Performativity by stealth: a critique of recent initiatives on creativity

This article offers an analysis of recent development in primary education, in particular the prevailing climate of performativity and new initiatives on creativity. Since 1989 education has been dominated by the performativity discourse accompanied by the obsession with evidence: of children's learning; of teachers' performance; and of student teachers' ‘covering’ the standards. Recent initiatives would seem to signify a shift in official Government thinking on education and a move to embrace the creativity discourse. The commissioning of a national report on creativity and culture was an important first step. There was also the QCA's literature review of creativity, and the development of the QCA web site on creativity. More recently, we have seen the introduction of the new Primary National Strategy (PNS) via the DfES document Excellence and Enjoyment and Government support for creative partnerships: a programme aimed at developing creativity in learning and participation in cultural activities. This article argues that the new initiatives on creativity do not herald major change in primary education. It offers a critique of two significant texts: the Primary National Strategy and the QCA web site on creativity. It presents an alternative analysis of creativity and suggests ways forward to prevent creativity becoming hijacked by the performativity discourse.     

New technologies,new multimodal literacy practices and young children's metacognitive development

This paper discusses concepts of learning through ‘collaborative multimodal dialogue’. It draws on an ESRC‐funded study (RES‐000‐22‐2451) investigating 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children's encounters with literacy as they engage with a range of printed and digital technologies at home and in a nursery. The study goes beyond analysis of spoken language, giving a more complete understanding of literacy learning processes through detailed analysis of how children use multiple communicative modes as they experience literacy in different media. These experiences underpin metacognitive development and are crucial to children's abilities to act strategically in future situations. Drawing on notions of literacy as social practice, this paper discusses how the advent of new technologies has introduced new dimensions into young children's literacy learning, the implications of which have not yet been fully recognised in early years policy guidance, training or practice.     

A multilevel model of child- and classroom-level psychosocial factors that support language and literacy resilience of children in Head Start

Early exposure to the multiple risk factors associated with poverty is related to an elevated risk for academic difficulty. Therefore, it is important to promote academic resilience as early as possible and to identify factors that support resilience. Given the positive relation between early language skills and later academic outcomes, examining resilience in the domain of language and literacy is critical. Both exposure to a high-quality classroom environment and early child psychosocial strengths may serve as protective or promotive factors for low-income children, reducing the risk of poor language and literacy outcomes. Using a sample of 275 preschoolers from 29 Head Start classrooms, the current study examined the relations among teacher-reported child-level psychosocial strengths, observed classroom process quality, and growth in language and literacy. Furthermore, whether child and classroom factors had an additive or an interactive effect on outcomes was also investigated. Results indicated that child-level psychosocial strengths predicted initial levels of language and literacy, and classroom organization predicted growth. Results are discussed in terms of understanding how malleable child- and classroom-level factors are associated with language and literacy outcomes and emphasize the importance of intervening early on in young children's learning trajectories.     

The social experience of early childhood for children with learning disabilities: inclusion,competence and agency

This paper tells of the social experiences of three four‐year‐old children with learning disabilities as they negotiate their daily lives in their homes and early education settings in England. We apply a social model of childhood disability to the relatively unexplored territory of young children and use vignettes drawn from video observation to explore the interactive spaces contained in settings with different cultures of inclusion. Using a multimodal approach to the data we show the nuanced ways in which the children enact their agency. We explore the relationships between agency, culture and structure, and argue that children with learning disabilities are active in making meaning within social and relational networks to which they contribute differently depending on the barriers to doing and being that each network presents. Thus, the paper provides an original use of the notion of distributed competence.     

Effect on students from attending a university degree programme run in partnership with further and higher education institutions

This paper considers the effect on students from attending a university foundation degree programme delivered in partnership with six further education teaching institutions in England. The programme is situated within the early childhood education sector using an instructional design which promotes higher-level learning within the teaching institution and the workplace. Learning in one environment is aligned to the other. The research process actively involved students and was conducted within ethical parameters approved by a university ethics committee. A qualitative methodology examined data drawn from focus groups, an online survey and content analysis. Programme effect was seen as enhancing personal and professional capability and promoting higher-order learning. The findings go some way towards theorisation and documentation of programme effect by identifying the influence of instructional design and extend knowledge about aligning the pace of teaching and learning with professional practice.     

Wear compliance,sedentary behaviour and activity in free-living children from hip-and wrist-mounted ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers

The GT3X+ worn at the wrist promotes greater compliance than at the hip. Minutes in SB and PA calculated from raw accelerations at the hip and wrist provide contrasting estimates and cannot be directly compared.

Wear-time for the wrist (15.6 to 17.4 h.d^?1) was greater than the hip (15.2 to 16.8 h.d^?1) across several wear-time criteria (all P < 0.05). Moderate-strong associations were found between time spent in SB (r = 0.39), LPA (r = 0.33), MPA (r = 0.99), VPA (r = 0.82) and MVPA (r = 0.81) between the two device placements (All P < 0.001). The wrist device detected more minutes in LPA, MPA, VPA and MVPA whereas the hip detected more SB (all P = 0.001). Estimates of time in SB and all activity outcomes from the wrist and hip lacked equivalence.

One hundred and eighty-eight 9–12-year-old children wore a wrist- and hip-mounted accelerometer for 7 days. Data were available for 160 (hip) and 161 (wrist) participants. Time spent in SB and PA was calculated using GGIR.

This study examined the compliance of children wearing wrist- and hip-mounted ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers and compared estimates of sedentary behaviour (SB) and physical activity (PA) between devices.     

Explaining the Predictive Accuracy of Teacher Judgments of Their Students' Reading Achievement: The Role of Gender,Classroom Behavior,and Emergent Literacy Skills in a Longitudinal Sample of Children Exposed to Poverty

The factors that explain why teachers are ableto accurately predict their students' futurereading ability were examined in a longitudinalstudy from first- to third-grade in childrenexposed to poverty (N = 170). Teacher ratingswere similarly based on both their students'emergent literacy skills and classroombehavior. Meanwhile, the influences ofclassroom behavior on later variability inreading skills were much less than, and almostcompletely redundant with, prior emergentliteracy. Virtually all of the shared variancebetween teacher ratings and later readingskills was explained by prior levels ofemergent literacy. Implications of the resultsand future research were discussed.