Dynamic Consultation: Towards process and challenge

This paper outlines the attempts of a group of educational psychologists to apply the theoretical principles underpinning dynamic assessment to the process of solution-focused consultation with teachers at the school-based stages of the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice. Process questions based on dynamic assessment are used within a semi-structured consultative framework in order to challenge thinking, to explore meanings, to mediate learning and to plan interventions. It is suggested that the principles of dynamic assessment lend themselves well to the consultation process, providing a model for effective and reflective practice for educational psychologists and teachers, and non-intrusive intervention with pupils.     

Learning through collaborative writing

This article looks again at the dynamics of reading, writing and telling stories. It argues that working collaboratively can motivate writers in ways which encourage them to redraft their work purposefully and explicitly in pursuit of particular creative effects. It exemplifies ways in which knowledge about language at word, sentence and whole text level can effectively be brought to bear as part of a holistic approach to writing.     

‘I think autism is like running on Windows while everyone else is a Mac’: using a participatory action research approach with students on the autistic spectrum to rearticulate autism and the lived experience of university

This co-authored article outlines the research process and key findings from the Stratus Writers Project, a participatory action research project with a group of seven students on the autistic spectrum at a university in the North of England. The project explores their experiences of university through critical autobiographies and offers unique insider perspectives into some of the key issues, challenges and successes. Building on a participatory action research approach, the data were collected by the participants themselves; however, this study departs from traditional research in that the participants also analysed the data, thus offering rich and potentially overlooked theoretical knowledge. The article concludes by demonstrating the strength of participatory action research approaches by identifying the impact that our project and its findings have had so far.     

新的开始

She hung her head as she trudged through the hall, attempting to block out the ceaseless chants that followed her every step. They made faces, jeered her,and poked fun at her. Her hair and her clothes, her intelligence and her artistic nature-they were all abnormal.     

Autonomy and competence as motivational factors in students with learning disabilities and emotional handicaps.

Over 450 students (136 elementary, 321 junior and senior high school) with primary handicapping codes of learning disability (LD) or emotional handicap (EH) completed several questionnaires. All participants were from self-contained classrooms of a state-operated special education system. Questionnaires assessed students' self-perceptions and perceptions of home and classroom contexts, with all variables theoretically reflecting either the competence or the autonomy aspects of internal motivation or students' personal adjustment. Math and reading standardized achievement test scores were obtained from school records. Using multiple regression analyses, students' achievement and adjustment were predicted from the motivationally relevant self-perception and perception-of-context variables. Interestingly, different patterns of relations emerged for the students with LD and EH.     

Powerful levers: Margaret Gatty,Juliana Horatia Ewing and Mary Louisa Molesworth

She has published stories and poems in small magazines, and a chapter of a novel in progress in the Critical Quarterly, Manchester University.     

‘Crafting the future’: pioneer lessons and concerns for today

A recent qualitative research study gathered the career reflections of the generation of distance education practitioners who developed more flexible higher education (via distance modes) in the second half of the twentieth century. Part of that study’s results focus on the lessons the practitioners learned about what constitutes effective distance education and the concerns they expressed about the future. These are reported here. The key lessons are grouped around patience, tolerance and listening, respectfulness, responsiveness, the qualities needed for innovation and institutional management, and use of technologies. Appropriate use, technical reliability, and critical mindsets emerged as key lessons for technology applications. Ten questions then help readers engage their own reflective thinking and investigate knowledge transfer possibilities.     

South African teachers’ ability to argue: The emergence of inclusive argumentation

This paper explores the argumentation ability of ten science teachers in two South African schools on opposite ends of the resource spectrum. Toulmin's model is used to analyse individual contributions in six group discussions. The findings show that levels of argumentation improve with teachers’ involvement in the development of teaching resources and the closeness of the argumentation task. The nature of the arguments is permeated by inclusiveness, thus precluding the use of rebuttals, traditionally a requirement for high-quality arguments. Based on the ubuntu worldview, a model of inclusive argumentation is proposed with implication for teaching and a scheme of assessable levels of argumentation.