The role of oral language in ­underpinning the text generation ­difficulties in children with specific ­language impairment

Children with specific language impairments (SLI) have difficulties in producing written text. It was hypothesised that the constraints on writing in children with SLI were similar to typically developing younger children with the same level of vocabulary knowledge. Twenty‐three children with SLI (aged 10:5) were matched with 23 children for chronological age (CA) and 23 children for vocabulary levels (VC). Children with SLI performed significantly below their CA peers but not their VC peers on all aspects of writing including spelling. Regression analyses indicated that written text measures of spelling errors and oral language measures of vocabulary were significant predictors of writing products for both the children with SLI and their VC peers. This highlights the importance of oral and written language for the quality of children's written text and indicates that the writing of children with SLI was commensurate with their vocabulary and spelling levels. The results point to the role of both phonological and non‐phonological processes in written text production in struggling writers.     

Narrative inquiry for teacher education and development: Focus on English as a foreign language in China

Teacher education and development takes place within an encompassing local system of education and ongoing forms of school improvement. Critical to successful teacher development when Western ideas are being adopted in other cultures is narratively linking development programmes to this local education system, such as in China, and to its culturally established ways of knowing and being. This paper presents a narrative inquiry approach to teacher development that builds on the existing educational system, ongoing school reforms, and culturally established ways of knowing and being. The paper concludes with the potential of teacher development to shape global values that may be shared among cultures.     

Written verb use and diversity in children with Developmental Language Disorder: stepping stones to academic writing

Reading and Writing - Verb use and the production of verb argument structure in the written texts of children in elementary school is a key stepping stone towards academic writing success that has...     

叙述探究与教师发展

在教育改革中,教师发展是重中之重,包括教师教育和政策制定官员在内的各层教育改革者几乎总是以课程改革作为教师发展的起点,他们把改革的焦点放在为教师设定的新知识和技能上。本文将教师知识和为教师设定的知识加以区别,阐述教育改革环境中的教师发展,解释以叙述探究进行对教师知识和教师发展的研究,并对以叙述方法来探究教师教育和发展提出一组建议。     

Using Performance Indicators to Evaluate Training Effectiveness: Lessons Learned

There is always a general interest in the evaluation of the effects of training on the overall goals of an organization. This paper describes an approach being taken in the nuclear power industry concerning the effectiveness of training on safety. Several approaches to the development of performance indicators as means for monitoring this effectiveness are described. We conclude that the structured use of the opinions of subject–matter experts is virtually the only way to permit success.     

Improving the educational experience of children and young people in public care: a Scottish perspective

The context for this paper relates to the policy and practice implications of efforts to achieve social justice for Scotland’s 12,000 children and young people in the care of local government authorities. The paper is located within a growing evidence base of the educational experience of young people in care and leaving care. The data on attainment and exclusion from school in particular are reviewed and confirm that looked‐after children in Scotland, as elsewhere in the UK, typically leave education with significantly fewer school leaving qualifications than is now the common expectation for young people in their age group and are significantly more likely to lose time in school due to exclusion. However, the review also shows the devastating impact of being in care on young children’s attainment in reading, writing and mathematics. The implications of the data reviewed are discussed in relation to the concepts of social justice, resilience and the educationally rich environment.