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Children with emotional difficulties often experience problems at school in terms of academic progress and within peer relationships. They are also more likely to continue to experience emotional problems in their adult lives. Nurture groups (NGs) were developed in the 1960s by the educational psychologist Majorie Boxall and their aim is to improve the emotional well-being of children who are struggling, through providing them with reparative attachment experiences. This review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of NGs. Eleven papers examining the effectiveness of NGs were included, as well as two papers which explore the particular communication styles adopted by NG teachers. There was evidence that NGs are effective in improving the emotional well-being of children, but there is a need for higher quality and longitudinal research. There is a paucity of research into secondary school NGs. The review highlighted the NG teachers' use of more positive verbal and non-verbal behaviour. Implications for future research are discussed.

The study examined how cognitive and motivational factors predicted reading skill and whether intrinsic reading motivation would explain significantly more variance in low ability readers' reading performance. One hundred and eleven children (aged 9-11) completed assessments of reading comprehension skill, verbal IQ, decoding skill and intrinsic reading motivation. Based on performance on the reading assessment, sixty-nine children were identified as high (n = 32) or low (n = 37) ability readers. Verbal IQ explained significant variance in high ability readers' reading comprehension, whilst poor readers' reading comprehension was explained by variance in their decoding skills and intrinsic motivation. In addition, intrinsic motivation explained significant variance in growth in reading comprehension skills in the low ability reading group, but not in the group of good readers. These results highlight the different factors restricting children's reading comprehension and the importance of intrinsic motivation as a contributor to low ability readers' performance in reading assessments. (Contains 4 tables.)

In this article, we report upon the adoption of Jerome Bruner’s narrative approach, which served as a theoretical framework for analyzing, representing, and disseminating more than 60 hrs of documentary research footage. We invited international scholars in the field of the social sciences and humanities to document their philosophies and autobiographies on videotape. We asked the following questions: What are the overarching themes or theories that unite the scholars’ methodological and conceptual frameworks? How have the scholars’ unique lived experiences contributed to their interpretivist or critical viewpoints? What autobiographical stories rise to the forefront? Can these stories be linked or connected to represent an unfolding narrative through both space and time? Through the course of narrative analysis, significant themes such as poverty, social inequality, classism, oppression, and colonization emerged from the videotaped dialogues. The scholars’ unique narratives coalesced into a single narrative that traced and documented the history of qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: We have isolated a cationic lead(II) thiolate and studied its complex formation in the presence of various anions and Lewis base ligands. Reaction of Pb(OAc)2 with two equivalents of [4-Me3NC6H4SH][PF6] (6) in water yielded the trinuclear cationic lead(II) hexakis-thiolate [(4-Me3NC6H4S)6Pb3][PF6]6 (7). Reaction of 7 with Na(BPh4) in aqueous solution yielded the cationic lead(II) tris-thiolate [(4-Me3NC6H4S)3Pb][BPh4]2 (8) in low yield. Lewis base adducts of 7 were prepared via reaction with pyridine (py) and 4,4′-bipyridyl (bipy) to yield [(4-Me3NC6H4S)2Pb(py)]2[BPh4]4 (9) and [(4-Me3NC6H4S)2Pb(bipy)0.5][BPh4]2 (10), respectively. The X-ray crystal structure of 7 shows a trimeric structure with Ψ-tetrahedral S3 and octahedral S6 lead bonding motifs, while 8 shows a polymeric structure with a Ψ-octahedral S5 bonding environment for lead. Compound 9 is a dimeric structure in which {[(4-Me3NC6H4S)2Pb]2}4+ cations are capped by py ligands, yielding Ψ-trigonal bipyramidal S3N lead centers. Compound 10 exhibits a polymeric structure in which bipy groups bridge {[(4-Me3NC6H4S)2Pb]2}4+ cations, yielding Ψ-trigonal bipyramidal S3N lead centers similar to 9. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]