Recognising the needs of gender-variant children and their parents

Gender variance confronts widely held assumptions that children born as males will act like ‘boys’ and children born as females will act like ‘girls’. This imposed binary has the effect of perpetuating negativity towards people who express themselves with gendered variations in attire, behaviour or preferences. Despite the existence of gender-variant individuals in every culture and throughout time, many people are unaware that diversity in gender expression and sexual formation is a naturally occurring phenomenon. This qualitative study aimed to establish the needs of gender-variant children and their parents in order to inform education programmes, policies and clinical approaches to gender variance. Three Internet surveys were conducted to explore the experiences of parents raising gender-variant children, the childhood experiences of transgender adults and the views of professionals who work with the transgender community. The needs of gender-variant children emerged in terms of the need for information, peer contact, personal gender expression, safety, and to be heard and accepted by their parents. The most common needs for parents were for information (stories from other parents, research and guidelines; peer support) and educational resources for schools, professionals and local communities. The paper provides comparisons between the three participant groups and recommendations for future research.     

Stop,Think, Do! Treating and Preventing Social-Behavioural Problems in School

Most teachers will come into contact with pupils who are experiencing or have experienced a loss or bereavement and they often feel ill equipped to offer the kind of support they would like to. This paper offers insights into the nature of this area and a specific approach through which children may be supported. The writer discusses some research and thinking on loss and bereavement and the implications of this. She presents two case studies of work with individual students using the creative arts. She also discusses the connections between behavioural problems, loss and the use of the arts in supporting the students.     

Developing a generic review framework to assure capstone quality

Within the higher education context, capstone units can be viewed as a significant means of assuring intended learning outcomes for programmes. They provide students with the opportunity to consolidate and apply prior and new disciplinary learning, as well as employability skills and graduate attributes. This paper describes the first stage of an initiative in a regional, Australian university to develop a capstone quality review framework that can be applied across disciplines. A deductive, thematic analysis of relevant literature, guides and institutional strategic documents using a constant comparison method was used to develop a collectively agreed upon set of capstone quality domains and related criteria. These would enable reviewers to assess whether capstone curricula were fit-for-purpose. Capstone domains and criteria were validated and revised using a multi-stage, moderated review of 10 capstone units. This validation process affirmed that to avoid issues with reviewer inter-rater reliability, future use of our framework should emphasise calibrating reviewer interpretation to ensure greater levels of shared understanding of underlying concepts. It further suggested the desirability of incorporating aspects of teacher self-assessment, teacher feedback and student results. Provided these findings are accounted for, we conclude that the proposed capstone review domains and criteria could be used for quality review and enhancement, or capstone benchmarking processes, regardless of discipline area.     

Effects of an Online Mathematics Curriculum for English Language Learners

This study measured the effects of an online supplementary mathematics curriculum designed for middle school English language learners who speak Spanish as a first language. A randomized experiment measured the achievement differences between middle school English language learners who used the Web-based HELP Math (Help with English Language Proficiency) curriculum and students who used other technology-based programs. Three hundred and ninety-six students participated. Both groups made statistically significant gains from pretest to posttest within their respective curricula, but no main effect was found between the two groups. Post hoc analyses revealed that students with higher levels of English proficiency, who participated in the comparison condition, performed significantly better than students in the HELP Math condition, while students with lower levels of English proficiency performed better in the HELP Math program (although these differences were not statistically significant). Findings are interpreted with caution due to the truncated length of the intervention.     

First Year in Higher Education (FYHE) and the Coursework Post-Graduate Student

Research surrounding the First Year in Higher Education has identified and defined the need to support the transition of students during their first year in a tertiary institution. This support not only assists in acculturating students to the Higher Education environment, but also aims to ensure that students develop the foundational skills required for academic success; which enables higher progression and retention rates. However, most of the efforts to date have focused on undergraduate students. The authors assert that postgraduate coursework students require similar support structures. Data collected over a three year study compares the self-reported information literacy skills of postgraduate students within a Faculty of Business to undergraduate students in the same faculty. The data is situated within a broader review of the literature and some recommendations for academic librarians and academic skills advisers are offered.     

Promoting performance and motivation through a combination of intrinsic motivation stimulation and an extrinsic incentive

Learning Environments Research - During the early stages of secondary education students’ motivation and performance levels decline. This study employed a case study approach to evaluate a...     

Mediating the “Two-Worlds” Pitfall Through Critical,Project-Based Clinical Experiences

This article looks across two teacher education programs to review the tensions and benefits of critical, project-based (CPB) clinical experiences. The first study examines a project embedded within a methods course focused on secondary English language arts (ELA) preservice teachers (PSTs) engaging with youth around a shared writing activity. In the second study, PSTs partnered with local high school students to consider the relevance of writing in and out of schools. We consider how CPB clinical experiences served as mediating spaces that address the disconnect between universities, schools, and communities (Zeichner, 2010). Data analysis suggested there are numerous tensions and benefits associated with CPB clinical experiences for PSTs, teacher educators, and school-based teachers and students. We draw on the findings from this study to make recommendations for future iterations of such work.     

When a “sloppy copy” is good enough: Results of a state writing assessment

Students in grades 5 and 8 completed a state writing assessment, and their first and final drafts on the extended writing portion of the test were copied and scored using the state writing rubric. The rubric consisted of three primary traits: Content and Organization, Style and Fluency, and Language Use. Scorers were blind to the study purpose and scored either a student's first or final draft. No significant difference was found between the first and final drafts written by students in special education at both grade levels. Likewise, no significant difference was found for the writing of general education students in grade 8. A significant difference was found, however, between first and final drafts written by fifth-grade students in general education. Cross tabulations conducted at grades 5 and 8 revealed that over 50% of the first drafts received the same score or a better score than what was earned on the final draft.     

Teachers' work in reading literacy across the curriculum in the senior phase of learning

Teaching students to read is one of the main aims of education systems around the world. For a significant number of adolescents, however, formal schooling has failed to deliver adequate reading proficiency. This article reports on a study of teachers' responses to a reading intervention programme for adolescents implemented in a senior secondary college in Australia in 2006. It engages with the question: in what ways does the reading intervention affect senior secondary teachers' knowledge of reading literacy and their motivation to provide reading literacy support to students in content area subjects? Data were collected from 20 semi-structured interviews with 15 teachers over a six-month period. The findings suggest that, despite the success of the intervention for the students, in this particular senior school context the teachers were largely resistant to expectations that they engage with the process of teaching reading in all senior phases of learning curriculum areas.