The need for change in higher education is recognised in order to serve a rapidly changing world. It is clear that institutions need to acquire greater flexibility and capacity to change, and transform themselves to preserve their most fundamental traditions and values (Duderstadt 2000:262). We premise our ensuing exploration into meanings which constitute educational transformation on the assumption that transformation would not be possible, or successful, outside of the democratic context of our country. Educational transformation is not only aided by democracy, but in turn, provides impetus to the democratisation of other spheres of society. Consequently, we explore educational transformation along democratic practices which include, equity and redress, critical inquiry, communicative praxis and nation building.... [more]

Until very recently in many countries, and certainly in Canada, children with severe exceptionalities (those who were blind, deaf, or deemed mentally incompetent) were excluded from attending regular schools. Responsibility for their education fell to private institutions, government funded segregated schools, or parents. However, over the last thirty years, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada have enacted legislation mandating school boards to assume responsibility for all students regardless of ability and to provide special education programs and services without cost to parents. These governments also created processes for school boards to follow in order to ensure that students were correctly identified and appropriately allocated those special services and programs. Furthermore, parents were, for the first time, allowed a role in the identification and placement of their children through an appeals process. England created The Special Needs Tribunal while the United States implemented Due Process Hearings. In Canada, education is a provincial/territorial responsibility and each of the ten provinces and three territories has control of the directions and structures of their educational system. However, those provinces and territories which have a clear directive to accommodate students with special needs have implemented appeal processes to adjudicate disagreements in identification and placement of these students. Appeal processes range from regulations which direct local school districts to establish an appeal procedure (e.g. British Columbia and Saskatchewan) to the creation of more formal bodies of appeal such as Tribunals (e.g. Alberta and Ontario). In the province of Ontario The Education Amendment Act (1980), commonly referred to as Bill 82, established the most comprehensive changes to special education in Canada. Advocacy groups and parents had lobbied intensely to ensure that they would not be left out of the decision making process, but would have a voice in the education of their children with special needs (Marshall, 1990).... [more]

The purpose of this research was to reduce the disruptive behavior of a 7-year–old boy with Autism. He was enrolled in a self-contained special education classroom. The child engaged in high rates of multiply disruptive behavior. The frequency of bomb noises, inappropriate talk, and inappropriate physical contact were measured. After baseline, a positive behavior support plan was developed and implemented. The plan consisted of a combination of work then play schedule and a token economy. The work and then play schedule was set up so the child could visually see the work tasks that needed to be completed as well as the consequences for completing his work. The overall outcomes indicated a clear reduction in all three of the behaviors measured. The benefits of using pictures and tokens within a positive behavior support plan methodology is discussed.... [more]

Transition from the stage when a child learns to read, to the stage when he/she uses reading for acquiring new knowledge is a turning point to which less attention has been given than to the earlier stages of reading development. The aim of our research was to analyze the structure of reading in good and poor readers of fourth grade children, in Slovene primary schools. With children that age, reading comprehension has already taken the central position in their reading development; reading is considered as a mastered skill, needed in the process of acquiring extensive knowledge. The application of instruments which involved the linguistic as well as the reading variables enabled us to study the latent structure of reading by means of multivariate analysis. The results manifested four latent dimensions, pointing out the particularities of the structure of reading in our sample. They also showed that the readers involved in the sample are still at the level of acquiring the reading techniques. Effective reading comprehension is influenced by many other factors – word comprehension; comprehension of rules for applying words in sentences and texts; spatial abilities, influencing an individual’s ability to form inner concepts. There is a strong need for integrating analytic and synthetic levels of an individual’s functioning.... [more]

Making parents realize their therapeutic role in the shaping of the disabled child’s personality constituted grounds for undertaking experimental research of self-acceptance. The comparison between two groups, one consisting of 40 visually impaired and 30 non-visually impaired teenagers resulted in statistically significant differences.... [more]

The purpose of this study was to improve student sight word vocabulary through the use of reading racetracks and flashcards. The participants were three nine-year old males diagnosed with a learning disability. The research was carried out in a resource room in an elementary school in the Northwest. The outcome measured was the number of correct words and errors said per min from flashcards directly after completing a reading racetrack. The reading racetrack procedure was evaluated in an ABAB single case design. The results indicated that reading racetracks are effective in increasing children’s sight word vocabulary.... [more]

In this article we describe and reflect on the combined use of quantitative and qualitative methods in a special educational needs study. The article reflects on how different research methods/techniques produced contradictory data, and highlights the limits of certain data production techniques when working with issues related to deep feelings/emotions.... [more]

This article addresses the question whether critical theory can contribute towards enacting democratic teacher performance in schools. With reference to the Norms and Standards for Educators of 2000, we argue that critical educational theory offers an adequate framework of thinking and acting to engender democratic teacher performance in schools. Using conceptual analysis, this article shows that one first needs to understand the meanings of concepts before one can consider implementing them. Many of the problems facing teachers in schools involve them not having sufficient understanding of educational concepts. Hence, they seemingly find it difficult to effectively implement policy. This results in the fact that democracy remains undermined. This article provides a modest attempt to show that democracy does not have to be sacrificed. However, then it requires teachers to use principles of critical educational theory to ensure that effective policy implementation does occur in schools.... [more]

Science for all is a call made in several international and national policy documents. In this article we reflect on the teaching of science thinking skills to learners with special needs as a response to the call to make science accessible to all learners. More specifically we discuss and report on the preliminary findings of research done in a South African classroom aimed at mediating thinking skills to learners with special needs.... [more]

Adolescents who engage in deviant behaviors often report significant numbers of personal problems. In this study, four groups of 190 adolescents responded to the Personal Problems Checklist for Adolescents (Schinka, 1985). The subjects were grouped according to incarceration status and IDEA diagnosis of emotional disturbance. Significant differences were found among the groups on 3 variables: family, crisis, and school (p < .05). The results indicate that disability rather than incarceration status is a greater indicator of perceptions of problems. Although maladaptive behaviors of youth with emotional or behavioral disorders or those considered to be delinquent may be similar, perceptions of specific types of personal problems differ at a significant level.... [more]

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