Informing Culturally Competent Practice Through Cross-Racial Friendships

International and interdisciplinary literature on cross-racial friendships is critically reviewed as a source of relevant and provocative data for counselling professionals dedicated to multiculturalism. The authors discuss the dynamics of cross-racial friendships and implications for counsellors. Using practical examples grounded by interdisciplinary literature, the authors expand discussions about racism within the counselling profession.     

Training reading and phoneme awareness skills in children with Down syndrome

The authors report a short-term reading intervention study involving 15 children with Down syndrome (DS) who attended mainstream schools. The intervention programme taught children phoneme segmentation and blending skills in the context of learning letter-sounds and working with words in books. The children were taught by their learning support assistants, who received special training for this purpose. Compared to a waiting group, a group of eight children with DS improved significantly on measures of early literacy skills (letter-sound knowledge, Early Word Recognition) following eight weeks of intervention. The waiting group started to make progress once they received the intervention. Both groups maintained progress on the literacy measures five months after the intervention had finished. The results suggest that children with DS can benefit from structured, phonics-based reading intervention.     

在企业培训中克服E-Learning障碍

E-Learning的时代到来了,教室将要永远消失了！每个人都将热火朝天地使用我们的网站学习门户网站和学习管理系统进行学习。虚拟教室,桌面会议系统,2417(①)等都将纷纷来临……”关于E-Learning的错误看法到处都是！     

Negotiating status hierarchies in middle school inquiry science: implications for marginal non-participation

Instructional Science - While previous classroom studies of status hierarchies tell us who has low status and how to increase those learners’ participation in small group contexts via...     

Description of Environmental Factors in Schools: Lessons from a Study in North–West Spain

The objective of this study is to offer a view on the different environmental factors that affect health (sound, light, colour, temperature) in the design, planning and organization of school premises. To achieve this, the authors first outline the problems leading to unhealthy situations. They subsequently analyse all the building and planning factors behind those problems based on a study carried out in the Autonomous Community of Galicia, in the north west of Spain. The study took as its subject all secondary-level education centres built in Galicia since the Spanish Basic Act on the Educational System (LOGSE) was passed by the Spanish Parliament in 1990. To conclude, the article offers a number of guidelines to be taken into account when designing a school environment.     

The tenth year of English: Review of a project concerning second language learning at university level

During a three-year period of co-operation between the English Department and the Institute of Educational Research at the University of Gothenburg, studies have been made with a view to clarifying a definition of the objectives of English language courses and improving methods of teaching and testing English language proficiency at university level. Considerable success was achieved in the construction of a test battery by means of which a reliable and comprehensive measure could be arrived at of students' written and oral proficiency. By the aid of these tests one could also define with a reasonable degree of accuracy the requirements for a normal course of study.Since the level of proficiency at entrance emerges as the principal determinant of the level exhibited a year later, the author argues that the specification of objectives (for language proficiency) should take account not only of the terminal level but also of the initial level.

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Résumé Au travers d'une coopération de trois ans entre le Département d'anglais et l'Institut de recherche sur l'éducation à l'Université de Gothenburg, ont été réalisées un certain nombre d'études dans le but de clarifier les objectifs des cours de langue anglaise, d'améliorer les méthodes d'enseignement et d'éprouver la compétence dans cette langue au niveau universitaire. On a réussi à mettre au point une série de tests, grâce auxquels on pourrait procéder à une mesure adéquate et sûre de la compétence écrite et orale des étudiants. A l'aide de ces tests on pourrait aussi déterminer avec assez de précision les besoins auxquels devrait répondre un cours normal.Puisque le niveau de compétence existant au départ parait constituer le déterminant principal du niveau atteint un an plus tard, l'auteur soutient que la spécification des objectifs (pour la compétence dans la langue) devrait prendre en compte non seulement le viveau final mais aussi le niveau initial.

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The autor wishes to thank Professor Alvar Ellegård, Dr. Sigvard Gårdmark, and Dr. David Wright for their most valuable comments.     

Validity of Holland’s theory in adolescence: evidence from a Slovak sample

The underlying calculus assumption of Holland’s theory was tested in two samples of primary school students (N₁ = 400 and N₂ = 250) with an average age of 13.86 and 14.14 years, respectively. Both exploratory and confirmatory multidimensional scaling and Hubert and Arabie’s randomization test of hypothesized order relations were calculated. The circular spatial arrangement of RIASEC types was not confirmed in either of the two samples. The study discusses possible causes of the inappropriateness of using Holland’s model in an adolescent sample.

     

Exploring the social inclusion of deaf young people in mainstream schools,using their lived experience

Research suggests that children with hearing loss face a number of difficulties in the education system, including socially. Although there has been much research with the severe to profound deaf population there has been little research into the life experiences of children with moderate hearing loss who attend mainstream secondary schools. This research sought to examine the experiences of social inclusion for five young people with moderate hearing loss. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews in the young person’s school setting and were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Although each participant had distinctive experiences, there were a number of common themes that emerged indicating the factors that support social inclusion and those which create barriers for deaf children in schools. Implications for educational psychologists are considered and the limitations of the research are outlined.