A review of the literature on Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder children: Peer interactions and collaborative learning

ADHD children may have social skill deficits in at least three main areas: social communication, poor emotional regulation, and social-cognitive biases. They also have cognitive difficulties which have implications for their learning. Based on a review of the literature, it is argued that maladaptive classroom peer interactions for ADHD children may disadvantage their learning on collaborative tasks. Although the literature is sparse in the area of peer interactions and collaborative learning for ADHD children, some suggestions for practice and future research are suggested. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Differential effects of sociocultural variables on special education eligibility categories

The influence of sociocultural factors (ethnicity, socioeconomic status, father absence, and family size) on special education eligibility was examined for three ethnic groups. A multiple regression procedure was used to analyze the data on 300 students referred for evaluation and found to be either not eligible for services or eligible for services as mentally retarded or learning disabled. Results indicated that only socioeconomic status and ethnicity made a significant contribution to the prediction of all three groups. Individually, father absence and family size did not contribute to the prediction of special education eligibility. Results of this study suggest that legislative mandates to control for sociocultural factors in the determination of special education eligibility have been only partially successful.     

Boundary-Work in the Health Research Field: Biomedical and Clinician Scientists’ Perceptions of Social Science Research

Funding agencies in Canada are attempting to break down the organizational boundaries between disciplines to promote interdisciplinary research and foster the integration of the social sciences into the health research field. This paper explores the extent to which biomedical and clinician scientists’ perceptions of social science research operate as a cultural boundary to the inclusion of social scientists into this field. Results indicated that cultural boundaries may impede social scientists’ entry into the health research field through three modalities: (1) biomedical and clinician scientists’ unfavourable and ambivalent posture towards social science research; (2) their opposition to a resource increase for the social sciences; and (3) clinician scientists procedural assessment criteria for social science. The paper also discusses the merits and limitations of Tom Gieryn’s concept of boundary-work for studying social dynamics within the field of science.

Multitrait-multimethod investigation of a novel body image measurement technique

A multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrix was used to evaluate validity evidence for a digital image manipulation (DIM) body image measurement technique in young women. One hundred one young women completed the DIM procedure and the Thompson and Gray (1995) Contour Drawing Rating Scale to measure self-ideal discrepancy and size perception accuracy components of body image. Seven-day test-retest reliability was acceptable (R = .81-.95). Convergent validity for self-ideal discrepancy was higher (r = .74) than the corresponding heterotrait, monomethod coefficients (r = .46, r = .23) and heterotrait-heteromethod coefficients (r = .18, r = .12). However, the convergent validity coefficient for size perception accuracy was r = .12. The pattern of correlations in the MTMM matrix met the criteria of Campbell and Fiske (1959) for validity of these procedures to measure self-ideal discrepancy but not size perception accuracy. The DIM procedure addresses some of the criticisms associated with figure-rating scales, such as unrepresentativeness of the figures, scale coarseness, and restriction of range in responses. DIM, therefore, represents a realistic, valid alternative to figure-rating scales for measuring self-ideal discrepancy.     

Education Quality in the Middle East

International Review of Education - Some of the most dramatic growth in the provision of primary and secondary education over the last decade has occurred across countries of the Middle East and...     

Integrating curriculum: a case study of teaching Global Education

Despite widespread support for integrated approaches to teaching, classroom practice reveals a lack of implementation. This paper explores challenges and opportunities in teaching an integrated curriculum, and connects this with the contemporary notion of a twenty-first century curriculum and pedagogy. A case study of Global Education (GE) is used to delineate the complexity of issues when teachers attempt to move beyond disciplinary-based teaching approaches. We examine curriculum documents, advice for teachers on curriculum implementation, preservice teachers’ experiences in schools during Professional Experiences and national guidelines for Professional Experience. Through these data, a broad picture emerges of influences on integrating curricula in classrooms. Opportunities to integrate curriculum incorporating twenty-first century pedagogies were limited by pressures on teachers with preservice teachers rarely exposed to authentic integration. Teachers’ professional standing requires clear guidelines, which allow them to pursue important twenty-first century content and skills , for young citizens and this must begin in preservice education.     

Participatory creativities: developing a research design for children’s pastoral encounters with the natural world

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the author discusses the interrelationship between creativity, children’s experiences of the natural world and pastoral education. Based on a research design developed whilst undertaking a professional doctorate in education (EdD), and grounded in a theoretical framework of children’s rights, the author explores the creative uncertainties of collaboratively researching children’s educational experiences with nature. The paper considers the ways in which the research design supports a pastoral care agenda, whilst encouraging the emergence of ‘creative artefacts’, alongside the extent to which the focus of the research, encounters with the natural world, might be deemed pastorally minded in its own right. The children who have participated in the research then draw the paper to a close, sharing what their involvement in the project has meant to them. Images and excerpts of children’s own creative reflections are offered as illustration of the powerful confluence of the Creative and the Pastoral.