Working towards Inclusive Education: Social Contexts

ABSTRACT

Special education in England has developed over a large number of years, during which changes in philosophy and practice have been charted in Acts of Parliament. Current thinking was given focus by the recommendations of the 1978 Warnock Report, many of which have been implemented. The most recent legislation relates to the establishment of Statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN), the introduction of a Code of Practice, recognition of the role of parents and of the need for multi‐professional cooperation, the integration of children with SEN into mainstream classrooms and the right of access of all children to a broad and balanced curriculum, as articulated in the National Curriculum.     

Beliefs of teachers in Italian schools concerning the inclusion of disabled students: a Q‐sort analysis

This paper presents a course of research into the beliefs of class teachers concerning the scholastic integration of children with disabilities. In the current situation in Italy, due to limited specialist training, the attitudes that teachers develop can constitute an obstacle to the full realization of scholastic integration. Of the 23 teachers who took part in the study, conducted using the Q‐sort methodology, some had direct experience with scholastic integration (with opinions both positive and negative); and others had no direct experience (but also had both positive and negative opinions). Using the Q‐sort system, the paper sets out to verify whether effectively the simple manifestation of positive or negative beliefs in relation to inclusion on the part of the teachers (whether they had direct experience or not) could be confirmed, and whether it lent itself to being developed in reference to specific areas of scholastic experience. From the factorial analysis of the Q‐data, four factors emerged that confirm our hypothesis regarding the existence of different beliefs among teachers.     

Evaluating the Comparability of Paper‐ and Computer‐Based Science Tests Across Sex and SES Subgroups

As access and reliance on technology continue to increase, so does the use of computerized testing for admissions, licensure/certification, and accountability exams. Nonetheless, full computer‐based test (CBT) implementation can be difficult due to limited resources. As a result, some testing programs offer both CBT and paper‐based test (PBT) administration formats. In such situations, evidence that scores obtained from different formats are comparable must be gathered. In this study, we illustrate how contemporary statistical methods can be used to provide evidence regarding the comparability of CBT and PBT scores at the total test score and item levels. Specifically, we looked at the invariance of test structure and item functioning across test administration mode across subgroups of students defined by SES and sex. Multiple replications of both confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch differential item functioning analyses were used to assess invariance at the factorial and item levels. Results revealed a unidimensional construct with moderate statistical support for strong factorial‐level invariance across SES subgroups, and moderate support of invariance across sex. Issues involved in applying these analyses to future evaluations of the comparability of scores from different versions of a test are discussed.     

Some Effects of Teaching Designed to Promote Understanding of Racial Issues in Adolescence

Abstract:

Moral education must be based on universal religious values, such as equality and faith, if it expects to have an impact on character development The central objective of our moral education programme is co‐operation. To specify what is meant by co‐operation, three of its aspects ‐‐ courtesy, consultation and service ‐‐ are discussed. Methods of facilitating moral development fall into three categories: ground rules, modelling, and moral reasoning. These methods must be used jointly if they are to be effective. Releasing the potential of both the society and the individual constitutes the goal of moral education.     

Wittgenstein's ‘Relativity’: Training in language‐games and agreement in Forms of Life

Taking Wittgenstein's love of music as my impetus, I approach aporetic problems of epistemic relativity through a round of three overlapping (canonical) inquiries delivered in contrapuntal (higher and lower) registers. I first take up the question of scepticism surrounding ‘groundless knowledge’ and contending paradigms in On Certainty (physics versus oracular divination, or realism versus idealism) with attention given to the role of ‘bedrock’ certainties in providing stability amidst the Heraclitean flux. I then look into the formation of sedimented bedrock knowledge, or practices of knowing, by comparing Wittgenstein's remarks on animal habituation and initiate training into human forms of life. In the latter case, mastery of techniques—our common education—secures agreement in judgment. Finally, I entertain Wittgenstein's obscure references to Einstein's Relativity in Zettel, showing initiate training as a way of ‘setting the clocks’ with variable degrees of certainty, relative to the language‐games played. Together, these three approaches help us to stop the ‘endless circling’ when philosophers try to address knowledge questions through the logic of object and designation, or verification of correspondence between propositions and things. Instead, attention moves to the way we educate our children and how we employ agreements and bedrock certainties in practices.     

Physician‐patient communication: Mutual role expectations

This study examined physician‐patient communication as it relates to expectations that patients and physicians hold for themselves and each other. Dimensions of mutual role expectation were determined to be physician as humanistic practitioner, physician authority, patient in the sick role, and patient as consumer. The study tested five hypotheses. Results showed patients had significantly higher expectations for patients in the sick role than had physicians. Other role expectations varied significantly by age within physician and patient groups. The implications of these differences for physician‐patient communication are discussed.     

Does STES‐Oriented Science Education Promote 10th‐Grade Students’ Decision‐Making Capability?

Today’s society is continuously coping with sustainability‐related complex issues in the Science‐Technology‐Environment‐Society (STES) interfaces. In those contexts, the need and relevance of the development of students’ higher‐order cognitive skills (HOCS) such as question‐asking, critical‐thinking, problem‐solving and decision‐making capabilities within science teaching have been argued by several science educators for decades. Three main objectives guided this study: (1) to establish “base lines” for HOCS capabilities of 10th grade students (n = 264) in the Israeli educational system; (2) to delineate within this population, two different groups with respect to their decision‐making capability, science‐oriented (n = 142) and non‐science (n = 122) students, Groups A and B, respectively; and (3) to assess the pre‐post development/change of students’ decision‐making capabilities via STES‐oriented HOCS‐promoting curricular modules entitled Science, Technology and Environment in Modern Society (STEMS). A specially developed and validated decision‐making questionnaire was used for obtaining a research‐based response to the guiding research questions. Our findings suggest that a long‐term persistent application of purposed decision‐making, promoting teaching strategies, is needed in order to succeed in affecting, positively, high‐school students’ decision‐making ability. The need for science teachers’ involvement in the development of their students’ HOCS capabilities is thus apparent.     

The 'new' politics of education in Britain's changing times

The British Labour Party has continued to make progress on education, following two broad policy paths and adopting a pragmatic approach that does not attempt to force these to cross or converge. One path is that of the quasi market inherited from the previous Conservative administration; the other is characterised as 'intervention' to support those for whom the market remains almost entirely irrelevant. Some observers regard this dual approach as 'opportunism' and Labour's education policy as a 'betrayal' of principle, by which is meant the principle of 'equal opportunity'. Of course, that principle provides equal opportunity to fail as much as to succeed. Rather than leaving education to the market, Labour has focused on the needs of those most likely to be failed by the principle of 'equal' opportunity in a quasi market.     

Putting school commercialism in context: a global history of Junior Achievement Worldwide

The literature on school commercialism, despite a number of successes in battling advertising and marketing in schools, has often seemed to only scratch the surface of corporatization of K‐12 education. While condemning corporations who seek to sell brand‐name products to kids in schools is a relatively straightforward matter, critiquing corporate efforts to promote ideologies, identities, values and agendas to children and youth is far more complicated and yet, essential. In this paper, we take the example of Junior Achievement Worldwide, one of the world’s oldest, largest, and fastest growing organizations promoting corporate interests in schools in the USA and beyond to illustrate the need to address school commercialism in a broad historical, curricular, and global context. We review the long history of Junior Achievement in the USA, its vast set of curriculum offerings in enterprise, financial literacy, economics, work readiness and life skills, and its dramatic expansion, since the late 1980s, to now reach more than eight million students every year in over 100 countries around the world.