Choices and Expectations at Primary and Secondary Stages in the State and Private Sectors

This paper examines a range of issues concerned with the process of choosing schools in the private and state sectors at the primary/pre‐preparatory stage and at the time of transfer to secondary/senior school. The findings indicate that choices about schools are made at different times and in different ways by parents who use the state and private sectors. One of the key findings is that the process of choosing a school begins earlier in the private than in the state sector; another is that quality of education is cited more frequently as one of the ‘top three’ essential factors by parents of children in the private sector. At both the primary and transfer to secondary stages, very high percentages of parents consider it essential that their child should be happy. A discussion of the different notions that private school and the state school parents may have of ‘happiness’ is offered.     

A person-centred life in action. A perspective on my life and work

This is a personal perspective of the teaching experience of Haydn Davies. He has worked for 40 years as a teacher in Primary, Secondary, Further and Higher Education, delivering programmes, courses and lectures focused on social education, pastoral care guidance and counselling. He shares his conclusions about education and in particular identifies the work of Carl Rogers as offering the most important guiding principles. From these principles Haydn Davies has worked out a series of activities and outcomes that this article offers for others to explore.     

Temperament and Interparental Conflict: The Role of Negative Emotionality in Predicting Child Behavioral Problems

This study examined temperamental irritability and fearful distress as moderators of the association between interparental conflict and child behavior problems in a disadvantaged sample of two hundred and one 2‐year‐old children and their mothers. Using a multimethod, prospective design, findings revealed that the relation between interparental conflict and changes in child behavior problems over a 1‐year period were moderated by temperamental irritability. Consistent with differential susceptibility theory, children high in irritable temperament not only exhibited poorer outcomes in contexts of high interparental conflict but also better adjustment in contexts of low levels of interparental conflict. Mediated moderation analyses revealed that fearful reactivity partly accounted for the greater susceptibility of irritable children, particularly in explaining why they fared better when interparental conflict was low.     

STUDENT VOICES IN THE TRANSFER PROCESS: DO WE HEAR THEM? DO WE LISTEN?

The “baby boomer echo” is increasing the number of traditional age students attending higher education, yet funding from both state and federal is remaining constant. In order to provide a higher education future for all who desire it, fiscal resources must be even more carefully allocated. Improving the transfer process from community colleges to four‐year colleges and universities will conserve our fiscal and our human resources and provide a higher education for more of our citizens. Statistics alone will not improve the transfer process; the voices of students experiencing this process must also be heard. A Fall 1994 cohort group of students transferring from Colorado's 15 community colleges to Colorado State University (CSU) was identified. Within this Fall 1994 cohort, two groups of students were formed based on their earned grade point average (GPA) at CSV at the end of Fall 1995 semester: students who achieved a 3.25 GPA or better and students who were placed on academic probation. The focus group discussions were transcribed and qualitatively coded. The thematic units that evolved centered on the students’ perceptions of their pre‐transfer experience, post‐transfer experience, and recommendations for improving the transfer process. The implications for practice include the processing and disseminating of transfer information, the advising function in the transfer process, and the need for on‐going evaluation of the process.     

Parental Involvement in School Policy‐Making

A positive school ethos is considered a key factor contributing to successful school improvement. Yet, despite its assumed educational influence, little is known about how ethos in schools is experienced by students. This study takes a fresh look at school ethos through the meanings which final year students attribute to their lived experience of secondary school. Implications for school improvement are considered.     

Benefits of the Michiana Daily Mathtracks Programme for students living in poverty

This paper summarizes results from a math intervention implemented in a high-poverty urban community. Over 7,300 students from kindergarten to 4th grade in 1 low-socioeconomic-status school district participated in the study. Students from 13 different schools (36 different classroom) participated in the treatment. Comparisons were made to purposely selected control-group schools and all other students in the district. The aim of the intervention was to help early elementary-age students living in poverty learn essential math facts and master basic computational skills as a foundation for improving their math ability. The study used a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design with control and treatment groups. Achievement for both groups was compared to that of the school district as a whole, with analysis disaggregated by poverty status. The results found positive gains in the treatment group's math achievement at every grade level, transcending differences in socioeconomic status.     

Interparental conflict in kindergarten and adolescent adjustment: prospective investigation of emotional security as an explanatory mechanism

Advancing the long‐term prospective study of explanations for the effects of marital conflict on children’s functioning, relations were examined between interparental conflict in kindergarten, children’s emotional insecurity in the early school years, and subsequent adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems. Based on a community sample of 235 mothers, fathers, and children (Ms = 6.00, 8.02, 12.62 years), and multimethod and multireporter assessments, structural equation model tests provided support for emotional insecurity in early childhood as an intervening process related to adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems, even with stringent autoregressive controls over prior levels of functioning for both mediating and outcome variables. Discussion considers implications for understanding pathways between interparental conflict, emotional insecurity, and adjustment in childhood and adolescence.