Transforming for inclusive practice: professional development to support the inclusion of students labelled as emotionally disturbed

Few models of professional development (PD) are designed to bring about the fundamental shifts in thinking about student behaviour that can support the inclusion of students labelled as having emotional/behavioural disabilities within general education classrooms. In this paper, we seek to accomplish two goals: (1) we briefly delineate the features of a model of PD to build the capacity of teachers to create hospitable classrooms for students with labels of emotional disabilities, and (2) we use the context of this PD model to describe the transformative process that occurred within the specialists who implemented it within an urban school district. In narrating their process of change, we illuminate the conditions for learning supported by this model and its potential for promoting inclusive practices within urban schools.     

The Cognitive Value of Two‐Year Colleges for Whites and Blacks

Although community college educators believe their programs benefit their students through cognitive development, until now no good evidence was available. The fourth follow‐up of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 allows the controlled assessment of the value of two‐year institutions. The results indicate that while whites benefit cognitively from two‐year post‐secondary programs, blacks do not.

In 1947, the President's Commission on Higher Education (1947, p. 9) concluded that, “The first goal in education for democracy is the full, rounded and continuing development of the person. ... To liberate and perfect the intrinsic powers of every citizen is the central purpose of democracy, and its furtherance of individual self‐realization is its greatest glory.” From these principles the specific goals of higher education are derived (Bowen, 1977). The formal academic program and extra‐curricular life of an academic community are intended to help students develop in three respects: cognitive learning, affective development, and practical competence (Bowen, 1977). It is assumed that as these goals are realized so are the powers of the individual.

Whenever there are goals to be reached in any endeavor, it is natural to ask whether they are in fact being realized. Bowen (1977) compares education to an industry that is responsible for disclosing both its costs and outcomes. Assessing the outcomes of higher education is necessarily a complex task; nevertheless attempts have been made to pull together information from a variety of studies and draw conclusions from them (e.g., Feldman and Newcomb, 1969; Bowen, 1977; Pace, 1979). In general the effects of college attendance have been found to be positive. Attending college raises the level of knowledge and cognitive

powers of students, increases psycholgocial well‐being, understanding, tolerance and self‐reliance, and helps students develop skills and traits that make them more adaptable to a variety of social and work situations (Bowen, 1977).

Comprehensive evaluations of higher education have been limited to four‐year colleges. For example, Kar‐weit and McPartland (1981) studied the cognitive gains produced by postsecondary schooling, and found that college attendance enhanced vocabulary skills, but only maintained mathematic skills. In contrast, little has been done to evaluate outcomes of community college attendance, although educators within community college systems stress the importance of accountability in establishing the much maligned credibility of community colleges (Roueche and La Forge, 1974; Miller, 1979).

The absence of research on community colleges is in part due to the variety of functions that community colleges have assumed. Community colleges were originally intended to open the doors of education to all high school graduates, especially the economically disadvantaged (Monroe, 1972). Emphasis was placed on providing two years of additional general education beyond high school, and on low‐cost preparation for students who wished to transfer to four‐year colleges in the third year. In 1947 the President's Com‐mision on Higher Education (1947) suggested that the emphasis of two‐year colleges should be shifted to preparation for semiprofessional white collar and vocational occupations. This preparation was not to be at the expense of general education, but in addition to it, for those who desired to learn specific occupational skills. As the popularity of community colleges grew, it also became apparent that many economically disadvantaged students were also academically disadvantaged, and community colleges found themselves in the business of providing remedial courses for many students who were not ready to enter regular academic programs.

Although research indicates that community colleges in general place greater emphasis on occupational education than when originally conceived, they remain, at least in philosophy, committed to providing an education that contributes to the intellectual development of their students, whether they are in academic or vocational programs (Monroe, 1972; Cross, 1974). This commitment is in recognition of the fact that cognitive skills such as verbal ability and basic mathematics competence, and affective development in the areas of self‐awareness and interpersonal relations, are necessary to practical competence in most work and social situations.

Community college curricula, in general, reflect a commitment to intellectual and affective development. The general education requirement in community colleges varies greatly, but usually consists of a specified number of elective courses to be chosen from the humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, and the social sciences (Monroe, 1972). Remedial programs are primarily for academic deficiencies in reading, language, and mathematics (Monroe, 1972).

Although community college programs seem designed to further cognitive and affective development, critics (Scigliano, 1976; Hudson and Smith, 1976) question the ability of community colleges to provide a good general education. Nevertheless, there is little evidence on this point one way or the other. Existing studies are lacking in several ways. For example, Rou‐eche and Kirk (1973) and Lavin et al.(1979) determined the success of programs for academically and economically disadvantaged students in community college programs by looking at grade point averages and completion rates; however, neither of these measures establish gains in cognitive or affective development. Rossmann et al.(1975) measured cognitive development by gain scores on reading and mathematics tests, but they were unable to compare gains against a control group of noncollege attenders.     

From Co-Location to Collaboration: Working Together to Improve Student Learning

An academic librarian and the coordinator of a campus tutoring and writing center recently relocated to the library researched their value to second-year students. Differences in the amount and type of available data called for conducting in-depth interviews with students about their research and writing processes. The researchers also reviewed relevant material regarding similar collaborative efforts at other college and universities. The gaps revealed in the environmental scan along with the best practices of librarian/writing center collaboration helped determine future steps needed for both units to move from mere co-location to working in true collaboration.     

Teaching prereading skills with a talking computer

The phonological awareness skills of nonreaders were trained using an oddity task (e.g., which word in the series sit, fit, cat has the odd sound in its middle position). As training progressed, the basis of the oddity decision was shifted from rhyming, to consonant onsets, to consonant and vowel phonemes. The words were spoken by a DECtalk speech synthesizer. One of the experimental groups was given printed as well as computer generated speech feedback while the other was given just computer speech feedback. The alternative training control group based their oddity decisions on meaning rather than sound and was also given just computer speech feedback. Only children with low letter-sound knowledge showed pre-test to post-test gains in performance on a rhyming task compared to the control group, and these gains were not influenced by print feedback. In contrast, only children with high letter-sound knowledge, who were given print feedback during learning, showed pre-test to post-test gains in performance on a phoneme deletion task compared to the control group. These results indicate that a combination of high letter-sound knowledge and print feedback facilitates awareness of phonemes among children who cannot yet read or spell, but awareness of rimes is not facilitated by either high letter-sound knowledge or print feedback. Although consistent with bi-directional, causal models of phonological awareness and literacy, these results indicate that the definition of literacy employed by such models may require expansion. This new definition should include proto-literacy — knowledge of letter-sound and other print-sound relationships that are learned before becoming literate and that may influence the acquisition of awareness of some sub-syllabic units of speech.Abbreviations WPPSI Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence - WRAT-R Wide range achievement test, revised     

On the generality of conditioned bradycardia in rabbits: Assessment of CS and US modality

To determine whether the magnitude of heart rate (HR) slowing induced by classical conditioning contingencies is comparable under a broad range of stimulus conditions, experiments were conducted in which rabbits were exposed to tones, increases in illumination, or vibratory stimuli as conditioned stimuli (CSs) and in which paraorbital electric shocks, corneal airpuffs, or intraoral pulses of water served as unconditioned stimuli (USs). The results indicated that conditioned bradycardia was elicited by all three CSs. Moreover, when a corneal airpuff served as the US, small but reliable CS-evoked HR decelerations also occurred. Finally, CS-evoked HR slowing also occurred in response to a tone CS employed in an appetitive task, in which water was the US. These findings suggest that HR slowing is a general phenomenon that occurs when rabbits are exposed to signals that systematically predict aversive or appetitive consequences according to a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm.     

Temporal perceptions and university faculty

This study is a preliminary investigation of the temporal perceptions of 100 male university faculty members grouped by professorial rank and by the three general academic areas of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. The general hypothesis states that the temporal perceptions of these respondents relate to academic area and not to professorial rank. From the respondents' answers to an open-ended question during a taped interview session, three perceptual categories were derived and labeled ambiguous, analytical, and synoptic. Chi-square analysis confirmed the general hypothesis. This confirmation is congruent with previous research findings that academic area is a significant distinguishing variable to apply to the professoriate. Natural science respondents perceived time analytically, as increments for measurement, whereas respondents in social sciences and humanities tended to perceive time ambiguously, as having more than one meaning. Implications of this small-sample investigation at a comprehensive, state-supported university are important not for the answers provided but rather for the questions generated. These questions delineate areas for further research.     

Can communitas explain how young people achieve identity development in outdoor adventure in light of contemporary individualised life?

In contemporary life, young people’s identity development is a popular topic for investigation. This includes better understanding their development and their participation in outdoor adventure. From ancient times to modern days, literature conveys the benefits of outdoor adventure on their identity development and more recently there is a growing focus on understanding how and why it occurs. This article discusses the author’s doctoral research conducted on the Western Australian Leeuwin II tall ship that explored the relationship between trainees’ personal development and their participation on this ocean-bound vessel in light of an individualised contemporary life. The study recognised the Leeuwin II tall ship as communitas contributing to trainees’ personal development. The article considers communitas explaining how and why outdoor adventure benefits young people’s personal development, which has implications for young people’s development in the twenty-first century.     

Discontinuities in schooling and educational attainment

Duncan et al. (1972, p. 224) insightfully pointed out that the timing of events in the process of socioeconomic achievement can be as important as the events themselves. While we know that substantial numbers of people delay their entry into college, and interrupt their college education once begun, no comprehensive national study has established the causes and consequences of these discontinuities in schooling.Using a structural equation model of educational attainment patterned after Featherman and Carter (1976), this article investigates educational discontinuities among American whites and blacks, males and females, using data from a nationwide, longitudinal study of the U.S. high school graduating class of 1972.     

Cultural and organisational issues facing online learning communities of teachers

Collegial sharing and reflection about practice has been widely suggested as an effective form of teacher professional learning. Information and communications technology (ICT) has the potential to foster this professional learning through online community environments. Whilst the potential of self-sustaining online teacher communities to support professional learning through reflective sharing of practice is recognised, the journey to realising this potential is not straightforward. This paper identifies two key aspects of school culture that are acting as barriers on the journey—schools do not adequately value collegial reflective sharing of practice, and classroom teachers do not use online communications tools as an integral part of their professional practices. The paper suggests a framework for maximising participation in online teacher communities.     

Computer science in K-12 school curricula of the 2lst century: Why,what and when?

In this paper we have examined the position and roles of Computer Science in curricula in the light of recent calls for curriculum change and we have proposed principles and issues to consider in curriculum design as well as identifying priority areas for further research. The paper is based on discussions within and beyond the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Education Community since 2012 as well as an analysis of curriculum developments in five different countries. Emerging themes have been discussed with reference to important perspectives from curriculum theory including “powerful knowledge” as a key element of entitlement and management of the growth of expertise. Based on this analysis we have identified areas of consensus as well as constraints, risks and issues that are still subject to controversy. There is an emerging consensus of the importance of Computer Science and the nature of its “powerful knowledge”. Furthermore current understanding of the opportunities and benefits for starting to learn Computer Science early in primary schools has identified this early start as an entitlement and equity issue. There is a strong consensus that teacher professional development in Computer Science Education is critical for supporting curriculum change and is currently a major challenge in many countries. Other key issues include understanding how the growth of expertise affects potential structure and sequencing in the curriculum and the balance of content. Further considerations include how new technological opportunities interact with pedagogical approaches and can provide new potential for the growth of expertise.