Towards Inclusion? Models of Behaviour Support in Secondary Schools in One Education Authority in Scotland

This article draws on data emerging from an evaluation of behaviour support strategies in secondary schools in an education authority in Scotland. The authors all work at the University of Glasgow. Jean Kane has research and teaching interests in the area of special educational needs; she offers consultancy to local authorities in the development of inclusive policies and practices in schools. Dr George Head has research and teaching interests in the area of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and social inclusion; he is also an experienced teacher. Both Jean Kane and George Head are lecturers in the Faculty of Education. Nicola Cogan is a researcher at the Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research and has a background as a research psychologist in the health sector.
In Scotland, the growth of behaviour support provision is closely related to broader policy on social inclusion. It is argued in this article that new models of behaviour support can be developed in the light of previous and related experience in the development of inclusive support systems in schools. The authors present a typology of behaviour support, drawing upon their evaluation of provision, and discuss the characteristics of the types of support that emerge. Using data from exclusion statistics, pupil case studies and interviews with teachers, managers, pupils and parents, Jean Kane, George Head and Nicola Cogan explore the implications of their work for future developments in support for pupils who present difficult behaviours.     

Factors affecting university teaching team effectiveness in detached working environments

This paper presents the outcomes of a study of the factors that contribute to teaching team effectiveness in situations where team members rarely meet face to face. Academic faculty within a university Business School were asked to report the degrees to which they believed that the module teaching teams to which they belonged contained members who (1) were satisfied and committed, and (2) regarded their teams as cohesive and as engaging in reliable and useful internal communications. All the teams covered by the study operated in ‘detached’ manners. Team members’ perceptions of the presence within their teams of trust, shared understanding, disparate educational orientations among participants and certain leadership styles were also examined. A model of the determinants of detached team effectiveness was constructed and tested. The respondents’ opinions vis-à-vis levels of satisfaction, commitment, cohesion and the value of internal team communications were then compared with metrics concerning student satisfaction and rates of progression on specific modules. Trust, shared understanding, differences in educational orientation among team members, conflict and the frequency of (though not the length of time spent on) communications emerged as major influences on perceptions of team effectiveness. Teams that were regarded as operating effectively appeared to be associated with higher student satisfaction and progression ratings.     

Learning of a formation principle for the secondary phonemic function of a syllabic orthography

It has been observed in Japanese children learning to read that there is an early and rapid shift from exclusive reading of hiragana as syllabograms to the dual-use convention in which some hiragana also represent phonemic elements. Such rapid initial learning appears contrary to the standard theories of reading acquisition that require instruction in nonlexical procedures for learning phonemic elements of an orthography. However, the alternative Knowledge Sources theory implies that the shift would be achievable from lexical input by which the learner acquires an implicit formation principle for this secondary phonemic function of hiragana. In two training experiments (Studies 1 & 2), this hypothesis was examined in transfer tests with 5-year-old Japanese and with 14-year-old English-speaking beginner learners of Japanese. As predicted, relative to phonological controls, very limited lexical training of exemplar hiragana words transferred to phonemic use of other (previously unknown and untrained) hiragana in untrained words, but not in isolation from these words. In Study 3, at both beginning and adult reading levels, novel hiragana symbol combinations were created to represent individual phoneme elements in ways that do not exist in conventional hiragana orthography but are exemplars for induction of a potential generalized formation principle of the secondary phonemic function of the system. At all reading levels there was evidence of use of this generalized formation principle, a result not explained by the standard theories but implied by the alternative theory, which offers a potential universal feature of learning to read.     

The influence of teachers on the development of political radicals: a case study of members of the Scottish Socialist Party

While there is a wealth of literature on radical adult ‘popular’ education for change, most of it looks forward and speculates on the educational processes best able to help ‘the oppressed’, ‘excluded’ or ‘disadvantaged’ become critically‐aware ‘subjects’ of social change. Within a critical education framework, recent research looked in the opposite direction, identified adult activists already critically‐aware and worked backwards through their life histories to find the educational experiences seen as most influential in their development. Examining questionnaire responses, this article analyses how members of the Scottish Socialist Party perceived the influence exercised by their teachers, from primary to tertiary education, in the development of their beliefs and identity as activists. Comparisons are made with research in ‘active citizenship’. The research suggests there is more potential for radical education within the formal sector than is often believed and teachers contribute to this process in sometimes contradictory ways. The findings feed into debates in the UK and other countries, particularly in Latin America, about where popular educators should direct their energies, within state structures or outside, in social movements.     

Assessing college-level learning difficulties and "at riskness" for learning disabilities and ADHD: development and validation of the learning difficulties assessment

This article describes the development and validation of the Learning Difficulties Assessment (LDA), a normed and web-based survey that assesses perceived difficulties with reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, listening, concentration, memory, organizational skills, sense of control, and anxiety in college students. The LDA is designed to (a) map individual learning strengths and weaknesses, (b) provide users with a comparative sense of their academic skills, (c) integrate research in user-interface design to assist those with reading and learning challenges, and (d) identify individuals who may be at risk for learning disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and who should thus be further assessed. Data from a large-scale 5-year study describing the instrument's validity as a screening tool for learning disabilities and ADHD are presented. This article also describes unique characteristics of the LDA including its user-interface design, normative characteristics, and use as a no-cost screening tool for identifying college students at risk for learning disorders and ADHD.     

The Errors of Our Ways

Errors don't exist in our data, but they serve a vital function. Reality is complicated, but our models need to be simple in order to be manageable. We assume that attributes are invariant over some conditions of observation, and once we do that we need some way of accounting for the variability in observed scores over these conditions of observation. We relegate this inconvenient variability to errors of measurement. The seriousness of errors of measurement depends on the intended interpretations and uses of the scores and the context in which they are used. Errors are too large if they interfere with the intended interpretations and uses, and otherwise are acceptable. The errors of measurement have to be small compared to the tolerance for error, and errors that are too large have to be controlled in some way. We have several ways of doing this. We can redefine the attribute of interest, we can standardize the assessments and leave the attribute alone, and/or we can sample the relevant performance domain more thoroughly. It is particularly important to control the larger sources of error. If a source of error (systematic or random) is small compared to the dominant sources of error for a testing procedure, it can generally be ignored.     

Decreasing Heavy Drinking in First‐Year Students: Evaluation of a Web‐Based Personalized Feedback Program Administered During Orientation

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a web‐based personalized normative feedback program, electronic Check‐Up to Go (e‐CHUG), in decreasing heavy drinking among 1st‐year university students. Results indicated high‐risk students receiving the e‐CHUG program during 1st‐year orientation activities reported significantly greater reductions in heavy drinking and alcohol‐related consequences than did students in an assessment‐only control group at a 3‐month follow‐up. Recommendations for integrating e‐CHUG into orientation activities are discussed.