Tracking the environment in Australian children’s literature: the Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Awards 1955-2014

Popular and accessible before television and the internet, picture books capture the context of the time they were created and influence the generations of children who consume them. Depictions of the natural world have changed across several generations of picture books as seen in illustrations of all 249 books of an influential collection, the Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Awards shortlists from 1955 to 2014. This study found that natural environments became proportionally less present in picture books over time while depictions of built environments increased. The presence of wild animals and native Australian animals also decreased over time. Sustainability themes and more realistic depictions of wild animals and biodiversity increased over time which reflects a growing ecological or environmental awareness, and diversification of environmental themes in recent picture books of this prominent Collection.     

Impact of School-Based Interventions for Building School Belonging in Adolescence: a Systematic Review

Educational Psychology Review - A student’s sense of school belonging is critical to school success, yet internationally, a large proportion of secondary students do not feel that they belong...     

#1: labor begins on its own

In this position paper-one of six care practice papers published by Lamaze International and reprinted here with permission-the benefit of allowing labor to begin on its own is discussed and presented as an evidence-based practice that helps promote, protect, and support normal birth. The paper is written for childbearing women and their families. The accompanying commentary-written by a leading home-birth midwife and prominent national and international speaker on maternity care-describes further evidence of the disadvantages of inducing labor. The indications for and risks of induction are also explored. Lamaze International recommends that, unless there is a medical indication for induction, labor should be allowed to begin on its own.     

Children missing from school systems: exploring divergent patterns of disengagement in the narrative accounts of parents,carers, children and young people

The aim of this study was to identify and re‐present the experiences and views of a sample of children who have been ‘missing’ from education, and those of their parents/carers. Access to this hard to reach population has been possible as a result of an innovative interventionist tracking system, responding to pupil mobility, developed by the Education Authority in the fieldwork area. Semistructured interviews were conducted with parents/carers, children and young people with the aim of obtaining a demographic profile of families and eliciting a chronology of factors that participants saw as contributing to a child going missing from school systems. Three distinct life‐course groups emerged from participants' accounts illustrating different degrees of disengagement from external systems. The authors conclude with a discussion of the different challenges each life‐course group presents, for education policy and practice.     

Practicalising theoretical knowledge in student teachers' professional learning in initial teacher education

This paper reports the findings collected from a four year longitudinal study aiming to investigate the professional learning of student-teachers in Bachelor of Education programmes. Four case studies which suggest a typology of ways of practicalising theoretical knowledge with one extreme as the testing out of teaching approaches mainly to find out their practicality in the school context to the other extreme whereby the student-teacher sought to work out a schema or personal theory were identified. Influences from the campus-based and the field-based components of the teacher education programme are drawn. The paper ends with implications for initial teacher education.     

Teachers' Experience and Management of Young Children Treated Because of Home Conduct Problems: A qualitative study

In the present study, a sample of 27 teachers were interviewed regarding their experience and management of young children with conduct problems in day‐care or school settings. The children had been referred and treated because of oppositional and conduct problems at home. Qualitative analysis of data was performed by using elements of a grounded theory approach. Although the children had complex conduct problems presenting considerable challenges for their teachers, most teachers described a close and engaged relationship with these children. Teachers used within‐discipline and within‐classroom approaches in their work with a main focus on managing the child's daily life in day‐care or school, supported by close colleagues. Their practices were not deeply rooted in evidence‐based knowledge and methods. Most teachers reported collaboration with parents as positive and necessary, however, they only pursued it to a limited extent. Representatives from supplementary services, such as school psychologist, child protection care and child psychiatry, were rarely involved in the work of teachers. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Interpretations of formative assessment in the teaching of English at two Chinese universities: a sociocultural perspective

Formative assessment is increasingly being implemented through policy initiatives in Chinese educational contexts. As an approach to assessment, formative assessment derives many of its key principles from Western contexts, notably through the work of scholars in the UK, the USA and Australia. The question for this paper is the ways that formative assessment has been interpreted in the teaching of College English in Chinese Higher Education. The paper reports on a research study that utilised a sociocultural perspective on learning and assessment to analyse how two Chinese universities – an urban-based Key University and a regional-based Non-Key University – interpreted and enacted a China Ministry of Education policy on formative assessment in College English teaching. Of particular interest for the research were the ways in which the sociocultural conditions of the Chinese context mediated understanding of Western principles and led to their adaptation. The findings from the two universities identified some consistency in localised interpretations of formative assessment which included emphases on process and student participation. The differences related to the specific sociocultural conditions contextualising each university including geographical location, socioeconomic status, and teacher and student roles, expectations and beliefs about English. The findings illustrate the sociocultural tensions in interpreting, adapting and enacting formative assessment in Chinese College English classes and the consequent challenges to and questions about retaining the spirit of formative assessment as it was originally conceptualised.