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This parallel group randomized controlled trial tested effectiveness of the Let's Talk About Pain training on respite workers' (RW) pain-related knowledge and feasibility-confidence-skill ratings using between-group and within-group analyses. Fourteen children's respite organizations were randomized to pain or control training. Participants (n[subscript intervention] = 66; n[subscript control] = 92) underwent a 3--3.5 hour training and completed measures at pre-, post-, and 4--6 week follow-up. Intention-to-treat (n[subscript intervention] = 65; n[subscript control] = 92) and per-protocol (n[subscript intervention] = 26--38; n[subscript control] = 40--57) analyses were conducted. Pain training participants demonstrated significantly higher pain knowledge and feasibility-confidence-skill ratings post-follow-up versus control group and significant increases in knowledge from pre-post. Significant gains were maintained from post-follow-up. Results represent a promising step towards enhancing pain-related care for children with IDD. [For Part Two, see EJ1304421.]

Understanding the changes in plant-microbe interactions is critically important for predicting ecosystem functioning in response to human-induced environmental changes such as nitrogen (N) addition. In this study, the effects of a century-long fertilization treatment (> 150 years) on the networks between plants and soil microbial functional communities, detected by GeoChip, in grassland were determined in the Park Grass Experiment at Rothamsted Research, UK. Our results showed that plants and soil microbes have a consistent response to long-term fertilization-both richness and diversity of plants and soil microbes are significantly decreased, as well as microbial functional genes involved in soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling. The network-based analyses showed that long-term fertilization decreased the complexity of networks between plant and microbial functional communities in terms of node numbers, connectivity, network density and the clustering coefficient. Similarly, within the soil microbial community, the strength of microbial associations was also weakened in response to long-term fertilization. Mantel path analysis showed that soil C and N contents were the main factors affecting the network between plants and microbes. Our results indicate that century-long fertilization weakens the plant-microbe networks, which is important in improving our understanding of grassland ecosystem functions and stability under long-term agriculture management.

Formative assessment is a potentially powerful instructional process because the practice of sharing assessment information that supports learning is embedded into the instructional process by design. If the potential of formative assessment is to be realized, it must transform from a collection of abstract theories and research methodologies and become a creative and systematic classroom practice. Policy-makers and school administrators must support this transition from theory into practice, particularly in the early stages of professional adaptation, and design assessment systems that teachers may internalize and enact efficiently. The article explores the hypothesis that many public school teachers are "trapped" within environments which deter them from enacting open and inventive social learning strategies in their own classrooms, which when implemented have great potential to support autonomous learning, realize achievement, and create economically productive lifelong learners. This article therefore reviews the literature on formative assessment in practical settings, and investigates the extent to which teachers perform the basic functions of gathering and using evidence to further learning and development in pursuit of the lifelong learning competencies that are essential in the "new economy."

Proponents of formative assessment (FA) assert that students develop a deeper understanding of their learning when the essential components of formative feedback and cultural responsiveness are effectively incorporated as central features of the formative assessment process. Even with growing international agreement among the research community about the benefits of FA in improving student learning, examination performance and promoting life-long learning, the standards-based reform agenda found in the US has created a politically inhospitable climate for the assessment-driven transformation of classroom practice. This article draws from some 75 sources on instruction and assessment in order to make sense of a) the debate surrounding FA in the US and b) the cultural and individual developmental issues encapsulated within the extensive conceptual territory that is FA. The article has five main sections: the emergence of the term "formative assessment"; FA in the context of the US; the strategies and principles on which formative practices are founded; the debate in the US on formative assessment; formative assessment and culturally responsive pedagogy.

Wherever the challenge of promoting effective learning exists in our classrooms there also exists the opportunity for better formative assessment. The time has passed when educational policy makers should support practitioners and embrace the preponderance of relatively recent research which recommends formative assessment interventions in the classroom. One such programme has been gathering increasing momentum in recent years and has become known as Assessment for Learning (AfL). AfL uses formative assessment methods to inform, support and enhance the learning process. The focus of this system is placed on: the quality of learning, the provision of advice and feedback for improvement and a strong emphasis on cooperative learning groups. AfL is founded upon five fundamental principles, all of which revolve around the hub of positive interactions in the classroom: students must a) be able to understand clearly what they are trying to learn, and what is expected of them; b) be given feedback about the quality of their work; c) be given advice about how to go about making improvements; d) be fully involved in deciding what needs to be done next, and e) be aware of who can give them that help.

This article has two inseparable aims: (a) to analyse the relative merits of single-sex and co-educational constructs on self-concept, academic performance and academic engagement; (b) to investigate the manner in which each type of schooling interacts with the individual student; student "peers," close family, and teachers.

Bias is communicated via the "hidden curriculum"--the vehicle for the unspoken academic, social, and cultural messages that are communicated to students while they are in school. Revealing the hidden curriculum in English language textbooks (ELTs) entails an analytical and holistic approach to the content of the text and images appearing in school textbooks by connecting corresponding examples of subliminal bias which may be many pages apart. This article reviews existing Japanese and international literature on the gender bias created by the hidden curriculum before going on to present a Japanese case study of an ELT in widespread use in Japanese public junior high schools. It was found that while males and females are represented equally in terms of quantity, there exists a remarkable subliminal gender bias that affects young learners' worldviews of female and male roles in society.