Understanding what makes a positive school experience for pupils with SEND: can their voices inform inclusive practice?

Since the advent of the ideology of inclusion, several concerns have been raised worldwide regarding the effectiveness of its implementation. In the UK, governmental evidence suggests that maintaining pupils with special educational needs and/or disability (SEND) within mainstream school settings, is one of the greatest challenges (DfE, 2018). There is now, more than ever, the need to explore pupils with SENDs’ mainstream experiences and understand the challenges they encounter. This study explores the voices of secondary‐aged pupils with social emotional mental health difficulties and moderate learning difficulties as a way of understanding their needs and thus, facilitating their inclusion. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse data from semi‐structured interviews with 37 pupils with SEND and 8 typical pupils as a comparable group. The findings indicate that the school experiences of pupils differ based on their type of need. Yet, despite the differences, all the pupils expressed similar views on what makes a positive school experience. The four emerged themes were interesting lessons, effective control of challenging behaviour, equal allocation of teachers’ support and positive relations. The study concludes by proposing that listening to the voices of pupils with SEND can be a powerful tool to inform inclusive practice.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Curriculum‐based Anti‐bullying Intervention Program in Greek Primary Schools

The present study reports the short‐ and long‐term effects of an anti‐bullying intervention program based on a particular set of curricular activities that aimed to create classroom opportunities for awareness raising, self‐reflection, and problem‐solving situations relevant to bullying. The core of the intervention was a four‐week period during which a series of activities were organised in each individual class. An experimental pre‐test/post‐test design with a control group was used. The sample consisted of 454 pupils (206 control: 123 boys and 83 girls; and 248 experimental: 126 boys and 122 girls) drawn from the fourth‐ to sixth‐grade classrooms of 10 primary schools in central Greece (mean age = 10.23, SD = .84). Data were collected using self‐report measures, before the intervention (December 2003), immediately after the intervention, at the end of the same school year (May 2004), and six months afterwards (November 2004). The results indicated that the program contributed to a positive reduction in outsider behaviour (children remaining uninvolved and thus silently allowing bullying to continue) and enhanced students’ self‐efficacy beliefs for both assertion and intervening in bully/victim incidents. However, the long‐term effectiveness of the program was limited. These findings have important implications for interventions to tackle the negative effects associated with bullying in schools.     

Curriculum making as professionalism-in-context: the cases of two elementary school teachers amidst curriculum change in Cyprus

ABSTRACT

In this paper, two case studies of elementary school teachers in the Republic of Cyprus are constructed to discuss how curriculum making relates to teacher biographies and sense of professionalism, as those are shaped at the intersection of their professional history and projections for the future, informed by and informing their constitution as professionals in local institutional and broader social contexts. Drawing on the ecological model of teacher agency, the two cases are utilised to examine how teachers’ narrated professional experiences in past and current schools were at interplay with their general sense of professional role and purpose as teachers. This complex interplay is simultaneously connected to the ways they perceived and constituted their pupils as well as to the ways they themselves were constituted by others as professionals. The examination of the two cases foregrounds the notions of teacher agency and of curriculum making as contingent, negotiated and negotiable, and opens up the space to consider the politics of both as those are permeated by micro-processes of subjection and subjectivation.     

WHO ACHIEVES LEVEL 2 QUALIFICATIONS DURING ADULTHOOD? EVIDENCE FROM THE NCDS

ABSTRACT:  This paper describes the characteristics of people who return to learning to achieve at least a level 2 qualification, drawing on the 1958 National Child Development Cohort Study. Results show that adults who gained level 2 were more likely than those who did not to have been engaged in a range of learning activities at earlier ages, including learning during childhood, staying in education during adolescence and undertaking courses leading and not leading to qualifications during adulthood. The factor that has the highest impact on progression by age 33 and by age 42 is early school attainment. This means that for individuals who do well at school there is a greater chance of achievement of qualifications during adulthood, even when this qualification is not achieved by age 23. We further find that socioeconomic constraints in adulthood may be less of a barrier to progression than is often believed. Taking together, these findings suggest that the main focus should be on paying particular attention to attitudinal barriers to learning, rather than just being concerned with removing economic and social constraints.     

Enhance learning on software project management through a role-play game in a virtual world†

This article presents a role-play game for software project management (SPM) in a three-dimensional online multiuser virtual world. The Opensimulator platform is used for the creation of an immersive virtual environment that facilitates students' collaboration and realistic interaction, in order to manage unexpected events occurring during the development of a software project. Through the simulation of a real-life company, the game aims to enhance experiential learning of human-related issues, such as project team members’ communication and collaboration, which are not easy to be taught through ordinary teaching methods. Roles are assigned to the participating students, who have to overcome problems initiated by non-player-units (software controlled units) while collaborating with other students and the instructor. The instructor, holding a key role in the game, is able to observe the players, intervene and dynamically alter specific game scenario parameters adapting to player encounter difficulties. The environment is combining the experience of a typical game (based on an event-driven SPM scenario and interaction with non-player-units), with the experience of a virtual world (interacting with other players) and has been positively evaluated by the participants regarding the overall game experience and the learning effect.     

Exploring the views and beliefs of parents of typically developing children about inclusion and inclusive education

Background: The inclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SENDs) in regular classrooms has been identified as a high priority in many policy documents published by both European and international organisations. Its implementation, however, is influenced by a number of factors, some of which are directly related to the participation and attitudes of different stakeholders, including parents of typically developing children. Parents, as a social group, can act in favour of inclusion or they can support more segregated educational environments.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore, in a Greek context, the views and beliefs of parents of typically developing children about different aspects of the education of children with disabilities, with a particular focus on inclusion and inclusive education.

Method: Interviews were held with 40 Greek parents representing 40 typically developing school-aged children who were educated in six different primary education schools, from the broader area of central Greece. All of the children, at the time of the study, were educated in mainstream classes, in which an in-classroom support system was applied. Open-ended interview questions focused on parents’ views and beliefs about the implementation of inclusive educational programmes. Data were analysed according to the principles of an inductive data-driven approach.

Findings: The research findings indicate that most of the participant parents did not feel informed about specific school policy practices relevant to inclusive education; they were not aware of the notion of ‘inclusion’ or approached inclusion from an integrationist point of view. Within this context, they hold positive to neutral attitudes towards inclusion, on the basis that a child with SENDs can cope with the school requirements.

Conclusions: This small-scale, exploratory research study suggests the importance of informing and involving parents of typically developing children in efforts to promote more inclusive practices.     

Infant humor: the theory of the absurd and the empowerment theory

This study looked at how six infants in a group child care setting produced and appreciated humor. With the use of multiple qualitative methods, participant and non‐participant observations, journal writing, videotaping, interviewing, and document review this study looked at children’s humor as indicated through their smiles and laughter. Findings of this study suggest that there are two theories that best describe young children’s humorous behavior, namely the Theory of the Absurd and Empowerment Theory. The Theory of the Absurd includes events that are out of the ordinary and violate children’s existing schemata. It emphasizes the incongruity of an event through funny gestures or positions, the incongruous use of materials and actions. Empowerment Theory describes young children’s ability to violate the expectations of their caregivers and use humor to empower themselves. It highlights a different form of incongruity which has to do with the violation of expectations, intentionally or otherwise.     

Exploring the teacher-student relationship in graduate education: a constructivist grounded theory

Despite its significance, the teacher-student relationship in higher education remains an under-researched field. The current study used constructivist grounded theory, in order to enrich the relevant discussion. More specifically, it aimed at exploring how the teacher-student relationship in graduate education develops (and gradually evolves) based on the perceptions and experiences of the parties involved. Data was collected through intensive interviewing with twenty teacher educators and by five focus groups with twenty-five graduate students in Educational Sciences. Based on the combined constant comparative analysis of the teachers’ and students’ perceptions and experiences, the teacher-student relationship in higher education surfaced as a complex dynamic process. Despite the teachers’ hierarchical superiority, it is characterised by reciprocating in all its manifestations: mutually wanting to relate, developing characteristics of a meaningful relationship, overcoming obstacles, maintaining boundaries and experiencing the positive outcomes.     

Quantitative assessment of developmental levels in overarm throwing using wearable inertial sensing technology

Motor proficiency in childhood has been recently recognised as a public health determinant, having a potential impact on the physical activity level and possible sedentary behaviour of the child later in life. Among fundamental motor skills, ballistic skills assessment based on in-field quantitative observations is progressively needed in the motor development community. The aim of this study was to propose an in-field quantitative approach to identify different developmental levels in overarm throwing. Fifty-eight children aged 5–10 years performed an overarm throwing task while wearing three inertial sensors located at the wrist, trunk and pelvis level and were then categorised using a developmental sequence of overarm throwing. A set of biomechanical parameters were defined and analysed using multivariate statistics to evaluate whether they can be used as developmental indicators. Trunk and pelvis angular velocities and time durations before the ball release showed increasing/decreasing trends with increasing developmental level. Significant differences between developmental level pairs were observed for selected biomechanical parameters. The results support the suitability and feasibility of objective developmental measures in ecological learning contexts, suggesting their potential supportiveness to motor learning experiences in educational and youth sports training settings.