The relationship between school belonging,sibling aggression and bullying involvement: implications for students with and without disabilities

Bullying is grounded in the interactions between an individual and complex social–ecological systems. Therefore, bullying involvement is not just confined to the classroom or school. Recent research suggests that sibling aggression may be a predictor for peer-level aggression. These findings may be more relevant for students with disabilities because studies suggest that students with disabilities are disproportionately involved in the bullying dynamic. Therefore, this study explored the intersection between sibling aggression and school belonging on bullying, victimisation and fighting for 14,508 students, including 1183 students with disabilities and 13,325 students without disabilities in grades 6 through 12. As hypothesised, students with disabilities reported higher levels of victimisation, bullying and fighting. Additionally, high levels of school belonging partially buffered fighting and bullying behaviours for students with and without disabilities. These findings demonstrate the importance of establishing an inclusive and safe environment for school-aged youth.     

A SPECIAL‐PURPOSE STUDIO

The paper describes the design and use of a studio system which arose out of the need to give demonstrations of experimental procedures to practical classes of up to 150 students. Since the requirements could be specified in some detail it was possible to use novel methods of working which turned out to be very efficient and economical.     

Experiences of Counselors‐as‐Clients in Counselor Education

Eight professional counselors who routinely role‐play as clients in 1 counselor education program participated in a focus group investigating their portrayal experiences. Data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, which resulted in 3 superordinate themes: missions, influential factors, and repercussions. Findings reinforce instruction of idiographic and person‐centered care in counselor education.     

Behavior management in cognitive early education

Even though behavior management is a very high priority of teachers of young children, systems of behavior management receive less attention than do methods of teaching academic content. Even when there are well developed sytems of behavior management, they do not necessarily reflect the same philosophy and methods of teaching that are used to teach content. The authors report on “cognitive-mediational behavior management”, a system designed to be consistent with a cognitive early education program, the Cognitive Curriculum for Young Children. In both behavior management and all their other teaching, teachers use in this program a mediational teaching style. Teachers emphasize thinking processes rather than correct answers, take a problem-solving approach to learning, help children to acquire generalizable strategies of thinking and problem-solving rather than using trial-and-error learning, are optimistic about children’s abilities to learn, and facilitate children’s acquisition of fundamental thinking modes. This system is seen as basically incompatible with a behaviorist, contingent reinforcement system. Behavior sequences are suggested for working with unacceptable behavior so as to produce both behavior change and cognitive change.     

School Choice and the Polarization of Public Schools in A Global City: A Bourdieusian GIS Approach

ABSTRACT

Over the past three decades, urban sociologists have shed light on the intensifying social inequality between the wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods in global cities; yet limited research has been done to illuminate the relationships between urban polarization and school choice (i.e., where parents choose schools for their children). This study sociospatially examines the patterns of secondary school choice in the global city of Toronto to illuminate the relationship between urban polarization and school choice. In doing so, this study combines Pierre Bourdieu’s sociospatial theory with a geographic information systems (GIS) approach. Overall, we found that popular schools and schools with specialized choice programs tend to be located in high-status neighborhoods, defined as neighborhoods with residents in the top 20% of family income, home prices, education attainment, and representation from the dominant culture. We also show that mobile students who choose popular schools or highly sought-after specialized programs tend to come from advantaged neighborhoods. Meanwhile, local students who choose a regular school in their neighborhood tend to come from low-status neighborhoods. With a new interdisciplinary approach, this study contributes to a more spatialized understanding of how social inequality and polarization account for school choice.