Entering Initial Teacher Education: science graduates’ views of the interview and selection process

This paper describes ongoing research that builds on earlier studies by the authors that have investigated issues concerning the selection of science graduates to secondary PGCE courses. These studies identified the need for criteria that are understood by tutors and applicants to ensure that candidates from ethnic minority groups are not disadvantaged. The research focuses on the perceptions that science graduates have about the selection process for secondary teacher education courses and seeks to identify whether the procedures used disadvantage any particular groups or individuals. We are interested also in whether there is a mismatch between tutors’ perceptions of the interview process and those of the applicants. During 1995/96 current students and applicants for one year PGCE courses in science were asked how they had prepared for their interviews and for their impressions of the interviewing process. The paper describes initial findings and the implication of these findings.     

The Nature–Nurture Question: Teachers’ perceptions of how genes and the environment influence educationally relevant behaviour

Despite a substantial body of research suggesting genetic influence on educationally relevant behavioural traits, it is not clear how the nature–nurture question is perceived by teachers. In order to answer this question, we surveyed 667 UK primary school teachers, and for comparison also surveyed 1,340 parents about their perceptions of genetic and environmental influence on personality, intelligence, behaviour problems, learning difficulties, and mental illness. For these five domains of behaviour, the percentages of teachers who reported that genetics were at least as important as environment were .87, .94, .43, .94, and .91, respectively. Results for parents were similar (.92, .93, .54, .86, and .89). We also found that 80% of teachers reported no coverage of genetics during teacher training.     

Parental experiences of dealing with disputes in Additional Support Needs in Scotland: why are parents not engaging with mediation?

Partnerships with parents, particularly in the field of education, have featured prominently in policy rhetoric for many years, but routes of redress have not had much attention until relatively recently. The development of Alternative Dispute Resolution in the UK reflects the situation in several jurisdictions (e.g. Norway, Germany, the Netherlands) where citizens can choose not to go to court to resolve administrative disputes. Under the Education (Additional Support for Learning [ASL]) (Scotland) Act 2004 local authorities must establish and publicise procedures for identifying and meeting the needs of children requiring additional support for learning. The Act and Code of Practice advocate early intervention to prevent disagreements about the provision for additional support from escalating into more serious disputes, with local authorities required to provide information about, and access to, independent mediation for parents. In Scotland the ASL Act 2004 has resulted in four routes available for redress in the area of Additional Support Needs which include both mediation and litigation type processes: ? Informal mediation

? Formal mediation

? Adjudication

? Tribunal

This article uses case study information from parents in three local authorities in Scotland to explore why independent mediation is being under-used by schools and parents, and what factors influence this. Questions are raised regarding the large numbers of parents who are unaware of mediation, the attitudes towards and use of independent mediation by local authorities and the suitability of independent mediation, particularly when the dispute is over resources.     

Gender Differences in Child Aggression: Relations With Gender‐Differentiated Parenting and Parents’ Gender‐Role Stereotypes

This longitudinal study examines the association between child gender and child aggression via parents’ physical control, moderated by parents’ gender‐role stereotypes in a sample of 299 two‐parent families with a 3‐year‐old child in the Netherlands. Fathers with strong stereotypical gender‐role attitudes and mothers were observed to use more physical control strategies with boys than with girls, whereas fathers with strong counterstereotypical attitudes toward gender roles used more physical control with girls than with boys. Moreover, when fathers had strong attitudes toward gender roles (stereotypical or counterstereotypical), their differential treatment of boys and girls completely accounted for the gender differences in children's aggressive behavior a year later. Mothers’ gender‐differentiated parenting practices were unrelated to gender differences in child aggression.     

Nonword recall and phonemic discrimination in four‐ to six‐year‐old children

Previous research has established that the degree of ‘wordlikeness’ of nonwords affects young children's nonword repetition performance. Experiment 1 examined the possibility that output processes are responsible for the wordlikeness effect by using a probed recall procedure. Wordlikeness was defined in terms of phonological neighbourhood density, although this measure was found to be related to the traditional measure of wordlikeness involving adult ratings. A significant effect of number of phonological neighbours/wordlikeness was observed in favour of nonwords with many neighbours. In Experiments 2 and 3 the wordlikeness effect was qualified by a significant interaction with nonword repetition ability. Children with poorer repetition ability were affected by number of neighbours/wordlikeness, while children with better repetition ability were not. Children with poorer repetition ability were significantly poorer than the better repeaters with nonwords with few neighbours. The results were interpreted in terms of theories of phonological development that suggest progressive segmentation of lexical representations. In Experiment 4 the relationship of children's nonword repetition ability to phonemic discrimination ability was investigated. The results demonstrated that children with better nonword repetition ability had superior phonemic discrimination performance than children with poorer nonword repetition ability.     

Contingency Awareness in Infants and Children with Severe and Profound Learning Disabilities

Seven infants and children with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties (CA 3 months to 4 years, MA 2 months to 12 months, mean MA 4.5 months) were presented with a contingency situation where they could control the onset of a visually and auditorily attractive toy. In this situation their responding increased and some positive emotional effects were seen. When they were subsequently unable to control stimulation, negative effects were seen on a range of emotional, motivational and self‐stimulation measures. These results suggest that from a mental age level of 2 months children are equipped to detect cause and effect relationships and build up a picture of their world based on expectancies about such relationships; and that violations of these expectancies can lead to negative effects.     

‘Over To You’: Group work to help pupils avoid school exclusion

This paper describes the support of secondary pupils at risk of school exclusion through a course of group work designed to promote individual responsibility for behaviour. Following self‐reflection the young people are encouraged to write their own behavioural targets and consider their progress in working towards them throughout the six‐session course. The results of a study involving a mixed group of five Year 8 pupils are reported. All the pupils increased their self‐rating scores on a social skills assessment form completed before and after the course, and were also rated more highly by their teachers. Seven months later the five pupils had maintained behavioural improvements and had not been excluded.     

The sexual abuse of young people with disabilities: Treatment considerations

Research has indicated that sexual abuse of individuals with disabilities is frequently repeated and chronic, and often results in significant harm to the victim. Furthermore, while abusers are most often family members or acquaintances, many offenses are committed by paid service providers and occur in disability service settings. Findings indicate that victims with disabilities often experience difficulty in obtaining treatment services that are accessible and appropriately adapted to their needs. Based on the necessity of appropriate treatment, considerations and strategies are discussed for therapy adaptations to meet the special needs of sexually abused young people with developmental disabilities.