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Little research has focused on the implementation of iPad practices in real contexts and the identification of relevant challenges and enablers. This work explored practices relating to using iPads for autistic pupils' social communication (SC) and emotional regulation (ER) based on key stakeholders' perspectives. It employed two case studies undertaken in two primary schools located in the United Kingdom's West Midlands. The data were gathered by interviewing practitioners and parents and analyzing the schools' computing policies. The outcomes varied from iPads being used as multimodal learning tools, to teachers focusing on SC and ER, and parents mainly on recreation and ER. The findings were evaluated using Abbott's concept of e-inclusion (2007), considering the impact of the relationship between technology, individuals and context on iPad use in situ. Issues are highlighted around pedagogy and teaching methods, offering insights into what drives teachers to make decisions regarding technology use.

Although theories around Communities of Practice have gained significant ground in recent years and have become an important focus for organizational development, there is a gap in studies that investigate what members gain from participation in these communities. This paper explains how the value creation framework was implemented in a transnational research and development project in autism education by examining cycles of value creation and drawing on two types of data identified by Wenger and colleagues. The value creation framework is a theoretically driven framework to assess social learning in communities. Participants involved in the learning space were co-researchers engaged in a process of investigating, sharing and reflecting on their practice. The paper discusses the methodological challenges and strengths of using the value creation framework, with a particular focus on how insights and interactions led to subsequent changes in the practice of the participants. This work has the potential to make an important contribution to methods and analysis in assessing social learning and pathways to impact in participatory research and development projects more broadly.

This study investigated concepts of inclusive education for pupils with autism in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestine. The "contextual collaborative enquiry" methodology was rooted in praxis, and drew on social learning theory and communities of practice to gather a community of researchers, parents and practitioners in Palestine to investigate understandings of autism educational practice in order to identify how to move practice forward. Through mixed methods, we interviewed a purposive sample of key people (n = 19) to gain access to a broad range of perspectives on the research topic; visited centres of provision for children with special needs (n = 6) and other specialist settings (n = 8); and ran a two-day interactive and dialogic workshop with staff (n = 40) from the special needs department of the Ministry of Education. Through a rigorous Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of interviews, field notes, questionnaires and focus groups, we found that the biggest obstacles to inclusion were stigma, lack of knowledge and poor diagnostic practices, coupled with a rigid education system and an absence of shared understanding of what inclusion might mean for Palestine. There were gaps between beliefs in social justice and the concrete reality of including children with autism. Despite obstacles and barriers to inclusion, participants were passionate about gaining new knowledge, adopting different pedagogies and enabling inclusion. These findings are significant as they highlight that a push towards more inclusive practices through social learning approaches could be a powerful driver in mounting a challenge to the inflexibility within the current education system in Palestine.

Experimental intervention studies constitute the current dominant research designs in the autism education field. Such designs are based on a "knowledge-transfer" model of evidence-based practice in which research is conducted by researchers, and is then "transferred" to practitioners to enable them to implement evidence-based interventions. While these research designs contribute important knowledge, they lead to a gap between what the research evidence may prescribe and what happens in practice, with a concomitant disparity between the priorities of researchers and practitioners. This paper discusses findings from the ESRC-funded "SHAPE" project, which adopted a different model of evidence-based practice, focusing on knowledge co-construction. Pupils (N = 8), teachers (N = 10), a speech and language therapist and a parent in three different school communities investigated creative ways in which children's social communication skills could be enhanced through technology use. Through a participatory methodology, digital stories were used as a method to enable engagement with the practical realities of the classroom and empower practitioners to construct and share their own authentic narratives. Participants articulated precise knowledge about the learning opportunities afforded to them and their pupils through quality interactions that were mediated by the technologies, as evidenced through digital stories. The SHAPE project shows that it is feasible to develop methodologies that enable genuine knowledge co-construction with school practitioners, parents and pupils. Such co-construction could offer realistic opportunities for pedagogical emancipation and innovation in evidence-based practice as an alternative to the currently dominant and narrow model of knowledge transfer.

In order to develop deeper and better understandings of what constitutes effective educational practices, and to bridge the gap between research and practice, there is a need for a paradigm shift in autism educational research. The contribution of this paper is to examine the key methodological challenges that stand in the way of autism educational research impacting on practice. This research field is dominated by experimental research designs that evaluate the impact of "interventions" that focus on developing the skills, knowledge, and understanding of pupils with autism. For educational research to have an impact on the lives of individuals with autism, their families, and the practitioners who work with them, movement towards a more balanced range of methodologies is needed. This needs to include methodologies that situate the knowledge base of practitioners on a par with the knowledge base of researchers, drawing on the evidence base from the classroom itself, and bringing in the perspectives and views of individuals with autism, their families, and the practitioners who work with them.

Previous research has demonstrated that the way adults interact with children with autism can have a great impact on their spontaneous communication. However, to date, few studies have focused on modifying adults' behaviour and even fewer have been conducted in school settings which actively involve teaching staff in designing the intervention. The aims of this study were twofold: (1) to explore the extent to which staff were able to build on their good practice and alter their interactive style and (2) to then assess the effects of this change on children's communication. The study used an action research methodology and involved three members of staff and six children with autism. The staff and the researcher developed an Adult Interactive Style Intervention (AISI) in partnership. This was based on two theoretical models of child development and disability. Data were collected pre- and post-intervention and at follow-up (12 months after the end of the main study) to measure change. The results showed that staff considerably increased the number of times they used AISI principles post-intervention and that this change had a significant impact on the children's spontaneous communication. All three staff took an active participatory role in the study which was considered a very positive and empowering experience.

Storytelling is a powerful means of expression especially for voices that may be difficult to hear or represent in typical ways. This paper reports and reflects on our experiences of co-creating digital stories with school practitioners in a project focusing on embedding innovative technologies for children on the autism spectrum in classroom practice. The digital stories were short films or narrated sequences of slides and images that conveyed key views about experiences and practices with or around the technologies. The creation of the digital stories aimed to empower schools and individual teachers to construct and share their own authentic narratives and to build case examples of creative technology-enhanced teaching and learning. Through focusing on our experiences with one of the schools, we examine the use of digital stories as a method for enabling knowledge co-creation with practitioners and we discuss the evidential potential of digital stories. We argue that the co-creation of digital stories enabled teachers to find their voice in critiquing the usability, usefulness, efficacy and flexibility of the technologies. Furthermore, the stories, both the process of their creation and the final artefacts, provided a concrete grounding for knowledge co-creation about teaching practices and authentic technology-enhanced learning.

This research investigates multidisciplinary teamwork in an English special school located in the West Midlands region of the UK. The research was carried out by Paola Molteni, a PhD student at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Karen Guldberg of the Autism Centre for Education and Research Director at the University of Birmingham School of Education, and Nick Logan, head of the Psychology and Therapists Department at Sunfield Children's Home, Clent. The school uses the innovative SCERTS (Social Communication, Emotional Regulation, Transactional Support) model. The methodology was a collaborative and participatory case study focused on the point of view of professionals and on understanding the teamwork process through analysis of three teams working together to implement SCERTS. Methods included focus groups, semi-structured interviews, direct observations and questionnaires; the data were analysed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis method. The research provides an example of good practice and enables practitioners to reflect on the issues involved in implementing a multidisciplinary process using the SCERTS approach. The findings show that the SCERTS Model can support the educational team in promoting and exchanging good daily practice and planning educational work together. The article draws out implications for further studies that aim to analyse teamwork in other settings and over a longer period.

Relatively little is known about the effect of adult interactive style on children's communication. The aim of this study, written by Lila Kossyvaki, Glenys Jones and Karen Guldberg, all from the University of Birmingham, was to explore the effects of adult interactive style on children's spontaneous communication. The study used an action research methodology. Six children aged between four and five years with autism and three members of staff participated. Each child was video recorded for a total of two hours across four activities. The staff, in collaboration with the researcher, developed and put into practice an Adult Interactive Style Intervention (AISI) intended to promote spontaneous communication. Two months later each child was recorded for two hours across the same activities with staff using AISI. Cohen's d effect size was calculated to measure the differences pre- and post-intervention. The increase in total initiations post-intervention for all six children was significant. The findings suggest that attention should be paid to adult style when developing communication in children with autism. (Contains 4 tables and 6 figures.)

This paper summarises the implications for practice arising from the "International review of the evidence on best practice in educational provision for children on the autism spectrum" and it focuses on key priorities for policy makers, families, practitioners and researchers. Findings highlight that there is little evidence to indicate how different types of provision deliver education or to identify how they impact on outcomes for individual children. Furthermore, the process of deciding on an educational intervention is clearly more complex than the results of individual research papers can tell us. Choice of intervention needs to take account of what is best suited to the child and adults concerned, including the child's characteristics, parental preference, staff expertise and the goals selected. There is a need to focus on the developmental areas of functional spontaneous communication and language, social understanding and joint attention, peer interaction and appropriate toy play. Ongoing parent and teacher collaboration is essential as is a need to develop good collaboration between different professionals, both within and outside settings. Wider inclusion of the perspectives of individuals on the autism spectrum would be welcomed. Training is an important priority as practitioners and parents need specialist knowledge and understanding of the specific needs of children and young people on the autism spectrum. Finally, there is a need for researchers, practitioners, parents and individuals on the autism spectrum to work together much more closely than they do currently in order to determine jointly research agendas and methodologies and to discuss the implications of research findings.

This article draws together findings from expert evidence and empirical studies to identify the preconditions for developing inclusive learning environments for young children on the autism spectrum. It concludes that in order to develop "best practice", practitioners need to adapt interventions to the unique needs of the individual child, work in partnership with parents and other professionals, create enabling environments and be informed by a developmental approach to learning. Practitioners need to have knowledge of the autism spectrum and how it impacts on the child. Careful assessment of the individual child is also crucial. Finally, it is important to ensure that these young children receive direct teaching in communication and language, social understanding and skills, as well as learning with and through peers.

This paper analyses how adult learners on a professional development course learn and develop through online dialogue. The research uses Wenger's community of practice framework, and assesses whether the concept of "legitimate peripheral participation" is useful in relation to this specific case study in which the students are practitioners and parents of individuals with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). The study focuses on peer-to-peer learning and analyses a sample of asynchronous online discussions from three separate online tutorial groups. The first part of the study combines quantitative analysis of distribution patterns, with qualitative discourse analysis that measures central concepts associated with communities of practice. The second part of the study addresses whether the concept of "legitimate peripheral participation" is useful in this context. The contribution of one key individual in each group is analysed in order to provide a narrative about how that person communicates with the others, shares values and repertoires with them and gradually becomes a central member of the community. The data supports the notion that these forms of interaction and approaches to learning can favour the construction of knowledge and help to develop reflective skills and a sense of "togetherness" in the group through sharing stories with one another, developing identity through the discussions and through this enabling the development of community. The findings indicate that the learners are provided with opportunities to consider the strengths and weaknesses of ideas from multiple perspectives and that key students play a role in enabling other students to move from a position of legitimate peripheral participation to becoming full members of the community. (Contains 6 figures.)

This paper is concerned with teaching and learning in a blended e-learning course that supports students in reflecting on and transforming their practice. In this paper we focus on two key aspects of the online learning environment: (i) the selection of the topic of discussion (the discussion question) by the tutor and how this influences the quality of the discussion; (ii) the interventions of the tutor within the online discussion. The aim is to understand why some online discussions "take off" in terms of numbers of postings and quality of engagement whilst others are less successful. Our findings show that the nature of the question impacts on discussion outcomes and that it is therefore important for tutors to pose a range of different types of questions to students in line with learning objectives. If the tutor structures discussion and chooses questions carefully there may be less need to intervene to stimulate discussion or keep it on track than is sometimes assumed. This shifts the role of the tutor somewhat toward more preparatory and plenary work with less tutor participation required to support the development of discussion skills amongst students, particularly during later stages of the course. (Contains 8 figures.)

Although theories around Communities of Practice have gained significant ground in recent years and have become an important focus for organizational development, there is a gap in studies that investigate what members gain from participation in these communities. This paper explains how the value creation framework was implemented in a transnational research and development project in autism education by examining cycles of value creation and drawing on two types of data identified by Wenger and colleagues. The value creation framework is a theoretically driven framework to assess social learning in communities. Participants involved in the learning space were co-researchers engaged in a process of investigating, sharing and reflecting on their practice. The paper discusses the methodological challenges and strengths of using the value creation framework, with a particular focus on how insights and interactions led to subsequent changes in the practice of the participants. This work has the potential to make an important contribution to methods and analysis in assessing social learning and pathways to impact in participatory research and development projects more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007, the Department for Education set up the Autism Education Trust with the express aim of developing the understanding and practice of all those involved in autism education in England. Since that time, a whole suite of materials has been developed comprising a set of training materials for staff working in Early Years, Schools and in Post 16 settings. These are delivered by a network of training hubs. In addition, a set of Autism Standards was developed for each age phase against which a setting can ascertain the extent to which their practice reflects what is deemed to be good practice. Competency Frameworks have also been devised which contain the key knowledge and understandings staff require to teach autistic children and young people. These can be used to audit the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) needs of staff. More recently, a Progression Framework has been developed to help staff monitor the progress of autistic individuals. All these products have been informed and updated by reviews of research evidence in autism education and the insight of autistic children and adults and family members. This paper gives details of the latest review of evidence entitled Good Autism Practice in Education, written by its lead author, Karen Guldberg. Eight key principles that are currently considered to underpin good practice are discussed and summarised. The full report and a summary with case study material will soon be available free to download from the AET website (www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated concepts of inclusive education for pupils with autism in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestine. The “contextual collaborative enquiry” methodology was rooted in praxis, and drew on social learning theory and communities of practice to gather a community of researchers, parents and practitioners in Palestine to investigate understandings of autism educational practice in order to identify how to move practice forward. Through mixed methods, we interviewed a purposive sample of key people (n = 19) to gain access to a broad range of perspectives on the research topic; visited centres of provision for children with special needs (n = 6) and other specialist settings (n = 8); and ran a two-day interactive and dialogic workshop with staff (n = 40) from the special needs department of the Ministry of Education. Through a rigorous Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of interviews, field notes, questionnaires and focus groups, we found that the biggest obstacles to inclusion were stigma, lack of knowledge and poor diagnostic practices, coupled with a rigid education system and an absence of shared understanding of what inclusion might mean for Palestine. There were gaps between beliefs in social justice and the concrete reality of including children with autism. Despite obstacles and barriers to inclusion, participants were passionate about gaining new knowledge, adopting different pedagogies and enabling inclusion. These findings are significant as they highlight that a push towards more inclusive practices through social learning approaches could be a powerful driver in mounting a challenge to the inflexibility within the current education system in Palestine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]