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An increasing number of multi-view data are being published by studies in several fields. This type of data corresponds to multiple data-views, each representing a different aspect of the same set of samples. We have recently proposed multi-SNE, an extension of t-SNE, that produces a single visualisation of multi-view data. The multi-SNE approach provides low-dimensional embeddings of the samples, produced by being updated iteratively through the different data-views. Here, we further extend multi-SNE to a semi-supervised approach, that classifies unlabelled samples by regarding the labelling information as an extra data-view. We look deeper into the performance, limitations and strengths of multi-SNE and its extension, S-multi-SNE, by applying the two methods on various multi-view datasets with different challenges. We show that by including the labelling information, the projection of the samples improves drastically and it is accompanied by a strong classification performance.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often co-occurs with obesity, however, the potential causality between the traits remains unclear. We examined both genetic and prenatal evidence for causality using Mendelian Randomisation (MR) and polygenic risk scores (PRS). We conducted bi-directional MR on ADHD liability and six obesity-related traits using summary statistics from the largest available meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies. We also examined the shared genetic aetiology between ADHD symptoms (inattention and hyperactivity) and body mass index (BMI) by PRS association analysis using longitudinal data from Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (NFBC1986, n = 2984). Lastly, we examined the impact of the prenatal environment by association analysis of maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and offspring ADHD symptoms, adjusted for PRS of both traits, in NFBC1986 dataset. Through MR analyses, we found evidence for bidirectional causality between ADHD liability and obesity-related traits. PRS association analyses showed evidence for genetic overlap between ADHD symptoms and BMI. We found no evidence for a difference between inattention and hyperactivity symptoms, suggesting that neither symptom subtype is driving the association. We found evidence for association between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and offspring ADHD symptoms after adjusting for both BMI and ADHD PRS (association p-value = 0.027 for inattention, p = 0.008 for hyperactivity). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the co-occurrence between ADHD and obesity has both genetic and prenatal environmental origins.

In the version of this article originally published, the name of author Martin H. de Borst was coded incorrectly in the XML. The error has now been corrected in the HTML version of the paper.

Correction to: Nature Genetics https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0205-x, published online 17 September 2018.

ACL; International audience

Background Interleukin-2 (IL-2) has an essential role in the expansion and function of CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs). Tregs reduce tissue damage by limiting the immune response following infection and regulate autoreactive CD4+ effector T cells (Teffs) to prevent autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes (T1D). Genetic susceptibility to T1D causes alterations in the IL-2 pathway, a finding that supports Tregs as a cellular therapeutic target. Aldesleukin (Proleukin; recombinant human IL-2), which is administered at high doses to activate the immune system in cancer immunotherapy, is now being repositioned to treat inflammatory and autoimmune disorders at lower doses by targeting Tregs. Methods and Findings To define the aldesleukin dose response for Tregs and to find doses that increase Tregs physiologically for treatment of T1D, a statistical and systematic approach was taken by analysing the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of single doses of subcutaneous aldesleukin in the Adaptive Study of IL-2 Dose on Regulatory T Cells in Type 1 Diabetes (DILT1D), a single centre, non-randomised, open label, adaptive dose-finding trial with 40 adult participants with recently diagnosed T1D. The primary endpoint was the maximum percentage increase in Tregs (defined as CD3+ CD4+ CD25highCD127low) from the baseline frequency in each participant measured over the 7 d following treatment. There was an initial learning phase with five pairs of participants, each pair receiving one of five preassigned single doses from 0.04 × 106 to 1.5 × 106 IU/m2 , in order to model the doseresponse curve. Results from each participant were then incorporated into interim statistical modelling to target the two doses most likely to induce 10% and 20% increases in Treg frequencies. Primary analysis of the evaluable population (n = 39) found that the optimal doses of aldesleukin to induce 10% and 20% increases in Tregs were 0.101 × 106 IU/m2 (standard error [SE] = 0.078, 95% CI = −0.052, 0.254) and 0.497 × 106 IU/m2 (SE = 0.092, 95% CI = 0.316, 0.678), respectively. On analysis of secondary outcomes, using a highly sensitive IL-2 assay, the observed plasma concentrations of the drug at 90 min exceeded the hypothetical Treg-specific therapeutic window determined in vitro (0.015–0.24 IU/ml), even at the lowest doses (0.040 × 106 and 0.045 × 106 IU/m2 ) administered. A rapid decrease in Treg frequency in the circulation was observed at 90 min and at day 1, which was dose dependent (mean decrease 11.6%, SE = 2.3%, range 10.0%–48.2%, n = 37), rebounding at day 2 and increasing to frequencies above baseline over 7 d. Teffs, natural killer cells, and eosinophils also responded, with their frequencies rapidly and dose-dependently decreased in the blood, then returning to, or exceeding, pretreatment levels. Furthermore, there was a dose-dependent down modulation of one of the two signalling subunits of the IL-2 receptor, the β chain (CD122) (mean decrease = 58.0%, SE = 2.8%, range 9.8%–85.5%, n = 33), on Tregs and a reduction in their sensitivity to aldesleukin at 90 min and day 1 and 2 post-treatment. Due to blood volume requirements as well as ethical and practical considerations, the study was limited to adults and to analysis of peripheral blood only. Conclusions The DILT1D trial results, most notably the early altered trafficking and desensitisation of Tregs induced by a single ultra-low dose of aldesleukin that resolves within 2–3 d, inform the design of the next trial to determine a repeat dosing regimen aimed at establishing a steady-state Treg frequency increase of 20%–50%, with the eventual goal of preventing T1D.

This report forms part of the national evaluation of children’s centres in England (ECCE) research study. The evaluation studies the management, organisation and programmes offered in the centres and a cost-benefit analysis of the programme.

The evaluation of children’s centres in England is a large scale, six year study that looks at Sure Start children’s centres (SSCCs) in the most disadvantaged areas of England. These are centres that were set up in the first two phases of the programme. The evaluation, from a survey of families who were using children’s centres when their child was 9- to 18-months-old, will provide a very detailed picture of children’s centre services. This includes how effective they are when they use different approaches in their management and when delivering services and activities for parents and children. It also looks at the cost of delivering different types of services.

The Evaluation of Children’s Centres in England (ECCE) is a six-year study commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE), and undertaken by NatCen Social Research, the University of Oxford and Frontier Economics. ECCE aims to provide an indepth understanding of children’s centre services, including their effectiveness for children and families and an assessment of their economic cost and value for money. This brief reports on visits to 121 Phase 1 and Phase 2 children’s centres (intended to be in poorer areas) across England in 2012, 117 of which were visited again in 2013. Visits assessed the range of activities and services that centres deliver, partnership working methods, leadership and management, evidence-based practice and an area profiling of centre ‘reach’.

This report is the first output from the Evaluation of Children's Centres in England (ECCE), a six year study commissioned by the Department for Education and undertaken by NatCen Social Research, the University of Oxford and Frontier Economics. The aim of ECCE is to provide an in-depth understanding of children's centre services, including their effectiveness in relation to different management and delivery approaches and the cost of delivering different types of services. The aim of Strand 1 is to profile children’s centres in the most disadvantaged areas, providing estimates on different aspects of provision with which to select centres for subsequent stages of the evaluation and to explore different models of provision. The findings below relate to 500 children's centres that are representative of all phase 1 and 2 centres (i.e. those in the 30percent most deprived areas).

This short-term longitudinal study investigates the effects of the 'Peers Early Education Partnership' (PEEP), a pre-school intervention in Oxfordshire, which aims to increase the educational achievement (especially literacy skills) of disadvantaged children from infancy to 5 years. PEEP strives to form partnerships with parents and carers by recognising and supporting their contribution to children’s learning during their formative pre-school years. The study evaluated the effects of the PEEP Project over the year following children's entry at age 3. The study aimed to observe closely, at a micro level, what effects the PEEP programme had upon children's development. Based on a comparison with children without PEEP experience, the study looked particularly, first, at how the PEEP parent education programme affected the literacy and numeracy development of children and, second, whether there was a difference one year later in children's self-esteem and social-emotional development. The method was a quasi-experimental design, which included pre- and post-testing measures. In order to assess the outcomes of the PEEP intervention on children's cognitive, language and social-emotional development, standardised tests and educational tasks were administered to the children at the start of the intervention and after one year. The same assessments were applied to the 'intervention' and 'comparison' children. The sample consisted of 160 children and their families. Seventy-three of these children attended the intervention in the PEEP catchment area in Oxfordshire while their parents attended weekly group sessions. A comparison group of 87 children were recruited from five playgroups in a nearby town also in Oxfordshire, matched for age and social characteristics with their Oxford counterparts. Neither the children in the comparison group, nor their parents, attended any PEEP group sessions. Children in the PEEP group had significant gains in the following areas of development: Language and Literacy (Verbal Comprehension, Vocabulary, Phonological Awareness, Concepts about Print, Writing), Numeracy (Early Number Concepts) and Self-esteem (Maternal Acceptance)

This paper describes an exploratory evaluation of the Peers Early Education Partnership 'Room to Play', an innovative and experimental 'drop-in' service seeking to attract and engage 'hard-to-reach' families in one of the most deprived areas of a Midlands city. Located in a shop unit of a busy community shopping centre, it offers play and learning activities for children, and provides opportunities for parents to talk to practitioners in a neutral and supportive environment. Through a mixed methods design, the authors attempted to document the core components of a potential transferable model of intervention, within challenging research constraints. © 2011 National Children's Bureau and Blackwell Publishing Limited.

This report presents the findings of a sub-study on transitions undertaken as part of the\ud Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education 3-14 (EPPSE 3-14 project) a\ud major longitudinal study investigating the influence of pre-school, primary and secondary\ud school on children’s cognitive and social/behavioural development in England. The\ud transitions sub-study of more than 500 children and families sheds light on current\ud transition practices and highlights what helps and hinders a successful transition. It\ud takes into account the influence of child and family background characteristics such as\ud socio-economic status (SES) and gender. It suggests how the transition experience\ud could be improved to enhance the smooth continuity between primary and secondary\ud school.\ud By adopting a mixed methods approach, the study investigated the issues related to\ud transition for four distinctive groups: Local Authorities, children, parents and schools.\ud Officers in six Local Authorities were asked about the way transition was dealt with in\ud their Authority. Children in their first term at secondary school completed a\ud questionnaire on their thoughts and experiences of transition, and the study also sought\ud their parents’ opinions in order to illustrate the whole family’s experience.\ud Finally, there were twelve case studies selected from the respondents of the\ud questionnaire because of their positive experiences of transition. These involved\ud interviews with the children and their primary and secondary teachers. This provided\ud further details of the systems in place that support the transition processes between\ud school phases.\ud The sample was drawn from children and families in the wider EPPSE project. 1190\ud children from the EPPSE sample made a transition at the end of the 2005-06 academic\ud year. Responses were received from 550 children (a 46% response rate) and 569\ud parents (a 48% response rate) from across England drawn from 6 Local Authorities\ud (Shire County, Inner London borough, Midlands/Metropolitan region, East Anglia area,\ud and two authorities in the North East). Children were recruited to the case studies using\ud stratified selection to get a balanced mix by region, gender, socio-economic status (SES)\ud and ethnicity. A wide range of data, already available from the main EPPSE study was\ud used to complement the analyses.

A barrier to the successful development of new disease treatments is the timely recruitment of participants to experimental medicine studies that are primarily designed to investigate biological mechanisms rather than evaluate clinical efficacy. The aim of this study was to analyse the performance of three recruitment sources and the effect of publicity events during the Adaptive study of IL-2 dose on regulatory T cells in type 1 diabetes (DILT1D).

This D.Phil study is motivated by gaps in educational research in low-income countries. First, it uses a child developmental, rather than economic, model to investigate how the timing of poverty shapes children’s vocabulary trajectories and the mediational pathways through which poverty influences growth at different stages of childhood. Second, it investigates the reliability and validity of the measure used to assess vocabulary, addressing inter-cultural issues that have not been dealt with in the literature and challenging some of the assumptions underlying the use of psychometric approaches in low-income countries. Data from a sample of 1,321 children in Ethiopia, who took part in the Young Lives longitudinal study at ages five, eight, twelve and 15 years, were analysed. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) was used to measure vocabulary ability. A composite wealth index was used to measure living standards. The psychometric properties of the PPVT were analysed within a Rasch measurement model. The test was screened for unidimensionality, item targeting, differential item functioning and scale stability. To compare the scores obtained at different time points, scores from the repeated test were calibrated onto a single metric using a test equating procedure. The Rasch estimates were obtained by anchoring the scores on the most stable items within each of respective language groups: Amharic, Oromifa and Tigrinya. A multilevel model for change approach was used to estimate individual growth trajectories. On average, children in the highest wealth quintile outperformed children in the lowest quintile. The difference in the mean growth trajectories between top and bottom quintiles followed a constant path, except in Amharic in which the average gap narrowed by 0.47 SD. Initial wealth, measured at one year of age, predicted onset ability at five years for all language groups, and the growth rate between 5-15 years in Amharic. Changes in wealth did not further help to explain the variance in the intercept or the slope. The analysis was extended to account for the factors that mediate the poverty-growth relationship. The results showed that 0-10% of the wealth effect on onset ability was mediated by the height-for age z-score, a measure of nutrition. Mothers’ education mediated 1-8% of the wealth effect. Preschool participation mediated 6-14%. The findings reinforce existing literature about the importance of these factors in mitigating the effects of poverty on children’s vocabulary development, particularly in early childhood. The study further highlights that expanding this knowledge base requires an in-depth understanding of the contexts in which children develop and learn, drawing on insights from substantive theories and local understandings of development and learning.

It is well documented that both play and social competence serve an important role in promoting the development of young children. The relationship between play and social competence is well established. However, methodological approaches in research to date has been limited to observational data combined with parent reports or teacher reports, or questionnaire reports exclusively. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the relationship between play and social competence employing a multimethod and multisource approach. Measures of play ability were obtained from observations and teachers. Measures of social competence were obtained from parents and teachers. Results revealed that despite being somewhat related to teacher-reported play, observed play did not predict social competence. Results also showed that teacher-reported play did predict social competence. It was concluded that there was evidence supporting the predictive relationship between play and social competence. However, further research would be required to investigate the predictability of observed play.

This study investigated the extent to which implicit and explicit knowledge of morphology contribute to children’s spelling in English. Children acquire some understanding of morphemes for spelling through their everyday encounters with words, but this could be enhanced to a more explicit level through direct instruction. Intervention studies have reported the advantage of teaching children about morphemes for spelling, but the vast majority of this research has been restricted to affixes, with limited attention to teaching word stems or combining instruction of stems and affixes together. In response, the current study compares a child’s knowledge of morphemes with implicit or explicit instruction of two related morphological spelling rules: the conservation of word stems in derived words and the distinction between the affixes of -ion and -ian. A sample of 270 children in Years 3 and 4 from three state-supported schools participated. Three experiments were conducted: one examined implicit versus explicit teaching of the morphological rule for stems; a second investigated if explicit teaching of one morphological principle (e.g. word stems) leads to explicit knowledge of another (e.g. affixes); and a third combined instruction of stems and affixes together. A pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test design was employed for each experiment in which children were randomly assigned to one of two intervention groups or a control condition that did not receive any form of instruction. In the pre- and post-tests, the children’s spelling of stems and affixes in derivatives was assessed. The interventions involved training games in which the children spelled derived words after seeing the stem forms; the explicit groups discussed the connection between the spellings whereas the implicit and control conditions did not. Analyses of variance revealed that explicit teaching of word stems and affixes led to more significant spelling improvements than implicit or no teaching, and that this effect held at both immediate and delayed post-test. Combining instruction of stems and affixes within the same teaching session was also reported to noticeably aid a child’s spelling accuracy. It was concluded that explicit teaching combined with appropriate spelling games shows a sustained effect on children's spelling. The evidence supports the integration of morphemes into current educational policy and teaching practice.

In recent years, the governments of many non-native English-speaking countries are incorporating English as a foreign language (EFL) programmes into primary school curricula at increasingly lower grade levels. However, despite an increasing number of young EFL learners around the world, relatively little contextualised research has examined the assessment practices and the learning outcomes of young EFL learners at the primary level, especially in East Asian countries. This study aimed to investigate the assessment of the oral and aural language abilities of Chinese primary EFL learners from two key grade levels (i.e., Grade 4 and Grade 6) in relation to the set targets articulated by the National English Curriculum Standards (NECS). More specifically, this research examined how teachers actually assessed their students’ oral and aural abilities in classrooms; which assessment activities were used in the classroom and how these activities related to the NECS targets; and what outcomes students could actually accomplish regarding speaking and listening upon finishing Grade 4 and Grade 6. To provide an in-depth, contextualised and comprehensive picture of both the assessment process and its outcomes in the Chinese primary school instructional setting, a mixed-methods research design was employed, combining quantitative analysis of teacher and student questionnaires and student individual assessments with qualitative analysis of classroom observations, and teacher and student focus-group interviews. Four EFL teachers, 106 Grade 4 students and 116 Grade 6 students from two local Chinese state primary schools participated in this study. The main findings are as follows. First, the EFL teachers tended to assess students’ listening comprehension and oral production skills at the level of both vocabularies and sentences; however, students’ oral and aural skills at the discourse level were relatively less frequently assessed. In addition, the assessment activities that were employed were organised as teacher-centred, and they were textbook-dominated. Second, two main sets of factors, subdivided into external and internal factors, were found to influence teachers’ interpretation and implementation of the curriculum targets. The external factors included the provision of adequate resources and support; contextual constraints (i.e., large class sizes with mixed-level students, limited instructional hours) and washback effects of the junior entrance exams. The internal factors mainly concerned teachers’ English proficiency and their professional pedagogical knowledge and skills. Third, in terms of students’ actual performance on the two external individual assessments in alignment with the NECS target levels, fewer than half of the students in Grade 4 and Grade 6 were judged by a panel of local expert teachers to have achieved the NECS listening targets at Level 1 and Level 2, respectively. With regard to speaking skills, fewer than half of the Grade 4 students were classified as qualified candidates at Level 1, but more than half of the Grade 6 students were judged as qualified candidates at Level 2. Therefore, the study’s overall findings indicated that the NECS targets were underachieved in the two sampled state primary schools; furthermore, these findings presented a number of implications for pedagogy, resources and support, and assessment, as well as directions for future research.

Research findings indicate that executive function (EF), social-emotional skills, and pre-academic competence significantly promote children’s school readiness and later success. School readiness broadly refers to a combination of skills necessary to function successfully in school and lack thereof may increase the risk of children’s school problems. Therefore, it is essential for school systems to provide appropriate and timely support to the development of these fundamental skills. The present study focused on three particular preschool programmes: Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and the traditional play-based (British Columbia Early Learning Framework: BCEFL) programmes in Western Canada. Although they are popular, there is little empirical research that examines and compares the benefits of these programmes to the development of school readiness skills. As such, the present study aimed to 1) determine the effectiveness of these three preschool programmes in Western Canada on the development of children’s school readiness; and 2) examine other sources of influences in the child, family and school in relation to the development of school readiness skills. Overall, 119 preschool children (48 Montessori, 42 Reggio Emilia, 29 BCELF) participated in the study. Observation was conducted once in the autumn of 2015 for each classroom using the CLASS observation tool. Teachers and parents of participating children filled in a series of questionnaires regarding the quality of their relationship with their child and their perceptions of daily EF and social-emotional skills of their child. The researcher also assessed individual children’s fluid intelligence, EF, and pre-academic competence. The results showed that 1) although Montessori education appeared to be the most effective in facilitating numeracy skills, no curriculum stood out as notably more effective than any of the others at improving other areas of school readiness skills; 2) well-run classrooms where teachers were effective in time, behavioural, and attention management were most effective in promoting children’s numeracy skills; 3) EF, social-emotional skills, and pre-academic competence exhibited an overlapping developmental process over time; 4) relational quality in both home and school environments significantly affected the development of school readiness skills, especially social-emotional skills; and 5) adults’ perceptions of children’s EF and social-emotional skills had a significant consequence for how teachers and parents formed their relationships with their children.

This multi-case study creates a better understanding of the relationship between four museum educators’ personal theories of teaching and their practice in university museums. The question that frames this study is, “How, in a university museum setting, do museum educators’ personal theories of teaching relate to their educational practices?” The aim was to produce an account of museum educators’ personal theories and practices in university museums and interrogate what factors may influence the relationship between the two. While there is some literature about the personal theories and practices of museum educators, no studies have been found that examine museum educators working in university museums in the United Kingdom. This study addresses this gap by exploring four museum educators’ personal theories and practices in three museum educational programmes in two university museums in a university city. This study is positioned within a qualitative tradition. Data for this study was collected using semi-structured interviews and observations. In total four pre-interviews, 24 observations and 24 post-interviews were conducted with four museum educators in two university museums in a UK city. Thematic analysis was the approach taken for the analysis of each case study. Findings in relation to the museum educators’ personal theories suggest that there were important similarities in the museum educators’ personal theories. All the museum educators’ personal theories consisted of elements relative to knowledge, learning and learners, and the facilitation of a positive learning environment. The museum educators’ personal theories of teaching relative to the nature of knowledge, learning and learners, varied per the discipline of the museum they taught in. It was found that personal theories were influenced by the museum educators’ shared background as former school teachers and, for some, their accumulated experience teaching in university museum settings. Thus, they tend to foster educational settings with characteristics typical of formal learning environments. The key finding in relation to the research question of this study, is that in a university museum setting, the personal theories of teaching of the museum educators were often aligned with their practices; in some cases, they were not. Whether the museum educators could align their practices with their personal theories of teaching appeared to depend on the sociocultural context they worked in. Despite, as previously noted, similarities in the four personal theories of teaching (i.e. relative to knowledge, learning and learners and the facilitation of a positive learning environment), there were differences in how these were translated into practice by each museum educator. This research contributes to the field of museum education by: i) enhancing our understanding of museum educators’ personal theories of teaching and practice in university museums; ii) providing fresh insights into the relationship between the personal theories of teaching and practice of museum educators working in university museums and; iii) adding to our understanding of the breadth of learning environments in museum education. The findings of this study are significant because they enrich the empirical knowledge and understanding of museum educator teaching in university museums. This study provides insights that may benefit the training and professional development of museum educators in university museums.

The aim of my DPhil is to identify educational practices predictive of students' self-regulation development during early childhood. Specifically, I will analyze the Tools of the Mind preschool curriculum (Tools), which emphasizes students’ self-regulation cultivation as its paramount aim. Since its development in 1993, Tools has spread to schools in the United States, Canada, and South America. In the face of Tools' proliferation, two questions emerge: does Tools significantly improve children's self-regulation skills? And, if so, then which of its effective elements could be applied across various educational contexts? This dissertation contains two studies. In the first, I will systematically review extant Tools research and then execute a multilevel meta-analysis of the quantitative results. Study one serves three purposes: 1) to identify all studies in the existing Tools evidence base, 2) to estimate an aggregate curricular effect, and 3) to determine how that effect varies across contexts and student characteristics. Thus, study one will assess whether Tools, at the curricular level, improves students’ self-regulation. By contrast, study two will involve more granular analyses of the discrete learning activities that collectively comprise Tools. Specifically, study two will analyze child-level self-regulation and teacher-level Tools implementation data for 1145 preschool children in 80 classrooms across six American school districts. I will employ multilevel structural equation models to assess which Tools activities are associated with students’ self-regulation growth, which are associated with decline, and which exhibit no association at all. Ultimately, this dissertation features the first Tools meta-analysis as well as the first analysis of specific Tools instructional activities. It is hoped that these analyses will identify educational practices predictive of self-regulation development both within and beyond the Tools curricular context.

The Solomon Islands (SI), a small developing nation in the South Pacific, demonstrates an emergent community-based kindergarten model with the potential to promote context and culture relevant early learning and development. SI early childhood education (ECE) particularly rose in prominence with a 2008 national policy enactment requiring all children to attend three years of kindergarten as prerequisite for primary school entry. However, these ECE programs remain severely challenged by faltering community support. Internationally, many ECE programs dramatically resemble a universalized Western-based model, with a decidedly specific discourse for “high quality” programs and practices for children ages 0-8. Often these uncritical international transfers of Euro-American ideologies promote restricted policies and practices. This has resulted in a self-perpetuating set of practices and values, which arguably prevent recognition of, and efforts to reinvent, more culturally-relevant, sustainable programs for the Majority World. Based on the Kahua region (est. pop. 4,500) of Makira-Ulawa Province, this collaborative, ethnographically-inspired, case study explores how community characteristics have affected the cultural and contextual sustainability of community-based ECE in remote villages. The study traces historical and cultural influences to present-day SI ECE. Subsequently, it explores the re-imagined SI approach to formal ECE program design, remaining challenges preventing these programs from being sustained by communities, and potential community-wide transformations arising from these initiatives. To achieve this, the study collaborated with stakeholders from all levels of SI society through extensive participant-observations, interviews, and participatory focus groups. Findings aspire to enlighten regional sustainable developments and resilient behaviors relating to ECE. Key research findings suggest five overarching principles influencing kindergarten sustainability: presence of “champion” for the ECE vision; community ownership-taking, awareness-building, and cooperation-maintenance; and program cultural/contextual sensitivity and relevance. These elements were found to be strongly linked with an intergenerational cultural decay in the Kahua region, as conceptualized through a model of Cyclically-Sustained Kindergarten Mediocrity.

The importance of developing learners’ self-regulated learning and critical thinking has captured the attention of researchers in recent decades. But interventions that are effective in developing such skills are scarce in the English school context. This study reports on the creation, design, implementation, piloting and evaluation of such an intervention - a four-week internet-based extra-curricular critical thinking course, Is this the right room for an argument? Designed by the researcher as a University of Oxford outreach course, it was provided, for the purposes of this study, to a group (N = 617) of eleven and twelve year old state-school students in England. Based upon self-regulated learning (SRL) and critical thinking (CT) research literature, the intervention comprised four elements which have been linked to progress in both SRL and CT: dialogic argumentation, written counterargumentation, self-reflection in a learning journal and critical thinking tests. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated by constructing three experimental conditions and one control condition, which isolated the effects of different combinations of the intervention activities. Structural equation modelling, regression techniques and repeated measures analysis of variance were used to detect main and experimental effects on change in SRL and CT over time, whilst autoregressive cross-lagged path analysis models were specified to explore the process of SRL in action over the course of four learning events. There was an anticipated overall main effect of the intervention, on change in aspects of SRL, with small and medium effect sizes, and on CT, with a medium effect size. It was hypothesised that the use of the learning journal would promote change in SRL and that participation in argumentation would promote progress in CT. Both hypotheses were supported. Participants who self-monitored their learning experience in a learning journal reported significantly more gains in aspects of their SRL, compared with those who did not, with small and medium effect sizes. The extent of participation in dialogic argumentation predicted change over time in CT, with a small effect size, in metacognitive knowledge, with a large effect size and in motivational beliefs and efficacy for learning, with medium effect sizes. Repeated measures analyses detected significant and positive trends over time in metacognitive activity (elaboration strategies, volitional strategies, critical thinking and metacognitive experiences), with effect sizes ranging from small (volitional strategies) to large (elaboration strategies). A process analysis tracked metacognitive activity over four learning events, detecting statistically significant reciprocal relationships between observed critical thinking and self-reported elaboration strategies, and between volitional strategies and metacognitive experiences. Findings suggest that this intervention had a positive effect on change in both self-regulated learning and critical thinking. Specifically, the more participants engaged in dialogic argumentation the more the change in both outcomes. The effects of the intervention, on change in self-regulated learning, were significantly enhanced when the critical thinking activity (argumentation) was accompanied by the self-regulatory activity (the learning journal).

An intervention, which targeted three- and four-year-old children’s oral language, was developed for this study. The intervention was run over twice-weekly sessions, for ten weeks. Incorporating good Early Years practice, the first session in the week was a group shared storybook reading session with a puppet, where dialogic discussion took place and the children practised sequencing the story using visual prompts. The second weekly session consisted of planning, acting out and reviewing a planned pretend play episode based on the storybook which was read in that week’s first session. Ninety-four children were randomly assigned to a control or treatment group and were tested at pre- and post-test on a battery of vocabulary and narrative assessments. The results of a Randomised Control Trial were positive in favour of the intervention. The most important of these results was a statistically significant effect on the receptive vocabulary of the children in the treatment group, with a large effect size, as measured by the standardised British Picture Vocabulary Scales (Dunn et al., 1997). There was also a significant effect on productive vocabulary, as measured by a Researcher-Designed Vocabulary Test (RDVT). This test was devised for the purpose of this study, testing one-word vocabulary, taken directly from the storybooks in the intervention. As this is not a norm-referenced, standardised test, caution is advisable in the interpretation of this result. A further positive effect concerned the narrative skills of the children in the treatment group, when compared to the children in a control group – the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) score was higher in the treatment group, with a medium effect size. By examining the intervention by Randomised Control Trial, this study responds to the call from Lillard et al (2013) for more experimental research on pretend play and narrative. The acknowledgement of the role of the adult in the intervention coupled with the positive effect on the children’s MLU and receptive vocabulary mean that the intervention, with further development, has the potential to be used as a Professional Development tool for supporting language development in the Early Years in the UK, in the future.