Pupil participation in planning provision for special educational needs: teacher perspectives

There are legal, moral and practical reasons to involve pupils in planning provision for their special educational needs. We do not yet know how principles are implemented in practice. This study explored the views and experiences of 64 teachers with an interest in special educational needs through an online survey. Participants reported greater pupil involvement in everyday matters, less in conceptual aspects of planning. Effective strategies were based on good teacher-pupil relationships and school-wide systems for sharing pupil views. Participants gave examples of the impact of pupil participation on teacher insight, pupil motivation and material provision. 84 per cent indicated that they would like pupils to be more involved in decisions about their provision than they currently are. Barriers included the nature of children’s difficulties and practitioner attitudes. Listening to children is intrinsic to good teaching, yet pupils also benefit from a more formal role in provision planning.     

Teacher education students' reflections on how problem‐based learning has changed their mental models about teaching and learning

Abstract

Students develop robust mental models of teaching and learning during their school years, and as such, often teach as they were taught—possibly perpetuating practices that limit intellectual inquiry in classrooms. This paper reports on an analysis, using a conceptual framework and NUD?1ST software, of a cohort of 3rd‐year teacher education students' reflections on changes in their mental models following their experiences in a problem‐based learning (PBL) topic. Results provide evidence that students do report changing mental models in areas such as (a) the value of case studies for engaging with subject content, motivating learning, and connecting theory with practice; (b) self‐reflection and peer collaboration for cognitive and professional growth; and (c) processes of inquiry for developing self‐regulated learning practices.     

Speech and language therapy and the Knowles Edge Standards Fund Project: an evaluation of the service provided to a cluster of primary schools

In 2000, 25 speech and language therapy projects were established in schools in England, funded through the Standards Fund. An evaluation commissioned by the Government reported positive results and gave an overview of all the projects at a point approximately six months after their inception. Although there were common themes, it was quite clear that the projects differed widely in their structure and interpretation of the original brief.
In this article, Sue Roulstone, Professor of Speech and Language Therapy at the University of the West of England, and Rosalind Owen and Lucy French, both specialist speech and language therapists working for the United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust, provide an in-depth report of one of the projects and its evaluation after 18 months.
The project, based on a systems analysis approach, targeted its interventions at the individual child, the parents, the teachers and therapists, the classrooms and schools, and more strategic levels in the health and education services. The article gives details of the 'interventions' for each component. An independent evaluation gathered qualitative and quantitative data that suggest that the new service had a positive impact on all aspects of the system. Children made gains in their speech and language; parents were informed and involved; therapists and teachers were more satisfied about their knowledge base; and systems changed within the schools to reflect and support the collaboration. The outcomes of the project led to a rolling out of the model to two more cluster groups of schools. A number of organisational structures were identified which support the ongoing collaboration. Details given in this article will enable others to identify whether or not this model might suit their local circumstances and be replicable in their context.     

Readiness: Should we make them ready or let them bloom?

The current emphasis on achievement of minimum competencies, basic education, and the pressure for early maturity has surfaced in early childhood as pressure for teachers to get their students ready for the next level. As teachers and caregivers, it is important for each of us to evaluate our view of the concept of readiness. We need to reconsider our definitions of readiness and how we apply these definitions to practice.Rosalind Charlesworth is Associate Professor at the College of Education, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.     

A Typology of Parental Involvement in Education Centring on Children and Young People: Negotiating familialisation,institutionalisation and individualisation

This article explores the widespread emphasis on parental involvement in education from the perspectives of children and young people. In contrast to the conceptualisation of children as variable social actors, policy initiatives to link home and school more effectively, and research-generated typologies of parental involvement, unthinkingly familialise and institutionalise children by ignoring any part they may play in parental involvement in their education. Drawing on data from our study of children's understandings of home-school relations, we develop and elaborate a typology that centres on the complex ways that children and young people talk about creating, acceding to, and resisting their parents' involvement in their education. The socially patterned differences between the children and young people's understandings and experiences demonstrate how the broad social processes of familialisation, institutionalisation and individualisation are, in fact, concretely lived and negotiated in variable ways. Nevertheless, there are also some commonalities in children and young people's resistance around notions of privacy.     

Identifying characteristics of successful tertiary students using path analysis

Academic achievement is the outcome of a complex system of learning and teaching relationships existing within the context of the university. A causal path model was developed and tested using a partial least squares path analysis procedure in order to examine the relationships among factors hypothesised to influence tertiary students’ academic achievement. Of the eight predictor variables included in the model (Approach to Learning motives and strategies; Learning Style; Age; Sex; Locus of Control; Metacognitive Capability; and students’ Self-Rated performance), Metacognitive Capability most clearly identifies successful students. Relationships among the other variables also provide valuable information about student learning outcomes.     

Small-group discussion in physics: Peer interaction modes in pairs and fours

The importance of group discussion in facilitating learning in science is widely acknowledged. At the same time, it is recognized that in the social context of small groups, peers' discussion processes and their subsequent learning are influenced by factors other than students' conceptual understanding. Focusing on the social processes of knowledge construction in group settings, this article investigates the ways Greek secondary school students interacted in pairs and fours while discussing and attempting to explain simple physical phenomena. The study showed that students progressed significantly more in their physics reasoning after participation in fours than pairs. Moreover, the analysis of discourse in the different groupings suggested that the differences in progress were related to the more constrained modes of interaction of pairs. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Not the nine o'clock service: Using children's culture

This paper discusses current thinking and practice about the use of popular culture in the primary school to teach literacy. It attempts to question the methods that attempt to galvanise children's interest in popular texts to teach the current literacy curriculum. It argues that there is an incompatibility between the pleasures and practices of the world of popular culture and the traditional environment and curricula of school. The paper argues that instead of ‘using’ children's culture to teach the literacy curriculum in school, children's vibrant, sophisticated and valuable culture needs to be embedded within it.