Systemic cognitive-developmental therapy: A counselling model and an integrative classification schema for working with partners and families

Systemic Cognitive-Developmental Therapy (SCDT) represents a holistic, non-pathological, and integrative approach to partner and family counselling. The model directly links developmental constructs to the counselling process and offers specific assessment and treatment strategies that can be easily learned and applied in the immediacy of the counselling encounter. Additionally, it offers a classification schema that clinicians can use to organize familiar counselling and therapy approaches into a developmental framework. This article introduces the theory and practice of SCDT, illustrates the techniques and strategies specific to the model, and provides illustrative partner, family, and client examples for clarification.Paper presented in April, 1994 at the International Conference on Counselling in the Family in München, Germany, sponsored by the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling.     

Victims of Bullying in Schools

This article provides an overview of current research on bullying (peer victimization, peer harassment) in school, with a focus on victims of such bullying. The 1st section provides a working definition of bullying and its many forms. The 2nd section describes some of the known consequences of being bullied for mental health, physical health, and academic achievement. The 3rd section turns to individual characteristics that might place children at risk for being bullied. The 4th section describes school-based interventions to reduce bullying and its negative effects. The final section considers implications of research on school bullying for teacher practice.     

Sharing a place-based indigenous methodology and learnings

Abstract

Building on a methodology of Cooperative Inquiry, the outcomes of five interconnected place-based learning projects from Australia are synthesised and elaborated in this paper. The methodology can facilitate the everyday living and sharing of an Earth-based consciousness: one that enriches Transformative Sustainability Education (TSE) through recognising meanings and stories in landscape, and celebrates Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Indigenous-led environmental education is shown to link with one of the longest continuous environmental education systems in the world and it is contended that because of its ongoing history, environmental education carries a cultural obligation. In Australia, every landscape is Indigenous and storied, and all Australians have an inherent right to learn that joy in place, along with the responsibility to care for it. Teaching and learning a relationship with place as family, is one way that environmental education can lead that campaign. This place-based methodology is a lifetime commitment involving everyday actions for change, a whole-of-education dedication.     

Children using Facebook: teachers’ discursive constructions of childhood

Conceptualizations of childhood are powerful determinants of adults’ interactions with children, and technology and social networking systems are affecting the nature of teachers’ knowledge of childhood. We analyzed questionnaire responses from 57 elementary-level teachers from Quebec regarding children’s use of Facebook. Through discourse analyses, we found four common images of childhood (child as innocent, evil, future adult, and agent) present in the teachers’ responses; however, the context of social media brought to fore questions about adult surveillance at a time of generational pliability and teachers’ self-understanding in relation to their knowledge of children.     

Joining up the episodes of lifelong learning: A regional transition project

In this paper, we explore the rationale, process and outcomes of the Regional Interoperability Project on Progression for Lifelong Learning, a project that established a model of cross‐sector collaboration in personal development planning technology in the UK. With specific reference to the widening participation agenda, and grounded in the perspective of lifelong learners, the project tested an approach in which discrete nodes of an individual’s learning journey are joined up through technology services. The paper describes the development of conceptual and practical tools to assist transitions between various communities of learning. A set of scenarios was developed, involving study to study and study to employment, while practical tools included development of UK LeaP draft interoperability standard (BS8788)‐compliant links between ePortfolio software, and the actual test transfer of data. The results indicate that recognising the smallest individual elements in the process is important, both in a technical sense and as a means of personalising learning and assisting transition between sectors. Through developing connections between these elements, the project partners engaged in lifelong learning.     

A perinatal intervention program for urban american indians part 2: the story of a program and its implications for practice

This is the story of how a culturally aware staff successfully intervened with a clientele of another culture. A high infant mortality rate for American Indians in Milwaukee, WI, prompted a community health agency to initiate a program to address the problem. Efforts were made to educate the American Indian community about the importance of both prenatal and postnatal care. Part 1 of this report was published (Davis & Prater, 2001) and presented the design and implementation of the program, as well as program outcomes. Here, Part 2 describes aspects of the same program, including the personal story of a client and the results of an evaluation conducted by a three-person research team. Implications for practice are also presented. Among these are suggestions for hiring and retaining staff, locating and retaining clients, addressing cultural sensitivity, and identifying administrative actions that enhance program operation. The personal stories of two additional clients are included to illustrate the difficult reality of some clients' lives and the resulting necessity for flexibility and resourcefulness on the part of program staff. This program represents the positive impact that program workers had on the problem of American Indian infant mortality.     

Sustainability and distance learning: a diverse European experience?

Higher Education (HE) is experiencing disruption from technologies, demographics, the globalising world and longer life expectancy. Historically Higher Education has had a legacy of being seen as the requirement for an educated ‘elite’, there has been a policy ambition set in various countries (including the UK) for it to become the expectation for much wider segments of the population as a whole. As students become ‘everyone’ and learning becomes ‘all the time’ Distance Teaching and Research Institutions have a tremendous opportunity but there are also many disruptions and barriers to overcome. Higher Education institutions have an important role within Education for Sustainable Development and sustainable lifestyles; one of the important goals and targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals for 2030. Higher Education can contribute to sustainability in many ways – social, technical and environmental; globally and locally. In particular distance-learning universities due to the flexibility in the learning process, use of technologies, and inter-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning, constitute key factors in education for sustainable development. But what will this contribution look like? In this paper, the responses from senior leaders in four major European distance-learning universities are presented, compared and discussed. The tentative conclusions draw out some strategic imperatives for sustainable higher education in the twenty first century.     

Mathematical problem solving and young children

Educators of young children can enhance the development of a problem-solving thought process through daily activities in their classrooms. An emphasis should be placed on the actual thought process needed to solve problems that occur in everyday living. Educators can follow simple suggestions to create problem-solving situations for all ages of children. The process of thinking through a problem and finding a solution is more important than traditional mathematics counting and memorizing useless facts. Even very young children are capable of a problem-solving process that is on the appropriate developmental level. The problem-solving process is constructivist in nature, as each individual perceives problems according to her or his background and developmental levels. Educators need to make a conscious effort to capitalize on all stages of problem-solving thinking to enhance future mathematical development.     

Establishing New Subcategories: The Role of Category Labels and Existing Knowledge

Previous research has revealed that novel nouns highlight category relations at superordinate and basic levels but, paradoxically, make subordinate classification more difficult for preschool children. In Experiment 1, we provide additional evidence that novel nouns put 3-year-old children at a disadvantage in subordinate classification. We suggest that this reflects young children's inclination to label and classify objects at the basic level. In Experiments 2 and 3, we identify 2 circumstances under which 3-year-old children alter their basic level expectation. In Experiment 2, we provide children with specific information to distinguish the relevant subclasses. In Experiment 3, we introduce the novel nouns in conjunction with the familiar basic level labels. Under each of these circumstances, novel nouns do not present an obstacle to subordinate classification. Children's linguistic biases (e.g., the noun-category bias) and their existing knowledge and vocabularies jointly influence early conceptual development.