Communication skills, educational achievement and biographic characteristics of children with moderate learning difficulties

This paper examines aspects of intellectual, linguistic and academic abilities of 71 children with moderate learning difficulties. A profile of these abilities is presented and analysed. The profile provides a rationale for mounting a long-term intervention study designed to develop these children’s communication abilities. It also provides us with a baseline model against which the effects of the intervention can be assessed. In addition, the profile explores the relationships between several aspects of academic achievement and biographical factors such as age, gender, season of birth and IQ. Statistical analysis reveals significant relationships between several of the variables investigated. The implications of this analysis for educational practice are considered.     

The Coach Consult Method: A model for sustainable change in schools

Project work and in‐service training are methods used by educational psychologists (EPs) to promote systemic change in schools. These have some disadvantages, which can limit the long‐term effects of new developments. This paper outlines and evaluates an alternative approach. A new coach consult method combines effective aspects of project work and in‐service training to enable schools to manage their own projects and to encourage sustainable change, embedded within the school system. The evaluation consists of a tiered approach and considers the impact at the levels of direct, training and general effects. Results indicate that the coach consult method for delivering project work in schools has a positive impact at all three levels.     

Bored with the core: stimulating student interest in online general education

Motivating students to learn in general education courses, particularly in an online environment, is a challenge for many colleges and universities. A general education curriculum, by definition, is wide-ranging in its scope of topics, disciplines, and applications, but many students enter college with specific personal interests or affinities for particular areas of academic study. This interest gap between individual student interests and general education offerings is frequently expressed by students in their desire to “get the core courses out of the way.” For those institutions that appreciate the role that a general education curriculum plays in providing students with a holistic liberal arts education, this “get them out of the way” attitude must be addressed. Through the application of text-based situational interest research, and creative writing principles and techniques to instructional design, this article offers educators theoretical insights and practical ways to stimulate student interest in online general education courses.