We Talk About It,But Do They Get It?

This article reports on the last of a series of iterative research studies involving students with learning disabilities in reform mathematics classrooms at the intermediate grade levels. This study reports the findings from a larger, year‐long case study that focused on ways to include students with learning disabilities and other students who are at risk for special education services in classwide discussions of problem solving. The data reported in this article detail the changes in teacher and student discourse over a nine‐week period in one classroom. Sources of data for this study included videotapes, audiotapes, and informal interviews with the teacher, a paraprofessional, and students. A quantitative analysis of the results indicates clear patterns of change in teacher and student discourse. Nonetheless, intentional efforts to include target students in the whole‐class discussions yielded instructional dilemmas that are underdescribed in the mathematics reform literature. Findings from this study have implications for special educators interested in mathematical problem solving, as well as math reformers who value the role of classroom discourse in daily instruction.     

Reinforcer and response specificity in appetitive transfer of control

Three experiments examine transfer from appetitive Pavlovian conditioning to appetitive instrumental responding by varying the similarity between conditions of Pavlovian reinforcement and instrumental reward. After conditioning with rats confined in a restraining device, a CS for electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) produced substantial facilitation of operant responding for ESB, while a CS for food facilitated operant responding for food. However, no effects on rate of responding for food were seen during a CS for ESB. In a fourth experiment, four groups of rats were trained to barpress for rewarding electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) and then given discriminative Pavlovian conditioning with ESB. The groups differed in the degree of similarity between the stimulus-response sequences present during Pavlovian conditioning and those occurring in instrumental responding. As similarity increased, so did the degree of conditioned facilitation in subsequent transfer tests. These results indicate that conditioned incentive responses or reinforcer-derived expectancies are specific to the conditions under which they develop, rather than generalized emotional or motivational responses.     

Sex and gender in transition in US schools: ways forward

Abstract

This paper examines the current state of law and policy in relation to US transgender youth and their lived experiences. We approach this from different disciplinary backgrounds, identities, and ways of writing terms related to gender identity. We begin with an examination of the current legal climate in the USA and explore how students have pushed back against gender and sexuality norms even in a restrictive climate. Some transformations are already happening in public schools and some backlash, too, is being felt. Laws and policies in some locations are encouraging students, teachers, school leaders and community members to collaborate in making schools more educationally concerned about trans student success and teaching the school community about gender diversity. In shifting among scales and experiences of youth thinking and working on gender, we aim to emphasise youth agency and outline young people’s frustrations at the obstacles related to trans, gender dissidence and sexuality. In conclusion, we point to changes that can be made in schools to help professionals understand how policy and curricular innovation can bolster the openings that trans, gender creative and gender non-binary youth are already creating, whether or not those opportunities are officially recognised.     

Exploring student beliefs and understanding in elementary science and mathematics

This study had the goal of investigating the association among elementary students' (N = 276) science and math beliefs and the relationship between those beliefs and teachers' ratings of mathematical and science understanding. Results of structural path analysis indicate that in science, intellectual risk‐taking (IRT; the willingness to share tentative ideas, ask questions, attempting to do, and learn new things) was positively related to teachers' ratings of science understanding, while creative self‐efficacy (CSE) beliefs (i.e., students' confidence in their ability to generate ideas and solutions in science) were indirectly related (working through IRT). Results also indicate that students' scientific certainty beliefs (i.e., the belief that science knowledge is stable, fixed, and represented by correct answers) were negatively related to teachers' ratings of science understanding. With respect to math, results indicate that students' CSE beliefs were positively related to teachers' ratings of math understanding; whereas students' mathematical source beliefs (i.e., believing that math knowledge originates from external sources) were negatively related. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 942–960, 2012     

“Talking things through”; and “putting it in writing”;: Two codes of communication in an academic institution

This study is an interpretive ethnography based on participant observation over a two‐year period of time as members of one academic institution responded to a Board of Trustees’ mandate to revise the system of governance. Two communication codes were identified in faculty and administration subcultures of this institution. The code of “collegiality,”; used by members of the faculty subculture, valued “talking things through,”; because this channel of communication best affirmed the individual self and facilitated personal and egalitarian relations among organizational members. The code of “professional management,”; used by members of the administration subculture, privileged “putting it in writing,”; because written codification best insured the rights and responsibilities of organizational members.     

Supporting students with Tourette syndrome in secondary school: a survey of staff views

Tourette syndrome is a neurological condition involving involuntary movements and sounds (tics) and is thought to affect as many as 1% of school‐aged children. Some young people with Tourette syndrome experience educational difficulties and social difficulties. Current clinical guidelines suggest educators can play an important role in maximising learning potential and reducing the negative impact of this condition on students' social adjustment. Secondary school staff (N = 63) with responsibilities for special educational needs or disabilities completed a survey about support strategies for students with Tourette syndrome. Participants were first asked to suggest potentially helpful strategies and then rated how easily 17 recommended strategies could be implemented in school. The survey participants suggested a range of support strategies that were categorised as (1) promoting knowledge and understanding in school, (2) helping the student to cope with his/her tics, (3) supporting the student's learning and (4) providing social and emotional support. All the recommended support strategies were rated as being easy to implement (or already in place) by the majority of respondents (e.g., increasing staff awareness and regular communication with home). The strategies that were identified as being least easy to implement were those requiring extra staff input (support from teaching assistants and individual/small group working). Additional challenges to providing support were also identified by the participants (e.g., getting input from outside agencies).