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Education is at the heart of any nation’s social and economic development and certainly within the specific scope of the European Union’s strategic development. As a result, early school leaving is a subject of inexorable importance because its effect reverberates in other social and economic realities. This paper examines the macroeconomic and socioeconomic determinants of ESL by adopting a multi-analytical strategy involving a linear regression method and a configurational approach. The outcomes highlight the complexity of ESL involving nonlinearity, equifinality, and asymmetric relations. Inequality and parental education emerge as key determinants of ESL; these relationships are more robust compared to the other determinants, namely Gross Domestic Product per capita, youth unemployment, and parental job status. The practical and theoretical aspects of these outcomes are explained throughout the discussion., peer-reviewed

School climate is a vital aspect of school life that influences students’ emotional well- being, social relations and academic achievement. Therefore, educators need to monitor school climate to nurture good interpersonal relations and students’ positive experiences in school. To achieve this objective, educators and psychosocial support services in schools need valid and reliable instruments to measure and monitor school climate. A review of the instruments for measuring school climate shows that they are available in several countries, but their application in these diverse settings requires evaluation and adaptation to the different conditions where they are being implemented. This study is part of a larger international project that examines the use of the Georgia Elementary School Climate Survey across many countries. The project includes students’, parents’, and educators’ perceptions of school climate and aims to address the existing shortage of valid instruments of this important indicator of school life in Maltese educational settings. This study was based on responses from 592 children from five primary schools and focused on evaluating an adapted version of the Georgia Elementary School Climate Survey for primary school children. The study indicates that the slightly adapted scale has a good structure and acceptable internal consistency, indicating that the scale can be used in school practice. Based on the analysis of the items in the questionnaire, the study provides some suggestions for further development of this scale to respond better to the local educational setting., peer-reviewed

Necrotizing fasciitis is a severe soft tissue infection characterized by rapidly progressive diffuse necrosis of fascia and adjacent tissues, most reported in the abdominal wall, perineum, and extremities. Cases of idiopathic necrotizing fasciitis of the breast are rare and unrelated to risk factors. This study was conducted with a 19-year-old woman reporting mastalgia and phlogistic signs in her right breast, which evolved with serosanguineous blisters and extensive necrosis of the fascia and periareolar wall, characterizing the necrotizing fasciitis. Therefore, the authors aim to show the relevance of early diagnosis associated with prompt treatment and procedure for a better intervention outcome.

School-related anxiety is a frequent phenomenon that affects many students at all levels of education. To reduce students’ school-related anxiety, teachers need valid, reliable diagnostic instruments that examine its various forms. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate a new instrument, Classroom Anxiety Scale (CAS), to estimate the incidence of school-related anxiety among secondarystudents, and to examine the relationships between student demographic characteristics and school-related anxiety. The results show that students experience intensive anxiety related to tests/exams and public speaking, while a smaller number experience anxiety related to writing tasks and group work. They also show that the Classroom Anxiety Scale (CAS) has satisfactory metric characteristics., Lęk związany ze szkołą jest częstym zjawiskiem dotykającym uczniów na każdym poziomie edukacji. Aby zredukować u uczniów lęk związany ze szkołą, nauczyciele potrzebują właściwych, rzetelnych narzędzi diagnostycznych, za pomocą których przeanalizują różne przejawy tego lęku. Pierwszym celem tego badania była ocena nowego instrumentu - Skali Lęku Klasowego (Classroom Anxiety Scale CAS), aby oszacować częstość występowania lęków związanych ze szkołą wśród uczniów Evaluation of a Classroom Anxiety Scale for Secondary-School Students szkół średnich, a także zbadanie relacji pomiędzy charakterystyką demograficzną studenta a występowaniem lęku związanego ze szkołą. Wyniki pokazują, że uczniowie doświadczają intensywnego lęku związanego z testami/egzaminami i wystąpieniami publicznymi, podczas gdy niewielka ich liczba odczuwa lęk związany z wykonywaniem zadań pisemnych i zadań w grupie. Wyniki pokazują również, iż SkalaLęku Klasowego (CAS) posiada zadawalającą charakterystykę pomiarową.

This book is effectively a collection of papers by some well-known authors with a largely regional focus, the Mediterranean, and Australia in particular. It is divided into three parts covering the perspectives of students, teachers, and parents on mental health issues in relation to educational settings. These three parts are preceded by an introductory section that deals with some fundamental issues in the area of social, emotional, behaviour difficulties (SEBD). The term ‘mental health’ covers a wide range of situations stretching from temporary circumstances knowing their origin to factors in the child’s or young person’s environment to psychiatric conditions that usually start manifesting themselves in adolescence. In this introductory section, Paul Cooper makes a strong case for the polymorphic nature of SEBD and the need for flexibility in addressing the issues involved. He maintains that there is a plethora of psychological families of empirically supported approaches to address the issues. He also lists a number of teacher characteristics that go a long way towards making the whole process of managing such difficulties effective. As always, when dealing with vulnerable persons, a balanced measure of scientific intervention and human sensitivity, sympathy and warmth increases the possibility of effective intervention. Education may use scientific methods but will always need to rely on the human interface that can never be substituted., N/A

Empirical studies of the relationships between dyslexia and creativity are inconsistent. While some anecdotal evidence suggests that there is a positive association between the two, some research suggests that such associations emerge in adulthood rather than in childhood or adolescence, usually as the result of adverse life experiences. The aim of this study was to examine whether adolescents with dyslexia possess superior creativity, measured through a standardised test battery, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), in comparison to age peers. Participants were additionally assessed on a modified version of the Wisconsin Association Talent and Gifted Guide (WATG). The participants in this study were students diagnosed with dyslexia (N=38) and asymptomatic students (N=38) aged 13 years four months (average). The members of the group with dyslexia had been previously diagnosed and identified as students with additional educational needs. The participants in the research group were matched with asymptomatic (students without dyslexia) participants for age, socio-economic status, ability and type of school attended. Although there were apparent indications that the adolescents with dyslexia rated themselves as less creative than their asymptomatic counterparts, they performed better on most subscales of the TTCT. However, in this study, despite the slightly higher scores of students with dyslexia, the differences regarding creativity were not statistically significant. Within the limitations of the study, no support was found for the hypothesis that adolescents with dyslexia are highly creative or even perceived themselves to be so., peer-reviewed

This paper examines closely the educational needs of one group of sub Saharan African migrant children. The data was collected from a project which focused on these children’s education at the primary school level and examined their level of inclusion and integration into the Maltese school system. Particular attention while collecting this data was given to the cultural, religious and linguistic needs of the participants and their families. This was examined against a wider policy of inclusion and differentiation espoused by those charting the Maltese educational system. Empirical research for the EU has shown that children living in basic income households, whose parents have low qualifications, are unemployed or are at risk of "in work poverty", and/or who come from a migrant or ethnic minority background are much less likely to gain good qualifications themselves at school. In other words, child poverty and educational disadvantage tend to perpetuate a vicious cycle of marginalization. The findings confirmed this assessment, underlining the need for affirmative action, while at the same time affording some hope for social inclusion., peer-reviewed

This paper presents statistical models that analyze cross- sectional data related to student attainment in English and Maltese spelling. For each spelling test a random sample of 2040 students, whose age ranged from 6.5 to 16 years, was selected to examine the progression of spelling skills over time. The sample comprised equal numbers of male and female students attending state, church and private schools to investigate gender and school bias in students’ spelling abilities. This hierarchical nested data can be deemed as a type of two-level data, in which the students spelling scores are level-1 units and schools are the level- 2 units. This multilevel approach provides an adequate framework for modelling hierarchical data at several levels of nesting. To inspect the effect of age on student performance in English and Maltese spelling in different schools, a random coefficient model is fitted. This allows the school-specific coefficients describing individual trajectories to vary randomly when the spelling scores are regressed against the student age., peer-reviewed

Sex differences on verbal abilities assessed with tests of reading, verbal comprehension, spelling and foreign language ability, and of non-verbal abilityassessed with Coloured Progressive Matrices were examined in a longitudinal study on a sample of 136 children between the time they were 5 years old to the time they were 9 years old in Malta. Girls obtained significantly higher means on the verbal abilities, and a non-significantly higher mean on the Coloured Progressive Matrices (d=.15). The results are generally consistent with studies in the United States and Britain., peer-reviewed

Workshop questions 1. What are the advantages or disadvantages of multidisciplinary teamwork? 2. a. Discuss whether the issue of confidentiality between interdisciplinary team members exists? b. Whether the issue of confidentiality causes problems? 3. What kind of relationship should there be between parents and team members? 4. a. Is a key worker necessary for the smooth coordination of multi disciplinary teamwork? b. If yes, who should take on this role? 5. Should medical care for handicapped children be available within the community, through the C.D.A.U. and the School Medical Service? a. Should these services be run by multi disciplinary teams? b. Or through any other services?, N/A

Workshop questions : 1. a. What in our understanding is an independent life for disabled people? b. Do you think that a Special Transport Service will contribute towards independence? 2. Parents are definitely bound to take important decisions which involve serious principles. What is necessary so that parents will be supported when taking these decisions? 3. One of the biggest problems facing the leadership and implementation of planned policy is the staff problem. What should be done so that staff will be trained, feel motivated and personally responsible as a team member? 4. 'The greatest handicap is ignorance and the best therapy is education'. Comment., N/A