Documents and debates Social exclusion,sure start and organizational social capital: evaluating inter‐disciplinary multi‐agency working in an education and health work programme

Social policy‐making in the UK under the Labour government has galvanized around the issue of social exclusion, identifying young children (0–4 years) and their families living in areas of high social disadvantage to be particularly at risk. This paper attempts to recover the experiences and views of professionals concerned with the delivery and implementation of a multi‐agency programme tackling the social exclusion of these young children and their families known as Sure Start. The data are based on the analysis of documentation, attendance and observation at meetings, and 32 semi‐structured interviews with members of the inter‐disciplinary team responsible for the Sure Start programme's delivery. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using open coding from grounded theorizing. The paper, in reflecting on the problems and dilemmas of multi‐agency approaches and reported in other research, considers how the preliminary findings from this study suggest the team have managed to accommodate and overcome these potential difficulties, to facilitate an integrated, holistic and user‐centred approach to the programme. The paper concludes by considering the possibility that the team's approach may be conceptually located within an organizational social capital framework as posited by Nahapiet and Ghoshal.     

Motivation in special education: doing it differently or doing it better?

This article discusses how one special school for pupils with moderate-learning difficulties reflects themes in the literature on pupil motivation. It aims to highlight good practice and is based on reflections from prolonged working with the school as an advisory teacher, illustrated with teacher, pupil and parent comments from Y6 Education Health Care Plans and Y7 annual review documents (n = 23) and from OFSTED reports. It beings by exploring the origins and influences on pupil motivation, identifying the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and examining motivational traits and attributions within individuals. It then discusses the motivational influences of the social and learning contexts of the school: organisation, curriculum and pedagogy, and goals and rewards. Throughout, school-specific observations are related to and discussed alongside themes in the literature. Motivation is commonly defined in quantitative terms that describe the intensity, direction and duration of behaviour and effort. It is the qualitative aspects of how motivation is aroused and maintained that are germane to this paper.     

The matter of assessor variance in early childhood education—Or whose score is it anyway?

Useful assessment outcomes (as manifest through assigned scores) must show reasonable variation across children because it is that variation that presumably defines children's individual differences. Alternatively it is conceivable that some portion of the variability in assessment outcomes does not reflect child differences but rather differences in the performance of the assessors who carry out assessments. Hierarchical linear modeling is applied in this article to identify the amount of score variation attributable to assessors rather than children. Working with multiple cohorts of Head Start and kindergarten children, score variation is analyzed for measures administered outside of classrooms by extramural assessors and for teacher-administered measures within classrooms. The amount of assessor variance (vs. actual child variance) was negligible as associated with extramural assessors but substantial for teacher assessors, indicating that large portions of the variability in teacher-administered assessments have nothing to do with children's unique performances. Recommendations are provided to assist the interpretation of assessment outcomes in future research and practice.     

Jimmy's baby doll and Jenny's truck: young children's reasoning about gender norms

To assess the flexibility of reasoning about gender, children ages 4, 6, and 8 years (N = 72) were interviewed about gender norms when different domains were highlighted. The majority of participants at all ages judged a reversal of gender norms in a different cultural context to be acceptable. They also judged gender norms as a matter of personal choice and they negatively evaluated a rule enforcing gender norms in schools. Older children were more likely to show flexibility than younger children. Justifications obtained from 6- and 8-year-olds showed that they considered adherence to gender norms a matter of personal choice and they viewed the rule enforcing gender norms as unfair.     

David Shumaker. The Embedded Librarian: Innovative Strategies for Taking Knowledge Where It's Needed.

No abstract available for this article.     

The effect of class size on the teaching of pupils aged 7 – 11 years

There is still little consensus on whether and how teaching is affected by small and large classes, especially in the case of students in the later primary years. This study investigated effects of class size on teaching of pupils aged 7 – 11 years. We used a multimethod approach, integrating qualitative information from teachers' end-of-year accounts and data from case studies with quantitative information from systematic observations. Results showed that there was more individual attention in smaller classes, a more active role for pupils, and beneficial effects on the quality of teaching. It is suggested that teachers in both large and small classes need to develop strategies for more individual attention but also recognize the benefits of other forms of learning, for example, group work.     

Double standards and first principles: framing teaching assistant support for pupils with special educational needs

Teaching assistants (TAs) are part of a growing international trend toward paraprofessionals working in public services. There has been controversy over TAs’ deployment and appropriate role when supporting the learning of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools. Such debates have been transformed by findings from a large study of school support staff in the UK (the DISS project). The findings from this study show that TA support has a negative impact on pupils’ academic progress, especially pupils with SEN. The findings render the current system of support for SEN highly questionable: TAs have inadvertently become the primary educators of pupils with SEN. This paper sets out the likely explanations for the negative effects in terms of three ‘frames’ – deployment, practice and preparedness – and then uses these frames to identify specific implications for pupils with SEN. We offer suggestions on how to make the most productive use of TA support.     

The action research process as a means of helping student teachers understand and fulfil the complex role of the teacher

The Mid-Town elementary preservice cohort programme at OISE/UT has, for several years, had action research by student teachers as a major component. In this article, the authors outline the view of action research held by the faculty team and explain why they turned to action research as a strategy in teacher education. They detail how the action research requirement is implemented in the programme, and describe the effects of the action research process on the understandings, skills and behaviour of the preservice teachers. The findings suggest this is potentially a very valuable approach to teacher education, provided certain other conditions are fulfilled.