La Transición: parent perspectives on transition for Latino youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities

The transition to adulthood can be a challenging time for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its complexity, however, may be magnified for families who have immigrated to the United States. This study examined the transition expectations and experiences of six first-generation, Latino parents and their transition-aged (14–22) children with intellectual disability, autism, and/or multiple disabilities. Through individual interviews held in Spanish or English, parents offered insights into (1) their visions of success for their child, (2) the distinct barriers they face as immigrant families, and (3) their suggestions for schools and adult agencies related to supporting strong transitions. Their portraits of desired outcomes were quite individualized and reflected high expectations. Factors identified as inhibiting successful transitions included persistent language barriers, the views of certain professionals and community members, and exclusion from typical school experiences. Parents encouraged schools to support family advocacy, foster greater student independence, expand adult programming, and reduce segregated educational placements. We present implications for educators on working with Latino families, as well as offer recommendations for future research.     

Teachers and the State: forming and re‐forming ‘partnership’

Teachers in the English and Welsh State education system have experienced a changing and turbulent relationship with the State in recent decades. This article adopts a historical analysis and argues that the concept of ‘partnership’ is key to understanding the relationship between teachers and the State in the period since the Second World War. Initially a partnership based on a commitment to welfarist values, professional autonomy and collective bargaining; this has been systematically dismantled and reconstructed as a ‘social partnership’ based on teacher union involvement in workforce reform coupled with a significantly more managerialist conception of professional accountability. Re‐engineering the terms of its partnership with teachers has been central to the State’s restructuring of public education along neo‐liberal lines.     

Concept mapping,vee mapping,and achievement: Results of a field study with black high school students

This article reports on the results of a project that studied the effectiveness of two specific learning heuristics, concept mapping and Vee mapping, in helping black, inner-city, high school students learn biology concepts meaningfully. The project sought to assess the effects on achievement of the use of these two heuristics as part of a carefully designed sequence of instruction. Two instructional treatments were compared, one that utilized the two experimental heuristics as study aids and one that utilized outlining as a comparison study aid. The instructional treatments were administered over approximately a one semester period. Two hundred and fifty subjects, nearly all black, from two urban high schools in Indiana took part in the study. Achievement instruments designed to measure meaningful (higher order) learning were developed. Analysis of variance of the achievement test means failed to reveal statistically significant differences between the experimental and comparison treatment at the 0.05 alpha level. However, there were suggestions of a tendency toward an effect of the experimental treatment, and several factors contributing to the difficulty in distinguishing achievement differences were identified.     

School violence in the Canadian context: An overview and model for intervention

School violence and the incidence of violent crimesamong Canadian youth is seen to be increasing. Whilemore research is being conducted in the area ofschool violence little has previously been done toexamine psychopathology as a possible factorinfluencing violent student behavior. A recent studyconducted by Carter (1998) using the BehaviorAssessment System for Children and a structuredinterview showed a high incidence of psychopathologyamong violent junior high male students. Acomprehensive model for intervention is described inwhich several factors are presented. Implications ofcurrent research includes the need to developintervention strategies that are consistent withdiagnostic findings and the need for earlyidentification and intervention before behaviorpatterns become fixed in adolescence.     

Monitoring Classroom Behavior in Early Childhood: Using Group Observation Data to Make Decisions

Monitoring and evaluating classroom behavior in early childhood for the purpose of improving teaching and learning is critical. There is a clear link between social behavior and academic learning. Classrooms where students are following expectations, engaging academically, and transitioning effectively between activities are classrooms where students spend more time accessing instruction. In order to make efficient and effective decisions for class-wide supports, data should be collected on the class as a whole. With accurate data, interventions can be implemented for the whole group that will increase instructional time. In this paper we propose quick and efficient data collection methods for three key behaviors: following expectations, engaging academically, and transitioning amongst activities. With minimal disruption and effort, teachers can collect data that will enable them to support appropriate behaviors, ensure that students understand behavioral expectations, maintain an organized environment, improve positive interactions, and decrease the number of students needing intensive, individualized supports.     

Globalisation and science education: the case of Sustainability by the Bay

It is impossible to consider contemporary science education in isolation from globalisation as the dominant logic, rethinking and reconfiguring social and cultural life in which it is located. Carter (J Res Sci Teach 42, 561–580, 2005) calls for a close reading of policy documents, curriculum projects, research studies and a range of other science education texts using key concepts from globalisation theory to elucidate the ways in which globalisation shapes and is expressed within science education. In this paper, we consider an example from our own practice of a school-based curriculum project, Sustainable Living by the Bay, as one such instance. The first section reviews neoliberalism and neoconservativism necessary to understand how globalisation penetrates education, while the second outlines aspects of the curriculum project itself. As there were many different facets to the development and implementation of a project like Sustainable Living by the Bay, there is space only to elaborate two examples of the globalisation discourse. The first example concerns the government policy initiative that funded the project while the second example focuses on learner- centred pedagogies as globalisation’s pedagogies of choice.     

Investigatory behavior inthe plains garter snake (Thamnophis radix) and several additional species

Garter snakes (Thamnophis radix), hognose snakes (Heterodon platyrhinos), and rattlesnakes (Crotalus species) flick their tongues and crawl about in an open field containing no food or sexual (i.e., reproductive) odors. As Experiment I shows, the taxa differ reliably in both rate of tongue flicking and rate of locomotion. In Experiment II, garter snakes (Thamnophis radix) placed into an open field for 5 min showed more tongue flicking than snakes that were handled and placed directly back into their home cages, indicating that the first group was exploring the apparatus rather than responding only to handling. During Minutes 3 through 5 (Experiment III) in the open field, garter snakes emitted fewer tongue flicks than they did during the first minute, and after 20 min, the rate of tongue flicking was virtually zero. However, snakes were capable of responding to presentation of new objects and/or odors, indicating that the previous response decrement was not derived from effector fatigue but rather from some habituatory process. Experiment IV revealed that satiated snakes habituated more rapidly than hungry snakes during exploration of the open field. Hence, exploratory behavior in these snakes is at least partially under the control of the same factors which mediate food-related appetitive activities.