Journal article

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 with handicaps to be educated in the 'least restrictive environment'; and ( 4) early intervention programmes which alleviate the effects of progressive retardation (by providing children who have developmental delays with structured teaching in language, cognitive

Much of our current educational practice is based on the assumption that play is important to children - indeed that it is essential to their growth and development. We also assume that adults, particularly teachers, play an essential role through organising and participating in children's play. But it is revealing to take an objective look at the effects of different types of equipment and different styles of adult participation.

This investigation - in 75 maths classes, for 10-year olds, up to 10 visits in each - came to the puzzling conclusion that no matter how much the pupils were encouraged to contribute, or discouraged from contributing, there was no link between that and their marks. Teach with lots of questioning, probing, listening, and debating, or teach with none: test achievement is not affected by that.

These days it is common to hear teachers speak about their concern over a lack of discipline shown by many students. Whether the issue of concern is disruptive behaviour, the defiance of authority, violent behaviour or stealing, is not important. What is important is that many teachers believe that students are harder to handle these days than they were a few generations ago.

In a child's eyes starting school is a rite of passage, associated with increased status. Children even link physical growth with this enhanced status - one boy said, 'I bet I grow a couple of inches.' Starting school is a period of transition and adjustment - a moving from the known to the unknown. The two diary extracts, kept by parents the week before their child started school, show how important parents are in helping their child to navigate these uncertain waters.

Sex education in schools has been a topic of considerable controversy for many decades. Some groups see it as the preserve of the family; others believe that the high number of sex-related casualties in our society indicates a need for an alternative source of information for our young, i.e., the school.

The ancient Greeks urged the student: 'Know thyself At the beginning of this century, John Dewey talked of 'reflective self-awareness'; today, we invoke metacognition. All refer to a concept that has been known by good teachers for centuries, and that has very powerful implications for education. What is it?
One of the interesting characteristics of people is that they not only behave, but can watch themselves behaving, and believe that they can exert a certain amount of control over how they behave.

Infant Teachers try to ensure that all young people in their classrooms have access to the necessary tools of trade. In some classrooms books, pencils, rubbers, rulers, sharpeners, etc. are kept in the students' desks. In other classrooms they are kept on, or near, the teacher's desk, or at some other location in the room. Crayons, paints, paper, scissors, etc. all have special places. Where these are, and the rules for use of each item, are quickly learnt by children when they become members of the class.

In a day and age when the credibility of schools and the teachers in them are being questioned, it seems important to analyse carefully some of the factors which seem to promote effective schooling. Our study involved an examination of eight schools in the Southern Auckland region, matched in pairs. The matching was for (1) socioeconomic status (seventy percent of children had parents who were manual working class); (2) the ethnic composition of the school (75 percent of the pupils were of Polynesian extraction) as well as a number of teacher characteristics such as turnover rates.

For over a year I went to classes with two groups of I5-year-old girls, wagged with them, had lunch with them and generally hung around with them at school. I recorded interviews and conversations, wrote down what I saw happening in the classroom, and got them to write to me.