Pre-service educators’ dispositions toward inclusive practices for students with emotional and behavioural difficulties

ABSTRACT

In response to challenging behaviour from students with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD), teachers around the world often label students as challenging, defining them by their disability. Negative views of students with EBD are a barrier to their inclusion and a major challenge for policy in the United States and elsewhere associated with access to the education system for students with disabilities. Pre-service teacher education has been highlighted as an optimum time to instil in pre-service educators a more equitable disposition toward behaviour management and inclusive practices. Therefore, the purpose of the current mixed-methods study was to assess whether or not an undergraduate course focused on relationship-based approaches to positive behaviour support could impact pre-service educators’ dispositions toward inclusive classroom practices for students with EBD. Survey results from 41 pre-service educators indicated that participants made significant improvements in their knowledge and understanding of compassionate behaviour management, intentional relationship building, and establishment of a welcoming classroom environment. Analysis of participants’ written responses to open-ended questions revealed several themes regarding changes in dispositions toward students with EBD. Implications for pre-service educator preparation and inclusion of students with EBD are discussed.     

Scaling-up Sustainable Land Management Practices through the Concept of the Rural Resource Centre: Reconciling Farmers' Interests with Research Agendas

Abstract

Purpose: Formal agricultural research has generated vast amount of knowledge and fundamental insights on land management, but their low adoption has been attributed to the use of public extension approach. This research aims to address whether and how full participation of farmers through the concept of Rural Resource Centre (RRC) provides new insights for the development of alternative and farmers-based extension methods.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Using the Concept of RRC, this research assesses the role of farmers in on-farm demonstrations and scaling-up of land management practices, and investigates effective ways to enhance beneficial interactions between researchers, extension workers and farmers in view of improving adoption.

Findings: The findings suggest that farmers can effectively participate in demonstrations and scaling-up of agricultural practices. This participation is enhanced by judicious incentives such as higher crop yields that motivate farmers and influence adoption. The current success of the approach stems from the fact that farmers, extension workers and researchers jointly implement the activities and their different aims were achieved simultaneously: scientific results for researchers, better agricultural practices for extension workers, and economic success and free choice for farmers.

Practical implications: This research concludes that farmers have the capacities to play an innermost role in demonstrations and scaling-up of agricultural practices. However, there is a need to build and strengthen their capacities to facilitate their participation and contribution.

Originality/Value: The article demonstrates the value of the preponderant role of farmers in on-farm demonstrations and scaling-up practices by exhibiting the beneficial interactions between researchers, extension workers and farmers.     

Premature closure and guided reinvention: a case study in a web‐based learning environment

Just as linguistic errors have provided insights into the nature of linguistic competence(s), detailed analyses of blind spots or marked trajectories in the reflection cycles of novice teachers may provide a window on their underlying beliefs, and thus on relevant zones of proximal development. In this paper we analyse a case study in an experimental web‐based learning environment in which a novice teacher demonstrably just reproduces the assumptions she started out with rather than re‐inspecting them. Having located a problem of motivation uniquely inside the learners’ heads, she pointedly ignores hints in the feedback that her own verbal and nonverbal behaviour in the classroom might be a relevant domain of enquiry. Our findings show the need for structural interventions within a priori hypothesized, linearly ordered, stages in reflection models. We report on two small‐scale experiments that implement suggested changes in the architecture of the web site which yield more context‐sensitive ways of scaffolding reflection. In conclusion we argue that detailed discursive accounts of successful and less successful reflection trajectories are needed to refine and further develop models in teacher thinking.     

Safe Schools for LGBTQI Students: How Do Teachers View Their Role in Promoting Safe Schools?

This literature review presents insights from existing research on how teachers view their role in creating safe schools for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) students. Analysis of the literature shows that there are concerns for LGBTQI students’ safety in schools, that educational settings operate from a position of heteronormativity, and that heterosexual teachers are uniquely positioned as part of the dominant group in which they help to define what is normal and what is deviant in school culture. Research findings on the ways heterosexual teachers respond to institutional heteronormativity are summarized and compared. This review of research provides considerations for and recommendations to school administrators and teacher educators to address needs of teachers. Areas for future research also are identified.     

THROUGH OUR EYES: HELPING EMERGING TEACHERS SEE THEMSELVES

Preservice teachers benefit from opportunities to intentionally and systematically evaluate their practice. Teachers Observational Tools (TOTs) described in this article are useful instruments that effectively guide teaching interns’ and their coaching teachers’ observations. They give education students opportunities to draw conclusions and evaluate their own work rather then relying on coaching teachers’ opinions. These tools are appealing to constructivist teacher educators. These observational techniques have been used effectively by students preparing to teach young children, but could be used effectively by those working with students of all ages. They are popular with preservice teachers and their supervisors and have, additionally, made an important contribution to our University's professional development school partnerships.     

Conservation of stained glass windows with protective glazing: Main results from the European VIDRIO research programme

The methodology of protecting the European stained glass windows against environmental risk (e.g. meteorological factors, air pollution, microorganisms) by means of an external glazing is not new. In spite of many scientific studies carried out in the last 20 years, some questions were still up for discussion. The European VIDRIO (2002–2005) project gave an answer to these questions. The research carried out by the different project partners established a new multidisciplinary approach aimed at evaluating the efficiency of the protective glazing systems and their effects on stained glass windows conservation, and finally at assessing the most appropriate strategy to preserve stained glass windows. Scientific results showed that the so-called isothermal glazing (i.e. ventilation by the air coming from the inside of the building) protected efficiently the ancient stained glass window from environmental attack (i.e. rain, pollutants, condensation, thermal shocks) with very limited secondary effects. The scientific research highlighted that its efficiency was strongly related to the technical design of the protective system. In particular, the ventilation and the size of the interspace had to be carefully considered. The research developed within the VIDRIO project was turned into general recommendations to the owners and practitioners on the best practice for the stained glass windows future conservation.     

A procedure to assess the suitability of plaster to protect vernacular earthen architecture

As part of a working definition of a new code of practice, this paper develops a methodology to determine the suitability of plasters manufactured on-site to protect the earthen walls of vernacular architecture buildings. Given the diversity of raw earth construction types, ranging from massive earth to stone masonry with earth mortars, and the variability of the materials used, two on-site tests (a shrinkage test followed by a shear test) were proposed. Those tests, as well as additional tests, were performed with lime/sand, earth/sand and earth with plaster admixtures. Lime/sand plasters do not typically pose shrinkage issues, which is why more earth based specimens were tested than lime based specimens. An analysis of the on-site testing complemented with laboratory tests reveals an antagonistic control of the bond between earth plaster and earthen wall based on clay content: an increase in the plaster clay content leads to increased bending strength, which strengthens the plaster and increased shrinkage, which weakens the plaster-wall interface. The heterogeneity of the wall leads to a wide range of results; therefore, this study was conducted to validate the formulation of plasters by means of shrinkage and shear tests at five different points on the wall. The shrinkage test allows finding the earth plaster formulations. Among all the validated formulations, the mason chooses the best one thanks to two criteria: the best workability (which is variable according to masons) with the highest clay content as possible. Then, when the formulation is chosen, the shear test must be done to verify if the bond between the plaster and the wall is high enough. This series of tests allows masons to validate formulations that will ensure good mechanical resistance of the plasters that protect buildings of vernacular earthen architecture.