Stuart Woodcock

Are we exacerbating students' learning disabilities? An investigation of preservice teachers' attributions of the educational outcomes of students with learning disabilities

While claims of the importance of attribution theory and teachers’ expectations of students for student performance are repeatedly made, there is little comprehensive research identifying the perceptions preservice teachers have of students with learning disabilities (LD). Accordingly, 444 Australian preservice primary school teachers were surveyed using vignettes and Likert-scale questions, to ascertain their responses to students with and without LD. It was found that preservice primary school general education teachers held a negative attribution style towards students with LD. Preservice primary teachers perceived students with LD as a lacking ability in comparison to others in the class. Recommendations for research and training programmes conclude the paper.

Inclusive education policies: discourses of difference, diversity and deficit

This paper provides an analysis of inclusive education policies across international, and Anglo-American national and provincial/state jurisdictions to reveal how policies discursively construct inclusion under current, increasingly neoliberal conditions. In making this case, the paper draws upon primary UNESCO and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development policies, and a selection of key policies in United States, Canada, England and Australia. To explore whether and how these policies discursively encourage inclusion under such conditions, the paper employs a broadly critical policy sociology approach. The research reveals a disparate array of approaches to issues of inclusion within and across specific policy contexts. Fostering more systematic and supportive inclusive policies is possible and essential for promoting conditions for more genuinely inclusive educational practices, but a lack of attention to issues of inclusion in policy settings also reveals how more neoliberal conditions have also influenced policy production processes.

Pre-service perspectives on e-teaching: Assessing e-teaching using the EPEC hierarchy of conditions for e-learning/teaching competence

This article examines pre-service teacher perspectives of teaching with an online synchronous (live-time) platform as a part of their training. Fifty-three students who participated in a blended learning (including both face-to-face and online lectures) course were assessed in a teaching simulation through an online presentation, and participated in questionnaires and interviews about their experiences as e-learners using the platform. The EPEC hierarchy of conditions (Ease of use, Psychologically safe environment, e-learning/e-teaching Efficacy, and e-learning Competence) for e-learning competency, developed based on an analysis of pre-service teachers’ experience as e-learners in this same study, was used as a framework to assess teacher perspectives as e-teachers using this technology. Qualitative interview data were collected about students’ experiences using the platform, and analyzed via thematic content analysis. The findings showed that students generally favoured the online e-teaching synchronous platform over in-person presentations, and the quality of online presentations was considered at least as good as in person.

Does training matter? Comparing the behaviour management strategies of pre-service teachers in a four-year program and those in a one-year program

Survey-based research was conducted with Australian pre-service teachers to identify the classroom management strategies that they would employ, their confidence in employing them, and the effectiveness of the strategies. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify significant differences in these variables between pre-service teachers in the final year of a four-year teacher training course and pre-service teachers undertaking a one-year, stand-alone teaching program. The results of this study indicate that the most frequently reported strategies by all the Australian pre-service primary teachers surveyed were rewards and initial corrections. The pre-service teachers were selective in the type of corrective strategies they would employ, with a preference for relatively less intrusive reactive strategies. All of the pre-service teachers here found rewards and preventative strategies to be the most effective. The only significant differences found between the four-year trained and one-year trained pre-service teachers were around preventative strategies. Specifically, four-year trained pre-service teachers employ preventative strategies significantly more often than pre-service teachers in the one-year teaching course. Similarly, four-year trained pre-service teachers are significantly more confident in using preventative strategies than those in the one-year course. The implications of the results for teacher education programs are considered.

Beyond the binary: rethinking teachers’ understandings of and engagement with inclusion

ABSTRACT This article presents research into Canadian elementary and secondary teachers’ understandings of inclusion. The research investigates how a sample of 120 teachers in the southern part of Ontario defined inclusion, and the extent to which they believed an inclusive classroom is an effective way to teach all students. The article draws upon literature into how inclusion is currently defined followed by research into the politics of diversity in inclusive education; the latter signals the socio-political aporia which attends many understandings of inclusion. The study employs Nancy Fraser’s conception of justice as requiring redistribution, recognition, and representation; Fraser’s approach also demands attention to issues of recognition as intimately connected with concerns about social status. The findings reveal teachers’ relative lack of attention to issues of resourcing, but considerable emphasis upon issues of representation. While issues of recognition are largely valued, there is a tendency to reify categories of student identity, rather than challenging concerns about the lack of social status attending such foci. The research reveals a push ‘beyond the binary’ of considering teachers’ practices as either inclusive or exclusive, and how teachers’ engagement with resource provision, recognition of learners, and representation of student needs exists along contingent and intersecting spectra.

Investigation of Chinese University Students’ Attributions of English Language Learning:

Despite the importance of developing students’ learning autonomy in Chinese schools similar to Western cultured schools, many concerns are raised regarding the influence and effectiveness that learner autonomy has on students’ academic achievements. The aim of this study was to identify the attribution patterns of Chinese university students for success and failure toward students who learnt through autonomy learning (student-centered approaches) compared with students who learnt through teacher-centered approaches. Within this study, mixed research methods were adopted, and students used a reflective method to distinguish whether they were taught English through a traditional or student-centered method. The findings of the study reveal that there are no significant differences in attributional patterns between students who had learnt in high school through autonomous learning and those who learnt through teacher-centered approaches. The findings have implications for policy and practice in the Chinese Ministry of Education system and recommendations for future research.

A Cross-National Comparison of Attributional Patterns Toward Students With and Without Learning Disabilities.

Claims of the importance of having positive perceptions and expectations of students with learning disabilities (LD) have been repeatedly made over recent years. This article aims to raise awareness of the importance of attributional beliefs in relation to the educational outcomes of students with LD in Australia and China. Australian and Chinese trainee teachers (N = 240) who were at the end of their training were surveyed with vignettes and Likert-scale questions to ascertain their responses to students with and without LD. Overall, the findings suggest that Chinese trainee teachers’ attributional pattern is more positive than that of their Australian counterparts. Implications and recommendations for research and practice are also presented.

Attributional patterns towards students with and without learning disabilities: a comparison of pre- and in-service teachers in China

Abstract This study aims to investigate the differences of attributional responses to students with and without learning disabilities (LD) between pre- and in-service teachers in mainland China. A total of 204 teachers (101 pre-service and 103 in-service teachers) were surveyed using vignettes and Likert scale questions to ascertain their responses to students with and without LD. Drawing from Weiner’s attributional theory, teachers’ feedback, frustration, sympathy and expectation were measured. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was executed to compare pre-service and in-service teacher responses regarding students with and without LD. The findings showed that pre-service teachers experienced significantly lower frustration than in-service teachers to students with and without LD. Moreover, the teachers gave more positive feedback but felt less sympathy to students with LD who exerted high effort. These findings implied that pre-service tended to foster a more positive attribution style. Implications and recommendations for research and practice are also presented.

Resilience to Bullying: Towards an Alternative to the Anti-Bullying Approach.

Abstract Anti-bullying strategies are significant approaches addressing bullying in schools, however their capacity to produce a reduction in bullying behaviour is open to question. This article examined a resilience-based approach to bullying. One hundred and five primary and high school students were surveyed using several standardised instruments. The study found that high school students reported more victimisation than primary students; that students reporting greater resilience; experienced less distress regarding bullying; that relatedness demonstrated a stronger negative correlation than mastery with distress levels to bullying; that students exhibiting greater emotional reactivity engaged in more bullying behaviour compared to others; and that a younger group exhibited greater resilience levels compared to an older group. The results support an evolutionary psychology view of bullying and suggest an operational definition of bullying in terms of power differentials within a relational context. Further examination and development of a resilience-based intervention model focused on developing a sense of relatedness is supported.

A tale from three countries: The classroom management practices of pre-service teachers from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom

Abstract The purpose of this research was to (i) identify Australian, Canadian and United Kingdom (UK) pre-service teachers’ use, confidence and success of various classroom management strategies and (ii) to ascertain any significant differences between the three cohorts. Significant differences were found amongst the cohort with the UK pre-service teachers using significantly more strategies to promote or guide positive student behaviour (namely strategies related to differentiation, prevention and rewards) than the Australian and the Canadian cohorts. Differences may be accounted for by the way in which classroom management is taught. This study highlights the need to actively model and teach preventive-based strategies to pre-service teachers.