Practitioners' views about effective mental health and well-being support for post-16 students attending special school

Supporting children and young people's mental health and well-being is central to UK Government policy, with statistics suggesting post-16 students and those with learning difficulties are vulnerable. This case study explored how practitioners at a special school for students with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties promote post-16 students' mental health and well-being. Data were drawn from four semi-structured interviews and a follow-up focus group. The thematic analysis identified a whole-team approach to supporting mental health and promoting student well-being, through staff knowledge and interpersonal skills, particularly related to communication and ability to build trusting relationships, providing experiences and preparing students for adulthood. Consideration was also given to facilitators and barriers to promoting such provision for students. The emotional needs audit from the Human Givens Institute (2006) could provide a framework for practitioners in special schools to promote mental health and well-being, enabling practical and tangible strategies for intervention and support.     

Practice stories in natural resource management continuing professional education: springboards for learning

The use of stories from professional experience in continuing professional education has been on the rise in many fields, often aimed at bolstering capacity through sharing professional knowledge and/or supporting reflective practice. Practice stories are also suggested to be beneficial in supporting professional learning of new concepts. These uses of practice stories are not evident in public natural resource management (NRM) continuing professional education. In light of greater public involvement in NRM practice over the last 20 years, however, the use of practice stories could now be particularly beneficial to NRM professionals. This study examines the use of practice stories in workshops aimed at deepening public NRM professionals' understanding of social science concepts suggested to be valuable in making sense of the social and political complexity intertwined in public involvement practice. Feedback from workshop participants suggests that practice stories may be able to support NRM professionals in reflecting on previous experiences, learning from colleague's practice experiences and serving as a springboard for learning by fostering linkages between social science knowledge and practice. The study also finds that the perceived benefits of sharing practice stories were comparatively less for some more experienced participants.     

The (im)materiality of literacy: the significance of subjectivity to new literacies research

This article deconstructs the online and offline experience to show its complexities and idiosyncratic nature. It proposes a theoretical framework designed to conceptualise aspects of meaning-making across on- and offline contexts. In arguing for the ‘(im)materiality’ of literacy, it makes four propositions which highlight the complex and diverse relationships between the immaterial and material associated with meaning-making. Complementing existing sociocultural perspectives on literacy, the article draws attention to the significance of relationships between space, mediation, materiality and embodiment to literacy practices. This in turn emphasises the importance of the subjective in understanding how different locations, experiences and so forth inflect literacy practice. The article concludes by drawing on the Deleuzian concept of the ‘baroque’ to suggest that this focus on articulations between the material and immaterial helps us to see literacy as multiply and flexibly situated.     

Reaching students: lessons from a writing centre

Globally, universities today are attracting students from widely diverse language and cultural backgrounds. However, whilst there are many well‐intentioned and supportive institutional endeavours under way, in most cases, it is still apparent that students with certain background characteristics are more successful than others. Disparities that exist in perceptions of institutional provision and expectations are problematic for certain students and, indeed, for the universities themselves. An examination of students’ learning behaviours and attitudes may give indications as to where solutions lie. The writing centres of these institutions are ideally placed to explore such factors, due to the individual nature of their work with students and the data kept with regard to this work. In an analysis of consultants’ reports on their observations of students’ behaviours and difficulties arising in consultations at one writing centre, I examine aspects of students’ management of and relationships within their learning, and how these affect control of their texts. Through an understanding of students’ practices and needs, I highlight implications for development of students’ learning in the broader institution.     

Baseline assessment of writing: the need for reconsideration

This article questions the usefulness to teaching of items to be used in baseline assessment of writing in the UK. Current requirements for national baseline assessment are intended to serve two very different purposes: assessment for management and assessment for teaching. It is argued that this duality of purpose can threaten teaching and overemphasise assessment for management. This article describes a small study investigating items on the baseline assessment scale developed by the Schools Curriculum and Assessment Authority (SCAA, 1997a), which suggests that the SCAA criteria for baseline assessment of writing need to be reconsidered. This reconsideration can be sought in the light of research and evidence of children’s achievements. Finally the paper concludes that there needs to be greater clarity of purpose and a redefinition of the misleading term ‘baseline assessment’.     

Organization and use of the mental lexicon by deaf and hearing individuals

Two experiments explored the taxonomic organization of mental lexicons in deaf and hearing college students. Experiment 1 used a single-word association task to examine relations between categories and their members. Results indicated that both groups' lexical knowledge is similar in terms of overall organization, with associations between category names and exemplars stronger for hearing students; only the deaf students showed asymmetrical exemplar-category relations. Experiment 2 used verbal analogies to explore the application of taxonomic knowledge in an academically relevant task. Significant differences between deaf and hearing students were obtained for six types of analogies, although deaf students who were better readers displayed response patterns more like hearing students'. Hearing students' responses reflected their lexical organization; deaf students' did not. These findings implicate the interaction of word knowledge, world knowledge, and literacy skills, emphasizing the need to adapt instructional methods to student knowledge in educational contexts.     

Action Learning—a learning and teaching method in the preparation programme for supervisors of midwives

Supervision of midwives is a statutory responsibility, which provides a mechanism for support and guidance to every practising midwife in the United Kingdom. To be eligible for appointment as a supervisor, midwives are required to undertake a preparation programme successfully. Because of the changing nature of the professional role and education, the level of the programme of preparation has evolved from an attendance course, to programmes delivered at diploma, degree and, more recently, Masters' level. In collaboration with clinical colleagues and the statutory authorities, the University of Hertfordshire has presented a programme of preparation at Masters' level since 1997. Revalidation in 2001 provided the opportunity to review the learning and teaching methods, and a decision was made to use Action Learning as an important component of the new programme that commenced in 2002. Alongside the normal university quality assessment mechanisms, a systematic evaluation was undertaken to explore the acceptability and perceived usefulness of Action Learning by the students of the second and third cohorts. This paper presents the findings of this evaluation.