Exploring the Association Between Integrated Therapy and Inclusive Education

Sue Mackey (Lecturer and Course Co-ordinator, Child Health Therapy Programme) and Jill McQueen (Lecturer and Research Fellow, Rehabilitation Research Unit) at the University of Southampton, consider the terms 'integrated therapy' and 'inclusive education' (as indicators of emerging philosophies in education and therapy), explore the links between them, and assess the extent of their success in practice.     

Support staff in primary schools: Reflections upon the benefits of training and implications for schools

This article will examine the roles and involvement of support staff in the primary school. It will consider rationales for training and identify the benefits that accrue following this investment. It will highlight the training needs of support staff, identify implications for schools and discuss the constraints that schools may face with this process.     

Imagination and the Cognitive Tools of Place-Making

In environmental and ecological education, a rich literature builds on the premise that place, the local natural context in which one lives, can be an emotionally engaging context for learning and the source of life-long concern for nature. A theory of imaginative education can help uncover new tools and strategies for place-based educators. Conversely, a focus on the imaginative dimensions of place-making sheds new light on the nature of imaginative development, with important implications for educational theory and practice.     

Epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral learning in the early years of school: relationships and complexities

While investment in young children is recognised as important for the development of moral values for a cohesive society, little is known about early years teaching practices that promote learning of moral values. This paper reports on observations and interviews with 11 Australian teachers, focusing on their epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral education with children aged 5–8 years. The analysis revealed three main patterns of thinking about moral education: following others, reflecting on points of view, and informing reflection for action. These patterns suggest a relationship between epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral learning which have implications for teacher professional development concerning experiences in moral education.     

Professional autonomy versus managerial control: The experience of teachers in an english primary school

This article examines the relationship between primary teachers' professional autonomy and the increasing managerial control over teachers' work. It considers how the education policies of successive Conservative and New Labour administrations in Britain have tightened central control over education undermining teacher discretion and directly impacting upon the labour process of the professionals concerned. The research was undertaken in an English primary school and data gathered in a variety of contexts including observations of the teachers in classrooms and the staff room, a governors/parents meeting, informal conversations and a series of semi-structured interviews with staff. The study explores how teachers make sense of the managerial culture in education, and how this is reconciled with their ideas about teaching and learning, and their professional interests and individual career aspirations. Structuration theory (Giddens, 1976, 1979, 1984) is used as a theoretical framework to explore whether there is conflict between teachers' professionalism and the new managerialism and examine how primary teachers make sense of this inextricable relationship.     

Living the theoretical principles of critical ethnography' in educational research

It would seem from the current rhetoric that United Kingdom Government agencies wish to promote teaching as a ‘research-based profession’. However, what that research might constitute in practice is far from clear. If the implication is that more teachers would themselves become engaged in the research process, become more researcher than researched, then there are significant issues to be considered by those embarking on such a venture. The difficulties of practitioner research are widely acknowledged (e.g. Ball, 1990; Atkinson, 1994). When the practitioner research is also small scale and the data gathered is qualitative in nature (which is often the case), the tensions can be numerous. This article discusses some of the issues that surround practitioner research and the validity of qualitative study before exploring my own practitioner researcher's route through a small-scale qualitative study. The author attempts to implement a ‘critically ethnographic’ approach and the dilemmas of trying to ‘live’ the theoretical principles of my chosen methodology are then used as a basis for suggesting a theoretical framework for practitioner research, which may help to establish both the validity of data and the implications of findings beyond the immediate context of a particular study.     

The use of the intensity gradient and average acceleration metrics to explore associations with BMI z-score in children

ABSTRACT

This study used the intensity gradient (IG) and average acceleration metrics to describe children’s activity profiles and explore associations with body mass index (BMI) z-score. Two hundred and forty-six children (n = 138 girls) aged 9.6 ± 1.4 years wore a wrist-mounted ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometer for 7 days on their non-dominant wrist. Physical activity (PA) metrics captured included: the IG which describes the intensity distribution of accelerations across the 24 h monitoring period; average acceleration which provides a measure of the volume of activity; total moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and inactive time. Acceleration was averaged over 5s epochs. Finally, BMI z-score was calculated for each participant. Average acceleration was negatively associated with BMI z-score (p < 0.05) independent of age and gender but not IG. The IG was negatively associated with BMI z-score independent of potential correlates and average acceleration. Total MVPA was not associated with BMI-z score. The IG and average acceleration metrics may be used to explore the independent or cumulative effects of the volume and intensity distribution of activity upon measures of health and well-being in children to inform specific activity recommendations.     

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ VIEWS OF THE ROLE OF MATHEMATICS IN THEIR FUTURE

We report on an international study about mathematics students’ ideas of how they will use mathematics in their future study and careers. This builds on our previous research into students’ conceptions of mathematics. In this paper, we use data from two groups of students studying mathematics: those who participated in an in-depth interview and those who completed an open-ended questionnaire. We found that their responses could be grouped into four categories: don’t know; procedural skills; conceptual skills; and professional skills. Although some students held clear ideas about the role of mathematics, many were not able to articulate how it would be used in their future. This has implications for their approach to learning and our approach to teaching.