Twelve Ways to Incorporate Strengths-Based Planning into the IEP Process

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act 2004 (IDEA) requires public schools to assure that parents of students with disabilities have the opportunity to participate in Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. Strengths-based IEPs focus on student strengths and abilities, rather than weaknesses and disabilities, in preparing parents and teachers for the IEP meeting, presenting information at the meeting, and documenting the meeting in writing. As a special education administrator for more than 27 years, the author has experience in working with parents from the strengths-based perspective, including encouraging parents to participate in the IEP process. In 1994 the author, along with parents of students with disabilities, developed a checklist for parents and public school teachers that focused on the strengths-based approach and was intended to encourage parents to participate actively in IEP meetings. Twelve techniques for reducing conflict and encouraging parents to participate in the IEP planning process at the middle and high school level are presented and described.     

EDUCATION ABOUT AGING: A RATIONALE

Based on a review of studies on children's and adolescents’ attitudes and conceptions about aging and older people and on studies analyzing media content such as children's literature, textbooks, and public television programs to determine how older persons are portrayed, a rationale is provided for systematic education about aging in the public schools of the United States.     

DEVELOPING AND EVALUATING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CLINICAL TEAM TRAINING PROGRAM: LESSONS TAUGHT AND LESSONS LEARNED

The training of clinicians in working together as an interdisciplinary team has received growing support in geriatrics. Most teamwork training programs have focused on group process and development as the core competencies of team practice necessary to improve levels of team functioning. The experience of the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center (RIGEC) in developing and implementing an ongoing teamwork training program, including the training of several geriatric teams from a variety of health care settings, suggests that additional objectives should include the empowerment of teams for advocacy in rapidly changing health care settings increasingly shaped by economic forces. The lessons learned by RIGEC for the development and implementation of teamwork training include the importance of defining team membership, dealing with the shifting shoals of the health care system, understanding individuals and systems under stress, and redefining the objectives of teamwork training.     

Measuring gifted adolescents' implicit theories of creativity

This paper examines the structure of implicit theories of creativity in a sample of gifted adolescents and describes the development and use of the Creative Self Checklist and the Creative Individual Checklist, adjective checklists designed to assess endorsement of creativity‐related personality and behavioral attributes. Findings indicate that the gifted rate aspects of risk‐taking and inquisitiveness as primary facets of their own creativity while defining artistic abilities and energy and motivation as important parts of creativity in others. This study also assessed the role that these implicit theories play in the display of creative behaviors with regard to both performance on creativity tests and participation in creative hobbies. Findings indicate that while performance on creativity measures is predictive of creative hobby participation, greater self‐endorsement of beliefs that are positively related to creativity also significantly predict creative behaviors.     

Examining primary schools' physical education coordinators' pedagogical content knowledge of games: are we just playing as this?

A detailed insight into how the current educational climate influences the pedagogical decisions made by primary school teachers when teaching games is limited. Studies examining the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of teachers within physical education have revealed its close relationship with specific forms of subject knowledge. In recognition of this, Veal and MaKinster's framework of general, domain and topic-specific PCK was employed to examine 12 primary school teachers' PCK of games. It was concluded that when personal experiences of pedagogy and content knowledge are unchallenged and reinforced by teachers' training and continuing professional development (CPD) programmes, very narrow topic-specific PCK results. This PCK was characterised bythe inseparable paring of constricted pedagogical strategies and limited content knowledge. When teachers do not integrate this very narrow topic-specific PCK with other types of PCK, it has significant repercussions upon the planned curriculum and learning experiences offered to pupils.