Beneath the patchwork quilt: unravelling assessment

The role of assessment is constantly evolving and systematically scrutinised within the realm of higher education. It is often argued that students learn faster and more effectively when they have a clear sense of how they are doing and how they can improve through the use of consistent and timely feedback. This paper presents research with a group of second-year undergraduates, using an adapted patchwork text assessment method to explore wider issues of the ethical environment within which assessment takes place.     

Surveying Adolescent Worries: Development of the ‘Things I Worry About’ Scale

Steve Decker, Anglia Polytechnic University, Death and Loss: Compassionate Approaches in the Classroom, Oliver Leaman. London: Cassell, 1995. 160pp. hb ISBN 0 304 33087 6, pb ISBN 0 304 33089 2, price not available

Alan Dodds, The Ferrers School, Rushden, Northamptonshire, Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do, Dan Olweus. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. 140pp. pb ISBN 0 631 19241 7

Richard Smith, Elliott School, London, Combating Truancy in Schools, Edith Le Riche. London: David Fulton/ The Roehampton Institute, 1995. 112pp. ISBN 1 85346 337, £11.95

Ron Best, Roehampton Institute, London, Psychology in the Classroom: Reconstructing Teachers and Learners, Phillida Salmon. London: Cassell, 1995. 98pp. hb ISBN 0 304 33254 2, £40.00, pb ISBN 0 204 33256 9, £12.99

David Lambourn, NAPCE Base, Warwick, Primary Teachers at Work, R. J. Campbell and S. R. St.J. Neill. London: Routledge, 1994. 252pp. pb ISBN 0 415 08863 1, £14.99     

Understanding the Why Behind the How in Reading Instruction

One of the most critical pedagogical areas for student success is reading development and the use of reading to learn in the content areas. Teachers’ knowledge and the materials, methods, and strategies employed are essential factors in students’ abilities to read. In their inquiry study, the authors examined the congruence between the content of preservice literacy methods courses at their college and the practices of recent alumni. Although practice varied for each teacher, alumni students emphasized some components of reading over others, often because those components were stressed in their college courses. These findings led the authors to rethink why and how reading methods are taught to preservice teachers.     

Towards an understanding of neuroscience for science educators

Advances in neuroscience have brought new insights to the development of cognitive functions. These data are of considerable interest to educators concerned with how students learn. This review documents some of the recent findings in neuroscience, which is richer in describing cognitive functions than affective aspects of learning. A brief overview is presented here of the techniques used to generate data from imaging and how these findings have the possibility to inform educators. There are implications for considering the impact of neuroscience at all levels of education – from the classroom teacher and practitioner to policy. This relatively new cross-disciplinary area of research implies a need for educators and scientists to engage with each other. What questions are emerging through such dialogues between educators and scientists are likely to shed light on, for example, reward, motivation, working memory, learning difficulties, bilingualism and child development. The sciences of learning are entering a new paradigm.     

The quest for an inclusive curriculum and assessment culture: The national council for vocational awards 1991–2001

This paper draws on psychoanalytic and socio-political perspectives of trauma and emotion to examine how critical emotional praxis may serve as a pedagogical tool for reconciliation education. A major challenge for teachers in traumatized societies struggling to enact reconciliation education is that emotions of trauma are often appropriated by social and political institutions, including schools, to justify particular collective narratives and ideologies. The prospects of critical emotional praxis are explored through two vignettes from an on-going ethnographic research in Cyprus, a country of protracted ethnic conflict. The first vignette focuses on how emotions of trauma are politically appropriated in a classroom while the second shows how one teacher manages to enact critical emotional praxis with her students to undermine the political appropriation of emotions of trauma. The paper concludes with a discussion of the pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research.     

No longer ‘Catholic,White and Gaelic’: schools in Ireland coming to terms with cultural diversity

Irish society has experienced unprecedented demographic change since the turn of the twenty-first century, and increasingly, educators are facing the prospect of having to respond to the changing nature of cultural diversity in their classrooms. Traditionally characterised as ‘Catholic, white and Gaelic’, Irish schools are said to be finding it difficult to recognise and acknowledge new expressions of race, culture and religion. This paper focuses on the challenges facing educationalists in responding to cultural diversity within the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on empirical research conducted in Irish schools, we frame the discussion around a number of practical issues, namely, school dress, curriculum content and academic attainment, and explore the findings using liberal and critical multicultural theories. Finally, the paper contains philosophical discussion of the challenge of responding to cultural diversity and the implications this raises for policy and practice in Ireland.     

“It is not the same”: relationships and dementia

People living with dementia may live in relationship with partners, family members, and significant others. Dementia has been shown to impact on such relationships but relationships also impact on the dementia condition. Thirteen people took part in the study: all were caring for a person living with dementia and two were themselves living with dementia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants focusing on changes in close relationships, including changes in intimate (sexual) relationships where appropriate. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Four main themes were identified: changes in couple relationships; changes in non-partner relationships; talking about oneself in relationship; and talking about people with dementia in relationship. In conclusion, participants’ lived experiences highlight the need for ongoing relational support and an education-based counseling program that could potentially address many of participants’ highlighted needs.     

INTERGENERATIONAL ACTIVITY ANALYSIS WITH THREE GROUPS OF OLDER ADULTS: FRAIL,COMMUNITY‐LIVING,AND ALZHEIMER'S

This study documents the effects of utilizing different types of activities (i.e., cognitive, rote, active, passive) in fostering positive intergenerational exchanges between preschool‐aged children and three groups of older adults—frail, community‐living, and elders diagnosed as in the early to mid‐stage of Alzheimer's disease. Results suggested that, overall, simple and largely unstructured activities with one or two steps and very few rules can be most successfully utilized with all three groups of elders when interacting with young children. Community‐living older persons and children were found to enjoy the widest range of activities, while intergenerational contact involving frail elders and those with Alzheimer's disease needed to be approached with care in order to maintain the dignity of the elders, the positive perceptions of the children toward the older generation, and the comfort of staff members.