Social Integration of School Age ESN(S) Children in a Regular School

Eleven children classified as severely mentally handicapped were observed after a paper and pencil sociometric test given to non-handicapped children in the school to determine their true level of socialisation with their non-handicapped peers. the social play interactions were categorised on an adapted version of the Parten Social Participation Scale. It was shown that, by utilising non-handicapped children in a peer tutor programme, there was a significant increase in associative and cooperative play whilst there was a significant decrease in the level of negative attention-seeking and inappropriate behaviours.     

A multilevel study of position effects in PISA achievement tests: student- and school-level predictors in the German tracked school system

Abstract

Position effects (PE) cause decreasing probabilities of correct item responses towards the end of a test. We analysed PEs in science, mathematics and reading tests administered in the German extension to the PISA 2006 study with respect to their variability at the student- and school-level. PEs were strongest in reading and weakest in mathematics. Variability in PEs was found at both levels of analysis. PEs were stronger for male students, for students with a migration background (science and mathematics), and for students with a less favourable socio-economic background (reading). At the school level, PEs were stronger in lower school tracks and in schools with a high proportion of students with a migration background. The relationships of the test scores with the covariates partly reflected the covariates’ relationships with PEs. Our findings suggest that PEs should be taken seriously in large-scale assessments as they have an undesirable impact on the results.     

Special handling for special packages: Infant massage

There is a sigh of relief expressed when the notion of infant massage or, as it is sometimes called baby rub, is discussed among parents and professionals. The sigh of relief represents such feelings as, It's about time, or It makes so much sense, or I've been wondering about the very same ideas.illustrations by Barb DunnPhilip G. Rose is a special education teacher at the Early Learning Center in Oneida, NY.     

Curricular quality and day‐to‐day learning activities in pre‐school

The purpose of this paper is to show how curricular quality is related to the day‐to‐day activities experienced by children and the pedagogical activities of staff, both coded through systematic target‐child observations. Data were drawn from the Effective Provision of Pre‐School Education (EPPE) and the Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY) studies. Curricular quality was measured by coding the ECERS‐E, an English curricular extension to the well‐known ECERS‐R. In centres scoring high on the ECERS‐E, staff engaged in pedagogical practices that included more ‘sustained shared thinking’ and more ‘direct teaching’ such as questioning or modelling. In high‐scoring centres, children were also observed participating in more activities associated with early reading, emergent writing and active listening. Children in centres assessed as ‘adequate’ spent more time in activities associated with the ‘Physical Development’ and ‘Creative’ curriculum. Thus the ECERS‐E gives higher scores to pedagogical practices and activities where staff take a more active role in children’s learning, including scaffolding young children’s play, especially in the communication and literacy domains of the curriculum.