How do practitioners in early years provision promote Fundamental British Values?

In 2015, the United Kingdom government harnessed Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) providers to its anti-terrorism strategy by placing them within the scope of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015. They became subject to the ‘Prevent Duty’ which requires them to have due regard to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. However, the promotion of Fundamental British Values (FBV), as a specific measure to prevent young children being drawn into terrorism, has raised questions about the role of the ECEC sector as an instrument of counter terrorism policy. This paper analyses the ways in which early childhood practitioners mediated the requirement to promote FBV through their pedagogical practice. Although practitioners are commissioned to mediate specific values formulated in the political arena their response was complex and multi-layered. Whilst a public display of compliance to FBV was performative values education was an everyday pedagogical practice unconstrained by the instituted definitions of FBV. Practitioners deployed a contextual moral pedagogy where children construct understandings of moral values and practices characterised by rich democratic dialogues.     

Parent-reported Participation in Children with Moderate-to-severe Developmental Disabilities: Preliminary Analysis of Associated Factors using the ICF Framework

Children with developmental disabilities are at risk for limited participation in everyday activities. This study investigated factors that hindered or facilitated participation in 58 children with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities who attended special schools. The parents completed surveys on their children’s participation, developmental profile, environmental restrictions, parental self-efficacy and family demographics. Multiple regression analyses indicated that four variables were identified as strong predictors of specific children’s participation and, overall, explained a small-to-moderate magnitude of variance. Social-emotional ability was associated positively with all aspects of children’s participation (including diversity, intensity and enjoyment). Children with better communication and those who had only one sibling engaged in a higher number of activities and did so more frequently. The children of parents with higher self-efficacy enjoyed themselves more during participation. The findings provide preliminary information that could be useful for families and health care professionals to facilitate participation of children with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities.     

Multiple-Choice versus Open-Ended Questions in Advanced Clinical Neuroanatomy: Using a National Neuroanatomy Assessment to Investigate Variability in Performance Using Different Question Types

Methods of assessment in anatomy vary across medical schools in the United Kingdom (UK) and beyond; common methods include written, spotter, and oral assessment. However, there is limited research evaluating these methods in regards to student performance and perception. The National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition (NUNC) is held annually for medical students throughout the UK. Prior to 2017, the competition asked open-ended questions (OEQ) in the anatomy spotter examination, and in subsequent years also asked single best answer (SBA) questions. The aim of this study is to assess medical students’ performance on, and perception of, SBA and OEQ methods of assessment in a spotter style anatomy examination. Student examination performance was compared between OEQ (2013–2016) and SBA (2017–2020) for overall score and each neuroanatomical subtopic. Additionally, a questionnaire explored students’ perceptions of SBAs. A total of 631 students attended the NUNC in the studied period. The average mark was significantly higher in SBAs compared to OEQs (60.6% vs. 43.1%, P < 0.0001)—this was true for all neuroanatomical subtopics except the cerebellum. Students felt that they performed better on SBA than OEQs, and diencephalon was felt to be the most difficult neuroanatomical subtopic (n = 38, 34.8%). Students perceived SBA questions to be easier than OEQs and performed significantly better on them in a neuroanatomical spotter examination. Further work is needed to ascertain whether this result is replicable throughout anatomy education.     

Reliability and Validity of the PLAYfun Tool with Children and Youth in Northern Canada

The reliability and validity of the PLAYfun and PLAYbasic tools were assessed. The PLAYfun, PLAYbasic, Canadian Agility and Movement Skill Assessment (CAMSA) obstacle course, and Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C) were administered to children (aged 8–14 years) in two remote Canadian communities. Inter-rater reliability of the PLAYfun and PLAYbasic were good-to-excellent for average measures and moderate-to-good for single measures. The PLAYfun subscales were poor-to-excellent for average and single measures. The internal consistency of the PLAYfun tool was good, PLAYbasic was poor-to-good, and the individual subscales were poor-to-good. Convergent validity was moderate-to-large for the PLAY tools and CAMSA obstacle course, and small-to-moderate for the PLAY tools and the PAQ-C, and small-to-moderate for the PLAY tools and age. For children and youth in northern Canada, the motor competence aspect of physical literacy is most accurately assessed using the complete PLAYfun tool and two raters.     

Canoe slalom competition analysis

The aim of this study was to quantify the differences between groups of elite canoe slalom athletes based on the class they paddle in and the strategies they use in competition. Canoe and kayak footage was recorded using three cameras and analysed using lapsed-time time-motion analysis. Analysis was undertaken on the ten fastest competition runs for men's kayak and canoes and women's kayak for the 22-gate semi-final/final course at the 2005 canoe slalom world championships. Comparison between the categories of paddlers revealed that despite canoe paddlers taking significantly (P < or = 0.05) fewer strokes than kayak paddlers, they were not significantly slower than men's single kayak paddlers with respect to their run times and only significantly slower between 4 of 22 gates. Results revealed also that paddlers using different turn strategies (spin vs. pivot) had significantly (P < or = 0.05) different split times for the gates before and after the execution of the manoeuvre. For a paddler this means that their individual strategy could be analysed and compared with those of others to determine if alternate strategies would be beneficial to their performance.     

Longitudinal and Concurrent Relations among Temperament, Ability Estimation, and Injury Proneness

This study examined longitudinal and concurrent relations between temperament, ability estimation, and injury proneness. Longitudinal assessments of Inhibitory Control were collected through a behavioral battery at toddler (33 months) and preschool ages (46 months). Parent-reported measures of Inhibitory Control and Extraversion also were obtained at those ages. At school age (76 months), children participated in a set of tasks to assess overestimation and underestimation of physical abilities. Parents provided reports of children's temperament and injury history at school age. Results showed that children who were high on Extraversion and low on Inhibitory Control as toddlers and preschoolers tended to overestimate their physical abilities and to have more unintentional injuries at age 6. Children low on Extraversion and high on Inhibitory Control tended to underestimate their physical abilities. Implications for injury prevention are discussed.     

Employability skills in mainstream education: Innovations in schooling and institutional isomorphism

In England, the Studio Schools model, focused on developing employability skills in young people, represents a disruptive attempt at educational innovation. Through a documentary analysis of foundational documents, interviews with the model’s architects and case studies of five Studio Schools, we map the tensions between theoretical conceptualisations of the model and the messy realities of implementing it. We found that the schools faced a wide range of challenges related particularly to local inter-school competition, centralised accountability measures and structural assumptions about the ‘gold educational standard’. When facing these challenges, the course of least resistance for the schools was an iterative abandonment of the distinctive aspects of the Studio Schools model and a move back towards mainstream approaches to schooling. This process of institutional homogenisation is discussed through the lens of neo-institutional theory, with the challenges schools faced and their trajectories framed in terms of coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism. We argue that the use of isomorphism as a heuristic device provides important insight into the process of educational innovation in an educational system that combines competition and the risk of market failure with coercive accountability measures and embedded assumptions about the ‘gold standard’ schooling pathway.     

Pedagogic Metadata

As more and more on-line resources are becoming available, finding ones suitable for specific educational purposes is becoming increasingly difficult. Not only must the subject matter be appropriate and the content be accurate, but the resources must also match the educational level and background of the user. Once a suitable Web site, graphic, applet, or other resource has been located, additional problems must be faced if it is to be integrated into a learning environment. There might be software incompatibilities, legal issues, and questions concerning how it will interface with other components. This article offers a non-technical introduction and overview of metadata, an important and fascinating part of the solution to these problems. It gives the definition and examples of metadata, shows how metadata can help non-experts search for on-line resources, and explains how metadata can assist in the use and re-use of on-line pedagogic materials. It ends with a discussion of learning object metadata, the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee standard that has recently been accepted by the major pedagogic metadata efforts.     

Evidence‐based practice and teacher action‐research: a reflection on the nature and direction of ‘change’

This study was conceived as an opportunity to reflect on the place of action‐research in the contested landscape of educational change in the UK where increasing emphasis has been put on the use of evidence to drive reform. In the context of a government‐sponsored project in Scotland, this study looked at the impact of a scholarship initiative supporting classroom teachers to undertake action‐research projects on a topic of their own choice with the assistance of a mentor. Data collected from interviews with teachers and analysis of teacher action‐research reports pointed to a multi‐faceted concept of practice unfolding from individual inquiry and dialogical conversations with colleagues and university mentors. The study argues for further analysis of the use of action‐research as a means to develop teachers’ knowledge and to recover the value of collective and creative engagements in education to guide reform.