Visible images of disabled students: an analysis of UK university publicity materials     

Sue Ralph  Kathy Boxall 《Teaching in Higher Education》2013,18(3):371-385

This paper analyses the portrayal, within UK universities’ publicity materials, of disabled students and disability services. Basic public relations practices explain that an organisation should know its audiences and focus its messages accordingly. We argue that recruitment is an issue which cannot be ignored in discussions of learning and teaching. It is a fundamental aspect of higher education: without students there would be no learning, teaching or curriculum. By failing actively to recruit disabled students, universities will miss out on the diversity and valuable contributions of an important group. Our analysis indicates that recruitment of disabled students does not appear to be a priority in many universities. There are significant numbers of prospective disabled students in the community; some universities could be taking more proactive measures to recruit this group of students.  相似文献   

Encouraging the development of higher-level study skills using an experiential learning framework     

Mark Groves  Kathryn Leflay  Julian Smith  Belinda Bowd  Alison Barber 《Teaching in Higher Education》2013,18(5):545-556

Teachers have only recently considered how study skills support in higher education (HE) can be delivered in a way that encourages experiential learning. This paper aims to substantiate, or otherwise, the idea that a carefully developed initiative can encourage the experiential learning of study skills. In addition, it considers whether such an approach might also allow student access to some of the higher-level study skills required for successful university study. Focus group data were used to evaluate a module delivered to sports students at a post-1992 university in the UK. This data suggested that the module facilitated learning in each stage of Kolb's experiential learning cycle. Moreover, there was evidence that the module encouraged students to undertake an ‘epistemological shift’ in which they moved from seeing knowledge as a set of uncontested facts to seeing it as something that they are expected to question and contribute to themselves.  相似文献   

Supporting students with impairments in higher education: social inclusion or cold comfort?     

Lise Bird Claiborne  Sue Cornforth  Ava Gibson  Alexandra Smith 《International Journal of Inclusive Education》2013,17(5):513-527

This paper uses a discursive analysis to examine the experience of ‘inclusion’ from several stakeholder groups in one university. The research team included disability support staff at the institution, external disability consultants and academic researchers. A critical focus group investigation centred on four groups: students who were identified as having an impairment (SWIs), academic staff (teachers), administrators and students who did not identify as having an impairment (non‐SWIs). Interviews had facilitators with both research and disability expertise. Groups recounted different experiences of inclusion. SWIs, drawing on a rights discourse, emphasised a lack of resourcing and barriers created by the teaching staff. In contrast, teachers, administrators and (to a lesser extent) non‐SWIs emphasised the importance of social inclusion, reflecting discourses around needs and humanist notions of care and support, which largely seemed to miss the core of SWI concerns about recognition of their technical competence. For all groups, questions around disclosure of disability were of greater concern than tensions between needs and rights or the recent publication of a Code of Practice for the higher education sector. The findings challenged some of the researchers’ own assumptions, with unexpected implications for practice.  相似文献   

The Development of Subject Knowledge in Secondary Initial Teacher Education: A case study of physical education student teachers and their subject mentors     

Kim Smith 《Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning》2013,21(1):63-76

This article presents a case study of student teachers of secondary school physical education (PE) and their subject mentors in subject knowledge development. Grenfell's (1996) application of Bourdieu's notions of 'field' and 'habitus' in relation to initial teacher education (ITE) is applied to interview data to argue that student teachers show varying dispositions to develop subject knowledge at the field sites of university and school. Furthermore, such dispositions are suggested to be enacted by student teachers through the development and exchange of subject knowledge as 'capital'. Thus a dynamic for subject knowledge development, which is neither specific to field site or difference between field sites is conceptualised. The article concludes that student dispositions to learn, in context, should be considered to assist understanding about the development of PE student teachers' subject knowledge. It calls for a redefinition of nationally prescribed subject knowledge in relation to learning how to teach.  相似文献   

Special educational needs,disability and school accountability: an international perspective     

Emma Smith  Graeme Douglas 《International Journal of Inclusive Education》2013,17(5):443-458

Standards-based accountability approaches in education are increasingly being adopted in many industrialised countries. This tends to involve the scrutiny of student performance in national academic tests and then holding schools accountable for subsequent progress. International assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are not accountability measures in themselves, but are often utilised in a similar way and national policies are judged against performance in these tests. Drawing upon the examples of PISA and national assessments in the USA, this paper explores how students with special educational needs and disability (SEND) are included in, and served by, these assessment policies. The analysis suggests that while these approaches are inclusive in their intent (most obviously through efforts to include students with SEND in testing) they may poorly represent the progress of these students. It is argued that more equitable inclusion of students with SEND must find a balance between accountability measures which measure performance in traditional attainment-focused tests and other relevant assessments which are meaningful to the given student and/or SEND sub-group.  相似文献   

Mentoring for experienced school principals: professional learning in a safe place     

Alison A. Smith 《Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning》2013,21(3):277-291

Mentoring has become increasingly popular during recent years and particularly so in the provision of leadership development, including the mentoring of school principals. In New Zealand, many of these mentoring programmes are developed and funded by central government and are mostly designed to meet the needs of those in their initial years of principalship. Mentoring for experienced principals has not typically been resourced in this manner and tends to be less prevalent and more ad hoc in nature. This article reports on an evaluation of one peer‐mentoring group of experienced primary (elementary) school principals in Auckland, New Zealand. While the principals identified a number of components of the mentoring process as being valuable, issues related to status, learning and safety were particularly highlighted. The results informed the development of a model of peer mentoring processes for experienced principals based on the notion of communities of practice.  相似文献   

How Assigned Faculty Mentors View their Mentoring Relationships: An Interview Study of Mentors in Medical Education     

Sharon Dobie  Sherilyn Smith  Lynne Robins 《Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning》2013,21(4):337-359

This qualitative study of 29 physician mentors reports their perspectives on mentoring medical students in a well‐respected medical school’s formal, assigned, longitudinal mentoring program that has a curricular component in the second year. Using a phenomenologic inductive approach, common themes identified centered on mentors’ relationships with their students and the characteristics of the relationships. Most mentors said their relationships solidified in the second year, where curricular responsibilities included teaching and evaluation. Mentors saw their roles change, yet relationships continued to develop as mentees advanced through medical school. They were surprised when students sought contact, support, and advice in years three and four of their programs. Mentors worried whether they “did enough” for their students, yet described their experiences and relationships as rewarding. Mentors subsequently found satisfaction in the continuing relationship during the clinical training years. The researchers note the importance of the curricular component for providing a purpose and structure for relationship development and in facilitating relationship development in this assigned mentoring program.  相似文献   

Positioning oneself for leadership: feelings of vulnerability among aspirant school principals     

Peter Gronn  Kathy Lacey 《School Leadership & Management》2013,33(4):405-424

The research context for this article is the difficulty being experienced by a number of school systems, especially in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, in recruiting principals. In our discussion we draw on preliminary findings from ongoing research into the experiences of a cohort of aspiring primary and secondary school principals. Our data comprise the electronic journal (E‐journal) entries of the 21 aspirants. We characterize the E‐journal reflections as identity narratives in which the aspirants are able to explore a range of feelings, challenges and uncertainties associated with the possibility of future principal role incumbency. The significance of these E‐journalling narratives, therefore, is that they provide aspirants with an opportunity, through semi‐private reflection, to begin positioning themselves for leadership. For this reason we articulate the idea of ‘positioning space’, a supportive holding environment which facilitates the exploration of potential and possible selves and we explore some properties and protocols associated with occupancy of this space.  相似文献   

Management knowledge and the cnaa     

T. Joseph Smith 《School Leadership & Management》2013,33(2):287-289

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AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MAJOR RESEARCH PARADIGMS AND THEIR METHODOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS RESEARCH     

Elias Avramidis  Brett Smith 《Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties》2013,18(3):27-36

Recently in special needs research qualitative methods have been advocated and utilised. Unfortunately, confusion exists concerning the methods of investigation and the researchers’ paradigmatic assumptions. We argue that it is the paradigmatic lens of the researcher which guide the whole research process rather than the methods employed. In this paper the three major paradigms currently operating in educational research will be described and the distinction between “method” and “paradigm” will be clarified. Although the issues raised here are applicable to all strands of educational research, the purpose of this paper is to guide special needs researchers in identifying their own assumptions and examining for themselves the implications of choices about research methodology based on those assumptions.  相似文献