Fiona Bryer

Three well-established issues for educational reform to insert middle schooling into the traditional primary-secondary tiers are (a) lack of preservice training of specialist middle school teachers, (b) the absence of clear positive educational outcomes linked to the promotion of middle schooling policy as a philosophy of teaching, and (c) the ad hoc approach to professional development for teachers working within middle schools. Persistent uncertainties about whether middle schooling is an educationally distinctive and developmentally helpful phase of schooling have operated in conjunction with the informal preparation for middle school teaching typical in all western systems of education. These issues can be applied to the recent experiences of Education Queensland teachers with primary and secondary training who have worked within the new middle school environment. A single site investigation at an Education Queensland trial of middle schooling addressed teacher perceptions of ho...

A study of middle school ecology and its effects on teacher practices raised various pedagogical and methodological issues beyond the actual study of how teaching teams in a Queensland school viewed new practice in a trial that started in 1999. Three synergistic issues for emerging practice and research on that practice were noted. Simultaneously, teachers were working in a new school, implementing new practice, and integrating new policy. The successes and failures of innovation, therefore, may reflect newness of many kinds. Yes Yes

Observations of teams have been made during 3 years of ongoing experiences in several local middle school settings. These observations have occurred in the course of teaching middle school classes as a participant-observer, conducting a single case study of a state P-12 school that established a middle school program (Main. 2003), and undertaking a major study in progress of four teaching teams in three middle schools. These observations have provided a basis for reflecting on the current practice environment for middle school teaching teams. Using teaching teams in middle schooling has been justified in terms of benefits for teacher collegiality, student learning, and creation of a flexible environment. That is, teaming allows the creation of a larger working space and more adaptable working time, which then enables teachers to incorporate virtually any teaching or learning method with any combination of students at any time during the normal timetabled sessions of a school day. Ho...

The research so far done on middle schooling has revealed poor technical implementation of middle school practices and poor conceptual understanding of the vision of middle schooling responsiveness to the developmentally appropriate learning of Years 6-9 students. Poor implementation has contributed to the weak, negative, and confusing evidence, which has, in turn, contributed to the reactive blaming of middle schooling for the failure of robust organisations to emerge from the reform process and for the unconvincing data that has been reported from various trials. Analysis of educational research and its role in school reforms helps to explain some of the difficulties encountered by middle school proponents in implementing their vision. Future research efforts need to be focused on the implementation process, the barriers to and facilitators of successful reform, and the way to advance the interests of Year 6-9 students as the priority for implementing middle school practices. Aust...

Multiaged classes are thought to advance the philosophy of middle schooling through perceived benefits to social development of students and collaborative learning opportunities. However, middle schooling is a relatively new educational reform, faced with various issues of teacher resistance. A multiaged class structure was one of the eco-organisational features of middle school introduced into a single site investigation of teachers' perceptions about how these features helped or hindered their practice at one of Education Queensland's trial schools. Analysis of data indicated that teachers held a mixture of beliefs about the advantages and implementation of multiaged classes for early adolescents. Yes Yes

Multiaging and middle schooling are two separate educational reforms directed to better meet the individual needs of students. Teachers working within these classes share overlapping and interdependent role expectations as well as some separate and independent ones associated with traditional teacher tasks. The experiences of two beginning teachers were examined after their initial 6 months in classrooms that combine multiage and middle school reforms. Training and collegial support were critical issues. Preservice training did not adequately prepare each individual for this beginning experience. Contextual differences in the schools' induction procedures affected their developing identities as teachers, helping one and hindering the other. Yes Yes

This study considers one way to make more productive use of information in a recognised survey instrument, the Parental Attitudes to Inclusion (PATI) scale and, thus, to enhance inclusive classroom practice for students with special needs. The instrument, designed to elicit views about ...

ABSTRACT This paper reports initial findings of a research project in Queensland, Australia that did not adopt recommended practices from listings established in other countries for early childhood intervention services. Instead, a contextual and participatory process served to determine a relevant listing of program quality indicators for a large, early intervention service conducted by the state Department of Education (Stage 1). Thirty-one indicators of program quality were identified for this particular service. To validate these indicators and to gather additional information about their implementation, a statewide survey was conducted (Stage 2). For each of the 31 indicators, parents and staff from within this service were asked to (a) indicate their level of acceptance, (b) report on current use, and (c) comment on barriers to implementation. Results provide strong support for the indicator listing and reveal high level of indicator acceptance accompanied by a lower level of indicator implementation. Lack of time and lack of staff were identified as the primary barriers to implementation across all indicators. The validated indicator listing for Early Special Education (Qld) services is provided.

International and Australian studies have reported growing scrutiny of communication between home and school. Increased reliance on negotiated curriculum for all students generally and for students with disabilities specifically, has increased the urgent need to investigate this communication. In particular, the pervasive but person-specific effects of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) on student learning require collaborative program design matched to the needs, abilities, and learning styles of an individual child. Frequent communication between the parents and regular classroom teachers about a student with ASD enables parents and teachers to share their knowledge from their different contexts when designing individualised education programs. As there are many students with ASD in Queensland primary schools, the nature of home-school communication about these students with ASD warrants exploration. No Yes

ABSTRACT A primary school with high and diverse learning needs across disability, socioeconomic, and ethnic indicators and with many behavioural and learning difficulties participated in a partnership with Griffith University researchers in order to improve school capacity for inclusive practice. The partners at this school adapted an 83-item Californian tool designed to systematically examine six practice topics, from big picture conceptual framing of the school vision for inclusion to on the ground specifics about numbers of staff qualified to support inclusive practice. A series of meetings throughout 2004 took place on a university campus, in a district education office, and at this school site. The school team undertook to review the tool in their specific educational setting. Team meetings involved progressive, intensive discussions about item meaning, group rating of their school's actual practice on each specific item, and documentation of information available to support that rating. The school review involved three phases: (a) item analysis, revision, and extension up to 90 items; (b) 5-point item rating and collation into subsection and topic areas; and (c) group reflection on the summary rating profile of section ratings of inclusive practice within the school. The community teamwork and university-school collaboration involved in this process demonstrated the effectiveness of action research to engage people in productive discussion about inclusive practice in a whole-school context. Yes Yes

ABSTRACT Research into recommended practice in special education has concentrated on the identification and description of practice standards against which schools can evaluate their performance and direct their efforts toward program improvement. These practice standards have typically been documented in the form of practice listings. A large Queensland special school catering for students with high support needs has used an Australian practice listing (Beamish, 1992) for quality maintenance and improvement activities over the last 7 years. A school-university partnership has recently been established to update the practice listing. A series of general staff meetings and pupil free days has allowed staff to systematically share practice, examine practice, and document practice for their context. Yes Yes

ABSTRACT There is a need in Australian schools to replace child-excluding discipline of problem behaviour with more child-including approaches. Positive behavioural support (PBS) is a systematic, educative process for managing problem behaviour. This approach to assessment and intervention for students with special needs is firmly established in research and in practice, particularly in the USA and the UK. For a decade, formal training in PBS at Griffith University has enabled individual teachers to become competent coordinators of the intervention process for specific students. Some Griffith initiatives in PBS training have enabled graduates not only to effect individual case management in special education units but also to facilitate and lead school-wide interventions. Three projects in Queensland schools over several years have sought to build capacity within school communities through teamwork and university-school collaborations. Properties and issues in PBS implementation are discussed. Yes Yes

ABSTRACT University researchers, district personnel, and administrators of a high school in a low socioeconomic district collaborated to explore school-wide application of positive behaviour support (PBS). The partners were exploring this school-wide approach as an alternative to traditional approaches to managing the diverse range and intensity of problem behaviour that typically fail to deliver sustainable outcomes. This project was aimed to identify the structures, processes, and procedures that needed to be put into place in order to provide comprehensive and inclusive support systems for all students and staff in the local school community. In particular, administrators provided critical leadership to gain staff endorsement to change school practices. Starting points for this project were the model of school-wide supports for inclusive education proposed by Anderson (2003) and the Prevent-Act-Resolve comprehensive behaviour management model (Rosenberg & Jackman, 2003). Six conditional aspects of a foundation for the school community to participate in this project were identified. Yes Yes

nternational and Australian studies have reported growing scrutiny of communication between home and school. Increased reliance on negotiated curriculum for all students generally and for students with disabilities specifically, has increased the urgent need to investigate this communication. In particular, the pervasive but person-specific effects of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) on student learning require collaborative program design matched to the

than more typical educational constructs of learning, achievement, and intelligence; and the inconsistencies between external diagnosis and internal eligibility for specialised services (Toffalo & Pederson, 2005). Within Australia, the local policy environment,at national ,and state levels has not fostered a proactive ,educational response to this chronic ongoing ,issue for effective teacher practice and successful student development. International research has