Starting from a person–environment fit framework, this study investigates whether ethnic congruence—the percentage of co-ethnics in a school—relates to school misconduct and whether congruence effects differ between ethnic minority and majority students. Moreover, we investigate whether eventual associations are mediated by friendship attachment, perceived teacher support, and general school belonging. Multilevel analyses of data from 11,759 students across 83 Flemish secondary schools show that higher ethnic congruence is associated with lower levels of school misconduct but only for ethnic minority students. This effect was not mediated by friendship attachment, nor by teacher support, but it was mediated by general school belonging. We conclude that ethnic minority students in schools with a higher percentage of peers of co-ethnic descent are less likely to break the school rules because they feel more contented in the school context, which is congruent with the person–environment fit framework.

This study was conducted in the South African context, where education is in a state of transition. One of the central issues in higher education is the development of academic literacy. However, as a result of an inadequate focus on educational linguistics and a lack of explicit instruction in academic literacy, many students do not achieve their full potential. This study focuses on aspects of academic literacy in the examination responses of a group of students studying in the discipline of speech-language pathology. The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not there is a relationship between the students’ academic literacy skills and their ability to answer examination questions. By means of an exploratory retrospective longitudinal record review, the examination scripts of 20 students were rated for evidence of various academic literacy skills. The ratings were highly correlated to the actual examination marks in both years of study, suggesting that there is a need to incorporate explicit instruction in academic literacy to develop students’ metacognitive processes while reading and writing for academic purposes.

This study focuses on the goal orientations of students with and without special educational needs (SEN). The sample (mean age 13 years, 10 months) was composed of 37 students with low IQ, but without SEN; 37 students who were diagnosed as having learning disability (LD); and 37 students having emotional or behavioral disorders (ED). The groups were matched by IQ and gender. The results showed that students without SEN scored significantly higher in mastery goal orientation, significantly lower in performance-avoidance orientation, and had a lower work-avoidance orientation than students with LD or ED. Students with ED showed a significantly lower performance-approach orientation than students without SEN and students with LD. Results from correlational and regression analyses showed that SEN is always an explaining variable for goal orientation and that group differences cannot be explained by IQ, gender, actual achievement, self-estimation of achievement, and school anxiety.

This chapter identifies the most robust conclusions and ideas about adolescent development and psychological functioning that have emerged since Petersen’s 1988 review. We begin with a discussion of topics that have dominated recent research, including adolescent problem behavior, parent-adolescent relations, puberty, the development of the self, and peer relations. We then identify and examine what seem to us to be the most important new directions that have come to the fore in the last decade, including research on diverse populations, contextual influences on development, behavioral genetics, and siblings. We conclude with a series of recommendations for future research on adolescence.

Adolescence is an important age period for the development of prospective cognition. Teenagers become able to reason about the future, including anticipating events and formulating plans to reach goals. This article focuses on adolescents’ development of skills for strategic thinking: for anticipating possible scenarios in a plan and formulating flexible plans that take these into account. We have studied teens’ work on projects within youth programs (such as arts, leadership programs) because they provide real-world-like contexts for understanding development of these skills. Two case studies demonstrate the complexity of strategic skills and how they are learned. Effective strategic thinking requires learning to anticipate the particularities of the contexts and people involved in reaching a goal, for example, how to communicate effectively with a specific audience through a specific medium. It also requires learning general “meta” concepts and strategies that apply across situations, such as formulating plans that take uncertainties into account.

South Africa’s development since 1994 has been of interest to many people across the world as the diverse nature of our society, including the growing diversity of student populations at our universities, demands very special interventions and initiatives to help create a healthier society. Research at Stellenbosch University demonstrates a positive relationship between wellness (which includes its intellectual, social, emotional, physical, spiritual and occupational dimensions) and student success. The main focus of this article is on how a university can develop systemic-holistic strategies to enhance wellness. High levels of wellness in students contribute toward the formation of harmonious and healthy communities on campus, where diversity is regarded as an asset. Furthermore, these “well” students will one day enter the world of work as well-rounded professionals and global citizens who do not hesitate to continue contributing toward the creation of a better society. Academic (or cognitive) success is of vital importance; however, student success in our very diverse context requires a much wider spectrum of characteristics or graduate outcomes for them to flourish and contribute optimally.

The goal of this study was to examine behavioral norm effects in 2 peer contexts (classroom, school) on adolescent substance use (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis) and aggressive behaviors (bullying, physical fighting). Participants were 5,642 adolescents (M_age = 14.29 years, SD = 1.26; 49% boys). There were 3 hypotheses. First, behavioral norms in both contexts affect individual behavior. Second, classroom norms have stronger effects on individual behavior than school norms. Third, classroom and school norms interact and exacerbate each other’s influence. Results indicated that classroom norms had stronger effects than school norms on individual tobacco and alcohol use. Furthermore, school norms had equal or stronger effects than classroom norms on the 2 indicators of aggressive behaviors. There was no evidence for an interaction between classroom and school norms for any dependent variable. This study demonstrates that the complexity of multiple (nested) peer contexts should be considered to fully understand peer influence processes.

This study examined the relationship between 3 aspects of alienation: powerlessness, meaninglessness, and social estrangement, and attitudes toward face-to-face and online counseling among college students. Participants included 180 undergraduate students at a Midwestern university. Correlations indicated a significant relationship between discomfort with face-to-face counseling and powerlessness (r = .20, p = .008) and meaninglessness (r = .22, p = .003). There were no significant relationships between attitudes toward online counseling and any aspect of alienation. Significant gender differences in value toward face-to-face counseling were found. Higher education should examine the use of online counseling among college students.

Research as well as practice has demonstrated that classical testing procedures are inappropriate for individuals with moderate to severe mental retardation (MSMR). Several characteristics of the population, such as lack of understanding of the task instructions and demands, short attention span, weak communication skills, and slow information processing, lead to a general floor effect on traditional intelligence tests. Thus, the results are neither reliable nor valid. In addition to the problem of not being able to evaluate their cognitive competencies in a reliable way, there is a deep-rooted belief that these individuals cannot go beyond a concrete level of reasoning and that it is extremely difficult to improve their intellectual functioning. Consequently, individuals with IQs lower than 50-55 are often treated as one large homogeneous group and tend to be taken care of in special institutions, without differentiation between those who are able to develop their cognitive competencies and those for whom educational goals may be limited to the development of social and lifeskill competencies.

The Analogical Reasoning Learning Test (ARLT; Hessels-Schlatter, in press; Schlatter, 1999; Schlatter & Büchel, 2000) has been especially constructed for the assessment of individuals whose IQ, as measured with a traditional test, would be below 50-55. The aim of the ARLT is to provide a reliable and valid estimate of the learning capacities of individuals with MSMR, i.e., to distinguish persons who can profit from cognitive training programs and more demanding schooling from those for whom such an approach would have little value.

The ARLT is a dynamic procedure. It consists of 2x2 analogical matrices and is divided into three phases. The first one is a pre-training phase intended to familiarize students with the task demands and to teach them some cognitive prerequisites. The second one is a learning phase, whose aim is to teach students to solve analogical matrices, with the help of specific, standardized, and hierarchically ordered hints. The third phase takes place one week after learning. This phase is designed to evaluate maintenance and transfer capacity of the learned rules and is applied in a more static way. Learning capacity is categorized at three levels: gainer, non-gainer, or undetermined. The reliability and validity of the test were analyzed.

The study involved a total of 58 participants, 38 male and 20 female, all educated in special schools for MSMR students. The mean chronological age was 13-11 (min=6-6, max=19-10). The experimental plan followed a pretest - retest - training - posttest design. The complete ARLT was administered as a pretest to all participants. After a delay of four weeks, the third testing phase was repeated in order to assess test-retest reliability. To evaluate the predictive validity of the ARLT, the participants were matched on the basis of their ARLT performance and were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (EG) with training in inductive reasoning or a control group (CG) without training. The training for the EG consisted of 8 to 12 lessons of about one-half hour each over a period of four weeks. The lessons included different kinds of tasks: Standard analogies (involving similar kinds of relations as in the ARLT), analogies requiring the induction and application of other kinds of relations, such as “lives in,” “one as opposed to many,” “is part of,” and classifications. A post-test including items corresponding to the training tasks was designed to evaluate the training effects. To estimate the discriminant validity, we also administered the Raven Kurzzeit-Lerntest (RKL) of Frohriep and Guthke (1992; Frohriep, 1978). The RKL is a learning test based on the Coloured Progressive Matrices, originally developed to detect developmentally delayed kindergarten children.

The research showed that the ARLT provides a highly reliable and valid estimate of learning capacity for this population. The participants classified as non-gainers on the ARLT showed no improvement after a one-month training, in contrast to participants defined as gainers. A familiarization effect could, however, be found on the classification tasks. It should be stressed that the training in this study was relatively short. Further research is needed to find out whether the reasoning abilities of the non-gainers can be enhanced with longer training and perhaps other kinds of intervention. Comparison between the ARLT and the RKL showed that it is indeed analogical reasoning that is assessed and not simpler perceptive abilities.

We have shown that the ARLT, by differentiating gainers from nongainers in a population classified as moderately to severely mentally retarded, leads to useful and beneficial information for educational purposes. It allows one to establish differentiated educational programs and to stimulate the students who prove to be able to benefit from a cognitive training (gainers) to attain higher levels of cognitive functioning. The test can also help to counter the general low expectations of teachers, educators, and psychologists with regard to individuals whose IQ’s range is below 55.

This article presents a case study of an adult Ukrainian orphan, Anna, who acquired English as a second and accessed U.S. higher education despite the fact that adopted children or aged out orphans face a unique constellation of educational and psychological challenges in language learning. This article presents Anna's story in her own voice and advocates for the specialized needs of the underserved, often voiceless thousands of older orphans in war-stricken Ukraine. This article suggests that access to institutional agents and social capital played a key role in Anna's success. Of interest to researchers, the article postulates common, current language learning theory perhaps may not fully explain the distinct processes of language acquisition by institutionalized, language-delayed children. The article also offers tangible lessons for educators of victims of trauma, and would thus be of interest to practitioners as well as researchers in the areas of language acquisition and educational psychology.

This article represents a collaborative integration of ethnographic techniques and cognitive neuroscience for examining the dynamics of the movement pedagogy that takes place within Japanese traditional dance. The goal is to examine the extent to which the notion of multiscale entrainment, a hallmark assumption of prospective cognition, can enhance our understanding of the movement pedagogy dynamics that emerge during a given pedagogical session and the larger timescale events that come to be learned over sessions (e.g., the student–teacher relationship, the multiple sessions needed to learn an entire dance, and the annual events associated with Japanese dance pedagogy). The analysis will examine the extent to which Japanese dance pedagogy entails embodied anticipation (i.e., movement learning that gives rise to later movement anticipation) and multiscale embodied anticipation (i.e., multiscale events that come to be recursively associated with movement planning and, as a result, appear in one’s later movement planning). In addition, we analyze the extent to which the Japanese dance studio can be conceptualized as an external scaffold that affords (a) a space for student–teacher interactions, (b) the long-term maintenance of a historical–cultural tradition, and (c) the pedagogically driven emergence of a rich phenomenal sense of belonging to something larger than the timescale of one’s immediate movement planning.

Proponents of recent educational approaches to cognitive strategy training have emphasized the importance of ensuring that strategy training is incorporated within the teaching program of the classroom rather than being taught in academic and locational isolation. Designers of the Process-Based Instruction (PBI) model stress such an approach. Staff members in a primary school were trained to use PBI and provided consultancy support while they implemented the approach within their regular classroom academic programs. Students in the experimental school demonstrated significant gains in academic tasks, perceptions of ability, and some planning tasks when compared with the performance of participants in the contrast condition school. Limitations in the approach as well as future research issues are discussed.

This study explores the effectiveness of the Instrumental Enrichment Basic program (IE-B) in enhancing cognitive and affective functions of young children. The IE-B is a cognitive intervention program based on Feuerstein’s theories of structural cognitive modifiability (SCM) and mediated learning experience (MLE). Thirty 3- to 4-year-old children were assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the IE-B program for seven months (for a total of 48 hours) and was compared to the control group before and after intervention on tests of knowledge acquisition and vocabulary. Cognitive change was evaluated using a Chilean assessment battery that measured children’s language, cognition, and knowledge. The findings indicate that children in the experimental group improved their performance more than children in the control group. Results indicate that IE-B can be used with socially disadvantaged children as young as 3–4 and that it leads to improvement in their performance.

If children fail to understand test instructions, measurements of their competence may be unfair and invalid. This is especially relevant for students with special educational needs (SEN) because they face greater challenges in comprehending instructions. Two interventions were designed to facilitate the comprehension of test requirements by presenting intensified instructions and to enhance students’ attention by engaging them in physical activity before receiving the test instructions. Three-hundred forty-eight students with SEN aged 8–12 years were randomly assigned to an experimental condition or a control group. Even after controlling for relevant variables (reading speed, basic cognitive skills), students participating in the interventions performed better in a reading test than controls. As hypothesized, the intensified test instructions reduced the number of responses that were not compliant with instructions. In conclusion, this study shows the importance of adapting test instructions for students with SEN, and it proposes interventions that can be implemented in other assessments.

Teachers’ behavior in the classroom can be assessed from different perspectives using teacher ratings, student ratings, or classroom observations. This article presents an observation instrument to assess teachers’ promotion of self-regulated learning (SRL), capturing teachers’ instruction of self-regulation strategies as well as characteristics of the learning environment that should foster students’ self-regulation. Thirty-four classroom videotapes were systematically coded regarding teachers’ promotion of SRL. Moreover, student and teacher ratings were collected to compare different perspectives. For the prediction of students’ SRL, the value of observation data and of teacher and student ratings was analyzed. The results suggested that teacher and observer ratings did not agree, and that teacher and student ratings agreed to some extent. Regression analysis showed that the instruction of metacognitive strategies assessed through observations as well as through student ratings significantly predicted students’ SRL, whereas the ratings of the observed learning environment predicted student SRL and achievement negatively. In addition, teachers’ perceptions of fostering situated learning also predicted SRL of their students.

Even if the label special educational needs (SEN) is similarly used in various countries for indicating students with disabilities, the practices and diagnostic criteria leading to this label vary widely. This study aims to clarify the diagnostic process in Austria that leads to labeling. A sample of 169 special needs teachers who regularly write SEN reports participated in the online survey. The survey questions were based on those of a study by Ansperger (1998), who questioned special education teachers writing such reports in 1995–1996. Results show that, although more and more standardized instruments are used, still quite several unstandardized assessments are reported. Little time is available for the assessments, and only few reports include information on future pedagogical/educational intervention. It is concluded that in inclusive education, assessment should be more oriented toward educational intervention to address the diversity in learning needs among students than at diagnosing disabilities.

The author of this study aimed to develop a method of assessment of real-life decision-making and self-advocacy skills and then to develop and evaluate a method for training those skills. A final sample of 24 young adults with mild learning difficulties and some emotional difficulties was studied using both group control design and a single subject evaluation. The dynamic assessment adopted yielded valuable material on individual training needs. The full training program yielded associated gains in both planning behavior and successful solutions. L’auteur de cette recherche cherchait à développer une méthode d’évaluation des capacités de prise de décision et de défense de ses intérêts dans la vie réelle puis de proposer et d’évaluer une méthode pour les entraîner. Un échantillon final de 24 jeunes adultes présentant des difficultés d’apprentissage légères et quelques problèmes émotionnels a été étudié en utilisant un groupe contrôle ainsi qu’une évaluation individuelle. L’évaluation dynamique adoptée a permis d’obtenir des informations utiles sur les besoins individuels d’entraînement. L’application du programme dans sa totalité révèle des progrès dans les domaines de la planification des actions et la découverte de solutions efficaces. Ziel der Autorin dieser Studie war es, eine Methode zur Erfassung von Entscheidungsverhalten im Alltag und von Fertigkeiten der Selbstbehauptung sowie eine Methode zum Training dieser Fertigkeiten zu entwickeln und zu evaluieren. Eine Stichprobe von 24 jungen Erwachsenen mit leichten Lernschwierigkeiten und emotionalen Problemen wurde mit Hilfe eines Kontrollgruppendesigns und einer Einzelfallevaluation untersucht. Die eingesetzte dynamische Erfassungsmethode ergab wichtige Hinweise auf individuelle Trainingsbedürfnisse. Das vollständige Trainingsprogramm ergab Gewinne sowohl im Planungsverhalten als auch bezüglich erfolgreicher Problemlösungen. El autor de este estudio se propuso desarrollar un método de evaluación de las habilidades para la toma de decisiones en la vida real y de autoapoyo, como igualmente para evaluar un método de entrenamiento de dichas habilidades. La muestra estuvo integrada por 24 jóvenes adultos con dificultades de aprendizaje de tipo medio y con algunas dificultades emocionales. El diseño disponía de un grupo de control y una simple evaluación temática. La evaluación dinámica adoptada produjo un material para la evaluación de las necesidades individuales del entrenamiento. El programa completo dio lugar a ganancias en conductas de planificación y en soluciones exitosas. L’autore di questo studio mirava a sviluppare un metodo di valutazione delle abilità decisionali e di self-advocacy nella vita reale per poi mettere a punto e valutare un metodo volto all’insegnamento di tali abilità. Il campione conclusivo dello studio comprendeva 24 giovani adulti con difficoltà di apprendimento lievi e qualche difficoltà nella sfera emotiva, con un designo di ricerca che prevedeva sia la presenza del gruppo di controllo sia una valutazione individuale dei soggetti. La valutazione dinamica impiegata ha fornito materiale prezioso in relazione ai bisogni individuali di training. Il programma di training completo ha prodotto vantaggi associati sia nel comportamento di pianificazione che nell’individuazione di soluzioni efficaci.

This master’s thesis (Berger, 2003) concerns a new learning potential test of analogical reasoning, the Hessels Analogical Reasoning Test (HART; Hessels, 2003) aimed at the assessment of pupils from 5 to 15 years of age in a group situation. A frequently emphasized problem of learning potential tests is the time needed for their administration. We intend to be able to assess a whole group of approximately 20 pupils in the context of their classroom, in a relatively short time of about 45 to 60 minutes.

The analogies are presented in two different formats: 2 rows x 3 lines with six response alternatives or 3x3 with eight response alternatives. The number of elements varies from one to three, as does the number of transformations. We created nine series of increasing complexity for a total of 70 items. The items were constructed by pairs, meaning that two items had the same number of elements, and the same number and kind of transformations applied. The complexity, that is, theoretical difficulty, was defined by the number of transformations and elements present in the analogy. For example, an item with one element and one transformation is easier than an item with three elements and two transformations. The procedure was divided into two phases. In the first phase, a collective introduction was offered using four example items aimed at familiarizing the pupils with the tasks and the different formats of the matrices. Immediately after, a pre-test combined with training (after each item an explanation was given about the transformations applied) was administered using the first set. The second phase was a static post-test administered a few days after the pre-test/training using the parallel forms of the pre-test/training items. For each degree, a series of items was defined, according to level of difficulty, varying between 12 (1^st grade) and 20 items (6_th grade) for each phase of the test.

We administered the HART to 117 pupils of a primary public school (mean age 8;11). In addition, these pupils took the Standard Progressive Matrices of Raven (SPM) and an arithmetical test in a static and collective administration. Teachers of each class completed a rating scale for each of his pupils about three noncognitive variables (participation in the lessons, application in schoolwork, and behavior in class) and two cognitive variables (school success in French and mathematics).

The results showed that the training caused great inter- and intraindividual variation, explained by the learning process taking place during this phase. Due to this variation, internal consistency was low for this phase. Thus, for subsequent analysis, we only considered the reliable results of the post-test. Of main interest were the correlations between the HART and the other variables measured. The noncognitive factors given by the teacher’s judgments showed lower correlations with the HART than with the SPM. For instance, the HART showed a correlation of .08 (ns) with pupil’s behavior, whereas the SPM showed a correlation of .21 (p<.05). This result means that the score offered by the HART is more independent of behavior in class. Moreover, the arithmetic test is more correlated with the learning test than with the SPM. Finally, a stepwise regression analysis demonstrated that the SPM predicted 14.2% (F_1,116=19.151; p<.01) of the variance of success in mathematics; the HART predicted an extra 4% (F_1,115=5.557; p<.05). For French, the stepwise regression analysis shows that the HART has a slightly superior predictive validity.

These first results show that the instrument can be used in a group situation and has promising properties. The research will be extended to different populations, with variations in the procedures and methods.

Interoceptive awareness is linked to emotional and social cognition, which are impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is unknown how this ability is associated with age in either typical or atypical development. We used a standard test of interoceptive accuracy (IA) to investigate these questions in children and adults with and without ASD. Perceived number of heartbeats over 4 time intervals was compared with actual heart rate to determine IA. Effects of group, age, IQ, heart rate, and mental counting ability on accuracy were assessed using multiple regression. Post hoc correlations were performed to clarify significant interactions. Age was unrelated to IA in both groups when IQ ≥115. When IQ <115, this relationship was positive in typical development and negative in ASD. These results suggest that cognitive ability moderates the effect of age on IA differently in autism and typical development.

Implicit theories of intelligence play a role in teacher’s actions. Adaptive instruction in and out of the classroom is important to optimize learning processes, especially in the case of at-risk students. This study explored to what extent implicit theories of intelligence play a role in the actions of educational professionals around at-risk students. Forty-four teachers and 57 support professionals participated in this research. Data were analyzed separately for teachers and support professionals. Thirty-four percent of the actions of the teacher can be explained by implicit theories. However, in denominational schools this is 61%. Structural equation modeling showed mediation effects of multiple belief factors in the actions of support professionals. Implicit theory of intelligence predicts the belief in IQ testing, which precedes the belief in consequential validity of tests (i.e., link to actions according to test outcomes). These results indicate a strong influence of implicit theories of intelligence in educational practice.

This article is a literature review of studies on attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Depression (Depression). Domains evaluated in our review include co-morbidity in proband and family in relation to ADHD and Depression, longitudinal studies concerning outcomes of ADHD in relation to Depression, and familial risk factors related to ADHD and Depression. The studies that were examined established a link between ADHD and Depression in probands as well as in their families. Studies addressing the question of the primary or secondary status of Depression in ADHD do not reveal any clear link between an initial diagnosis of ADHD and a Depression outcome, suggesting that childhood diagnosis of ADHD alone usually does not evolve into adult Depression. The long-term evolution of ADHD into Depression seems to be related more to the presence of an initial comorbidity condition in ADHD children and adolescents. Family factors seem to influence the genesis of ADHD and Depression. There also seems to be a direct link between Major Depression in mothers and ADHD in their children.

Cognition plays a major role in the development of antisocial behavior. The aim of this study was to extend the current state of research regarding the mechanisms of negative peer influence in adolescence by testing whether aggregated classroom attitudes (injunctive norms) predict individual attitudes toward antisocial behavior and vice versa. For that purpose, attitudes toward a broad range of aggressive and delinquent behaviors were assessed in 864 lower secondary school students in Switzerland. The survey took place at 4 measurement points, spanning Grade 7 to Grade 9. The reciprocal influence between group norms and individual attitudes was tested in a lagged multilevel model for change. Results indicated that injunctive classroom norms predicted subsequent individual attitudes but that individual attitudes did not predict subsequent classroom norms, even if student’s social dominance status was included in the model as a moderator.

One consequence of the transformation to democracy in South Africa was the development of a new school curriculum based on constructivist principles. The curriculum specifies a number of Critical Outcomes that have much in common with the goals of cognitive education but says little about how these are to be achieved in practice. This creates a particularly difficult situation for many teachers who, through no fault of their own, have not had opportunities to develop as thinkers themselves. The paper describes the introduction of a particular approach to “teaching thinking” (Philosophy for Children) to various groups of teachers, and reports on perceived benefits to teachers in terms of analytic thinking skills, creativity, confidence, and classroom understanding. It is argued that these benefits, however conferred, are a necessary precondition for the effective classroom implementation of any cognitive education intervention and that the proponents of cognitive education have possibly underestimated the time it takes for teachers to internalize and implement cognitive approaches.

In discussions of inclusion and exclusion, one often-neglected group at high risk of exclusion is that of school absentees. Researchers and the public normally focus on truants and school refusers, whereas students absent from school to take care of family members, or young carers, have received little attention so far. Because of the multicausal factors and extensive impacts of the phenomenon, research on both school absentees and young carers suggests a need for interdisciplinary approaches. Yet, these approaches for support do not always succeed. This study investigated the interdisciplinary cooperation of those professionals in education, social work, and health care who work with young carers absent from school. It identified both barriers to and facilitators of this important cooperation. The aim is to create better support for the inclusion of this unnoticed group and to increase awareness of their situation among the professionals working with them.

Between the idea

And the reality

Between the motion

And the act

Falls the Shadow

T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”

This article reports on the development and evaluation of a meta-cognitive tool for practitioners’ reflection on the ‘shadow’ between espoused theories and theories-in-use. The learning theories profile (LTP) was developed to support practitioners in education to identify and reflect on the theoretical perspectives that underpin their professional decision-making. In order to assess the usefulness of the LTP for reflection on professional development and practice, 15 special educators who were enrolled in a university course took part in a trial of the tool. Data from pre-activity and post-activity surveys suggested that the LTP helped students to critically consider contemporary and traditional theories of learning, raised awareness of the application of learning theories in education practice and supported users to reflect on their own professional practice, and interactions.

Questions regarding bilingual education are examined through the lens of Canada’s experience in the Province of Quebec, with particular emphasis on the social group (majority, minority) of the children and the schooling context. Several distinct approaches to bilingual education are identified and discussed, varying from an assimilation approach to a multicultural one. Early immersion in a second language is seen to have positive effects on school achievement as well as on mastery of the language. Canada’s experience may have important implications for other bilingual and multilingual-multicultural societies such as Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, and a number of African countries with a history of colonialism.