Accessing mainstream: examining the struggle for parents of children who have learning difficulties

In the past decade Ireland has witnessed substantial changes in policy and provision for children with general learning difficulties as government policies and legislation increasingly underpin the move towards more inclusive provision. Despite this series of policy initiatives parents of children who experience Down syndrome and general learning difficulties can encounter serious obstacles in gaining access to mainstream education for their children.
This research project was a study of the experiences of a small sample of parents of children who experience Down syndrome and general learning difficulties in relation to their efforts to access appropriate education and education supports for their child in the mainstream school setting. These parents had to invest extraordinary levels of time, energy, and resources in their struggle to get these children into mainstream school and to support their progress there. At local school level these parents and children had positive experiences, but life has taught them that society offers acceptance as a favour, so they cannot confidently expect acceptance by schools and teachers as a right.     

Convergence of observer ratings and student perceptions of reform practices in sixth-grade mathematics classrooms

As part of a research project examining relationships between instructional practices and student cognitive and social outcomes in middle-school mathematics classes, external observers and students reported perceptions of teachers’ instructional practices. The extent to which students in classrooms identified by external raters as reform-oriented actually perceive instruction in ways aligned with reform principles has not been established. A 25-item observation protocol aligned with the reform practices called for in the Standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) was used to develop a quantitative profile of instructional practices across two lessons in each of 28 classes of 15 participating teachers. Students in each of the observed classes completed a 49-item survey of their perceptions of instructional practices. As items for both the observation protocol and Student Survey were designed to measure alignment with the same dimensions of reform practice, the convergence of these two data sets was examined as a means to confirm the observation ratings. The findings show moderately strong correlations between ratings of external observers and perceptions of sixth-grade students across three dimensions (pedagogy, tasks and mathematical interactions) of reform-oriented teacher practice in mathematics classrooms. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed. The research in this article was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant REC 0125868. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of NSF. The research was also supported by the Roysters’ Fellowship to Mark Ellis from the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.     

Developing an Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory: the ELLI Project

This paper reports the initial results of a study that was designed to develop and test an instrument that could identify the elements of an individual's capacity for lifelong learning. We anticipated that the components of this capacity would include a complex mix of dispositions, lived experiences, social relations, values, attitudes and beliefs and that these various factors would coalesce to shape the nature of an individual's engagement with any particular learning opportunity. The instrument that was developed—the Evaluating Lifelong Learning Inventory—was trialled with pupils across a range of ages and subject to factor analytic study. The data have proved robust over successive factor analytic studies, allowing the identification of seven dimensions of learning power and reliable scales to assess these. These dimensions appear to be capable of differentiating between efficacious, engaged and energized learners and passive, dependent and fragile learners. Whilst further, larger scale field trials will be necessary to confirm these early results, the findings would appear to have significant implications for conventional models of curriculum design and classroom practice.     

Company Facebook and Organizational Identification

This study examined links between organizational Facebook pages and employee connection to the larger organization. Employee interaction with their company’s Facebook page was linked to higher levels of organizational identification and bridging social capital outcomes. Bridging social capital outcomes was also associated with organizational identification. Results indicate that the company Facebook page, considered primarily as a tool to engage external stakeholders, may also function to engage employees.     

‘Physical Education’s First Lady of the World’: Dorothy Sears Ainsworth and the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Women and Girls

Abstract

Dorothy Sears Ainsworth has received wide acclaim for her pioneering efforts in international relations that enhanced collaboration among female physical educators in the decades following World War II. As Director of Physical Education for Women at Smith College (1926–1960), Ainsworth became a global figure, traveling extensively and organizing the first international conference on physical education for women and girls in Copenhagen in 1949. This resulted in the establishment of the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW), today counting over 400 members from 45 different countries. In this paper we (re)consider the largely hagiographical accounts of Ainsworth’s career and re-examine her contributions to the international stage in light of her maternalist views on female sport and physicality. Indeed, women’s difference from men dominated the discourse of many international women’s movements at this time. We consider what IAPESGW’s long-term governance by primarily white and wealthy women may have meant in terms of the organization’s focus and globalizing efforts and conclude that though Ainsworth’s essentialist approach ignored earlier feminist sporting movements, and would not outlast the more progressive winds of change in the 1970s, neither should her early contributions to establishing bonds among female physical educators globally be minimized.     

Examining interest throughout multiple text use

Reading and Writing - Prior work has examined the role of interest in students’ single text processing and comprehension, but interest has been under-examined within the context of multiple...