Author Archives: Colin Woodcock

Reading Schemes and Real Books: Implications for Skill Development and Motivation

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Francesca Nagle
Submitted: December 2012

Reading schemes have been widely accepted as providing the most appropriate opportunities for the application of early reading skills. However the evidence informing this position has been largely based on research examining the cognitive abilities of proficient readers. Recent perspectives from instructional psychology have shifted the focus from an understanding of individual differences in cognitive development to examining the properties of the texts themselves, in order to determine which materials most effectively support the development of reading skills. This essay examines the finding that real books offer greater opportunities for children to develop phonic skills and sight vocabulary than books drawn from a reading scheme, and the implications of this for selecting appropriate materials for reading instruction. In addition, the impact of reading scheme texts on children’s attitudes towards reading and perceptions of the reading process are considered. The essay concludes that reading schemes, when used in isolation, do not provide greater opportunities for children to apply their reading skills than real books, and may even discourage some children from wider reading, through a negative impact on motivation. It is therefore argued that reading instruction is most effective where teaching makes use of a wide range of literature, and is supported by direct instruction and support for autonomy. Potential implications for Educational Psychologists (EPs) in relation to supporting reading development are highlighted.

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What constitutes being developmentally ready to begin school, and how can we support this process?

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Matthew Baker
Submitted: December 2012

Readiness for school is an issue that has occupied numerous researchers, with evidence suggesting that a child’s initial readiness predicts lifelong academic and social outcomes (Duncan et al., 2007). Despite the fact that it can thus be viewed as one of the key issues in Educational Psychology, there remains a lack of clarity regarding what readiness is. This essay seeks to provide a definition that is both interactionist and systemic, incorporating pre-natal factors and consideration of curricular purpose alongside more commonly recognised environmental and developmental determinants. Readiness in this sense is seen as the result of biological and cognitive development, parental and broader social relationships, access to both social and material resources, and curricular expectations. This is framed in terms of a social constructivist and systemic ontology, which sees the child’s development as necessarily scaffolded by parent, carer and peer relationships within a complex social system. Consideration is given to the various means by which Educational Psychology can support the process at individual child, community and policy levels. Attention is drawn to gaps in the current evidence base and potential avenues for research, particularly with regard to cognitive development. Finally, the goodness-of-fit between this reading of developmental readiness and the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is considered.

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Traditional Bullying and Cyber-Bullying: The Protective Role of Peer Relations

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Jerry Brown
Submitted: May 2013

Cyber-bullying has become recognised as a recent form of traditional bullying that uses electronic means. In traditional bullying the quantity and quality of someone’s social network has been shown to play a somewhat protective role in warding off victimisation, but the corresponding research in cyber-bullying is limited and more equivocal. Indications are that any protective factor is much reduced and may be absent. The reasons for this are unclear and may include the potential anonymity of the bully and the lack of face-to-face communication. There are also fundamental differences in the way that those involved conceptualise cyber-bullying from traditional bullying and these may manifest themselves in a belief that peer support can play little or no protective role. An alternative interpretation is provided of the lack of protection provided by peer support in the online environment that owes less to how the online environment may dilute any protective effect and more to the merging of online and offline friendships and the heightened vulnerability to cyber-bullying that this brings. Implications for EPs are tentative given the lack of research on peer relations in cyber-bullying, but they should guard against simply transferring solutions for traditional bullying into the cyber-context and seek more robust theoretically-based interventions that acknowledge how different traditional and cyber-bullying are.

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Why should low socioeconomic status be related to problems with language acquisition?

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Lindsay Patterson
Submitted: December 2011

The relationship between low socioeconomic status and problems with language acquisition has been well researched, but is often attributed to a very wide array of factors. Researchers have predominantly investigated this relationship from a social interactionist perspective, considering the impact of factors such as maternal education levels, parental warmth and quality of paid care provision. Increasingly, there is also research being carried out by neuropsychologists who are investigating how prenatal factors such as maternal alcohol and nicotine consumption may impact the child’s developing brain.

This essay investigates a selection of the issues linked with socioeconomic status and considers how they could impact on a child’s language acquisition. The essay concludes that in this case socioeconomic status is essentially a redundant variable – there are such a high number of interacting influences which could impact on a child’s language acquisition that the label of low socioeconomic status has the potential to mask the real cause of language problems. With this in mind, the essay makes recommendations for interventions which an Educational Psychologist could put in place in order to try to address some of the causal variables associated with poor language acquisition.

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Encouraging Reading for Pleasure: Widening the support could narrow the gap.

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Samantha Beasley
Submitted: December 2011

While phonics instruction is proven to improve certain elements of reading, it is not clear how this contributes to reading comprehension; a key skill found in children who read for pleasure.  Reading for pleasure is in decline despite its benefits to sociability, academic knowledge and reading achievement.  Children need to be motivated to read for pleasure, and parents play a vital role in this.  Interventions which involve parents such as Paired Reading can cause gains in reading achievement and strengthen the relationship between carer and child, but need to be properly implemented so that interactions use a dialogic style and create a positive climate around reading.  Some families already practice more promote positive reading behaviours than others, so recommending a parent-child reading intervention may continue to exclude those families who tend not to access such practices for reasons such as language and culture barriers, reading difficulties and negative attitude toward reading.  Parents could therefore benefit from literacy support too, developing their own skills alongside their children whilst learning how best to support their child, in the form of a family literacy programme.  The potential contribution of an Educational Psychologist (EP) is considered throughout.

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To what extent do secondary caregivers have a unique role in children’s language development and how might this be explained?

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Cora Sargeant
Submitted: December 2010

The role of mothers in children’s language development has been well researched but the contribution made by fathers has received less attention. Mothers spend more time talking with children and are more attuned to their developmental level than fathers. The dominant social interactionist perspective considers the communicative competence of others and the frequency of exposure to language to be important factors in language development. As such it would be reasonable to assume the contribution made by fathers to language development to be only an additive to that of mothers. This essay investigates the paradox that, though fathers have more difficulty communicating effectively with children than mothers, and do so less often, recent research suggests that they may have a unique role to play in language development. The essay concludes that the unique role of fathers is only possible because they are incompletely attuned to their child’s developmental level. The essay also concludes that this is due to differences in the roles of secondary and primary caregiver rather than due to gender differences between mother and father. Implications of these findings for single-parent families and early interventions for children with language difficulties are discussed.

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To what extent can bullies be seen as the victims of bystanders?

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Cora Sargeant
Submitted: May 2011

Bullying is defined as any repeated behaviour designed to cause harm to someone not readily able to defend themselves. Due to the severe consequences of bullying for the victim, it is understandable that bullies have been cast as sole antagonists in the bullying dynamic, victimising the vulnerable and intimidating bystanders into complicit inaction. This essay challenges this view, arguing that bullying behaviour can be viewed as the misguided effort of a rejected group to be more accepted by their peers through the public derogation of other rejected groups. The essay goes on to argue that this reinterpretation of the role of the bully necessitates a reinterpretation of the role of the bystander. Bystanders have been viewed as intimidated into frequent inaction during bullying episodes. This essay argues that bystander inaction can be equally viewed as a form of social rejection of the bully, with bystanders distancing themselves from their counter-normative behaviour. Thus bullies can be seen as the victims of bystander inaction, caught in a vicious cycle where bullying becomes both the cause of and the only perceived solution to social exclusion and rejection. Implications of this reinterpretation of the roles of bullies and bystanders for anti-bullying interventions are discussed.

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What Impact do Boys’ Goal Orientations have on their Reading Achievement?

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Rebecca Murphy
Submitted: December 2010

Underachievement in boys’ reading attainment remains a concern in schools in England, despite numerous interventions. Many factors have been considered as influencing boys’ reading activity and subsequent academic achievement. These factors have included motivation. Recent motivational research has focused on goal orientations. This essay examines the evidence regarding boys’ goal orientations and considers their impact on reading achievement.  Mastery goals are considered beneficial to the reading process. Performance goals are debated as adaptive or maladaptive. A multi-goal theory is considered with the resulting argument that performance goals are detrimental for reading development. The essay argues that boys are more performance-orientated than girls. The development of performance related goals is examined and found to initiate from an early stage, even pre-school. A conclusion is reached that goal orientations do impact significantly on boys’ reading achievement with an acknowledgement of an important impact from environmental factors. A joint influence of personal and contextual goals is the resulting conclusion. Alternative factors impacting on reading achievement are considered. These include peers, home environment, and attitudes to reading. The implications for Educational Psychologists are outlined.

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Adolescents’ online self-disclosure – risky or beneficial?

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Muireann McSwiney
Submitted: June 2011

Online activity is a major feature of adolescents’ culture and social interactions. ‘Blogs’ and ‘instant messenger’ provide ample means through which they can pursue pertinent adolescent concerns such as self-presentation, relationship formation and identity exploration. Certain features of computer-mediated communications mean that online self-disclosures are psychologically and qualitatively different to those made offline. The anonymity and controllability of the internet mean that it is fertile ground for identity experimentation through self-disclosure and the feedback received can shape and validate adolescents’ emergent identity. Online self-disclosure carries with it many benefits, as well as the risks so frequently sensationalised in the media. The benefits can include supportive and healthy relationships formed online and enrichment of existing relationships offline. The potential negative consequences of online self-disclosure will also be explored including abusive messaging and the idealisation of one’s communication partner. Research into self-disclosure is not without limitations and these will be outlined. Complete prohibition of adolescents’ online self-disclosure is unrealistic and ineffective. It is reasonable to suggest that there are as many risks in offline disclosure as there are online. Online self-disclosure is concluded to be a positive activity.  The implications of adolescents’ online self-disclosure for educational psychologists are also discussed.

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At what level should schools be working to develop resilience and promote emotional wellbeing in children and young people?

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Assignment type: Essay
Author: Laura Harris
Submitted: May 2011

Recent reports suggest that the wellbeing of children living in the UK is significantly poorer than other high income countries.  This is despite the fact that the children of today’s society receive better education, and have more possessions and better homes than ever before.  For a number of years, researchers have attempted to identify protective factors that have enabled children to thrive when faced with difficult circumstances.  It is thought that these protective factors help to unlock a child’s innate resilience and promote emotional wellbeing.  Research which has identified these protective factors has led to the creation of school-based programmes, aimed at developing these skills in children and young people.  This paper explores whether schools should implement programmes which target specific at-risk groups using targeted prevention approaches, or employ universal prevention programmes which encompass all children.  The evidence suggests that schools should employ targeted programmes, as these are currently supported by empirical evidence which is methodologically and theoretically sound.  The evidence also suggests that whilst a number of researchers claim that universal programmes will benefit all children, studies of their effectiveness to date, are largely based on teacher reports.  It is important to address this issue in order to gain a better understanding of the most effective and efficient ways of ensuring positive outcomes for children and young people.  Thus, efforts to promote resilience and emotional wellbeing in schools must be evidence-based.  Future research needs to determine the most effective combination of universal and targeted intervention programmes.

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