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About the book: Research with Children is a unique resource book on the methodology of childhood research. Leading and new researchers within the social studies of childhood discuss central questions of epistemology and methodology, demonstrating the links between theory and practice. The theoretical and practical questions are set out in a clear and well-argued fashion and will therefore appeal both to the newcomer to childhood studies and to experienced researchers in the field. From the introduction: Chapter 1 provides a broad overview of the shifts which have and still are taking place within developmental psychology, noting the obstacles and epistemological barriers which such changes confront.

The article presents an introduction to the special September 2013 issue of "International Journal of Early Years Education" addressing research on topics including the impact of Apartheid on education in South Africa, numbers of kindergartens in China, and school readiness.

This paper describes The Open University’s Virtual Research Environment (VRE), our solution to training of the next generation of researchers. We also discuss how we have adapted the OU’s ‘supported open learning model’ to develop a new suite of on-line doctoral training modules referenced against the Vitae Researcher Development Framework. Traditionally the university has adopted a cohort approach, providing training in generic skills for full-time doctoral and MRes researchers through annual programmes of f2f workshops supported by online materials in year one, supplemented in subsequent years by career development and advanced skills workshops and web based exercises. Provision for the university’s part-time doctoral researchers (including those in its Affiliated Research Centres - ARCs), has been challenging. Responsibility here has traditionally rested with supervisors. Consequently, Key priorities for the University are to improve the quality of the research environment and tackle the fragmentation of resources and services offered to research students. In 2011 the university invested in a two-year project to develop a Virtual Research Environment (VRE). This draws on its established track record in developing its undergraduate taught provision and its ‘supported open learning’ delivery model using world class virtual learning environments. The VRE offers a gateway to online training and development resources for all full and part-time research degree students and ARCs. It seeks to bring together this diverse body of researchers into an online community with parity of access to institutional support so that they can provide mutual support for each other and share best practice. The VRE was launched in October 2013 as a central point of access to research based information and support for doctoral researchers, supervisors and support staff. This on-going project is intended as a catalyst that will strengthen the doctoral research community through on-line netwo

This research, commissioned by MakeBelieve Arts, a London-based theatre and education company, evaluated their educational programme for enhancing young children’s storytelling and story acting. The programme, called the ‘Helicopter Technique’, is based on the work of Gussin Paley’s work. Whilst this has received widespread recognition in the field of children’s play and narrative engagement , ther has been little empirical research into its benefits. The work encompassed examination of archival material and classroom based observations and documentation, as well as scrutiny of the children’s stories scribed in class story books,and interviews with staff involved in the pre prgramme taaining and in class coaching. The work aimed to investigate the value of this approach for children and early years practitioners, and to consider how programme could be improved and made more sustainable in early years classrooms. Overall, the Helicopter Technique was found to provide a rich framework for supporting young children’s learning across diverse curriculum areas, and was a motivating and valuable pedagogical tool for developing creative and reflective teaching. Diverse recommendatiosn were made regarding the future development of the technique.

An intervention aiming to support children with social communication difficulties was tested using a randomised controlled design. Children aged 5–6 years old (n = 32) were tested and selected for participation on the basis of their scores on the Test of Pragmatic Skills (TPS) and were then randomly assigned to the intervention arm or to the delayed intervention control group. Following previous research which suggested that computer technology may be particularly useful for this group of children, the intervention included a collaborative computer game which the children played with an adult. Subsequently, children's performance as they played the game with a classmate was observed. Micro-analytic observational methods were used to analyse the audio-recorded interaction of the children as they played. Pre- and post-intervention measures comprised the Test of Pragmatic Skills, children's performance on the computer game and verbal communication measures that the children used during the game. This evaluation of the intervention shows promise. At post-test, the children who had received the intervention, by comparison to the control group who had not, showed significant gains in their scores on the Test of Pragmatic Skills (p = .009, effect size r = −.42), a significant improvement in their performance on the computer game (p = .03, r = −.32) and significantly greater use of high-quality questioning during collaboration (p < .001, r = −.60). Furthermore, the children who received the intervention made significantly more positive statements about the game and about their partners (p = .02, r = −.34) suggesting that the intervention increased their confidence and enjoyment.

The analysis presented in this article draws on Rogoff’s (2003) work on intent participation and Dyson’s (2001, 2010) studies of children’s written compositions to identify the nature of peers’ contributions to meaning making, and cultural transmission processes claimed to occur when young children narrate stories to supportive adults. It draws on data collected during an evaluation of an in-service training programme that introduced UK-based early years practitioners to a version of Paley’s (1990) storytelling and story acting curriculum known as the Helicopter Technique (HT). The HT draws on theatre practice and drama to foster narrative development and literacy skills. Children tell a story to a practitioner trained to scribe this exactly as told and who assists them to identify story characters that can be acted out later with peers. The significance of adults’ contributions to these sessions is well understood, but less is known about the contribution of peers who may also be present. The evidence presented suggests that these peer-to-peer processes can be described as two-way transactions between more and less confident language users and may be particularly important for children with English as an Additional Language (EAL). Implications of these findings for practitioners supporting second language learners are discussed.

ICT and Web 2.0 have the potential to impact on learning by supporting enquiry, new literacies, collaboration and publication. Restrictions on the use of these tools within schools, primarily due to concerns about discipline and child safety, make it difficult to make full use of this potential in formal educational settings. Studies of children at different stages of schooling have highlighted a wider range of ICT use outside school, where it can be used to support informal learning. The study reported here looks beyond the broad categories of primary and secondary education and investigates the distinctive elements of pre-teens’ use of ICT to support informal learning. Nineteen children aged 10 and 11 participated in focus groups and produced visual representations of ICT and Web 2.0 resources they used to support their informal learning. Thematic analysis of this data showed that pre-teens respond to a range of age-related constraints on their use of ICT. Inside formal education, these constraints appear similar at primary and secondary levels. Out of school, regulation is more age specific, contributing to the development of tensions around use of ICT as children approach their teenage years. These tensions and constraints shape the ways in which children aged 10 to 11 engage in formal and informal learning, particularly their methods of communication and their pressing need to develop evaluation skills.

This article offers a chronological account and critical appraisal of changes to early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in England over the past 20 years. It describes the policy initiatives, educational interventions and research programmes introduced by successive governments that have effected significant changes to ECEC since 1990. The article covers four key areas: policies designed to reduce social inequality; the professionalisation of the children’s workforce, and changing status of adults employed in pre-school education and care settings; changes to early years pedagogy and the early years curriculum; and finally how major research programmes such as the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) project and the Millennium Cohort Study have informed our understanding of the effects of social disadvantage and the characteristics of ‘high-quality’ pre-school provision that can alleviate this. There is now persuasive evidence that investment in state-maintained early education is highly cost effective, particularly for disadvantaged children. The current government, however, is shifting the burden of funding for professional training and high-quality integrated services for children and families from the state to the private and voluntary sectors. Time will tell if this is a backward step or movement in the right direction.

This chapter offers an evaluation and interpretation of the creative thinking and collaboration that took place in a class of five year olds in an English primary school during the academic year 2004–05. This school was committed to developing itself as a creative learning community by participating in a creativity-training programme, Synectics, more usually employed in an adult business context. This school wanted to develop its capacity for creative teaching and learning. This intent was in tune with national and international developments in education where strenuous efforts were being made to extend the reach of creative education which had for a long time been more or less exclusively associated with the arts. The chapter offers an outline of these developments to set the research in context. The research described is a case study and second phase of an evaluation of the project EXCITE! (Excellence, Creativity and Innovation in Teaching and Education) and was carried out by researchers from the Open University. Previous research suggests that when children first start school, they are already competent creative thinkers and storytellers and that both creative and narrative modes of thinking involve abductive rather than deductive inferential reasoning. It is argued that although children may need training in paradigmatic (deductive) modes of thought, they do not necessarily need further training in narrative modes of thought. The examples of young children’s thinking discussed in chapter support this argument. The Synectics creativity-training programme does not claim to ‘teach’ creative thinking per se. The evidence presented suggests that when teachers use Synectics tools and techniques to inform practice, these allow them to create a positive, emotional climate that allows young children to use analogy and metaphor to construct creative explanations and narratives through collaborative discussion.

This chapter introduces the edited collection, Exploring Children’s Creative Narratives that offers fresh perspectives on children’s creative narratives and that explores what these perspectives reveal about their imagination, their thought processes and how they understand the world. The chapter argues that ethnographic case studies, naturalistic observations, conversations and playful interactions with children ranging in age from two to eleven years allow the development of theoretical insights that challenge traditional accounts of creativity and narrative. It also argues that a proper understanding of creative narratives has to be an interdisciplinary endeavour if it is to do justice to the rich, complex, multi-modal and embodied nature of the children’s thought processes as revealed through their drawing and story-telling, music making, dance, drama and imaginative play. Interpretation of these processes draws on socio-cultural accounts of creativity and creative development that challenge more traditional accounts of creativity as an attribute or talent that belongs only to certain gifted individuals. The chapter (and contributors to the collection) maintains that to understand the situated nature of children’s creative activity it is important to examine the social, affective and cognitive processes that take place when children are immersed in such activity. This re-conceptualisation of children’s creativity challenges conventional educational practice and suggests that formal educational training programmes should offer teachers more sophisticated cultural discourses and experiences which will allow them to gain a more rounded understanding of children’s creative narratives.

This report summarises the findings of an 18-month research project into ‘Youth Voice in the work of Creative Partnerships ‘, 2007-9, conducted by Sara Bragg, Helen Manchester, Dorothy Faulkner at the Open University, funded by the Arts Council England. Creative Partnerships (CP) was established in 2002 and is a ‘flagship creative learning programme’. It aims to foster innovative, long term collaborations between schools (often in areas of socio-economic deprivation) and creative practitioners. In particular CP states that it places young people ‘at the heart of what we do’ and claims that its programmes are most effective when young people are actively involved in leading and shaping them. CP highlights three key areas: involving young people in governance (the design, delivery and evaluation of the programme of work); building and maintaining ‘positive relationships’ with young people; working as ‘co-constructors of learning’ with them. The report maps existing youth voice initiatives in Creative Partnerships in those three areas. In addition, it considers the nature of the links between creativity and participation; explores issues of access to youth voice, such as patterns of inclusion and exclusion; explores what skills, experiences, identities and relationships are developed through participation. More broadly it attempts to understand, analyse and theorise youth voice, starting from the empirical but aiming to interpret the features of particular activities or projects to understand them more fully.

In the light of sustained interest in the potential value of young children’s narrative play, this paper examines Vivian Gussin Paley’s (1990) approach to storytelling and story-acting, in this case with three to five year-olds. It scrutinizes how children’s narratives are co-constructed during adult-child and peer interactions through spoken and embodied modes, as their stories are scribed by an adult and later dramatised by their peers. Data are drawn from an evaluation of an eight-week training programme, based on Paley’s approach, designed for early years professionals and undertaken in different geographic and demographic locations in England. Naturalistic data collection techniques including video and field notes were used to record the storytelling and story-acting of 18 case study children. The resultant data were subject to close discursive and multimodal analysis of storytelling and story-acting interactions. Findings reveal discursive co-construction ‘in action’ and illustrate how the child story-tellers, story actors and practitioners co-construct narratives through complex combinations of gaze, body posture and speech in responsive and finely-tuned interactional patterns. The study contributes significantly to knowledge about how young children’s narratives are co-constructed through multiple modes in the classroom.

Children with social communication disorders are known to experience more problematic peer relations than typically-developing children. However, detailed observation of their behaviour and communication during interaction with peers has not previously been undertaken. Micro-analytic observational methods were used to analyse the audio-taped interaction of children (N=112) selected from mainstream schools (ages 5–6 years-old) on a computerised dyadic collaborative task. Comparisons were made between children with average-to-high- and low-pragmatic language skill as measured by the Test of Pragmatic Skills. Dyads were composed of an average-to-high-skilled child plus a low-skilled child (32 dyads), or of two average-to-high-skilled children (24 dyads). Consistently with their pragmatic language scores, low-skilled children were more likely to ignore other children’s questions and requests than were average-to-high-skilled children. When average-to-high-skilled children worked with low-skilled children, as opposed to with other average-to-high-skilled children, they showed some sensitivity and adaptation to these children’s difficulties; they used significantly more directives, clarification and provided more information. However, there was a cost in terms of the emotional tone of these interactions; when working with low-skilled children, the average-to-high-skilled children expressed considerably more negative feelings towards their partners than with another average-to-high-skilled child. In conclusion, observation of the interaction of average-to-high- and low-skilled children suggests promise for peer-assisted interventions and specifies which communicative behaviours could be targeted. However, care should be taken to manage the affective climate of these interactions for the benefit of all children involved.

Unpopular children are known to have poor communication skills and experience difficulty in collaborative situations. This study investigated whether pairing unpopular, 5 to 6 year-old, children with a more popular peer would promote more effective collaboration. The study also investigated differences in popular and unpopular children's verbal and non-verbal communication. Thirty-six girls and 36 boys were placed in one of 12 popular, 12 unpopular or 12 mixed pairs. There were no mixed gender pairs. Children were filmed playing a collaborative game. Collaboration in popular pairs was more successful and less disputational than in unpopular pairs. Boys in unpopular pairs broke the rules of the game more often, argued more and did not monitoring their partners' facial expressions effectively. With popular partners they argued less, were more likely to elaborate disagreements, looked at their partner for longer, smiled more and were more likely to offer him a small toy. Unpopular girls' interactions were not markedly disruptive but they clearly benefited from being paired with a child with good communication skills. Popular girls modified their behaviour to take into account an unpopular partner's need for support. These findings suggest that pairing popular and unpopular children may be a useful classroom organisation strategy.

There has been considerable research concerning peer interaction and the acquisition of children's scientific reasoning. This study investigated differences in collaborative activity between pairs of children working around a computer with pairs of children working with physical apparatus and related any differences to the development of children's scientific reasoning. Children aged between 9 and 10 years old (48 boys and 48 girls) were placed into either same ability or mixed ability pairs according to their individual, pre-test performance on a scientific reasoning task. These pairs then worked on either a computer version or a physical version of Inhelder and Piaget's (1958) chemical combination task. Type of presentation was found to mediate the nature and type of collaborative activity. The mixed-ability pairs working around the computer talked proportionally more about the task and management of the task; had proportionally more transactive discussions and used the record more productively than children working with the physical apparatus. Type of presentation was also found to mediated children's learning. Children in same ability pairs who worked with the physical apparatus improved significantly more than same ability pairs who worked around the computer. These findings were partially predicted from a socio-cultural theory and show the importance of tools for mediating collaborative activity and collaborative learning.

About the book: The study of collaborative learning has a relatively brief history, yet there have been notable changes in the nature of the research being undertaken in this field. Initially, the primary aim was to determine whether and when collaborative learning was more effective than learning alone and there is a substantial body of empirical evidence demonstrating that, whilst not an educational panacea, it can have positive effects of social interaction for learning. More recently, however, interest has shifted away from considering just the outcomes and products of collaborative work, towards analyzing the interactions themselves. This shift to a more process-oriented account of productive group-work has brought with it an interest in understanding the nature of productive talk and joint activity and researchers have attempted to identify interactional features which are important for learning and cognitive change. Researchers with different theoretical backgrounds and different methodological approaches have emphasized different facets of interaction with some highlighting the important role of conflict, others that of planning, negotiation, exploratory talk, transactive dialogue and so on. The book brings together contributions from researchers, working across Europe and North America, who have interests in collaborative learning. The work presented here is united through the contributors’ shared desire to understand and promote educationally productive collaborative work, whilst investigating this in diverse ways, for example with respect to the particular contexts, learning communities and the age of the learners being studied.

The structure and development of executive functioning (EF) have been intensively studied in typically developing populations, with little attention given to those with Special Educational Needs (SEN). This study addresses this by comparing the EF structure of 132 adolescents (11–14 years‐old) with SEN and 138 adolescents not requiring additional support (Non‐SEN peers). Participants completed verbal and non‐verbal assessments of key components of EF: inhibition, working memory and switching. Confirmatory Factor Analysis on each group tested one‐, two‐ and three‐factor models of EF. In both groups, there was statistical support for the fit of one‐ and two‐factor models with no model being clearly better than the others; there was little support for three‐factor models. Parsimony suggests that the one‐factor model best represents the structure of EF. In light of our results, the implications for the nature of EF in early adolescence in both SEN and Non‐SEN groups are discussed.

In the light of sustained interest in the potential value of young children’s narrative play, this paper examines Vivian Gussin Paley’s (1990) approach to storytelling and story-acting, in this case with three to five year-olds. It scrutinizes how children’s narratives are co-constructed during adult-child and peer interactions through spoken and embodied modes, as their stories are scribed by an adult and later dramatised by their peers. Data are drawn from an evaluation of an eight-week training programme, based on Paley’s approach, designed for early years professionals and undertaken in different geographic and demographic locations in England. Naturalistic data collection techniques including video and field notes were used to record the storytelling and story-acting of 18 case study children. The resultant data were subject to close discursive and multimodal analysis of storytelling and story-acting interactions. Findings reveal discursive co-construction ‘in action’ and illustrate how the child story-tellers, story actors and practitioners co-construct narratives through complex combinations of gaze, body posture and speech in responsive and finely-tuned interactional patterns. The study contributes significantly to knowledge about how young children’s narratives are co-constructed through multiple modes in the classroom.

An intervention aiming to support children with social communication difficulties was tested using a randomised controlled design. Children aged 5–6 years old (n = 32) were tested and selected for participation on the basis of their scores on the Test of Pragmatic Skills (TPS) and were then randomly assigned to the intervention arm or to the delayed intervention control group. Following previous research which suggested that computer technology may be particularly useful for this group of children, the intervention included a collaborative computer game which the children played with an adult. Subsequently, children's performance as they played the game with a classmate was observed. Micro-analytic observational methods were used to analyse the audio-recorded interaction of the children as they played. Pre- and post-intervention measures comprised the Test of Pragmatic Skills, children's performance on the computer game and verbal communication measures that the children used during the game. This evaluation of the intervention shows promise. At post-test, the children who had received the intervention, by comparison to the control group who had not, showed significant gains in their scores on the Test of Pragmatic Skills (p = .009, effect size r = −.42), a significant improvement in their performance on the computer game (p = .03, r = −.32) and significantly greater use of high-quality questioning during collaboration (p < .001, r = −.60). Furthermore, the children who received the intervention made significantly more positive statements about the game and about their partners (p = .02, r = −.34) suggesting that the intervention increased their confidence and enjoyment.

The analysis presented in this article draws on Rogoff’s (2003) work on intent participation and Dyson’s (2001, 2010) studies of children’s written compositions to identify the nature of peers’ contributions to meaning making, and cultural transmission processes claimed to occur when young children narrate stories to supportive adults. It draws on data collected during an evaluation of an in-service training programme that introduced UK-based early years practitioners to a version of Paley’s (1990) storytelling and story acting curriculum known as the Helicopter Technique (HT). The HT draws on theatre practice and drama to foster narrative development and literacy skills. Children tell a story to a practitioner trained to scribe this exactly as told and who assists them to identify story characters that can be acted out later with peers. The significance of adults’ contributions to these sessions is well understood, but less is known about the contribution of peers who may also be present. The evidence presented suggests that these peer-to-peer processes can be described as two-way transactions between more and less confident language users and may be particularly important for children with English as an Additional Language (EAL). Implications of these findings for practitioners supporting second language learners are discussed.

This chapter offers an evaluation and interpretation of the creative thinking and collaboration that took place in a class of five year olds in an English primary school during the academic year 2004–05. This school was committed to developing itself as a creative learning community by participating in a creativity-training programme, Synectics, more usually employed in an adult business context. This school wanted to develop its capacity for creative teaching and learning. This intent was in tune with national and international developments in education where strenuous efforts were being made to extend the reach of creative education which had for a long time been more or less exclusively associated with the arts. The chapter offers an outline of these developments to set the research in context. The research described is a case study and second phase of an evaluation of the project EXCITE! (Excellence, Creativity and Innovation in Teaching and Education) and was carried out by researchers from the Open University. Previous research suggests that when children first start school, they are already competent creative thinkers and storytellers and that both creative and narrative modes of thinking involve abductive rather than deductive inferential reasoning. It is argued that although children may need training in paradigmatic (deductive) modes of thought, they do not necessarily need further training in narrative modes of thought. The examples of young children’s thinking discussed in chapter support this argument. The Synectics creativity-training programme does not claim to ‘teach’ creative thinking per se. The evidence presented suggests that when teachers use Synectics tools and techniques to inform practice, these allow them to create a positive, emotional climate that allows young children to use analogy and metaphor to construct creative explanations and narratives through collaborative discussion.

The article presents an introduction to the special September 2013 issue of "International Journal of Early Years Education" addressing research on topics including the impact of Apartheid on education in South Africa, numbers of kindergartens in China, and school readiness.

Children with social communication disorders are known to experience more problematic peer relations than typically-developing children. However, detailed observation of their behaviour and communication during interaction with peers has not previously been undertaken. Micro-analytic observational methods were used to analyse the audio-taped interaction of children (N=112) selected from mainstream schools (ages 5–6 years-old) on a computerised dyadic collaborative task. Comparisons were made between children with average-to-high- and low-pragmatic language skill as measured by the Test of Pragmatic Skills. Dyads were composed of an average-to-high-skilled child plus a low-skilled child (32 dyads), or of two average-to-high-skilled children (24 dyads). Consistently with their pragmatic language scores, low-skilled children were more likely to ignore other children’s questions and requests than were average-to-high-skilled children. When average-to-high-skilled children worked with low-skilled children, as opposed to with other average-to-high-skilled children, they showed some sensitivity and adaptation to these children’s difficulties; they used significantly more directives, clarification and provided more information. However, there was a cost in terms of the emotional tone of these interactions; when working with low-skilled children, the average-to-high-skilled children expressed considerably more negative feelings towards their partners than with another average-to-high-skilled child. In conclusion, observation of the interaction of average-to-high- and low-skilled children suggests promise for peer-assisted interventions and specifies which communicative behaviours could be targeted. However, care should be taken to manage the affective climate of these interactions for the benefit of all children involved.

This research, commissioned by MakeBelieve Arts, a London-based theatre and education company, evaluated their educational programme for enhancing young children’s storytelling and story acting. The programme, called the ‘Helicopter Technique’, is based on the work of Gussin Paley’s work. Whilst this has received widespread recognition in the field of children’s play and narrative engagement , ther has been little empirical research into its benefits. The work encompassed examination of archival material and classroom based observations and documentation, as well as scrutiny of the children’s stories scribed in class story books,and interviews with staff involved in the pre prgramme taaining and in class coaching. The work aimed to investigate the value of this approach for children and early years practitioners, and to consider how programme could be improved and made more sustainable in early years classrooms. Overall, the Helicopter Technique was found to provide a rich framework for supporting young children’s learning across diverse curriculum areas, and was a motivating and valuable pedagogical tool for developing creative and reflective teaching. Diverse recommendatiosn were made regarding the future development of the technique.

ICT and Web 2.0 have the potential to impact on learning by supporting enquiry, new literacies, collaboration and publication. Restrictions on the use of these tools within schools, primarily due to concerns about discipline and child safety, make it difficult to make full use of this potential in formal educational settings. Studies of children at different stages of schooling have highlighted a wider range of ICT use outside school, where it can be used to support informal learning. The study reported here looks beyond the broad categories of primary and secondary education and investigates the distinctive elements of pre-teens’ use of ICT to support informal learning. Nineteen children aged 10 and 11 participated in focus groups and produced visual representations of ICT and Web 2.0 resources they used to support their informal learning. Thematic analysis of this data showed that pre-teens respond to a range of age-related constraints on their use of ICT. Inside formal education, these constraints appear similar at primary and secondary levels. Out of school, regulation is more age specific, contributing to the development of tensions around use of ICT as children approach their teenage years. These tensions and constraints shape the ways in which children aged 10 to 11 engage in formal and informal learning, particularly their methods of communication and their pressing need to develop evaluation skills.

This chapter introduces the edited collection, Exploring Children’s Creative Narratives that offers fresh perspectives on children’s creative narratives and that explores what these perspectives reveal about their imagination, their thought processes and how they understand the world. The chapter argues that ethnographic case studies, naturalistic observations, conversations and playful interactions with children ranging in age from two to eleven years allow the development of theoretical insights that challenge traditional accounts of creativity and narrative. It also argues that a proper understanding of creative narratives has to be an interdisciplinary endeavour if it is to do justice to the rich, complex, multi-modal and embodied nature of the children’s thought processes as revealed through their drawing and story-telling, music making, dance, drama and imaginative play. Interpretation of these processes draws on socio-cultural accounts of creativity and creative development that challenge more traditional accounts of creativity as an attribute or talent that belongs only to certain gifted individuals. The chapter (and contributors to the collection) maintains that to understand the situated nature of children’s creative activity it is important to examine the social, affective and cognitive processes that take place when children are immersed in such activity. This re-conceptualisation of children’s creativity challenges conventional educational practice and suggests that formal educational training programmes should offer teachers more sophisticated cultural discourses and experiences which will allow them to gain a more rounded understanding of children’s creative narratives.

This article offers a chronological account and critical appraisal of changes to early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in England over the past 20 years. It describes the policy initiatives, educational interventions and research programmes introduced by successive governments that have effected significant changes to ECEC since 1990. The article covers four key areas: policies designed to reduce social inequality; the professionalisation of the children’s workforce, and changing status of adults employed in pre-school education and care settings; changes to early years pedagogy and the early years curriculum; and finally how major research programmes such as the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) project and the Millennium Cohort Study have informed our understanding of the effects of social disadvantage and the characteristics of ‘high-quality’ pre-school provision that can alleviate this. There is now persuasive evidence that investment in state-maintained early education is highly cost effective, particularly for disadvantaged children. The current government, however, is shifting the burden of funding for professional training and high-quality integrated services for children and families from the state to the private and voluntary sectors. Time will tell if this is a backward step or movement in the right direction.

This report summarises the findings of an 18-month research project into ‘Youth Voice in the work of Creative Partnerships ‘, 2007-9, conducted by Sara Bragg, Helen Manchester, Dorothy Faulkner at the Open University, funded by the Arts Council England. Creative Partnerships (CP) was established in 2002 and is a ‘flagship creative learning programme’. It aims to foster innovative, long term collaborations between schools (often in areas of socio-economic deprivation) and creative practitioners. In particular CP states that it places young people ‘at the heart of what we do’ and claims that its programmes are most effective when young people are actively involved in leading and shaping them. CP highlights three key areas: involving young people in governance (the design, delivery and evaluation of the programme of work); building and maintaining ‘positive relationships’ with young people; working as ‘co-constructors of learning’ with them. The report maps existing youth voice initiatives in Creative Partnerships in those three areas. In addition, it considers the nature of the links between creativity and participation; explores issues of access to youth voice, such as patterns of inclusion and exclusion; explores what skills, experiences, identities and relationships are developed through participation. More broadly it attempts to understand, analyse and theorise youth voice, starting from the empirical but aiming to interpret the features of particular activities or projects to understand them more fully.

About the book: Research with Children is a unique resource book on the methodology of childhood research. Leading and new researchers within the social studies of childhood discuss central questions of epistemology and methodology, demonstrating the links between theory and practice. The theoretical and practical questions are set out in a clear and well-argued fashion and will therefore appeal both to the newcomer to childhood studies and to experienced researchers in the field. From the introduction: Chapter 1 provides a broad overview of the shifts which have and still are taking place within developmental psychology, noting the obstacles and epistemological barriers which such changes confront.

Unpopular children are known to have poor communication skills and experience difficulty in collaborative situations. This study investigated whether pairing unpopular, 5 to 6 year-old, children with a more popular peer would promote more effective collaboration. The study also investigated differences in popular and unpopular children's verbal and non-verbal communication. Thirty-six girls and 36 boys were placed in one of 12 popular, 12 unpopular or 12 mixed pairs. There were no mixed gender pairs. Children were filmed playing a collaborative game. Collaboration in popular pairs was more successful and less disputational than in unpopular pairs. Boys in unpopular pairs broke the rules of the game more often, argued more and did not monitoring their partners' facial expressions effectively. With popular partners they argued less, were more likely to elaborate disagreements, looked at their partner for longer, smiled more and were more likely to offer him a small toy. Unpopular girls' interactions were not markedly disruptive but they clearly benefited from being paired with a child with good communication skills. Popular girls modified their behaviour to take into account an unpopular partner's need for support. These findings suggest that pairing popular and unpopular children may be a useful classroom organisation strategy.

About the book: The study of collaborative learning has a relatively brief history, yet there have been notable changes in the nature of the research being undertaken in this field. Initially, the primary aim was to determine whether and when collaborative learning was more effective than learning alone and there is a substantial body of empirical evidence demonstrating that, whilst not an educational panacea, it can have positive effects of social interaction for learning. More recently, however, interest has shifted away from considering just the outcomes and products of collaborative work, towards analyzing the interactions themselves. This shift to a more process-oriented account of productive group-work has brought with it an interest in understanding the nature of productive talk and joint activity and researchers have attempted to identify interactional features which are important for learning and cognitive change. Researchers with different theoretical backgrounds and different methodological approaches have emphasized different facets of interaction with some highlighting the important role of conflict, others that of planning, negotiation, exploratory talk, transactive dialogue and so on. The book brings together contributions from researchers, working across Europe and North America, who have interests in collaborative learning. The work presented here is united through the contributors’ shared desire to understand and promote educationally productive collaborative work, whilst investigating this in diverse ways, for example with respect to the particular contexts, learning communities and the age of the learners being studied.

There has been considerable research concerning peer interaction and the acquisition of children's scientific reasoning. This study investigated differences in collaborative activity between pairs of children working around a computer with pairs of children working with physical apparatus and related any differences to the development of children's scientific reasoning. Children aged between 9 and 10 years old (48 boys and 48 girls) were placed into either same ability or mixed ability pairs according to their individual, pre-test performance on a scientific reasoning task. These pairs then worked on either a computer version or a physical version of Inhelder and Piaget's (1958) chemical combination task. Type of presentation was found to mediate the nature and type of collaborative activity. The mixed-ability pairs working around the computer talked proportionally more about the task and management of the task; had proportionally more transactive discussions and used the record more productively than children working with the physical apparatus. Type of presentation was also found to mediated children's learning. Children in same ability pairs who worked with the physical apparatus improved significantly more than same ability pairs who worked around the computer. These findings were partially predicted from a socio-cultural theory and show the importance of tools for mediating collaborative activity and collaborative learning.

The structure and development of executive functioning (EF) have been intensively studied in typically developing populations, with little attention given to those with Special Educational Needs (SEN). This study addresses this by comparing the EF structure of 132 adolescents (11–14 years‐old) with SEN and 138 adolescents not requiring additional support (Non‐SEN peers). Participants completed verbal and non‐verbal assessments of key components of EF: inhibition, working memory and switching. Confirmatory Factor Analysis on each group tested one‐, two‐ and three‐factor models of EF. In both groups, there was statistical support for the fit of one‐ and two‐factor models with no model being clearly better than the others; there was little support for three‐factor models. Parsimony suggests that the one‐factor model best represents the structure of EF. In light of our results, the implications for the nature of EF in early adolescence in both SEN and Non‐SEN groups are discussed.

This paper describes The Open University’s Virtual Research Environment (VRE), our solution to training of the next generation of researchers. We also discuss how we have adapted the OU’s ‘supported open learning model’ to develop a new suite of on-line doctoral training modules referenced against the Vitae Researcher Development Framework. Traditionally the university has adopted a cohort approach, providing training in generic skills for full-time doctoral and MRes researchers through annual programmes of f2f workshops supported by online materials in year one, supplemented in subsequent years by career development and advanced skills workshops and web based exercises. Provision for the university’s part-time doctoral researchers (including those in its Affiliated Research Centres - ARCs), has been challenging. Responsibility here has traditionally rested with supervisors. Consequently, Key priorities for the University are to improve the quality of the research environment and tackle the fragmentation of resources and services offered to research students. In 2011 the university invested in a two-year project to develop a Virtual Research Environment (VRE). This draws on its established track record in developing its undergraduate taught provision and its ‘supported open learning’ delivery model using world class virtual learning environments. The VRE offers a gateway to online training and development resources for all full and part-time research degree students and ARCs. It seeks to bring together this diverse body of researchers into an online community with parity of access to institutional support so that they can provide mutual support for each other and share best practice. The VRE was launched in October 2013 as a central point of access to research based information and support for doctoral researchers, supervisors and support staff. This on-going project is intended as a catalyst that will strengthen the doctoral research community through on-line netwo