The RIX Wiki: the use of multimedia advocacy to support person-centred planning in a special needs secondary school – implications for current policy and practice

The article documents findings from a pilot study undertaken in 2012–2013 in a special needs secondary school in the England, that trialled the use of a multimedia advocacy tool, “The RIX Wiki”. The trial was part of the pathfinder programme, which aimed to reform existing Special Education Needs provision, from the system of statementing to one of developing education health care plans. The reforms became enshrined in the Children and Families Act (2014). The findings were overall positive and helped with person-centred planning processes. The discussion is framed within current and future policy directives. We argue that multimedia advocacy approaches and software tools, like the “RIX Wiki” will have a continued role to play in ensuring the needs, aspirations and choices of children and young people with learning disabilities remain central.     

Investigating the Role of Problem Severity and Channel Publicness on the Sophistication of Support-Seeking Messages on Social Network Sites: A Replication Study

Oh and LaRose (2016) contended that problem severity and channel publicness shape support seekers’ goals, time spent composing messages, and the sophistication of those messages. The current study seeks to replicate and extend Oh and LaRose’s study to produce a more accurate understanding of the factors that influence the sophistication of support-seeking messages online. Support seekers’ goals varied according to the severity of a stressor and the publicness of a channel, and the amount of time people spent composing a message influenced its sophistication. We extend the original study by examining associations that were not initially tested. Time spent composing messages mediated the influence of problem severity on the quality of people’s messages, and this effect was moderated by channel publicness.     

Research Training Needs of Scientist‐Practitioners: Implications for Counselor Education

Counselors (N = 911) reported the research skills needed for practice and subsequent research training needs. Findings indicate that counselors have a high need for research skills at work, but training needs differ significantly by counselor type. Recommendations include increasing emphasis on single‐case design, survey design, and widely available data analysis tools.     

Defining the real: context and beyond

This paper draws attention to the trend to consider context in educational discourse. It documents the increasing use of “context” in everyday educational talk and in educational research and begins to consider the implications of this trend for the theory and practice of education. The paper considers different ways that context is used and suggests that over the last 5‐10 years conceptions of context have shifted. As well as being understood spatially as the outside or backdrop relative to a phenomenon of interest, context is increasingly being considered in a more ephemeral figure and ground relationship. I argue that this shift marks a significant reframing of education and its implications in the practice and politics of education and educational research.