The Appraisal of Educational Psychologists: A very private affair

This paper presents the results of a survey into the use of appraisal in educational psychology services within Local Education Authorities in England and Wales. Based on the findings of the study, the current range of appraisal schemes in use within the educational psychology service are described. The way in which such schemes link with appraisal in the wider local authority context is considered, and an attempt is made to identify whether appraisal schemes used with educational psychologists have distinctive features and, if so, what those features are.     

The Relationship Between Church Schools and Local Church Life: Distinguishing between aided and controlled status

This study compares the impact of Anglican voluntary aided and voluntary controlled schools on a range of indices of local church life throughout the diocese of Chelmsford. After controlling for the influence of population size, the church electoral roll, the age of the priest in charge of the benefice, the number of churches in the benefice, and the number of stipendiary clergy employed in the benefice, the data lead to two conclusions. Voluntary controlled primary schools have no significant impact on any of the indices of local church life included in the study. Voluntary aided primary schools are associated with a significantly higher level of pre-teenage confirmands, but they have no influence on the number of older confirmands, the number of baptisms, the usual Sunday church attendance, or the number of festival communicants.     

Supporting Communication of Girls with Rett Syndrome and their Mothers in Storybook Reading

In this study mother-child storybook reading was explored as a context within which to support early symbolic communication of girls with Rett syndrome. Baseline measures of mother-daughter interaction were gathered as mothers read familiar and unfamiliar storybooks with their daughters. Then three experimental interventions were studied in the homes of four girls: (a) resting hand splints, (b) light tech augmentative communication systems such as voice-output devices and symbols, and (c) very basic parent training. Access to devices, symbols, and training increased the frequency of each of the four girls, labeling and symbolic communication during storybook reading. Parent training was particularly useful in increasing the percentage of appropriate switch use by three of the four girls. The study suggests that parents can provide substantial support to early communication development in girls with Rett syndrome, if they are provided with basic information and materials.     

Components of instruction toward a theoretical tool for instructional design

This article defines primary knowledgecomponents for entities, actions, andprocesses. It also defines primaryinstructional strategy components. It proposesthat a different combination of strategy andknowledge components is required for differentkinds of instructional goals. It furtherproposes that if these fundamentalstrategy-knowledge component combinations arenot present that there will be a decrement inthe student's effective and efficientacquisition of the desired knowledge and skill.It further proposes that the underlyingarchitecture of an instructional strategy is acombination of primary strategy components andprimary knowledge components appropriate for,and consistent with, a given instructionalgoal. Instructional components are a theoreticaltool. They are not a method or developmentprocedure. These instructional strategy andknowledge components can be imbedded in a widevariety of different instructionalarchitectures based on a variety of differentphilosophical orientations. It is hoped thatone of the primary benefits of instructionalcomponents is to provide a common vocabularythat will enable designers, theorists, andinstructional developers to more clearlydescribe their products and procedures.     

The conceptual change approach to improving teaching and learning: An evaluation of a Hong Kong staff development programme

This paper reports a study ofthe effectiveness of an innovative approach tostaff development, the conceptual changeapproach, which attempts to change teachers'frameworks for conceptualising teaching andlearning. The evaluation investigated theprogramme at three levels: the impact on theconceptions of teaching of the participants,the resultant impact on teaching practices, andthe consequential effect on student learning.Encouraging results were obtained. Theprogramme brought about detectable conceptualchange or conceptual development in two-thirdsof the sample group. Subsequently, all the`changed' teachers received better ratings ontheir teaching practices from their students inthe following academic year while none of thosewho did not change their conceptions showedsimilar gains in student rating scores. Aresultant positive impact on their students'studying approaches was observed for half ofthe teachers who changed their conceptions.