, Black students and those in receipt of free school meals) were the most likely to express negative views of setting and to question the legitimacy and ‘fairness’ of setting as a practice, whereas top‐set students defended the legitimacy of setting and set allocations as ‘natural’ and ‘deserved’. This paper argues that setting is incompatible with social justice approaches to education and calls for the foregrounding of the views of those who are disadvantaged by the practice as a tool for challenging the doxa of setting.     

Evaluating the impact of Forest Schools: a collaboration between a university and a primary school

The Forest School movement, an important part of education in Scandinavia, has gained momentum in the UK in recent years. Within the context of declining access to, and engagement with, the natural environment Forest Schools can provide invaluable life experiences for our children. In 2012 the University of Northampton investigated opportunities to develop part of its campus as a forest site for use by schools and to enhance its students' learning. A researcher from the university evaluated the impact of visits made by children from the pilot primary school through a series of pupil, staff and parent interviews. Analysis of the interview data showed that evidence of impact was anecdotal and it was clear that a systematic approach was needed. The university and school have collaborated in developing a toolkit for evaluating this impact, which will act as a starting point to support other schools visiting the site.     

The Consequences of Teacher Praise and Criticism

A ‘visiting teacher’ gave her lesson, then asked children for evaluations of (i) how they regarded her, (ii) how they thought she regarded each of them and (iii) how they regarded themselves, so as to provide baseline measures for the study. On her next visit she formed three treatment groups by giving out her own evaluations of each child on individual cards, praising the behaviour of one third of the class, criticising another third while the remaining third received no feedback cards. The same measures were then taken a second time. From the results, children did not appear to process praise or criticism as mirror opposites. In particular, criticism appeared to be deflected into negative ratings of the teacher rather than of the self. Results are considered in terms of a selective gating hypothesis and wider implications are discussed.