Healthward ho! : How to keep healthy and happy grades 1 and 2

A book of ideas in stories and rhymes on how to help keep children healthy

School Improvement Tool Elaborations: Student engagement and wellbeing

What happens in schools can have a great and lasting impact on the future wellbeing and outcomes for young people. Schools therefore play an important role in supporting students’ engagement and wellbeing. These elaborations are intended to support the work of schools by providing further specificity about the practices in each of the nine domains of the School Improvement Tool (previously National School Improvement Tool) that optimise student engagement and wellbeing and, in turn, impact on achievement. Commissioned by the Queensland Department of Education, the elaborations provide an evidence-based framework to guide practice by teachers, school leaders and education systems in ensuring equitable outcomes for all students, particularly those most at-risk of disengagement, or for whom there are wellbeing concerns. The elaborations have been developed directly from the research evidence on student engagement and wellbeing by the Australian Council for Educational Research and refined in consultation with key stakeholders

Perceptions Of School By Two Teenage Boys With Asperger Syndrome And Their Mothers: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study aimed to develop an understanding of the challenges faced by teenage boys with Asperger syndrome and their mothers. A case study approach was used to collect data from two 13-year-old boys who have Asperger syndrome and their mothers in Queensland, Australia. Data were collected through the use of semi¬structured interviews. The words of the boys and their mothers provide a valuable insight into the personal experiences and feelings of the par¬ticipants. An inductive approach to data analysis identified four themes: (1) developmental differences; (2) problems associated with the general characteristics of Asperger syndrome (i.e. communication and social difficulties, restricted range of interests, a need for routine); (3) stress; and (4) 'masquerading'. The first three themes relate strongly to the current literature, but the emergence of masquerading is of particular interest in developing a fuller understanding of the experiences of individuals with Asperger syndrome at school

オーストラリア ショウ チュウガクセイ ノ カナ ガクシュウ : ソノ キョウジュホウ ト モンダイテン ヲ サグル

オーストラリアで最多の日本語学習者を要するクイーンズランド州では、小学校での日本語学習者の数は現在27,000人と推定されている。この数は、外国語(LOTE:Languages Other Than English)教育が政府の方針として奨励されるに従って、急速に伸びつつある。このLOTEの中でも日本語は最も学習者数が多い。 外国語教育では、四技能のバランスを保ちながら、コミュニケーション能力を伸ばしていくことが大切である。とくに、読み書きの分野に力を入れることは、話す、聞くことに集中しがちな現代の外国語学習において、その重要性が増しているといえよう。この問題は、学習者が新しい表記法を学ばなければならない。非漢字圏での日本語教授においてとくに重要な点であると思われる。 本稿では、585名の小・中学生を対象に 1)「かな」の認知能力、2)かなに対する学習態度、3)その教授法との関連、について行なった調査のついて報告する。この調査は、さまざまなかな教授法とその効果 についての研究プロジェクトの第一段階として行なったものである。この研究プロジェクトは次の二点に焦点をおいている。1)かな学習の初期段階を過ぎた時点から、読みの能力が伸びない学習者が多い。読み書きの学習に対して否定的な態度が現れるのもこの時期である。2)かなの教授法、とくに、ローマ字を介しての教授は、英語圏では議論が絶えない。しかし、どのような教授法が効果 的なのか、ローマ字の使用は果たしてかなの学習を実際に妨げる要因なのか、また、そうであるならば、どのような点においてなのか、などについての教室研究の例、その実証が非常に少ない。かな学習は一見容易になされているようであるが、非漢字圏の学習者、とくに、低学年の学生にとっては一つの「ハードル」であり、後の学習全体に及ぼす影響も大きい。ここでは、調査結果 を報告するとともに、かな教授の現状と問題点、また、小学校での日本語教授における今後の研究課題についても考察している。It is estimated that over 27,000 students are learning Japanese in primary schools in the state of Queensland, which represents the highest enrolment of Japanese learners in Australia both at primary and secondary schools. This figure is growing rapidly, as LOTE (Languages Other Than English) programs are promoted strongly at government level. Among all LOTEs, Japanese has the greatest number of students. It is our belief that all LOTE programs should facilitate the development of communicative competence in a balanced way, that is, using all four skills. To achieve this balance, it is particularly important to promote reading and writing skills in today\u27s LOTE classrooms, where the emphasis has tended to be on oral / aural skills. This point is particularly relevant to the learning of the Japanese language, in which orthographical change can be a major problem for many learners. This paper reports on a study conducted on 585 primary- and secondary-school Japanese-language learners to examine: 1) their kana proficiency (mainly recognition); 2) their attitude toward learning written forms of the language; and 3) how these two factors are affected by different teaching approaches. This study is the first stage of a project which investigates teaching approaches to reading / writing in Japanese as a LOTE. This project was conceived to investigate two problems: 1) after the initial learning of kana (mostly at primary schools), students\u27 reading proficiency does not develop as smoothly as desired: and 2) the effect of different teaching approaches, particularly the use of romaji, has been an issue of debate. However, there is no concrete classroom evidence that clarifies which approach is more effective and whether the use of romaji (or any alphabet-based code) actually hinders students\u27 mastery of kana. Kana learning is often regarded as an easy task; however, for Japanese learners of non-character-based language background, it can be a major \u27hurdle\u27 which may affect their future learning. As well as the discussion of the outcomes of the sdudy, further research questions will be raised specifically on the teaching of reading and Japanese teaching at the primary-school level