The effectiveness of a mass screening procedure in an early intervention program

The effectiveness of a mass screening procedure was examined within the context of a preventively oriented school-based treatment program. Mass screening consisted primarily of teachers rating the frequency of all primary grade children's acting-out, moody-withdrawn, and learning problem behaviors. While teachers directly referred 6.9% (n = 48) of the primary grade population of three inner-city schools (n = 698), mass screening subsequently identified an additional 9.7% (n = 68) of this population. Furthermore, both referred and screened-in groups were rated by teachers on the Child Activity Rating Scale (CARS) as behaving much less adaptively relative to a normative group (n = 285; ps < .001). As expected, the referred children evidenced greatest overall dysfunctioning with most pronounced acting-out and learning problems according to ratings by teachers. In addition, further evidence of the validity of the CARS rating form was demonstrated by the agreement between staff predictions of CARS scores and actual ratings by teachers. The mass screening procedure employed is discussed as an effective procedure and suggestions are offered which could increase its utility.     

Young people on the margins: In need of more choices and more chances in twenty‐first century Scotland

The aim of this study was to find out more about the lives of young people in the category ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). We worked intensively with 26 young people in four smaller groups, spending three days with each group. During our time with them we engaged in a variety of creative and artistic activities designed to help them to construct accounts of their lives for us with the purpose of gaining an understanding of what it was like to be NEET. Three significant issues that emerged from these life stories are discussed in this paper. These are the problematic nature of the discourse of NEET sub‐groups; the challenges of school‐exclusion policies and practices; and the myth of low aspirations.     

The development of academics’ feedback literacy: experiences of learning from critical feedback via scholarly peer review

Abstract

The emerging literature related to feedback literacy has hitherto focused primarily on students’ engagement with feedback, and yet an analysis of academics’ feedback literacy is also of interest to those seeking to understand effective strategies to engage with feedback. Data from concept map-mediated interviews and reflections, with a team of six colleagues, surface academics’ responses to receiving critical feedback via scholarly peer review. Our findings reveal that feedback can be visceral and affecting, but that academics employ a number of strategies to engage with this process. This process can lead to actions that are both instrumental, enabling academics to more effectively ‘play the game’ of publication, as well as to learning that is more positively and holistically developmental. This study thus aims to open up a dialogue with colleagues internationally about the role of feedback literacy, for both academics and students. By openly sharing our own experiences we seek to normalise the difficulties academics routinely experience whilst engaging with critical feedback, to share the learning and strategies which can result from peer review feedback, and to explore how academics may occupy a comparable role to students who also receive evaluation of their work.     

Beginning teacher burnout in Queensland schools: Associations with Serious Intentions to Leave

In keeping with repeated calls to investigate high early career turnover within the teaching profession, the present study investigated the hypothesis that a significant positive association between burnout and turnover intention would be observed in teachers at the beginning of their careers. A sample of 112 Australian teachers working in their first or second academic year was surveyed in 2004. Respondents were administered the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI: Maslach, Jackson & Leiter 1996) and asked about serious intentions to leave their job and/or profession. Meaningful and significant associations between serious intentions to leave and all three MBI subscales were found. The findings suggest a realistic and straightforward explanation for the alarmingly high early career attrition rates that are now commonly reported for the teaching profession in a number of countries.     

The Great Immensity: A Theatrical Approach to Climate Change

In 2010, the Civilians—a New York based investigative theater company—received a three‐year grant from the National Science Foundation to develop The Great Immensity, a play addressing the complexity of climate change. The rigorous research that the Civilians puts into each production, the balance of scientific content and public engagement, the inclusion of scientists within the artistic development process, and the effort to engage a varied audience via a multi‐platform media approach, make the project a relevant case study for curators working with public science communication.