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Cognitive science-informed approaches have gained considerable influence in education in the UK and internationally, but not much is known about how teachers perceive cognitive science-informed strategies or enact them within the contexts of their everyday classrooms. In this paper, we discuss the perceptions and experiences of cognitive science-informed strategies of 13 teachers in England. The paper critically explores how the teachers understood and used cognitive science-informed strategies in their teaching, their views of the benefits and challenges for different subjects and groups of learners, and their reflections on supporting factors and barriers for adopting the strategies in their schools. The teachers' accounts illustrate some of the many complexities of adopting cognitive science-informed approaches in real-life educational settings. Drawing on their narratives, the paper emphasises the importance of acknowledging different contextual dimensions and the dynamic interactions between them to understand when and how teachers enact cognitive science-informed approaches in their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the findings from a study based in England, within a new school that opened its doors to students in August 2015. The school, established under relatively recent UK legislation as a ‘Free School’, set out to be inclusive, aiming to achieve this through its architecture and design, admissions policy, mixed attainment class organisation and inclusive teaching practices. The research project tracked the school’s growth and examined the extent to which it developed as an inclusive school. One key strand of the research involved photovoice with young people. Photographs within the school, taken by the young people were used as the basis for interviews about their school and their space and to explore social relations and inclusion/exclusion at the school. Findings emphasise that children and young people’s lived experiences of different school spaces may not always coincide with the ideas of the adults who initially conceived them, and furthermore illustrate the importance of acknowledging children and young people’s diverse needs and preferences in order to construct the school as an inclusive space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant proportion of pupils move school during their school career for reasons other than standard structural moves between educational stages. Little is known about the underlying causes of these moves and the characteristics and experiences of mobile pupils are challenging to research. There is currently a large disconnect between the macro level of system structures, data and policy and the individual experiences and journeys of mobile pupils. This article brings together international literature around school mobility and mobile pupils, with analyses of the English National Pupil Database (NPD), tracking a cohort from age 5 to 16, to better understand when school moves occur and the characteristics of mobile pupils. Findings reveal a sizable underlying rate of moves in England of about 1.5–2% per term and identify differences in mobility related to disadvantage, school phase, ethnic group and SEND status. The predictive power of the data, however, is low, highlighting the need for more research, policy and practice in this area to better understand individual mobility circumstances. By bringing together the literature and the data, the article concludes with a discussion of what is known about school mobility and recommends further areas for research into the characteristics, experiences and outcomes of mobile school pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from an exploratory review of the literature on school approaches and current issues within European schools in relation to migrant children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). 13 papers were identified and analysed and three key 'journeys' reflecting the developing and negotiated nature of family and school experiences and practices were identified: the family journey, the school journey and the journey into SEN. The findings emphasise the importance of professionals acknowledging cultural and individual diversity, not only by considering the cultural backgrounds of migrants, but also by critically understanding their own cultural framework and how they use it in their work with families. The review provides a useful reference for future research in this area and for professionals working with diverse communities, by highlighting common practices to be aware of, and by providing evidence that more training is needed of school staff in how to manage and understand migration and diversity in relation to children with SEN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the experiences of staff, parents, governors and students at a secondary free school in the West Midlands of England in relation to the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN). The paper is based on a qualitative research project carried out at a school that opened in 2015, with the explicit aim of examining the extent to which it developed as an inclusive school, particularly for children with SEN. In the paper, we draw on the classic distinction between 'education' and 'schooling' to identify tensions and overlaps between process and outcome oriented practices and examine the views of different stakeholders on how such practices impact on inclusion. By focusing on the day-to-day practices of the school and linking them to broader notions of schooling and education, we provide a complementary perspective on the current research on free schools, which is overwhelmingly quantitative and focused on admissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people's sexting is an area of increasing concern amongst parents, educationalists and policy makers, yet little research has been conducted with young people themselves to explore their perspectives on the support they need to navigate relationships in the new digital media landscape. To address this absence, an inter-disciplinary team of researchers undertook a participatory study with students, aged 13 to 15, in a UK secondary school. This paper outlines key study findings, including young people's views on sexting, their recommendations for improved education around sexting in schools, their preferred sources of support, and their perspectives on the way adults should respond to young people's sexting. Findings indicate that sexting education needs to be developed within the context of wider relationship issues, such as gender, power dynamics and trust between peers, and improved communication between students and teachers or other responsible adults. Findings may be used to consider ways of designing and communicating messages around sexting to young people within and beyond educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing conceptions of children and childhood have in the last three decades led to the increasing participation of children in social research and their involvement in active research roles. However, the benefits and challenges of this process are rarely discussed in relation to the wider literature on adult involvement, thus missing an opportunity to learn from potential commonalities or differences. In this paper, I argue for an explicit comparison between children's involvement in research and (adult) service user involvement in health and social care research. The paper presents findings from a review of children's involvement in research, first separately, and second, in comparison with themes from the literature on service user involvement. As the paper will illustrate, many of the themes manifest themselves in similar ways in the two areas of practice, leaving scope for the development of cross-disciplinary practice, reflection and conceptual development. Particular suggestions deriving from the paper are (a) a strengthening of organisational frameworks within Higher Education institutions to facilitate the involvement of diverse groups of children in research, (b) the development of a more systematic mechanism for reporting the involvement of children and young people in research and (c) cross-disciplinary and theoretical exploration of key concepts such as power and empowerment within the involvement context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop and ensure the content validity of a new patient-reported outcome measure, the Cancer Patient Empowerment Questionnaire (CPEQ), to measure the level of, desire for, and enablement of empowerment among cancer patients in follow-up. Methods: An iterative process based on: (i) empowerment theories by Zimmerman and Tengland, (ii) a systematic review of questionnaires measuring empowerment or related concepts among cancer patients, (iii) qualitative data from 18 semi-structured interviews with Danish cancer patients in follow-up, (iv) input from a group of eight cancer patients involved as co-researchers and from an expert steering group, and (v) cognitive interviews with 15 cancer patients in follow-up. Results: The items for the CPEQ were developed and revised and 12 versions of the questionnaire were evaluated. The final version consists of 67 items, covering three different dimensions of empowerment: (A) empowerment outcomes consisting of three components: (A1) the intrapersonal-, (A2) interactional-, and (A3) behavioral component, (B) empowerment facilitators (enablement), and (C) the value of empowerment. Conclusions: This study documents the theoretical and empirical basis for the development of the CPEQ and its content validity. The CPEQ provides a tool for researchers to assess the level of, desire for, and enablement of empowerment among cancer patients. The next steps will be to use the CPEQ in a nationwide study of empowerment in cancer follow-up and subsequently shorten the CPEQ based on psychometric methods in order to make it more relevant in clinical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]