Review

The Attitudes of Chinese Academics to Foreign Scholarly Journals; Part 1 – Report, Part 2 – Appendices. Global Publishing Information (Publishers Association and the British Council) March 2005. Free to ALPSP and PA members; £249 to others.     

New library buildings: Bracken Library, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

A brief sketch is given of the past history and present functions of the Bracken Library. Architectural and decorative features of the new library are described.     

Student behaviour,motivation and the potential of attachment‐aware schools to redefine the landscape

This article is a position paper drawing on the findings of several studies into attachment‐aware approaches in schools and other settings. In seeking to promote pedagogical positions that place greater emphasis on the emotional landscape of students, the authors locate this in an historical perspective. They outline the ways in which educationalists have come to separate the learning being from the feeling being, to the extent of evolving separate discourses on behaviour and wellbeing. On the contrary, the authors contend that these elements are intertwined, a reality that needs to be understood at policy level for ‘outcomes’ to change radically. They frame their argument in the light of conclusions drawn from studies in which they were involved of attachment‐awareness and emotion‐coaching approaches (2011–2017). The authors’ position is further informed by research exploring attitudes of excluded youngsters towards education (2015–2016), and also in light of the wider international literature around progressive education.     

Teaching for deeper political learning: a design experiment

Is in-depth political learning possible in college-preparatory courses known for curricular breadth at an accelerated pace plus a high-stakes exam? A multidisciplinary research team conducted design-based implementation research (DBIR) for seven years across three school systems for the purpose of achieving deeper learning in an ‘advanced’ high school government and politics course. This article reports findings from the final year of research and development. The design centres on cyclical learning, projects (simulated political processes) and strategic use of texts as resources for learning the curriculum. Quantitative analysis shows comparable achievement to students in traditional classrooms on the high-stakes summative assessment despite the dramatic departure from test-prep instruction. Qualitative analyses focus on two of the design elements: learning from simulations and learning from text. The first allowed students to ‘experience’ political beliefs, institutions, and conflict, although simulated; the second required students to learn subject matter not only from simulations and teacher lectures but from texts, too. The discussion shows how these two in combination with cyclical learning required skilful attention to content selection. We conclude that when deeper learning is the goal, content selection cannot be elided or presumed, particularly with respect to the articulation of depth and breadth in curriculum and instruction.     

Reviewing the Teaching and Learning of Children with Special Educational Needs: Enabling Whole School Responsibility

Neil Morris, Learning Support Co-ordinator, and Phil Parker, Learning Support Manger, at Colmers Farm School, use 'The four Ps of policy' (Palmer, Redfern & Smith, 1994) to review their own practice in the development of the monitoring and evaluation measures of their school's SEN (Special Educational Needs) provision. They outline their commitment to inclusive education, and analyse the ways in which the strategy of 'Subject Department SEN Reviews' focuses upon teaching and learning styles.     

Responding to Hostile Questions: More insights from Speech Act Theory

As environmental communicators partcipating in public meetings and interviews, engineers and scientists must sometimes walk a thin line between representing the best interests of their organizations and responding to the public's need to know. Unfortunately, published guidance designed to aid technical communicators in such situations is not clearly based on theory or actual behavior. This study analyzes actual responses to hostile questions by drawing upon speech act theory to demonstrate that spokespersons use five strategies for composing indirect answers to questions perceived as hostile.