A preliminary description of nonschool-based friendship in young high-risk children

This study explored friendships in a sample of 51 high-risk preschool-aged children. Thirty-eight children were placed in foster care (25 placed with their siblings and 13 separated from their siblings). Thirteen children, receiving preventive services, were living at home with their biological parents and siblings. Chi-square, ANOVA, and paired t-tests were used to test for between-group and within-subject differences in the target children's friendships. The results demonstrated that the majority of the high-risk children had a “best friend.” However, the foster children all had friends who could be described as quasi-siblings. The results suggest that foster care placement and the presence of siblings may influence the nature of a child's interactions with nonrelated peers.     

>OFSTED: inspecting schools and improvement through inspection

Approximately one‐third of all maintained secondary schools in England, and a smaller tranche of nursery, primary and special schools, were inspected under the arrangements set out in Section 9 of the 1992 Education (Schools) Act by the end of 1994. This article reviews some aspects of quality assurance in the national inspection system in England. It looks in particular at the improvement of inspection and at improvement through inspection. Continuous improvement of the inspection system reflects feedback from key stakeholders, as well as work by OFSTED to incorporate new developments. Improvement through inspection, broadly defined, has to cover both what occurs at the individual school level and in the system at large as a result of inspection. We argue that an effective inspection system can provide a powerful incentive for, as well as directly contributing to, school improvement and development     

Toward a procedure for minimizing and detecting false positive diagnoses of learning disability

Assessment procedures that can significantly enhance motivation to perform are needed so that poor performance due to low or avoidance motivation is not misdiagnosed as indicating ability deficits or as symptomatic of learning disabilities (LD). In this connection, research is under way to investigate the degree to which a highly motivating computer game learning task can improve differential diagnoses of LD. Findings from the initial investigation indicate that a large proportion of students diagnosed as LD were able to learn effectively when pursuing such a task. The results illustrate the key role motivation plays in determining the validity of diagnostic assessment and demonstrate the potential value of similar tasks for use in differentiating, from among individuals diagnosed as LD, those who do not have impaired learning processes.     

Investing in teaching development: navigating risk in a research intensive institution

It is often assumed that academics working in a research intensive university are unlikely to invest in the professional development of their teaching. Institutional structures and culture tend to undermine investment in academics’ teaching role. This study, conducted at the University of Cape Town, draws on an analysis of the environment within which academics make decisions to invest in their role as teachers. While acknowledging the privileging of research embedded in the institution, a significant group of academics have found ways to assert their academic identities as teachers despite the possible consequences and risks that this position entails.     

Preparedness for flexible delivery among vocational learners

Using the Canfield Learning Styles Inventory (CLSI), the learning preferences of 1 252 vocational education and training (VET) learners were tested. Results indicate that VET learners are characterised by a preference for dependent learning, rather than self‐directed learning; and a preference for learning through observation and direct experience rather than through verbal presentations. These findings are discussed in terms of the preparedness of VET learners for flexible delivery in the workplace.

Kember's (1995) two‐dimensional model of open learning is suggested as a theoretical framework for the development of strategies to increase the preparedness of learners and workplaces for flexible delivery.     

Educational Broadcasting: access and equity

The paper reports a qualitative study undertaken for the New South Wales Department of School Education and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The purpose of the study was to complement existing survey information by (i) closely investigating actual practice in schools in terms of the uses made of educational broadcasts, and (ii) inquiring into the perceptions held by the providers of such broadcasts. To this end teachers and students were interviewed and observations conducted in five case study schools. Policy makers within the Children's and Education Unit of the ABC were interviewed as well. The most significant findings (in educational rather than statistical terms) are to do with variations in access both materially and culturally. Equity considerations were seen to arise from these differences in access.     

Beliefs about Children: A Comparative Study of Mothers, Teachers, Peers, and Self

This study was designed to clarify findings from the parents' beliefs literature concerning the nature and the effects of parental accuracy. Subjects were 60 second- and fifth-grade children (mean ages = 8–5 and 11–5, respectively), their mothers, and teachers. Each child responded to 4 cognitive tasks, predicted how he or she would perform on each task, made self-assessments of preferences and personality traits, and predicted the response of 2 peers to all of the measures. Both the child's mother and the child's teacher were shown the tasks and made similar predictions of the child's probable response. As in previous studies, mothers were above chance but far from perfect in predicting their children's cognitive performance and preferences and traits. Teachers were as accurate as mothers in judging cognitive abilities; they were less successful, however, on the preference and personality items. The children's predictions, whether for self or peers, were less accurate than those of the adults on all tasks. The accuracy of the mothers' predictions correlated positively with external measures of the child's cognitive performance. This finding is compatible with the Hunt "match hypothesis," although other bases for the correlations also exist.     

Effects of Client Race‐Ethnicity on Perceptions of Counselor Trainees: Study 1 and Study 2

The authors investigated the impact that racial stereotypes have on counselor trainees' perceptions of the attributes and behaviors of ethnically diverse male clients. Two studies were conducted in which participants were counselor trainees (Study 1, N = 58; Study 2, N = 75) who received a case study in which a male student sought counseling for problems affecting his school work. No differences were revealed in Study 1. In Study 2, counselor perceptions of client attributes differed across client race–ethnicity. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for training counselors, particularly regarding multicultural courses and workshops.     

Supporting university content specialists in providing effective professional development: the educative role of evaluation

Evaluation of professional development (PD) has traditionally been composed of summative and formative feedback, and has focused on assessing the extent to which the PD impacts participating teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices. This study establishes an additional purpose for PD evaluation – as educative opportunities for professional developers, particularly for PD providers who are university-level content specialists (e.g. scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, engineers). Through analysis of data collected as state-wide evaluators for one US Midwest state’s Improving Teacher Quality Grant PD programs, and utilizing an analysis methodology which we term ‘recommendation traces,’ we examine formative evaluation recommendations that we made to four different PD projects over three years. Findings from this study shed light on how content specialists who work in PD projects can learn about effective PD through project evaluation efforts.