Classroom as Real World: Propositions for a pedagogy of difference

The article develops a proposal for learning from the differences that can be present in the milieu of postgraduate programmes that are based on a participative design. Drawing on illustrations of students' and tutors' experience of difference, the idea of 'classroom as real world' is offered as the basis of understanding differences and responses to them which could be applied in the wider, and arguably more significant, social context. The authors also explore tensions which tutors are likely to have to engage with if incorporating a pedagogy of difference into their practice. These tensions are between tendencies to conformity or fragmentation, and between participative ideals and incipient hierarchy, not least as implicated in their role.     

Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Effectiveness in the United Kingdom

An outline is given of the UK research situation for the knowledge bases of school effectiveness and teacher effectiveness, and the UK policy situation in terms of school and teacher evaluation, improvement and development. It is argued that the UK has seen a much greater use of school-level policies, reflecting its substantial school effectiveness research base, rather than teacher-level interventions, although there are currently some attempts at policy and practice level to focus upon teacher effects, teacher evaluation and related issues of professional development. Speculations are given concerning future policy and research needs.     

Assessing executive functions: A life‐span perspective

Despite many disagreements on the utility of neuropsychological applications in schools, executive function measures have been found to be useful across a variety of areas and ages. In addition, many disagreements are extant in discussions of the maturational course of the development of executive functioning abilities that are dependent on functional capacity of the human brain, including the frontal lobes, among other brain areas. In part, these controversies are related to a dearth of standardized functional assessments of executive functioning abilities across wide age spans. This article describes several recent measures of executive functioning and uses life‐span data from these assessments to project maturational periods of specific executive functions. Clinical implications of these results for school psychology assessment, rehabilitation of brain‐injured school‐aged children, and forensic practice of school psychology are posited. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

‘You can't see what the words say’: word spacing and letter spacing in children's reading books

This paper describes two tests designed to find out whether children would be helped in their reading by the use of word and letter spacing that was looser or tighter than commonly used default values. In each test, 24 six‐year‐old children were asked to read aloud in a classroom; the realistic, high‐quality test material was set using a range of either word spacing or letter spacing values. Audiotapes of the children's reading were analysed to determine reading rates; miscue analysis was used to compare the number and kind of errors they made on the different settings. The children were also asked for their views about the texts they read. The results suggest that children in the test groups did not benefit significantly from spacing that was substantially looser or tighter than our default values, and that they noticed differences in letter spacing more easily than differences in word spacing.     

School-based early intervention and later child maltreatment in the Chicago Longitudinal Study

Investigated were the effects of participation in the Title I Child-Parent Centers (CPC) on substantiated reports of child maltreatment for 1,408 children (93% of whom are African American) in the Chicago Longitudinal Study. The CPCs provide child education and family support services in high-poverty areas. After adjusting for preprogram maltreatment and background factors, 913 preschool participants had significantly lower rates of court petitions of maltreatment by age 17 than 495 children of the same age who participated in alternative kindergarten interventions (5.0% vs. 10.5%, a 52% reduction). Participation for 4 to 6 years was significantly associated with lower rates of maltreatment (3.6% vs. 6.9%, a 48% reduction). Findings based on child protective service records (as well as combined protective service and court records) were similar. Preschool length, family risk, and school poverty were associated with lower rates of maltreatment. Parental involvement in school and school mobility were significant mediators of intervention effects.     

Reading Recovery 20 Years Down the Track: Looking forward,looking back

Reading Recovery is an intensive literacy programme designed for young students who have been identified as being at‐risk of reading failure after 1 year of schooling. The intervention was developed and trialled in New Zealand over 20 years ago and is now implemented in a number of education systems. The focus of this article is on recent research into the operationalisation of the programme with an overview of what it has done well and what it has not done so well. Reading Recovery has been very successful in bringing about change on the political and teacher training levels. In terms of efficacy in remediating literacy difficulties, however, the findings are more equivocal. What we have learned from Reading Recovery may assist in the implementation of new interventions based on more contemporary research.     

Examining youth perceptions and social contexts of litter to improve marine debris environmental education

Abstract

Youth have astute observations about site-specific personal and environmental factors that contribute to littering and marine debris, and they have a strong potential to act as change agents in communities. Interactions with youth in Pinellas County Florida add insights into a growing body of research on environmental education and marine debris prevention. This study assessed perceptions of marine debris and littering behaviors through group discussions with middle school and high school students (N = ～44), evaluations at summer camp programs (N = ～31) and pre- and post-assessments of environmental field trips (pre-assessment N = ～120; post-assessment N = ～140). Youth showed high initial awareness of the effects of marine debris on the environment but showed less understanding about the role of watersheds and biodegradation in marine litter issues. A majority of youth attributed others’ littering behavior to dispositional factors, like laziness, while attributing their own littering to situational factors, like poorly placed bins. Student observations of educators and parents also influenced littering behaviors and willingness to act. To reduce littering, education and outreach programs need to (1) provide opportunities for ongoing assessment of complex marine debris topics, (2) align visual and written or verbal messages, (3) reduce actor/observer bias related to littering behaviors, and (4) support adult role models.     

Reflective practice: origins and interpretations

The idea of reflection is central to the theory and practice of learning – especially learning which is grounded in past or current experience. This paper proposes a working definition of reflection and reviews its origins and recent developments. The author also provides an account of ‘critical reflection’, including its rationale and characteristics, and argues for its particular suitability in the practice of action learning.     

Contrasts in student engagement,meaning-making,dislikes, and challenges in a discovery-based program of game design learning

This implementation study explores middle school, high school and community college student experiences in Globaloria, an educational pilot program of game design offered in schools within the U.S. state of West Virginia, supported by a non-profit organization based in New York City called the World Wide Workshop Foundation. This study reports on student engagement, meaning making and critique of the program, in their own words. The study’s data source was a mid-program student feedback survey implemented in Pilot Year 2 (2008/2009) of the 5 year design-based research initiative, in which the researchers posed a set of open-ended questions in an online survey questionnaire answered by 199 students. Responses were analyzed using inductive textual analysis. While the initial purpose for data collection was to elicit actionable program improvements as part of a design-based research process, several themes emergent in the data tie into recent debates in the education literature around discovery-based learning. In this paper, we draw linkages from the categories of findings that emerged in student feedback to this literature, and identify new scholarly research questions that can be addressed in the ongoing pilot, the investigation of which might contribute new empirical insights related to recent critiques of discovery based learning, self-determination theory, and the productive failure phenomenon.