Teacher Acceptability of Functional Assessment-Derived Treatments

This study examines whether teachers find a treatment clearly linked to a functional assessment more acceptable than treatments based on arbitrarily selected reinforcers. We randomly assigned 111 elementary school teachers to 3 experimental conditions. In all conditions, a problem vignette was read that included the same functional assessment summary but varied according to whether the treatment recommendation was linked to the assessment results. A one-way analysis of variance revealed significantly higher pretreatment acceptability ratings and likelihood of use for the treatment linked to assessment. Implications of these results for school-based consultation are discussed.     

Sport and Friendship

My aim in this paper is to make the case for encouraging friendship in sport. First, I argue that sport is especially conducive to friendship. Second, I argue that since friendship is life‐enhancing then to participate in sport and not to have made friends is to have failed to take a life‐enhancing opportunity. Third, I argue that there are sporting benefits to be had from sporting friendships. Finally, I say something about the role of friendship in sport achieving its broad political aim of helping ‘to build a better and more peaceful world’.     

Primary prevention of reading failure: Effect of universal peer tutoring in the early grades

Reading is typically considered a survival skill in our technology- and literacy-bound culture. Individuals who struggle with learning to read are at significantly elevated risk for a number of negative outcomes, including school failure, under- and unemployment, and special education placement. Thus, those who do not learn to read fluently will likely be a greater drain on society's resources. The authors examined the effects of a universal (school district-wide) implementation of a well-validated peer-tutoring reading intervention as a system-wide prevention measure in kindergarten through Grade 3 in a small metropolitan area in Canada. Results suggest that nearly all children demonstrated improved reading fluency over time. Yet those at highest-risk for poor outcomes, including those living in poverty and those who face learning challenges due to English as a second-language status or special education enrollment, did not make parallel gains to same-age peers in more affluent schools. Implications for educational policy are discussed.     

The power of the ‘object’ to influence teacher induction outcomes

In this paper we explore newly qualified New Zealand secondary teachers’ varied accounts of induction. We claim that multiple interpretations of objectives for induction programs are a significant source of this variation. With reference to an activity system framework, we identify four primary objects of induction that were represented in the induction accounts as follows: ‘orientation to learning about the context’, ‘fitting into the school’, ‘completing registration requirements’, and ‘becoming a professional inquirer’. Whilst teachers would be expected to experience all of these objects within their induction experiences, the balance and emphases of these objects within programs varied considerably.     

Girls' secondary education in Uganda: assessing policy within the women's empowerment framework

This paper makes the case that policies, such as the National Strategy for Girls' Education in Uganda (NSGE), intended to achieve gender equity in education for girls in developing countries, have limited relevance to, and impact on girls' actual educational experiences. Recent considerations of girls' education acknowledge that gender equity within education is more than access to schooling; it entails the cultivation of capabilities necessary for girls to participate fully, actively and equally in all aspects of their societies. Drawing on a longitudinal, ethnographic policy research case study with 15 Ugandan schoolgirls in rural Masaka District, Uganda, from August 2004 to September 2006, I explore the girls' educational experiences in relationship to the NSGE. I employ the Women's Empowerment Framework (WEF) to evaluate the NSGE with respect to the extent to which its interventions are ‘empowering’ for girls.     

Playful structure: a novel image of early years pedagogy for primary school classrooms

Playful structure is a new pedagogic image representing a more balanced and integrated perspective on early years pedagogy, aiming to blend apparent dichotomies and contradictions and to sustain and evolve play-based practice beyond Year 1. Playful structure invites teachers and children to initiate and maintain a degree of playfulness in the child’s whole learning experience, even when the learning intentions demand a supportive structure. Thus, playfulness becomes characteristic of the interaction between adult and the child and not just characteristic of child-initiated versus adult-initiated activities, or of play-time versus task-time. The paper is based on intensive observations and interviews with teachers in Northern Ireland who participated in a play-based and informal curriculum. This paper explains how playful structure rests on complementary processes of infusion of structure into play-based activities and infusion of playfulness into more structured activities, illustrated by cameos. ‘Infusion’ suggests the subtle blending process that allows apparent dichotomies and contradictions to be resolved in practice.     

Developmental change in the ERP responses to familiar faces in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders versus typical development

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show differences in face processing abilities from early in development. To examine whether these differences reflect an atypical versus delayed developmental trajectory, neural responses to familiar and unfamiliar faces in twenty-four 18- to 47-month-old children with ASD were compared with responses of thirty-two 12- to 30-month-old typically developing children. Results of 2 experiments revealed that neural responses to faces in children with ASD resembled those observed in younger typically developing children, suggesting delayed development. Electrophysiological responses to faces were also related to parent report of adaptive social behaviors for both children with ASD and typical development. Slower development of the face processing system in ASD may be related to reduced self-directed "expected" experience with faces in early development.     

CSRP's Impact on low-income preschoolers' preacademic skills: self-regulation as a mediating mechanism

Based on theoretically driven models, the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP) targeted low-income children's school readiness through the mediating mechanism of self-regulation. The CSRP is a multicomponent, cluster-randomized efficacy trial implemented in 35 Head Start-funded classrooms (N = 602 children). The analyses confirm that the CSRP improved low-income children's self-regulation skills (as indexed by attention/impulse control and executive function) from fall to spring of the Head Start year. Analyses also suggest significant benefits of CSRP for children's preacademic skills, as measured by vocabulary, letter-naming, and math skills. Partial support was found for improvement in children's self-regulation as a hypothesized mediator for children's gains in academic readiness. Implications for programs and policies that support young children's behavioral health and academic success are discussed.