The gifted migrant child: An introduction

This article discusses the need for educators of the gifted to work with educators of the migrant child in order to identify those students who are both migrant and gifted. The Federal definition of migrant, migrant streams, and typical factors that handicap the migrant student are explained. The Migrant Student Record Transfer System is described as a vehicle for nominating and identifying potentially gifted students.     

Can gains from early literacy interventions be sustained? The case of Reading Recovery

Early literacy interventions have demonstrated that pedagogically sound programmes can boost reading achievement for students who do not succeed in early literacy learning. However, there is less evidence as to what extent gains are maintained in subsequent years or the factors which may contribute to sustained progress. The research reported in this article employed a cross‐sectional design to investigate the achievement of students who had previously participated in Reading Recovery. Two to four years after successfully completing the intervention, students were assessed in reading and writing by using standardised assessment tools. Although 60% of students had retained parity in reading in comparison with their age cohort, 40% were markedly below the mean of the cohort and the national norm. Data from case study schools provide some initial suggestions for school implementation factors which affect continued success. Conclusions regarding the need to plan for sustainability of gains following early intervention are made.     

Visualizing Critique: Montage as a practice of alternative media

Postwar religious broadcasting in Britain sought to accommodate diverging aims, with public radio as the established arena for Christian evangelism and yet also an emerging forum for dissenting viewpoints in an increasingly faith-averse age. A transitional figure within literary modernism, E. M. Forster embraced broadcast radio in the effort to disseminate ‘culture,’ even as he sought to make the ethical turn away from culture as religious. Since the 1930s, Forster had consistently supported the airing of such ‘minority’ viewpoints; after the war, his arguments for ethical alternatives to Christian broadcasting were bolstered by the rise of postwar ecumenism and the Beveridge reforms. Forster's defense of humanist broadcasts given by Margaret Knight in January 1955 effectively highlights the formated nature of on-air debates at the expense of unpopular viewpoints, even as BBC policy-makers were actively considering abandoning existing practices in favor of stand-alone ethical rebuttals to accepted Christian viewpoints.     

Assessing knowledge skills in the NHS: a training needs analysis approach

This feature discusses the use of a training needs analysis exercise carried out by library staff at the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC) Library Network to support the development of a fit for purpose programme of information skills training. A survey was designed based on a well‐known information skills competency framework and used to gain an understanding of the knowledge skills needed by staff and how library training could best support these. The survey received a good response rate and led to the successful writing of a training plan for the Library Network for the delivery of information skills training. H.S.     

Recovering potential: factors associated with success in engaging challenging students with alternative pre-16 provision

This short report describes the extent to which sociometric test results are validated by observations of children's social behaviour during playtimes. The sociometric terms ‘star’ and ‘isolate’, in particular, are examined in the light of measurements of the social interactions of children thus labelled.     

Including migrant worker children in the learning and social context of the rural primary school

Many of the larger towns and cities within the UK have long experienced a cosmopolitan mix of cultures, resulting in ethnically and linguistically diverse schools. However, the wider expansion of the European Union in 2004 has brought about significant changes and challenges for many schools, particularly for those in more rural areas. This article arises out of a 3-year qualitative study (January 2008–December 2010), which focused on identifying the experiences of stake-holders (children and parents of Eastern European heritage and their teachers), where migrant children enter primary schools which have previously had limited exposure to cultural and linguistic diversity. Although many migrant children settle successfully and progress within the UK education system, much can be done in terms of educational policy and practice to ensure that these learners are appropriately supported. This article examines some of the factors impacting upon migrant children's learning and well-being, and offers guidance to practitioners as how to develop inclusive and individualised learning and social contexts for these learners.     

CLERGY REQUEST LINKAGES: IMPLICATIONS FOR PLANNING MINISTRY WITH OLDER ADULTS

In this study, 159 volunteers aged 50 years and older were grouped into age decades (i.e., those in their 50s, 60s, etc.) and tested on measures of spelling, fluid intelligence, and crystallized intelligence. The younger subjects had significantly higher spelling test scores. Statistically removing the effects of crystallized intelligence and length of education by analyses of covariance had no effect on the difference, but removing the effect of fluid intelligence reduced the difference to nonsignificant levels. This implies that in older people spelling, although intuitively considered to be a crystallized skill, relies heavily on fluid intelligence.