Exploring the social connections in preschool settings between children labelled with special educational needs and their peers

This paper reports on a small-scale study of the social interactions between six children labelled with special educational needs and their peers in their respective early years settings. Data from play observations, photographs and staff interviews is used to examine the dynamics of the connections that they make with other children. The position of these six children as active agents in making decisions about their peer interactions is highlighted and the ways that this agency is expressed is analysed. By focusing on the personal strategies that the children use to make social connections the findings contribute to the developing understanding of children's relationships within inclusive early years settings. In particular compatible play interests and personalities are identified as significant factors that attract children to one another in this case study. It also emerged that recurrent playmates did not feature consistently in the social exchanges involving this group of children. This factor is considered in the context of it being indicative of the social connections that children labelled with special educational needs pursue. Suggestions for further investigation are proposed and key practice messages offered around developing awareness and facilitation of social connections between children.     

Critical Mass and Pedagogic Continuity: studies in academic habitus

The paper is based on ethnographic work with doctoral students, their supervisors and postdoctoral researchers in three contrasting disciplines: biochemistry, artificial intelligence and physical geography. It explores how stability and continuity in scientific disciplines are sustained through socialisation processes of doctoral research. It identifies the inter‐generational transmission of knowledge, skills and assumptions within the institutional setting of laboratory or the research group. Working on ‘standardised packages’ in such social contexts, doctoral students are enculturated into scientific work. Despite setbacks and uncertainties in getting their research to ‘work’ doctoral students express faith that their problems are ‘doable’. Drawing on these empirical findings we suggest that these forms of pedagogic continuity are of more significance in the enculturation of doctoral students and the reproduction of scientific knowledge than the presence or absence of a ‘critical mass’ of active researchers (as has been suggested by the recent Harris review of postgraduate education in the UK). We therefore suggest that recent UK policy formation that has emphasized the notion of critical mass deserves critical scrutiny, and that there is need for perspectives more sensitive to disciplinary cultures and departmental organization.     

Toronto multiagency child abuse research project: The abused and the abuser

Information from 422 cases of child mistreatment in Toronto was gathered from the files of a child welfare agency and a children's hospital. These data were compared to patterns reported in previous studies and clinical writings on child mistreatment to investigate similarities and differences in families whose children have been abused in Canada, England, and the United States. Findings from the present study were similar to others in many respects. The differences were primarily in the area of lower incidences of such problems as perinatal difficulties in the children and intellectual limitations and social isolation in the parents; however, there was a higher incidence of single-parent families. The results suggest that clinicians should bear in mind that child mistreatment cannot be ruled out on the grounds that no serious problems have been noted for the child or the family.     

Achieving Academic Literacy: Disciplined Discourse

Concerns that students increasingly come to tertiary studies ill‐prepared for academic pursuit in the disciplines have generated a broad range of supplementary tuition in Australian Universities during the past decade. Many researchers and tertiary teachers have from experience realized that tertiary learning skills are very much context‐, or discipline‐specific. This paper is concerned with making context‐specific expectations known to students through a process of ‘showing how’, rather than ‘telling what’. Two highly specialized teaching structures were used to generate appropriate questions for students, thereby providing parameters for their search and research and ultimately, their writing in the discipline.     

The social construction of reading strategies: new directions for research

In recent decades reading research has moved from predominantly quantitative work to more qualitative studies in which individual readers are observed in interaction with texts. Considerable differences have been found in the strategies employed by these readers, especially by those of different social and cultural backgrounds. These diverse strategies can be partly attributed to the different processes by which people learn to read and through the different ways in which they see written texts used in their own social environments; the contrasting situations and strategies of Japanese and Nigerian readers are used to illustrate the point. If teachers are to deal effectively with readers of various cultural backgrounds—as they must do in ESL and EFL classes—they need to know more about such contrasts; more work is therefore needed on the relationship between the literacy practices of cultural communities and the reading strategies of particular individuals.     

Pupil authors and teacher innovators

This article explores three aspects regarding the supporting of teaching and learning through ICT. First, the use and value of storyboarding as a preferable technique prior to the creation of a pupil‐authored CD‐ROM by children aged 9 and 14. Second, responses to the innovation by practising teachers. Third, lessons learned from trying to incorporate the CD‐ROM within UK teacher training. The article ends with suggestions regarding future ICT training approaches. The content of the CD‐ROM was centred on environmental education and the use of local wildlife sites in the UK. In summary, the paper suggests that there are considerable learning gains to be had from enabling children to create their own multimedia sequences but that institutional constraints make these difficult to achieve. School‐based teacher education in the UK currently restricts the opportunity for experimentation and innovation, which, in turn, impacts on the full potential of teaching and learning through ICT.

Cet article explore trois facettes de la question du soutien que les technologies de l'information et de la communication apportent à l'enseignement et à l'apprentissage. Premièrement, l'utilisation et la contribution des scénarimages comme technique préalable préférable à la réalisation d'un CD ROM par des élèves âgés de 9 à 14 ans. Deuxièmement, les réactions des professeurs en exercice vis‐à‐vis de cette innovation. Troisièmement, les leçons tirées des tentatives d'incorporation des CD ROMS dans la formation des profs au Royaume‐Uni. L'article se termine par des suggestions concernant l'approche future de la formation aux technologies de la communication et de l'information. Le contenu du CD ROM était centré sur l'éducation environnementale et l'utilisation des sites de la vie sauvage locale au Royaume –Uni. En résumé, l'article suggère qu'il existe de véritables bénéfices pour l'apprentissage, à donner la possibilité aux enfants de créer leurs propres séquences multimédia mais que les contraintes institutionnelles rendent cela difficile à réaliser. Le système anglais de la formation des professeurs, basée sur les stages en école, réduit la possibilité d'innover. En retour, cela a un impact sur le potentiel total de l'enseignement et l'apprentissage à travers les technologies de l'information et de la communication.

Este artículo explora tres aspectos referentes a la contribución de la tecnología de comunicación e información a la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. En primer lugar, el uso y valor de la invención de historias como técnica previa a la creación de un CD‐ROM cuyos autores son alumnos de 9 a 14 años. En segundo lugar, las respuestas que algunos profesores en ejercicio dieron a tal innovación. Por último, las conclusiones extraídas tras intentar incorporar el CD‐ROM a la formación del profesorado en el Reino Unido. El artículo termina con sugerencias relativas al posible enfoque para el aprendizaje de la tecnología de comunicación e información en el futuro. El contenido del CD‐ROM estaba basado en la educación medioambiental y el uso de las reservas naturales en el Reino Unido. En resumen, el trabajo sugiere que existen ventajas educativas importantes para los alumnos al poder crear sus propias secuencias multimedia, pero las restricciones institucionales dificultan su obtención. La formación del profesorado en el Reino Unido, basado en la experiencia escolar, limita en la actualidad las oportunidades de éste para experimentar e innovar, lo que, a su vez, repercute en el pleno potencial de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje a través de la tecnología de comunicación e información.

Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit drei Aspekten des Lehrens und Lernens bzgl. deren Erweiterung durch Einbeziehung von Informationstechnologie (Informatik). Erstens: Anwendung und Wert eines ‘Drehplans’ als bevorzugte Methode. Der ‘Drehplan’ gilt als Vorbereitung für eine CD‐ROM, welche von den Autoren, Schülern im Alter von 9 und 14 Jahren, selbst gestaltet wird. Zweitens: Reaktionen auf die Innovation seitens praktizierender Lehrer. Drittens: Erfahrungen aus Versuchen, die CD‐ROM in der britischen Lehrerausbildung einzusetzen. Der Artikel schließt mit Vorschlägen, wie man in Zukunft das Training in Informationstechnologie einführen könnte. Inhaltlich konzentriert sich die CD‐ROM einerseits auf Umwelterziehung (im allgemeinen und im globalen Sinn), andererseits auf Nutzung und Benutzung von Naturschutzgebieten in britischen Orten. In der Zusammenfassung wird dargelegt, dass Kinder zwar beträchtlich profitieren, wenn sie zur Erstellung selbst kreierter multimedialer Sequenzen angeregt werden, dies jedoch im beschränkten schulischen Rahmen nur schwer zu erreichen ist. Die britische, in der Schule stattfindende Lehrerausbildung schränkt gegenwärtig Chancen zum Experimentieren und Innovieren ein, was sich, umgekehrt, auf das gesamte Lehr‐ und Lernpotential im Bereich der Informationstechnologie auswirkt.