What number concepts and skills do children have when they start school? How has their understanding changed after a year? How aware are teachers of what the children know? What number concepts and skills are taught in the first year? These questions are important. If we underestimate what children can ...

If any trend could be said to grow even as we watch, it would be the move away from what has been called 'social promotion': the current increase in policies that permit the retention of young children for a second year in a given grade. Some reformers have advocated promotion ...

White haired, white coated, mixing chemicals in a mad desire to rule the world - why does this stereotype exist, persist, and can it be changed in school?

Young people's judgements about social and ethical issues are influenced by developmental factors, by the demands of the context, by processing demands, and by the type of adult support that is available.

Teenagers have a lot to say for themselves but are not always heard. During 1987, I set out to find out how teenagers see their lives - what they worry about, what they like, what annoys them and what they think about the future.
I talked to about 300 teenagers ...

The classroom time can be divided up into a series of location times, for example in an infant class, seat-work time, mat-time and out-door time. Teachers expect different behaviour from the children at different times because of the different locations and the work commonly performed in these locations. The following ...

This article is about the stress you can experience in the face of disruptive and disobedient students. I shall briefly explain the different types of stress you may encounter and from my own experience in working with stressed teachers provide a way not only of understanding stress, but also of ...

Integration is promoted because (1) evaluation studies show no educational benefit for segregating the handicapped and significant benefits for integrating them; (2) there is a growing awareness of human rights, including the rights of the retarded to a 'normal' environment; (3) a trend-setting law in the USA requires all children ...

Many words used to describe disability are outdated, inaccurate and stem from fears and misconceptions. These words are not consistent with the reality of being disabled or the way people with disabilities view their lives. They create attitudinal barriers which are often more handicapping than the actual disability. Because of ...

Placing handicapped students in the regular classroom is the beginning of an opportunity to influence handicapped students' lives deeply by promoting constructive relationships between them and their non-handicapped peers. Like all opportunities, however, mainstreaming carries the risk of making things worse as well as the possibility of making things better ...