Surveying unstructured time of adults with mental retardation living in two community settings: A search for normalization

Abstract

We designed a survey to assess whether 40 randomly selected individuals, equally divided across two settings (ICF/MR, minigroup home), differed in the amounts of time spent in the community, the people with whom unstructured activities were performed, and the choice maker of unstructured activities performed in the community or in homes. Time spent in unstructured activities was divided into four subsets: performed by self, with a peer, with staff, and with family. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that individuals living in ICF/MR homes spent more time in the community with staff and made fewer choices of their unstructured activities than those living in minigroup homes. The analyses also indicated that for those retaining their own legal guardianship and living in ICF/MR homes continued to spend less time in activities they chose themselves. Of those variables reaching statistical significance, we questioned meaningful interpretations based on alternative interpretations of the raw data.     

Practical considerations when supporting transitions for pupils with speech,language and communication needs

This article investigates the impact of transitions upon pupils aged 11–14 with speech, language and communication needs, including specific language impairment and autism. The aim is to identify stress factors, examine whether these affect any subgroups in particular and suggest practical strategies to support pupils through transitions. Stress factors discussed include homework, bullying, independent learning and social situations. The compared subgroups include pupils with diagnosis of SLI and autism, those receiving free school meals and those not, and pupils achieving at different National Curriculum levels. The sample is too small to be representative or generalisable but some recommendations for practice are given.     

IS RELIGION SUFFICIENT?

Is religion as we interpret, teach and practice it today capable of motivating life? Can religion qualify or control conduct and so shape character? In common with lower forms of life, we respond to the drive of hunger, to the desire for a mate, to the compulsion of fear and anger, to the urge to live and to defend our lives. These motivations are all very simple and direct. They spring from nature's demand that the race shall not end, but shall go on.

But is there another source of motivation‐‐call it a higher source if you wil‐‐which is able to condition these more primitive and subjective drives and cause men to act with reference to values outside themselves? Is there a source of constraint capable of making men serve ideal ends? And is religion this source, has it this power over men?     

Assessment Focus in Studio: What is Most Prominent in Architecture,Art and Design?

What can be learned about assessment from what educators in the creative practices focus their studio publications on? What should form the focus of assessment in architecture, art and design studios? In this article we draw on 118 journal articles on studio published over the last decade in three disciplines; architecture, art and design to inform the focus of studio assessment. We believe that what is published by educators themselves in these disciplines reveals what matters most to them. In addition, we argue that regardless of the primary emphasis placed in each discipline, assessment in studio should encompass a broad set of indicators. Within the wider literature including in architecture, art and design, a view of assessment is emerging that recognises the process and the person, beyond a view that positions the product or art/design arte‐fact above all else. Therefore, drawing on what educators in architecture, art and design mentioned most in the journal publications analysed, as well as the literature on good assessment, we offer a holistic model to guide and take studio assessment in the creative disciplines further.     

Climate change? A comparison of language and literacy practices relating to the teaching of science across the Key Stage 2/3 interface in two school clusters

This paper reports the findings of a study of the literacy perceptions and practices of general primary teachers (Key Stage 2) and post‐primary science teachers (Key Stage 3) within two clusters of schools. The study also explores the possible impact on pupils of any difference in the language climate which may accompany them on their journey across this curricular interface. Interviews with science managers and teachers suggest a quite restricted view of literacy is taken in both phases of schooling with no evidence of any practices which may support the notion of curricular continuity. The different approaches to the introduction of scientific terminology, writing, reading and classroom discussion were reflected in pupils' accounts of their experience and clearly posed a problem for some. We suggest there would be merit in teachers adopting a much wider perspective on literacy which recognises the opportunities for developing the interrelated strands of “general literacy” and “the discourses of science” alongside “learning through language”. By addressing each of these domains, and sharing practice across the key stages, a more comprehensive and coherent approach to “language, literacy and science learning” may result, in turn helping minimise the adverse effects of “language climate change”.     

Ethics in Neuroscience Graduate Training Programs: Views and Models from Canada

Consideration of the ethical, social, and policy implications of research has become increasingly important to scientists and scholars whose work focuses on brain and mind, but limited empirical data exist on the education in ethics available to them. We examined the current landscape of ethics training in neuroscience programs, beginning with the Canadian context specifically, to elucidate the perceived needs of mentors and trainees and offer recommendations for resource development to meet those needs. We surveyed neuroscientists at all training levels and interviewed directors of neuroscience programs and training grants. A total of 88% of survey respondents reported general interest in ethics, and 96% indicated a desire for more ethics content as it applies to brain research and clinical translation. Expert interviews revealed formal ethics education in over half of programs and in 90% of grants-based programs. Lack of time, resources, and expertise, however, are major barriers to expanding ethics content in neuroscience education. We conclude with an initial set of recommendations to address these barriers which includes the development of flexible, tailored ethics education tools, increased financial support for ethics training, and strategies for fostering collaboration between ethics experts, neuroscience program directors, and funding agencies.     

Schooling and local environmental knowledge: Do they complement or substitute each other?

Schooling and the knowledge acquired at school have been considered both a cause of loss of indigenous knowledge (because it opens pathways to the non-indigenous world and worldviews) and a potential remedy to its demise (if educational curricula is aligned with indigenous realities by giving instruction in local languages and incorporating local knowledge in school content). We test the association between academic and local environmental knowledge using data from a society of forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon who were exposed to a partially contextualized school curriculum. We found that although schooling and academic knowledge bear a negative association with local knowledge the magnitude is low, probably because schooling was partially contextualized. Contextualized learning might help avoid that the provision of universal education comes at the cost of humanity's cultural diversity.