Risk and Adversity,Parenting Quality,and Children's Social-Emotional Adjustment in Families Experiencing Homelessness

A multimethod, multi-informant design was used to examine links among sociodemographic risk, family adversity, parenting quality, and child adjustment in families experiencing homelessness. Participants were 245 homeless parents (M_age = 31.0, 63.6% African American) and their 4- to 6-year-old children (48.6% male). Path analyses revealed unique associations by risk domain: Higher sociodemographic risk predicted more externalizing behavior and poorer teacher–child relationships, whereas higher family adversity predicted more internalizing behavior. Parenting quality was positively associated with peer acceptance and buffered effects of family adversity on internalizing symptoms, consistent with a protective effect. Parenting quality was associated with lower externalizing behavior only when sociodemographic risk was below the sample mean. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The teacher’s enthusiasm

Social relations are often seen as transactions between individuals. The dynamic teacher, accordingly, is one who gives energy and knowledge to students. Because this understanding fails to appreciate the relational forces at work in the lively classroom, it produces unhealthy attitudes toward education. Teachers who try to live up to it will not only burn out, they will distort their students’ educational development. The vitality of the classroom comes from an energy that is created between teachers and students; it is an energy in which both teachers and students share, but for which neither is individually responsible. The successful teacher must be able to receive if they are to be able to give. This argument is advanced using interviews with Australian teachers and students, all of whom were asked to describe the teachers who changed their lives.     

The experiences of disabled pupils and their families

In this article, Ann Lewis, Professor of Education at the University of Birmingham, and Ian Davison, Jean Ellins, Louise Niblett, Sarah Parsons, Christopher Robertson and Jeremy Sharpe from the research team provide a summary of discussions and selected recommendations arising from four linked projects run between 2004 and 2006. The projects were funded by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and looked into the experiences of disabled pupils and their families across England, Scotland and Wales. A central aim of the research was to identify the key concerns and priorities in relation to their experiences of education for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities and their families in the UK. The research encompassed a UK-wide parent survey (N=1776); in-depth case studies of individual children and young people (N=36); group case studies (of, for example, school councils) (N=3); and a series of project advisory groups involving disabled people. Underlying these aspects was an emphasis on the importance and validity of hearing directly from (potentially all) children and young people themselves. Thus the work meshes closely with initiatives worldwide concerning the recognition of children's'voice'in matters that concern them. The authors are not aware of any comparable evidence which focuses in-depth on a wide cross-section of pupils with disabilities or special needs and their families in the UK-wide educational context and which is located alongside concurrent authoritative data concerning the views of parents and carers.     

Expanding Higher Education in the UK: From ‘System Slowdown’ to ‘System Acceleration’

This paper sets out to explore the implications of current patterns of participation and attainment, particularly among 16–19 year‐olds, for the further expansion of higher education in the UK. It uses a range of recent statistics on participation and attainment to describe what is termed ‘system slowdown’. It then explores a basis for ‘system acceleration’ through the development of five possible routes into higher education both for 16–19 year‐olds and for adults. We conclude the paper by looking briefly at a number of inter‐related strategies the Government could adopt to encourage ‘system acceleration’. We suggest that unless the Government is prepared to consider policy changes of this type, it is unlikely to reach the higher education participation target it has set itself and may also jeopardise the basis for a sustainable lifelong learning system for the 21st century.     

A German child's first day of school: “Der Ernst des Lebens hat begonnen” (“The seriousness of life has begun”)

Photos by Dorit Baudman of the German School in Potomac, MD.     

The Impact of the Internet and Digital Technologies on Teaching and Research in Technical Communication

Technical communication practices have been changed dramatically by the increasingly ubiquitous nature of digital technologies. Yet, while those who work in the profession have been living through this dramatic change, our academic discipline has been moving at a slower pace, at times appearing quite unsure about how to proceed. This article focuses on the following three areas of opportunity for change in our discipline in relation to digital technologies: access and expectations, scholarship and community building, and accountability and partnering.     

Using Knowledge Decrement to Compare Medical Students’ Long-term Retention of Self-study Reading and Lecture Materials

The purpose of the current study was to contrast the long-term retention of material acquired primarily through lectures and assigned self-study readings. Sixteen third-year female medical students took part in the study, and the material tested was from a six week Behavioural Sciences Module which incorporated social science, medical science and clinical information. A specially constructed examination paper was used to measure retention one year later. Knowledge decrement (the percentage of material lost) was one of the measures employed. The two study methods did not differ consistently in terms of knowledge decrement or class performance. The top students (in terms of module performance) remembered more than the weakest students, but not because they were less prone to knowledge decrement. Individuals differed substantially in terms of the relative percentages of lecture and reading material forgotten. Using knowledge decrement to identify which study approaches best suit an individual student is discussed.