Dream Writing: A new creative writing technique for secondary schools?

Writer and academic Gilly Smith examines the use of a new creative writing technique for school children inspired by the Automatic Writing of the Surrealists and the Free Writing of novelists and poets. Set within the discourse of Sir Ken Robinson, her argument is that Dream Writing can free expression, raising morale and standards in creative writing in schools while enabling children to see the originality of their own imaginations on the page. Analysing the results of a year‐long trial with Year 7 students, she finds evidence of significant impact on creative writing and a helpful settling exercise for the teacher.     

The Effects of Preschool Education: Some American and British Evidence

ABSTRACT

Tensions between schools and the outside world have often arisen out of the lack of contiguity between the aims of child‐centred education and the demands of society on education. Technology now offers the opportunity for neutralising these tensions; it is argued that technology confers on individuals more autonomy and reduces the power of the large organisation by exposing the weaknesses inherent in its structure; as society becomes more individual‐centred the logic of child‐centred education will become more clearly apparent. Yet education in its perception of the effects of technological change is short‐sighted and its response is marked by a kind of stereotypy. Some reasons for education's difficulties in understanding the effects of technological change are advanced while some developments in schools are identified as positive reflections of technologically‐induced change. It is suggested that recognition and understanding of the processes underlying these developments is necessary if we are to promote the benefits to be derived from the new changes.     

IMPACTS OF TRADITIONAL BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

A critical debate within the field of school psychology has centered on the relationship between bullying and cyberbullying in terms of prevalence, overlap, and impact. The current study sought to address the following questions: (1) Does cyberbullying create new victims or merely a new means of victimization? (2) Does cyberbullying uniquely contribute to negative outcomes above and beyond those of traditional bullying? Utilizing an anonymous survey to examine students’ experiences with cyberbullying, traditional bullying, and negative psychological symptoms, it was found that the vast majority of students who were bullied online were also victims of in‐person bullying. Both forms of victimization were independently associated with negative outcomes. However, when controlling for traditional bullying, cyberbullying did not remain a predictor of negative mental health outcomes. In contrast, when controlling for cyberbullying, traditional bullying remained a significant predictor of negative mental health outcomes. These results suggest that although traditional and cyber forms of bullying tend to target the same victims, traditional bullying is more uniquely associated with negative psychological outcomes.     

Co-teaching in the college classroom

This paper serves as a phenomenological reflection about the meaning of a co-teaching experience at the college level for two graduate teaching assistants. When two teachers combine planning and teaching efforts it is called co-teaching. As a pedagogical method for both instructors and students, co-teaching was beneficial because it modeled a collaborative teaching style required of the students in their curricular work. Utilizing the interpretivist discourse of phenomenology, the authors dialog about the meaning each makes of the coursework, the pedagogy, the students, and the teacher effectiveness through a co-teaching model. The dialog and reflection on the phenomenon of co-teaching contributes to more productive co-teaching instruction for pre-service teacher instructors.     

Family‐Centered Positive Behavior Support Interventions in Early Childhood To Prevent Obesity

Positive behavior support (PBS) strategies in early childhood, which include proactively structuring environments to support and positively reinforce healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors, are critical for preventing pediatric obesity, particularly among low‐income, ethnic minority children. Existing evidence‐based family‐centered preventive interventions effectively impact parents’ use of PBS strategies. Enhancing these programs to more directly target the key mechanisms of change specific to promoting children's healthy lifestyle behaviors could serve as the foundation for the next generation of effective protocols for preventing pediatric obesity. Two established programs that target PBS that can be feasibly implemented in a variety of service delivery systems using a multi‐tiered, adaptive approach and the next steps of translation are discussed.     

Female Offenders’ Multiple Goals for Engaging in Desired Communication with Their Probation/Parole Officers

The multiple goals approach is used to assess whether or not women on probation or parole engaged in communication with their probation/parole officers (PO) regarding needs or issues they had and about which they wanted to talk. Interviews were conducted with 402 women on probation and parole across Michigan; 127 stated that there was a time when they wanted to talk to their PO about a difficult need or issue they were facing, including housing and illegal activity. Women who were concerned about threats to their freedom were less likely to have initiated the conversation. Findings highlight possible reasons that impact whether or not individuals engage in difficult conversations that are desired.     

‘You Never Know,Things Might Have Once Existed’: Young Readers Engaging with Postmodern Texts that Blur the Boundaries between Fact and Fiction

This article considers children’s engagement with the Ologies, a series of postmodern texts that blur the boundaries between fact and fiction. It follows on from a text-based analysis of the series published in this journal (22(3) 2015). Data collected from 9–12 year olds demonstrate how actual readers took up the invitation offered by the text and were able to identify the tension between realism and fantasy, oscillate between different genres, stop to play games and use the tactile to make meaning. In addition, they willingly brought their own knowledge of the world to the text and were able to tease out meanings through dialogic interaction. We argue that the meaningful discussion that ensued is due to the multi-layered nature of the books which offers agency to the pupils with little adult interference.     

Shifting Deficit Paradigms of Latino Emerging Bilingual Students’ Literacy Achievement: Documenting Biliterate Trajectories

The purpose of this single-subject longitudinal study was to examine the Spanish and English biliterate development of U.S. Latino Spanish/English speaking students, who we call emerging bilingual students, as they participated in an innovative biliteracy instructional program titled Literacy Squared®. Findings indicate that across the three years of the study, participating students made gains in Spanish and English reading and writing. This study provides support for Literacy Squared as an innovative biliterate program. Further, the study provides evidence for the need to consider alternative methods to document Latino Spanish/English students’ biliteracy development such as through the use of biliterate trajectories.     

Media as social partners: the social nature of young children's learning from screen media

Television has become a nearly ubiquitous feature in children's cultural landscape. A review of the research into young children's learning from television indicates that the likelihood that children will learn from screen media is influenced by their developing social relationships with on-screen characters, as much as by their developing perception of the screen and their symbolic understanding and comprehension of information presented on screen. Considering the circumstances in which children under 6 years learn from screen media can inform teachers, parents, and researchers about the important nature of social interaction in early learning and development. The findings reviewed in this article suggest the social nature of learning, even learning from screen media.