Journal article

Writing and going to school are intimately linked in the minds of many people. The second 'R; even more than reading, is regarded as a particularly school-like activity, and images of pupils huddled over desks gripping their pens, scrawling out lines on a clean page, readily spring to mind. The twin notions that pupils write a great deal at school, and that they go to school mainly to learn to write, are difficult to dislodge and have an almost mythical quality about them.

Teachers who understand that spelling is a complex developmental process can help students acquire spelling competency. Initially, the teacher must recognize five stages of spelling development. Once the stages are identified, the teacher can provide opportunities for children to develop cognitive strategies for dealing with English orthography, and assess the pupil's development. This article demonstrates a scheme for categorizing spelling development and shows ways to foster pupils' spelling competency.

Even in the very first year at school a few pupils are disruptive. They are called 'disruptive', 'immature', 'aggressive', 'lacking in concentration' and 'hyperactive' and in moments of stress a lot of worse names! I prefer to call them 'difficult to teach'. A week or more was spent in each of five Christchurch primary schools with above average numbers of difficult-to-teach pupils. Of the 90 pupils initially nominated by the Senior Teachers of Junior Classes (STJC) and the class teachers there was clear agreement on 24 so these became the experimental group.

The widespread adoption of open-space education in the past decade resulted in considerable controversy about the effects of the acoustic environments of schools. While proponents of open education claimed that such arrangements helped learning, critics contended that the increased noise levels interfered with concentration and impaired the performance of the students. This contentious issue intensified the need to measure exactlv the influence of the acoustic environment upon students' ability to concentrate and learn, thereby providing the impetus for several research investigations.

Among the most serious obstacles to the growth of participatory methods of teaching are columns of desks in classrooms. While pupils are forced to sit looking at the backs of their fellows, with the teacher as a sort of perpetual commander in front of them, little participation is feasible. The claims that the column system is best for classroom control and for chalk-and-talk
lessons need to be seriously challenged.

In the United Kingdom, classroom seating with desks or tables arranged in rows is the norm in secondary schools. This was also the case in most primary schools until the sixties when a less formal approach to primary education came into vogue with a preference for table desks or tables arranged so that four to eight children sit around a common work area. This seating arrangement was widely adopted and is at present the most common arrangement.

In 1979 I arranged with Robin Haberfield who was teaching a class of 8 and 9 year olds to have three observers watch three of his pupils continuously for about an hour and a quarter every day for seven weeks during a series of lessons on conservation .I wanted to discover how ordinary children learn in class. The central question was, 'What aspects of organization and presentation of material by the teacher, and what aspects of behaviour by the children, are related to children's learning and, in particular, their long term learning?'

The playcentre movement began in 1941, during the Second World War when many fathers were absent in the forces. It was founded to provide support for families by setting up preschool centres, usually in local halls where equipment could be arranged, to give mothers a break and to extend children's play activities.

For the past five years or more, there has been a growing amount of publicity generated about the use of the microcomputer - the so-called 'personal' computer - in the classrooms of America. Thanks primarily to the highpowered marketing techniques of manufacturers of these computers, this technology has come to be regarded in some quarters as a panacea for the ills of education. As a result, a growing number of schools are being pressured by parents and administrators, and even governmental agencies, to commit funds for the purchase of such computers.

The Report of the State Services Commission Working Party on Early Childhood Care and Administration was published in March 1981. It makes little mention of family day care. This omission is in spite of the evidence available. Firstly there is the existence of organisations to help 'backyard minders' such as city council schemes and Barnardos; secondly there are the facts buried in reports .