Behavioural disorders in Danish schools: a qualitative analysis of background factors

A national survey has shown that the incidence of serious behavioural problems in Danish schools stands at 10 per cent. The present qualitative study makes use of a broad-spectrum ecological model in the search for aetiological factors underlying behavioural disturbance. The study covers 34 typical Danish schools matched in pairs on the basis of degree of disturbance in the national survey. The results indicate behavioural problems to be related more to system factors than to purely individual factors.     

Research and Practice Partnerships for Professional Development in Early Childhood: Lessons From ExCELL-e

This article describes how a research–practice partnership has informed the iterative development of a web-mediated early childhood language and literacy professional development (PD) intervention. Funded through the Investing in Innovation (i3) program, this new PD model is based on an effective in-situ intervention. As we translated the face-to-face model into a largely web-mediated approach, we partnered with educators to ensure that the resulting intervention was feasible and effective in real-world classrooms serving children at risk. Specifically, an educator advisory board provided ongoing input about the PD. Further, pilot teachers completed the training and provided feedback through a survey about the usability and effectiveness of the training modules, coaching, and instructional strategies in classroom settings. Findings suggest that research–practice partnerships that gather teachers’ situated, comprehensive, and insightful perspectives can be invaluable in developing PD interventions. Collaboration between school districts and university researchers is essential in this iterative development process.     

Blackmore,Paul & Kandiko,Camille ed (2012) Strategic curriculum change Routledge (New York & London) isbn 978‐0‐415‐80934‐4 217 pp £24.99 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415809344/

This book examines strategic curriculum change through a study of change activities within a group of international research‐based universities. It echoes a range of concepts, processes and tools relevant to curriculum change by way of real world (even if occasionally rarefied) case studies from each of these institutions. The target readers include university leaders at all levels and academic curriculum developers. Sara Hammer     

The Probability for Unemployed Young People to Re-Enter Education or Employment: A comparative study in six Northern European countries

This article examines the return to education or employment of unemployed young people in Northern Europe. Comparative surveys of nearly 8600 unemployed young people in Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Scotland enabled us to study the probability for unemployed young people to re-enter the educational system versus employment. The results showed that, in all countries, re-entering post-compulsory education was mainly dependent on educational capital, as defined by Bourdieu. The respondents' education, their parents' education and parents' support for their children's education had a strong impact on the probability of re-entering the educational system. Social capital, as defined by Coleman, increased the probability of re-entering employment, but had no impact on the probability of re-entering education. Most important, in most countries, young unemployed women had a higher probability of re-entering education than unemployed young men. There were also differences between countries. The results cannot only be explained by access to further education. In Iceland and Scotland, further education is less developed than in the other countries. However, 18% of the sample returned to education in Iceland, compared with only 3% in Scotland.     

Crossing horizons: Continuity and change during second-career teachers’ entry into teaching

Findings are reported from two studies examining from which specific backgrounds and in which ways second-career teachers make the transition to teaching. The transfer of existing competencies to teaching is shown to involve a challenging interplay between experiences of continuity and change. Continuity was found at the level of beliefs. Change predominated at the level of the work environment. Continuity as well as change were experienced at the levels of behaviour, competencies, identity and mission. Several aspects of career changers’ workplace learning are identified which deserve special attention in designing and implementing alternative certification programmes.     

Video Modeling and Explicit Instruction: A Comparison of Strategies for Teaching Mathematics to Students with Learning Disabilities

As classrooms begin to adopt a greater number of digital technologies such as computers and tablets, it is important for educators to understand how effective such tools can be in aiding in the delivery of instruction to students who struggle in mathematics, such as those identified with a learning disability in mathematics. One digital‐based instructional strategy with a limited research base for students with a learning disability is video modeling. Through a single subject alternating treatments design, this study compared the use of video modeling to face‐to‐face explicit instruction for teaching geometry word problems to three secondary students with a learning disability in mathematics. Across 10 sessions of intervention, all three students demonstrated improved performance on all dependent variables with both interventions, while the explicit instruction condition produced slightly greater accuracy scores for two of the three students. The results and their implications for the field of mathematics are discussed.     

Accelerating the Development of Second-Order False Belief Reasoning: A Training Study With Different Feedback Methods

One-hundred-six 5-year-olds’ (M_age = 5;6; SD = 0.40) were trained with second-order false belief tasks in one of the following conditions: (a) feedback with explanation; (b) feedback without explanation; (c) no feedback; (d) active control. The results showed that there were significant improvements in children's scores from pretest to posttest in the three experimental conditions even when children's age, verbal abilities, or working memory scores were controlled for. The training effect was stable at a follow-up session 4 months after the pretest. Overall, our results suggest that 5-year-olds’ failures in second-order false belief tasks are due to lack of experience and that they can be helped over the threshold by exposure to many stories involving second-order false belief reasoning, including why questions.