Usefulness of cognitive intervention programmes for socio-emotional and behaviour problems in children with learning disabilities

Behavioural and emotional problems occur more frequently in children with learning problems than in a cross-section of the general population, both at home and at school. While behaviour problems reportedly are a key obstructive factor impeding inclusive education, children with both behavioural and learning disabilities carry a high risk of social exclusion and school dropout when they are in mainstream environments. Meta-analyses indicated only a moderate impact of social skills training. To see what kind of intervention programme would be effective in modifying cognitive as well as socio-emotional behaviour and at the same time focusing on contextual interaction and intervention, a pilot study has been carried out in Belgium with 11–13-year-old students with learning disability and behaviour problems in special schools. A total of 24 children in the experimental group were matched against a control group of 24. Children in the experimental group, after having received 14 lessons of FIE (Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment Programme), showed a marked increase in some cognitive functions (hypothetical thinking, perception and understanding of humour) but not in others. A significant effect on socio-emotional behaviour could not be shown quantitatively, but was evident from qualitative interviewing. The mediating attitude of the teachers was a key influencing factor in producing lasting changes. Programmes such as FIE, provided they address children as well as teachers in a comprehensive way, focusing on cognitive as well as socio-emotional behavioural changes, may become powerful instruments to help children as well as teachers in a highly differentiated inclusive school environment.     

The professional developmental needs of higher education-based teacher educators: an international comparative needs analysis

A universal lack of attention to the professional learning needs of teacher educators is the driver for this study, which considers the most effective ways to support the professional learning of higher education-based teacher educators. At a time when many industrialised countries are engaged in systemic educational reform, this study provides an international and comparative needs analysis through a survey of 1158 higher education-based teacher educators in the countries participating in the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development: Belgium, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK. Our results suggest that while teacher educators are only moderately satisfied with their professional development experiences, a strong desire exists for further professional learning. This desire, influenced by their professional context, relates to their current beliefs concerning ‘best practice’ in teacher education, the academic skills required to further their professional careers and knowledge of the curriculum associated with their fields of expertise.     

Balancing varied assessment functions to attain systemic validity: Three is the magic number

Accountability-oriented reforms demand immediate and continual gains on achievement test, for all students, and without diminishing other outcomes or undermining instruction. This paper describes a framework for aligning classroom assessment and external testing with the aim of negotiating these seemingly contradictory goals. The framework varies the sensitivity to instruction and the representations of knowledge across approaches to assessment. Cycles of design- based studies successively refine relationships between a curriculum and the frame that each assessment provides. Doing so, we argue, leverages the unique formative and summative balance across assessments in order to scaffold learning and demonstrate the “consequential” validity of our strategy without compromising curricula, instruction, or the “evidential” validity that warrants their continued use.     

网络时代的课程，学与教

网上的学与教是全球关注的一个教育热点，这种关注大致体现在：（1）课程本身的问题，即我们将要教什么？（2）学习自身的性质。（2）学习以及他们所需要的学习环境，（4）对教育提供的影响。（5）不同的国家为规范远程学习和网上学习所采取的的不同方式。（6）我们一旦选择这种方式所存在的大量的合作机会，其中也存在同样多的健康或不健康的竞争，（7）与那些在网络时代所提供机遇面前落伍的人们有关的。     

The Effect of Relationship on Children's Distributive Justice Reasoning

Kindergarten, third-grade, and sixth-grade children were told 2 stories about a group of children who made artwork that was subsequently sold at a craft fair. The characters in one story were described as friends, while the characters in the other story were described as strangers (relationship condition). 1 character in each story was presented as the oldest in the group, 1 as the most productive, and 1 as the poorest. Children were asked to allocate 9 dollars to the 3 characters under each relationship condition, provide rationales for those allocations, and rate the fairness of 4 different patterns of allocation. Older children allocated more money to needy friends than to needy strangers and more to productive strangers than to productive friends. Kindergartners' allocations and fairness ratings did not vary with relationship. Rationales for allocation judgements suggested that equality was the most salient principle for decisions at all ages, but the older children provided rationales based on benevolence more often than younger children when characters were presented as friends.