No abstract

Over the past few decades, the role and presence of the paraprofessional, that is the educational assistant, within the classroom has evolved from providing teacher and student support to involving greater decision‐making concerning instructional content and practice. The extent to which this shift is impacting students with a variety of mild to severe developmental disabilities is a crucial question that to date remains under‐researched and unanswered. The authors studied this issue by probing students' perceptions concerning the role of their paraprofessionals and their impact on the student's inclusive education experience. The authors explored the following perspective areas noted by the students: student personal control, impact on peer relations, dependency on adults, instructional relationship of teachers compared to paraprofessionals, and inclusion of peers. In general, the authors found that students felt that their paraprofessionals were viewed favorably by peers, but that promotion of socialization and peer networking may have been compromised as they reported that they spent a majority of the school day interacting with the paraprofessional as opposed to other students. Other factors bear consideration as well, and the authors conclude that the educational system continues to be in need of revamping, and that the efficacy of the system needs to be demonstrated by empirical evidence.

The relationship between school achievement and peer harassment was examined using individual and peer characteristics as mediating factors. The sample consisted of adolescents age 12-15 years (n = 4,111) drawn from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, which is a stratified random sample of 22,831 households in Canada. When factors related to achievement and harassment were considered simultaneously, disruptive behaviour problems and peer interactions were found to mediate the link between achievement and harassment, χ 2 (32) = 300.00, p < 0.001. These results suggest that adolescents who are harassed by their peers are at risk of experiencing poor school achievement if they exhibit disruptive behaviour problems and poor peer interactions. Implications for school psychologists are presented.

No abstract

The purpose of the present study was to provide a reasonably accurate estimate of the prevalence of one type of “hidden gifted” population (gifted underachievers) and to identify some of the key academic and personal characteristics that define this group. Study participants were selected from 19 elementary, junior, and senior high schools in a large Western Canadian urban school district. A formula was used to identify grades 4, 7, and 10 students whose measured intellectual potential was 120 or higher and who demonstrated a significant achievement-potential discrepancy. Out of a total of 80 prospective students, a final sample of 58 students was administered the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery-Revised (WJPB-R), the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale (PHSCS), and Thinking About My School (TAMS). Results of a MANOVA and discriminant analysis indicate that there was a significant interaction effect between gender and school level and a significant grade-level effect. Major findings were: (a) achievement scores on the WJPB-R were higher than their course grades; (b) there was a significant decline in attitudes toward school for this group of students at the junior high level, particularly for females; and (c) overall achievement declined as students progress from grade 4 to grades 7 and 10.