Religion is a MUST in English Schools

This article exposes the problem of using declarative rather than procedural knowledge to help K–12 students recognize irony in stories. It offers commonplace procedures drawn from students’ everyday language experience together with more abstract irony clues to help students recognize irony in stories and increase their story comprehension. Six irony-laden stories are briefly examined to underscore their basic ironic core and guide instruction of elementary, middle, and secondary students.     

Teacher–child relationship quality: The roles of child temperament and teacher–child interactions

Young children's relationships with teachers predict social and academic success. This study examines contributions of child temperament (shyness, effortful control) and gender to teacher–child relationship quality both directly and indirectly through the frequency of teacher–child interactions in the classroom. Using an NICHD SECCYD sample of 819 first grade children, four findings emerged: (a) children's shyness, effortful control, and gender contributed directly to teacher–child conflict and closeness; (b) children's shyness contributed to the frequency of child-initiated teacher–child interactions, and children's effortful control contributed to the frequency of teacher-initiated teacher–child interactions; (c) shyness related to teacher–child closeness indirectly through the frequency of child-initiated teacher–child interactions; (d) the frequency of child- and teacher-initiated interactions contributed to each other. Results inform practitioners and researchers of characteristics that put children at risk for failure to form positive relationships with teachers.     

More than Just Worksheets?: A Study of the Confidence of Newly Qualified Teachers of English in Teaching Personal, Social and Health Education in Secondary Schools

This paper addresses concerns regarding the preparedness of newly qualified teachers to deliver Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) in the United Kingdom in relation to the training received during Initial Teacher Education and through early Continuing Professional Development. The paper is situated not only within a context where OfSTED has questioned the adequacy of some non-specialist PSHE teachers but also one where, due to a range of social and health concerns centred on young people, schools and teachers are being expected to play an increasingly important role in the social and health education of their pupils. As such, PSHE is increasingly seen as important across all curriculum areas. This paper relates specifically to the confidence of trainee and newly qualified teachers of English in teaching PSHE in secondary schools in the United Kingdom. Drawing on questionnaire data collected from recent Professional Graduate Certificate in Education graduates, the paper suggests that trainee and newly qualified teachers have the skills and knowledge drawn from their main subject (English) to deliver PSHE; however, many lack confidence and awareness to acknowledge these skills. The paper suggests that this situation may be addressed through increased opportunity to deliver and receive feedback on PSHE teaching during initial teacher training.     

Differing expectations: an account of home and school factors affecting EAL learners from Arabic-speaking backgrounds

This article considers research from a preliminary study of Libyan children's accounts of their experience learning English as an additional language (EAL) within mainstream schools in the LJK. The analysis of interviews and classroom observations suggests that for equal opportunity to take place, local education authorities need to place greater emphasis on language and educational provision for newcomers to UK primary schools. In addition, there is still a communication barrier as well as a language barrier between home and school which needs to be addressed in order for children to adjust to and meet school requirements. In a similar way, parents of newly arrived children need to have clear expectations. The implications of this piece of research are extremely relevant for additional language acquisition in British schools and, in particular, for the education of newcomers whose circumstances are similar to those of the children in this study. This research also enables the voice of Arab children, as learners of the English language, to reach educators and policy makers, and empower them further in the research processes which inform British education policy.