Social Inclusion for South Australian schooling? Trying to reconcile the promise and the practice

This paper will trace the adoption of a policy of Social Inclusion in schools in one Australian state in terms of the way in which the policy direction, its discourses and adoption reflect a rhetoric of what Ball has labelled a ‘paradigm of convergence’. The analysis will show that the policy discourse, especially in its focus on school retention, appears to endorse the vision of a neo‐liberal entrepreneurial competitor as the educated product despite being initiated and implemented by a Labor state government within a rhetoric of community concern for social justice. The second part of the paper reports on the ways in which primary school leaders have responded to this policy which reflects some older educational discourses and is more in line with a prior version of a well‐run school and an inclusive society.     

Implementing Educational Policy: Some Considerations for Principals

Motivation is a key factor in promoting academic success, and intrinsic motivation is especially important for developing autonomous learners. Reluctant learners, in particular, benefit from intrinsic motivation that makes learning relevant to their lives. In this article, the author describes commonalities of reluctant learners and presents definitions and frameworks for understanding motivation. The author also suggests a variety of strategies and activities for turning reluctant learners into inspired learners.     

Making it work for their children: white middle-class parents and working-class schools

The white middle-class parents who chose to send their children to urban comprehensives largely rejected engaging in the usual competitiveness for educational success. Nevertheless the parents in our study still found themselves wittingly or otherwise captured by that same discourse. Their children are high achievers and are regarded as a valuable resource for their comprehensive schools generating high volume capital. However, in spite of this, the parents do not leave such success to chance. Drawing on an ESRC-funded research project (Educational Choices and the White Urban Middle-Classes RES-148-25-0023) we analyse how middle-class parental involvement is part of the age old process of social reproduction and the transmission of parents’ middle-class privilege to their children, almost regardless of their intentions. Not only are the parents interventionist in their children’s schooling, they draw on and dispose their own privileged capitals to prepare and position their children for educational success.     

The effects of facial‐head cue combinations on interpersonal evaluations

Two experiments were conducted to examine the role of visual cues in interpersonal attraction and credibility. In the first study, 128 subjects viewed eight randomly ordered videotape segments of trained actors presenting a short speech accompanied by head nods, eyebrow raises, smiles, combinations of those cues, or no such cues. Ratings of the speakers on task and social attraction revealed that, as expected, the presence of any face or head cues produced more attraction than none; however, instead of the three combined cues producing the most attraction, the smiles‐head nod condition produced the greatest social attraction and the head nod only condition produced greatest task attraction; expected sex differences were largely supported. In the second study, face and head cues were performed by confederates during a live interview situation while subjects observed the interaction from behind a two‐way mirror. Results showed that smiles produced higher attraction and credibility ratings than did no smiles and nods, thus further substantiating the reward power of facial and head cues in social interaction.     

关于悬链线的一点注记

悬链线是微积分、微分方程、微分几何、变分计算及数值分析中的一个重要课题.本文通过一些诸如方轮自行车、旋转的最小面积等有趣的例子,计算悬链线和相应半圆下面的面积,证明悬链线到处都有,但并不是无处不在.     

Academic Role and Perceptions of Gatekeeping in Counselor Education

Gatekeeping in counselor education is an ethical responsibility and professional best practice. The authors examined gatekeeping perceptions of 9 counselor educators, with equal representation of assistant professors, associate/full professors, and adjuncts/instructors/lecturers. The authors analyzed data using consensual qualitative research methodology (Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997 ). Findings include commonalities and differences between academic role groups.     

A model for the effective engagement of all stakeholders in engineering education and its pilot implementation

Methodologies for engineering learning and teaching (MELT) approach aims to enhance the attractiveness of education through science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among young people, while promoting awareness of future careers in these areas. To this end, students’ expectations are considered within university programmes, aiming to an increased engagement in STEM careers. To accomplish these goals, a new and integrated approach (MELT) is presented, involving the main stakeholders in both scientific education and society. An education framework is presented, providing guidelines for an improved collaborative approach to STEM education in the future. Results from the pilot implementation of MELT are presented, from a small-scale education parliament prototype. From these initial stage and results, it is seen that there is a need for a proper alignment of expectations from all involved stakeholders, concerning the engineering education towards society’s demands.     

Sustainable support: a case of the role and deployment of teaching assistants implementing a unique early literacy intervention

The role and deployment of teaching assistants (TAs) (paraprofessionals) have changed significantly over the past decade; TAs in England hold greater responsibilities in terms of their wider role in classrooms and, specifically, in relation to their support for children with literacy difficulties in a primary school context. The impact of their role has been both questioned and challenged; nevertheless, in relation to literacy support, their role is widely valued by schools, and evidence exists that there is a positive impact on attainment. This paper reports on a case study of an early literacy intervention implemented by TAs which, it is argued, provides a positive model of TA deployment and literacy intervention implementation. It is also argued that this model of intervention offers a scaffold to the TAs themselves, who are then far better placed to scaffold the literacy learning of children with individual needs.     

On the Relevance of Research Findings in Cognitive Neuroscience to Educational Practice

In their target article, Byrnes and Fox (1998) argue that many of the recent findings from the field of cognitive neuroscience have particular importance for education. In our commentary, we lend support to their contention by reporting on some of our work that has potential relevance to the proposed interface between cognitive neuroscience and education. Specifically, we discuss the findings from several studies investigating the neuropsychology of intellectual giftedness, and sex differences in the brain, each of which suggest a unique functional organization that differentiates gifted from average ability adolescents, as well as males from females. We further propose that the translation of cognitive neuroscience findings into specialized classroom instructional methods which capitalize on the plasticity of the brain, as well as the apparent individual differences in its functional organization, may be the most significant challenge facing those in the front-lines of educational practice.