Post-16 provision for those with autistic spectrum conditions: some implications of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 and the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice for Schools

In this article Tricia Clark shares her experience of the ways in which post-16 provision can be further developed to meet the needs of young people with autistic spectrum disorders. She emphasises the need, in accordance with SENDA 2001, for further education colleges to anticipate the needs of all disabled students in order to accommodate them. She concludes that the key to inclusive provision is flexibility.     

Simultaneous discrimination learning: Stimulus interactions

Although considerable attention has been given to interactions between events serving as the positive (S+) and negative (S−) stimuli in successive discriminations, there has been little study of similar interactions in simultaneous discriminations. We propose that in a simultaneous discrimination, given what is typically relatively little experience with the consequences of responding to the S−, some of the value of the S+ transfers to the S− with which it was paired. Furthermore, the mechanisms responsible for this transfer of value appear to be the higher order Pavlovian association between the S− and the S+, as well as within-event associations between them. Although in typical simultaneous discriminations, negative value does not appear to transfer from the S− to the S+, when adequate experience is provided with the S−, contrast typically develops, reducing the value of the S− (negative contrast) and enhancing the value of the S+ (positive contrast). This model of stimulus interactions has implications not only for simple simultaneous discrimination learning, but also for research using combinations of discriminations (e.g., transitive inference in animals and humans). This model may also have implications for a number of human social psychological phenomena.     

Dreaming of ‘nowhere’: A co-autoethnographic exploration of Utopia-dystopia in the academy

Abstract

In this postformal co-autoethnographic research, the authors explore the changing landscape of American research universities from their respective locations as mid-career, post-tenure critical pedagogy scholars. By using autobiographical narratives in parallel with a running discussion of rodent habits and habitats, they explore the influence of Enlightenment humanism and Western epistemology in a) forming ‘the academy’ as an institution, and b) regulating how research and knowledge production are taken up within a rapidly neoliberalizing context. They recalibrate their ‘theories of change’ to recast critical researchers and critical pedagogy in relation to a volatile and hostile institutional context. By moving away from progress narratives of education for social change, the authors posit that critical pedagogy and critical research can be thought of as akin to ‘wayfinding,’ providing guidance, direction and reprieve while within the disorienting and violent flux of neoliberalization.     

Applied Ethics as a Foundation in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Exploring the Connections and Possibilities

This project explores how one early childhood preparation program integrated applied ethics in introductory coursework. Recognizing that students enter teacher education with well-formed values and beliefs regarding children and teaching, carefully planned learning experience and encounters in real life learning contexts expand their understanding of the complexity of ethical decision-making in early care and education programs. This project documents students’ perspectives toward their role as meaning-makers through the analysis of assignments intended to promote reflection on values. As students engage with course content and gain practical experience, their knowledge and beliefs regarding teaching evolve together demonstrating the power of ethical thinking in enhancing early childhood teacher education. The findings indicate that students draw on their image of children, social justice, and self-awareness in their development of a professional ethical identity.     

Development and Testing of a Curriculum to Improve Decision-Making Skills in Middle and High School Students

Adolescence is a key developmental period for developing and strengthening brain circuits that underlie effective decision-making skills, which profoundly impact lifelong health and academic, professional, and economic achievement. But decision-making skills are learned rather than inherent. School presents an ideal environment for the direct instruction and frequent practice of decision-making skills, however, finding time in the school day is a challenge for contemporary educators. We have developed a learning curriculum that involves active student participation to strengthen decision-making skills that is sufficiently flexible and adaptable to be utilized in a wide variety of content-specific classwork. Using this curriculum, students show evidence of improved decision-making skills, including increased consideration of the number of factors that are relevant to their decision, the resources needed to make a particular decision, and both the short-term and long-term consequences of decisions.     

Lessons Learned from a Predominantly Latinx Autistic Population: Preliminary Effects of the PEERS Intervention on Neural and Perceived Educational Performance

Thirteen autistic teens, who were predominantly Latinx, completed the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), a 16-week social skills intervention. Time-frequency decomposition was calculated using advanced electroencephalographic techniques to measure oscillatory brain activity during reward anticipation and processing before and after PEERS. Fourteen neurotypical teens participated but did not receive intervention. The perception of educational performance was also measured. The perception of educational performance did not differ between groups and did not change after participation in PEERS. Approach motivation increased after intervention in the autistic group. This suggests an enhancement of social motivation after learning social skills in a group composed of a majority of Latinx autistic teens.     

Exploring the variety of parental talk during shared book reading and its contributions to preschool language and literacy: evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort

Although many studies have explored shared book reading between preschoolers and their families, very few have examined this practice within a large, nationally representative sample. Using the ECLS-B dataset, this study investigated shared reading among nearly 700 families of diverse ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Coding of families’ book-related discussion focused on the variety of types of talk that parents used during reading. Results showed that parents focused primarily on the meaning of the story, with little attention to the code of the text. The range of talk techniques that parents used was largely independent of background factors such as child gender, ethnicity, or age, as well as family home language. A wider variety of meaning-related remarks by parents was linked to more advanced language skills among preschoolers. Findings provide a portrait of the nature of shared book reading discussion among American families, a profile of the background factors that are linked to this talk, and a precise account of the unique contributions of this talk to key emergent language and literacy competencies.     

Teaching for well-being? Introducing mindfulness in an undergraduate course

Student mental health and well-being are increasing concerns in higher education. This exploratory study examined students’ learning in a mindfulness programme incorporated into an undergraduate class. Six brief mindfulness-based practices were introduced: mindfulness meditation, walking meditation, body scan, mindful eating, loving-kindness and Tonglen meditation. Fourteen students were interviewed after completion of the course to explore their conceptions and use of mindfulness and other self-care practices. Results of thematic analyses suggest that there were variations in students’ adoption of mindfulness-based practices and students’ preferred mindfulness techniques. Most participants reported that mindfulness instruction and practice were beneficial but this was not universal; some students reported that mindfulness was ‘not for them’. Findings suggest that mindfulness fostered self-reflection, self-awareness and relaxation for many students and incorporating mindfulness at the beginning of class improved the overall quality of discussion and facilitated students’ learning. Findings further suggest that students incorporated mindfulness into existing self-care practices that included a variety of other preferred techniques to enhance self-reflection, self-awareness and relaxation. Overall, our findings suggest that students should be helped, through explicit instruction, to develop a ‘toolbox’ of self-care approaches that may include, but are not necessarily limited to, mindfulness techniques.     

An Exploratory Study of the Supervision of Ph.D./Research Students’ Theses

Twenty-five faculty members were interviewed to determine how they supervised their Ph.D. students’ thesis preparation. A content analysis of the interview data indicated that the majority of them were task-focused. They supported their students intellectually, emotionally, and structurally. Some academics considered their students as colleagues, and a few developed research teams. Watching the students grow and develop and doing research with them as colleagues were the most enjoyable aspects of the supervision process. The integrated competing values framework (ICVF) was used to illustrate how most of the study participants were task-focused and were not able to deliver paradoxical roles; nor were they able to reflect on their supervisory capabilities and learn from those reflections.

Beneath the Surface: Teacher Subjectivities and the Appropriation of Critical Pedagogies

Little has been written about the complexity of educators' appropriation of critical pedagogies in the context of everyday life in schools. In this article, based on analyses of two teachers' practice drawn from a larger ethnographic study of an urban public middle school, I explore the emergence of classroom practice that on the surface seemed to reflect critical educational theory. Two social justice projects are introduced, and teacher networks are explored as discursive resources for these projects. In this discussion I focus on how the teachers' subjectivities provided important contexts for the appropriation of critical educational discourses. Following Gore (1998) Gore, J. M. 1998. “On the limits to empowerment through critical and feminist pedagogies.”. In Power/ knowledge/ pedagogy: The meaning of democratic education in unsettling times, Edited by: Carlson, D. and Apple, M. W. pp. 271–288. Boulder, CO: Westview.  [Google Scholar], I argue that although classroom practice may resemble critical pedagogy, the extent to which it is accompanied by practitioners' social critique is another empirical question altogether.