Intervention for children with language impairments: a model of evidence-based outcome research

Over the past 30 years successive governments in the UK have endeavoured to make the statutory framework suitable for children with special educational needs (SEN). More recently, efforts have been made to personalise children's learning, making educational experience more innovative and responsive to the diversity of needs in schools. A drive is emerging in health and education to develop and evaluate intervention strategies for children with language impairments (LIs), which is both methodologically challenging and rewarding. The current review demonstrates difficulties encountered with using evidence-based (evidence-related) outcome research involving children with LIs. Many studies have inherent methodological problems such as small sample sizes, ill-matched groups and designs that are difficult to replicate or compare. Such approaches are unlikely to yield significant results, or if they do, it is difficult to devise clear guidance regarding choice of intervention strategies. In the light of these difficulties, theoretical, methodological and practical issues are discussed herein and a model is proposed to assist in enabling interventions to be identified, evaluated in a robust manner, and the results shared with educators. We suggest that the use of a process-driven model ensures a more rigorous approach when undertaking large-scale systematic, evidence-based research into the effective approaches to teaching children not only with LIs but across the field of special needs education.     

Piecing Together the Puzzle of Pictorial Representation: How Jigsaw Puzzles Index Metacognitive Development

Jigsaw puzzles are ubiquitous developmental toys in Western societies, used here to examine the development of metarepresentation. For jigsaw puzzles this entails understanding that individual pieces, when assembled, produce a picture. In Experiment 1, 3- to 5-year-olds (N = 117) completed jigsaw puzzles that were normal, had no picture, or comprised noninterlocking rectangular pieces. Pictorial puzzle completion was associated with mental and graphical metarepresentational task performance. Guide pictures of completed pictorial puzzles were not useful. In Experiment 2, 3- to 4-year-olds (N = 52) completed a simplified task, to choose the correct final piece. Guide-use associated with age and specifically graphical metarepresentation performance. We conclude that the pragmatically natural measure of jigsaw puzzle completion ability demonstrates general and pictorial metarepresentational development at 4 years.     

Teachers’ Perceptions of Factors Influencing the Curriculum

This paper describes a two‐part investigation into how teachers perceive the curriculum. In the primary stage, teachers were asked to assess how much freedom they felt they should have to determine the content of what they taught in their own classrooms, and how much freedom they fell they actually had, in this respect. A sample of 196 teachers, from varied schools and teaching backgrounds, took part. It was found that there was a very definite tendency to take a ‘middle way’ between total freedom and total constraint, in both cases. By and large, these teachers seemed to feel that they should have some freedom to determine what they taught in their own classrooms, but that there should be restraints as well. The general lack of discrepancy between what the teachers wanted, and what they felt they had, seemed to indicate that the great majority of the teachers were happy with the situation as they perceived it.

The same sample of 196 teachers was then asked to assess thirty varied potential influences, in terms of their power to shape the content of what they themselves taught in their own classroom. These potential influences included LEA advisers, parents, school governors, national educational associations etc. A factor analysis of the ratings made by the respondents showed that they regarded EXTERNAL‐PROFESSIONAL influences as the most important of all. This category included such influences as local colleges, and universities, national reports (such as the Warnock Report), professional journals and articles, local teachers’ centres, LEA advisory personnel, H.M. Inspectorate, etc. Four other types of influence were seen as important, but the EXTERNAL‐PROFESSIONAL category was seen as the most important by far. It was concluded that teachers’ perceptions of the influences which they felt shaped their curricula were positive and optimistic.     

Exploring Science Teachers’ Argumentation and Personal Epistemology About Global Climate Change

Research in Science Education - This case study investigated the nature of in-service science teachers’ argumentation and personal epistemology about global climate change during a 3-year...     

Edufare for the future precariat: the moral agenda in Australia’s ‘earning or learning’ policy

This paper considers the educational experience constructed under Australia’s policy decision in 2009 to extend compulsory education by requiring that students must be ‘earning or learning’ till 17 years of age. The discussion draws on an empirical project that explored the moral order operating in classrooms for students retained under this policy in non-academic pathways in high schools and Technical and Further Education colleges across three towns experiencing youth employment stress. It asks how the policy regulating these students’ prolonged engagement with formal education plays out in classroom interactions, to what end and to whose benefit. A theoretical lens informed by work by Standing and Wacquant is used to understand the contemporary moment, and work by Durkheim and Bernstein unpacks the moral work implicated in classroom interactions. The analysis describes the light curriculum and the heavy compliance demanded in these ‘edufare’ programmes then argues that in essence the policy seeks to manage the social risk posed by the future precariat. The conclusion reflects on whether this is an adequate policy response to broad generational changes in fortunes and prospects to which education may not have the answers.     

How university teaching changes teachers: Affective as well as cognitive challenges

This paper argues that the teaching of a subject can change our understanding of what it means to know, to teach and learn that subject. It also argues that when our understanding is questioned and changes then academic work can become an emotionally charged endeavour. This paper reports on a study where, over a semesters teaching, around two thirds of teachers changed some aspect of their scholarly thinking or practice. These teachers were teaching a range of first and second year classes, they were not new to teaching, nor were they unfamiliar with the teaching of the subject. For approximately one third, the change in understanding was not major. It involved a change in teaching practice but it did not involve the questioning of their existing understanding of subject matter. For another third, however, the change was substantial. These teachers, in some way, questioned previously taken for granted assumptions, they re-thought aspects of the structure of the discipline or the relationship of the subject to the discipline. They also revised their ideas about how to best teach that subject and what learning the subject involved. This change invariably involved anxiety and uncertainty and in some cases this was extreme. Little attention has been paid to change in teachers understanding of subject matter and little, or no, research has focused on the emotional impact of this change. This initial exploration of these neglected aspects of university teaching suggests a rich vein for further exploration. This paper builds on previous work that has used phenomenography to examine changes in university teachers understanding of subject matter taught. An analysis of metaphor is used to explore change and to tap into the rich and complex emotional experiences that accompany this change.     

Contrasting landscapes: A comparison of the impact of different induction programs on beginning secondary science teachers' practices,beliefs, and experiences

Induction programs are essential in addressing the unique pedagogical and content needs of secondary science teachers. Yet most secondary science teachers have little access to general induction programs, and even less opportunity to participate in specialized science induction programs. This study examines the impact of three different induction programs on secondary science teachers. The teachers were matched by grade level among three groups; one group participated in a science‐focused support program, another participated in a general support program, and a third had no formal support. All teachers were monitored during the spring semester to understand their teaching beliefs, instructional practices, and experiences in the classroom. The analysis of data revealed that the secondary science teachers in the science‐focused support program implemented more student‐centered inquiry lessons, held beliefs aligned with student‐centered practices, and felt fewer constraints in their teaching than did the other two groups of teachers. This study reinforces the importance of induction programs for teachers, suggests there is a need for specialized support programs for beginning science teachers, and recommends that universities and school districts work together to develop such programs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 77–97, 2003