Books published by Open University Press

Offers practical guidance for parents, teachers and other early years workers who want to give children a good start in mathematical development. Showing how competent children are as mathematicians from an early age, this book offers an overview of young children's mathematical behaviour at home and in early years settings.

This innovative book looks at how and why girls and boys adopt 'laddish' behaviours in schools. It examines the ways in which students negotiate pressures to be popular and 'cool' in school alongside pressures to perform academically. It also deals with the fears of academic and social failure that influence pupils' school lives and experiences.

Explores an array of issues, providing a framework for understanding key debates on how the media represent science and risk. This book weaves together insights from multiple strands of research across diverse disciplines. It is useful for students and scholars in cultural and media studies, science studies, journalism, sociology and politics.

Argues that in a world of growing complexity and rapid change, it is vital to forge strong, open and interactive relationships with communities beyond schools in order to bring about significant improvements in teaching and learning within schools.

This book provides a key to understanding the changes identified through an evaluation of the utility of new social theory by investigating the novelty of the Internet and setting the Internet in the context of communication histories.

Transition planning for young people with special educational needs is a crucial but often overlooked element of social inclusion. This book supports the transition experiences of young people with a range of special educational needs. It suggests ways in which young people and their families can be supported during the transition to adulthood.

This book explores and develops ideas about disability, engaging with important debates in disability studies about what disability is and how to theorize it. It also examines the interface between disability studies, women's studies and medical sociology, and offers an accessible review of contemporary debates and theoretical approaches.

An invaluable resource for counselors, therapists and psychologists offering a wealth of useful advice on running a successful private practice.

This book aims to highlight outstanding examples of inclusion, focusing on the realistic aspect of practising inclusive education.

A guide on communication skills to explore the challenging contexts and circumstances that midwives encounter in practice. It uses case vignettes, reflective questions, illustrations, tools and techniques to provide the evidence base needed to cope effectively in a range of situations by offering support to enhance your communication skills.

Consists of 27 case studies which offer a realistic and insightful view into the experience of mental ill-health. This book addresses the biological, psychological, social and physical aspects in scenarios and includes areas of mental health which are often overlooked, such as alcohol and substance misuse amongst older adults.

Using quotes from the theorists' works, this book shows how critical theory illuminates the everyday practices of adult educators and helps them make sense of the dilemmas, contradictions and frustrations they experience in their work. It also reviews adult educational practices and looks at what it means to teach critically.

Subjects the reforms in UK education to a rigorous critical interrogation. This book takes as its main concerns the introduction of market forces, managerialism and the National Curriculum into the organization of schools and the work of teachers.

How are 'race' and racism implicated in education policy and practice? What does effective antiracism look like in practice? How can teachers and school students be encouraged to think critically about their racialized assumptions and actions? This book debates on 'race' and racism in education.

Introducing critical thinking, this book looks at general ways in which people can be helped to become critical thinkers, and also reviews opportunities for developing critical thinking in specific contexts.

Examines the issue of teacher professionalism as a social and political strategy to enhance the status and activities of the teaching profession.

This book provides a comprehensive and concise overview of the main debates on citizenship and the implications of globalization. It argues that citizenship is no longer defined by nationality and the nation state, but has become de-territorialized and fragmented into the separate discourses of rights, participation, responsibility and identity.

This introductory textbook presents a coherent overview of the theory, methodology and potential application of narrative psychological approaches. It compares narrative psychology with other social constructionist approaches and argues that the experience of self only takes on meaning through specific linguistic, historical and social structures.

Why do we teach and learn about the past? How is history taught in schools? What are the influences on the way teachers teach and pupils learn about the past? History is one of the most ideologically disputed of school subjects. This title provides an account of the way history is taught in schools.

Read It To Me Now! charts the emergent literacy learning of five four-year old children from different cultural backgrounds in their crucial move from home to school, and demonstrates how children's early understanding of reading and writing is learnt socially and culturally within their family and community.

Presents an account of institutional changes in central, local and European Union government with methodological innovations and theoretical analysis. This book enables our understanding of government and governance.

During the past decade there has been a series of radical changes to the educational system of England and Wales. This book argues that any serious study of these changes has to engage with complex questions about the role of education in a modern liberal democracy. Were these educational changes informed by the needs and aspirations of a democratic society? To what extent will they promote democratic values and ideals? These questions can only be adequately addressed by making explicit the political ideas and the underlying philosophical principles that have together shaped the English educational system. To this end, the book provides a selective history of English education which exposes the connections between decisive periods of educational change and the intellectual and political climate in which it occurred. It also connects the educational policies of the 1980s and 90s to the political ideas of the New Right in order to show how they are part of a broader political strategy aimed at reversing the democratic advances achieved through the intellectual and political struggles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book proposes that a democratic educational vision can only effectively be advanced by renewing the 'struggle for democracy' - the historical struggle to create forms of education which will empower all citizens to participate in an open, pluralistic and democratic society.

Articulates the ideas of Problem Based Learning (PBL) and provides new PBL practitioners with guiding posts for its implementation. This book explores the foundations of problem-based learning and also answers many of the frequently-asked questions about its use.

Addresses questions such as: What is evidence based practice? How does it operate? What are the arguments against it?

Outlines and evaluates the mixed methods for research in education and social sciences are being used. This book looks at combining different methods across and within studies, including complex interventions, Bayesian approaches, political arithmetic, triangulation, life histories and design studies.

War, weapon and superhero play has been banned in many early childhood settings for over 30 years. This book explores the development and application of a zero tolerance approach through the eyes of children and practitioners.

Body psychotherapy is an holistic therapy which approaches human beings as united bodymind, and offers embodied relationship as its central therapeutic stance. This title examines the field of body psychotherapy. It surveys the various forms of body psychotherapy. It defines central concepts of the field, and the skills needed by practitioners.

Counselling is a diverse activity and there are an increasing number of people who find themselves using counselling skills, not least those in the caring professions. There is a great deal of scope in using counselling skills to promote health in the everyday encounters that nurses have with their patients.