CHILDREN WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIOUR DIFFICULTIES AND THEIR PARENTS

This article is based on a paper given by the author at the 1998 conference of the Association of Workers for Children with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties.     

Helpful and unhelpful practices in meeting the needs of pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties: a pilot survey of staff views in one local authority

The emotional and behavioural problems experienced by pupils continue to be a key concern for educationalists. In this article, Peter Lloyd Bennett, an educational psychologist, reports on his research into the views of staff about this important area of work. Questionnaires on meeting the needs of pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties were circulated among professionals in one local authority as part of the development of the authority's behaviour support plan. Respondents were asked to identify the practices and forms of additional support which, in their view, resulted in successful and less successful outcomes for pupils. Peter Lloyd Bennett analysed these responses and presents here ideas about staffing, strategies, training, multi-agency work, provision and the role of parents. Interestingly, staff working with primary-aged pupils frequently referred to whole-school behaviour policies as contributing to successful outcomes. Professionals involved with both primary- and secondary-aged pupils suggested that the constraints of the National Curriculum can contribute to pupils' emotional and behavioural difficulties. The results of this survey were used to inform developments in Peter Lloyd Bennett's local authority and will be directly relevant to colleagues grappling with similar issues in other contexts.     

'You Have to Learn to Love Yourself 'Cos No One Else Will.' Young Women with 'Social,Emotional or Behavioural Difficulties' and the Idea of the Underclass

This article discusses some of the findings of a small-scale qualitative study involving young women identified and processed as deviant, that is as having 'social, emotional or behavioural difficulties', in their school years. It also explores some of the ideas currently much discussed in both the press and academic literature about the underclass and lone motherhood, arguing for an understanding that acknowledges the complex interweaving of structure and agency in the lives of disadvantaged young women.     

Self-efficacy as an evaluation measure for programs in support of online learning literacies for undergraduates

This study evaluated an intervention for building undergraduates' technological literacies for higher education in support of use of the learning management system and desktop applications. Self-efficacy scores between a control group and a treatment group were compared. Relationships between scores and demographic/experiential variables were also analyzed. The study failed to find (with limited strengths) significant differences between control and treatment. Differences between exempted and control students were found. Relationships between age, gender, and experience with online learning were rejected; however a relationship between experience with computers and scores was not rejected. For treatment learners, mastery experience and physical/emotional response to task performance were stronger self-efficacy sources than were verbal persuasion and vicarious experience. Results indicated that design might be improved by increasing sources of verbal persuasion and vicarious experience. The study also highlighted a need to monitor students' diverse backgrounds with technology.