Disseminating development initiatives in British higher education: a case study

The Effective Teaching and Assessment Programme (ETAP) was commissioned and funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils for England, Scotland and Wales and ran during the academic year 1993–4. Its aim was to identify and disseminate best practice in specific subject areas, student support and resource based learning. ETAP supported five projects, each undertaken by a consortium of British higher education institutions. This paper reports an evaluation of the programme based on interviews with leaders of the individual projects, along with a questionnaire survey of potential users of the products of the programme. A framework is offered for interpreting the results of the evaluation. Six different meanings of the word dissemination are identified, corresponding to the different degrees to which users actively engage with the materials produced. These distinctions are applied to the data collected and the findings are summarised in terms of the key notions of awareness of what is available, the attitude of teaching staff towards centrally-produced materials, and the accessibility of those materials. The implications of these three concepts are discussed in relation to the technical, organisational and presentational issues which promote or hinder the effectiveness of the dissemination. A number of policy recommendations for Funding Councils and institutions are outlined.     

Children with Behavioural and Emotional Difficulties: Complex Children,Complex Training for Teachers

This paper consists of two parents’ accounts of their experiences of having children with AD/HD. The article is divided into three distinct sections. In the first section the mother of ‘Simon’ describes her experience of bringing up a child who, from early infancy, presented challenging behaviour. She describes the effect of this on her family and her self esteem as a parent. She goes on to give an account of the process by which ‘Simon’ came to be diagnosed as having AD/HD and the effects of the ensuing treatment programme. In the second section the same writer describes the impact of her experience on her relationships with the extended family. The third section of the paper is provided by a second writer, who is also the mother of a child with AD/HD. This section focuses on the difficulties she experienced in dealing with her child's educational needs and the conflicts which arose between her and staff in her child's school.     

Early intervention in behaviour

Abstract

FAST-Track is a support programme for pupils with social and emotional behaviour difficulties. It is designed to integrate the school curriculum, social skills training, reading development, parenting skills and home-school liaison. A 3 year longitudinal study is reported in which schools implementing the full FAST-Track programme were compared with those implementing only the curriculum component. Changes in behaviour were monitored using an amended version of the Rutter Behaviour Rating Scale. Results did not show any clear difference between the two groups of schools but did show substantial differences between individual schools, highlighting the difficulty of demonstrating the effectiveness of intervention programmes given the multiplicity of other factors which determine behaviour change. The implications of these findings for the methodology and practice of intervention programmes in this area are explored.     

PROMOTING USEFUL LANGUAGE IN CHILDREN WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIOURAL DIFFICULTIES

All staff at this primary school and training centre for emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children are participating In a research project. Action research will be used as a basic methodology. Because of all the constrains on time and resources that extra work of this nature adds to staff responsibilities, each area Is created to fit to the interests, activities and time of each member of staff. All the components are devised to obtain a baseline, develop areas of the child's language and reflect on any changes that have taken place. Not only are the staff involved, but parents also have their area of investigation and it is envisaged that external groups such as the behaviour management team will contribute long term.

The research proposal is based on the idea that children with emotional and behavioural difficulties will not initially have the language and therefore the reasoning capacity to understand social expectations. Their restricted language means that their inappropriate behaviour substitutes for talk and they are unlikely to have the skills to itemise their own linguistic behavioural controls. Inability to express emotional or behavioural difficulties does not make the child a candidate for talk therapies. The large numbers of children with this problem, means that the school environment is best to explore its capacities to deal with the difficulties.

This paper is about the organisation of this initiative, its possible development and manifestations. It includes the Initial reactions of staff and initial responses observed by staff. The research also hopes to increase staff awareness and shared interests. Various perceptions create new insights Into what form help might take in the future for the emotionally and behaviourally disturbed child.     

Improving indigenous and ethnic minority student success in foundation health study

This study investigates what teaching practices in the ‘non-lecture context of a foundation programme' help or hinder Māori and Pasifika students' success in a New Zealand university. This two-year qualitative project used Kaupapa Māori and Pasifika Research (KM/PR) methodologies conducted in three phases: (1) needs analysis, (2) intervention and (3) evaluation. Twenty-eight Māori or Pasifika students were interviewed using the Critical Incident Technique identifying 798 incidents grouped into four themes for institutional development: (I) use effective practices for teaching and learning, (II) grow independent learners, (III) support the empowerment of the learner and (IV) harness the positive cohort effect. Initially, students reported that intensive support provided by the foundation programme was not preparing students well for success in degree-level study. Following interventions of institutionally-led changes, students reported better preparation for ongoing study. The overall learning environment and provision of Māori and Pasifika academic and pastoral support were important factors for success.     

Using peer and self-assessment to develop modelling skills with students aged 11 to 16: A socio-constructive view

Eight Welsh secondary schools participated in an action research project which developed approaches to teaching and assessing mathematical thinking skills involved in practical modelling situations. The development of the metacognitive and strategic skills necessary for successful modelling is discussed from a socio-constructivist perspective as a process of acculturation as well as cognitive construction. Learning to model involves socialization into the consensual realities of a wider mathematical culture and the teacher plays a pivotal role in the generation of this consensus through the legitimization of linguistically expressed subjectivities. Assessment is an integral part of this process. Participation in peer and self-assessment was found to involve the student in a recursive, self-referential learning process which supports the explicit development of metacognitive skills.     

Silent versus oral reading comprehension and efficiency

Seventy‐four students read passages from an individually administered test of reading comprehension (a subtest from the Test of Dyslexia, a test of reading and related abilities currently in development; McCallum & Bell, 2001), and then answered literal and inferential questions. Students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions; 39 students read the passages silently and 35 read orally, with time recorded for each passage read. Comprehension and time were dependent measures for a Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) and two follow‐up Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVA). After controlling for reading ability, results from the MANCOVA showed a significant combined effect ( p < .05); however, a comparison of mean reading comprehension scores showed no significant difference between silent readers and oral readers ( p > .05). On the other hand, with reading ability controlled, silent readers took significantly less time to complete passages compared to those who read orally ( p < .02). In fact, students took 30% longer to read orally than silently, on average. When test directions do not specify either oral or silent reading and error analysis is not a goal, testing will be more efficient via silent responding with no loss of comprehension. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 241–246, 2004.