Adolescents’ Perceptions of Young People with Severe Learning Difficulties: the effects of integration schemes and frequency of contact

Educational integration schemes for children with severe learning difficulties are based partially on the assumption that the presence of these children in schools will increase the extent to which they are accepted by their peers. However, psychological theories of intergroup behaviour suggest that physical presence alone is unlikely to have this effect. In the present study, the intergroup and interpersonal attitudes towards young people with learning difficulties of 128 adolescents in integrated and nonintegrated schools were examined. Results showed no clear differences between the attitudes of children in the two types of school. The frequency of participants’ contact, not the type of school attended, led to more positive expectations about meeting a young person with learning difficulties. In addition, females were found to be more positive than males on several measures. The implications of these results for the methods and content of future research that could inform the process of educational integration are discussed.     

Beyond Standard Models—Meeting the Challenge of Modelling

This paper reports on a project that incorporated mathematical modelling within a pre-university subject at a secondary college. The program emphasised modelling rather than models and extended over two years. A qualitative methodology was used to evaluate the program with information collected in a variety of forms including student written reports, oral interviews, video reports, diaries, questionnaire data, as well as informal observation. The program was evaluated in terms of five criteria derived from the stated aims. Erom the synthesis and triangulation of the data it was inferred that the program aims were achieved to an encouraging degree. The paper describes and illustrates key aspects of the program and its evaluation.     

Effects on children's achievement and curiosity of variations in learner control over an interactive video lesson

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of variations in learner control on children's level of curiosity and learning from computer-based interactive video (CBIV). The content was presented as a videodisc visit to an art museum and contained both facts and concepts. A posttest-only control group design was employed with 101 first-and second-grade subjects randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions—Program Control, Learner Control, Learner Control with Advisement—or a control group. The dependent variables were achievement and three measures of curiosity. Children in the Learner Control with Advisement group scored significantly higher on the achievement posttest than the Learner Control subjects or control group. No differences were found between the Program Control and either of the Learner Control groups. For the curiosity measures, the Learner Control with Advisement subjects scored significantly higher than the control group on Content Exploration, and the subjects in the control group scored significantly higher than those in the Program Control group on Persistence.     

Differences in reading strategies among 7 to 8 year old children

In the theoretical context of compensatory processing, the research studied the syntactic, semantic and grapho-phonic miscues made by groups of first year Junior school pupils of high, average and low reading attainments. 60 children aged between 7.5 and 8.5 years of age were asked to read aloud passages from the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability. All miscues were recorded and scored. Analyses of variance were then performed on these scores at two levels of text complexity. Reading attainment and sex were used as independent variables to test specified hypotheses related to miscue quality. The high reading attainment group typically made better quality syntactic, semantic and grapho-phonic miscues at the lower level of text complexity. Passage complexity affected the ability of some children to make effective use of syntactic and semantic cues. As text complexity increased, the miscue quality of high and above average reading attainment groups deteriorated. Higher scores on a word recognition reading test were significantly related to effective use of grapho-phonic miscues, but not to the use of syntactic and semantic cues, in reading material from more demanding texts. Limitations in the methodology used and suggestions for future work are discussed.     

Literacy-based behavioural interventions delivered by peers: a teaching strategy for students with severe disabilities

Many children with severe disabilities do not perform basic daily living skills needed for typical school and home environments. Previous research on literacy-based behavioural interventions (LBBIs) has shown promise for promoting skill acquisition and maintenance in some learners; however, only one study has examined the effectiveness of this intervention when delivered by peers. In this study, peer classmates were taught to deliver an LBBI story that highlighted hand-washing skills in three students with severe disabilities. Results showed that the accuracy of students’ new skills increased dramatically after their peers delivered the stories with pictures and printed words, and these skills maintained after the LBBI stories were removed. Further, each of the students demonstrated accurate hand-washing in novel environments using different sinks. This study builds on previous LBBI studies by incorporating peers into the story delivery, and using the intervention to teach new self-care skills.     

Science education research in Papua New Guinea 1978–1990

This paper presents a science/science education bibliography, to assist science educationalists interested in Papua New Guinea. 392 articles were reviewed. The bibliography was then categorised in a number of ways to indicate patterns of research productivity in various areas of science education, and at different levels of education. A questionnaire was devised to obtain information from former and current researchers in the field about their own contributions. This exercise produced some surprising information about science education research in Papua New Guinea. Specializations: science teacher education, chemical education, science education in developing countries, educational issues.