Exploring historical ‘frameworks’ as a curriculum goal: a case study examining students’ notions of historical significance when using millennia-wide time scales

History teachers, teacher–researchers, government agencies and history education academics in England often report that students are frequently incapable of producing complex, polythetic or developmental narratives over long time scales. This lack of an overview tends to result in deficiencies in their application of the key concepts of the discipline. Consequently Shemilt has recommended the use of synoptic, millennia-wide ‘frameworks’ of knowledge in order to counteract these issues. With some notable exceptions, however, practising history teachers have appeared sceptical of the benefits of such an approach. I conducted an exploratory case study investigating in what ways a pre-taught framework, in which I had responded to some practitioners’ criticisms, appeared to be manifested in my students’ subsequent thinking regarding historical significance. My goal was to contribute to professional curricular theorising about what constitutes a framework and how it might be expressed as a curricular goal. Themes were derived from pupils’ writing, lesson evaluations, group interviews and observations. Possible curricular goals that were characterised in the students’ work included the pupils producing millennia-wide narratives based on colligatory generalisations and assessments of historical significance incorporating scale-shifting over long time scales.     

Context and individualism: Critical issues for contextualist counsellors

Constructivist and interactionist models have been heralded as part of a new contextualist trend for counselling. They were developed in reaction to traditional organismic agestage theories of development which neglected important environmental influences. This paper will show that these new approaches are limited in the same way that the earlier developmental theories are: that they absolve and discourage looking at destructive social circumstances and arrangements that lead to problems that get defined in individualistic terms. Thoughtful attention to the concepts of context and individualism is essential to establishing the criteria that a more adequate contextual theory must satisfy.     

Peer Mediated Intervention in Reading Instruction Using Pause,Prompt and Praise

A multiple baseline research design across subjects (pairs) was used to examine the effectiveness of peer tutoring in reading using the Pause, Prompt and Praise tutoring procedure. Twelve 11 year‐old, Year 6 students of varying reading ability were trained in the systematic use of delayed attention, prompting and praise to tutor 12 Year 6 students of a similar age and similar reading ability. Individual trends in tutor behaviours were examined using a statistical programme specifically designed for analysing data from interrupted time series research designs. A one‐tailed t‐test was also computed to test for significant differences in pre‐ and post‐test means in reading achievement. Continuous data collection throughout the programme indicated that all peers were effective in increasing their use of the tutoring behaviours; not all tutors experienced statistically significant increases, however. Both peer tutors and tutees made statistically significant gains in reading accuracy and comprehension over the course of the intervention.     

Students with special educational needs: transitions from primary to secondary school

This article looks at the experiences of young people with Statements of special educational needs prior to and following moves from primary to secondary school. Pam Maras and Emma-Louise Aveling of the University of Greenwich, London, used interviews to develop six qualitative case studies focusing on the transition process. Findings from these case studies reveal that the young people varied in their expectations and needs during the transition to secondary school, and that schools differed in the quality and efficacy of the support systems they provide. Parents' and carers' responses suggest that additional support services were not necessarily the most beneficial way to provide for all of the young people. What did appear to be beneficial was continuity of support throughout the transition to a new school, and the provision of a dedicated space within the school, such as a special needs unit. Several of the young people adapted easily alongside their peers without special educational needs, while others required more structured support. Pam Maras and Emma-Louise Aveling suggest that effective communication between support services, the young person, and their parents can facilitate successful transitions by allowing support to be tailored to individual students' needs.     

校长怎样增强领导能力

校长怎样增强领导能力,以更好地履行他们多方面的职责?需关注八个方面的主题,即心中有学生、做有学问的领导者、办事合乎道德、把对教学的领导放在首位、实施有效的管理、构建互信关系、知道期待什么、构建和谐的学校-社区伙伴关系。     

Developmental Attainment of Infants and Young Children with Down Syndrome

INFANTS and young children with Down syndrome who were living at home and attending exemplary early intervention programs were assessed by trained examiners in the five domains of the Battelle Developmental Inventory. Data was compared to the 50th percentile attainment and found that infants and young children with Down syndrome are more similar to other children in Personal Social and Adaptive Domains and less similar in Communication and Cognitive Domains. These differences begin to show more dramatically as the child reaches the age of 36 months. The older the child the greater the measured differences. Documenting and understanding this uneven developmental path is significant in program planning.     

Teachers' Work and Schooling in Bali

This study addresses educational reform in Indonesia with reference to one of the most important potential agents of change in any national system of schooling - its teachers. The empirical data on secondary teachers and trainee teachers used here are taken from a larger case study of the attitudes and opinions of stakeholders in the education system of North Bali. Secondary teachers in Bali, as elsewhere in Indonesia, are seriously underpaid, but not necessarily undervalued in the community. They take on other jobs to support themselves and their families, yet they do not lack commitment to the professional task of teaching. It is argued that financial pressure on teachers to find other sources of remuneration militates against their capacity to act as agents of change in the rapidly reforming Indonesian state. Furthermore, teaching is not often seen as a financially rewarding profession by a new generation of secondary-school graduates. The author recommends that teachers' salaries be raised and infrastructure support for schools increased.     

Balancing Economic and other Discourses in the Internationalization of Higher Education in South Africa

Since the end of the apartheid era in South Africa, “internationalization” of higher education has been a popular theme as the country takes its place as a regional leader in education and research in sub-Saharan Africa. However, competing discourses of internationalization have produced economic and moral dilemmas rather than the realization of philanthropic academic aims. The process of internationalizing higher education in South Africa has been greatly compromised by under-funding and over-crowding of post-secondary education institutions in the country.     

Can We Boost Preschoolers’ Inhibitory Performance Just by Changing the Way They Respond?

Changing the way children make their response appears to sometimes, but not always, boost their inhibitory control—though interpreting existing findings is hampered by inconsistent methods and results. This study investigated the effects of delaying, and changing, the means of responding. Ninety-six preschoolers (M_age 46 months) completed tasks assessing inhibitory control, counterfactual reasoning, strategic reasoning, and false belief understanding. Children responded either immediately or after a delay, and either by pointing with their finger, or with a hand-held arrow. Delaying boosted performance on all tasks except false belief understanding; arrow-pointing only improved strategic reasoning. It is suggested that delay helps children work out the correct response; it is unlikely to help on tasks where this requirement is absent.