International Representations of Inclusive Education: How is Inclusive Practice Reflected in the Professional Teaching Standards of China and Australia?

Inclusive education focuses on addressing marginalisation, segregation and exclusion within policy and practice. The purpose of this article is to use critical discourse analysis to examine how inclusion is represented in the education policy and professional documents of two countries, Australia and China. In particular, teacher professional standards from each country are examined to determine how an expectation of inclusive educational practice is promoted to teachers. The strengthening of international partnerships to further support the implementation of inclusive practices within both countries is also justified.     

Aggregators: Cornerstone or Annex?

With the goal of building a high quality academic library collection in mind, the Serials Librarian and the Collection Assessment Librarian at Middle Tennessee State University evaluated the value of journal content accessed through a journal aggregator database. Data from EBSCOhost, UlrichsWeb, and Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Journal Citation Reports were used to evaluate content with respect for subject, quality, and coverage. An important goal of the project was to share the analysis with library liaisons in an effort to assist them with collection development responsibilities. The analysis raises questions about the relationship between discovery, access, and collection development.     

Evidence based library and information practice in Australia: defining skills and knowledge

This guest feature from Suzanne Lewis, a long-time advocate of evidence based library and information practice (EBLIP) in Australia, discusses a current trend within the movement that focuses on the skills, knowledge and competencies of health librarians. In particular, the feature describes three specific Australia-based research projects, on expert searching, indigenous health and future skills requirements for the health library workforce respectively, that exemplify this trend. These projects illustrate how the evidence base can be strengthened around the skills and knowledge required to deliver services that continue to meet the changing needs of health library and information users.     

Time in the arts and physical education and school achievement

With the increase in state‐mandated high‐stakes testing across the USA, schools and school districts are considering ways of increasing instructional time for core curricular subjects such as mathematics, science, English, and social studies. One seemingly logical approach to improving test scores is to reduce the time spent in subjects that are not tested, most notably art, music, and physical education, thus increasing time for the tested subjects. In this study, data was collected from 547 Virginia elementary school principals who completed a survey indicating the time specialists taught art, music, and physical education in their schools. After controlling for socio‐cultural opportunities associated with the school community, partial correlations between time allocation and school‐level passing rates on the Virginia Standards of Learning tests indicated no meaningful relationship between time allocation to art, music, and physical education and school achievement. The findings from the study do not support the notion that a reduced time allocation to art, music, and physical education is related to higher test scores.     

Parent–infant interaction and children’s language development

Learning to speak and understand language is a remarkable and important accomplishment of early childhood. Parent–infant interaction in the first three years is critical to this. This is the focus of this review – the first of the whole area. Seven databases were searched and 1750 studies reduced to 60 with good evidence. These 60 were from many disciplines and their methodological quality was variable. There was strong evidence that parental contingency (communication when the intended recipient is fully oriented towards receiving and processing it) and parental efforts in pre-literacy activities are important. There was strong evidence that interventions can be effective. Parental elaboration of language had less strong evidence. The role of gesture and the role of interaction with siblings and peers had the weakest evidence, but even these were quite well supported. Requirements for future research are specified. Parent–infant interaction is already established as a key factor in language development.     

The impact of high-stakes testing on curriculum and pedagogy: a teacher perspective from Australia

Debates continue about how high-stakes testing regimes influence schools at all levels: their impact on teaching practices, distribution of resources and curriculum provision, and whether they achieve the intended increases in student achievement in targeted areas. In 2008, the Australian government introduced a national testing scheme, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), in which all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are required to participate, and a national website, MySchool, was established in 2010 to publish the results of all schools. This paper reports on the first national study of educators’ views on the impact of NAPLAN on Australian schools and students. Over 8000 educators from all states and territories participated in the study, and the findings indicate that the testing regime is leading to a reduction in time spent on other curriculum areas and adjustment of pedagogical practice and curriculum content to mirror the tests. The findings suggest that the modification of teaching and curricular practices is in response to concerns regarding the use and reporting of NAPLAN data and the potential impact on schools. This confirms findings of researchers in other countries on the capacity of high-stakes regimes to distort teaching practices, constrain the curriculum and narrow students’ educational experiences.     

General education teacher judgments of their low‐performing students' short‐term reading progress

This study investigated the accuracy of classroom teachers' judgments of the reading progress of their low‐performing students. Participants were 36 second grade teachers and students in their lowest reading groups (n = 150). Student progress was monitored weekly using reading‐curriculum‐based measurement (R‐CBM) procedures. After 6 weeks, teachers were asked to rate their students' progress. Expert judges later reviewed the teachers' R‐CBM graphs and rated the individual and group progress based on the graphs. Teacher ratings did not correlate with expert ratings or the R‐CBM slope estimates. Expert ratings correlated highly with slope estimates. Teachers' estimates of progress were significantly higher than expert judges' ratings, indicating that teachers may overestimate student progress. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.