Ecumenical learning: Considering all stakeholders

This article introduces ecumenical learning, a comprehensive and revolutionary style of organizational learning. The article presents the factors to be considered, from the moment a deviation surfaces or an insight for a change in the status quo appears to evaluation of the ramifications of the resulting new application for all stakeholders. It also reviews prerequisites that need to be in place for ecumenical learning to work and illustrates the process through an abstract figure.     

Co/productive practitioner relations for children with SLCN: an affect inflected agentic frame

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how school-based practitioners supporting children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) use particular social capital relations. Social capital theory together with selected ‘Productive Pedagogies’ items, are applied to re-frame and understand the co/production of support for such children. Empirical data from the ‘Language for All’ study, which investigates SLCN provision in schools in England, are analysed to understand support network social capital. Novel insights on the types and purposes of inter-professional connectedness within SLCN support networks, in particular how relational agency is inflected by affect, are offered.     

Team teaching in primary schools

This article considers the developing role of music technology, and how it can enhance the teaching of music at Key Stages 1 and 2. A number of straightforward PC-based applications of ICT for class music are suggested, and the importance of the internet for music education is considered.     

Stability of three‐wave simplex estimates of reliability

In this article 2 major problems of using the three‐wave quasi simplex model to obtain reliability estimates are illustrated. The 1st problem is that the sampling variance of the reliability estimates can be very large, especially if the stability through time is low. The 2nd problem is that, for the reliability parameter to be identified, the model assumes a particular change process, namely a Markov process. We show that minor violations of this assumption can lead to a large bias in the reliability estimates. The problems are evaluated using both real and Monte Carlo data. A model with repeated measurements in 1 of the waves is also discussed.     

Playthings as learning tools

Play can occur at any time or in any place; it bears directly on the development of such fundamentals as the learning of language and mathematical ideas and the development of thinking skills and social roles. The following three activities focus on how playthings and play activities contribute to children's intellectual development. We want to state at the outset, however, that play also contributes to children's physical, social, and emotional development. We recognize that play is important to all these areas. But here we consider the contribution of play to one area of development, that is, intellectual growth, or what children can learn.     

A Comparison of Social Pretend Play in Young Children With and Without Disabilities

The strategies used in social pretend play were compared for 15 preschoolers with mild disabilities and 15 nondisabled preschoolers in three integrated preschool sites. Children were videotaped for two 15-minute free-play sessions. Sessions were transcribed and analyzed to determine the strategies used to enter, initiate, maintain, and terminate play. Results indicated that preschoolers with mild disabilities participated in pretend play, but that they tended to use more direct and disruptive strategies to enter play. In contrast, nondisabled preschoolers used more indirect strategies. Both groups of children initiated play without discussing roles in advance, and both groups maintained play through short play dialogues. Differences were found in the pretend play themes used: preschoolers with disabilities had less variety in their themes. Both groups of children generally terminated their play by leaving the area. These findings have implications for interventionists, including the need to extend our notion of what constitutes social interaction for young children with disabilities and the need to expand our interventions beyond teaching simple social skills.