Introducing Forum Theatre to elicit and advocate children’s views

Eliciting and advocating the voice of the child remains at the heart of international political agenda and also remains a central role for educational psychologists (EPs). Previous research indicates that EPs tend to use language-based methods for eliciting and advocating views of children. However, these approaches are often limited. Taking a case study approach this paper aims to explain how the use of Forum Theatre offers EPs a legitimate way of eliciting and advocating the views of children. The study worked with seven Year Six children to create a Forum Theatre Performance which was performed in front of the whole school (spect-actors). Focus groups were held with teachers (n = 3) and children (n = 6) from within the school. This study uses a semantic deductive thematic analysis to explain underlying emancipatory processes within the context of a small rural primary school. The results of this study support previous literature demonstrating that Forum Theatre has a wealth of emancipatory processes which might optimise the approach being used to elicit and advocate for the voice of the child. Practical applications and limitations are discussed with some suggestions for further research.     

Student engagement: students' and teachers' perceptions

This article addresses the question: To what extent do tertiary teachers and students have similar understandings of what engages students in classroom settings? It employs data from a funded research project in Aotearoa New Zealand that draws on selected questions from two surveys. One survey asked students how important nine selected teacher behaviours were in engaging them in learning, the other asked teachers what priority they put on these behaviours and how important they thought they were to students. The selected questions were drawn from an extensive research literature identifying teacher behaviours that engaged students. The article reports that teachers and students had some similar but more dissimilar perceptions about what engages students. Suggested reasons for the differences are discussed.     

Problem definition and thesis writing

The purpose of this paper is to present some innovative solutions to major problems experienced by coursework postgraduate students. The paper focusses on two key problem areas: the definition of the research problem, and the planning and writing of the first draft of the thesis. It is argued that one approach which can assist the student to overcome these problems is the workshop; research skills can be developed through the practical guidance, group-support, discussion and reflection which occur in the workshop context. The authors' experiences in conducting postgraduate workshops at Griffith University are discussed, and student evaluation of the workshops presented.     

The Reliability,Validity and Evaluation of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination in Podiatry (Chiropody)

The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), initially developed for use in undergraduate medical training, has been adapted for use for the assessment of clinical skills in podiatry (chiropody) students. The introduction of this system of examination was accompanied by a 12‐month evaluation programme where issues of validity, repeatability, and stability of student performance over time were considered. The evaluation programme revealed relatively low levels of repeatability, high levels of construct and criterion validity, and good stability, of performance over time. Participating students were also surveyed for their level of acceptance of this format of clinical examination. Students demonstrated an overwhelming acceptance and support of the OSCE.