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Special Issue by Poulomee Datta

Research paper thumbnail of Call for paper: Special Issue "Research in Special and Inclusive Education"

Education Sciences , 2024

Papers by Poulomee Datta

Research paper thumbnail of “We don’t make trouble”: Vietnamese parents’ experiences of parent-teacher partnerships for their autistic children

Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Research paper thumbnail of Prediction Versus Explanation in Educational Psychology: A Cross-Theoretical Approach to Using Teacher Behaviour to Predict Student Engagement in Physical Education

Educational psychology usually focuses on explaining phenomena. As a result, researchers seldom e... more Educational psychology usually focuses on explaining phenomena. As a result, researchers seldom explore how well their models predict the outcomes they care about using best- practice approaches to predictive statistics. In this paper, we focus less on explanation and more on prediction, showing how both are important for advancing the field. We apply predictive models to the role of teachers on student engagement: the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours that translate motivation into progress. We integrate the suggestions from four prominent motivational theories (self-determination theory, achievement goal theory, growth mindset theory, and transformational leadership theory), and aim to identify those most critical behaviours for predicting changes in students’ engagement in physical education. Students (N = 1,324 all from Year 7, 52% girls) from 17 low socio-economic status schools rated their teacher’s demonstration of 71 behaviours in the middle of the school year. We also ass...

Research paper thumbnail of Muted voices: the views of families on specialist schools

Australian Special Education Principals Association, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Transitioning into the Australian higher education experience: perspective of international students

The Australian Universities' review, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of An exploration into self-concept of the adolescents with visual impairment in India

Research paper thumbnail of Self-concept of adolescents with visual impairments

British Journal of Visual Impairment, 2019

An account is given of a current research project which is examining the impact of social inclusi... more An account is given of a current research project which is examining the impact of social inclusion on the self-concept of adolescents with visual impairments and the way this differs from their typically developing sighted peers. The study considers developmental and cognitive theories which are used to explain the development of self-concept in typical and atypical adolescents and the impact of social inclusion on this particular aspect of mental health.

Research paper thumbnail of The impact of support services on students’ test anxiety and/or their ability to submit assignments: a focus on vision impairment and intellectual disability

International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2016

ABSTRACT This study investigated the influence of the support services on the test anxiety of stu... more ABSTRACT This study investigated the influence of the support services on the test anxiety of students and/or their ability to submit assignments in each of the two disability groups, those with vision impairment and those with intellectual disability, who were placed in specialist and mainstream educational settings in South Australia. Interviews were conducted with 14 students with vision impairment and 9 students with intellectual disability, as well as a total of 10 parents and 8 teachers. The findings unfolded that the support services were found to influence positively the test anxiety experienced by students with vision impairment and/or their ability to submit assignments, but appeared to help students with intellectual disability to a much smaller extent. These findings have implications for mainstream teachers and school support staff working with students with vision impairment and those with intellectual disability, to determine what type and kind of support works for these students and helps them to alleviate their test anxieties.

Research paper thumbnail of Prospects of the Exploration of a Hidden Curriculum in Australian Higher Education

Learning and Teaching, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Analysis of Stage 1 Data: Tennessee Self-Concept Questionnaire

SpringerBriefs in Education, 2014

This chapter reports and analyses the self-concept survey questionnaire data for the female and m... more This chapter reports and analyses the self-concept survey questionnaire data for the female and male students with intellectual disabilities. The self-concept analysis is undertaken on the basis of the Tennessee Self-Concept Manual (Fitts and Warren 2003) and follows the six dimensions namely Physical, Moral Personal, Family, Social and Academic Self-Concepts and thus, Total Self-Concept. In addition, the four validity scores namely Inconsistent Responding (INC), Self-Criticism (SC), Faking Good (FG) and Response Distribution (RD) for all students with intellectual disabilities are also provided. The findings reveal that while the majority of the students with intellectual disabilities obtained low scores in Physical, Moral, Personal, Family, Social, Academic and Total Self-Concepts, half of the female students with intellectual disabilities obtained average that is normal scores in Family, Social and Academic Self-Concepts.

Research paper thumbnail of Insights Into the Support Services for Students With Vision Impairment

Australasian Journal of Special Education, 2015

There is a general need for research in Australia on whether the support services provided in sch... more There is a general need for research in Australia on whether the support services provided in schools prove useful for students with disabilities (Datta, 2015; O’Rourke & Houghton, 2006), especially students with vision impairment. This qualitative study aimed to provide insights into the influence of the support services delivered in South Australian schools for students with vision impairments’ problem-solving skills, and their family, social, and academic lives. Semistructured, open-ended interviews were conducted with 14 students with vision impairment (8 adolescents and 6 adults), 5 parents, and 4 teachers. Participating students’ age ranged between 15 and 18 years for the adolescent students and between 19 and 25 years for the adult students. Adolescent students were enrolled in mainstream and specialist secondary schools, and adult students were enrolled in vocational courses at TAFE Institutes. The data reflected a range of viewpoints from which to examine the problem under ...

Research paper thumbnail of School Assessment Policies Across Australia for Students with Special Needs

Learning and Teaching, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of Sex education in South Australia: the past and the present

Research paper thumbnail of Is test anxiety a peril for students with intellectual disabilities?

Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 2013

Test anxiety is one of the most confronting issues in modern times with the increase in the numbe... more Test anxiety is one of the most confronting issues in modern times with the increase in the number of standardised and high-stakes testing. Research has established that there is a direct link between test anxiety and cognitive deficits. The aim of this study is to determine the test anxiety scores of the students with intellectual disabilities in South Australia. It also provided insights into the reasons for high-test anxiety in the participants under study. The Spielberger’s Test Anxiety Questionnaire was administered on students with intellectual disabilities in stage 1. Interviews were conducted with participants with intellectual disabilities, parents and teachers in stage 2. Questionnaire findings revealed that the majority of the adolescent females and males and all adult females with intellectual disabilities had high test anxiety scores. However, the majority of adult males with intellectual disabilities obtained moderate test anxiety scores. In the worry and emotionality ...

Research paper thumbnail of An exploration into self concept: A comparative analysis between the adolescents who are sighted and blind in India

British Journal of Visual Impairment, 2012

The purpose of this study was to explore the self concept of adolescents who are sighted and blin... more The purpose of this study was to explore the self concept of adolescents who are sighted and blind with respect to gender in India. The sample was made up of 160 participants aged 15 to 18 years: of whom 100 were sighted and 60 were blind. The results of the t-tests illustrated that sighted male adolescents scored higher in the overall self-concept scores as compared to sighted female adolescents. However such significant differences in the self-concept scores were not found between the male and female adolescents who are blind. The sighted adolescents scored higher than the adolescents who are blind in three of the total six dimensions of self concept, thus also scoring higher on the overall self-concept score.

Research paper thumbnail of Inclusion, Disability and Culture

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Somali parents feel like they’re on the outer’: Somali mothers’ experiences of parent–teacher relationships for their autistic children

Autism

Effective parent–teacher partnerships can improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know li... more Effective parent–teacher partnerships can improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know little about what effective partnerships look like for parents of autistic children from diverse backgrounds. Using participatory methods, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 Somali mothers of autistic children attending Australian kindergartens/schools to understand experiences of parent–teacher interactions. We used reflexive thematic analysis to identify key themes. We found that mothers were proud and accepting of their children. They had high expectations, particularly around children’s independence. Mothers wished their children’s differences were understood and supported by other people, including teachers. They were frustrated by low expectations of children, a lack of genuine communication from teachers and limited autism-specific knowledge, skills and experience within schools. They described racist attitudes towards their children and reported that they themselves ha...

Research paper thumbnail of Correction: “They Were Saying That I Was a Typical Chinese Mum”: Chinese Parents’ Experiences of Parent–Teacher Partnerships for Their Autistic Children

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Research paper thumbnail of “They Were Saying That I Was a Typical Chinese Mum” : Chinese Parents’ Experiences of Parent-Teacher Partnerships for Their Autistic Children

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Effective parent-teacher partnerships improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know little... more Effective parent-teacher partnerships improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know little about what effective partnerships look like for parents of autistic children from different backgrounds. We conducted interviews with 17 Chinese parents of autistic children attending Australian kindergartens/schools to understand their experiences. Parents appreciated the acceptance, opportunities and supports they received in Australia. They had high expectations of children; expectations not often shared by educators. Parents were respectful of teachers’ expertise and polite and undemanding in interactions. Nevertheless, parents were frustrated by inconsistent teaching quality and inadequate communication. Navigating systems was also challenging and parents faced discrimination from teachers and their community. Recommendations include fostering open home-school communication, proactively seeking parents’ expertise about children and explicitly scaffolding parents’ self-advocacy.

Research paper thumbnail of Does the type of educational setting (mainstream or specialist schools) and degree of impairment (low vision or blindness) have any influence on self-concept?

International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Call for paper: Special Issue "Research in Special and Inclusive Education"

Education Sciences , 2024

Research paper thumbnail of “We don’t make trouble”: Vietnamese parents’ experiences of parent-teacher partnerships for their autistic children

Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Research paper thumbnail of Prediction Versus Explanation in Educational Psychology: A Cross-Theoretical Approach to Using Teacher Behaviour to Predict Student Engagement in Physical Education

Educational psychology usually focuses on explaining phenomena. As a result, researchers seldom e... more Educational psychology usually focuses on explaining phenomena. As a result, researchers seldom explore how well their models predict the outcomes they care about using best- practice approaches to predictive statistics. In this paper, we focus less on explanation and more on prediction, showing how both are important for advancing the field. We apply predictive models to the role of teachers on student engagement: the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours that translate motivation into progress. We integrate the suggestions from four prominent motivational theories (self-determination theory, achievement goal theory, growth mindset theory, and transformational leadership theory), and aim to identify those most critical behaviours for predicting changes in students’ engagement in physical education. Students (N = 1,324 all from Year 7, 52% girls) from 17 low socio-economic status schools rated their teacher’s demonstration of 71 behaviours in the middle of the school year. We also ass...

Research paper thumbnail of Muted voices: the views of families on specialist schools

Australian Special Education Principals Association, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Transitioning into the Australian higher education experience: perspective of international students

The Australian Universities' review, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of An exploration into self-concept of the adolescents with visual impairment in India

Research paper thumbnail of Self-concept of adolescents with visual impairments

British Journal of Visual Impairment, 2019

An account is given of a current research project which is examining the impact of social inclusi... more An account is given of a current research project which is examining the impact of social inclusion on the self-concept of adolescents with visual impairments and the way this differs from their typically developing sighted peers. The study considers developmental and cognitive theories which are used to explain the development of self-concept in typical and atypical adolescents and the impact of social inclusion on this particular aspect of mental health.

Research paper thumbnail of The impact of support services on students’ test anxiety and/or their ability to submit assignments: a focus on vision impairment and intellectual disability

International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2016

ABSTRACT This study investigated the influence of the support services on the test anxiety of stu... more ABSTRACT This study investigated the influence of the support services on the test anxiety of students and/or their ability to submit assignments in each of the two disability groups, those with vision impairment and those with intellectual disability, who were placed in specialist and mainstream educational settings in South Australia. Interviews were conducted with 14 students with vision impairment and 9 students with intellectual disability, as well as a total of 10 parents and 8 teachers. The findings unfolded that the support services were found to influence positively the test anxiety experienced by students with vision impairment and/or their ability to submit assignments, but appeared to help students with intellectual disability to a much smaller extent. These findings have implications for mainstream teachers and school support staff working with students with vision impairment and those with intellectual disability, to determine what type and kind of support works for these students and helps them to alleviate their test anxieties.

Research paper thumbnail of Prospects of the Exploration of a Hidden Curriculum in Australian Higher Education

Learning and Teaching, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Analysis of Stage 1 Data: Tennessee Self-Concept Questionnaire

SpringerBriefs in Education, 2014

This chapter reports and analyses the self-concept survey questionnaire data for the female and m... more This chapter reports and analyses the self-concept survey questionnaire data for the female and male students with intellectual disabilities. The self-concept analysis is undertaken on the basis of the Tennessee Self-Concept Manual (Fitts and Warren 2003) and follows the six dimensions namely Physical, Moral Personal, Family, Social and Academic Self-Concepts and thus, Total Self-Concept. In addition, the four validity scores namely Inconsistent Responding (INC), Self-Criticism (SC), Faking Good (FG) and Response Distribution (RD) for all students with intellectual disabilities are also provided. The findings reveal that while the majority of the students with intellectual disabilities obtained low scores in Physical, Moral, Personal, Family, Social, Academic and Total Self-Concepts, half of the female students with intellectual disabilities obtained average that is normal scores in Family, Social and Academic Self-Concepts.

Research paper thumbnail of Insights Into the Support Services for Students With Vision Impairment

Australasian Journal of Special Education, 2015

There is a general need for research in Australia on whether the support services provided in sch... more There is a general need for research in Australia on whether the support services provided in schools prove useful for students with disabilities (Datta, 2015; O’Rourke & Houghton, 2006), especially students with vision impairment. This qualitative study aimed to provide insights into the influence of the support services delivered in South Australian schools for students with vision impairments’ problem-solving skills, and their family, social, and academic lives. Semistructured, open-ended interviews were conducted with 14 students with vision impairment (8 adolescents and 6 adults), 5 parents, and 4 teachers. Participating students’ age ranged between 15 and 18 years for the adolescent students and between 19 and 25 years for the adult students. Adolescent students were enrolled in mainstream and specialist secondary schools, and adult students were enrolled in vocational courses at TAFE Institutes. The data reflected a range of viewpoints from which to examine the problem under ...

Research paper thumbnail of School Assessment Policies Across Australia for Students with Special Needs

Learning and Teaching, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of Sex education in South Australia: the past and the present

Research paper thumbnail of Is test anxiety a peril for students with intellectual disabilities?

Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 2013

Test anxiety is one of the most confronting issues in modern times with the increase in the numbe... more Test anxiety is one of the most confronting issues in modern times with the increase in the number of standardised and high-stakes testing. Research has established that there is a direct link between test anxiety and cognitive deficits. The aim of this study is to determine the test anxiety scores of the students with intellectual disabilities in South Australia. It also provided insights into the reasons for high-test anxiety in the participants under study. The Spielberger’s Test Anxiety Questionnaire was administered on students with intellectual disabilities in stage 1. Interviews were conducted with participants with intellectual disabilities, parents and teachers in stage 2. Questionnaire findings revealed that the majority of the adolescent females and males and all adult females with intellectual disabilities had high test anxiety scores. However, the majority of adult males with intellectual disabilities obtained moderate test anxiety scores. In the worry and emotionality ...

Research paper thumbnail of An exploration into self concept: A comparative analysis between the adolescents who are sighted and blind in India

British Journal of Visual Impairment, 2012

The purpose of this study was to explore the self concept of adolescents who are sighted and blin... more The purpose of this study was to explore the self concept of adolescents who are sighted and blind with respect to gender in India. The sample was made up of 160 participants aged 15 to 18 years: of whom 100 were sighted and 60 were blind. The results of the t-tests illustrated that sighted male adolescents scored higher in the overall self-concept scores as compared to sighted female adolescents. However such significant differences in the self-concept scores were not found between the male and female adolescents who are blind. The sighted adolescents scored higher than the adolescents who are blind in three of the total six dimensions of self concept, thus also scoring higher on the overall self-concept score.

Research paper thumbnail of Inclusion, Disability and Culture

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Somali parents feel like they’re on the outer’: Somali mothers’ experiences of parent–teacher relationships for their autistic children

Autism

Effective parent–teacher partnerships can improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know li... more Effective parent–teacher partnerships can improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know little about what effective partnerships look like for parents of autistic children from diverse backgrounds. Using participatory methods, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 Somali mothers of autistic children attending Australian kindergartens/schools to understand experiences of parent–teacher interactions. We used reflexive thematic analysis to identify key themes. We found that mothers were proud and accepting of their children. They had high expectations, particularly around children’s independence. Mothers wished their children’s differences were understood and supported by other people, including teachers. They were frustrated by low expectations of children, a lack of genuine communication from teachers and limited autism-specific knowledge, skills and experience within schools. They described racist attitudes towards their children and reported that they themselves ha...

Research paper thumbnail of Correction: “They Were Saying That I Was a Typical Chinese Mum”: Chinese Parents’ Experiences of Parent–Teacher Partnerships for Their Autistic Children

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Research paper thumbnail of “They Were Saying That I Was a Typical Chinese Mum” : Chinese Parents’ Experiences of Parent-Teacher Partnerships for Their Autistic Children

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Effective parent-teacher partnerships improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know little... more Effective parent-teacher partnerships improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know little about what effective partnerships look like for parents of autistic children from different backgrounds. We conducted interviews with 17 Chinese parents of autistic children attending Australian kindergartens/schools to understand their experiences. Parents appreciated the acceptance, opportunities and supports they received in Australia. They had high expectations of children; expectations not often shared by educators. Parents were respectful of teachers’ expertise and polite and undemanding in interactions. Nevertheless, parents were frustrated by inconsistent teaching quality and inadequate communication. Navigating systems was also challenging and parents faced discrimination from teachers and their community. Recommendations include fostering open home-school communication, proactively seeking parents’ expertise about children and explicitly scaffolding parents’ self-advocacy.

Research paper thumbnail of Does the type of educational setting (mainstream or specialist schools) and degree of impairment (low vision or blindness) have any influence on self-concept?

International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Are Teachers Approachable or Unapproachable: Insights From Undergraduate University Students

Curriculum and Teaching, 2021

This research examines the student perceived characteristics informing a student’s choice in deci... more This research examines the student perceived characteristics informing a student’s choice in deciding to approach or not to approach a teacher in a university setting. Semi-structured interviews gathered perceptions from 10 final semester undergraduate students at a Pakistani university. 12 teachers were discussed in the data clearly demarcating 7 approachable and 5 unapproachable teachers. Thematic analysis identified substantial number of previously unreported characteristics of approachability in addition to those already existing in the literature and a comparatively large number of new unapproachable characteristics. The results of this research will inform discussion of approachability by teachers at universities within Pakistan and beyond.