Uncharted territory and extraordinary times: the SENCo's experiences of leading special education during a pandemic in England

This research focuses on the impact of the context of Covid-19 on the role of the SENCo in English schools. The SENCo's role is a contested field; however, the current Special Educational Needs Code of Practice identifies 11 key areas of SENCos' work. A widely distributed survey was used to access the voice of SENCos across the country, and received 26 responses. Data were analysed using a realistic evaluation framework to identify the impact of Covid-19 on the work of the SENCo. The research indicated that practice in this context had changed in some key areas, and also identified three new aspects of the SENCo role. These point to the need to revise policy and guidance relating to the SENCo being part of the senior leadership team, providing emotional support for adults, and engaging in practical pedagogical activities.     

The More You Know … The More You Enjoy? Applying ‘Consumption Capital Theory’ To Motion Picture Franchises

In this article, we build on Stigler and Becker’s (1977) “consumption capital theory” and propose a novel conceptualization of film quality for the analysis of motion picture franchises. Generally, this theory predicts that the utility consumers derive from a particular good or service increases with prior consumption. We test our theoretical conjectures by drawing on the population of sequels that were running in the US between 1992 and 2011. The empirical results point to the explanatory power of the proposed framework. Film executives may use our findings to improve the profitability of their sequel productions. From a theoretical point of view, consumption capital theory allows for a more refined analysis of sequel performance along different dimensions. Moreover, it may provide a fruitful basis for the analysis of other serial media content, including books, TV, music, and games.     

Commemorative places,political spaces: Virginia Indians,the Jamestown Quadricentennial,and the quest for sovereignty

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the cross-cultural communication strategies deployed by a coalition of indigenous tribes in Virginia to leverage the Quadricentennial commemoration of the founding at Jamestown in support of their sovereignty campaign. The tensions between Jamestown’s mythos as the “birthplace of democracy” and the natives’ historical and contemporary lived experiences, combined with the national and international attention focused on the events, constructed the 400th anniversary “celebrations” as a compelling location for social action. The coalition employed intercultural communicative practices—particularly cross-cultural dialogue and negotiation—as means of mobilizing these tensions to renegotiate their relationship with the federal government, illustrating the intersection of intercultural communication, memory, and identity.     

Beyond educational attainment: The importance of skills and lifelong learning for social outcomes. Evidence for Europe from PIAAC

Empirical evidence suggests that educational attainment nurtures people's social outcomes and promotes active participation in society and stability. However, it is unclear to what extent other types of human capital also correlate with social outcomes. Hence, we explored the opportunity offered by the PIAAC survey through its provision of information on educational attainment, observed individual key skills proficiency, and participation in adult education and training (adult lifelong learning). We therefore studied the association between these human capital variables and social outcomes, and more specifically interpersonal trust and participation in volunteering activities. Results revealed that these social outcomes were affected not only by the formal qualification obtained, determined by the education variable, but also throughout the life‐cycle. Indeed, education and training when undertaken during adult life have a significant impact, especially on volunteering. The fact that the skill proficiency also plays a significant role is extremely relevant, as skills are more likely to change over the life‐cycle, either in a positive or negative way. Whilst the formal education received is constant after exiting the educational system, skills reflect competences more accurately: first, because those with the same level of education may have different skill levels because of differences in the quality of education or ability; second, because skills can vary over time. For example, they may increase with work experience or informal education, or decrease as a result of depreciation and ageing. These findings suggest that social outcomes are prone to be affected by many factors other than formal education, suggesting that policy makers can implement recommendations even after formal education has been completed.     

Collaborative Development and Evaluation of an Online Nursing Course

Institutions of higher education acknowledge that online learning represents a growing segment of the modern learning environment, and most students have mastered basic computer skills. However, reluctance to engage in online learning remains among both faculty and students. This article presents a case study of three schools of nursing that collaboratively developed and implemented an online undergraduate-nursing course. The article discusses the challenges that were encountered by faculty and students. The faculty used the distance education literature to address these challenges related to technological, institutional, and pedagogical aspects of online learning, as well as the recruitment and retention of online learners. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the course. The paper concludes with suggestions to overcome the challenges of online learning, such that faculty and students receive the inherent rewards.     

Reinstatement of postresponse stimuli prior to reward in delayed-reward discrimination learning by pigeons

Delayed-reward learning in pigeons was examined using a simultaneous red-green visual discrimination task in which the conditions during the delay interval were varied between groups. The nondifferential group received training in which the stimulus present during the 1-min delay was the same following a peck on the correct and incorrect colors. The other three groups received 1-min delay training in which different stimuli occurred in the delay interval following correct and incorrect choices. The differential group received continuous, differential stimuli during the delay. The reinstatement group received the differential stimuli in the 10 sec immediately following the choice and during the last 10 sec of the delay. The reversedcue group was treated in the same way, except that the 10-sec delay stimulus immediately following an incorrect response was also presented for 10 sec prior to reward on correct choices, and the stimulus following a correct response also occurred 10 sec before nonreward on incorrect choices. Nondifferential birds failed to learn the discrimination, while differential and reinstatement birds learned it readily. The reversed-cue birds learned to choose the incorrect stimulus. Differential and reinstatement birds showed no decrement in performance when the delay was increased to 2 min. These findings suggest that similarity of prereward and postresponse delay stimuli controls choice responding in long-delay learning, a finding compatible with both memorial and conditioned reinforcement interpretations.