'A Quiet Place' Project: an of Early Therapeutic Intervention within Mainstream Schools

This paper discusses the nature of the therapeutic intervention provided by A Quiet Place project, outlining its aims, objectives, philosophy and intervention protocol. In line with the requirements of the action research paradigm according to which the project was established, this article evaluates the changes and developments that have occurred since its inception. Noting the strengths and weaknesses of the pilot study, the present study reports on the internal and external monitoring procedures, extending the latter via the development of observation scales specific to the nature of the intervention. Participants (N=54) were matched with a non–participant control group on variables of gender, age and background. Data were collected before and after the six week intervention period, producing an index of change on a bipolar scale of positive and negative behaviours. An independent samples t–test revealed that the overall change observed was statistically significant (p<0.001), while analysis by behaviour category, gender, age and reason for referral provided greater detail for the meaningful interpretation of results. Fran Renwick, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool Department of Education, and Bob Spalding, senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool Department of Education, conclude that these overwhelmingly positive results need to be treated with cautious optimism, pending longer–term follow–up data to determine the degree to which gains are maintained over time.     

Utilisation conjointe du milieu et des ressources technologiques pour la formation des maîtres

Perusse, P., Décamps, E.A. and Pécot, F. “Utilisation conjointe du milieu et des ressources technologiques pour la formation des maîtres,” Revue ATEE Journal 3(1980)119‐133.

The training of teachers simply must develop. Yet, this development is at times thwarted by the latent conservative attitude of education. The introduction of educational technology, the technical and psychological integration of new teaching practices and more precisely of the latest products of audiovisual research, together with the computerized communications systems could provide the opportunity for that necessary break between the past and the present.

The resulting modification of relationships between those who teach and those who are taught, the new definition of tasks, and more particularly the part given to learners in the training of future teachers will make possible an opening towards the outside world and the coming into existence of a school of responsibility through responsibility. The first experiments show that we still have a long way to go before that aim is achieved.     

DOCTORAL TRAINING IN EUROPE

This article essentially fulfills three tasks, that of giving a rapid and systematic overview of doctoral programmes by country in western Europe, that of describing certain initiatives taken by specific countries with the aim of improving third cycle (doctoral) studies, and that of arguing in favour of the establishment of so‐called European inter‐university doctoral programmes. So far as the first task is concerned, the authors note that all but two of the countries concerned have opted for the so‐called PhD type of doctoral programme rather than for long‐cycle programmes. In the case of the second task, they have given particular attention to efforts made in the Federal Republic of Germany to create separate doctoral level institutions. In the case of the third task, the authors have sketched a networking process by which inter‐university and inter‐disciplinary doctoral programmes are being created in certain specific disciplines, particularly scientific ones. The authors consider that such doctorates hold great potential but that their elaboration is being held up by lack of resources and by difficulties in finding, matching, and linking partners.     

DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSIFICATION OF THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FUNCTIONS OF FRENCH UNIVERSITIES

With special reference to the Paul Sabatier University of Toulouse, the authors trace the development of the French universities from the élitist Napoleonic institutions that they still were in the early 1960's to the mass, diversified institutions of today. They stress the importance of the events of 1968 as a major turning point which had a particularly strong impact because they occurred during a period of prosperity. Thus the wide‐scale expansion, democratization, diversification, and massification which occurred led to a positive reaction to the call for increased vocationalization and co‐operation with industry which characterized the lean years that followed. Other stimuli for change and adaptation have been modifications in the legal structure of higher education, the need to increase offerings in continuing education, policies favouring decentralization and regionalization, and the influence of European Union higher education policies. The need to provide high quality higher education in a number of areas to a very large proportion of the age cohort is understood to be a social and economic necessity. The evolution of French higher education since 1968 could offer lessons and examples to the higher education systems of eastern and central Europe in their efforts to cope with transition. The role of universities in the modern world has been greatly enhanced. Important changes have occurred in French higher education over the past twenty‐five years, the resultpartly of the adoption of new laws, of social evolution, of economic needs and challenges, and of individual initiatives undertaken and voluntary policies adopted by universities.