A management program for elective mutism

Behavior modification procedures are described for establishing compliant behavior in elective mutes. The results are discussed for three children to whom the procedure was applied. The length of the training period was two weeks for the first child, twelve days for the second, and six weeks for the third. Two of the three subjects generalized responsive and spontaneous language from the experimental to everyday settings.     

Reflections on “teaching discrete skills to students with moderate mental retardation in small‐group instructional arrangements”

Several response‐prompting strategies exist for teaching students with disabilities (Wolery, Ault, & Doyle, 1992). With these strategies, prompts are provided to ensure that students perform the target behaviors in the presence of the target stimuli. However, to transfer stimulus control from the prompts to the target stimuli (i.e., to establish independent and appropriate responding), the prompts must be faded. Often, the various strategies differ on the manner in which prompts are faded.     

K–12 and University Educators Working Together Toward Change: Initiating a Conversation About Practice

This case study of a joint school/university professional development opportunity explored how 12 practitioners came together to examine change in light of discrepancies between current practice in local schools and promising practices recommended in the literature for students identified as having significant disabilities. The group met monthly over the course of one school year to study action research and to examine aspects of individual practice and their emerging identity as a community of learners. Participants explored perceptions about promising practice relative to actual practice engaged in by K–12 teachers, the impact of ongoing structured conversation on individual practice, and the impact of group membership for both individual participants and school/university partnerships. After one academic year, participants reported that the impact of this structured conversation was highly meaningful with respect to positive change in individual practice, the creation of a new support network for participants, and the development of new understandings between university and K–12 practitioners. Findings are discussed in light of implications for researchers, teacher educators, and K–12 practitioners in their various roles as agents of social change.     

Making Political Anger Possible: A Task for Civic Education

The article asks whether political anger has a legitimate place in a democracy, as this is a political system designed to resolve conflicts by peaceful negotiation. It distinguishes personal from social anger and political anger, to focus explicitly on the latter. It argues that both the feeling and expression of political anger are subject to normative constraints, often specific to social status and gender. The article examines arguments, including those of Seneca, in favour of an anger‐free society. It concludes, however, that a democracy cannot dispense with political anger, which has a vital role to play in protecting things of value. This role demands a civic education such that when democratic values are under threat citizens will not feel apathetic or simply fearful, but angry and possessed of a repertoire of ways of expressing democratic anger.     

Understanding the experiences of bilingual,Latino/a adolescents: Voices from gifted and general education

Eight gifted and eight general‐education students engaged in discussions regarding their observations of, experiences in, and recommendations for education. Six categories emerged through qualitative analysis of their conversations. These categories include: problem solving, task commitment, self‐perceptions, education, communication, and discrimination. Content within each category provides a glimpse into the students’ perceptions of their schooling experiences. The roles of ethnic identity development, identification with majority culture, adolescence, and gifted‐ness are examined and recommendations for future research are provided.     

PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION OF ADULTS AS OBSERVED IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

The 37 Caldecott Medal award‐winning children's books and 129 runner‐up books were subjected to a content analysis in order to evaluate the portrayal of adults in children's literature, both fictional and nonfictional. Of the total 166 books analyzed, 43 were excluded from the data because they contained no adult portrayals. For the 123 books subjected to final content analysis, and the 751 characters contained in these books, the data revealed statistically significant differences on four variables: (1) more male than female adults were represented; (2) more healthy than physically handicapped adults were portrayed; (3) more positive than negative or neutral illustrations of adults occurred; (4) adults were represented more in fictional than in nonfictional children's books. Results were interpreted as demonstrating that children's literature portrays neither adult figures nor adult life in a realistic manner.