Stereotyping and Intergroup Perceptions of Disabled and Nondisabled Children: A New Perspective

This research seeks to establish relationships between the stereotypes, self‐ratings and peer‐ratings of students in an experimental secondary school attended by both disabled and nondisabled young people. To study the influence that contact with disabled classmates has upon intergroup perceptions, responses of these students were compared with those of students attending a secondary school that does not practise mainstreaming.Results vary, depending upon whether subjects were asked to attribute adjectives from a list to classmates, some of whom were disabled, or to the disabled persons in general. This research highlights the need to adopt a new approach to intergroup relations.     

A study of an adapted social–emotional learning: Small group curriculum in a school setting

Clinicians and training programs strive to implement evidence‐based practices and manualized treatments with fidelity. However, the constraints of a local setting may limit the extent to which this is possible. In the current study, an adapted model of an evidence‐based social–emotional learning small group curriculum, the Incredible Years Children’s Small Group Training Series (Webster‐Stratton, 2004), was implemented and evaluated in an elementary school setting. Results of the study demonstrated statistically significant decreases in problem behaviors and intensity of problem behaviors, as rated by teachers. Teachers also reported improvement in classroom behavior, emotion regulation, problem‐solving, and friendship skills, as well as a high overall level of satisfaction with the intervention itself. Discussion of the results includes a review of the strengths and limitations associated with outcome research in a naturalistic setting, suggestions to consider when adapting evidence‐based programs, and recommendations for future research.     

Caregiver perceptions of inclusive playgrounds targeting toddlers and preschoolers with disabilities: has recent international and national policy improved overall satisfaction?

The purpose of the current study was to survey and interview caregivers of children with disabilities (ages 2–5 years) to obtain their input as to whether current playground equipment meets their child's needs. A total of 149 participants agreed to participate. Caregivers (i) indicated that their child with a disability could not fully participate in the playground's offerings, (ii) felt that the playground was not appropriate for their child with a disability and (iii) dreamed of a fully inclusive playground that met their child's needs. The results also demonstrate that social participation barriers continue to remain for families who have children with disabilities despite the passing of international human rights standards targeting individuals with disabilities and a global focus in improving the overall well‐being of children with disabilities.     

Scaffolding speech and writing in the primary classroom: a consideration of work with literature and science pupil groups in the USA and UK

In considering scaffolding as it is enacted across two disciplines – literacy and science – the focus of this paper is specifically on issues related to teacher scaffolding of pupils' learning in these areas. Features of scaffolding in action are drawn out that reflect a concern with developing a principled approach to instruction and learning. The three notions around which the paper pivots are: scaffolding the processes of learning in classroom; the importance of this type of scaffolding for independent learning; and the idea of appropriateness as it relates to the level of scaffolding employed by the teacher. The strategies used by teachers to encourage groups of pupils to adopt and use ways of thinking appropriate to the subject context are explored, and this is linked to Mercer's (2000) conception of the Intermental Developmental Zone, which explored how the concepts of scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development ( Vygotsky, 1978 ) might be extended to group contexts, rather than dyadic ones. Some consideration is given to how individual pupils may conceive of the teacher's structuring of thinking as scaffold or straitjacket.     

Spontaneous partitioning: Pre-schoolers and discrete items

This study addresses the question of whether a dealing strategy that is widely used by young children in clinical interviews occurs in less structured situations. Our findings are that it did not in the setting we examined, namely the performance of a routine counting task, by pre-schoolers with the opportunity of sharing sweets when the task was completed. We discuss reasons for the apparent discrepancies between the results for clinical interviews and less structured situations.     

Neoliberalism,internationalisation and higher education: connections,contradictions and alternatives

ABSTRACT

We explore the role of neoliberalism within portrayals of internationalisation in higher education (HE). Through an analysis of four features of internationalisation, we suggest that they embody a complex entanglement of neoliberal categories and assumptions with other, primarily progressive humanitarian ideals. This framing of internationalisation has three affects. One, humanitarian ideals coupled with neoliberal categories normalise inequalities, turning internationalisation into a meritocratic global race, focusing on celebrating the possibility of the few who can achieve, instead of the embedded inequalities within the system, which disadvantage the many. Two, this allows neoliberal practices to be advanced through the discourse of internationalisation and its association with progressive humanitarian values. Three, this neoliberal framing does not explain the nature of internationalisation of HE in many nations; we demonstrate this by analysing internationalisation in China, Israel and Cuba. We suggest that internationalisation in HE cannot be adequately explained by analyses which rely on neoliberalism.