From preschool to home: processes of generalisation in language acquisition from an indigenous language recovery programme

Processes of generalising bilingual expertise from Te Kohanga Reo (an indigenous preschool for the revitalisation of Maori language) to home are analysed. Observations at the preschool and home settings revealed several features. The active and strategic role of the child in transferring expertise was evident. So too were the presence of complementary activities at home, sensitive responding to generalised language and shared cultural commitments. These processes were present in a range of activities. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical approaches to generalisation and the effectiveness of indigenous language intervention programmes.     

In Partnership with Industry: The Educational — Industrial Interface

The paper discusses the long-term strategic approach to collaboration between education and industry initiated by Glasgow School of Art's Department of Product Design, and examines the opportunities and benefits of the investment in the post of an Industrial Liaison Officer (ILO) over a four year period which furthered this partnership. The paper shows the need for a professionally and adequately resourced approach to provide mutual benefits to industry and education, and to the economy in general     

“Science of the singular”: an explanatory single case study of whole school guidance counselling in Ireland

This article will discuss the findings of a single explanatory case study on the model of whole school guidance counselling in the Irish secondary school system, which was carried out during a turbulent period of policy and practice changes in the delivery of guidance counselling services to students from 2012 onwards. Although the case study is positioned within a single voluntary school, the findings may be typical of similar secondary schools settings in Ireland and abroad. Particular focus is given to explicating the key findings of the case study through the specific themes of: concepts of whole school guidance counselling, the Irish integrated model of guidance counselling, stakeholder roles and responsibilities, and the effect of resource re-allocations by policy makers funding guidance school services.     

Novice Supervisees' Self‐Evaluations and Their Perceptions of Supervisor Style

Multiple regression analyses of data obtained for 36 counseling supervision dyads indicated that attractiveness, an aspect of supervisory style, was negatively associated with supervisees' self‐evaluations and positively associated with the difference between trainees' and supervisors' evaluations of counseling competence at the end of the 1st practicum experience. Supervisors' interpersonal sensitivity and task orientation were not found to contribute significantly to either of the criterion variables.     

Emotional Intelligence and Education: A critical review

In recent years there has been an increased interest in the role of emotional intelligence in both the academic success of students and their emotional adjustment in school. However, promotion of emotional intelligence in schools has proven a controversial pursuit, challenging as it does traditional “rationalist” views of education. Furthermore, research findings in this area have been inconsistent at best. In this article we discuss the following key questions relating to this important debate. What do we mean by emotional “intelligence”? What impact would improved emotional intelligence have on learners’ emotional health and well‐being, academic achievement, and other adaptive outcomes? Can emotional intelligence be taught? It is felt that these are the key issues for consideration in developing policy, practice, and further research in this area.     

Liberalism and Communitarianism: a response to two recent attempts to reconcile individual autonomy with group identity

This article is concerned with recent attempts to balance the claims for political citizenship in a liberal democracy (liberalism) with competing claims for cultural identity within traditional non‐liberal communities (communitarianism). Claims of the first kind are usually seen as universal in that they are based on what it is to be human, while claims of the second kind are seen as particular in so far as they relate to membership of a specific culture. Singh (1997) argues for discussion method as a means of reconciling the claims of democratic citizenship with those of cultural attachment in non‐liberal communities. In an earlier and related paper, Singh (1995) also seeks an accommodation between shared and particular values in a multicultural society. Halstead (1997) is concerned about the dilemmas faced by liberal educators and by Muslims with regard to the sex education curriculum and Muslim pupils. In an earlier paper, Halstead (1995) makes proposals for a curriculum which combines a communitarian commitment to the cultural integrity of non‐liberal communities with active participation in the life of a liberal democracy. I will argue that whether we begin from a liberal commitment to individual autonomy (Singh) or from a concern for the cultural integrity and survival of non‐liberal communities (Halstead), there are very real difficulties in achieving a reconciliation between liberal and communitarian perspectives.     

From social interaction to individual reasoning: an empirical investigation of a possible socio-cultural model of cognitive development

This study explores the theory that individual reasoning ability, as measured using standard reasoning tests, has part of its origin in dialogue with others. In the study, 64 eight- and nine-year-old children were taught the use of ‘exploratory talk’, a type of talk in which joint reasoning is made explicit. The relationship between the talk of the children and the solving of Raven's test problems was studied using discourse analysis of groups working together. The findings of the study support four claims: that use of exploratory talk can improve group reasoning, that exploratory talk can be taught, that the teaching of exploratory talk can successfully transfer between educational contexts and that individual results on a standard non-verbal reasoning test significantly improved as a result of the intervention teaching exploratory talk. Our results offer support for the hypothesis that experience of social reasoning can improve scores on measures of individual reasoning. The stronger hypothesis that general cognitive development is a product of induction into social reasoning remains in doubt.