... Strain, PS, & Joseph, GE (2004). ... Fiona Bryer (PhD) Editor, Proceedings of the 4th Ann... more ... Strain, PS, & Joseph, GE (2004). ... Fiona Bryer (PhD) Editor, Proceedings of the 4th Annual International Conference on Cognition, Language and Special Education Research (2006, July 6-7), to be held at Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt ...
It is in the interest of schools to embrace a collaborative interdisciplinary approach to educati... more It is in the interest of schools to embrace a collaborative interdisciplinary approach to educating children with autism, the most severe of the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). The preferred teaching method for children with autism is an individually tailored education plan, targeting emotional regulation, behavioural self-control, and cognitive inhibition, inflexibility, and rigidity. A consulting developmental psychologist well versed in autistic spectrum disorders, who is trained in applied behaviour analysis (ABA) and discrete trial training (DTT), is able to provide insight into how a school environment can support the acquisition, maintenance, and generalisation of socially appropriate behaviours and provide guidelines for developing an appropriate curriculum for the child. When the school ecology provides for such a collaborative approach, there is much to gain: reduced stress on individual teachers, continuity of service across learning contexts, and, ultimately, th...
The generalist notion of the competencies of the Griffith graduate, which involves personal as we... more The generalist notion of the competencies of the Griffith graduate, which involves personal as well as academic skills, provides a framework within which to consider (a) the nature of emotional competencies in teacher education students, (b) changes in the developing profile of personal competencies over a 4-year program of study, and (c) strengths and weaknesses that may affect professional and personal effectiveness of the graduating teacher. It is argued that emotional intelligence needs to be considered together with cognitive intelligence in how teacher training is conceptualised. In the present study, the first phase of research design is outlined. Yes Yes
This paper considers how emotional competencies are embedded within current listings of attribute... more This paper considers how emotional competencies are embedded within current listings of attributes of effective teacher graduates. One conceptualisation of the personal skills that teachers require in effectively managing complex relationships involves the construct of emotional intelligence (EI). Final year teacher education students completed a 360-degree measure of emotional competencies, Emotional Competence Inventory-University edition (ECI-U) and reviewed their development of such attributes. Results suggest that this final semester student cohort gave low ratings to their existing competencies to some of the most highly ranked teacher competencies, supported by industrial and registration standards and measured in the ECI-U clusters of Self-management and Relationship management. The future design of undergraduate programs for professional training of teachers needs to include consideration of development of such competencies and the use of a viable measure of interpersonal a...
The notion of emotional competence provides an attractive overarching structure to help teacher p... more The notion of emotional competence provides an attractive overarching structure to help teacher professionals to build interpersonal and intrapersonal skills to manage complex relationships and complex teaching and learning situations. All teachers need to demonstrate a range of personal skills and competencies, in line with teacher registration standards, professional standards, and university standards, such as the Griffith graduate characteristics. Teacher education programs focus directly on very few skills and competencies and graduating teachers identify a range of specific behaviour management and personal skill deficits. When specific skills were taught, strategies mostly relied on either direct instruction or behaviour modeling. An sound alternative strategy of interpersonal process recall (IPR) of videotaped sessions has produced sustainable training of trainee teachers attempting to use specific communication skills. The use of IPR helps students to bring to awareness the...
The national conference on special education run by the Australian Association of Special Educati... more The national conference on special education run by the Australian Association of Special Education has provided a regular occasion to network with colleagues and to exchange knowledge and skills about practice in this field. The keynote presenters have addressed different but complementary aspects of making meaning by creating diversity-valuing connections. These three presentations have offered thought-provoking arguments about the focus of teaching, the national environment for practice, and the kind of research useful in special education, respectively. No Yes
Three well-established issues for educational reform to insert middle schooling into the traditio... more Three well-established issues for educational reform to insert middle schooling into the traditional primary-secondary tiers are (a) lack of preservice training of specialist middle school teachers, (b) the absence of clear positive educational outcomes linked to the promotion of middle schooling policy as a philosophy of teaching, and (c) the ad hoc approach to professional development for teachers working within middle schools. Persistent uncertainties about whether middle schooling is an educationally distinctive and developmentally helpful phase of schooling have operated in conjunction with the informal preparation for middle school teaching typical in all western systems of education. These issues can be applied to the recent experiences of Education Queensland teachers with primary and secondary training who have worked within the new middle school environment. A single site investigation at an Education Queensland trial of middle schooling addressed teacher perceptions of ho...
A study of middle school ecology and its effects on teacher practices raised various pedagogical ... more A study of middle school ecology and its effects on teacher practices raised various pedagogical and methodological issues beyond the actual study of how teaching teams in a Queensland school viewed new practice in a trial that started in 1999. Three synergistic issues for emerging practice and research on that practice were noted. Simultaneously, teachers were working in a new school, implementing new practice, and integrating new policy. The successes and failures of innovation, therefore, may reflect newness of many kinds. Yes Yes
Observations of teams have been made during 3 years of ongoing experiences in several local middl... more Observations of teams have been made during 3 years of ongoing experiences in several local middle school settings. These observations have occurred in the course of teaching middle school classes as a participant-observer, conducting a single case study of a state P-12 school that established a middle school program (Main. 2003), and undertaking a major study in progress of four teaching teams in three middle schools. These observations have provided a basis for reflecting on the current practice environment for middle school teaching teams. Using teaching teams in middle schooling has been justified in terms of benefits for teacher collegiality, student learning, and creation of a flexible environment. That is, teaming allows the creation of a larger working space and more adaptable working time, which then enables teachers to incorporate virtually any teaching or learning method with any combination of students at any time during the normal timetabled sessions of a school day. Ho...
The research so far done on middle schooling has revealed poor technical implementation of middle... more The research so far done on middle schooling has revealed poor technical implementation of middle school practices and poor conceptual understanding of the vision of middle schooling responsiveness to the developmentally appropriate learning of Years 6-9 students. Poor implementation has contributed to the weak, negative, and confusing evidence, which has, in turn, contributed to the reactive blaming of middle schooling for the failure of robust organisations to emerge from the reform process and for the unconvincing data that has been reported from various trials. Analysis of educational research and its role in school reforms helps to explain some of the difficulties encountered by middle school proponents in implementing their vision. Future research efforts need to be focused on the implementation process, the barriers to and facilitators of successful reform, and the way to advance the interests of Year 6-9 students as the priority for implementing middle school practices. Aust...
Multiaged classes are thought to advance the philosophy of middle schooling through perceived ben... more Multiaged classes are thought to advance the philosophy of middle schooling through perceived benefits to social development of students and collaborative learning opportunities. However, middle schooling is a relatively new educational reform, faced with various issues of teacher resistance. A multiaged class structure was one of the eco-organisational features of middle school introduced into a single site investigation of teachers' perceptions about how these features helped or hindered their practice at one of Education Queensland's trial schools. Analysis of data indicated that teachers held a mixture of beliefs about the advantages and implementation of multiaged classes for early adolescents. Yes Yes
Multiaging and middle schooling are two separate educational reforms directed to better meet the ... more Multiaging and middle schooling are two separate educational reforms directed to better meet the individual needs of students. Teachers working within these classes share overlapping and interdependent role expectations as well as some separate and independent ones associated with traditional teacher tasks. The experiences of two beginning teachers were examined after their initial 6 months in classrooms that combine multiage and middle school reforms. Training and collegial support were critical issues. Preservice training did not adequately prepare each individual for this beginning experience. Contextual differences in the schools' induction procedures affected their developing identities as teachers, helping one and hindering the other. Yes Yes
... Strain, PS, & Joseph, GE (2004). ... Fiona Bryer (PhD) Editor, Proceedings of the 4th Ann... more ... Strain, PS, & Joseph, GE (2004). ... Fiona Bryer (PhD) Editor, Proceedings of the 4th Annual International Conference on Cognition, Language and Special Education Research (2006, July 6-7), to be held at Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt ...
It is in the interest of schools to embrace a collaborative interdisciplinary approach to educati... more It is in the interest of schools to embrace a collaborative interdisciplinary approach to educating children with autism, the most severe of the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). The preferred teaching method for children with autism is an individually tailored education plan, targeting emotional regulation, behavioural self-control, and cognitive inhibition, inflexibility, and rigidity. A consulting developmental psychologist well versed in autistic spectrum disorders, who is trained in applied behaviour analysis (ABA) and discrete trial training (DTT), is able to provide insight into how a school environment can support the acquisition, maintenance, and generalisation of socially appropriate behaviours and provide guidelines for developing an appropriate curriculum for the child. When the school ecology provides for such a collaborative approach, there is much to gain: reduced stress on individual teachers, continuity of service across learning contexts, and, ultimately, th...
The generalist notion of the competencies of the Griffith graduate, which involves personal as we... more The generalist notion of the competencies of the Griffith graduate, which involves personal as well as academic skills, provides a framework within which to consider (a) the nature of emotional competencies in teacher education students, (b) changes in the developing profile of personal competencies over a 4-year program of study, and (c) strengths and weaknesses that may affect professional and personal effectiveness of the graduating teacher. It is argued that emotional intelligence needs to be considered together with cognitive intelligence in how teacher training is conceptualised. In the present study, the first phase of research design is outlined. Yes Yes
This paper considers how emotional competencies are embedded within current listings of attribute... more This paper considers how emotional competencies are embedded within current listings of attributes of effective teacher graduates. One conceptualisation of the personal skills that teachers require in effectively managing complex relationships involves the construct of emotional intelligence (EI). Final year teacher education students completed a 360-degree measure of emotional competencies, Emotional Competence Inventory-University edition (ECI-U) and reviewed their development of such attributes. Results suggest that this final semester student cohort gave low ratings to their existing competencies to some of the most highly ranked teacher competencies, supported by industrial and registration standards and measured in the ECI-U clusters of Self-management and Relationship management. The future design of undergraduate programs for professional training of teachers needs to include consideration of development of such competencies and the use of a viable measure of interpersonal a...
The notion of emotional competence provides an attractive overarching structure to help teacher p... more The notion of emotional competence provides an attractive overarching structure to help teacher professionals to build interpersonal and intrapersonal skills to manage complex relationships and complex teaching and learning situations. All teachers need to demonstrate a range of personal skills and competencies, in line with teacher registration standards, professional standards, and university standards, such as the Griffith graduate characteristics. Teacher education programs focus directly on very few skills and competencies and graduating teachers identify a range of specific behaviour management and personal skill deficits. When specific skills were taught, strategies mostly relied on either direct instruction or behaviour modeling. An sound alternative strategy of interpersonal process recall (IPR) of videotaped sessions has produced sustainable training of trainee teachers attempting to use specific communication skills. The use of IPR helps students to bring to awareness the...
The national conference on special education run by the Australian Association of Special Educati... more The national conference on special education run by the Australian Association of Special Education has provided a regular occasion to network with colleagues and to exchange knowledge and skills about practice in this field. The keynote presenters have addressed different but complementary aspects of making meaning by creating diversity-valuing connections. These three presentations have offered thought-provoking arguments about the focus of teaching, the national environment for practice, and the kind of research useful in special education, respectively. No Yes
Three well-established issues for educational reform to insert middle schooling into the traditio... more Three well-established issues for educational reform to insert middle schooling into the traditional primary-secondary tiers are (a) lack of preservice training of specialist middle school teachers, (b) the absence of clear positive educational outcomes linked to the promotion of middle schooling policy as a philosophy of teaching, and (c) the ad hoc approach to professional development for teachers working within middle schools. Persistent uncertainties about whether middle schooling is an educationally distinctive and developmentally helpful phase of schooling have operated in conjunction with the informal preparation for middle school teaching typical in all western systems of education. These issues can be applied to the recent experiences of Education Queensland teachers with primary and secondary training who have worked within the new middle school environment. A single site investigation at an Education Queensland trial of middle schooling addressed teacher perceptions of ho...
A study of middle school ecology and its effects on teacher practices raised various pedagogical ... more A study of middle school ecology and its effects on teacher practices raised various pedagogical and methodological issues beyond the actual study of how teaching teams in a Queensland school viewed new practice in a trial that started in 1999. Three synergistic issues for emerging practice and research on that practice were noted. Simultaneously, teachers were working in a new school, implementing new practice, and integrating new policy. The successes and failures of innovation, therefore, may reflect newness of many kinds. Yes Yes
Observations of teams have been made during 3 years of ongoing experiences in several local middl... more Observations of teams have been made during 3 years of ongoing experiences in several local middle school settings. These observations have occurred in the course of teaching middle school classes as a participant-observer, conducting a single case study of a state P-12 school that established a middle school program (Main. 2003), and undertaking a major study in progress of four teaching teams in three middle schools. These observations have provided a basis for reflecting on the current practice environment for middle school teaching teams. Using teaching teams in middle schooling has been justified in terms of benefits for teacher collegiality, student learning, and creation of a flexible environment. That is, teaming allows the creation of a larger working space and more adaptable working time, which then enables teachers to incorporate virtually any teaching or learning method with any combination of students at any time during the normal timetabled sessions of a school day. Ho...
The research so far done on middle schooling has revealed poor technical implementation of middle... more The research so far done on middle schooling has revealed poor technical implementation of middle school practices and poor conceptual understanding of the vision of middle schooling responsiveness to the developmentally appropriate learning of Years 6-9 students. Poor implementation has contributed to the weak, negative, and confusing evidence, which has, in turn, contributed to the reactive blaming of middle schooling for the failure of robust organisations to emerge from the reform process and for the unconvincing data that has been reported from various trials. Analysis of educational research and its role in school reforms helps to explain some of the difficulties encountered by middle school proponents in implementing their vision. Future research efforts need to be focused on the implementation process, the barriers to and facilitators of successful reform, and the way to advance the interests of Year 6-9 students as the priority for implementing middle school practices. Aust...
Multiaged classes are thought to advance the philosophy of middle schooling through perceived ben... more Multiaged classes are thought to advance the philosophy of middle schooling through perceived benefits to social development of students and collaborative learning opportunities. However, middle schooling is a relatively new educational reform, faced with various issues of teacher resistance. A multiaged class structure was one of the eco-organisational features of middle school introduced into a single site investigation of teachers' perceptions about how these features helped or hindered their practice at one of Education Queensland's trial schools. Analysis of data indicated that teachers held a mixture of beliefs about the advantages and implementation of multiaged classes for early adolescents. Yes Yes
Multiaging and middle schooling are two separate educational reforms directed to better meet the ... more Multiaging and middle schooling are two separate educational reforms directed to better meet the individual needs of students. Teachers working within these classes share overlapping and interdependent role expectations as well as some separate and independent ones associated with traditional teacher tasks. The experiences of two beginning teachers were examined after their initial 6 months in classrooms that combine multiage and middle school reforms. Training and collegial support were critical issues. Preservice training did not adequately prepare each individual for this beginning experience. Contextual differences in the schools' induction procedures affected their developing identities as teachers, helping one and hindering the other. Yes Yes
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