Parallel Text: Making Research Accessible to People with Intellectual Disabilities

The full involvement of people with intellectual disabilities in research that relates to them is a central concern at present. An important aspect of involvement is making academic writing more accessible. While this can be achieved by including a simplified synopsis or by producing separate simplified documents, such attempts can still represent a “them” and “us” ethos. One alternative is to publish academic papers with a “parallel text” for people with intellectual disabilities. This not only provides a simplified version but also facilitates access to the main document. In this paper, we describe background research for developing the idea of parallel texts and discuss the technical considerations for others wishing to present academic work in a similar manner.     

An interview study of why parents conduct intensive ABA home training for their child with autism spectrum disorder. An analysis from the lens of the dialectical disability model

The number of parents undertaking an intensive home training programme of children with disabilities (e.g. Applied Behavioural Analysis) has increased. It reveals a paradox in current disability research and policies. On the one hand, policies in general are aimed at inclusion through movement of social barriers for participation, grounded in the social model of disability. On the other hand, intensive home training is based on the aim of rehabilitation through intensive training of individual cognitive and social skills, an approach grounded in a bio-medical model. Intensive home training programmes are supported by political legislation that enables parents to partake the training and hire the necessary helpers. How is this paradox viewed from the perspective of the parents? From the departure of the dialectical model of disability – and its central concepts of developmental incongruence, developmental time and social agency – two mothers practising home training with their children with autism disorder were interviewed about their motives for home training and subsequent experience with their child. Results showed that the motive to home training was to create a local congruence that allowed the child to thrive. Intensive home training also restored the mothers’ sense of agency vis-à-vis their child’s development. However, home training might not abolish the need for adaptations of the child’s social practices outside the family. It is discussed how societal support to home training risks to hinder higher order reorganisation of developmental opportunities that are necessary to actualise policy statements of inclusion.     

Professional Learning Communities: A Review of the Literature

International evidence suggests that educational reform’s progress depends on teachers’ individual and collective capacity and its link with school-wide capacity for promoting pupils’ learning. Building capacity is therefore critical. Capacity is a complex blend of motivation, skill, positive learning, organisational conditions and culture, and infrastructure of support. Put together, it gives individuals, groups, whole school communities and school systems the power to get involved in and sustain learning over time. Developing professional learning communities appears to hold considerable promise for capacity building for sustainable improvement. As such, it has become a ‘hot topic’ in many countries.     

Quality criteria for conceptual technology integration models in education: bridging research and practice

Educational technology research and development - In order to effectively use technology in education, appropriate conceptual understandings are needed to guide the integration process. Today,...     

Researcher development through doctoral training in research integrity

ABSTRACT

The article explores research integrity training for PhD-students as a site of production of academic cultures and researcher development. Based on ethnographies of four courses in research integrity, conducted in four faculties of a large comprehensive Danish university, the article explores the vital role of academic developers, teachers, and course participants in the active translation of institutional, national, and international policies into research practices. We argue that doctoral training in research integrity does not entail the direct implementation of policy and codes from above; rather, it is a site for the development and negotiation of the meaning of research integrity in disciplinary cultures and standards, and, critically, for the responsibilisation of individual researchers in policy enactment. We show how doctoral training has become a key site for the emergence of research integrity as a field. It is also a privileged site for researching contested and multidirectional processes of policy formation and implementation.     

The Effects of Morning Naps, Car Trips, and Maternal Separation on Adrenocortical Activity in Human Infants

3 studies of adrenocortical activity in healthy 9-month-old infants were conducted to examine unanticipated results obtained in previous research. In the first study, morning naps were examined and found to be associated with significant decreases in salivary cortisol. These decreases were followed by a significant return to prenap cortisol concentrations. In the second study, riding for 40 min in the car was also shown to significantly lower salivary cortisol concentrations. This effect was obtained both for infants who did and who did not sleep during the car trip. In the third study, the effect of 30 min of maternal separation in the laboratory on salivary cortisol was compared to the effect of 30 min of play with mother present. Separation resulted in significantly higher salivary cortisol concentrations as compared to play with mother present. In general, correlations between cortisol and behavior were found to be nonsignificant under conditions that did not produce stress elevations in cortisol, while less positive, more distressed behaviour was significantly correlated with cortisol under separation or stress conditions.     

Is differential exposure to college linked to the development of critical thinking?

This study investigated the influence on critical thinking of differential exposure to postsecondary education. The sample was 2,076 first-year students attending 13 four-year and 4 two-year institutions from around the country. First-year students attending college full-time developed a higher level of critical thinking skills than those attending part-time. In the presence of controls for precollege critical thinking and academic motivation, the average critical thinking of first-year students at the institution attended, gender, race, age, and kinds of courses taken, the number of semester hours for which the student was enrolled had modest but significant positive effects on end-of-first-year critical thinking for both the two- and four-year college samples. In the two-year, but not the four-year, sample the relationship between semester hours and critical thinking deviated significantly from linearity. Students attending a two-year college full-time still derived the largest critical thinking benefits. However, the lowest levels of critical thinking accrued to those enrolled between 7 and 20 semester hours. Students enrolled for 6 or less hours actually had somewhat higher end-of-first-year critical thinking.     

The humanities in the primary school – where are we and in which direction should we be heading? A perspective from Scotland

ABSTRACT

In Scotland, although there is no agreed definition of what constitutes the humanities, they have their locus principally within two of eight curricular areas in Curriculum for Excellence (CfE): Social Studies (SS) and Religious and Moral Education (RME). Both SS and RME are contexts for learning where broad principles apply in relation to curricular coverage. These principles are formalised in Experiences and Outcomes for each of these curricular areas which provide broad guidance around topic areas for study while allowing for the use of local contexts for learning and flexibility in pedagogy. Key opportunities in SS include: exciting and engaging learners, enabling personalisation and choice and equipping learners with a range of skills. In RME, opportunities include helping learners to: understand themselves and others; draw upon religious and other beliefs in forming their own views and engaging in positive social change. Key challenges for SS include: ensuring breadth and depth of coverage; reaching agreed standards across the educational community; responding to the requirement for an increased focus on literacy and numeracy. In RME challenges include: ensuring that national expectations are met; ensuring breadth and depth in learning; the nature and role of assessment; practitioner and parental conceptualisations of the curricular area.