Openness: A Formula for Communication

Projected employment reports indicate that most new jobs will involve occupations in which computer skills are essential, but surveys reveal that many people with a disability currently lack these computer skills. One way to address the gap is to prepare students while they are attending primary and secondary school. The National Business Education Association developed technology standards for all students in grades K–12 and recommend that keyboarding instruction begin in third or fourth grade. However, research studies indicate that general education teachers, special educators, and business education teachers do not feel prepared to teach keyboarding to students with a disability. This article reviews current practices in keyboarding instruction and provides suggestions for adaptations for students with disabilities.     

‘Testing,testing, testing… can you hear me?’

This article draws on material that formed part of a project entitled ‘Sustaining Pupils’ Progress at Year 3'¹. One area that emerged as significant early in the project was the practice and the place of assessment. The project found a high increase in testing and other forms of assessment during Year 3 designed in part to facilitate progress. This article poses the question of whether we can learn from hearing what pupils have to say about their experience of assessment and concludes that, given the language with which to discuss and understand the processes they experience, children's views can indeed be of value as schools focus on ways to sustain learning     

Primary school bullying and the issue of gender differences

This paper summarises research conducted into the issue of gender differences within primary school bullying. The study focused on the extent and nature of gender differences and teachers' perceptions and experiences of these differences. Primarily, the research shows that anti-bullying strategies need to be more focussed on girl's experiences of bullying. Within the study, the teachers' identification of boys bullying appeared to be in line with both well-documented gender differences and those reported by the pupils in the study. However, the teachers' appear to be less able to identify girls' involvement in bullying.     

Play to learn: a case-study of parent/carer and child engagement with a physical activity website resource

In 2007, Sport Wales produced guidance for practitioners delivering the new Foundation Phase curriculum for children aged three to seven years. A focus was on physical development and in 2009 a resource entitled Play to Learn was developed supported by a website launched in 2011. The present study addresses (non-)engagement with the website. Based on a qualitative study (interviews and focus groups) with a small cohort of parents from a primary school in South Wales, the findings revealed some of the reasons for only low levels of engagement from parents/carers. ‘Hard copy’ resource materials were considered more useful than electronic media.     

BOOK REVIEWS

No abstract available for this article.     

Keeping Our Customers Happy: Myths and Management Issues in “Client-Led” Student Software Projects

In this paper we seek to dispel some of the myths and to address some of the real managerial issues which we believe may have deterred academics from involving commercial and industrial partners as customers in students' software project work. We contend that students know when a project is phoney, when requirements are dreamt up by academics and when the deliverables are of no practical use once a project mark has been assigned. The involvement of an external customer materially affects students' motivation, the quality of work that they produce and their sense of achievement. Put simply, authenticity is the key to a rich, challenging and meaningful educational project experience.     

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Box? Children and TV Advertising in four Countries

Abstract

To what extent are children influenced by television and, in particular, by advertising? The study discussed in this article was conducted in four countries with, in some cases, surprising results. Parents think that television influences their children, but children too have views on how adults are affected.