Barriers of School Transition for Children with Disability: Lived Experience of Parents in Kathmandu Valley

This study aimed to explore the barrier of school transition for the children with disability from the parent's prospective. This study adopted qualitative method along with hermeneutics phenomenology. On the behalf of philosophical orientation, multiple realities were ontological basis and lived experiences of participants were epistemological assumption. The construct of critical disability theory was applied in this study. Purposefully 5 parents were selected from Kathmandu Valley. Data sources included field's notes, indepth interviews and artifacts. Interviewed data were transcribed and categorized to develop theme. Result revealed that several challenges such as awareness, attitude, accessibility, misconception, infrastructure, lack of policy implementation and ill motivation about disability are the major barrier towards transition. The perception of parents toward special school and rehabilitation centre are inadequately supporting to smooth transition. This study might be valuable support for policy maker in ensuring the no child left behind for the welfare state.

Coparenting and Parental Involvement During School Transition Among Chinese Mothers and Fathers: Children’s School Liking as a Moderator

Parental involvement is a vital social resource that helps children to deal with different challenges in their learning and development in the transition period and may be a strong determinant of children’s outcomes. While the role of fathers has been increasingly recognized, there has been a lack of studies examining the predictive role of mother and fathers’ coparenting to parental involvement and child readiness outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine the longitudinal association between coparenting behavior and parental involvement for parents with children in the transition to primary school in a Chinese context, and test whether children’s school liking moderated these associations. Using stratified random sampling, 324 children (Mage=70.57months, female=51%) and their parents from 10 kindergartens in Hong Kong participated in the study. Both mothers and fathers provided information about their spouse’s coparenting behavior at Time 1 (the final year of kindergarten), and their parental involvement at home and school at Time 1 and 2 (the first year of primary school). Children’s school liking was assessed by puppet interview at Time 1. Results indicated that maternal cooperation was positively associated with paternal involvement at home and in school, and paternal cooperation was positively associated with maternal involvement at home. Children’s school liking moderated the longitudinal associations between coparenting behavior (Time 1) and parental involvement (Time 2). Specifically, mothers of children with high levels of school liking were involved more in school when they perceived more cooperation from the spouse. Fathers of children with low levels of school liking were less involved in school when they perceived more cooperation, while involved more at home and in school when they perceived more triangulation from the spouse. Additionally, fathers perceiving more triangulation decreased their home involvement when the child reported high levels of school liking. Findings of this study revealed that coparenting, children’s school liking, and parental gender might be important to understanding parental involvement during school transition.

How did Autistic Children, and their Parents, Experience School Transition during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant school closures, social distancing measures, and restrictions placed on routine activities, the start of the academic year in September 2020 was a unique time for those transitioning to a new school. This study aimed to explore the experiences of parents who supported autistic children making a school transition in 2020, and to examine what impact parents perceived the COVID-19 pandemic had on their child’s school transition. Emphasis was placed on identifying facilitating factors that had benefitted school transitions, and barriers, which had negatively impacted these experiences. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 parents of autistic children in the UK. Reflexive thematic analysis was carried out to identify themes in interview data. Parents reported a variety of experiences, and factors that were perceived as facilitatory to some were observed to be barriers by others. For some parents, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted aspects of school transitions. For example, school closure in March 2020, being unable to visit their child’s new school, and social distancing measures were discussed as being barriers to an easy transition. However, other parents identified these factors as being facilitatory for their child or reported that these circumstances created opportunities to approach the school transition in a unique, improved manner. This paper sheds light on the heterogeneity of experiences and perceptions of parents of autistic children, and highlights the need to examine the impact of COVID-19 on school transitions, including practices which may be advantageous to retain.

Review of the Views of Secondary School Maths Students on Skills- Based Questions

In this study, secondary school mathematics teachers’ the opinions related to skills-based questions that are compatible with the LGS (High School Transition Exam) question style were examined. Qualitative research methods were adopted in the study. Mathematics teachers working in secondary schools in various parts of Turkey participated in the study.The data is collected via the semi-structured interview form via the “Google drive”. Content analysis was used in data analysis. The findings revealed that maths teachers did not agree with the achievements of their skill-based questions, and that the maths course’s teaching programs and textbooks were not sufficient to provide effective guidance on skills-based questions. It turns out that teachers need a new course processing process for skill-based questions such as LGS questions. Therefre, it was discovered that they were experiencing a shortage of resources. It was also identified that teachers needed to read books and need in- service training as skill-based questions are questions to understand and interpret what they are reading. Recommendations were made in accordance with the results.